Ray Fowler .org

Update 4/17/2008: Obama released his 2007 Tax Return yesterday. Here is a summary. The higher income figures are mostly from book royalties.

Barack Obama released his 2000-2006 tax returns today. Here is a summary of the figures:

The higher income figures for 2005 and 2006 come from book sales. Visit the TaxProf Blog for links to the actual returns.

Related posts:

• All the Candidates’ Tax Returns
• Click here for Hillary Clinton’s Tax Returns
• Click here for Britney Spears’ Budget.
• Click here for more posts on politics.

Here is the video montage that was shown at Larry’s memorial service. Most of these images have never been seen before. (Click below to see the video.)

Continue Reading »

Rich breakfast. A corn flake shaped like the state of Illinois sold for $1,350 on eBay. Two sisters in Virginia sold the flake to a trivia collector in Austin, Texas. The winner of the auction is sending someone to pick up the flake by hand rather than risk damaging the item in the mail. I wonder what a flake shaped like Texas would have gone for?

Voting matters. Does one vote really matter? It does if no one else votes. No one showed up to vote in an annexation referendum for an unincorporated area in Broward County, Florida. A single vote would have decided the matter for the whole community. At least there won’t be a recount.

Back from the dead. 21-year-old Zack Dunlap was pronounced dead at the hospital after sustaining a serious head injury in an ATV accident. Four hours later, when a nurse began removing the tubes from his body, they discovered Dunlap was alive after all. The injured man remembers lying there and actually hearing the doctor declare him brain-dead. Zack said he was very ticked off at the man.

I thought this looked pretty interesting:

The Intellectual Devotional is … a collection of 365 lessons that will inspire and invigorate the reader every day of the year. Each nugget of wisdom is drawn from one of seven fields of knowledge: History, Literature, Philosophy, Mathematics & Science, Religion, Visual Arts, and Music.

I would prefer to call this a Daily Reader rather than a Devotional. Still, the concept is neat, and this looks like a great resource for strengthening your knowledge in a variety of fields.

The book presents information from a different discipline for each day of the week. Here are the links to the bibliographies for each section:

• Religion (Sunday)
• History (Monday)
• Literature (Tuesday)
• Visual Arts (Wednesday)
• Science and Mathematics (Thursday)
• Music (Friday)
• Philosophy (Saturday)

HT: Fire and Knowledge

Yesterday’s message in the The Road to Jerusalem series was called Why Do You Look for the Living among the Dead?, taken from Luke 24:1-12.

Luke 24:1-12 – 1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, 3 but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 `The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.'” 8 Then they remembered his words.

9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened. (NIV)

The main idea of the message was that you will never find Jesus if you look for him among the dead. But if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Here is the outline of the message:

I. Looking for Jesus among the dead (verses 1-3)

The women came looking for Jesus among the dead, but they did not find him. They found the stone rolled away, but they did not find his body. Many people today are still looking for Jesus among the dead, but they will not find him there. If you want to find Jesus, you must look for him among the living. Example: Frank Morison, Who Moved the Stone?

II. The good news of Easter (verses 4-8)

Jesus Christ has conquered sin and death and the grave. You will not find him among the dead, for he is among the living. And he offers new life to you. The Bible tells us that those who trust in Christ will share in his resurrection. The fear of death and judgment is taken away. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! That is the good news of Easter. Only one question remains. How will you respond?

III. How will you respond? (verses 9-12)

We see several responses highlighted in our passage this morning. First, there was the response of the women who believed and shared the good news with others. Next, there was the response of the apostles who thought that the women’s words were nonsense and therefore did nothing. And then there was Peter’s response. Peter ran to the tomb. He examined the evidence. He went looking for Jesus, and he found him: not lying dead in a tomb but resurrected and alive.

If you are not sure what to make of Jesus’ resurrection, you can do what Peter did. You can check it out for yourself. You may not be able to visit the actual tomb like Peter, but you can still examine the evidence. You could read Frank Morison’s book, Who Moved the Stone? or Josh McDowell’s book, More Than a Carpenter, or Lee Strobel’s book, The Case for Christ, or more recently, Timothy Keller’s excellent book, The Reason for God. There are any number of good resources out there that will present to you the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection.

