Good Morning!
On this day in 1861 the state of Mississippi seceded from the United States.
In 1902 New York State introduced a bill to outlaw flirting in public.
In 1929 The Seeing Eye was incorporated in Nashville, TN. The company’s purpose was to train dogs to guide the blind.
In 1936 the United States Army adopted the semi-automatic rifle.
In 1951 the United Nations headquarters officially opened in New York City.
And in 1969 the supersonic aeroplane Concorde made its first trial flight.
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Quote of the Day
“I am not a crook.”
Richard M. Nixon
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Today is Pam Thum’s birthday.
It’s also Bob Denver’s.
Good luck getting that outta your head. 🙂
And it’s also composer John Knowles Paine’s. So “The Tempest” from PhilRowlands.com
It’s Jimmy Page’s birthday as well. So Jimmy and Robert, un-Leded.
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Wandering Views 
Good morning, AJ. I saw the posts go up one by one. 😉
Time to listen to the music. I think I’ll listen to “The Tempest” before that one I won’t be able to get out of my head. 🙂
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“Morning 6Arrows, & Aj. Mary’s little Graham is due today. I kinda hope not because then he would have the same BD as his dad. Two birthdays in sequence might be better.
No QoD here, but it is 23 degrees now. Heat wave compared to two days ago.
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Good morning, Chas. I know a father and daughter who share a birthday (friends of ours). My husband and younger son have birthdays six days apart, and my youngest daughter and I have birthdays 12 days apart. First and Third Arrows one day apart, and Second and Fourth Arrows same day.
I hope everything goes well for Mary and little Graham, whenever the Lord ordains the time will come. 🙂
AJ, I enjoyed “The Tempest”. Of course I did — you knew that!
I’ll come back and listen to the rest of the music and see what y’all are talking about after I’ve eaten my frog for the day.
Blessings to every one of you. 🙂
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Wait…. frog?
😯
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It is puzzling isn’t it Aj? I usually don’t pay attention to typos because the edit function is more difficult here than otherwise, but I can’t reinterpret “frog” to something edible.
When the temperature was dangerously low, I always told Elvera when I was going out for the paper or mail so she would expect me back in a minute. So, I hollered, “I’m going to get the paper” this morning when there was no need. Habits form quickly. No harm done.
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I started reading a book late last year entitled One Bite At A Time. It has 52 projects in it, and I’m starting one per week to go through the book in a year. The first project is called “Eat Your Frog”, which means, do the most difficult, unpleasant task first. (The idea is based on a Mark Twain quote that goes something like “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”) 😉
But I cheated a little and hopped onto the blog today, since it was almost time for the day’s new threads to come up, instead of first tackling the frog.
I’m going to use the other videos I haven’t listened to yet as background music for eating the frog in my basement now. 😯
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I was recently introduced to a book entitled How to Eat a Frog, so I got it. It is something along the lines of Who Moved My Cheese?
So during the night while I was awake my prayer over and over again was “Dear God, Hlep me be the person they all think I am”. Thank you for the thoughts you shared yesterday.
I do have a question and will be back in a moment to post it. Get out your SS lessons, seminary notes, and Bible Concordances.
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In Genesis 14 19 and 20 there is the appearance of King Melchezidek. I have always understood this to be a pre-incarnation of the Messiah. The Bible I have on hand and am reading through is The New Oxford Annotated Bible which is the one that I was encouraged to use years ago when I taught Disciple Bible Study. In the notes at the bottom of the page the first explanations is that “”Melchezidek, the prist of the Canaanite CULT, blesses Abraham in the name of HIS god” !!!!!
Later the explanation comes that Melchezidek ” blesses Abraham in the name of God, Most High God which is identified with the Lord, the God of Israel. which is later interepeted messianically”.
this is not the first time that I have questioned the way this Bible explains or words things. over in the New Testament, Mary the mother of Jesus is not identified as the Virgin Mary, she is identifiecd as a “young maiden”.
Am I splitting hairs here or is this Bible just a little too, too too?.
