“They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin (1759)
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First Principles: They That Can Give Up Essential Liberty To Purchase A Little Temporary Safety, Deserve Neither Liberty Nor Safety
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Benjamin Franklin, Deserve, Essential, First Principles, Give Up, Liberty, Purchase, Safety, Temporary Security
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Thought For the Day: Let the Laws Be Clear, Uniform and Precise; To Interpret Laws Is Almost Always To Corrupt Them
“Let the laws be clear, uniform and precise; to interpret laws is almost always to corrupt them.” – Voltaire (1694-1778)
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Clear, Corrupt, Interpret, Law, Laws, Precise, Thought For the Day, Uniform, Voltaire
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Shrunken Jesus
It’s a paradox really…
Shrunken Jesus by Michael Doyle We trust as we say with our might Believing as we will in truth and light That Jesus has the power to save our souls Then in whispers we wonder at His control I would not be the first to earnestly dispel What our words say and actions then reveal Are not as often as liked, one and the same When we look in the mirror we see who is to blame This that we preach to the world as Gospel While our own fears and disbelief we conceal Is no gospel at all and it's easily known In all of the actions and lack of that are shown How can anyone ever truly hold that they believe us When with a shot of the glass we've shrunken Jesus It is there in we idly allow injustice and poverty We believers must rise up in prayer in this moment of history Let us show with passion all of our faith uncurled From its fetal position and let Jesus heal our world Instead of handing out dispensational excuses we rehearse Let's dare the paper cut of examining the verses If we don't believe in the Bible in all it's entirety All of our fumbled, tumbled words are just hypocrisy When we fail to speak the truth, we offer a gospel of holes Fighting our fights instead of giving God His true control Is it any wonder with nobody listening at our offered hollow That is not the kind of truth the wise seek to ever swallow We need the solidity of truth that has been readily told And from that the actions that are needed by acting bold Oh, I know the strong desire to sit there and simply balk It's easier to talk the talk than ever to walk the walk To know right and not to do it is the worst cowardice The true gospel's call to self-denial holds no variance (c) June 23, 2020 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
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Tagged Act, Actions, Actions Reveal, Allow, Balk, Believe, Believers, Bible, Blame, Bold, Conceal, Control, Cowardice, Dare, Disbelief, Dispel, Dispensation, Easier, Entirety, Examine, Excuses, Fail, Faith, Fear, Fetal Position, Fight, Fights, Fumble, God, Gospel, Gospel of Holes, Hand Out, Heal, History, Hollow, Hypocrisy, Injustice, Jesus, Know, Known, Light, Listen, Might, Mirror, Need, No Gospel, Not To Do It, One and the Same, Paper Cut, Paradox, Passion, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Poverty, Power, Prayer, Preach, Rehearse, Right, Rise, Save Our Souls, Seek, Self Denial, Shot Glass, Show, Shown, Shrunken, Shrunken Jesus, Sit, Solid, Speak Truth, Strong Desire, Swallow, Talk, This Moment, Told, True Gospel, Trust, Truth, Tumble, Uncurled, Variance, Verses, Walk, Whisper, Wise, Wonder, Words, Words Say, World, Worst
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Sure Hand of the Devil Dealt
The surest hand the Devil’s ever dealt is the deceit blotted out into the dark of night…
Sure Hand of the Devil Dealt by Michael Doyle The bell tolls out into the black of night So little is seen in this dense light Locked doors are sealed for protection Hold this up for truth's closer inspection An old village rests half submerged For reasons uncertain however much urged The bell tower is seen in the sky As an ominous sense of danger does less to rarify Than doors once slammed in a child's face History lurks in the shadow's cold embrace A diabolical masque hangs eerily on the wall Reminiscent of a shattered past's recall Candles and crucifixes ward off the shadow And darker things that no one should have to know A whispered hurt of kept remembrance Offers little reward for all life's vain persistence Footsteps heard in the still of the silent night Leads to regret soon felt with a flicker of light Startled awakenings bring their own locked doors As the winds howl into the lurking something more Our minds too often create their own prison Locked inside for the lack of any real vision Searching for the things we've bought and lost Though no one tells us the truth of this cost Despite near saintly stabs at veneration Some nightmares pass down generations Sins of our ancestors lived in a present past Seal a destiny of dice that are cast The bad dreams that hurt and hurt for real Hurt less for the truth, than what they conceal Feeling too much to truly ever be felt Is the the surest hand the Devil has dealt (c) June 23, 2020 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged Ancestors, Awaken, Bad Dreams, Bell, Bell Tower, Black of Night, Bought, Candle, Cast, Child, Conceal, Cost, Crucifix, Danger, Darker Things, Deal, Dealt, Destiny, Devil, Diabolical, Dice, Door, Embrace, Face, Feeling, Felt, Flicker, Footsteps, Generation, Hand, History, Howl, Hurt, Inspection, Know, Less, Light, Locked, Locked Door, Lost, Lurk, Masque, Mind, Night, Nightmares, Old Village, Past, Persistence, Photograph, Poem, Poetry, Present, Prison, Protection, Real, Reason, Reget, Reward, Saint, Search, Seen, Shadow, Shatter, Sins, Sky, Slam, Stab, Startle, Submerge, Sure, Surest Hand, Toll, Truth, Urge, Veneration, Vision, Wall, Ward, Whisper, Winds
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Thought For the Day: Those Who Say That We’re In A Time When There Are No Heroes, They Just Don’t Know Where To Look
“We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we’re in a time when there are no heroes, they just don’t know where to look.” – Ronald Reagan
