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Our Daily Thread 8-21-14

Good Morning!

On this day in 1831 Nat Turner, a former slave, led a violent insurrection in Virginia. 

In 1888 the adding machine was patented by William Burroughs. 

In 1943 Japan evacuated the Aleutian island of Kiaska. Kiaska had been the last North American foothold held by the Japanese. 

And in 1984 Clint Eastwood was given a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. 

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Quote of the Day

“Of course, there are a lot of ways you can treat the blues, but it will still be the blues.”

Count Basie

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 As you probably guessed from the quote, today is Count Basie’s birthday.

And it’s Kenny Rogers’ too.

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Anyone have a QoD?

67 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 8-21-14”

  2. 😦 I tried to copy from Drudge the clip about the girl who said “God bless you” when a girl sneezed. But a Microsoft pop-up wouldn’t let me. I wonder how much business they think they will get from a pop up that prevents you from doing what you want to do.
    Added to my list of stupid commercials.

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  3. Good morning, Chas!

    It’s only 6:45 here in Houston. I’m still drinking coffee. Becca has an evaluation with the eye doctor this morning. She’s almost through with her vision therapy. She’s made remarkable progress, even though we haven’t been as faithful with the daily exercises as we should’ve been.

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  4. I see in the Times-News where an 18 year old guy stole a $1800 Walmart electric shopping cart and rode it to his appointment with his probation officer.
    I suspect this was supposed to be amusing. However there is more to this story than they’re telling us. This is not about a dumb kid. It’s about a young man who has no concept of right-wrong. He saw no harm in taking something he wanted. No concept that he was doing harm to someone.
    He is in an Albuquerque jail because he doesn’t have $500 for bond. He has a rough life ahead. Likely doesn’t know who his father is.
    Maybe a prison minister can reach him.

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  7. Good Morning Everyone. I walked into a ton of work this morning because I was out of the office all day yesterday. I learned a lot of information and not all of it was in the class.
    I am working on my attitude today. It may take more than a day. Someone doesn’t understand when I say “I am not buying a house in that neighborhood, we can’t get our money out of it”, that I might know what I am talking aboutl

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  8. When I think of all the foolish, selfish things I did as a teen, I am humbled. I did not know Christ and lived solely for self. Looking back, I am so grateful to God for protecting me in so many situations. I’m especially grateful for God sparing me from a teen pregnancy as I’m certain I would’ve had an abortion and would now have to live with the pain of that choice. Becoming a wife and mother has blessed me immeasurably–to me, there is no greater joy than the love which swells in my heart for my kids. God has been extremely merciful to me –I do not deserve the life I have today.

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  10. Ann, with me, it was joining the Air Force.
    Then, meeting Al Tolley. That incident set me on the right path.
    It’s interesting how such incidental things have life altering consequences.

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  11. The older I get, the more I realize how much God spared me and saved me from. Also, the more I realize how lousy the so-called ‘good life’ of sin is and the more I wish to help others realize it, too.

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  12. Luke 18:9-14, amen?

    Good to hear Becca’s eyes are getting better. 🙂

    I was wiped out after yesterday — had to be on the dock at 7 a.m., interviewed folks & dashed home and wrote a quick story by 9:30 or so, I think.

    then it was back to the docks for the rest of the story (tall ships festival opened yesterday with the big yellow duck).

    Talked to lots of people, posted lots of pics and video (one guy humored me and sang a couple stanzas of “Rubber Ducky” on video for me which was awesome).

    Anyway, after a few hours of that, I came home sunburned (despite sunscreen) and with some very sore feet. Had to write another story but that was easy (plus another reporter was stationed at another spot on the waterfront so she gave me several quotes from her reporting).

    I slept like a rock last night and feel much better this morning, though still a little sore from all the walking, standing — while toting a work bag.

    I think I never want to see that duck again.

    If anyone’s curious enough, here are our photographers’ photo galleries from the day (click on the right arrows to move through them):

    http://photos.dailybreeze.com/2014/08/photos-tall-ships-parade/#1

    http://photos.dailybreeze.com/2014/08/rubber-duck-sculpture-arrives-for-tall-ships-festival/#1

    I have to say it was a gorgeous day, though — after the morning clouds cleared out it was sunny with a brisk cool wind coming in off the water. Temps were mild, in the low to mid 70s.