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Kim, I’m not familiar with the New Oxford Bible. However, I think your first assessment is correct. But that is speculation. The only thing we know about Melchezidek is the brief passage in Genesis in which Abraham offers the tithe. Genesis 14:18 says he “was the priest of the most high God”.
My Unger’s Bible Dictionary says Melchezidek represents the “expressive type of Christ, the king-priest.”
This is a bit “iffy” However, we know that the pre-incarnate Messiah apppeared, as with Joshua in 6:13, and with the three Hebrews in the firey furnace. But we can’t be adamant about the Melchezidek appearance.
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Kim.
The primary reason most conservatives objected to the RSV in the fifties, was that it said, in Isaiah 7:14, “a young woman shall conceive” rather than “a virgin..….”
The problem is that modern people don’t understand that in Jewish culture, a young woman was a virgin. It is that way in Islam today. It is a total disgrace for a woman to lose her virginity before marriage. She, to protect herself, usually kept the spotted bedclothes to protect herself should it be questioned. (I won’t research that, but it’s as I remember it.)
Because of the lack of understanding in our culture, though it is correct, the word should not be translated “young woman” but rather “virgin” because of the cultural differences.
I don’t know what happens when a girl accidentally breaks her hymen, which I understand, but don’t know, happens occasionally.
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Far be it for me to question Chas’ Bible knowledge, but we do also know this about Melchizedek from Hebrews 7:1-28 (ESV): For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. He is without father or mother or genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever. See how great this man was to whom Abraham the patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils! And those descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers, though these also are descended from Abraham.
And this from Psalm 110:4 – The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, “You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.”
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Re: Kim’s personal assessment question:
You remember last fall, Kim asked us to send cards to her goddaughter in Virginia.
So we did.
I was in Williamsburg, Va. so I sent a card. I wrote on it. “You realize that if your Aunty Kimmers didn’t love you, none of this would be happening?”
I didn’t usually send two cards from the same place. That is cheating.
However, we visited Bruton Parish Episcopal Church, and I sent another card for educational purposes.
On it I wrote, “It also means that some people love your Aunty Kimmers, doesn’t it?”
I don’t know if she made the connection
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I’m using the 1599 Geneva Bible for my personal Bible study this year. It has notes for some of the verses. The Biblical text of Genesis 14:18-20 reads as follows:
18 And Melchizedek King of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was a Priest of the most high God. 19 Therefore he blessed him, saying, Blessed art thou, Abram, of God most high, Possessor of heaven and earth, 20 And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thine hand. And Abram gave him tithes of all.
There are notes for verses 18 & 19, as follows:
14:18 For Abram and his soldiers’ refection, and not to offer sacrifice.
14:19 In that Melchizedek fed Abram, he declared himself to represent a king, and in that he blessed him, the high Priest.
(“Refection” in the note for verse 18 means refreshment after hunger or fatigue. I had to look up that word in my Webster’s 1828 dictionary, as I had not heard of it before. My first thought upon seeing that word in the notes was that it was a misspelling of “reflection.”
I’m no Old Testament scholar, so perhaps some of you more learned ones can step in here with comments on what I typed above. I just thought I’d throw that text and the accompanying notes out there for you, Kim.
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For the record, I recently edited a book based on some Old Testament history. It had a scene based in the town where Melchizedek had lived, and it said something like “Melchizedek had since died, but . . .” I deleted that. Whether Hebrews literally means he never died or just that we have no reference of his death, I don’t know. But there was no need for the story to mention his death, and we are told that (at least figuratively) he did not.
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I see I forgot the close parenthesis in my second-to-last paragraph.
Cheryl, did you take that picture of the cardinal in your avatar? It’s a nice one. I saw the avatar, though, and thought you were Kare2012. 🙂
BTW, Kare, are you getting a little relief today from that bitter cold you had yesterday, and a lot of other days?
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Today’s gravatar is something I have wanted for many years: a “perfect” cardinal photo.
This morning was as beautiful a morning as I have ever seen. The trees were covered in frost (if you enlarge the cardinal photo, you can see it); we also had the loveliest sunrise I have ever seen, going through stages of subtle purples, vivid purples, subtle grays and golds, and vivid golds. Now granted I haven’t even seen all that many sunrises in my life, but such a sunrise through frost-rimed trees was worth getting up for!
