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Our Daily Thread 1-25-14

Good Morning!

And Happy Saturday! 🙂

On this day in 1881 Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell and others signed an agreement to organize the Oriental Telephone Company.

In 1915, in New York, Alexander Graham Bell spoke to his assistant in San Francisco, inaugurating the first transcontinental telephone service.

In 1924 the 1st Winter Olympic Games were inaugurated in Chamonix in the French Alps.

In 1950 a federal jury in New York City found former State Department official Alger Hiss guilty of perjury.

In 1971 Charles Manson and three female members of his “family” were found guilty of one count of conspiracy to commit murder and seven counts of murder in the first degree.

In 1981 the 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days arrived in the United States and were reunited with their families. 

And in 1987 the New York Giants defeated the Denver Broncos, 39-20, in Super Bowl XXI on NBC. 🙂 WooHoo!

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Quote of the Day

“The snowdrop and primrose our woodlands adorn, and violets bathe in the wet o’ the morn.”

Robert Burns

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On this day in 1858 Mendelssohn’s “Wedding March” was presented for the first time, as the daughter of Queen Victoria married the Crown Prince of Prussia.  

It’s Matt Odmark’s birthday. So a Jars of Clay medley. From NoiseTradeVideo

Today is also Richard Finch’s birthday. From WebPortalAvro

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Anyone have a QoD?

80 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 1-25-14”

  1. Morning all. I forgot to mention yesterday about the Gold Rush. I always liked that I was born near Sutter’s Fort 100 years after the Gold Rush.
    Welcome to Saturday. Time for some sleep for me.

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  3. The sky is a lovely light peachy color this cold morning, similar to the color of peach ice cream. Seems suitable to wake up in the Peach State with that sky.

    Do you prefer reading fiction or nonfiction? For many yesrs I was the nonfiction reader in our family and husband read fiction. Finally I read the Left Behind series and that opened up a love of Christian fiction. Now I like them both almost equally.

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  4. Janice, both equally. Good fiction can be useful for educational purposes. I have learned a bit about technological advances since I retired by reading Clancy and Joel Rosenberg. You can learn a lot about pre-war Southern culture by reading GWTW. I suspect you could learn about WW II in Michelle’s novel.
    The latest non-fiction, for me, is about Islam in some way. Prisoner in Iran is an example. You can also learn abour Isalm in Rosenberg’s novels.

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  5. I will read about anything but a text book or a manual on how to do something. My eyes glaze over, my mind wanders, I read the words but I don’t process them. Tell me or show me how to do something and I can do it. In a learning situation I takes detailed notes of the lecture. I listen and I process. Before a test or needing to use the knowledge I will skim back through the notes. A couple of times it came back to bite me because the professor would have the legitimate argument that the test material was in the book. Mostly it worked for me.
    I love biographies. I like historical fiction or just good mind numbing fiction. I used to like Nora Roberts but she has gotten new agey, mystical, and churning out as many books a year as she does, her writing has suffered. The last few books weren’t that good.
    I love Elizabeth Lowell, she started out with historical romance (not the raunchy kind) and moved into writing mysteries or “thrillers” about Rarities Unlimited, or St. Kilgas. She hasn’t written anything in a long time and I miss reading her.
    I do not like Science Fiction. I don’t want to feel like I want to slit my wrists after reading something and all the science fiction I have ever read left me feeling that way–the future is so bleak, why should we even try.
    I have a reading confession to make soon…it depends on how fast I read today. 😉

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  6. I read the entire Left Behind series. But it has a basic assumption that I reject, so I read it superficially. It was an easy read.

    I have read science fiction in the past. You don’t learn much from science fiction because you have to buy into some scientifically impossible assumptions.

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  7. Both for me, too. I recently read that reading fiction can increase empathy for others. I do think we can learn much from well-written fiction. I also believe, it is a good way to relax. A good book can be like a mini-vacation. There is nothing wrong with that. As someone has once said, “All things in moderation.”

    I usually have both types of books going at once.

