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Our Daily Thread 2-5-14

Good Morning!

On this day in 1846 “The Oregon Spectator”, based in Oregon City, became the first newspaper published on the Pacific coast.

In 1881 Phoenix, AZ, was incorporated.

In 1952, in New York City, four signs were installed at 44th Street and Broadway in Times Square that told pedestrians “don’t walk.”

In 1953 the Walt Disney’s film “Peter Pan” opened at the Roxy Theatre in New York City.

And in 1988 a pair of indictments were unsealed in Florida, accusing Panama’s military leader, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriega, of bribery and drug trafficking.

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Quotes of the Day

“I have had more trouble with myself than with any other man.”

“Faith makes all things possible… love makes all things easy.”

Dwight L. Moody

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Not many birthdays today, so it’s random selection time.

From Air1Radio

From OpryLive

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Anyone have a QoD?

38 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 2-5-14”

  2. I went to Bible study last nigh. I was SO confused. We were in Genesis 27 discussing “election”. That led to a discussion of universalism and nihalism. God moves, we respond. Free will or predestination?
    The good news is, did you know there is a part of your brain that lights up on scans when you pray?

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  4. Wow! Kim was really first!

    Barry Gibbs does that song perfectly.

    It will be interesting to hear what was going on with that Ga Tech student and the explosive device that has him so badly burned, he and his roommate being from Turkey and all.

    Another rally is planned today for the opposing side. I have heard some of what the supporters of Common Core are spouting and it just ain’t so. One guy was saying it wouldn’t affect things on the curriculum level. He must have been going to the same schools Obama attended with classes like Lies, Lies and More Lies 101. It’s so basic I don’t think he ever made it to 201

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  6. Free will or predestination? I use to lean in favor of predestination and husband definitely toward free will. My pastor told me that the Bible has verses to support both and that God somehow reconciles the two. We don’t know how. I appreciated his educated answer.

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  7. Thank you Chas. Now I feel I am in good company. I didn’t understand any of it either. I view God as a father. He sees us headed for a train wreck and sometimes He convinces us to avoid it and sometimes he lets us keep heading in that direction, depending on how headstrong WE are. He wants what is best for us but lets us mess up occassionally so that we learn from our mistakes. He loves us and wants what is best for us, but sometimes we get in our own way. Just like our children. Simplistic? Yes, but it works for me.

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  8. Good morning all. Another snow day. That makes #6. I think there is some law that says we only have to make up 5 days. It looks like I’ll be home tomorrow if the forecast is correct: -11° with a windchill of -25. The wind will blow snow over some of the roads, which is why we don’t have school today.

    Kim- You question of free will vs, predestination is rather deep for this blog. Theologians have been arguing it since Calvin wrote his Institutes of the Christian Religion. Personally, I believe in predestination, but am not qualified nor studied enough to argue it.

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  9. Good Morning….at the Air Force Academy it is -17.9 with a windchill of -28 degrees…oh that’s cold! Our house it is is -10…no wind in the trees. Our windows are all frosty and dear husband is outside snow blowing the drive…I see him stop from time to time and put his hands in his down jacket (he has on some really warm mittens too!) …I have his coffee waiting for him once he comes inside!
    I like your explanation Kim….it’s a tough subject for me to understand

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  10. Kim opens with a deep, deep discussion. 🙂 I recently had a grade school aged homeschooler bring up predestination. I am with Chas. I don’t try to explain things that are simply too deep for me. (Psalm 131:2)

    However, I do believe the family was set up as a picture of many things. One of those is the love of parents for their children. In spite of the great love we have for our children, we sometimes either allow or arrange for painful things for our children. We let them learn difficult lessons when there is no other way. We make them take shots, although they are painful. For those with serious medical problems, there may be even more painful things needed. Children may understand none of this. They just have to learn to trust their parents to do what is best for the child. Of course, parents are human and often fail. They do not know all things or the future. God sees and knows it all.

    I think Kim summed that up nicely. Sometimes simplistic is best.

