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Our Daily Thread 8-30-14

Good Morning!

It’s Saturday!!!

On this day in 1682 William Penn sailed from England and later established the colony of Pennsylvania in America. 

In 1809 Charles Doolittle Walcott first discovered fossils near Burgess Pass.

In 1941, during World War II, the Nazis severed the last railroad link between Leningrad and the rest of the Soviet Union. 

And in 1965 Thurgood Marshall was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as a Supreme Court justice.

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Quote of the Day

“Of all created comforts, God is the lender; you are the borrower, not the owner.”

Ernest Rutherford

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 Today is Kitty Wells’ birthday.

My daughter has now watched the first, and half of the second Star Wars movies for the first time. This afternoon we’ll finish the second and watch the third. 🙂 So in keeping with the theme….  From ThePianoGuys

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Anyone have a QoD?

114 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 8-30-14”

  3. Happy Saturday, everyone! I slept fitfully last night. Becca didn’t sleep well, either. She’s already awake, watching American Girl crafting videos on YouTube.

    Anyone else ready to face the day yet?

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  9. Aj: Becca has only three more visual therapy sessions for her convergence disorder. The eye doctor recommended glasses for seat work/reading due to a slight astigmatism. We pick them up Tuesday. She’s so excited about them! I think it’s because big sister wears contacts and she longs to be just like her big sissy. I’m hoping they will make reading less taxing and therefore more palatable. Enjoy your morning fishing! Hope you catch a big one! Do you fly fish?

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  10. Thanks so much for the anniversary blessings….we realized we are growing old together….next year will be forty…ten away from fifty…reality check
    Forever thankful to our Lord for His mercies new every morning…..

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  12. That is because I fell asleep sometime around 10:30 last night and slept until 8 am. I was so excited when I woke because I felt rested. I think I have been sleep deprived for about a month now. I am sipping my first cup of coffee, my dogs are revved up, and today I feel happier than I have in months. My jaw isn’t clenched. How long has it been since you typed out “Life is good”? I’m almost there.

    AJ, I love the header photo this morning. Sunflowers are such happy flowers. Whenever I have an opportunity to have them in a decoration for a party or anything I do.

    I let the landlord know that we would be moving out the end of September and she could go ahead and close the sale. The agent came back and asked if the buyer could get in here once more by herself to look at the house and maybe she would forego the second inspection. Really? Really? I hesitated for a moment, tapped down the anger and said it really wouldn’t be a good time as the house is strewn with stacks of moving boxes. It is a wreck. I wouldn’t let anyone in this house right now.

    OK. I have to get moving. I am working for a few hours today. The COO let me have one of the admin assistants today. We closed out a great month yesterday and I want to be able to hit the ground running on Tuesday, not behind.

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  13. Kim, it is good to wake refreshed, I’m happy for you.

    My sunflowers just started blooming a few weeks ago. Seeds are just starting to ripen. We will get a few large heads again this year.

    It’s raining today, so I guess it’s husband’s rain jacket and my purple/green/pink plaid rubber boots for picking tomatoes – I’ll leave the potatoes for husband later.

    Lots to do today so I’m ready for the first real week of work at my new job.

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  14. Yes, a slow morning. It is Saturday, after all. But I’ve got to mow the lawn. It’s been a strange summer here, with most of it being more like Spring. Now we are having the hot, muggy July-like weather. By this time most years I am only mowing the weeds, but now the grass is thick and green. Oh, well, better get started.

    See you all later. Be safe this weekend, especially if you are driving.

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  15. I love sunflowers, have since I was a little girl. I far prefer the wild ones, though. I long debated whether I’d have sunflowers or roses in my wedding. When it came down to it, I took the “easy” route and went with roses, but sunflowers probably would have expressed “me” better, and my dress had lace that looked like daisies or sunflowers. (I even cut out about 500 of them and friends hand-appliqued them all over the gown, but mostly they were on the lace jacket.)