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  8. Fiction all the way. I want to get lost in another world. It does need to have a happy ending though. If it’s a sad ending, I will be sad and angry for weeks, affecting my life and others.

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  10. I used to read a lot of non-fiction, and still do occasionally. Like Kim, lately my mind tends to wander when reading non-fiction. I’m ready for a try at R. C. Sproul. I have seen many of his videos and enjoy his speaking style. I hope his written word is as good at holding my attention. I know a preacher who is easy to understand when he speaks, but the articles and books he wrote are not as easy. I guess because when preaching he uses more of a common vocabulary (unless you don’t get some of his Louisiana piney-woods references). But his writing has a lot of long, theological words that require a dictionary or a seminary education.

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  11. I was reading a little devotional book called Daily Devotions for Die Hard Gamecock Fans. This day’s devotion tells about Connor Shaw being the son of his high school coach. In the devotional summary, it says:

    “But how many of us really consider that in our secular society we struggle to conform. We are all geeks in a sense. We can never truly conform because we were not created by God to live in such a sin-filled world in the first place. Thus, when Christ calls us to be different by following and espousing Christian beliefs, principle, and practices, he is summoning us to the lifestyle we were born for”

    I know all that, but forget it from time to time. More often than not. It reminds me of a song by Merle Travis; I Am A Pilgrim:

    Travis had an alcohol problem, but like Hank Williams, he was solid Christian in his statement. The song tells us that whatever our situation, we are all pilgrims and strangers in this world.

    I got an e-mail this morning requesting prayer for some missionaries in Afghanistan. Some of have different assignments, but we are all part of the mission.

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  12. Snow here. Again. 🙄

    I am sooo done with it. We’re supposed to take my daughter to a birthday party and have a few hours to ourselves. Now it looks like that might not happen. Or it may be limited. We’ll see.

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  14. I read both fiction and nonfiction. I have many fiction books I reread regularly (just reread all the Narnia books last week, for example), but I also read new ones. I love memoir and find it helpful to understand history. And yes, fiction can build empathy and also give an insider’s perspective of history. Chas, I got through only two Left Behind books, the first one and one other (not the second). The writing and theology were both pretty bad. I like some science fiction and some fantasy and some fairy tales and some realistic fiction, but rarely read romances. (They have to be a romance-plus, for example romance and mystery together, or romance as part of a travel story.)

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  15. It is really cold here, and really windy. My husband just estimated we’ve had two feet of snow this month, and I told him no, more than that. Two-and-a-half anyway. (We had a foot and a half the first week of the month, several small snowfalls since.) We’ve had several inches of snow on the ground the entire month so far, and it looks like we’ll make it to the whole month of January. We got two to four inches overnight, unexpectedly, and more drifting, so until the neighbor just plowed us out, we were inaccessible. At least we got groceries yesterday!

    Misten is learning to navigate snow. She has figured out that if it’s firm enough she can walk on it, she knows how to weave her way through drifts to find an open area, and this morning she even seemed to learn that jumping right into the middle of a snow drift can be fun. She learned previous winters, unfortunately, that she prefers “eating” her water to drinking it, so whenever there is snow on the ground she wants out multiple times a day so she can eat a few mouthfuls of snow.

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  16. I read both but love getting lost in a novel. I tend to plod a lot more slowly through nonfiction book. Weirdly, I prefer my fiction on the Kindle and my nonfiction still in physical book form (though I have read plenty of nonfiction on the Kindle, too).

    Sproul is good, he has an engaging style (I read his “Holiness of God” before I ever heard him speak).

    A personal flaw of mine is that I tend to have a couple 2-3 books going simultaneously.

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  17. Cheryl, keep watching Misten. She may figure out how to tell if snow is hard enough to walk on. When we snowshoe with Keva, he somehow knows where he can run and what snow he has to jump over or he’ll go in up to his shoulders. I’m not sure how it works, but last spring, I followed him exactly where he went and I stayed on top of the snow. When I left his tracks I just went down deep into it.

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  21. I don’t know who Anonymous is here, but that is indeed a fascinating CT article. I forwarded it to my oldest brother (who was born while my parents were on the mission field) and to my husband.