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  12. There’s certainly some mystery to it all, but I think the Bible clearly teaches that God alone initiates our salvation through regeneration, that there is nothing inherent in us that produces salvation. It is a free gift of His grace. We’re told that believers were chosen before the foundation of the earth.

    And he ordains all that comes to pass, in this world including our stumbling about, all for the purpose of our growth and benefit — and for his glory.

    Our pastor last week was recalling the popular idea of living “the victorious life” which was popular when he came to Christ. He said it seemed to separate Christians into two groups — those who at least appeared to be “pulling it all off” — and the rest of us, crawling to church each Sunday in desperate need.

    He made the remark that we never need Christ one iota less than we did in the beginning when we were saved, that throughout our Christian walk we need to always know that we rely utterly on Him, in our good days and our bad days.

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  13. Cheryl, the global warming camp says the cold weather is further proof of global warming. Or something like that. 😉

    No matter what happens with the weather, it’s all pointing to global warming. You need to get with the program girl.

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  14. Cheryl, neither, it’s winter and the jet stream.
    I told you this before, our local weatherman, a week or so ago, said that the worst is over for us. For the rest of the winter, most of our weather comes from the Gulf. That is, the jet stream has moved north. You are having the winter snows, but it’s 64.6 on my deck. Nothing man has done affects that at all.

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  15. For those who tuned in to the creation vs. evolution/naturalist debate last night between Ken Ham and Bill Nye (I heard the opening but not much after that), here’s Mohler’s recap:

    http://www.albertmohler.com/2014/02/05/bill-nyes-reasonable-man-the-central-worldview-clash-of-the-ham-nye-debate/

    “The central issue last night was really not the age of the earth or the claims of modern science. The question was not really about the ark or sediment layers or fossils. It was about the central worldview clash of our times, and of any time: the clash between the worldview of the self-declared ‘reasonable man’ and the worldview of the sinner saved by grace.”

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  16. As for global warming, scientists agree the earth has warmed. The records bear that out. But it has not warmed at nearly the pace the alarmists predicted it would.

    Man’s contribution? As I understand the debate, most if not all scientists also agree there is some connection. The question is how much?

    Global warming alarmists place it virtually all at man’s doorstep, even though natural warming and cooling have occurred in cycles since the beginning of time.

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  17. Wow, some weighty topics this morning. You all have been confined by snow and ice way too long!
    Predestination vs. free will is one of those topics that I believe we will find that we ALL have it wrong. Somehow God’s grace and justice work together too. I ride the middle of the road on those two issues, but lean more to the predestination side simply because we have no ability to do anything about saving ourselves. It is God who does the work to make us see our need and to give us the faith to believe. But I think that God includes in the deal a right of refusal. I don’t think anyone will be dragged kicking and screaming into heaven. We have all seen people that God seemed to be hunting down for years. Some of them finally respond, but others refuse until their hearts are hardened to his call.

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  18. But then why do some respond and others not? That again puts salvation back in our control, it’s up to us. What was ‘special’ about us that we responded and our neighbor didn’t? Only God’s grace, I’d argue.

    When God changes a heart to respond to him, no one then goes kicking and screaming, their hearts are changed irrevocably by his divine will to follow him.

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  19. I think it goes back to choice. God gave Adam and Eve choice and they made a bad one. He put that tree wtih the knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden of Eden so they had a boundary and a choice.

    They decided they wanted to be like God–perhaps believing they could have better fellowship with him that way–but made the choice to cross the boundary.

    Once they made that choice they were no longer like the toddlers who run through the house naked after a bath and who have no shame about their nakedness. When they got “knowledge,” nakedness–with God, with each other and all those animals in the garden–became a threat.

    So they hid.

    What a silly thing to do! Did they think the creator of the world, who knew them inside and out, wouldn’t know they were hiding?

    So, what did God do? He gave them an opportunity to confess. “Where are you?”

    He knew where they were, but he wanted them to come to him and confess.

    Did they confess? No. They shifted blame instead.

    And God gave them what they chose–knowledge of good and evil and a place to see it outside of the garden.

    The only choice we have, I believe, is to follow Jesus/God/the Holy Spirit or not. If we don’t want to know him in our pure nakedness–mind, soul, body–he lets us have our way.