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  16. So, the other day I told you about one of my agents who’s husband has had two different types of cancer in the past year, her adult handicapped son is battling cancer, and just last week she found out the son’s dog has cancer! She received a notice from Social Security that her son’s benefits were being cut because she made too much money this year. Insurance dropped the son’s coverage right in the middle of chemo, she suffered a burst appendix,….the list goes on.
    That night as I was leaving I stopped and spoke to the president of the company and asked him if there was anything we could do for her. I was just copied on the email he sent her telling her the company had paid to renew her real estate license. He told her what an inspiration she was to him personally and to others. He said it was a small token, but he had renewed her license. He copied the receipt for her records.
    Grand gestures are just that. Small daily things add up. I just sent him a text thanking him for doing it and that I continue to think I made the best decision in coming to work there. His reply was that we have all been blessed.

    Have you ever worked someplace that did little things for their employees?
    What kinds of small things have meant the most to you?

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  19. Fall weather. Sigh. I wish. We’re heading into what traditionally can be some of our hottest weeks through September and even October. 😦 😦 Still in sandals and T-shirts.

    Kim, you must be getting excited about your new house?? 🙂 How long will the process be? (escrow, etc.) Will you be able to go from your current rental into the new house without a hotel stay?

    I slept well last night, too, didn’t get up until 8 a.m. and am still on my first cup of coffee. I plan to have two cups in honor of the long weekend. 🙂

    I’ll be on the road again shortly, running more errands today for my disabled friend who has been moved to a rehab in a city called Bell, which is northeast of here a ways. First I have to pick up some stuff for her in Downey, including her walker, then I’ll have to find her new place to drop that all off.

    I did finish the drought watering story yesterday. Haven’t heard back from the special projects editor yet, so I’m hoping it’s what she wanted … The hardest part was that it had to be short, less than 20 column inches. So I had to really skim over so much of the information she wanted to include.

    But I did find a couple folks who were good to quote, including a landscape guy that I may call here in the future for my own yard.

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  22. Kim, I have been blessed to work in at least 2 places where I was shown appreciation. The doctor I worked for for nine years gave me a HUGE appreciation cheque when I left to move with Tim to another province and my old boss yesterday told me I had been a blessing to her and when I told her I would continue to pray for her and she could call on me for prayer anytime, she said “that’s what I was hoping for” and then she fled before she started crying.

    I hope I will be a blessing in my new job and that they will all be a blessing to me too.

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  24. I didn’t sleep well last night, but that is par for the course, unfortunately.

    I cannot say I have worked anywhere that have done small things for their employees. OTOH, I have certainly had people do some real kindnesses for me. One of our neighbors plowed our driveway when we first moved here. We had only shovels to use, so it was a real blessing.

    We had one neighbor who, early one spring, plowed our garden with his tractor. We did have a rototiller to do that, but my husband hadn’t gotten to it. Unfortunately, the neighbor missed seeing the strawberry plants on the edge and plowed them all under. We never did say anything, since we knew his heart was in the right place.

    What a blessing that God created good works for us to do! It makes life so enjoyable and purposeful.

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  25. I didn’t sleep well either; indeed, I got up at 12:30 and read until 2:30. I’m just thankful the miserable cat didn’t start meowing this morning until 7:45, instead of the usual 5:15. (Twitch once, and she’s on it: yowl!)

    Back in the dark ages, we raised a magnificent crop of sunflowers–well, six of them–and I cut off the enormous heads and left them on the granite bolder in our front yard. The children, toddlers then, watched the squirrels pick the sunflower head clean. Lots of fun.

    Empty day. Amazing. I may actually return to emptying boxes from a year ago, or clean my office. I leave for Cancun in a week. Can’t decide if that’s a good thing (of course it is), or an indulgent trip (of course it is), but I can certainly use the rest!

    I’m going with my boss, a widow of two years who hasn’t been on a vacation in at least six. I’ve been after her all summer to take off for a week or, preferably, two. Doesn’t feel she can leave her business that long and so she demurred.

    My husband suggested maybe the problem was she had no one to go with her and he suggested I volunteer. What a guy!

    It’s fun to see her excited about the trip. We’ve both been shopping! LOL

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  27. The preschool director where I worked gave small gifts along to the teachers. Once she gave a small wall decor cross with the Lord’s prayer on it. Another time she gave a snowman dish that had a place for a candle (or at least I thought that was what it was, but wondered about the symbolism of the candle melting Frosty), and other seasonal tokens of appreciation. The board also had a luncheon for the teachers at a nice restaurant. The parents were super thoughtful to give us gifts, too.

    In our current office we usually go out for a special luncheon when tax season is over and my husband foots the bill for that. I also put one employee on our Sam’s Club membership (the others don’t need that) which she is quite grateful for since she only works during tax season.