CONCLUSION: The angels asked the women, “Why do you look for the living among the dead?” If you are looking for Jesus among the dead, you will never find him because he is not there. But if you look for Jesus among the living, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Jesus Christ is alive. He is risen! He is risen indeed!

Click on the Sermons tab at the top of the blog for this and other messages.

Here are three Easter poems by George Herbert, one of my favorite poets. As with all poetry, you will get the most out of the poems if you take them slowly and read them through several times, out loud if possible.
 

“EASTER (1)” – by George Herbert

Rise heart;  thy Lord is risen.  Sing his praise
                                Without delays,
Who takes thee by the hand, that thou likewise
                                With him mayst rise:
That, as his death calcined¹ thee to dust,
His life may make thee gold, and much more just.

Awake, my lute, and struggle for thy part
                                With all thy art.
The cross taught all wood to resound his name,
                                Who bore the same.
His stretched sinews taught all strings, what key
Is best to celebrate this most high day.

Consort both heart and lute, and twist² a song
                                Pleasant and long:
Or since all music is but three parts vied³
                                And multiplied;
Oh let thy blessed Spirit bear a part,
And make up our defects with his sweet art.

_____
1. calcined. Burnt to ashes.
2. twist. Weave together, as in polyphonic music.
3. vied. Increased in number by addition or repetition.

“EASTER (2)” – by George Herbert (This is the speaker’s response to his own call in Easter 1.)

I got me flowers to straw thy way;
I got me boughs off many a tree:
But thou wast up by break of day,
And brought’st thy sweets along with thee.

The Sun arising in the East,
Though he give light, and th’ East perfume;
If they should offer to contest
With thy arising, they presume.

Can there be any day but this,
Though many suns to shine endeavour?
We count three hundred, but we miss:
There is but one, and that one ever.

“EASTER WINGS” – by George Herbert (Notice how the shape of the words in each stanza resembles a pair of wings.)

    Lord, who createdst man in wealth and store,
            Though foolishly he lost the same,
                  Decaying more and more,
                        Till  he  became
                            Most poor:
                            With  thee
                        Oh  let  me  rise¹
                  As larks, harmoniously,
            And sing this day thy victories:
    Then  shall  the  fall  further  the  flight  in  me.

    My   tender   age   in   sorrow   did   begin:
            And still with sicknesses and shame
                  Thou didst so punish sin,
                        That  I  became
                            Most thin.
                            With  thee
                        Let me combine,
                  And feel this day thy victory:
            For,  if  I  imp²  my  wing  on  thine,
    Affliction   shall   advance   the   flight   in   me.

_____
1. rise. See Isaiah 40:31 and Malachi 4:2.
2. imp. To imp, in falconry, is to engraft feathers in a damaged wing, so as to improve or restore damaged powers of flight.

Source (for poems and footnotes): George Herbert: The Country Parson, The Temple (The Classics of Western Spirituality; 1981)

Click here for more poems by George Herbert.
Click here for more Easter posts.
Click here for an Easter poem by Ray Fowler.

Here is a poem for Holy Saturday by George Herbert, one of my favorite poets. As with all poetry, you will get the most out of the poem if you take it slowly and read it through several times, out loud if possible.
 

“SEPULCHER” – by George Herbert

Oh blessed body!  Whither art thou thrown?
No lodging for thee, but a cold hard stone?
So many hearts on earth, and yet not one
                                      Receive thee?

Sure there is room within our hearts good store;
For they can lodge transgressions by the score:
Thousands of toys¹ dwell there, yet out of door
                                      They leave thee.

But that which shows them large, shows them unfit.
Whatever sin did this pure rock commit,
Which holds thee now?   Who hath indicted it
                                      Of murder?

Where our hard hearts have took up stones² to brain thee,
And missing this, most falsely did arraign thee;
Only these stones in quiet entertain thee,
                                      And order.

