Good Morning!
Today’s header photo is the Mama bird. They’re some type of ground dwelling birds. Real long legs, and she preferred to run away from noise instead of flying away.
And these are her babies who were out running about too! 🙂
On this day in 1430 Joan of Arc, taken prisoner by the Burgundians in May, was handed over to Pierre Cauchon, the bishop of Beauvais.
In 1798 the U.S. Congress passed the Sedition Act. The act made it a federal crime to write, publish, or utter false or malicious statements about the U.S. government.
In 1868 Alvin J. Fellows patented the tape measure.
In 1933 all German political parties except the Nazi Party were outlawed.
And in 1946 Dr. Benjamin Spock’s “The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care” was first published.
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Quote of the Day
“I watch a lot of baseball on the radio.”
Gerald R. Ford
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Today second birthday Gerald is Gerald Finzi.
Today is also Woody Guthrie’s birthday.
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Anyone have a QoD?
Wandering Views 
Who’s [still] in first?
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Morning all.
I am done with trips off centre for a while. Thanks for your prayers, it was a safe day. The van was full and one of my students even came.
Don’t tell my grandkids, but I got children’s biographies of William Carey for two of them. A nice Christian book store, these books are out of print and they are my favorite.
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Linda,
Did they finish it? I couldn’t stay awake any longer.
Rather convenient how they held off the rain delay just long enough to be an official game huh?
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I had to come back to see the mama bird. Wonderful pictures. Thanks for showing us the whole family. Now…. what are they?
I will return in the morning to find the answer. 🙂
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I don’t know, I just shoot ’em.
My wife has ordered me a bird book to help identify what some of these birds I’m shooting are. That’s good, because I have no idea. 🙂
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Same here, AJ, too late for me. But I know they won 3-1 (that would be a series win, too, wouldn’t it? :-))
I have a question for those of you who believe in a literal 1000-year reign on earth (the Millennium). Will children be born during this period? If so, will they be born sinless (seems to contradict scripture) or will they all become immediately saved upon birth (also seems to contradict scripture)? This has bugged me ever since I came out of churches hold this theology, so it is a legitimate question, not an attempt to argue against your beliefs.
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Good morning. Cute, cute mama and baby birds!
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Driving into work I noticed again a grouping of flowers, a memorial, by the road of someone I assume who died there. I have never known anyone who did a roadside memorial, and am unfamiliar with who participates in that tradition. Maybe someone else knows? I am not sure exactly what purpose it has other than to memoralize the place of death. Is it only other religious groups who do this or do Christians do this, too?
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Linda, I do not know enough about that subject to answer your question, but I look forward to hearing comments from others.
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Linda, I can’t look up all the scripture now, but my understanding is that life will go on. Children will be born, and mature. However, there will be no temptation to sin. Everyone will trust in the King who rules in Jerusalem.
The Bible does teach a time when the wolf and lamb will lie down together and people will be saved by the knowledge of the Lord.
Read Isaiah 11.
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Been up since a little after 6, babysitting. However, a very tired Forrest is sleeping late this morning. Yay!
Oh! There he is now, calling my name. See y’all later.
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Plover. Killdeer. Why would one eat a plover? They are wonderful birds and can become quite friendly. They run around on the ground to lure predators from the nest but also because they like to.
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Yep, killdeer. We have them around here, but I haven’t gotten a photo that good, nor have I seen the babies. (How adorable!) Killdeer are the birds that nest on the ground and that lead predators away by pretending to have a broken wing.
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Chas, so those born don’t fall under “all have sinned…” and “there is none righteous…”?
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Yup, Mumsee and Cheryl are correct – killdeer. Momma often runs like she’s wounded to lead predators away from her nest.
Mowing the lawn and then heading to the beach for the afternoon! Yay!
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Okay, so I didn’t read that Mumsee wrote what I then re-wrote. 🙂
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We used to have killdeer nesting along our road. I felt bad when we disturbed a parent and they had to try to lure us away. It is interesting to see. I am not sure why we seldom see them now.
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Janice, there are always memorials up here where someone has died in a traffic accident. They get very trashy and garbage-y looking very quickly. I don’t think it’s a religious thing, I think it’s more of a non-religious, no closure and no hope type of thing. I find them distracting, especially at an intersection. They are often removed in cities quite quickly but on the highways they stay around a while. I’ve even seen ones with those little solar powered lights – not very safe to have odd lights next to the highway. 😦
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Cute birds! I live the stripe across the front, looks like he’s wearing a little sweater. 🙂 But why would predators turn away from the broken wing act? (cheryl, enjoying your book preview, I like the “bad-feather-day” section.)