    But to chose NO God is to choose hell.

    And if you don’t want to be with God anyway, is that such a bad choice? Eternal separation for God?

    Depends which side of eternity you’re on, doesn’t it?

    That, at least, is what came out of yesterday’s discussion of Genesis 3.

    I’m now off to wrangle with taxes and money at work. It’s a good thing I’ve been dancing this morning so I get some joy! 🙂

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  20. We have a lot of snow today. Emily has been out snow-blowing the driveways (we have two, being a two-family home) & the lane. Our lane is a private lane, so the town plows don’t plow it. Our next door neighbors live at the end of the lane, & they have a plow on their truck. But sometimes they get petty & decide not to plow. (They tend to be quite petty & snippy about things.)

    But snow plowing the lane is exhausting. They don’t seem to care. 😦

    But God bless Emily for doing this today so her dad doesn’t have to. He’s a bit sore & tired today from his fall yesterday, & still has to drive out to the “depot” to clean the snow off his work truck.

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  24. Oooh, I love a good weighty argument (as Aji suun can tell you). Though, I think I have been cured of the Predestination vs. Free Will debate. Hearing my father and uncle hammer it out every time we visited each other made me nervous, especially as their discussions were somewhat, err.. animated. Besides, I am pretty much in the middle, or more accurately, on both sides.
    The way God’s complete (and I mean complete) sovereignty and man’s responsibility (and we are responsible) work together is one of those incomprehensible paradoxes of Christianity. That God choses, calls and keeps His own, I have no doubt. That we are all accountable for how we respond to the Gospel, I also have no doubt. How those two interact is a complete mystery, but then so is a God who is One, but Three separate Persons. I can’t explain either concept, I only know that it is true according to Scripture.

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  25. Snow blowers? What are those for? The whole point of shoveling snow is to enjoy the beauty of a quiet predawn. And if that fails, adopt children so they can shovel. Ok, I admit, I do have a riding mower and a walk behind, as well as the two rotary mowers. But I enjoy shoveling snow.

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  26. Predestination/ free will. We have that discussion a lot around here because I am convinced God uses both. We see it (in a glass dimly) in adoption. We choose the children we want to try to adopt, but they have to approve if they are over twelve.

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  28. Good discussion on predestination and free will. I have thoughts on that, but am too tired to go into it much, other than to say I believe there is both, and that predestination isn’t necessarily what my church says it is. (I read a commentary by a preacher outside of our denomination which explained things a different way, in a way that made more sense to me, although both that preacher and I recognize that in our limited human understanding, we’re not going to fully understand the mysteries of God, this topic being no exception.)

    I will say that this verse always gives me hope: [God] desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1 Timothy 2:4)

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  29. Mumsee – There is still plenty of shoveling to do, believe me, with a front porch (with three sets of a few stairs) & the back porch (one set of several stairs), more stairs up the side of the house, & a front walkway to the house. Usually, we just shovel the driveways, too, unless there is a lot of snow, like today.

    Even using the snow-blower, it took Emily an hour to do the lane. While out there doing that, she saw the neighbor who owns the plow. They didn’t offer to take over. They could have plowed the lane within a few minutes. I just don’t understand some people.

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  30. We are down to one cat now. Before 2nd Arrow moved away a year and a half ago, we had four cats. She took one with her (the deaf one) and left the other three here. Then last summer when one of the three went blind, she took that one with her. So we had two, and she had two. The blind one died a little after Christmas, you might recall, so she was back down to one cat.

    That cat got very lonely after the death of the other, so when 2nd Arrow came home night before last, she stayed overnight, and when she left yesterday, she took one of the two cats with her that we had here. The one still here won’t miss the one that left, we’re quite sure, and the one wanting a companion will probably get that in the “new” one.

    Fifth Arrow was a little sad to see the cat go last night, but he’s fine today. Nobody else has a problem with it either. One cat is enough. 😉

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  32. Karen, if I saw a young person shoveling snow and I could do it quicker with a tool I owned, I might be inclined to do so. If I saw her using a snow-blower, I think I’d be inclined to let her continue, because I believe in young people learning to work. Your neighbor could have that same reason, or a different one, but it doesn’t seem that owning a snow plow puts him under an obligation to use it and do all the work.

