March 2015

All Smiles Leia & New Baby (agriculture pets ). Photo by silverbeaver59 Photo used by permission of West 40 Images Silver 2015

“As in the Roman year, so in the English ecclesiastical calendar used until 1752 this was the first month and the legal year commenced on the 25th of March. Scotland changed the first month to January in 1599. This month was called Martius by the Romans, from the god Mars, and it received the name Hyld Monath, ie, ‘loud” or “stormy month’ from the Anglo-Saxons.” Edith Holden in her book “The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady”

Poetry from sages who valued the unique gales and winds of March is a timely and worthwhile read:

“The birds around me hopped and played, Their thoughts I cannot measure, But the least motion which they made, It seemed a thrill of pleasure...and hark! How blithe the throstle sings, He, too, is no mean preacher; Come forth into the light of things Let nature be your teacher. “

W. Wordsworth

“The stormy March is come at last With wind, and cloud, and changing skies; I hear the rushing of the blast That through the snowy valley flies. Ah! Passing few are they who speak Wild stormy month in praise of thee; Yet though thy winds are loud and bleak Thou are a welcome month to me. Wm Cullen Bryant

“The fact that Jesus Christ is actually in each believer is both a great mystery and rich in glory. In fact, it is our very hope and assurance of glory in the age to come.

How Christ may be both seated at “the right hand of the Majesty on high” (Hebrews 1:3) and yet living in us is surely a mystery, yet it is fully true. He Himself told His disciples: “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto Him, and make our abode with Him....Abide in me and I in you....He that abideth in me, and I in Him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (John 14:23; 15:4-5).

The apostle Paul also confirmed this great truth: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20). One of his prayers for the Ephesians was “that Christ [might] dwell in [their] hearts by faith. (Ephesians) 3:17).

The mystery as to how this can be is resolved in yet another mystery – that of the tri-unity of the Godhead. Christ, the Second Person, is present in His people through the Holy Spirit, the Third Person. Christ said: “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter....Even the Spirit of truth;...for He dwelleth with you and shall be in you” (John 14:16-17) ....Thus, where we go, He goes; whatever we say, He hears; even what we think, He knows. Christ, by the Holy Spirit, is our ever-present comforter and guide and counselor. This is, indeed, a glorious mystery! Henry M. Morris, in Days of Praise.

The French philosopher Voltaire, a skeptic who attempted to destroy the faith of many people, boasted that within 100 years of his death, the Bible would disappear from the face of the earth. Voltaire died in 1778, but the Bible lives on. The irony of history is that 50 years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society moved into his former house and used his printing presses to print thousands of Bibles. ”Said Voltaire, “I am wearied of hearing it repeated, that twelve men were sufficient to establish Christianity, and I wish to prove that it needs but one to destroy it!” Yet his efforts for its destruction, characterized by hellish ingenuity, and prosecuted with infernal zeal, only tended to purify it and render it more beautiful and lovely— while he died in despair, without accomplishing the least part of his demoniac purpose, and over his very bones stands a church of Jesus Christ, where the gospel is preached every Sabbath day; and the same press which he used to print his infamous publications, is now used in printing the word of God