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  23. I have to be honest. I don’t like Christian fiction. The characters tend to be flat and overly perfect, probably to avoid being accused of defending bad behavior.

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  25. kBells, that used to be true and sometimes it still is. But I could tell you the names of several books that are good to great. Some of my own favorites, for example (though I haven’t read them for years) are Romey’s Place, Viper’s Tangle, and The Holy Fool. Jan Karon’s books are actually pretty decent, too; I avoided them for several years assuming they wouldn’t be very good, since a lot of times high sales mean low quality, but they were decent.

    Basically what happened is this: For years the Christian world didn’t publish fiction; I’m assuming some sort of idea that it wasn’t true or maybe wasn’t important. Then This Present Darkness was published and sold really, really well. And so did Left Behind. Well, neither of those was a well-written series, but they opened the floodgates. And some of those early writers were new at the craft and the standards weren’t very high and the editors fairly inexperienced. Some of the romance stuff is still at that level, and some of the other fiction is too, I’m sure. Most of it isn’t at the level of C. S. Lewis or Tolkien, but it’s much better than it used to be, or at least a lot of it is. World magazine focuses periodically on good books and good writers, and I know there are a lot I haven’t read yet. But for me, with fiction, I tend to try to make my way through the classics, reread old favorites, and add a new one only when I hear how good it is from more than one source or I get a free copy.

    Last year our older daughter took a class that included works by Wendell Berry, whom I’d heard of but never read. And after seeing positive reviews of one of his books, Hannah Coulter, I bought it and read it, and want to read more of his work. That’s the sort of way I add new authors to my repertoire, hearing the same one mentioned from more than one source. That is, in fact, why I reread The Lord of the Rings even though I didn’t like it on my first reading–too many authors I respect said how great it was for me to trust my own initial judgment. So I reread it and got much more out of it the second (and subsequent) time(s).

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  26. I read This Present Darkness years ago. I was still living in Virginia. Peretti’s books are good. They require a bit of Spiritual maturity, or someof it could be misunderstood. i.e. Some of the happenings are demon inspired, and people, though Christian, can be caught up in them.
    I highly recommend Peretti’s works. Those I have seen, anyhow,

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  27. Kbells, have you read any of Chris Fabrry’s books? They are very engaging so you might want to see what you thimk aboug his Christian fiction. Junebug is really good and since you worked in film you would probably like his most recent book which involves trying to get storie videotaped from the residents in a retiremeng home. That’s not the main story, bug ig runs in the background holding the chapters together. Husband thought this last one was Fabrry’s best.

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  30. The Real, I really like the Jars of Clay clip, particularly the first song. I was raised to abhor any type of Christian rock, and frankly, most of the groups I have since heard haven’t changed my opinion – not whether it is right or wrong, as the Bible doesn’t say much about musical styles, but many groups display a lack of musical talent and style. However, Jars of Clay is a welcome exception.

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  31. As I cannot listen to the radio without being critical (having worked at a small station way back when), I imagine it is hard for an editor to read for pleasure. While Peretti’s writing may not be up to the high standards of a C. S. Lewis or Tolkien, it is some of the better Christian fiction out there. His books are page turners. And I agree with Chas that one has to realize it is fiction and not a work of theology.

    That said, I recommend Joel Rosenberg for quality Christian fiction. Rush Limbaugh recommended his series that starts with The Twelfth Imam. It deals with Iran having nuclear capabilities and is too close to current events in some ways. There are three in the series. I have read the first. It was a page turner as well. I think it is listed as political fiction, but has a strong Christian influence, especially in the main character.

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  32. I wholeheartedly agree with Peter about Rosenberg’s work. Especially the series starting with The Twelfth Imam.
    It is, indeed, fiction, but there are facts behind it. The Iranians are serious.

