From The Lord of the Rings: Part 1 – The Fellowship of the Ring

It was Sam’s turn that day to take the first watch, but Aragorn joined him. The others fell asleep. Then the silence grew until even Sam felt it. The breathing of the sleepers could be plainly heard. The swish of the pony’s tail and the occasional movements of his feet became loud noises. Sam could hear his own joints creaking, if he stirred. Dead silence was around him, and over all hung a clear blue sky, as the Sun rode up from the East. Away in the South a dark patch appeared, and grew, and drove north like flying smoke in the wind.

‘What’s that, Strider? It don’t look like a cloud,’ said Sam in a whisper to Aragorn. He made no answer, he was gazing intently at the sky; but before long Sam could see for himself what was approaching. Flocks of birds, flying at great speed, were wheeling and circling, and traversing all the land as if they were searching for something; and they were steadily drawing nearer.

‘Lie flat and still!’ hissed Aragorn, pulling Sam down into the shade of a holly-bush; for a whole regiment of birds had broken away suddenly from the main host, and came, flying low, straight towards the ridge. Sam thought they were a kind of crow of large size. As they passed overhead, in so dense a throng that their shadow followed them darkly over the ground below, one harsh croak was heard.

Not until they had dwindled into the distance, north and west, and the sky was again clear would Aragorn rise. Then he sprang up and went and wakened Gandalf.

‘Regiments of black crows are flying over all the land between the Mountains and the Greyflood,’ he said.

AP Photo:

Caption: "Startling starlings : Hundreds of starlings fly over the city of Angers, France, at sunset. (AFP/Franck Perry)"

Arthur Pink from Elijah

The attitude of a nation towards God is to be gauged not so much by the general deportment of its people as by the character of its governors or government. The two are of course intimately related, for where a majority of the subjects are pious, they will not tolerate wickedness in high places, and on the other hand, when those who lead and rule set an evil example, it cannot be expected that those who follow will excel them in righteousness.

Think about this quote in light of the leaders in the United States.

Q.105. For what do we pray in the fifth request?

A. In the fifth request (Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors) encouraged by God’s grace, which makes it possible for us sincerely to forgive others, we pray that for Christ’s sake God would freely pardon all our sins.

Headline AFP: Bishop hopes chocolate, invites will bring back worshippers

LONDON (AFP) – The Bishop of Manchester hopes to draw worshippers back to church with chocolate bars and invitations.

The Reverend Nigel McCulloch plans to distribute business card-style invites and goody bags, the Daily Telegraph said.

The bishop provoked strong reaction in March when he said the Church of England could disappear “within a generation or two” if no action was immediately taken.

Under the scheme, new church-goers will receive a brochure about the Church and ‘fair trade’ chocolate at the end of the service, the newspaper said….

The idea has been inspired by marketing campaigns and glitzy launches where gift bags are given away to promote products.

The campaign aims in particular to woo over-50s who once went to church but have stopped.

For services celebrating the autumn harvest festival on September 26, clergy are being encouraged to use hymns that are popular among over-50s and do something completely different during the service, “such as showing a comedy video”, the paper reported.

“We will, unless there is a turn in the tide, be a Church which gradually disappears from this land,” the bishop told the paper. He was commenting on figures suggesting the number of Church members would fall to below six million, or one tenth of the population, by next year.

Having completely lost confidence in the preached word of God, these church leaders seek to get people into church with chocolate and comedy sketches. They fail to realize that with all the changes they have made to make attending church more palatable to people, there is no longer any reason for anyone to come to church. It would be better to just close the doors than to change church into an entertainment. But better still would be to stand with Paul and preach the gospel:

Romans 1:16

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

2 Timothy 4:1-5

¹ I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: ² preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. ³ For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, ⁴ and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. ⁵ As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.

Headline Ziff Davis: A Purse-Sized Portable PC

Headline AP: Cool Midwest Summer Creates Bigger Spiders

Update: Important fact from the article that you might want to keep in mind:

The rule of thumb is that no one anywhere is ever more than 3 feet away from a spider.

What’s the most important thing going on in our country these days? Many people would tell us that it is the campaign for president. Just as they have told us for all the previous elections, they are again telling us that this election is vitally important (I guess because it is the current election, thus rendering future and past elections of less significance).

On Sunday’s White Horse Inn broadcast — Covenant Confusion, Michael Horton made the following statement.

Listen to Peter Berger when he says — not even an Evangelical believer — but he, Peter Berger, Sociologist at Boston University says, “You guys don’t forget this, you preachers out there, he says, don’t forget this. The most important question in any period is whether the gospel is being preached.”

You know, we think that the crisis of Western Civilization is the most important crisis. It pales in significance to the question as to whether your pastor next Sunday is going to give you the bread of life or a stone.

Right now, the presidential election seems to dominate everything. It seems like the campaigning will never stop. Every day there is a new issue, and people are telling us how important this election is going to be for the future of our country and of the world. One side tells us that we need to reclaim our country and the other warns of the dire consequences if we change horses in mid stream. If the predictions are correct, chaos and calamity await us no matter what decision we as a nation make.

But all that pales in significance to the question: Do you sit under the faithful preaching of the gospel every Sunday? That is where the really important work is taking place. The preaching of the gospel is the most important thing going on in our country these days.

You are tracking a dangerous criminal who has already killed one person at least. You are about to leave your home planning to enter his house. What should you bring with you on this dangerous mission? You can learn a lot from Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Speckled Band:

“And now, Watson, this is too serious for dawdling, especially as the old man is aware that we are interesting ourselves in his affairs; so if you are ready, we shall call a cab and drive to Waterloo. I should be very much obliged if you would slip your revolver into your pocket. An Eley’s No. 2 is an excellent argument with gentlemen who can twist steel pokers into knots. That and a tooth-brush are, I think, all that we need.”

I thought the point of buying glass instead of cans was to avoid the aluminum. Perhaps if your beer is Iron City you won’t notice.

AP Photo:

Caption: “Pittsburgh BrewingCompany, makers of Iron City beer, unveiled a new aluminum beer bottle at a news conference in Pittsburgh, Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2004. The brewery has partnered with Alcoa Inc., the world’s largest aluminum maker, to produce aluminum bottles that keep beer colder for longer, Alcoa officials said. (AP Photo/John Heller)”

What is the problem with entertainers telling us less enlightened fans for whom we should vote? Alice sums it up pretty well.

Headline WorldNetDaily: Alice Cooper: Anti-Bush acts treasonous morons

Shock-rock legend Alice Cooper calls rock stars campaigning for Democrat John Kerry treasonous morons….

“To me, that’s treason,” Cooper told the Canadian Press. “I call it treason against rock ‘n’ roll because rock is the antithesis of politics. Rock should never be in bed with politics.”

“When I was a kid and my parents started talking about politics, I’d run to my room and put on the Rolling Stones as loud as I could. So when I see all these rock stars up there talking politics, it makes me sick.

“If you’re listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you’re a bigger moron than they are. Why are we rock stars? Because we’re morons. We sleep all day, we play music at night and very rarely do we sit around reading the Washington Journal.”

“Besides,” he continued, “when I read the list of people who are supporting Kerry, if I wasn’t already a Bush supporter, I would have immediately switched. Linda Ronstadt? Don Henley? Geez, that’s a good reason right there to vote for Bush.”

Strange to say, Alice is the voice of reason. To all you entertainers who want to influence the election, please shut up and sing.

Source: Glenn R.