A Psalm of Life

A PSALM OF LIFE
by
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)


Tell me not, in mournful numbers,
Life is but an empty dream!
For the soul is dead that slumbers,
And things are not what they seem.

Life is real! Life is earnest!
And the grave is not its goal;
Dust thou art, to dust returnest,
Was not spoken of the soul.

Not enjoyment, and not sorrow,
Is our destined end or way;
But to act, that each tomorrow
Find us farther than today.

Hot News From History

(from the book "The Case for Christ" by Lee Strobel)

"Are the Gospels rooted in eyewitness testimony or did so much time elapse before it was written down that a mythology developed about Jesus?
The standard scholarly dating, even in very liberal circles has the Gospel of Mark written in the 70 B.C. range,Matthew and Luke in the 80's and John in the 90s. That is still within the lifetime of various eyewitnesses of the life of Jesus, including hostile witnesses who would have been served as a corrective if false teachings about Jesus were going around. Consequently, these dates for the Gospels really aren't all that late. In fact, there is a comparison that is very instructive.
The two earliest biographies of Alexander the Great were written by Arrian and Plutarch more than four hundred years after Alexander's death in 323 B.C., yet historians consider them to be generally trustworthy. Yes, legendary material about Alexander did develop over time, but it was only in the centuries after these two writers. In other words, the first five hundred years kept Alexander's story pretty much intact; legendary material began to emerge over the next five hundred years. So whether the Gospels were written sixty years or thirty years after the life of Jesus, the amount of time is negligible by comparison. It's almost a nonissue."

Where is your Emmaus?

Luke 15:13-35
(with thanks to Stan Reid)

Everybody has one. Where is yours?

Three days had passed since Jesus had been crucified - sadness, fear and confusion permeated the followers he left behind. Why was the one that they perceived as their savior taken from them? Didn't he say that he was the Christ? Wasn't he going to save them from the Romans? What had happened to their beloved leader?
Two of those followers were leaving Jerusalem, a place of fear and danger now, and they were going to a village called Emmaus - a place of solace for their sadness.

When you come to a time in your life where the rug has been pulled out from under you - is there a place that you go for comfort, safety and consolation?
Perhaps it is just your bedroom, perhaps it is your childhood home, your mother's arms, a bottle of alcohol or as is so popular today - your "man cave".

These two confused disciples were on their way to their place of solace when they met Jesus - the very one that was at the center of their sadness - and there they found their way back to hope and joy.

Where is your Emmaus? Will you meet Jesus there?