Winning Words 5/22/13
“Confronting the truth will always set you free.”  (Valerie Harper)  You may know that “Rhoda” is struggling with brain cancer.  In a People magazine article she describes how she has been able to face up to the reality of the disease.  The words in her quote are the words of Jesus.  He is saying to the people that their belief in his teachings will give them a new kind of freedom.  Many, like Valerie, have experienced that.    ;-)  Jack

 FROM WALMART REV:  Jesus certainly did that in facing what the Bible calls "the redemption of man"...it certainly didn't look like that when hanging on a cross as a common thief...nor does it look like that with our bodies ravaged with cancer or lying in a casket..."Stay tuned!! for our redemption draweth nigh!!" 0;-)
====JACK:  Thomas Shepherd wrote the words to this hymn...
Must Jesus bear the cross alone,
And all the world go free?
No, there’s a cross for everyone,
And there’s a cross for me.
====REV:  Yes sir! There is! ...a few "carrying scars" are seen on all of us.

 FROM HONEST JOHN:  That is why the ELCA is in chains...and dying...They recognize no pursuit of truth...only official positions====JACK:  What is truth?====JOHN:  One thing we can say about it....Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were convinced that there was truth....Jesus seems to be on that side also....along with Kant and Leibniz....Pontius Pilate, the Sophists and the ELCA are lined up on the other side  Let me add that Valerie Harper seems aligned with Socrates, et.al. also.====JACK:  I guess that truth will always be in the mind of the beholder.  Of course, people of faith place the ultimate TRUTH on the mind of G-d.  Facing the reality of death often causes the mind to "look" at things in another way.====JOHN:  That truth is in the mind of the beholder is a radical assumption....even more difficult to deal with than the question of truth itself....and, of course, at death, one had better hope that when Jesus said "I am the truth" that he was not kidding....

 FROM RI IN BOSTON:  Facing the truth can be tough.  But you have to accept it to get past the problem.  Harry Truman said, "I never gave anybody hell...I just told the truth and they thought it was hell."  ====JACK:  He also said: " My program was 'Give 'em Hell', and if they don't like it, give 'em more hell.'" ====RI:  That's how you work with mules...and Harry was from Missouri.====JACK:  Do you remember this song?  A mule is an animal with long funny ears  he kicks up at anything he hears  His back is brawny but his brain is weak  he's just plain stupid with a stubborn streak  and by the way if you hate to go to school
You may grow up to be a mule

 FROM PH IN MINNESOTA:  good words for today, Jack.  thanks!====JACK:  Most of the time People magazine seems to be a collection of fluff, but not with the Valerie Harper story.

 FROM TAMPA SHIRL:  That quote could apply to the political scene in our country today.  Lanny Davis today said it is the wise and correct thing to do is to get out the truth and get it out fast.====JACK:  Do you remember the saying, "The truth will out?"  Origin: This saying was already recorded in England by the 15th century; and it appears in Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice (1596): "Truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long; a man's son may, but in the end truth will out."  I remember reading (and studying) The Merchant of Venice in 9th grade English.

 FROM GOOD DEBT JON:  True. Though, confronting it publicly may not always make you popular. When it is a struggle like Harper's it is refreshing to see her bravery and upbeat approach. I saw an interview recently on TV with her, pretty amazing.====JACK:  When you are free, you are free indeed...and the public be damned.…