Sidewalk memorials are huge where I live, they typically are most popular among young people — so if a teen dies in an accident, large memorials spring up. Gang members like them, too — we’ve had some street shootings (some of them years ago) and the remnants of the memorials remain. The tall Catholic pillar candles are a central feature for most of them.
If the death is recent, you’ll go by and see a group of fellow gang members standing nearby, paying their respects I suppose.
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I go by one corner at least once a week on my way to the dog park where there are still a few sorry-looking remnants on a corner … It’s been at least 3 years ago, maybe more, that a teen was shot in the back by a suspected gang member on Halloween night. Police still haven’t arrested anyone in that case even though there were lots of people out on the street trick-or-treating. Guess it was hard for police to get witnesses to say anything.
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I have wondered when I see such memorials along a busy interstate if people go out there very late at night when traffic is not heavy to put them up. I have never seen anyone putting one on display.
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Whether you have a strongly-held end-times position (or maybe especially if you don’t), the Rose Guide to End-Times Prophecy is a fascinating (and fairly in-depth) presentation of the various positions held within the church through the years — Amillennialism, Dispensational Premillennialism, Historical Premillennialism and Postmillennialism.
The author, Timothy Paul Jones, a professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky, uses charts and side-by-side comparisons from pertinent Scripture passages to highlight how the different positions flesh out. It’s a very fair presentation of all positions. A very handy reference for what is a complex topic.
http://www.rose-publishing.com/Rose-Guide-To-End-Times-Prophecy-P822.aspx#.U8Pw2FaQlBU
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Donna, I didn’t look at it yet – does it answer my question?
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Linda, I’m not sure. But probably? 🙂
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Good piece from World:
http://www.worldmag.com/2014/07/recognizing_holy_ground_in_an_unholy_culture
” … The second thing that encourages me about this generation is that the students I teach are very, very serious about their faith. They’re serious about how their faith intersects with the world and how the Gospel demands hopefulness, not despair. I think the last couple generations spent a lot of time looking at the ground we lost culturally. This generation is doing more of what we read in Jeremiah: planting vineyards and living for the good of the city. That has to be done with an understanding that the world belongs to God. We live our lives, as Calvin said, before God, so everything we do is an act of worship. You have to do everything well. Life takes a lot of everyday, mundane things. These are things that are necessary parts of our lives, and we don’t want any of them cordoned off from the lordship of Jesus.”
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Linda, there is nothing that implies that there will be a time when babies are born sinless.
Nor a time when the saving power of Jesus is not requires. The inner workings of the millennial reign of Christ are not described. But I don’t worry about it too much.
There are some things we do know.
There will be a millennium. Not just relying on Rev. 20:1-3. This just tells that Satan will be bound for 1000 years. (A pastor who is non-millenial once asked me if I believed it would be exactly 1000 years. I said, “Who knows, might be 1025 or 950 years. Who knows when God’s clock starts.) We infer from other scriptures that it will be a time of peace and righteousness.
Micah 4:2f “Many nations will say, Come, and let us to up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the house of the God of Jacob.; and he will teach us of his ways,…..and they shall beat their swords into plowshares…neither shall they learn war any more….
V 5. “For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the LORD our God for ever and ever.
Isaiah 11:1 And there will come a rod out of the stem of Jesse. (David’s dad) and a branch shall grow out of his roots;…….v.5 and righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. v.6. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb…..v.9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.”
Isaiah 9:6 “for unto us a child is born……and the government shall be on his shoulders.
Many scriptures say David will someday rule in Israel.
I hope this helps.
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I haven’t personally seen the memorials within a city, just one or more crosses, sometimes with a small number of flowers, with one or more names on the crosses, beside the road. I think it can be a sobering reminder, “A family died going around this curve. Be careful.” The ones I have seen don’t show any more hopelessness than, say, a cemetery plot with a headstone does.
