Jeremiah @ MindSay 
Critics of the Bible often say that it’s a book of myths. They assert this, even though there are all kinds of extra-biblical evidences that prove that the accounts recorded in the Bible are based on actual events. Here’s a recent example, from Israel National News. The link follows the article.
Proof of Jeremiah Unearthed in Jerusalem
by Hana Levi Julian
(IsraelNN.com) Archaeologists have unearthed proof of another Biblical story at Jerusalem's ancient City of David, this time corroborating the Book of Jeremiah.
A completely intact seal impression, or "bula," bearing the name Gedaliahu ben Pashur was uncovered. The bula is actually a stamped engraving made of mortar.
Gedaliahu ben Pashur's bula was found a bare few meters away from the site where a second such seal, this one belonging to Yuchal ben Shlemiyahu was found three years ago, at the entrance to the City of David.
In the Book of Jeremiah (38:1-4), both men are mentioned as ministers to King Tzidkiyahu, who reigned from 597-586 BCE. The two, along with another pair, demanded the death penalty for the prophet Jeremiah in response to his plea for the king to surrender the city to the oncoming hordes of the Babylonian conqueror Nebuchadnezzer.
According to Professor Eilat Mazar of Jerusalem's Hebrew University, who led the dig, the ancient Hebrew letters "are very clearly preserved." The seal impression was found in clay, she said.
The verses read as follows:
Shephatiah son of Mattan, Gedaliah son of Pashur, Yuchal son of Shelemiah and Pashur son of Malchiah heard the things that Jeremiah was speaking to the people saying:
"Thus said Hashem: Whoever remains in this city will die by the sword, by the famine or by the pestilence, whereas whoever goes out [in surrender] to the Chaldeans will live; he will have his life as a booty, and he will live.
"Thus said Hashem: This city will surely be delivered into the hand of the army of the king of Babylonia, and he will capture it."
And the[se] officers said to the king, "Let this man be put to death now, because he is weakening the hands of the soldiers who remain in this city, and the hands of all the people, by speaking to them such things. For this man does not seek the welfare of this people, but rather [their] detriment."
“How absolutely fantastic and special this find is, can only be realized when you hold in your hand this magnificent one-centimeter piece of clay and know that it survived 2,600 years in the debris of the destruction, and came to us complete and in perfect condition,” said Mazar.
Mazar's team of archaeologists focused its efforts on the layer of artifacts from the First Temple period located just outside the walls of the Old City, near Dung Gate.
The seal impression that was found three years ago was uncovered inside a stone structure that Mazar said she believed was the Palace of David. Gedaliahu's seal impression was unearthed at the foot of the external wall of the same structure, under a tower that appeared to have been built in the days of Nechemia in the fifth century BCE.
Mazar has been excavating the site since 2005. She is a senior fellow at the Shalem Center, a Jerusalem-based research and educational institute, and heads its Institute of Archaeology. The Ir David (City of David) Foundation was the principal sponsor of the excavation, together with the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Hebrew University, and the Shalem Center.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/127048
Here is my little goat herd.
Jeremiah is the buck. He is mostly Nubian, with some Angora. He is healthy. He is sweet and good natured, and I have decided to find a way to keep him, though I will have to separate him from the other goats. He is just too good, and I don't think I will ever find a buck like him. His good temperament is something that should pass down to his progeny.
Millie is the little black alpine. She is barely a yearling, and is healthy and probably pregnant by Jeremiah. I am going to find a new home for her very soon.
Daisy is a yearling doe, part Sanaan, Nubian and possibly Toggenberg. She is also probably pregnant by Jeremiah. She is CAE positive, but the vet told me she is not actively ill and may never get sick. I will have to bottle feed her kids when they are born. After this pregnancy, I am going to find a good home for her where she will be someone's pet. She is very playful, and has earned the nickname "Crazy Daisy".
