Thank you all...)
Quite a contrast to the previous 8 years. No Travelgate, no filegate, no whitewater, no pizza delivering interns - you get the picture. Just straight forward honest leadership.
Excellent commentary JH2. Keep up the good work.
Atta Girl, Dutchess. Now go to bed. It's late.
Another fine day at the finest...please join us for coffee, tea and tasty treats as we enjoy another fine essay from our finest resident author John Huang...and the beautiful graphics, pictures thanks to MeekinMing and layout...Billie saved my hide today....
With that phrase, John, you may have caught the very essence of this man we are blessed to have as our President during these troubled times.
Years ago, while studying the words of William Barclay in preparation to teach a Sunday school lesson on the Beatitudes, I learned something I have never forgotten ...... the word meek is probably one of the most misunderstood and mis-used words in the English language. I could not find Barclay's comments on the internet but I found some writings by Pastor Scott L. Harris Of Grace Bible College in Wappingers Falls, New York that refer to both Barclay and others. Here are some quotes from his message:
"Contrary to common thought, the truly meek person is anything but weak. In fact it takes great strength to be a meek person.""This quality of meekness is dependent upon being "poor in spirit," for until a person realizes they are inadequate themselves and must rely upon God, they cannot be meek for the fundamental quality of meekness is its dependance upon God. In addition meekness also builds upon the idea of mourning over sin because it demands that we respond correctly to others regardless of what they say or do to us. If we already mourn over our own sin, it is easier to accept the correction of someone else who may point out our sin. If we already mourn over the sin of others and the general effects of sin in the world, we can respond with godliness rather than self defense or self pity when someone does something to us unjustly. Meekness demands seeing things from God's perspective and then responding from that and not our own selfishness."
"The Greek philosopher Aristotle used the word to describe one of the "virtues of life." Aristotle said it was the man "who is angry on the right occasion and with the right people at the right moment and for the right length of time." It was the "mean between excessive anger and the inability to show anger." William Barclay described this beatitude in light of Aristotle's usage of the term as, "Blessed is the man who is always angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time" . . . "neither too hasty nor too slow tempered." Barclay went on to say that the wrong time was when it was due to personal insult or injury to ourselves. The right time was the selfless anger emerging over someone else being injured."
"The Christian knows that he/she is nothing and can do nothing apart from Christ, therefore the believer must trust Christ completely and be obedient to His directions for life. Every instinct and every passion is to be brought under the control of the Holy Spirit. The Christian is to trust in the Lord, Delight in the Lord, Commit their way to the Lord and rest in the Lord. Barclay comments that the blessed man is "not the man who is self-controlled, for such self-control is not in man's power as all experience shows, but the man who is God-controlled.
"Meekness then is dependent upon being controlled by God. It is marked by a subservient and trusting attitude toward God."
Your phrase sums up the quality of meekness, John, and I think it describes and explains much about our President.
/sermon
You may now return to your regularly scheduled thread ...... :-)
{{{{{{{{{{{{{JH2}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}
Ya went and done did it again!! Eloquently stating what *should* be obvious, yet will slide right over the empty heads of the left.
You're the best!
We are informed, stirred, sometimes amused -
often challenged to stretch beyond the confines
of ordinary thoughts to reach your level.
We are always edified;
sometimes cajoled, prodded, uplifted -
and never, never disappointed.
Thank you, John, for your words that so eloquently describe our President, and this moving tribute to the heros of the Columbia tragedy.