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  28. Michelle, that is so nice of you to give your time to her like that. I hope y’all have a good time.

    Donna, in our case, Boz the Boss certainly presides! She has her swivel chair to make the world go round. The last thing I did with her was to shoo her off the keyboard of the computer laptop my husband should not have left open. He plays bridge on it, so I am not sure what kind of move he will be surprised to find Miss Bosley made in the game.

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  30. Nobody ever told me they liked my work or that I was doing a good job, except on annual performance appraisal. I took those as part of the routine.
    But I got promotions, in the AF and on the job.

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  32. We tell our children, if you are being asked to come back to work and you get raises, they like your work. If you are asked to come back and are not getting raises, might try working a little harder. If they don’t ask you back, it is time to take a good luck at your work ethic and attitude. Our most could go either way sixteen year old boy just got a raise. He was happy. We were happy.

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  37. I was driving all over the place, delivering walker & bag of belongings to my friend in rehab. It was much hotter there than it is where I live (85 vs. 95 degrees).

    But most recently I was at the dog park, talking with people about Idaho. 🙂 A guy there said he caught this huge fish in the Snake River one year ….

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  39. I guess. He said his wife was in the process of cooking it when he read something that said someone else had caught a fish half that size and got $500 for it because it was so unusual? Too late for them, though. But I guess the fish tasted good. 🙂

    Another woman at the dog park said she’d driven through Idaho and thought it was really beautiful. (She didn’t like Montana much, though, said she went camping with some family members once — they slept in teepees — when she awoke at around 3 a.m. to hear yelling and lots of gun shots; kind of unnerved her, but my first thought was “sounds like home to me.”)

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  41. something t think about….
    here we have rain several times a week and things are always green.
    problem is, I have year round allergies, but a beautiful view! 🙂
    hopefully while home on furlough I can be off allergy meds for a while or at least try what Mumsee said to try (if I can remember..)

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  44. I got my picture taken standing in a Snake River. It might have been Little Snake? It was COLD and in July. Lots of white water rafting or kayaking. Beautiful country really.

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  45. The woman who had such a bad experience in Montana went on to say the next day they were hiking along a river and when she rounded the bend she spotted her sister, legs in the air, who had fallen into the very cold river (she was fine).

    But woman telling the story yesterday said she started laughing so hard at the sight of her normally quite feminine sister in such a state that she also lost her balance and went down, in a full “face plant” on the ground, splitting open her lip.

    She’s never forgiven Montana.

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  46. Karen O: If you see this and have time, could you give us the steps for dividing FB ‘friends’ into different groups? It’s something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time, but when I started once it didn’t seem all that apparent how to do it (or maybe it just looked SO labor intensive!).

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  47. Home from church and waiting for husband to get home now. We only had one student for Sunday school, but we had three teachers. At the end of class we played a matching card game with missionary cards. That was fun for us all.

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  48. I left them all in a quandary in Daniel. You just can’t teach Daniel, chapters 7-12 in two sessions. There is too much there. I’m afraid I wasted their time. But not mine. I put a lot of hours into the lesson, but it was profitable for me.
    Baptists don’t teach much eschatology.
    😦 That’s bad.
    But when they do, they usually fight over it.
    That’s worse.

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  50. Chas, my most-of-my-life experience as a Baptist had a lot of eschatology, especially in my childhood and teen years when prophecy conferences were big. Now, I don’t think that dispensationalism is biblical, but it definitely has an emphasis on eschatology.

    By the way, I made a tongue-in-cheek comment a few weeks ago that I really should have clarified better. I said that Paul teaches “some version of” replacement theology. I was being tongue in cheek, because I don’t think Paul teaches replacement theology, but I do think that what he teaches might sometimes be mis-labeled that. I do believe that believing Jews and believing Gentiles are in the same body, the church; that there is no benefit at all in eternity to being a Jew if one does not know Christ, and no distinction between Jew and Gentile in Christ. Under the new covenant, we might be “interested” in the fact that one is Jewish, and Jewish believers might help us understand some passages of the Old Testament through Jewish eyes, but I see no biblical evidence for the Jews still being “the people of God” in any sense at all. Old Testament Israel has become something greater, New Testament Israel (the church). Old Testament Israel always did incorporate some who were not Jews, but under the new covenant, there is greater worldwide evangelism.

