Emancipation - Private Spotswood Rice

I have been watching the Ken Burns special on the Civil War and was blown away from the following words from Private Spotswood Rice. Rice, a former slave escaped and enlisted in the Union during the Civil War. Separated from his wife and child, he had offered to purchase his daughter for $40. The slave owner, Kitty Diggs flatly refused. Emboldened by his enlistment in the Union Army and the recent Emancipation Proclamation by Abraham Lincoln, he gives a staunch warning to his daughter's captor:

... I received a leteter from Cariline telling me that you say I tried to steal to plunder my child away from you now I want you to understand that mary is my Child and she is a God given rite of my own and you may hold on to hear as long as you can but I want you to remembor this one thing that the longor you keep my Child from me the longor you will have to burn in hell and the qwicer youll get their... I have no fears about geting mary out of your hands this whole Government gives chear to me and you cannot help your self.

Spotswood Rice
Benton Barracks Hospital, St. Louis, Mo. September 3, 1864

Quote of the Day - Winston Churchill

Socialism is a philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy, its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.

Can you spot the Facebook narcissist?

Study: The self-obsessed use Facebook the same way they do relationships

Video - Frank Caliendo

Its been awhile since I've posted anything so here goes. Frank Caliendo is hilarious! You have to wait through a commercial but it is worth it. Click Here

Quote of the Day - G.K. Chesterton

To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it.

Quote of the Day - C.S. Lewis

Christ died for men precisely because men are not worth dying for; to make them worth it.

Quote of the Day - C.S. Lewis

Now that I am a Christian I do not have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable.

Article of the Day - The Vitter Effect

An accurate and very insightful article on Evangelicals in America. Newsweek interviews Michael Cromartie, Vice President of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Quote of the Day - C.S. Lewis

No Christian and, indeed, no historian could accept the epigram which defines religion as 'what a man does with his solitude.'

Video of the Week - Paul Pots

Must see video, trust me. If you like the underdog it is always nice to see when dreams come true. My roommates were raving about this yesterday. Click here

If you liked that and want more. Here you go. Click here

Quote of the Day - Dwight D. Eisenhower

There are a number of things wrong with Washington. One of them is that everyone is too far from home.

Quote of the Day - C.S. Lewis

Books on psychology or economics or politics are as continuously metaphorical as books of poetry or devotion.

Video of the week - Con te partiro

A little Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman during lunchtime. Click Here

Quote of the Day - Dwight D. Eisenhower

Peace and justice are two sides of the same coin.

Quote of the Day - C.S. Lewis

Prostitutes are in no danger of finding their present life so satisfactory that they cannot turn to God: the proud, the avaricious, the self-righteous, are in that danger.

Quote of the Day - C.S. Lewis

Of all bad men religious bad men are the worst.

Quote of the Day - G.K. Chesterton

Men do not differ much about what things they will call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable.

Tim Keller - Evangelistic Worship

Today's thought comes from Tim Keller, Pastor of Church of the Redeemer in New York City. My friends have been raving about his teaching so I thought I would check it out. The following passage comes from an essay he wrote on evangelistic worship. For the complete article, click here.

Celebrate deeds of mercy and justice. We live in a time when public esteem of the church is plummeting. For many outsiders or inquirers, the deeds of the church will be far more important than words in gaining plausibility. The leaders of most towns see "word-only" churches as costs to their community, not a value. Effective churches will be so involved in deeds of mercy and justice that outsiders will say, "we cannot do without churches like this. This church is channeling so much value into our community through its services to people that if it went out of business, we'd have to raise everybody's taxes." Mercy deeds give the gospel words plausibility (Acts 4:32 followed by v.33.) Therefore, evangelistic worship services should highlight offerings for deed ministry and should celebrate through reports and testimonies and prayer what is being done. It is best that offerings for mercy ministry be separate, attached (as traditional) to the Lord's Supper. This brings before the non-Christian the impact of the gospel on people's hearts (it makes us generous) and the impact of lives poured out for the world.

Quote of the Day - C.S. Lewis

The most valuable thing the Psalms do for me is to express the same delight in God which made David dance.

Quote of the Day - Dwight D. Eisenhower

In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.