Audio April 14, 2015 1 Samuel 18-31 by Nancy Baird
Scriptures 1 Samuel 18-31
Quotes
‘Tis human fortune’s happiest height to be
A spirit melodius, lucid, poised and whole…”
The Poems of William Watson, Epigram (English poet, early 1900’s.)
“Inside all people there is love, also the need to take care of the other man who is his brother. Inside everyone is a savage, but there is also happening tenderness and compassion.” Doc sighed and took out his bandanna and wiped his face as though trying to wipe the prison atmosphere from his skin. When man is brutalized in such a place like this, always he is looking for small signs. The smallest sign that someone is worried for him is like a fire on a dark mountain. When a man knows somebody cares, he keeps some small place, a corner maybe of his soul, clean and lit. From Bryce Courtenay, The Power of One: A Novel, 237.
“The sins which a man commits, those are not his greatest crime. Temptation is powerful and his strength is slight! The great crime of man is that he can turn at every moment, and does not do so.” Martin Buber, Tales of the Hasidim.
“It is provided in the essence of things that from any … success, no matter what, shall come forth something to make a greater struggle necessary.” From Walt Whitman, “Song of the Open Road,” Leaves of Grass.
“About the year 960, Ebd-er-rahman III of Spain wrote these words: “I have now reigned about fifty years in victory or peace, beloved by my subjects, dreaded by my enemies and respected by my allies. Riches and honors, power and pleasure have waited on my call, nor does any earthly blessing appear to have been wanting to my felicity. In this situation I have diligently numbered the days of pure and genuine happiness which have fallen to my lot: they amount to 14.” Nancy Baird, “The Bundle of Life,” Every Good Thing, 16.
NANCY’S QUOTES ON SPRING HANDOUT
Spring is a happiness so beautiful,
so unique,
so unexpected
that I don’t know what to do
with my heart.
By Emily Dickenson
“Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” Isaiah 6:3.
“Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every leaf in springtime.” Martin Luther (1483-1546).
“O earth, you are too wonderful for anyone to realize you.”
“Our Town”, Thornton Wilder, the words of Emily, 12.
“For, lo, he that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is his thought, that maketh the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, the God of hosts, is his name.” Amos 4:13.
“O, these vast, calm, measureless mountain days inciting at once to work and rest! Days in whose light everything seems equally divine, opening a thousand windows to show us God. Never more, however weary, should one faint by the way who gains the blessing of one mountain day; whatever his fate, long life, short life, stormy or calm, he is rich forever.” John Muir, naturalist.
“Sing, O heavens; and be joyful, O earth; and break forth into singing, O mountains: for the LORD hath comforted his people…” Isaiah 49:13.
“The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
…And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights of the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.”
“God’s Grandeur,” Gerard Manley Hopkins.
“And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten.” Moses 1:33.
“All that I hope to say in books, all that I ever hope to say, is that I love the world.”
E. B. White, novelist, essayist.
“And let it be, when thou hearest the sound of a going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt bestir thyself: for then shall the LORD go out before thee…”
2 Samuel 5:24.
“Spring comes this week. Just after dark on Wednesday, Dec. 21, at exactly 6:21…A soft alarm sounds in my soul at winter solstice–the longest night of the year is past. I know the Earth has tilted as far as it will, and from now on there will be more light and longer days in my corner of the universe…This inner celebration is older than Christmas–deeper than civilization. It’s a primal response on that spiritual plane where matter and energy and light converge with mystery into life.
I am not the only living thing tuned to this turning. Check the trees now — their limbs already bear translucent green buds or soft wooly bumps. Dig a bulb from the ground. Cut it open. You will find the swollen juiciness of germination there already. The push toward light and flower is under way…
This is the sharp green edge of invincible life slicing through darkness once again…Nothing can stop life!…On Wednesday, like the Earth, I, too, will tilt — away from death…Now I, too, will reach for revival. Daily, I must get up and go to work in the construction business of building and repairing and remodeling my life…Something ancient and deep stirs itself in me, and my face turns toward the sun.”
When Winter Arrives, Can Springtime be Far Behind?” Robert Fulghum, Deseret News.
“For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth the bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth…For ye shall go out with joy and be led forth before you into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” Isaiah 55:10-12.
“Rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.” 1 Peter 1:8.