Welcome To Wayne's Bible Study

I wish all of you a happy 4th of July and a blessed weekend.
Bibi Brown

My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation.
For in many things we offend all. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, and able also to bridle the whole body.
Behold, we put bits in the horses’ mouths, that they may obey us; and we turn about their whole body.
Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.
Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth!
And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity; so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.
For every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of mankind:
But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.
Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God.
Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be.
Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?
Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh.
Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom.
But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth.
This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.
But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.

USA Today
A conservative evangelical claims those who don’t support McCain must not read the Good Book. But surveys show that’s not necessarily true.
“The only evangelicals that will support Obama are the ones who haven’t read their Bible,” conservative evangelical activist Phil Burress says in this Associated Press report.
As USA TODAY religion writer Cathy Lynn Grossman points out, not only might Burress’ comment offend some of those evangelicals who do support Democrat Barack Obama, it also lacks some context.

Just how many evangelicals do read the Good Book and how do their habits compare to those of others of faith?

The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life has some statistics, Cathy reminds us. It surveyed more than 35,500 Americans last year and among the things it found were that:

• 60% of those who were members of protestant evangelical churches said they read from Scripture weekly. That compares to 35% of the general population who said that.

• Another 18% of the evangelicals said they read from Scripture at least monthly or yearly.

• 21% said they seldom or never do so.

As for members of historically black churches, a population that has been among Obama’s strongest supporters, their Scripture reading percentages were almost exactly like those of the evangelicals: Sixty percent read from Scripture weekly; 19% on a monthly or yearly basis; and 20% seldom or never.

Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — Larry Harmon, who turned the character Bozo the Clown into a show business staple that delighted children for more than a half-century, died Thursday of congestive heart failure. He was 83.
His publicist, Jerry Digney, told The Associated Press he died at his home.

Although not the original Bozo, Harmon portrayed the popular clown in countless appearances and, as an entrepreneur, he licensed the character to others, particularly dozens of television stations around the country. The stations in turn hired actors to be their local Bozos.

“You might say, in a way, I was cloning BTC (Bozo the Clown) before anybody else out there got around to cloning DNA,” Harmon told the AP in a 1996 interview.

“Bozo is a combination of the wonderful wisdom of the adult and the childlike ways in all of us,” Harmon said.

Pinto Colvig, who also provided the voice for Walt Disney’s Goofy, originated Bozo the Clown when Capitol Records introduced a series of children’s records in 1946. Harmon would later meet his alter ego while answering a casting call to make personal appearances as a clown to promote the records.

He got that job and eventually bought the rights to Bozo. Along the way, he embellished Bozo’s distinctive look: the orange-tufted hair, the bulbous nose, the outlandish red, white and blue costume.

“I felt if I could plant my size 83AAA shoes on this planet, (people) would never be able to forget those footprints,” he said.

Susan Harmon, his wife of 29 years, indicated Harmon was the perfect fit for Bozo.

“He was the most optimistic man I ever met. He always saw a bright side; he always had something good to say about everybody. He was the love of my life,” she said Thursday.

The business — combining animation, licensing of the character, and personal appearances — made millions, as Harmon trained more than 200 Bozos over the years to represent him in local markets.

“I’m looking for that sparkle in the eyes, that emotion, feeling, directness, warmth. That is so important,” he said of his criteria for becoming a Bozo.

The Chicago version of Bozo ran on WGN-TV in Chicago for 40 years and was seen in many other cities after cable television transformed WGN into a superstation.

Bozo — portrayed in Chicago for many years by Bob Bell — was so popular that the waiting list for tickets to a TV show eventually stretched to a decade, prompting the station to stop taking reservations for 10 years. On the day in 1990 when WGN started taking reservations again, it took just five hours to book the show for five more years. The phone company reported more than 27 million phone call attempts had been made.

By the time the show bowed out in Chicago, in 2001, it was the last locally produced version. Harmon said at the time that he hoped to develop a new cable or network show, as well as a Bozo feature film.

He became caught up in a minor controversy in 2004 when the International Clown Hall of Fame in Milwaukee took down a plaque honoring him as Bozo and formally endorsed Colvig for creating the role. Harmon denied ever misrepresenting Bozo’s history.