And as of old, the law by heav’nly art,
Was writ in stone;  so thou, which also art
The letter of the word,³ find’st no fit heart
                                      To hold thee.

Yet do we still persist as we began,
And so should perish, but that nothing can,
Though it be cold, hard, foul, from loving man
                                      Withhold thee.

_____
1. toys. Trifling things.
2. took up stones. See John 10:13.
3. The letter of the word. See Hebrews 8:10 and Proverbs 3:3, 7:3.

Source (for poem and footnotes): George Herbert: The Country Parson, The Temple (The Classics of Western Spirituality; 1981)

Click here for more poems by George Herbert.
Click here for more Easter posts.
Click here for poems by Ray Fowler.

Here are two Good Friday poems by George Herbert, one of my favorite poets. As with all poetry, you will get the most out of the poems if you take them slowly and read them through several times, out loud if possible.
 

“GOOD FRIDAY” – by George Herbert (Notice how each stanza roughly resembles the shape of a cross.)

                Oh my chief good,
How shall I measure out thy blood?
How shall I count what thee befell,
                And each grief tell?

                Shall I thy woes
Number according to thy foes?
Or, since one star show’d thy first breath,
                Shall all thy death?

                Or shall each leaf,
Which falls in Autumn, score¹ a grief?
Or cannot leaves, but fruit, be sign,
                Of the true vine?

                Then let each hour
Of my whole life one grief devour;
That thy distress through all may run,
                And be my sun.

                  Or rather let
My several sins their sorrows get;
That, as each beast his cure doth know,
                  Each sin may so.

_____
1. score. Mark, as in counting.

“THE PASSION” – by George Herbert

Since blood is fittest, Lord, to write
Thy sorrows in, and bloody fight;
My heart hath store; write there, where in
One box doth lie both ink and sin:

That when sin spies so many foes,
Thy whips, thy nails, thy wounds, thy woes,
All come to lodge there, sin may say,
No room for me, and fly away.

Sin being gone, oh fill the place,
And keep possession with thy grace;
Lest sin take courage and return,
And all the writings blot or burn.

 
Source (for poems and footnotes): George Herbert: The Country Parson, The Temple (The Classics of Western Spirituality; 1981)

Related posts:
    • What’s So Good about Friday?
    • What is Good Friday?
    • Good Friday Poem by Christina Rossetti.

Click here for more poems by George Herbert.
Click here for more posts relating to the Cross.
Click here for more Easter posts.
Click here for poems by Ray Fowler.

Here are three of my favorite poems by George Herbert. As with all poetry, you will get the most out of the poems if you take them slowly and read them through several times, out loud if possible.
 

“THE ALTAR” – by George Herbert (Notice how the shape of the poem resembles an altar.)

A broken ALTAR, Lord thy servant rears,
Made of a heart, and cemented with tears:¹
Whose parts are as thy hand did frame;
No workman’s tool hath touch’d the same.
A HEART alone
Is such a stone,²
As nothing but
Thy pow’r doth cut.³
Wherefore each part
Of my hard heart
Meets in this frame,
To praise thy name.
That if I chance to hold my peace,
These stones to praise thee may not cease.⁴
O let thy blessed SACRIFICE be mine,
And sanctify this ALTAR to be thine.

_____
1. See Psalm 51:17.
2. See Deuteronomy 27:2-6 and 2 Corinthians 3:2-3.
3. See Ezekiel 37:25-27 and Zechariah 7:12.
4. See Luke 19:40.

“REDEMPTION” – by George Herbert

Having been tenant long to a rich Lord,
    Not thriving, I resolved to be bold,
    And make a suit unto him, to afford
A new small-rented lease, and cancel th’ old.¹

In heaven at his manor I him sought:
    They told me there, that he was lately gone
    About some land, which he had dearly bought
Long since on earth, to take possession.

I straight return’d, and knowing his great birth,
    Sought him accordingly in great resorts;
    In cities, theaters, gardens, parks, and courts:
At length I heard a ragged noise and mirth

    Of thieves and murderers:  there I him espied,
    Who straight, Your suit is granted, said, and died.