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Don't Know, Dream, Heroic Dreams, Look, No Heroes, Right, Ronald Reagan, Those, Thought For the Day, Time, We, Where
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First Principles: Public Sentiment Is Everything. With Public Sentiment, Nothing Can Fail; Without It, Nothing Can Succeed
“Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed.” – Abraham Lincoln
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Tagged Abraham Lincoln, Everything, Fail, First Principles, Nothing, Public Sentiment, Succeed
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To Escape the Warren
More or less dedicated to A Watership Down:
To Escape the Warren by Michael Doyle In the beginning Rabbit gained his tricks There on the path of winning Played out like a guitarist's licks Each to have their meaning Captive to the nightmares of human beings There was something coming hard As the gambler played his last card There are just too many rules Subjects of things not taught in schools The fear felt was borne on blood That would replace the fill of mud The danger was felt like a wire Burning hot like a raging fire Brothers must leave and in haste As there wasn't a moment to waste These are the ways of fear Questioning what it takes to preserve While so few have the ears Or even the willingness to hear Fleeing into the corner of the woods Doing their best to gain a life of good One by one gathered into their own safety net Without a moment to neglect But the head never allows the freedom Needed to think and change the kingdom But change then is what is needed So the story tellers have readily pleaded Do we then dare to cross the road Or, live in our caged existence as we're told Despite the storms that just might come It is best to live our lives in freedom (c) June 22, 2020 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged A Watership Down, Beginning, Blood, Borne, Brother, Burning Hot, Caged Existence, Captive, Card, Change, Come, Cross the Road, Danger, Dare, Ear, Escape, Feaer, Fear, Few, Fire, Flee, Freedom, Gain, Gamble, Gather, Good, Haste, Head, Hear, Live Life, Meaning, Moment, Moment to Waste, Mud, Needed, Neglect, Nightmares, Path, Pesevere, Photograph, Played Out, Plead, Poem, Poetry, Question, Rabbit, Rules, Safety Net, Schools, Something Coming, Storm, Story Tellers, Taught, Think, Told, Tricks, Warren, Ways, Willingness, Win, Wire, Woods
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Hearing That Still Small Voice
Based in part on 2 Samuel 7:18-19:
Hearing That Still Small Voice by Michael Doyle First and foremost in questions of worship Is the supreme importance of your relationship To God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit It is to valued most as though you fear it By fear, of course, I mean shown the utmost respect Never to be treated carelessly or with any neglect Meditating on the things of the Lord gives us all In this particular is the decision as to obeying His call As back to when David supplicated himself fully broken We too are to listen and spend time on God's words spoken It is in spending this time that we offer our devotion The solace and source of the eternal peace instead of commotion In this day and time, finding this quiet time is not easy And still the scriptures say this is the ways pleasing to He Who loves us unconditionally and in yielding be forgiven And in being forgiven coming to the place of truly living Our life is about, as always, setting and distinguishing priority It is as simple as that without our excuses of complexity Just the worshipper and God spending time with a clean heart And a willingness to listen to what He needs to say from the start Daily time must be set aside for the practice of holy communion In which there is a transforming quietude of God and man's reunion Determining as we will the course of our daily happenstance We set out the intentional course beyond our hurried circumstance Finding these times to talk and spend time beyond striving Will find each of us making the space without contriving This time spent in mutual and easy moments of true seclusion Will allow God to speak to the heart moving us beyond our illusion (c) June 22, 2020 Michael Doyle All Rights Reserved
Posted in Poetry and Poems
Tagged 2 Samuel, All, Allow, Broken, Call, Careless, Circumstance, Clean Heart, Complexity, Contrive, Course, Daily Time, David, Day and Time, Decision, Determine, Devotion, Distinguish, Easy, Eternal Peace, Excuse, Fear It, Forgiven, God, God and Man, God's Word, He, Hear, Holy Communion, Holy Spirit, Illusion, Intentional, Listen, Lord, Love Unconditionally, Make Space, Meditate, Moving Beyond, Mutual, Neglect, Obey, Photograph, Pleasing, Poem, Poetry, Priority, Quiet Time, Quietude, Relationship, Respect, Scripture, Seclusion, Set, Set Aside, Simple, Solace, Son, Source, Speak to Heart, Spend Time, Spoken, Start, Still Small Voice, Strive, Supplication, Talk, The Father, True, Truly Living, Union, Value, We, Willingness, Worship
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First Principles: History By Apprising Citizens of the Past Will Enable Them To Judge of the Future
“History by apprising [citizens] of the past will enable them to judge of the future; it will avail them of the experience of other times and other nations; it will qualify them as judges of the actions and designs of men; it will enable them to know ambition under every disguise it may assume; and knowing it, to defeat its views.” – Thomas Jefferson (1781)
Posted in First Principles
Tagged Ambition, Apprise, Assume, Citizens, Defeat, Designs of Men, Disguise, Enable, Experience, First Principles, Future, History, Judge, Judges of Action, Know, Other Nations, Other Times, Past, Qualify, Thomas Jefferson, Views
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Thought For the Day: It Is Love, Not Reason, That Is Stronger Then Death
“It is love, not reason, that is stronger than death.” – Thomas Mann
Posted in Thought For the Day
Tagged Death, Kind Thoughts, Love, Not Reason, Oppose, Stronger, Thomas Mann, Thought For the Day
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