Nanny is probaby four or five years old. She is Sanaan and possibly Toggenberg. Nanny is sweet, good natured, patient and just a wonderful goat. She is CAE positive and also has CL. She is improving now that we have been medicating her and supplementing her diet. She is possibly pregnant by Jeremiah. This will be her last pregnancy if she is. Her kids would also have to be bottle fed, and I intend to keep Nanny as long as I can keep her comfortable. She milked all the way through winter and we could not get her to stop. But she is almost finished now, and I hope she is not pregnant so she can get some rest for her poor body.
So there is the little herd. I'll keep you all updated with our progress.
I do not know where to begin. I am in complete shock listening to some of Jeremiah Wright's sermons. This is Barack Obama's pastor, for those of you who might not be informed. I do not go to church often. As a matter of fact, aside from funerals, I haven't been in about 10 years. It does not matter in the sense that I am virtually guaranteed to never hear such a level of hate in any Church around these parts, including Black churches in this area. I could probably write a college thesis length paper about how wrong this man is for his religious followers and the black community. All he does is pass the buck for al Black problems to white people. Slavery did exist; so did segregation. I have been alive for 25 years. I have never encountered either of those two things.
Wright blames white men, and the government for the use of drugs in the black community. He blames those same groups for black people having aids and HIV. He blames white people for every problem that a black man ever had. Does he have a point? Only in that slavery did exist. After that he is garbage. He is a garbage human being, a garbage activist, and a garbage pastor. You know what he did? Potentially cost Barack Obama a chance to be the first black president of the United States. White people did not do that, Jeremiah Wright did. All he does is hurt his people by spewing this venom, against the USKKKA, as he calls it. Accountability is the only way people can better themselves. Bill Cosby gets blasted by some black leaders when he tells the truth. He wants fathers to take care of their children, he wants young blacks to stop dressing like thugs, and he wants black people to get educated to better themselves. Screw you Bill Cosby, says Jeremiah Wright; hate white people; that will solve all of your problems.
Obama's approval rating is getting lower day by day as more people see Jeremiah Wright's hatred. It's sinking like a brick. His wife has spewed similar venom in recent weeks, saying for the first time in her life she is proud to be an American because there is finally a viable black presidential candidate, and that America I just a mean cruel country. She resent that she got into an Ivy League college. She feels they were forced to let her in not on merit but on affirmative action standards. She made over $1.3 million last year. That's his bigot wife, who goes to listen to a bigot pastor. I'm glad she is finally proud to be an American; she clearly had no opportunity for advancement.
So just to be straight here, Barack Obama had a healthy lead in the Democratic race, and the country is harboring a fairly sizeable anti-republican sentiment right now. A betting man would have put their money on Obama a few weeks ago. When Wright kills Obama's campaign and ruins his presidential run, was it the government or white men who had him fill his sermons with hate, bigotry, lack of accountability and ignorance?
If you want to watch this filth, here's a youtube video of the great Jeremiah Wright:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=jc2FCJ7zWEQ
Date Line December 22, 2007
Did you know that a recent study by the Pew Research Center has established that seventy (70%) percent of evangelicals believe all life is immutable – that it is unchanged since the creation?
Seventy (70%) percent of Evangelicals are Creationists who deny the reality of evolution. That means seventy percent of evangelicals have the belief that a deity creates disease specifically to attack those who first contract it – and then allows the disease to continue to infect, and often kill, at random.
Thus, at least, seventy percent of Evangelicals believe that, because it is the work of the Creator, we should not fight disease. Or is it that they believe that it is the work of a subordinate deity? Someone who answers to, and derives their orders from, the Creator of all life?
Therefore, it must follow that seventy percent of Evangelicals believe doctors oppose the work of the creator – attempt to interfere with some divine plan for the irradiation of some aspect of humanity.
At the same time, the same seventy percent of Evangelicals – and Christians in general – believe that they should follow the words of Jesus, who they call the Christ. He said top care for the sick. He said to oppose the ‘demons’ who inflict illness, to care for the sick, and the orphans, and the widows, and the children, and the even the prisoners.
