by janet | Feb 8, 2015 | Click Date to Respond
Groundhog Day is a day that traverses centuries. The groundhog tradition stems from practices associated with Candlemas Day (February 2); where the custom was to have the clergy bless candles and distribute them to the people. The Roman legions supposedly brought this practice to the Germanic people, who picked it up and concluded that if the sun made an appearance on Candlemas Day, an animal, the hedgehog, would cast a shadow, this predicting six more weeks of bad weather, which they interpolated as the length of the “Second Winter.” (Adapted from “Groundhog Day: 1886 to 1992” by Bill Anderson)
by janet | Feb 8, 2015 | Click Date to Respond
Jim Elliot
American missionary and Auca Indian martyr Jim Elliot wrote in his journal: “One does not surrender a life in an instant- that which is lifelong can only be surrendered in a lifetime.
by janet | Feb 8, 2015 | Click Date to Respond
Miles Coverdale
Death of Miles Coverdale (b. 1488), publisher of the first printed English Bible. He completed the translation of the Old Testament which William Tyndale and left unfinished at this death. Although Tyndale had openly criticized King Henry Viii, Coverdale dedicated his 1535 edition of the Bible to him.
Here is John 3:16,17 as printed in the Coverdale English Bible:
“For God so loued the worlde, that he gaue his onely sonne, that who so euer beleueth in him, shulde not perishe, but haue euerlasting life. For God sent not his sonne in to the world to condempne the worlde, but that the worlde might be saued by him.”
by janet | Feb 8, 2015 | Click Date to Respond
Francis Scott Key
Death of Francis Scott Key. Although usually remembered as the author of America’s national anthem, Key was also a devoted member of the Protestant Episcopal Church, and taught Bible classes in and around Washington, D.C. He was also among the organizers of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, founded in 1820.
by janet | Feb 8, 2015 | Click Date to Respond
When was Christmas first celebrated? In an old list of Roman bishops who conducted mass complied in 354 A.D., these words appear for the year 336 A.D. – “25 Decem natus Christus in Betleem Judeae.” – “December 25, Christ born in Bethlehem, Judea.: This day, December 25, 336 A.D., is the first recorded celebration of Christ’s mass in recognition of his birth.