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  34. I am like Kbells on Christian fiction. I have the same complaint about it as I do about Christian rock, lack of talent and style. The mission compound had a little library and a lot of the books were Christian romances. There were certain authors that trying to read their works was like hearing fingernails dragged across a chalkboard, especially those who would use modern American vocabulary in historical British settings. However, there is exceptions to every rule. I have been impressed by what I have read of Francine Rivers’ work. There are also individual works that are exceptionally good, like Patricia St. John’s Nothing else matters and Grace Raymond’s How they kept the faith. Of course the novels of G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis can also be placed in the Christian genre. I have not yet had the opportunity to read the works of our resident author.

    I prefer fiction when I’m reading to relax, the classic works of all genres. I also enjoy reading first-hand accounts of historical events, journalistic essays, and histories with unique themes, like Salt: A History of the World.

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  35. I’d be remissed if I didn’t give the scores of the very first Olympic hockey tournament.
    Canada 30 Czechoslovakia 0
    Canada 22 Sweden 0
    Canada 33 Switzerland 0

    medal round
    Canada 19 Great Britain 2
    Canada 6 USA 1
    Canada 22 Sweden 0

    Those were days…

    btw Great Britain did win a gold in hockey in 1936 using mostly Canadian born players. A common practice among many European nations at the time including France, Italy, and Germany.

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  36. Read the Christianity Today article — not surprised. It makes perfect sense. Operating outside the interests of the occupying state, missionaries acted as the very first NGOs. And because of their long term residency at the grassroots level they are probably more effective than the typical NGOs of today.

    My academic bias would like to see a historian tackle evidence as opposed to sociologist (I’m a bit suspicious of using models) but as I mentioned it appeals to my common sense. However, I would caution that its not the exact message of the missonaires that was the factor but what and who they were — independent individuals who emphasized personal responsibility, education, literacy, public health, etc. I would think that even without success at conversion they would have still left a positive legacy. On the other hand, missionaries that worked with the occupying power probably made it worse (most Catholics and Anglicans, some Lutherans).

    I would also like to know how his model would incorporate the 19th and 20th century missionaries in northern Canada. Catholic, Anglican, Baptist, Salvation Army, and the United Church were all part of the residential school system which attempted to silenced native culture while allowing for a culture of abuse. Northern native communities are still dealing with the effects of these missionaries.

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  37. It’s funny. I love a well written story – Rosenberg is one of my favourites, but I will read anything as long as it has a happy ending. If it’s not well written, I will still read and enjoy the story (sometimes mocking it in my head) but it will be read very, very quickly and not savoured as much as something well written. I read very fast, so in order to have enough to read, I sometimes read not so well written works.

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  39. The last Christian fiction author that was recommended to me was Ted Dekker. Interesting plots but flat characters. I don’t trust a writer whose main characters are always writers. I will look up some of these other suggestions..

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  40. That link is encouraging, Michelle. It confirms my observations of the past year in West Africa, where the team I worked with is doing the same kind of beneficial work

    HRW, I agree that the historical missionaries mentioned were so successful because they were people who really cared and worked hard. However, that explanation alone fails to account for the enormous obstacles to them being those kind of people. It is incredibly difficult to remain kind and compassionate when those you seek to help ridicule your attempts, misunderstand and vilify you, and simply do not listen. I have had the experience of trying to give health teaching in the face of ancient superstition – it can be incredibly discouraging.
    Repeated failures to make change can breed cynicism and bitterness, yet these missionaries remained caring, giving their entire lives to service, not just a few years like most modern NGOs and Peace Corps. They were cut off from family and friends, and often lost spouses and children to disease and disaster and themselves suffered physically (19th century novels stereotyped the missionary as yellowed with disease and prematurely aged by hardship); yet they persisted. Personality and character are too weak by themselves to produce such care and sacrifice.

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  42. Peretti’s books IMHO went downhill after This Present Darkness. I like character. Plot is fine, good writing is nice but if I don’t care about the characters it’s over for me.

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  45. Another book I recommend to you, Kbells, is Queen of the Waves by Janice Thompson. It’s a great story with wonderful character ddvelopment and considering you like costumes, it will appeal on that level, too. It is a romance but goes beyond that. The author said it was not her typical book so I don’t know about the others but I found this one to be excellent.