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  13. I’m going to be teaching on James starting next month, so I was reading in James 2 this morning and was struck by verse 13, “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgement.”

    It made me pray that God would allow me to see where I have been unmerciful and where I’ve chosen judgment and immediately brought to mind the friend coming to tea this afternoon.

    Don’t you love it how God wastes no time once we ask? 🙂

    I’ve been thinking a lot about mercy these days–what it means, how we extend it, how the world needs it–wondering what my role in that is. I guess I start by extending mercy to those around me–the ones God brings across my path–and they try hard to see the damage of the world through God’s merciful eyes.

    Interestingly, my next reading was Romans 1. Mercy? Mercy extended, but people choosing judgment instead. Very sad.

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  15. God is so very good!

    During our prayer session last evening at church we were all bent out of shape by hearing of a young missionary (independent of our denomination) that we all support has decided he does not believe in God anymore. We are all heartsick. I am wondering if there might be a chemical imbalance that has caused this abrupt change. Has anyone else here seen that happen with someone they know personally (not in the news)?

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  16. Janice – There was a missionary our former church had supported for many years, & who had visited us in the past, who left the denomination for some sort of cult. We prayed for him for a while, & his wife once visited our church during that time.

    I don’t remember how long it took, but eventually he came to his senses, & was restored to his family & his ministry. Unfortunately, I don’t remember (or didn’t know) many details of it all.

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  17. I think what saved me from trouble as a young person was a father who scared the (can’t think of an acceptable word here) out of me. I am thankful for him now and hope my son is a little scared of me and or my husband. 🙂

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  18. Building on Ann’s thought, of all the Biblical characters, I most relate to Joseph’s brothers. I treated God terribly and he gave me a feast.

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  19. Here’s a QOD …

    Are there any restrictions, in your mind or heart, on when or where to pray?

    What about when you are in the shower or bath, or “going potty”?

    I have heard two sides to this. One side says that God sees us all the time, no matter what we’re doing, & He sees us through the blood of Jesus, so praying about whatever is on our hearts, whenever the thought strikes, is just fine.

    The other view would say that praying while unclothed, such as in the shower, or while on the potty, is not showing the respect & reverence due to God.

    So, what do you think? Is the truth on either of these sides, or somewhere in the middle?

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  20. Karen, I’ve never heard of such a thing. I guess I take the Apostle Paul at his word, we should pray without ceasing. That doesn’t (and shouldn’t) preclude regular times of dedicated communion with God in which we focus on Him, body, mind and soul. Guess I wouldn’t necessarily do my quiet time while I was busy showering and trying to get ready for work.

    But I suspect most of us also send up frequent prayers all day long, wherever we are or whatever we may be doing. I often send spontaneous prayers up in the shower as I’m struggling to wake up and face a new day.

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  21. Looking closely at the picture, I see I did it again. 😦

    I need to put a level on my camera or start using the tri-pod more often. One arm doesn’t work well when held out from my body and it’s hard to hold it up and still. And then I get tilted/crooked pics. I hate that. 😦

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  22. Karen, during prayer time, we usually select a position and location that supports a spirit of prayer. However, I doubt that God considers it necessary. Any place, any time. Rather, everywhere, all the time. Some of my most serious prayers were at my bedside. Also in my car and in an airplane. My morning prayers are usually routine.

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  24. Pray always.

    One of my daughters asked me the other day if we need to audibly pray, “in Jesus’ Name, amen” every time we pray. Apparently a couple of elders in our last church told her her prayers were not good enough. I had wondered why she stopped praying aloud.

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  25. AJ, I got a whole lot of pictures at a lake last year that were visibly tilted (the one you posted is not, BTW). Only recently did I discover that when I post my photos to my computer, the program I use has a “straighten” option. I can open them after uploading, as well, by choosing “edit.” I don’t know what photo program you use, but look for that option in it. Sometimes choosing “straighten” doesn’t work, if the part that is a line doesn’t extend to the edge of the photo, but in those cases there is an option to do it manually. (I use Windows Live Photo Gallery, and I also have Adobe Photoshop Elements, which is an early version.)