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  51. Dispensationalism – Last night, I was visiting with relatives. They had an old (1920) book called Dispensational Truth. It was a coffee-table sized book, full of charts of different prophecies. It was done by a draughtsman, who modestly said, in the Preface, that he did not claim to be inspired, but reasoned that as all his charts agreed, they must be based on truth. We derived great amusement from the neat charting of human history; though we all agreed it was too neat.

    I was glancing through a book today that talked about the Talmudic teachings of modern Judaism. Modern Judaism is far removed from the teachings of Moses and in many ways is anti-Biblical – something that often gets forgotten when dispensationalists talk about the Jews being God’s people. Being the nation that produced Moses, David and Paul doesn’t get them a free pass into heaven; they still need to come through the narrow gate that is Jesus Christ.

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  52. Donna – It’s been a long time since I made my lists, & Facebook has had some various changes since then. Combined with the fact that my memory isn’t so great, & I may not be able to help you, but I’ll try.

    On your News Feed page, in the left-hand column, do you have the word “Friends” that you can click on? I don’t know if it’s there for me because I already have lists, or if you’d have it, too.

    If you do, click on that, & on the page that comes up, there will be, near the top, a “button” that says “Create List”. Click on that, & it’s easy to figure out the rest.

    If you don’t have the “Friends” thing on your News Feed page, I don’t know what to do. I’ll try to find out, though.

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  53. Cheryl. When I say “Replacement Theory” I mean the theology I heard once when a man said, “I believe God is finished with Israel”. When I say that God is not finished with Israel, I
    do not mean that there is any benefit in eternity for a Jew who has not trusted Christ. I mean that God has protected these people as a people for over 20 centuries now. Through every attempt to destroy them. A question. Why do so many people in the world want to destroy Israel? Hitler, the Bolsheviks, the Catholics during the inquisition, etc. But they are still a people. It seems that Satan has a fear of Israel.
    As for Paul. I go by his statement on Romans 11:25 “For I would not, brethren, that you be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceit: that blindness in part in happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. (boldface mine) V. 28-29: “As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes; but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father’s sake. For the gifts and callings of God are without repentance.” I could quote much from the OT.
    Modern day Israel is surrounded by enemies, all of whom have vowed to destroy Israel. Someday they may try. As for our part in this? I don’t want to be on the wrong side.
    If it happened during this administration, I fear that we will be.

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  54. My understanding of the Jews being God’s people is not that they get a free pass into Heaven, but that God’s hand is still upon them, & there will come a time when He will open their eyes & many (most?) Jews at that time will be saved.

    There is also Romans 11:29 – ” For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”

    I know this is only anecdotal, but I’ve heard that many Jews have reported feeling an unexplainable draw to Israel.

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  56. Phos. I reject dispensationalist theory because of it’s core belief. That is, a pre-tribulation rapture. The Bible seems very clear to me that Christians will be part of the tribulation. My position is a pre wrath rapture. i.e. Christians will endure the wrath of Satan, but not the wrath that god pours out on the world in the vials of wrath. (Rev. 16f)
    As for the charts. I explained last Sunday that the four beasts of Daniel 7 do not correlate with the statue that Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about in Daniel 2. A lot of mistakes are made, in my opinion, by establishing a position, then using scripture to defend it. Hence, the charts. We can’t prove that the visions correlate. Much of my time today was explaining why I disagree with the interpretations of Daniel 8, etc. are concerning Antechoirs Epiphanes, even though the history of the ram and goat track precisely.
    The Little Horn has not arrived. When he does, he will try to change times and laws. I suspect he will choose the Muslim calendar and sharia.

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  57. I believe the essence of the last five books of Daniel are summarized in Dan. 12:10. “Many shall be purified, made white and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand. But the wish shall understand.”

    This should not occupy us to obsession. But we need to be aware. The three parables of Matthew 25 say the same thing: WATCH.

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  59. Chas – What would you say to an eager Christian who sees things moving in the direction of the end times, & says, “Bring it on!”

    IOW, rejoicing to see the world falling apart because it points to the Rapture & Christ’s 2nd Coming being closer.

    That kind of attitude makes me uncomfortable.