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  46. I read every day – fiction. I am always looking for new authors that I can trust. Just deleted another one off my kindle last night as you can’t trust the description on amazon. I wish that they would rate books like movies. I do not want to read R rated books, so delete.
    Enjoy Dee Henderson a lot
    I do reread wel written books, to savor them. I read Michelle’s twice this week.
    There is not a lot to do here and I don’t want to have a lot of videos in my head, so I read.

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  47. One more to recommend. Alana Terry’s book, The Beloved Daughter. Wow! What a tale about the sufferengs of the persecuted church in North Korea. I believe this was choen as the Women of Faith Book of the yesr.

    Jo, you might want to become a reviewer with bookfun.org. You can get Kindle books free for review. That’s how I receivrd The Beloved Daughter.

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  49. roscuro — I give due credit for the long term residency of the missionaries to account for their ability to have a long term effect. I can’t imagine how frustrating it would be to have basic public health advice ignored and to see the results of the negligence. The only thing comparable in my line of work is when social services and/or parents won’t listen to some basic advice from me; or other teachers and that’s thankfully quite rare.

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  52. Roscuro- You mentioned Patricia St. John above. I thought her books were for older children. Does she write “adult” (or should I clarify and say “older than teenagers) literature?

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  54. This morning I told you I had a reading confession to make, so here it it. Our favorite New York Times, Christian Author sent me Bridging Two Hearts a while back…actually a LONG while back. She sent me the Word Docutment with the outline of the book and the first few chapters. I read it, but the outline seemed like it was going to end in a way I wasn’t going to like, so rather than be disappointed in the ending I didn’t read it. A few months ago she sent me the published book, signed with an encouraging message. I put it on the book shelf in my room and would look at it from time to time, but I just didn’t want to know.
    This morning I had intended to sleep late but was wide awake at 6 am. Mr. P hasn’t been sleeping well so I slipped out, took care of the dogs. I went back and got the book, sat down on the sofa, and started reading. I logged in here to check in and the discussion had turned to books so I told you I would have a confession later today…here it is.
    I am happy to report that I am well satisfied with the ending. I loved the characters and the way she brought it all together. I don’t think they were flat at all. I noticed that one character from the outline became two different people. I took some exception early in the book when she described the mugginess of the Gulf. If she took such care to go to the Del and research massages, she certainly didn’t gain first hand knowledge of the Gulf of Mexico because I would have insisted on going to see her, until I realized she was talking about a DIFFERENT Gulf!!!!
    I made a mental note to tell her you don’t BBQ a steak. You GRILL a steak. 😉

    Well done, Michelle. I give it 5 stars. Thank you.

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  56. Except one more thing.

    I’m watching All the Kings Men in my sickness-stupor, yet another WWI movie. It doesn’t matter how much research I’ve done over the last year, there’s nothing redeeming in those four years but the work of Oswald Chambers. 😦

    And I think I may be becoming a pacifist.:-(

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  57. I had forgotten, but many years back my husband had a conference at the Del Coronado and the whole group he was with got food poisoning there. That could have been another twist to add to the story. Getting sick at the midpoint of the bridge and getting out of the car to throw up!

    In real life I know a married couple who are named Josh and Amy. So that makes me want to see some more of their story. 🙂

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  58. The through-the-bible-in-one-year plan I’m following has 25 assigned readings per month. There were a couple ideas posed as to what one could do in the remaining days each month. One was to use the extra days to catch up if you got behind. Another was to use the time for further study on passages you’d read that month. Memorization would also be an option.

    I finished the January readings today, and am contemplating how to best use the next six days so I don’t fall out of the habit of daily Bible reading. Any suggestions for me?

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  59. Hey, there’s another author here too! (But I haven’t published a whole book lately, and I’ve only published nonfiction.)