Donna, the killdeer faking a broken wing and running along the ground hopes that the fox or person or whatever will see her, see her as easy prey, and chase her, and not consider the possibility that there’s a nest nearby. I’ve never actually seen the display (though we have a lot of killdeer here in the summer, and they nested in our driveway once before we were married–well, it wasn’t “our” driveway then, but I have heard they nested here one year). But I think the mother tries to run a little way away from the nest before she starts the display so that you see her and not the nest. They’re noisy little birds, though. At least in summer, they call constantly while they fly (“killdeer! killdeer!”) and quite often while they are on the ground or on someone’s roof. So I can imagine the broken-wing display is a very distracting play for attention.
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As to the endtimes I don’t have a complete “position” as I imagine none of us is totally right in our speculations, anymore than the Jews were right in terms of what the Messiah would look like. I have ruled out premillennial dispensationalism and I think any sort of premillennialism (though my pastor believes classical premil), and I don’t like what I see in the post-mill position (a very politically minded set of Christians, who often seem to think that electing the right people will prove spiritually beneficial). My husband is very definitely amill and I “lean that way” out of the given options, I just suspect none of the positions will be proven completely right in the end.
As to a future Millennium, I have several problems with a literal one-thousand-year reign as I have heard it taught:
(1) I do not believe that the ongoing division between Jew and Gentile this side of the cross is a biblical distinction, theologically speaking. People continue to be ethnic Jews, yes, but God doesn’t have two separate peoples, the church and Israel. Even when I claimed dispensationalism because I didn’t know other good options, this one bothered me both because it didn’t seem biblical and because logically the position almost seems to require separate-but-equal eternal states. If God deals with Jews and Gentiles differently, then where is the place for the Jewish apostles, who seem biblically to “bridge the gap”? In other words, if believing Israel is separate from the church, then are the apostles part of Israel or part of the church? If we aren’t separate for eternity but just for now, that still doesn’t answer what makes the difference. (Biblically it seems to be the cross that makes the difference. If it isn’t, then what? And where does the New Covenant fit in?)
(2) How will people live in such near-perfection without the presence of the Holy Spirit? And even if Satan is bound, he isn’t necessarily the strongest of our enemies (the world, the flesh, and the devil). We still have the flesh to deal with.
(3) Belief in a future Millennium almost seems to hinge on an idea of God being “not finished” with Israel in terms of having unfulfilled promises. This seems to say that Christ’s death and resurrection were good spiritually but only a partial fulfillment of prophecy. In other words, incomplete. Somehow without Israel having a certain amount of land, God’s promise is lacking. This would seem to downplay the importance of Christ coming as Savior. Furthermore, it doesn’t really answer the problem: if the problem is that Israel being on a certain amount of land “forever” hasn’t been fulfilled, how will 1,000 years of being on the land fulfill it? And if we think that the 1,000 years are only a starting point and they will actually be on the land for eternity after that, we’re back to the “separate but equal” thing.
(4) It really seems like an “anticlimax” in terms of an end to history. Christ comes back and Christians are perfected and in effect taken out of the body (no marriage for us, for example). But for one thousand years–more than ten times as long as most of us will live–we will have to continue to deal with people who are living normal human lives (they have families when we don’t) and who are outwardly obedient but inwardly many of them are just waiting for a chance to overthrow Christ. Only after this a bloody battle will eternity really start. I have a hard time seeing that as the blissful ending to this life that I was taught in my childhood. It’s more “Please wake me when it’s over.”
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Re: Roadside memorials- We have them around here. Usually it is just a cross and a few plastic flowers. But one family went overboard IMO. Every holiday they put up tacky Mylar balloons, which they did not retrieve until the next holiday. They didn’t have to drive past it every day, but I did. I felt like leaving them a kind letter saying that if they wanted to memorialize their son with Mylar balloons, do it in their own back yard or in a room of their house. I think they needed some counseling as this went on for 5 years after the accident that killed their teenaged son. Another boy died ion the accident, and his family only put up a cross. Anyway, when the state put up a guardrail to make the curve safer and keep others form plowing into the creek below, it blocked the view of the crosses. Now one of the families put a taller cross so it can be seen. As I said- put the memorial in your own yard!
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There used to be a killdeer pair that built it’s best next to the parking lot at the cave. It was interesting to watch the parent bird go running off to lure us from the nest as we walked along there. As we took people to the other cave, which involves this part of the parking lot, I would point out the birds to the children, which pleased some of the parents since they would never see such a thing ion the cities where they live.
