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Our Daily Thread 4-7-14

Good Morning!

Today’s header photo is from Cheryl.

On this day in 1864 the first camel race in America was held in Sacramento, California.

In 1930 the first steel columns were set for the Empire State Building. 

In 1940 Booker T. Washington became the first black to be pictured on a U.S. postage stamp. 

In 1969 the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously struck down laws prohibiting private possession of obscene material.

And in 1970 John Wayne won his first and only Oscar for his role in “True Grit.” He had been in over 200 films. 

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Quote of the Day

“To begin, begin.”

William Wordsworth

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Today is John Cooper’s birthday.

We played the Un-game Saturday night. One of my questions was what song I would like played at my funeral. I hadn’t really thought about it at length, but this was my answer. I’ve always liked it, and I like Trace’s version.

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Anyone have a QoD?

Or if you’d prefer, answer the funeral music question.

61 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 4-7-14”

  4. Busy weekend getting 2nd Arrow moved. 3rd and 4th Arrows got to spend the night with her on her first night at the new apartment, Saturday night. Hubby and I and 5th and 6th Arrows went there yesterday to bring most of the rest of her stuff, and to pick up 3rd and 4th Arrows. She has a nice little apartment in a pretty neighborhood. There is an elementary school across the street, and the children enjoyed playing on the playground equipment and hanging out at 2nd Arrow’s apartment, unloading things, putting some things away, and enjoying pizza we had delivered. 😉

    2nd Arrow starts her internship today, which will be about 10 weeks long. She is excited about the opportunity, as well as starting tonight at her new place of employment. (It’s actually with the same chain she worked for previously, but in her new location now.) And she’s glad that after a day of interning for eight hours, then working for 4-5 hours, she won’t have to hit the books at 10:00 pm like before!

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  5. Good morning, Ann and AJ.

    We didn’t get home until 10:15 last night, and I didn’t go to bed until 12:30. Now I’ve been up since 4:30. I got my messy desk cleaned off, and I caught up with the weekend threads (except I haven’t read the news thread yet).

    The question was asked about where the recital video is. Well, it’s not posted yet because it’s still in our camcorder, and we don’t have the right equipment yet to upload it to our computer. First Arrow ordered a cable that was needed to do that. It came last Thursday, and the camcorder end fits, but the computer end does not. So 1st Arrow plans to try a different route. He has in mind two possibilities that he believes will work, but has been quite busy, so hasn’t had time to follow up. So…maybe some day you’ll see the video, but I can’t promise when. 🙂

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  6. Kind of funny you should ask the funeral music question. Usually I would say The Far Side Banks of Jordan, but I got to church early yesterday and was listening to the bank run through the songs one last time before the service started. The way they were singing just gave me chills, so I went to Youtube to find a version to share with you this morning. As luck would have it I found a version by that other Alan Jackson.

    In our Prayers of the People yesterday the first people mentioned were Lee and Karen. I sort of startled me to hear their names called out for our prayer, then I remembered it was MY Karen and Lee.

    We have some really bad weather today and I have a busy, stacked up day.

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  8. Have any of you heard of Voddie Baucham? He heads a Baptist church here in Spring, Texas that my dad recommended we try… I’ve heard him speak once, but don’t remember much about him.

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  12. Nice photo of the ducks, Cheryl. You can leave that one up for several days for me to appreciate.
    Fierce storm here in the middle of the day. First there was a lightening strike right on centre, when it was still clear and no storm. Scared everyone I talked to. Just came out of nowhere. Then the real storm started for an hour or so. Torrential rain coming sidewise and thunder and lightening very close. Here, though, storms move on or end. So after an hour or so, it was all over. I just stayed in my classroom, it was so close I did not want to go anywhere.
    Newsletter is sent!

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  16. Definitely “Borning Cry,” a song about God’s grace during the phases of life. We sang it at our son’s wedding. The last verse goes, “When the evening gently closes in, and you shut your weary eyes,I’ll be there as I have always been with just one more surprise.” The chorus is “I was there to hear your borning cry, I’ll be there when you are old. I rejoiced the day you were baptized, to see your life unfold.”

    For the postlude, a rousing organ rendition of “The Battle’s o’er, the Victory’s Won.”