    Re the photo: proof that cold weather makes birds more willing to get along. Usually a second bird trying to land on one side of this bird feeder either gets resisted or the bird currently on the feeder leaves. Once in a while we’ll see two on one side, but usually not for long. (Female house finches, amusingly, seem particularly insistent in rejecting male house finches, presumably even her own mate.) Anyway, this photo shows two birds on one side, with a third flying in . . . or so I thought. Once I put the photo on the computer I saw that there are actually THREE birds on the left side. The house finch and goldfinch stayed together long enough for me to get several photos, and I did see there were three birds briefly a couple of times, but I didn’t know I’d gotten three in the photo (plus a fourth coming in and hoping for a spot).

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  60. Peter, Nothing else matters is billed as a novel for young people. However, its subject matter is sophisticated enough for an adult reader. It is set in Lebanon during the civil war there in the 1980s. As far as I know it is the only novel she ever wrote for an older audience.

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  64. Good morning to all the wanderers on this side of the globe. It’s a great morning for wandering over to the church. Hope those who are able to do so will have a worshipful service focused on the Lord.

    I hope Jo had a restful Sunday that will energize her for Mondsy

    Everyone needs a Bosley in the night to keep them on their toes (and feet).
    She’s cute.
    She’s a hoot.
    And she’s an alarm clock to boot!
    (She is lucky I don’t own a boot.)

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  65. Janice has an Alarm Cat. I have Amos the Alarm Dog. He also takes good care of hisDog Sister. Once he has me up, he ever so gently guides me to her kennel so I won’t forget to let her outside as well.

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  67. Good morning, all. We’re headed to a horse show this morning, so will be attending 5:00 pm church service this evening. Hope everyone has a blessed day!

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  68. Jo, I like Dee Henderson as well.
    No church for us today. The wind howled all night – there’s no way we’ll get anywhere through all the drifts, even with 4 wheel drive. I don’t think we’ve ever had so many “snow days” on Sunday before.

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  69. It’s a balmy 49.5 degrees on my deck. It was 26 when I drove in to church this morning.
    It does seem balmy after the past week. They say the cold is coming again for one mor blast before it begins to get mild in the middle of February.

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  70. Good service on Roots and Fruits. It was our church’s birthday. It began on Jan.22, 1956. One charter couple was with us today. It was a very nice service. Unfortunately the heat eas not working in our Sunday aschool classroom. My feet are still cold. We have to turn the heat down at home when we leave Bosley in the bathfoom so she won’t get too much concentrated heat with the door shut. So the house is still chilly. Just a reminder to pray for all the homeless people.

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  71. No church for us either. Between illness and weather, we have not attended the entire month of January (though we did get to Sunday school last week). I am sure this is the first time in my life I’ve ever missed four weeks! Not a good record for the year so far, huh? But it has been cancelled twice this month (first cancellations in all the years my husband has gone to this church), including today. We might as well keep the snow for the rest of the month (not that we have any choice!) to say we had it all month, but then let it melt, let it melt, let it melt!

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  72. I am so tired this morning. I went to bed and then started to go over and over and over what I want to say in chapel this morning. I just couldn’t turn my brain off. Finally I started reciting verses, the few I could remember, and went to sleep. This morning the Lord told me to use those verses to introduce my chapel presentation.

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  73. I just found a prayer app for my Smartphone called Mobile Knee. It looks pretty good and it is free. I have been using the yellow sticky note pad to record a prayer list. Will see if I like Mobile Knee better. Does anyone else use an app to help with prayers?

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  74. The yellow sticky noe pad is the virtual app for the phone. Very handy. The other app has categories such as journal, verses, to do, etc.

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  75. I love the yellow “notepad” app, use it for everything from Bible verses to grocery and to-do lists to reminders of passwords. I’ve used prayer apps, too, but not recently.

    Good morning at church, followed by our annual business meeting, so with a grocery store stop after that I didn’t get home until almost mid-afternoon. Trying now to catch up on my laundry before heading to the dog park. The day is going fast.

    Church business meeting was good, it went a little over an hour. According to the year-end stats, our membership is at around 350 with about 250 on average attending Sunday services.

    Considered a big church in some circles, small in others. 🙂 I think it’s just about perfect.

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