Sunday Dispatch Megathread

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.587


I am an historian, I am not a believer, but I must confess as a historian that this penniless preacher from Nazareth is irrevocably the very center of history. Jesus Christ is easily the most dominant figure in all history.

~H.G. Wells

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.588


Thanksgiving

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food,
For love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.589


Through million miles of walking and a million things to say
I can’t cut closer to the bone, hard time, they never go away.
Through million miles of walking and a million things to say
I can’t cut closer to the bone, hard time, they never go away.

~Kelly Joe Phelps / Brother Sinner and the Whale

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.590

So many years, dead on a hollow road,
Dirty old blood running through my veins.
Make it all kind of weird decision,
Caught all the life from the sky.
See it change as my knees are falling down to the praying ground.
Oh, wouldn’t mind, grateful give my soul for God, for God, yeah.

It’s been a time I should’ve know of it soon,
Rather be lying in the cold, cold ground
Instead I’m walking along on this highway and even the God’s holy word,
Oh, I pray to the Lord in Heaven, forgiveness is what I came for.
Holy might, grab hold of my soul, for God.

Oh, Lord, forgive me, Lord, have mercy, Lord, have mercy, Lord, forgive me.
I’m gonna live for God.

~Kelley Joe Phelps / Brother Sinner and the Whale

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.591

People are often unreasonable and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are honest, people may cheat you. Be honest anyway.
If you find happiness, people may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today may be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may never be enough. Give your best anyway.

For you see, in the end, it is between you and God.
It was never between you and them anyway.

~Mother Teresa

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.592


Jesus wept.

~John 11:35

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.593


Charlie Brown:I guess you were right, Linus. I shouldn't have picked this little tree. Everything I do turns into a disaster. I guess I really don't know what Christmas is all about.
[shouting in desperation]
Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?

Linus Van Pelt:Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about.
[moves toward the center of the stage]

Lights, please.

[a spotlight shines on Linus]
"And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, 'Fear not: for behold, I bring unto you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the City of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.' And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God, and saying, 'Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.'"
[Linus picks up his blanket and walks back towards Charlie Brown]

That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown.

~Charles Schulz


He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.

~Colossian 1:15

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.594


The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places.
But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now
mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater.

~J.R.R. Tolkien

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.595

We must cast ourselves into the depths, if we want to catch something, and if at
times we must work throughout the night without catching anything, it is good not
to give in, but to cast the net again in the morning.

So let us go quietly on, each on his own road, going toward the light, "sursum
corda"[lift up the heart], and those who know that we are what others are and
that others are what we are and that it is a good thing to love one another; namely
in the best way, believing all things and hoping all things and enduring all things,
perishing nevermore.

And not grieving too much if we have imperfections, for he who has none has, after
all, one-namely that of not having any-and he who thinkshimeslf wise in every way
would do well to start being foolish all over again.

Nous sommes aujourd'bui ce que nous etions hier, namely "honest men," men
who must be tried in the fire of life to become strengthened within, and be, by
the Grace of God, what they are by nature.

So be it with us, and may you have blessings on your way, and God be with you
in all things and make you succeed, that is the wish, with a warm handshake on
your deparure.

Your loving brother, Vincent


~Selected from the Complete Letters of Vincent van Gough, from a letter to
his brother Leo

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.596


There is a kingdom
There is a king
And he lives without
And he lives within

~Nick Cave / from the album The Boatman's Call

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.597

Oh yes, you shaped me first inside, then out;
you formed me in my mother’s womb.

I thank you, High God—you’re breathtaking!
Body and soul, I am marvelously made!
I worship in adoration—what a creation!

You know me inside and out,
you know every bone in my body;
You know exactly how I was made, bit by bit,
how I was sculpted from nothing into something.

Like an open book, you watched me grow from conception to birth;
all the stages of my life were spread out before you,
The days of my life all prepared
before I’d even lived one day.

~Psalm 139:13-16 (The Message)

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.598


If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.

~ C.S. Lewis

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.599

When his family heard it, they went out to restrain him, for
people were saying, "He has gone out of his mind."

~Mark 3:21

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.600


“Are you listening to this? Really listening?”

When they were off by themselves, those who were close to him, along with the Twelve, asked about the stories. He told them, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom—you know how it works. But to those who can’t see it yet, everything comes in stories, creating readiness, nudging them toward receptive insight. These are people—

Whose eyes are open but don’t see a thing,
Whose ears are open but don’t understand a word,
Who avoid making an about-face and getting forgiven.”

He continued, “Do you see how this story works? All my stories work this way.

~Mark 4:9-13 (The Message)

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.601


“He is the playfulness of creation, scandal and utter goodness, the generosity of the ocean and the ferocity of a thunderstorm; he is cunning as a snake and gentle as a whisper; the gladness of sunshine and the humility of a thirty-mile walk by foot on a dirt road.”

~John Eldredge, Beautiful Outlaw: Experiencing the Playful, Disruptive, Extravagant Personality of Jesus

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.602

Jesus once again addressed them: “I am the world’s Light. No one who follows me stumbles around in the darkness. I provide plenty of light to live in.”

The Pharisees objected, “All we have is your word on this. We need more than this to go on.”

Jesus replied, “You’re right that you only have my word. But you can depend on it being true. I know where I’ve come from and where I go next. You don’t know where I’m from or where I’m headed. You decide according to what you can see and touch. I don’t make judgments like that. But even if I did, my judgment would be true because I wouldn’t make it out of the narrowness of my experience but in the largeness of the One who sent me, the Father. That fulfills the conditions set down in God’s Law: that you can count on the testimony of two witnesses. And that is what you have: You have my word and you have the word of the Father who sent me.”

They said, “Where is this so-called Father of yours?”

Jesus said, “You’re looking right at me and you don’t see me. How do you expect to see the Father? If you knew me, you would at the same time know the Father.”


~John 8:12-19 (The Message)

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.603


Come on up to the house
Come on up to the house
The world is not my home
I'm just a passin thru
Come on up to the house

There's no light in the tunnel No irons in the fire
Come on up to the house
And your singin lead soprano
In a junkman's choir
You gotta come on up to the house

Does life seem nasty, brutish and short
Come on up to the house
The seas are stormy
And you can't find no port
Come on up to the house

~Tom Waits

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.604


Imagine a new religious sect suddenly emerging that
uses an electric chair or a gas chamber as the symbol of their faith.

First century people were horrified by the early Christians using a cross.

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.605


"Christ beside me, Christ before me, Christ behind me, Christ within me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me.”

~Patrick

[the iron horse]

Sunday Dispatch.606

The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.

He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.

But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.

But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.

We’re all like sheep who’ve wandered off and gotten lost.
We’ve all done our own thing, gone our own way.

And God has piled all our sins, everything we’ve done wrong,
on him, on him.

~Isaiah 53:2-6 (The Message)