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  17. Jo, we are having a bad storm, too. I thought this is probably the worst one Bosley has ever heard. She is a bit disturbed by noises at the window. Bird noises are preferred.

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  21. QoD. I really hadn’t thought about it. I’m not surprised that Kim would choose “Far Side Banks of Jordan” because I’ve only heard it by Johnny and June. But when I think about it, I would choose “What a Day That Will Be”.

    Rain all day in Hendersonville. I need to take the Merc in for service. This is a good day for it.

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  24. I agree with that Kim. Patty Lovelace and Kris Kristofferson also have a good rendition of “Far Side Banks”. I’m always amazed how someone who doesn’t really have a good singing voice like Kris Kristofferson can pull it off. But he makes good music.

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  28. In honor of all you birders, I watched The Big Year last night and really enjoyed it. Perfect, clean simple fun after an exhausting, party-filled weekend of NO writing that included singing at a hymn-filled worship/ memorial service!

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  29. Ducks! And Bosley!

    We’re getting another heat spike today, should be well into the 80s.

    Our sermon yesterday was on Rom. 8:19-25, “Eagerly Waiting.”

    Our pastor (who has a strong sports background) talked about how athletes can often play better in home games, where the crowds are cheering them on. He compared that to how we have a “great cloud of witnesses” (Hebrews 12) — likely the faithful mentioned in Chapter 11 — who are with us (though he said the world makes it seem like we’re always fighting through an “away game”).

    And though we (along with creation) are ‘groaning,’ we also should be eagerly awaiting the full redemption of the new heavens and new earth.

    From my notes: “Some of you own animals. They don’t fully understand that you earn the money to pay for the house they live in or the food they eat. (But) they are generally more excited to see you when you get home than anyone else in the house. The sea roars in its praises, the rivers are clapping, the hills sing for joy in the midst of their groaning, but those who are the primary recipients of the promise (believers) have a great tendency to have our groaning transition into grumbling and our grumbling into lethargy and rebellion.”

    We should not “groan in despair” but should groan like a patient who knows the medicine is working and anticipates his full healing.

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  30. Good snowy morning! Oh Donna that is good….thanks for sharing your notes!
    Softly and Tenderly Jesus is Calling….that is what I want played at my funeral…and like Jo…a good hymn sing…
    Pretty photo this morning….that ducky looks rather small (young?)….or is it the angle of the shot?

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  31. Ann, I have heard Voddie Bacchum speak and have read at least one of his books, maybe two. I don’t agree with everything he says (in one of his books he says a husband is prophet, priest, and king of his house, and I don’t think he provides scriptural proof for that), but I do know he has distanced himself from some of the patriarchal extremes. So it seems to me that he’d be worth checking out, but carefully as you would anyone else.

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  32. I haven’t heard of Baucham but I see where he’s part of The Gospel Coalition which I visit online frequently and think is pretty theologically solid.

    http://thegospelcoalition.org

    Glad 2nd Arrow’s getting all settled, what an exciting time. I have such fond memories of my 2 little apartments during my 20s and 30s. 🙂 When I rented a house in my 40s (in order to keep my mom’s dogs after her death), I remember initially how isolated I felt, even though neighbors were just several feet away on either side. I got used to it quickly enough and enjoyed the many perks of being in a house, but I always enjoyed apartment living with all the characters coming and going.

    My 1920s-era apartment near the ocean was especially colorful with Marshal, a 60-something man downstairs who rode his bike everywhere and collected “stuff” (his elderly mother came to visit from Canada every year); our onsite apartment manager Maude, in her 90s (she had the biggest apartment, decked out with all the cute 1920s built-in desks and bookcases); a newlywed couple who just had their first baby; and a couple of rather flamboyant gay neighbors.

    As for funeral songs, I was in the church choir about 20 years ago when we were asked to sing “My Tribute” (Andre Crouch) at the service for our pastor’s son who had died of AIDS. That was a tough one to get through. 😦

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  33. As to the duck at the top, we’ve had good luck identifying other ducks and woodpeckers on here. I took that photo in Michigan, and also got photos of cormorants, ring-billed gulls, and Mallard ducks. But as I look at that duck, his head is brown and not green; he is not a Mallard. I looked for photos of juvenile male mallards and he isn’t one. I can’t find any other duck he matches either. I know that mallards sometimes hybridize with other ducks, so that could be an answer.

