Tag: William Bradford

The very important skill of not tripping

December 12th 

…and if taking of offence causelessly or easily at men’s doings is to so carefully  be avoided, how much more care is to be taken that we do not take offence at God himself, which we certainly do as often as we do murmur at his providence in our crosses, or bear impatiently such afflictions as he pleases to visit us with. Store up therefore patience against the evil day, without which we take offence at the Lord himself in his holy and just works.

from Bradford’s Plimoth Plantation (Book I*)

Do not fear what these people fear; do not be terrified. You are to regard only the Lord of Hosts as holy. Only He should be feared; only He should be held in awe. He will be a sanctuary; but for the two houses of Israel, He will be a stone to stumble over and a rock to trip over, and a trap and a snare… Many will stumble over these; they will fall and be broken; they will be snared and captured.

…Nevertheless, the gloom of the distressed land will not be like that of former times… The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of darkness, a light has dawned… For a child will be born for us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on His shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. The dominion will be vast, and its prosperity will never end. He will reign on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish and sustain it with justice and righteousness from now on and forever. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts will accomplish this.

Isaiah 8:12-15 and
Isaiah 9:2,6-7 (HCSB)

*I don’t have the exact place noted, but it’s toward the end of Book I, so it’s in the sixth, seventh or eighth chapter. …and yes, we’ve seen Isaiah 9:2 before.

Here, from Handel’s Messiah, is the For unto us a child is born  on Youtube and Spotify, because I had to, at least once.

…and here is an image of the spiral galaxy NGC 4911, in the Coma Cluster, from last year’s Hubble Advent Calendar in The Atlantic.

Here’s this year’s, if anyone’s interested.

Working for the fruit that lasts

November 11th 

…And this will be a sign to you, O Hezekiah: This year you will eat what grows on its own, and in the second year what springs from the same. But in the third year you will sow and reap; you will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. And the surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root below and bear fruit above. For a remnant will go forth from Jerusalem, and survivors from Mount Zion. The zeal of the LORD of Hosts will accomplish this.

2 Kings 19:29-31 (BSB)

Do you not now see the fruits of your labors, O all you servants of the Lord that have suffered for his truth, and have been faithful witnesses of the same, and the little handful amongst the rest, the least amongst the thousands of Israel? You have not only had a seed time, but many of you have seen the joyful harvest; should you not then rejoice, yes, and again rejoice and say Hallelujah, salvation and glory, and honor, and power, be to the Lord our God; for true and righteous are his judgments.

When by the travel* and diligence of some godly and zealous preachers, and God’s blessing on their labors… many became enlightened by the word of God, and had their ignorance and sins revealed to them, and began by his grace to reform their lives.

from Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation (Ch. 1)

* I honestly have no idea whether ‘travell’ was supposed to be read as ‘travel’ or ‘travail’ so I just picked the one I liked best, even if it’s probably wrong.

The chapter this comes from is an explanation of how the Pilgrims left England for the Low Countries, (this is before they somehow decided that Massachusetts was a good idea), and there’s a lot about how hard life was if you weren’t part of the official church. We also skipped most of the complaining about ‘papists’ here. To be fair though, almost everyone was pretty rotten to each other, and dealing with the religio-political complex of the time had to have been deeply unfun, so I’m going to give them a pass on all the grandiose, post-exilic rhetoric they had going on there. (I wanted to subtitle this post ‘God working through crappy political scenarios and other pointless, frustrating situations caused by human self-will and selfishness,’ but apparently I have some sense of proportion left and it won’t let me.)

Anyway, Happy… Mayflower Compact-Signing Day? (Actually though, I think it was November 11th in the Julian calendar, so we’re ten days early. Oh well, no takebacks.)