Month: January 2009
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ASK
Each new year is unsullied. It is time and space that, to our knowledge, no humans have traversed or occupied. We make plans, set goals, and create resolutions for the 31,536,000 seconds (give or take a few seconds) that we believe must be better than those in the preceding year. We are never satisfied with…
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Today is Robert Morrison’s Birthday (1782)
Robert Morrison (1782-1834) was the first Protestant missionary to China, and it was through his work that China was opened up to the Christian message in the nineteenth century. Morrison was an evangelical Presbyterian who devoted himself to a monumental task of study and translation. A handful of people in China converted to Christianity and…
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Today is James Ussher’s Birthday
Archbishop James Ussher, Bishop of Armagh, is remembered these days chiefly for his chronology: Annales veteris testamenti, a prima mundi origine deducti (“Annals of the Old Testament, deduced from the first origins of the world”), which he published in 1650. What was his chronology? The short version is that he added together all the begats…
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Otter Kitty
By Phoebe Age Six. The young artist who produced this image has described it as either “a kitty who thinks she’s an otter” or “an otter who thinks she’s a kitty.” Well, which is it? Even if we allow for the ambiguity of pictorial representation, it can hardly be seen as both. Indeed, this seems…
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Today is E. Stanley Jones’ Birthday
E. Stanley Jones was born on January 3, 1884. He was an important Methodist Missionary with a big vision for world evangelism. Already as a college study as Asbury College in central Kentucky, the hand of God was on Jones: he was one of four participants in a prayer meeting (in a men’s dorm during a…
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Today is Thérèse of Lisieux’s Birthday
Today in 1873 Thérèse of Lisieux was born. Some Catholics call her The Little Flower, but DOCTOR Little Flower might be more appropriate. Born Marie-Francoise-Thérèse Martin as the ninth child of devout parents, she became a Carmelite nun at the unusually early age of 15. She only had about a decade of life as a…
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Today is Zwingli’s Birthday
Today in 1484, Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli was born, about 40 days after Martin Luther. Zwingli was a well-trained scholar (Universities of Vienna and Basel) and had the early reputation of being the best Greek student north of the Alps. But he was essentially a man of action, and when he began his preaching ministry…
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Happy New Year's from Middlebrow
Kick off the new year right with the guys at Middlebrow as they make their big predictions for 2009. From the economy to politics to Bono, Narnia and 3-D NFL games, this is a new year’s podcast that everyone should resolve to hear. Click here to listen!