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  61. Karen
    It makes me uncomfortable too. Not that I don’t trust God’s protective hand, but for the tribulation that will occur.
    Does it make anyone happy to see anyone weeping for his daughter who was kidnapped by Boko Harum?
    How about the guy watching his son starve to death, his wife being gang raped?
    The people being crucified because they won’t say “There is no god but Allah, and Mohammed is his prophet”? The beheaded newsman could have saved his life with that statement.
    People who say, “Bring it on” probably believe as most in my church. That is: Christ is going to rapture the church and the church will not endure the tribulation. A guy teaching that in our church once said, “You won’t see any of that because you’ll already be in heaven”
    I say that because I see the “Little Horn” coming from one of the four kingdoms created after the death of Alexander. Likely from the Middle East.
    I need to be careful though, that I don’t commit the error I see in others. That is. establishing a position and making scripture fit it. But so far, it fits well without any manipulation.

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  62. Chas, I believe the essence of the book of Daniel, and a great many other prophecies of the future, is found in 12:8-9 and 13: “And I heard, but I understood not: then said I, ‘O my Lord, what will be the end of these things?’ And he said, ‘Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are closed up and sealed till the time of the end…. But go you your way until the end: for you shall rest, and stand in your lot at the end of the days.'” As a young adult, I would feel that I had no future life, as those around me plotted out the prophecies and foresaw the end soon.

    As I read Christ’s words to his disciples about his second coming and God’s reply to Daniel’s last question, I began to realize – we watch by being faithful in the calling that God has given us (Matthew 24:46). Jesus used the illustration of two women grinding flour and two men working in a field – neither are obviously godly pursuits, but necessary and everyday. We will be “found so doing” when we continue to volunteer in the community, teach in a mission school, write books and articles, work in an office, get married, having children and raise them, always living for the Lord Jesus Christ. For in Christ, we too are assured that we will rest and stand in our lot at the end of the days (John 14:3).

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  63. Karen, when someone says “Bring it on.” ask is he ready to try buying something without the Arabic symbol for “In the name of Allah” stamped on his forehead or hand in order to activate his debit card.

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  64. 😳 I accidentally liked my own post 😆

    I discovered this quote while reading the early church fathers. It is from a letter written by an unknown author to an inquirer, thought to date from about 130 A.D. I liked it because it captures what the Church should be like:

    “For the Christians are distinguished from other men neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. For they neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life.

    They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers. They marry, as do all [others]; they beget children; but they do not destroy their offspring. They have a common table, but not a common bed. They are in the flesh, but they do not live after the flesh.

    They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven. They obey the prescribed laws, and at the same time surpass the laws by their lives. They love all men, and are persecuted by all. They are unknown and condemned; they are put to death, and restored to life. They are poor, yet make many rich; they are in lack of all things, and yet abound in all; they are dishonoured, and yet in their very dishonour are glorified. They are evil spoken of, and yet are justified; they are reviled, and bless; they are insulted, and repay the insult with honour; they do good, yet are punished as evil-doers. When punished, they rejoice as if quickened into life; they are assailed by the Jews as foreigners, and are persecuted by the Greeks; yet those who hate them are unable to assign any reason for their hatred.

    To sum up all in one word— what the soul is in the body, that are Christians in the world.”

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  67. So our sermon today was based on Matt. 2:15.

    Some interesting points from the notes I jotted down (I am a compulsive note-taker, comes from being a reporter I guess):

    * The goodness of God is seen in this

    * God has ordained all of this (meaning everything) for His glory and for our good.

    * Jesus is the embodiment and fulfillment of God’s people — he fulfilled everything God requires of His people

    * The retelling of the exodus: God puts Jesus in the land of Egypt so He can later come out of it

    * God’s people aren’t God’s people because of ethnicity or their own goodness, but because in Whom they trust. As it says in Rom. 11, there is no distinction.

    * There is a warning for those who presume too much. Many were not true Israelites — one has to have the faith of Abraham to be so, not the bloodline of Abraham.

    * Harod, king in Israel, was really no different from Pharaoh in Exodus times. Israel in Christ’s day was a lot like Egypt in Moses’ day.

    * Jesus was called out of the promised land and into the “unpromised” land

    * Throughout history, we have all failed to completely follow God. Christ came for that purpose, to show mercy on his people.

    * Jesus continues to lead the exodus — exodus away from the bondage of sin, judgement and death. We are being brought out of the spiritual Egypt.