He said he was claiming credit only for what he added to the character — “What I sound like, what I look like, what I walk like” — and what he did to popularize Bozo.

“Isn’t it a shame the credit that was given to me for the work I have done, they arbitrarily take it down, like I didn’t do anything for the last 52 years,” he told the AP at the time.

Harmon protected Bozo’s reputation with a vengeance, while embracing those who poked good-natured fun at the clown.

As Bozo’s influence spread through popular culture, his very name became a synonym for clownish behavior.

“It takes a lot of effort and energy to keep a character that old fresh so kids today still know about him and want to buy the products,” Karen Raugust, executive editor of The Licensing Letter, a New York-based trade publication, said in 1996.

A normal character runs its course in three to five years, Raugust said. “Harmon’s is a classic character. It’s been around 50 years.”

On New Year’s Day 1996, Harmon dressed up as Bozo for the first time in 10 years, appearing in the Rose Parade in Pasadena.

The crowd reaction, he recalled, “was deafening.”

“They kept yelling, ‘Bozo, Bozo, love you, love you.’ I shed more crocodile tears for five miles in four hours than I realized I had,” he said. “I still get goose bumps.”

Born in Toledo, Ohio, Harmon became interested in theater while studying at the University of Southern California.

“Bozo is a star, an entertainer, bigger than life,” Harmon once said. “People see him as Mr. Bozo, somebody you can relate to, touch and laugh with.”

Besides his wife, Harmon is survived by his son, Jeff Harmon, and daughters Lori Harmon, Marci Breth-Carabet and Leslie Breth.

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A mansion that once belonged to Kung Fu legend Bruce Lee in Hong Kong may be preserved as a museum, giving belated recognition to one of the city’s most famous sons, a newspaper reported on Thursday.
Billionaire philanthropist tycoon Yu Panglin had put Lee’s two-storey, 5,699-square-foot town house in an upscale leafy Kowloon suburb up for sale but later changed his mind, according to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post.

“I will consider the views of the community and different parties. I may consider donating the property if the majority thinks we should preserve it,” Yu said in the report, adding he had turned down an offer of HK$105 million ($13 million).

Lee, who died in mysterious circumstances in 1973, aged 32, starred in such Kung Fu classics as “Fist of Fury,” “Game of Death” and “Enter the Dragon.”

He is revered both by martial arts adherents and movie buffs the world over for popularizing the Kung Fu cinematic genre, and helping usher in a golden age of Hong Kong film in the late 60s.

Despite intense lobbying by fans, Hong Kong has done little to preserve the U.S.-born star’s legacy in his adopted city beyond erecting a statue along the city’s famous waterfront.

“That would be fantastic news because fans and the community wouldn’t have the money to buy out this property,” Michael Tien, a member of Hong Kong’s Bruce Lee fanclub, was quoted as saying.

The government said it would consider the possibility of converting Lee’s spacious home into a museum, taking as a model other memorial sites to global stars, including the Beatles Story in Liverpool and Elvis Presley’s Graceland mansion in Tennessee.

“We think the community would like to see a creative solution that would involve the private sector,” a Hong Kong tourism official was quoted in the paper as saying.

Recipe courtesy Sandra Lee

Cake:
1 store-bought pound cake ring
1 (10-ounce) jar lemon curd
1 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed
Icing:
1 (1-pound) box powdered sugar
1/2 cup lemonade frozen concentrate, thawed
1 tablespoon lemon flavored gelatin powder
1/4 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed

To make the cake, begin with a serrated knife and level the bigger end of the cake. This will be the bottom. Slice off top inch of cake. Carefully set aside (do not break). Scoop out a trench in the cake for the filling. Set aside.
In a bowl, combine lemon curd and 1 cup of whipped topping. Stir gently to combine, being careful not to over-stir. Fill center of cake with filling and cover with the reserved top of the cake.

To make the icing, place all icing ingredients in a bowl and stir to combine. Make sure that all lumps are dissolved. Drizzle icing over cake until completely covered in icing. Let set before serving.

Cook’s Notes:
Pound cake ring can be decorated with a beautiful nosegay of roses or other edible flowers placed in the center hole. Alternatively, you can buy frozen pound cake loaf and layer lemon cream mixture between slices. Top with more lemon cream and garnish with fresh berries.