The Seeing Eye

"He said the common eye sees only the outside of things, and judges by that, but the seeing eye pierces through and reads the heart and soul, finding there capacities which the outside didn't indicate or promise, and which the other kind of eye couldn't detect." [Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Sieur Louis de Conte, pages 149, 150]

There was a time when we humans were able to view the spiritual realities that surround us. That gift fell into disuse with the advent of the scientific method of viewing the world where the only acceptable evidence of reality is that which can be measured by the human senses. As we lost the gift of the Seeing Eye, we began to doubt the existence of the spiritual. Those few remaining of us who could still view the spiritual world were looked upon with distrust. Those still possessing clairvoyance, became Witches and acolytes of Satan.

In 15th Century France, when the educated Sieur Louis de Conte saw an apparition appearing in a meadow to a 17-year-old peasant girl named Joan, he asked her about it. She replied: "I will tell you, but do not be disturbed; you are not in danger. It was the shadow of an archangel - Michael, the chief and lord of the armies of heaven." [Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Sieur Louis de Conte, page 76] After following her voices from Heaven and leading an army to free France from the grip of the English for "a thousand years," Joan of Arc was condemned to death and burned at the stake.

War Horse

War Horse - An anti-military statement from Stephen Spielberg. A shocking interpretation of the children's story.

I read the book and saw the play in New York City, so today I went to see the War Horse movie. I was stunned and disappointed with the gratuitous violence, blood and gore that was interpreted from what was a children's book. I did not like the movie's negative portrayal of the military. In the book, both the German and the British soldiers were portrayed respectfully and sympathetically. Some of the anti-military scenes in the movie were totally invented by Spielberg; not in the original children's book at all. In the story of War Horse, the Germans never executed the young boys who were not even portrayed characters in the book, and the British never told their men to shoot fellow soldiers. But Joey the horse was portrayed wonderfully in the movie, and there was not a dry eye in the theatre. I only wish they had given Emilee's story more coverage instead of ignoring it to stress the violence of the war.

The movie took a children's story and made it into an anti-military screed that contains too much violence for children.

The Christmas Bell

THE BELL

I KNOW WHO I AM

I am God's child (John 1:12)

I am Christ's friend (John 15:15)

I am united with the Lord(1 Cor. 6:17)

I am bought with a price(1 Cor. 6:19-20)

I am a saint (set apart for God). (Eph. 1:1)

I am a personal witness of Christ (Acts 1:8)

I am the salt &; light of the earth (Matt.5:13-14)

I am a member of the body of Christ(1 Cor 12:27)

I am free forever from condemnation ( Rom. 8: 1-2)

I am a citizen of Heaven. I am significant (Phil.3:20)

I am free from any charge against me (Rom. 8:31-34)

I am a minister of reconciliation for God (2 Cor.5:17-21)

I have access to God through the Holy Spirit (Eph. 2:18)

I am seated with Christ in the heavenly realms (Eph. 2:6)

I cannot be separated from the love of God (Rom.8:35-39)

I am established, anointed, sealed by God (2 Cor.1:21-22)

I am assured all things work together for good (Rom. 8: 28)

I have been chosen and appointed to bear fruit (John 15:16)

I may approach God with freedom and confidence (Eph. 3: 12)

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13)

I am the branch of the true vine, a channel of His life (John 15: 1-5)

I am God's temple (1 Cor. 3: 16). I am complete in Christ (Col. 2: 10)

I am hidden with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). I have been justified (Romans 5:1)

I am God's co-worker (1 Cor. 3:9; 2 Cor 6:1). I am God's workmanship (Eph. 2:10)

I am confident that the good works God has begun in me will be perfected (Phil 1: 5)

I have been redeemed & forgiven (Col. 1:14). I have been adopted as God's child (Eph 1:5)

I belong to God

Do you know

Who you 

are?

Keep this bell ringing ... pass it on -- from the Internet :)

Lee's Stratford Landing of 1781

On 30 March 1781, two hundred thirty years ago, British sailors from armed vessels anchored in the Potomac River near Saint Clement’s [Blackistone] Island, and attempted to land at Stratford Landing as part of a mission to destroy and loot the plantation houses along both sides of the river. From his home Chantilly, which had a good view of the island, Richard Henry Lee, Lieutenant of the Westmoreland militia, watched the movements of the ships. The British launched smaller craft to approach the shoreline while the large ships fired cannons to cover the attack. Richard Henry Lee met them with a small, ill-armed group of local citizens. In the skirmish that followed, the Westmoreland militia repelled the attackers, killing one British sailor who was buried on Stratford beach.

The image, Lee's Stratford Landing, is subject to copyright by Edna Barney. It is posted here with permission via the Flickr API by barneykin, an administrator of "The Revolution ed" pool.