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  68. Roscuro, I liked the letter and agree with it entirely. I didn’t real all the link because it’s too long.
    I do not obsess on this. I mentioned the lesson on Daniel 9 & 12 that I taught this morning and responded to Cheryl’s post. I mentioned, in closing, both today and last Sunday. My parents spent their lives looking for Christ’s return, My pastor in West Lafayette was looking for Christ’s return. Christ did not return. But when they face the Lord, they’ll find that they were doing the right thing.
    What should we do. WATCH. That’s what Jesus said. As a Christian and a citizen of the US we should resist every attempt to degrade the Christian heritage we inherited.
    Our previous pastor said that the church had to be raptured because it would prevent all the evil the Beast intends to force on the world.
    I say, (I didn’t say to him or anyone else, yet) that the Church hasn’t prevented 50 million abortions, men marrying men, prohibition of someone saying, “God bless you” in school, prayer in the courthouse, and a multitude of other things. Provide your own list. We need to prevent, as much as possible, by any court in our borders, of any decision based on sharia.

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  69. Good Sunday….and great conversation going on here…Chas…my Clemson guy wouldn’t argue with you…they lost yesterday now didn’t they? We would have loved to have been in your Sunday School class today…we happen to be in agreement with you 🙂
    We are studying Ruth in SS….we had a very good class this morning (our teacher is a retired Math professor at the Academy well loved by his cadets…we are blessed to have him when he is around…he flies for a major airline now).
    Donna….for FB friends list…are you talking about how to categorize your friends? When you hover over their name, a box will come up saying “acquaintance” “close friend” “friend”….and you can click that on for categorizing….I notice if I click “acquaintance” I will not see everything they do on FB….and I also un click “notifications” of many friends with whom I have no close contact…(these are people I had known when I was a teen and have not seen nor heard from since…somehow they “found” me and requested to be my “friend”….

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  71. Thanks Karen and Nancyjill.

    I wanted to set up groups of friends with whom I could share more specific posts. So I’m trying to create, for example, a “Christian friends” group (which I have) … But now how can I add names to that group (since I keep remembering others that should be on it?).

    I see where you can “edit” the category, but I see no clear “add” function for adding a name

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  72. I think it’s only been fairly recently that the (modern-day) church has realized there have been several streams of eschatology that have been embraced by orthodox Christianity through the ages. I have evangelical friends who are surprised still by this.

    Actually, the Dispensational form of pre-mil is very recent — but it somehow managed to eclipse every other view for a season, which is unfortunate and has led to all kinds of speculations. 😦

    I suspect that led many Christians who had became burned out on that view (as predictions failed to materialize time after time) began to search church history & the Scriptures (what it does or doesn’t say about end times) a bit more.

    As has been pointed out already, whatever framework we think is closest to what scripture as a whole teaches, we are to wait and to be ready, exercising humility when it comes to knowing the future.

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  73. Ok, my reasoning behind this:

    So far as we are know, the Beast (little horn) will arise from among the ten horns of the beast in Daniel 7:7f. He will conquer by deceit until he obtains power. He will control a large part of the world.
    There is only one thing standing in the way from an earthly standpoint. The US has, since before 1900, been the dominant nation in the world. It is American power that has settled and prevented wars across the globe.
    The Beast, with all his power, is constrained by a powerful America.
    It may be part of God’s plan to make the US of no consequence in world affairs.
    The fact that it is in God’s plan does not mean that we need to promote that. We can’t presume on God. He will do what He will do. We need to do the right thing. That is, keep America as strong as possible and resist evil where we find it.
    I see evil spreading across the Middle East and the entire world.
    Just like Daniel said it would.

    As early as the 1860’s Abraham Lincoln something similar to this”
    “Without American permission, all the nations of Europe couldn’t drink a cup of water from the Ohio River”. He was correct. We have been insular for over a century now.

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  74. I may be wrong, but I thought whether one believed the church would be raptured before or during (or even after?) the tribulation were all acceptable variations all within Dispensationalism.

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  75. To me, the primary or key Dispensational markers are more centered on there being two distinct “tracks,” if you will, one for the church and one for Israel (which is seen as connected to modern-day secular Israel); and the belief that the temple will be rebuilt, complete with animal sacrifices being reinstated.