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  28. One of my former priests hosted our confirmation retreat where we really studied the Episcopal faith and Christianity. He said he most identified with Lazurus, because he himself had been dead and was resurrected. He had lost his faith. Being a priest, this was serious. He said he had a few more sermons left in him that he could fake his way through, but was going to have to quickly find another line of work. Atheist priest, at that time, were not welcome in the Episcopal Church. He said he went on a silent retreat, got into the Word of God, and like Lazurus came out of his own depths of darkness back into the faith.

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  29. Mumsee,

    What boneheads. 😦

    And I’m happy to hear of Mike’s however brief return. 🙂
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    On the overall topic…

    Prayer is a personal thing and I think saying it has to be a certain way limits you. The shower may not seem the best place, but sometimes it’s the only time in a busy day when you have 10 minutes of personal quiet time.

    And think about it, what better “prayer closet” is there? It’s secluded, relaxing, and are we not to pray without ceasing? It doesn’t say except in the bathroom. 🙂

    However people choose to do it, God knows the heart and motives behind it. There are times when public, out loud, prayers are the way to do it corporately, but I don’t think He’s concerned so much with location, volume, public/private, and what not as we are. He’s always there, so why not talk to Him whenever the mood/need strikes as well?

    But personally I draw the line at the toilet. That’s just wrong, unless of course there’s some kind of medical issue. A personal choice though, not judging……

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  34. Karen, if my stomach is really paining me, and I may even have a stomach bug that keeps me attached to the toilet, I will sometimes pray that God would help me to feel better. Also I lift up those who are feeling worse than I am, and those who are sick and don’t have a toilet, medicine, and doctors.

    Pray wherever and whenever.

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  35. Janice, there are many factors that could contribute to a missionary losing their faith. The depression and utter exhaustion that is often experienced on a new mission field can go a long way to making someone question their faith, especially someone who is still young in their Christian experience. Being exposed to the realities of another religious culture may cause questions: finding that those Muslims/Hindus/Buddhists/etc. are not so bad as they are stereotyped and that some of them are more decent people than the members of one’s sending church. Conversely, the terrible human misery a missionary may have to witness could raise the age old question of how a just God could allow such suffering. A sense of isolation from one’s own family, church, country and culture may cause some to wonder if their faith was ever theirs, or just assumed because everyone else was doing it. Finally, sometimes the spiritual warfare is so intense, that demonic oppression can actually make it seem as if nothing one once believed is really true. Keep praying for the young man – he may be fighting a terrible battle.

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  36. On Karen question about prayer: As someone already said, Paul did write to “Pray without ceasing”. I find myself praying to God anywhere, including the bathroom, not just with requests (like Janice, I too have asked God to help me while doubled over the toilet in the pain of vomiting or diarrhea), but also praise and thanksgiving and just telling Him about things.

    I would agree with the first view, that God sees us everywhere and we are always covered with the blood of Christ to approach to His throne. The older I get as a Christian – the other day, I realized that I have been a Christian for almost 25 years – the more I understand that Christianity is less about the external life (what I wear, what I eat, where I go, what I do) and more about who I am in Christ. So, I find myself in constant conversation, talking to God and listening for the Spirit’s reply.

    Of course, it is important that I set aside time to spend alone in God’s presence, so that I can be sure that my more casual conversations are honouring Him – in much the same way a married couple should spend time alone, in order to make sure they do not take each other for granted in their daily interactions. So, I do still have devotions, where I find a quiet and dignified spot to read and pray – but that isn’t the only time I spend talking to God.