    But I thought someone who knows ducks better than I do might be able to help figure out what he is.

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  34. Lots of good songs this morning. Trace Adkins did a nice job on that song. I have always liked that song myself.

    The group that my husband jams with has done a few funerals for members who have died. That would probably be what we would do for him. I have a hard time narrowing down for what I would want for myself. ” I Can Only Imagine” was one I have considered. “Christ Alone” is good. I like a variety of music. As long as the emphasis is on salvation in Christ, I will be a happy dead person. 😉

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  35. QoD: “Blaze of Glory” Audio Adrenaline
    I’d also like the service to be filled with worship songs – both hymns as well as the songs I love so much from my time of leading worship.

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  36. “In Christ Alone” would be a good one. That’s one that has powerful memories for me.

    The week after my mom’s funeral I was back at my church, and we sang it. I sat next to a friend, and we sang the last verse standing together, our arms around each other, singing loudly, tears pouring down both our faces (me in grief, she is feeling my grief):

    No guilt in life, no fear in death,
    This is the power of Christ in me;
    From life’s first cry to final breath.
    Jesus commands my destiny.
    No power of hell, no scheme of man,
    Can ever pluck me from His hand;
    Till He returns or calls me home,
    Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.

    A few years later, that same friend ended up in the hospital with a burst appendix; it was unclear whether she would survive. When she was barely “out of the woods” I went to church with the plan to visit her in the hospital after church (which I did); we sang this song in church, and I cried, this time for my friend.

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  37. “In Christ Alone” is a wonderful piece. We sing it in church quite regularly and I can not usually get through it without tears. Just because it is so beautiful, and so reassuring.

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  38. “In Christ Alone” makes me cry almost every time. One of my first exposures to the song was at the funeral of a Gambia believer from the city. The church was full of African Christians and just that was overwhelming for me. I’m used to a ‘crowd’ of 4 African believers. But to see the widower shout and raise his hands in victory as that song was sung was a moment I won’t forget.

    Oh, just to clarify in case some of you are confused Joanne T. is Ajisuun. I randomly get logged in as ajisuun or Joanne, but it might be confusing since you have two missionaries who are both Jo.

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  40. “In Christ Alone” was sung at the funerals of two of my friends who died three years ago, one as a congregational hymn and one as a solo. Ever since then, I’ve known that I for sure want it sung at my funeral.

    “Borning Cry” is beautiful. The first time I heard it was when a lady in our church, who sings solos fairly regularly, and has a beautiful voice that fills the whole church, even when she is singing with the congregation (without using a microphone), sang it when her adopted son (a former foster child with a very troubled past) was baptized.

    I do not know how she could sing a song like that right after her son’s baptism, but boy did she ever belt it out without wavering. Stunning words.

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  42. I’ve never heard “Borning Cry,” so I just looked it up. Overall, I’m more comfortable singing songs of praise to God; songs from God to us I can see singing, if they’re from Scripture, but this one would make me uncomfortable, like saying God’s lines in a play.

    Re songs at a funeral: Mom had told us children when we were little that she wanted “My Jesus, I Love Thee” at her funeral. Apparently my brothers had never heard that or never took note of it (though Dad noted it in one of our hymnals), but my sister and I compared notes at some point in the last few years and realized our experience with that song was the same: as teens and young adults we could hardly sing it, knowing it would someday be “Mom’s funeral song.” At her funeral itself, we could not sing it at all; we cried all the way through, and the song was carried by the deep voices of our brothers and the nephews that were there. But ever since then, the song has lost its pain and is sweet because it was Mom’s testimony.

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  43. The question wasn’t one I’d really thought about before. But that answer was the first I thought of, so I went with it.

    I didn’t think of that at all, but when I was younger I always wanted a theme song. All the cool guys had one. 🙂

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  44. I was practicing the hymns for my sibling’s wedding and thinking what hymns I would want sung if I got married. I come here and they want to know what hymns I would want if I got buried!