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Good afternoon all. I am still alive and kicking. BG is in San Antonio with friends….I have never let her go this far without me before.
Ajisuun, something in yesterday’s sermon reminded me of something you said about the Gambia. I want to ask my priest about it tonight at Bible study. Will tell you all about it later.
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And Kim resurfaces. 🙂
Cheryl, thanks for the explanation of the bird’s prey diversion tactics, that makes sense now.
And I’m with Cheryl when it comes to end times, I don’t have an “I-shall-not-be-moved” position, although I definitely lean closer to the post- and a-mill positions. Our denomination accepts all of the views in its clergy, with the exception, I’m pretty sure, of the dispensational variety of pre-mill. But historic pre-mill positions are held by some of our clergy.
Most are probably a-mill.
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Killdeer.
I mentioned last fall that there was a pair that escorted Jake and me on our walks. They would meet us in the morning, fly in from wherever, and then walk up the driveway and up the road, past the mailbox and down the other side nearly to the stop sign. A mile walk. When we turned around they would fly a bit past us and then start walking back to the house. All the way back up the driveway. Then only on joined us. And then none. Kind of fun.
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Peter, it sounds kind of harsh, but I agree with you. People here make special pilgrimages to add to the site, but then don’t come back for a year. The person who died is no longer there, very sad for the living left behind if they do not have hope in Christ.
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Mylar balloons are very big out here. 🙂 We love tacky.
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Everytime I see the killdeer, I think it is standing on Astroturf.
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I have only seen crosses and flowers here. No mylar along my routes. Only other kind was the white bicycle at the point the bicyclist got killed on the race up Lookout Mountain in the monsoon type rain on the day of my son’s graduation from Covenant. That was up for a short while.
I guess I still am trying to understand the mentality of putting the memorial on the death site. It is nice to think it could serve as a warning to others to be careful, but that is not the sense I get. Could it be a way of trying to share one’s grief with the world? Are they considering the plot of ground hallowed because their loved one died there? I guess it could mean totally different things to different people. I do feel it would be best to have the memorial at the home of the person because that is really the plot that is associated mostly with the person.
I have a lot of curiosity about why people do what they do when it has never been a part of my family’s tradition.
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Found this on roadside memorials, sounds like some of the ones we have out here — really more akin to shrines — have Latino roots.
http://roomfordebate.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/12/should-roadside-memorials-be-banned/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0
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Does it make you wonder if they have a gravesite with the same type of memorial going on? Up in northern California, they’re considered a nuisance and occasionally knocked down. I agree with Peter, though, it always makes me feel sad even though I didn’t know the person.
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Cutie pie birds…and I will admit I did gasp when I read that AJ didn’t know the identity of the bird…he only “shoots” them….it took me a moment….or two or three…but, I did finally “get it”…I’ve never claimed to be the sharpest tack in the box 🙂
All my company has left…sheets stripped, washed and beds in three bedrooms are now put back together….one more to go and I’m done! Good thing Mondays are sheet washing day for me….what’s adding two more rooms….Everything smells so fresh and clean…
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There are many roadside memorials around here. I have to pass one on a regular basis…a site where three teens went off the icy road and lost their lives…so sad.
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Family reunions: A time when we all get together to share food and reminisce about old times. Funny how none of us remember any life events the same way as the others.
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Re: Roadside memorials- I remember in Arizona that there were some shrines built of brick and concrete where someone died in a car accident. Usually it was a Spanish person and the shrine always had the Virgin Mary in them. Too much for me. A simple cross is okay to remind others top drive safely, but too much is distracting and could cause another accident form someone looking at the shrine instead of the road.
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Yes, the Virgin Mary candles and Mylar balloons.
I would call these birds the sweater birds
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Kim, I’ll be waiting to hear all about it.
I hold a pre-mill position and could write a long explanation of my view of these questions but it’s a big topic to try to handle here. A couple comments though. When Christ rules there will be children born and they won’t be perfect but most people will submit to Christ’s authority. At the end of the 1000 years though when Satan is is released, those who never truly submitted in their hearts will rebel and follow Satan. This present earth will be destroyed at that time and the new heavens and new earth untouched by the curse of sin will be created. Finally the earth will be free from its groaning under the curse. I believe that will be where God’s promises to the nation of Israel will truly be fulfilled. As with so many of the prophecies, they will see the beginning of the fulfillment at one point in time but the final fulfillment will come a little later.