_____
1. th’ old. The Old Covenant, as opposed to the New Covenant of grace.

LOVE (III) – by George Herbert

Love bade me welcome: yet my soul drew back,
        Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
        From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
        If I lack’d anything.

A guest, I answer’d, worthy to be here:
        Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkind, the ungrateful? Ah my dear,
        I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
        Who made the eyes but I?

Truth, Lord, but I have marr’d them: let my shame
        Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
        My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
        So I did sit and eat.

 
Source (for poems and footnotes): George Herbert: The Country Parson, The Temple (The Classics of Western Spirituality; 1981)

Click here for more poems by George Herbert.
Click here for poems by Ray Fowler.

“A verse may find him who a sermon flies.”
    – George Herbert (The Church Porch, line 5)

George Herbert is one of my favorite poets. He was born on April 3, 1593 into a privileged Welsh family. He earned two degrees at Trinity College in Cambridge. In 1620 he was elected public orator of Cambridge and was elected to Parliament in 1624. However, in 1627 he resigned from public office and soon after began to prepare for ministry instead.

When challenged by friends who felt that the ministry was beneath his station in life, Herbert responded:

It hath been formerly judged that the domestic servants of the King of Heaven should be the noblest families on earth. And though the iniquity of the late times have made clergymen meanly valued … I will labor to make it honorable, by consecrating all my learning, and all my poor abilities, to advance the glory of that God that gave them; knowing that I can never do too much for him that hath done so much for me, as to make me a Christian. And I will labour to be like my Saviour, by making humility lovely in the eyes of all men and by following the merciful and meek example of my dear Jesus. (from Isaac Walton’s “Life of Herbert,” in George Herbert: The Complete English Poems; Penguin Classics, 1991, p. 282)

In 1630 Herbert took a small church in Bremerton which he helped rebuild with his own funds. He spent the final three years of his life preaching, caring for the people in his parish and completing the two major works for which he is best known today: The Country Parson, a work of prose which explores the personal life and ministry of the pastor, and The Temple, a collection and sequence of poems on Christian themes.

Herbert died from tuberculosis in 1633. He was only forty years old. On his deathbed he sent a collection of his poems to a friend with the following instructions:

If he can think it may turn to the advantage of any dejected poor soul, let it be made public; if not, let him burn it, for I and it are the least of God’s mercies. (from Isaac Walton’s “Life of Herbert,” in George Herbert: The Complete English Poems; Penguin Classics, 1991, p. 311)

This collection of poems was The Temple, published later the same year Herbert died. It is a beautiful book of poems, filled with startling imagery, ingenious wordplay, and rich devotional thought. You may be familiar with some of Herbert’s poems in hymn form, such as “Come, My Way, My Truth, My Life,” “The God of Love My Shepherd Is,” “Let All the World in Every Corner Sing,” and “Teach Me, My God and King.”

Herbert was also well-known for his Proverbs, some of which we still use today:

• “When a friend asks, there is no tomorrow.”
• “His bark is worse than his bite.”
• “Whose house is of glass must not throw stones at another.”
• “Good words are worth much and cost little.”
• “The eye is bigger than the belly.”
• “Half the world knows not how the other half lives.”
• “He that lives well is learned enough.”
• “He loseth nothing that loseth not God.”

I hope I have whetted your appetite to learn more about George Herbert. This is Holy Week, and over the next couple days I will be posting some of Herbert’s poems to assist you in your reflection on the events of Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday. As with all poetry, you will get the most out of the poems if you take them slowly and read them through several times, out loud if possible.

I invite you to come back later today and throughout the weekend to enjoy these poems by George Herbert. May God bless you this Easter season as you meditate on what He has done for you in Christ our Savior.

Click here for more poems by George Herbert.
Click here for poems by Ray Fowler.

George Herbert Poems and Posts Roundup:

• Pastor and Poet George Herbert (1593-1633)
• Favorite Poems by George Herbert
• Good Friday Poems by George Herbert
• Holy Saturday Poem by George Herbert
• Easter Sunday Poems by George Herbert

Winter is almost over. Spring is coming soon. Hang on!

Link: Grow-a-Brain