RickPage

“Today” March 17, 2014 “Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will   b e anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble . ”                                                                                      -- Matthew 6:34 (ESV) Today is St. Patrick’s Day.  My guess would be that a large percentage of the population knows the holiday as nothing more than a holiday with parades, green beer, a good representation of people dressed in green, and corned beef and cabbage dinner.  The purpose of said holiday is to get drunk and somehow the Irish are involved.  Still others, perhaps those among us with a Catholic upbringing, remember that Patrick is the patron saint of Ireland.  His fame was in driving serpents from Ireland and using the shamrock to explain the Trinity. What is less well-known is that Patrick’s given name was Patricius and he was a missionary of enormous courage and humility.  He regularly referred to himself as “a sinne

“Wisdom” March 10, 2014 Half a league, half a league,   Half a league onward, All in the valley of Death,   Rode the six hundred. 'Forward, the Light Brigade! Charge for the guns' he said: Into the valley of Death   Rode the six hundred. --Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Charge of the Light Brigade The Russian leader said he wanted to protect Christians [i] , in truth he needed to expand Russian territory to the south and to ports free of ice in the winter.   By the month of March, the countries supporting an independent Ukraine and Crimea had run out of diplomatic options.   They were concerned about the minority peoples within Crimea who would be damaged by Russian expansionism.   Russian military personnel began to infiltrate the Crimea.   So, on March 27 th and 28 th , 1854, France and Great Britain declared war on Russia. It’s hard to believe that 160 years ago this month, the world’s attention was turned to the same section of the world in a very sim

Автономна Республіка Крим March 4, 2014 Colossians 3:5-11(NIV) “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.  Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.   You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived.  But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.  Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.  Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.” The Kingdom of God often defies comprehension.   Most people think of kingdoms as countries, and countries as places.   However, if you look for a national border for the Kingdom of God, there isn’t one to be found.   Howe