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  37. AJ, yes, I can see that the bridge is “not quite straight,” but if you’ll notice, neither is the fence. I sometimes zoom in on a bird on a fence and when I upload the photo, I notice the fence isn’t level. But the reality is that fences and bridges only “look” level if we’re looking at them from a certain perspective. The mind doesn’t really notice it isn’t straight to our eyes unless it’s a photo. My tilted lakes were a real visual problem, because there is no physical way for the top of a lake to be tilted and the lake was dominant in the photo. But a bridge in the background might not have “looked” parallel to the horizon if the horizon had been in the photo. I have had that issue, where I start to straighten a photo to get a fence or something straight, but then I realize that the horizon is already straight, and that’s the part that matters.

    Or so it seems to me.

    The reality is that we probably wouldn’t even notice the bridge except that the body of water and the fence both draw our eyes “back.”

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  38. You people make me feel so dumb. I thought at first that I just didn’t notice well enough.
    Then, I went back and still can’t see anything wrong with the picture.

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  46. I think I missed a lot about the house business, Kim, while I was offline earlier this summer, but I’m slowly reading those posts I missed, and praying for you, despite not knowing many specifics at this point.

    Speaking of prayer, for those of you who prayed for the safety of my children who were on the road yesterday (per my request on yesterday’s daily thread), thank you. They had safe travels throughout.

    QoD: I pray anytime, anywhere, as it comes to mind. I do, however, want to be more consistent about praying during my quiet time, which mainly only involves Bible reading at this time.

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  49. Now to get 49 before I go!!!
    I have asked all my classes that I have taught to come over to school at lunch to get a picture with 10 years of classes. Pray that it goes well.

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  55. Third Arrow went along with me to the piano teacher’s workshop I went to today, as she was interested in listening to and looking for music that she would want to play. She was very excited to find two books with praise and worship song arrangements written at or slightly above her level. There was other music she really liked, too, including piano arrangements of the music from the movie “Frozen.” So, after we got home, she spent most of the afternoon at the piano, playing almost all of her new music. Nice to hear that piano singing a good portion of the time we’ve been home. 🙂

    The composer who does the workshop every year, Joyce Grill, has three new books out this year entitled Musical Scenes. She told us that she composed this music, thinking especially of children who are middle school age, with all the feelings and the angst that can go along with being that age.

    She talked about how, with beginning piano music, there are often catchy lyrics to go along with the music, creative titles to the music, etc. Then when the student advances to more difficult music, there are no more lyrics, and eventually, the titles are things such as “Nocturne”, or “Prelude”, and the like, titles that don’t necessarily have a deep meaning for students (not at the outset, anyway).

    So she wrote 29 character pieces for intermediate-level piano, with titles such as “A Quiet Day”, “Tension”, “Wonder If I Could”, “Melancholy”, “Soaring”, etc. Then she selected a test group of numerous piano students whom she did not know, and had their piano teachers recommend that the children write lyrics for the music.

    The music is published without lyrics, but Joyce received a bunch of examples of student lyrics for the music she composed, and noted much creativity and variety, and some tear-jerking examples.

    One or more teachers talked about how this exercise helped bring some of their boy students out of their shells — that they hardly ever open up about anything, but some of the pieces in particular elicited some profound responses in the form of lyrics the children wrote.

    It was a good reminder to me about how teaching is not simply presenting subject matter. You don’t just teach your subject — you teach people. Humans with feelings. It goes so much deeper than the what. It’s about the who.

    That’s what I love about music so much. There are so many opportunities for expression of who you are through music-making. I’m not eloquent enough with words to begin to convey what music does to me and for me, but it’s why I talk about it so much, ad nauseum some might say. I think quality music reaches deep into a person’s soul, and to see that thrill for God’s good gift of music come alive in another just blesses me beyond words.

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  60. Re: the QOD, I’m with you all on that. I take time to pray my “usual” prayers in the morning, but lift up prayers & thoughts to God at various times throughout the day.

    I was kind of surprised, though, that no one agrees with the second view. I thought someone might.

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  65. Cute house.

    Six Arrows, I spent a lot of time at the piano when I was in junior high, composing music full of loud crashing low chords and playing out my teenage angst. I look back on that now and wonder what my parents thought was going through my soul?! 🙂

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  66. I hear ya, Michelle. Oops, well, not literally. 😉 I had plenty of that same angst — playing Beethoven with plenty of sforzandos was rather therapeutic. 🙂

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