The Prized Treasures

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  “Will the prized treasures of today always be the cheap trifles of the day before? Will rows of our willow-pattern dinner-plates be ranged above the chimneypieces of the great in the years 2000 and odd? Will the white cups with the gold rim and the beautiful gold flower inside (species unknown), that our Sarah Janes now break in sheer light-heartedness of spirit, be carefully mended, and stood upon a bracket, and dusted only by the lady of the house? . . . .   The “sampler” that the eldest daughter did at school will be spoken of as “tapestry of the Victorian era,” and be almost priceless. The blue-and-white mugs of the present-day roadside inn will be hunted up, all cracked and chipped, and sold for their weight in gold, and rich people will use them for claret cups; and travellers from Japan will buy up all the “Presents from Ramsgate,” and “Souvenirs of Margate,” that may have escaped destruction, and take them back to Jedo as ancient English curios.” Jerome K. Jerome, “T...

"When God made the world, where was He?"

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[This is an excellent question not asked in the spirit of a disagreeing argument, but of serious investigation. When the Kenyan student asked this question, the whole room got silent as everyone went to their thoughts. I don't even remember exactly how I answered the question during the conference, but I'm sure it went something like this (as I think about this all the time):]

God exists outside time and space; therefore, He was "where he was" when He created the world. This is very much in relation to His very name, "I AM." He IS, and that's where He was--where He was "being." Have you ever noticed that God never says, "I was," or "I will be"? His being is found in His name, "I AM"; that is, He is always contemporary. Only those who worship Him call Him "who Is, who was and is to come." This is not a statement of chronological linage, like moving from point A to point B in order to get to point C. This is more of a 3-D word picture, describing one person who not only encompasses all time and space, but is outside it, transcendent.

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