    Well, if someone got together a full choir, pipe organ and chamber orchestra, I would like this – the translation of the text is “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty; heaven and earth are filled with Your glory. Hosanna in the highest.”

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  46. Cheryl, I actually agree with you, so wouldn’t want to sing “Borning Cry” in a regular worship service. However, for a wedding or a funeral, I like it.

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  48. Linda, I think the lyrics are some of the most meaningful ever written on the subject:

    The sands of time are sinking, the dawn of Heaven breaks;
    The summer morn I’ve sighed for—the fair, sweet morn awakes:
    Dark, dark hath been the midnight, but dayspring is at hand,
    And glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.

    O Christ, He is the fountain, the deep, sweet well of love!
    The streams of earth I’ve tasted more deep I’ll drink above:
    There to an ocean fullness His mercy doth expand,
    And glory, glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.

    O I am my Beloved’s and my Beloved’s mine!
    He brings a poor vile sinner into His “house of wine.”
    I stand upon His merit – I know no other stand,
    Not even where glory dwelleth in Immanuel’s land.

    The Bride eyes not her garment, but her dear Bridegroom’s face;
    I will not gaze at glory but on my King of grace.
    Not at the crown He giveth but on His pierced hand;
    The Lamb is all the glory of Immanuel’s land.

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  49. I love “Be Still My Soul” too. That was my grandfather’s favorite hymn, and he’d ask me to play it on the piano from time to time when I’d go next door to Grandpa and Grandma’s house to practice piano when I was growing up. And, of course, he wanted (and did have) it sung at his funeral.

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  50. Upon further reflection, I realize that I won’t really care what is sung at my funeral. I would want whatever would be comforting to my family and friends and would declare the message of salvation for non-believers.
    My mom loved “My Jesus, I Love Thee”, it has always been ‘her’ song in my mind. We sang “Because He Lives” at her funeral (at her request) and even though it’s been 17 years, I still can’t sing much more than the first verse…

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  54. Anybody know what language(s) the people in 2nd Arrows’s building speak? So far, other than her landlord & family, nobody she’s met there can speak English. Sheesh.

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  56. Cheryl, I think it looks like a mallard, except for it’s missing the green on it’s head and the brown chest. There is a Mexican race without the green head, but it has a mottled chest/belly. The bit of blue on the wings matches a mallard but not much else. In other words, I don’t have a clue and we have several books on North American birds.

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  58. QoD: “Day by Day”

    Day by day, and with each passing moment,
    Strength I find, to meet my trials here;
    Trusting in my Father’s wise bestowment,
    I’ve no cause for worry or for fear.
    He Whose heart is kind beyond all measure
    Gives unto each day what He deems best—
    Lovingly, its part of pain and pleasure,
    Mingling toil with peace and rest.

    Every day, the Lord Himself is near me
    With a special mercy for each hour;
    All my cares He fain would bear, and cheer me,
    He Whose Name is Counselor and Power;
    The protection of His child and treasure
    Is a charge that on Himself He laid;
    “As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure,”
    This the pledge to me He made.

    Help me then in every tribulation
    So to trust Thy promises, O Lord,
    That I lose not faith’s sweet consolation
    Offered me within Thy holy Word.
    Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting,
    Ever to take, as from a father’s hand,
    One by one, the days, the moments fleeting,
    Till I reach the promised land.

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  60. Stopping by to say hello to Jo. Nothing like being pounced and trounced upon in the early morning to awaken a snoring soul. Might as well get up and make some coffee.

    My brain feels like mush lately anyways as it always does as the tax season pressures mount. Prayers for survival of another April 15th are always welcome!

    Glad to know someone else is awake in the world. Did you solve the flea problem, Jo? The flea bombs always worked for us.

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  61. Guess I will talk to myself. 🙂

    Husband just left for work. At the opportunity of an open door, Bosley went outside. Not good. Somehow despite my lack of caffeine jolt so early in this day, I was able to make a swift move to capture the wayward creature. This time I got to play the part of Cato from the Pink Panther whereas it is usually Bosley playing that leaping out character. So perhaps I have a new career in the making: Early Morning Cat Catcher.

    I am still dreaming. Need coffee without a kitten’s nose sniffing the mug.

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