So . . . I’ve taken more than 200 photos today. Sunrise, frosted trees, birds and more birds, and even our bunny rabbit . . . and his tracks immediately outside our library window, as though taunting the dog who may well have been sleeping on her rug just inside that window.
I found a trick that makes it easier to get photos of birds on the ground, and using it, finally got the photos I’ve wanted of cardinals in snow. (Not as good as the cardinal in the tree since the snow is littered with sunflower hulls, but still some long-wanted photos.) Here’s the trick: in order to get above the screen without having to stand on tiptoes, I resorted to standing on a kitchen chair. And to my amazement, as long as I ascend the chair with my face averted from the window, birds simply seem not to notice there’s a person standing there!The rabbit never noticed either, by the way. So that is now in my mental bag of tricks for photographs out the kitchen window. It might not always work, it might be the lighting or something. But I’ve done it several times the last two days, and except for birds taking flight as I stepped up onto it one time, they seem not to have noticed me at all.
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Pretty cardinal!
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In 1951 the United Nations headquarters officially opened in New York City.
And hopefully it will soon the US will get out of the UN, and the UN will close its doors in New York and move. Geneva or somewhere else in Europe would be a good place for it. Since every country gets the same number of votes there, we are in a minority, even though we supplied the majority of the money to keep the joke going.
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6arrows, yes, thank you. It’s about 19F right now – I may have to head outside soon just to walk around 🙂
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Very nice Cheryl.
It’s movement that draws their attention. Hold still and they walk right up like they don’t see you. I once had a squirrel sit 6 inches from my foot after wandering over. I stood still as he worked across the yard. When I finally moved he freaked out and ran. It was funny. The bush sparrows are the same way.
I took some photos today too. The main back road that let’s you avoid going thru town runs along the Lehigh River. Last night the ice jams caused the river to back up unto the road and freeze. The whole river was filled with ice chunks.
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Peter L, I read with interest your post from last night about the Jeopardy online test. How did you feel it went?
I took it the night before. I felt like it went better than my previous try two years ago. I do very well in several categories, particularly science, geography, and US history, but I don’t think my knowledge is broad enough to get me on the show.
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When I started reading Chas’ post, “Mary’s little…,” I thought it was going to say, Mary’s little lamb.” Graham will be sweet or sweeter than a lamb 🙂
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Wow! Cheryl, what a great photo of the cardinal. True perfection! Persistence led to perfection. 🙂
God is glorified for the beauty of His creation through your effort to get that photo.
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Great photography, Cheryl!
Kare, it’s actually warmer where you are than where I am! We’ve got 13 right now.
My husband, who doesn’t like it when it’s hot out — that would be anything above 79F — has said he’d probably like living in Canada.
Maybe I can convince him to move there just for today! 😉
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I am the last commenter on all three threads. I have killed all the threads! 😀
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Very nice photo Cheryl. I now have a patched roof so that when it rains this weekend I will not have a leak in one of the bedrooms. He will be back tomorrow to work on the ceiling. It will be a mess, but it has to be done.
I have made homemade vegetable beef soup today. It took me a while to get it seasoned properly. I have taste tested it and am satisfied.
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Cheryl, that is a perfect picture of a cardinal! The blue jays are enjoying our sunflower seeds today (and all through the long cold spell)
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Looking for a way to blow a grand?
http://money.cnn.com/galleries/2007/news/0710/gallery.luxury_expensive_food/3.html
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I’m glad you all like the cardinal. I’m glad I finally have a camera that can shoot birds! So many times through the years I’ve gotten a photo with a cardinal in it, only to look at the photo in puzzlement when I get it printed until I finally find the speck of red–oh yeah, that was the one with the cardinal in the tree. Male cardinals are more people-cautious than most birds, in my experience.
Yes, AJ, not moving is key. I’ve found that if you limit your movement to when the animal’s back is turned, you can often get away with it. Creep closer or move your camera when his back is turned and he won’t see. Freeze when he’s turning back to face you. But you also really need a zoom lens or a long lens!