In terms of the beliefs of seventy percent of Evangelicals, Jesus was opposed to the Creator’s plan.
You know this guy Jesus. You hear about him often enough. That’s the guy who was born when the shepherds were in the fields – that’s in the spring, April or May – and whose birthday they celebrate at the time of the winter solstice; or more accurately on the holiday devoted to a pagan deity of the ancient Romans and Greeks.
Obviously, if the one they worship is the one who was that pagan deity, it follows that he would be opposed to the actions of the Creator – or, as we know from the Book of Job – actions which the creator must personally must authorize his “sons” (the ones who do not understand faith for its own sake) to engage in.
Of course, seventy percent of Evangelicals also believe that Jesus is a manifestation of an indestructible deity who was destroyed (killed) and resurrected – hence was never killed, because he is indestructible and eternal. In short they promote contradiction after contradiction – all of which are programmed to deny the evidence of our own eyes and the actual methods chosen by whatever entity, or force, was the origin of that first particle of matter, or that first burst of energy.
HOLD IT! Did that just say there is a Creator?
Well gee wiz ... until someone can explain how something can emerge from nothing, there must, by definition, be a source – and that source must exist without ever having itself been created. Hum? Another logical inconsistency; yet one which is a logical imperative that escapes the limited minds of those who proclaim themselves to be Atheists; and thus proclaim that something came from nothing.
Of course, we can hold that the universe is the eternal, and eternally in flux, ever changing and so we are but a transient experiment – our lives having meaning within the progression and yet remain totally meaningless in the broad reality of that universal flux.
But hey – this is a time when reindeer fly, jolly little elves – who are oversized, white bearded and chronically obese – give away presents to good little boys and girls. How does this elf know who is good or bad? He spies on them throughout the year – absolutely no privacy for child or adult ... for the elf is always watching.
And he is a magic elf, one who can come down chimneys – even in homes, or apartments, which have no chimney or fireplace. He can slip, unnoticed, past whatever security system to do whatever he wishes. Xmas is a time to be grateful – grateful that this elf has yet to turn to murder, rape, or terrorism. For if he did, it is obvious, he would be unstoppable.
That though as real, or believable, as any that could possibly come from the mind of an Evangelical should be taken to heart as they proclaim their absolute faith in scripture. They proclaim the need to literally follow the dictates – yet evade responsibility for as many of the 613 biblical laws as they can.
They claim the literal nature of scripture, and celebrate their supposed savior by moving his birthday to a pagan holiday and, in ignoring words such as those of Jeremiah 10:2
“Thus sayth the Lord, learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.”
Of course, one must also read verses 10:3-5 to find that the ways of heathen include the cutting down of a tree, and fixing it with nails (or other means) so it will stand erect that it might be decorated with costly ornaments – decked out, like the Halls of the popular song – with silver and gold; to which are now added glass, plastic and all manner of heathen design.
As Biblically defined Heathens violate the word of the Lord, but enjoy the light of their trees ...
This song by Sara Groves, from her album, The Other Side of Something, is resonating deeply in me of late:
'"Jeremiah, tell me ‘bout the fire that burns up in your bones.
I wanna know know. I wanna know more now.
The burning of ambition and desire
It could never could come close to that fire, to that fire.
I was looking to myself, and I forgot the power of God.
I was standing with a sparkler in my hand.
While I stood so proud and profound
You came and burned this whole place down.
Now that’s a fire.
I was caught in this vice
And its power to entice
I was dwelling in my hopelessness and doubt.
With the slightest invitation
You came with total detonation
Now, that’s a fire.
I was warming my hands by this little light of mine
And now I know, I know it’s time
To come in from the cold.
Fight fire with fire. Come fan the flame.
Come stir up these coals in my soul
'Til it burns out of control.”
All we can do is ask Him to do His work in us. No one can take credit for zeal, for being "on fire." We must ask. The question is, are we willing to pay the price after that asking?
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