    Likewise here, we have a neighbor with a tractor who usually plows our drive. Even with a snow-blower, it is very hard work for my husband to do it. (We have a long drive, and he has a physical energy issue.) But so far three times in this extra-snowy winter, my neighbor has done his own drive (and sometimes other people’s) and then had to leave town before he could do ours (he travels for a living), and my husband has had to do it.

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  33. I’ve mentioned before that I’m reading a book, One Bite At A Time, which has 52 projects in it. I’m doing one per week. This week’s is entitled “Regularly turn off your TV.” (Which really means, turn off your technology.) So I have designated Thursday as our one screen-free day per week. (This will be an ongoing project — more Thursdays than just tomorrow.)

    Since it is AnnMS’s birthday tomorrow (I’m pretty sure that’s when she said it was), I will just send out my greetings a day early.

    Happy Birthday tomorrow, AnnMS!

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  34. Cheryl – We have enough experience with our neighbors to know that they are indeed petty. Emily had already been out there shoveling & such for at least a couple hours, & snow-blowing the lane takes about an hour of going back & forth. And it is not easy. Either Emily or Lee has had to do that several times, because they just decide not to plow unless they need to for their own needs.

    Emily was out there for several hours, much of the day.

    Neighbor used to plow in the driveway of the (now deceased) elderly lady across the street. Not plow her driveway, but leave the huge pile of snow from the plow in front of it. I used to shovel out the lady’s driveway, & then have to shovel out that huge drift.

    My daughter works hard for her father, around the house, & taking care of her son. She knows how to work hard.

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  35. Karen, I’m not questioning Emily’s work ethic at all. Nor am I questioning your knowledge of your neighbors; obviously I don’t know them. But for me personally, having better snow-removal equipment than the neighbors would not make me morally obligated to be the one to clean the street every time, even the times I personally did not need to get out. Part of what plays into that, for me, is that I simply hate dealing with snow. In Chicago I often left my car at work when we were likely to have snow, because I prefered the hassle of taking the bus home to shoveling snow. I’m more likely to decide not to go anywhere because it has snowed than to clean snow in order to get out–that’s just me.

    If I saw a little old lady shoveling her walk and I had a snow blower and time to use it, I’d want to help her. If I saw a teenager cleaning up snow, I’d be inclined to think she is younger and has more energy than I, and it isn’t going to hurt her. If I had time to do it and a way to do it easily, yes, I’d be likely to help her. But I’d feel no moral obligation to do so; I’d see it as a favor. Such favors make better neighborly relations, and I do understand that. I had a neighbor in Nashville who mowed my lawn a couple times when I was unable to do it, and a neighbor here who sometimes plows our driveway. Likewise, in Nashville I kept my eye out for the neighbors who traveled a lot and received a lot of packages, making sure that any packages that came while they were gone ended up inside out of the weather. (Sometimes that meant moving 10 or 15 boxes, but it was the neighborly thing to do.)

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  36. KarenO, I am so very thankful for our generous neighbour who regularly ploughs our drive and yard with his big tractor, even though we now have a quad with a blade and can do it ourselves. It takes us a couple of hours – it takes him less than 10 minutes! He even came and looked at our stove, ordered the motherboard at the place he used to work, picked it up for us and came and put it in – all for only $60 on top of the cost of the part. It costs us about $20 just to drive to town and back – so he saved us a LOT of money. Plus, he brought his wife over to visit with me when he came to put it in. 🙂 May we all be neighbours like him.

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  37. My question was: what is a snow blower? I have never used one or been close to one. I am not certain I have ever even seen one. What do they do? Is it easier than shoveling? Or is it just one more cumbersome machine to push around.

    I am with Cheryl in staying home when the snow comes down. Which is why I can shovel for fun! We do have a long driveway and if I ever did need to get out, might need to shovel it, but generally, I know that in a few days it will melt or blow away on its own. I shovel when and where I want to and then go back to my fire. I just wondered what a snow blower was.

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