Project 5782 | Day 15

Awe-struck Joy!

Scripture Portion

Revelation 21.9-11, 18-21

⁹ Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” ¹⁰ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, ¹¹ having the glory of God, its radiance like a most rare jewel, like a jasper, clear as crystal.

¹⁸ The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, like clear glass. ¹⁹ The foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with every kind of jewel. The first was jasper, the second sapphire, the third agate, the fourth emerald, ²⁰ the fifth onyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, the twelfth amethyst. ²¹ And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, like transparent glass.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®) Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.

Quote from Reading

“Thus, to the fourth question in the Westminster Shorter Catechism, ‘What is God?’ the answer read as follows: ‘God is Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.’ This statement the great Charles Hodge described as ‘probably the best definition of God ever penned by man.’”

Packer, J.I., Knowing God: 20^th-Anniversary Edition, InterVarsity Press: Downers Grove, 1973:1993, pg. 21

Provocative Language

from “From Twinkle to Reality”

“Those pain-filled days or hours
To reach the prize you sought
The feeling of satisfaction
That this little bundle brought.
I gaze at you in wonder
Are you really here?
I’m overwhelmed with happiness
And a tiny bit of fear.”

Bhathal, Ritu, Poetic RITUals, 2016, pg. 5

Project 5782 | Day 6

Commandments AND Faith

Scripture Portion

Revelation 14.12
¹² Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. (ESV)

Quote from Reading

“We may wonder why it took eighteen centuries after the Sermon on the Mount for Christians to develop an anti-slavery movement, but a more profound question is why not even the leading moralists in other civilizations rejected slavery at all. ‘There is no evidence,’ according to a scholarly study, ‘that slavery came under serious attach in any part of the world before the eighteenth century.’ That is when it first came under attack in Europe.
Themselves the leading slave traders of the eighteenth century, Europeans nevertheless became, in the nineteenth century, the destroyers of slavery around the world – not just in European societies or European offshoot societies overseas, but in non-European societies as well, over the bitter opposition of Africans, Arabs, Asians, and others. Moreover, within Western civilization, the principal impetus for the abolition of slavery came first from very conservative religious activists – people who would today be called ‘the religious right.’ Clearly, this story is not ‘politically correct’ in today’s terms. Hence, it is ignored, as if it never happened.” – Sowell, Thomas, Black Rednecks and White Liberals, Encounter Books: New York, 2005, pg. 116

Provocative Language

Over hill, over dale,
            Thorough bush, thorough briar,
Over park, over pale,
            Thorough flood, thorough fire,
I do wander everywhere,
Swifter than the moon’s sphere;
And I serve the Fairy Queen,
To dew her orbs upon the green.
The cowslips tall her pensioners be:
In their gold coats spots you see;
Those rubies, fairy favours,
In those freckles live their savours:
I must go seek some dewdrops here
And hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear.
– “Over Hill, Over Dale,” A Midsummer Night’s Dream, William Shakespeare