BTW, my husband and I used a similar sort of trick once when we were walking in a state park and I was trying to photograph a squirrel. At one point he kept walking and I stayed where I was. The squirrel, seeing that “the person” had left, stopped being cautious. It never occurred to him that one person might have left but another was still around!! I told my husband that when I caught back up with him, and he said (as I expected) that those had been his thoughts exactly. Unfortunately the photo I ended up getting wasn’t a very good one (the squirrel’s posture made it look like he was going to the bathroom), but the trick worked well and we may get another chance at such a thing.
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Oh yeah, and we have had up to seven or eight blue jays at the same time today, and we went from getting six juncoes to getting about ten. And the chickadee finally came back after having been gone for months (we had two at one point today). The male cardinal seems to have finally begun to ignore my presence, and it is snowing again.
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Jake post: husband got home from taking the boys to school and asked if anybody wanted to shoot some mules. They were out on the drainfield (they belong to a guy renting the pasture from some neighbors and get out frequently). Anyway, I said Jake could handle it so daughter went out and let Jake out of the pen. She was not sure what was wanted initially but daughter started running her around the mules and she immediately knew her job. She got them off the drainfield but not out of the yard. So we told her she needed to continue. Instead she ran up on the deck with me and sat down. Seems there was a flock of chickens right in her path and she has a bit of a problem with impulse control still and is not allowed to run through chickens. We told her to go anyway, she made it nearly all the way through before one caught her eye. I called her off, she stopped and turned back, and then she continued after the mules until they were off the property, then she turned around and came back with a very “what more do you have for me to do?” look. Go Jake.
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Yay Jake, good girl!!!!
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Smart dog!
My boys used to shoot bbs at the deer–it was just a thwack, but they’d run away and leave the apple tree alone.
Of course one of those boys also used to send his siblings running around the yard and he’d shoot them with Nerf guns and arrows, so maybe there was a pattern there . . .
He seems to be fine, now. 🙂
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We generally shoot the mules with air soft, like we do the goats when they disregard the fence. I checked it out on my foot first, much closer range and I lived.
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Kevin- I had some technical difficulties getting on last night, so I’ll try again tonight. Like you, I have my strong and weak points, and I wonder how well I do on these online tests. I have tried four or five times in the past, but never got past the test. I wish I lived close enough to a large city, though. The nearest audition site this year is Chicago- a four five hour drive away. Previously they had them in St Louis (2 hours) or Kansas City (3-4 hours). I really don’t like going to Chicago since I’ve not been there much to get to know how to get around.
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A friend of mine’s grandmothe auditioned for Jeopary. She said the hardst part was remembering to say “What is…” I can answer most of the questions when I watch it on TV , but I wouldn’t dare try to go on the show. Good luck to both of you.
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Back when we had TV, that was my favorite show. But I can not imagine being on it. But I think it is neat for you folks to give it a shot.
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I tried. But I blanked out on some really easy questions, like “This quarterback was traded to the Denver Broncos and helped them get to the Super Bowl last year.” I knew the answer but could not get it! All I could think of was “Elliot”, but that’s because I was thinking of Eli Manning, the younger brother of Peyton Manning. Of course, Peyton is my least favorite QB because of all the hype he gets (I don’t doubt hi abilities). Maybe that’s why I couldn’t think of the answer.
So don’t look for me on Jeopardy any time soon.
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My cousin (technically, once removed) was on Jeopardy two summers ago. She lost the first match.
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I’d be pretty bad on Jeopardy. But my border collie could ace it.
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Good article on a conversation with Timothy Keller on revival and spiritual renewal in the church (especially in regard to repentance), and how changing sexual mores, including among Christians, are not being addressed by Christians, who need to engage the culture with a call to repentance.
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/christandpopculture/2013/04/who-are-you-sleeping-with-my-conversation-with-timothy-keller/
“Drawing on his experience in urban, culture-shaping Manhattan, Keller responded that one of the biggest obstacles to repentance for revival in the Church is the basic fact that almost all singles outside the Church and a majority inside the Church are sleeping with each other. In other words, good old-fashioned fornication.”
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