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I see those memorials often. I do not like them and feel it is better to have another place for them. However, when the grief is fresh, I would not put up a fuss. They always make me sad.
I know several families who could have them.
Five years to mourn a child, however, is nothing. There is no need for counseling.
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So, ajisuun, believers who are Jewish will live in a separate country throughout eternity? Will every other people group be likewise divided racially? And will the apostle Paul (a Jewish man who called himself the apostle to the Gentiles) live among the Gentiles or with the other Jews? What about the apostles? What about Christ Himself?
When I realized how strongly Paul spoke to Jew and Gentile being brought into one body through the Cross, it was a relief to me, since the other didn’t make sense. And since I honestly don’t like the idea of ethnic barriers being in place throughout eternity. (You go to the Jewish section to get some good bagels, but just make sure you’re out of there by dark.)
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I agree mostly with Ajisuun.
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Those white bicycles that Janice mentioned are called “ghost bikes,” and they’re meant to raise awareness as much as to memorialize. There’s one a few miles from me on one of the canyon roads, and it’s a permanent structure. Two cyclists were killed there by a sheriff’s cruiser. http://ghostbikes.org/san-jose/matt-peterson-29-and-kristy-gough-30
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I’m most familiar with the post-millienial position from reading Doug Wilson’s blog and my impression is exactly contrary to Cheryl’s, who feels that post-mils advocate societal change by electing the right candidates. Pastor Wilson does talk about political candidates and elected officials sometimes, but he also aptly critiques the camp that makes politics the primary means for cultural change.
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Ree, it’s not necessarily just elections, it’s the idea that morality in the public square will hasten Christ’s return. If you’ve ever listened to James Kennedy, for example–he was Reformed, but he got to the point where he preached more about America than about Jesus Christ. His focus got misplaced. I’ve heard others who can talk passionately about how no one but Christians should be in public office, and America wouldn’t be in the shape we are in if we were just voting in Christians. There’s a tendency to confuse America with the kingdom of God. Is this commonplace? I don’t know, but it’s at least somewhat common. (I’m not a big fan of Doug Wilson, anyway.)
And some people with such beliefs simply ignore laws they don’t agree with. I know someone, for example, who believes that all laws should be based on the laws of Israel, and any law that isn’t is an illegitimate law. In her state no one under 18 can pump gas unless they are a licensed driver. She lets her 13-year-old pump gas, even when the station attendant calls her attention to the sign pointing out it is illegal to do so. She just doesn’t think the law is appropriate, because there’s no such law in the Old Testament, so she ignores it. A good case can be made that the law is a legitimate safety issue and that many OT laws were indeed based on safety . . . but more important, we are called to obey those who rule over us unless their law is requiring us to disobey God. But the post-mills that I know personally think that we obey the law only if the law is “just” and whether it was made by those with “legitimate authority” (Christians) meaning ultimately we are the ones to decide whether a leader is legitimate and whether we need to obey the law. My husband and I (mostly my husband) were in such a conversation just this week.
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I also haven’t noticed the political emphasis in post-mill positions. It is a position that says the church is to have an impact on the culture (including government). But the timing of it is clearly not in our hands! Only God knows the specifics of how that all comes about in time (and it could take a very long time indeed).
Some of the more adamant “two kingdom” a-mill positions, on the other hand, I think dismiss too easily the idea that the church is to have an impact on the world.
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The way I’d put it is that positive political or cultural changes might be evidence of or reveal what God is doing as the gospel affects all areas of life. But it’s his story, not ours to create. And within the timeline of history there are always mountains and peaks and valleys. Hard to say what’s going on in an eternal sense by what’s happening in the blip of time in which we live, though the argument has been made that progress has been made in many ways when it comes to the plight of mankind throughout history.
And heavens, America should definitely not be confused with God’s kingdom and it kind of has in some evangelical circles I suppose. But our country has been blessed in many ways and has allowed the gospel to go forth through the years. As for its future, it may or may not be around all that much longer. Either way, that won’t affect what God’s ultimate plan is for the world. I’m sad to see the U.S. teetering at what I think is an important crossroads, but I’m confident God will do what he’ll do with or without this country or that.
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Cheryl, I don’t believe there will be segregation in a world under the reign of Christ. In Christ we had all been made sons of Abraham as the branch grafted in.
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Agreed, Ajisuun.
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