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  76. Just discovered AC vents in the ceiling of the garage and tacks and strip evidence of it once being carpeted. The 1360 SF house I just bought just became a 1560sF house once the garage door comes down and an insulated wall goes up and some carpet.

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  77. I found this on the pre- and mid-trib views under dispensationalist premillennialism, with a post-trib view (according to this article) falling under historic premillennialism:

    http://www.theopedia.com/Premillennialism

    Uniqueness of dispensational premillennialism
    Classic dispensationalists (ala C. I. Scofield and Lewis Sperry Chafer) are pre-tribulationists and believe that the second coming will be in two stages separated by a 7-year period of tribulation. At the first he will return in the air to rescue those who are Christians at that time (the rapture). Then follows a seven-year period of suffering in which the Antichrist will conquer the world and kill those who refuse to worship him. At the end of the seven years, the final witness will go out before men and angels and Christ will return to the earth. He will defeat the Antichrist, and rescue the Jews and those who have converted to Christianity during the tribulation period.

    Dispensationalism has also spawned Mid-tribulationists who believe that Christians will not be removed until 3-1/2 years of the final seven years have elapsed. They place the Rapture when the Temple sacrifices have been halted and the Antichrist has enshrined himself in the Temple, calling himself God.

    By contrast, historic premillennialists would be generally categorized as “Post-tribulationists” because they see no appreciable difference in the timing of the rapture and the “official” second coming. Thus they hold that Christ will not return until the end of the Great tribulation and that Christians will suffer for the faith as they bring forth the final witness associated with the 5th seal of the book of Revelation.

    The belief in the pretribulation or midtribulation rapture theories of dispensationalism is often criticized, on the grounds that it results in the division of Christ’s single return into two stages. Some see it as an impossible “apartheid of the Elect” of sorts which is not seen in Scripture. Pretribulationists defend it on the basis of a Scripture passage which affirms that God has not appointed His people to wrath and the promise to the Philadelphian church: “I also will keep thee out of the hour of trial, which is about to come upon the whole habitable world, to try them that dwell upon the earth.” Post-tribulationists counter that the tribulation associated with the final witness of the saints is in no way connected to the wrath of God. This wrath of God will only only come at the last day and it will fall upon the heads of the wicked at the last judgment.

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  79. Donna – On the right-hand side of the page, under the Manage List button, there should be a portion that shows “On This List”, then some pictures of the people on the list. Right under those pictures, there should be a box that says “+Add friends to this list.” Type the name in there.

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  80. Got it, thanks.

    So … I can post things only to this group, but it also shows me what only this group has posted if I go there …. Perfect.

    I post about my faith sometimes, but realize with the hodgepodge of folks I have on FB now (600+ people, many of them work/community/source connections) too many of those posts might not be well received.

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  82. Another resource says:

    “Most dispensational premillennialists understand the rapture as an event that will occur before the Tribulation; a few dispensationalists treat the rapture as an event that happens during the Tribulation, either halfway through the Tribulation or immediately before the final outpouring of God’s wrath ….

    “Dispensational premillennialists understand the rapture of the church and the return of Jesus to earth to occur at different times.

    “Other views of the end times see that the rapture and return happen at the same time.”

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  83. on Kindle I want to categorize my Bibles, books about writing, cats, cookbooks, general non-fiction, devotional, fiction-romance, fiction-other, etc. Also, if I have a lot by one author then I might group all those together. It is a big project, but now that I understand a bit more about it, I can work on it along.

    Also, I might want to have a category for read & reviewed. Decisions, decisions. It goes along with an accounting mindset where everything is suppose to be in its proper place.

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  84. I do not carry the accounting mindset into the home. Everything should have its proper place there, but mostly things are not in their proper place. Bosley makes doubly sure of that! I love that cat! She is an excellent scapegoat for why our house is a bit of a disaster.

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  86. Husband and I just had sub sandwiches from Firehouse Subs in Lovejoy, GA. Don’t you love that name, Lovejoy? It is south of the office. I decided to go with husband into the office today to work on book reviews, etc. It is SO quiet here this evening. Almost time to go see how much Bosley has destroyed the house in our absence. 🙂 😦 ❤

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  92. Hey! Surely someone else is here. We can’t stop at 91.

    And I just did what Roscuro did by liking my own post accidentally. However, if you click the star again, it un-likes itself.

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  104. Yep. 🙂 That early-bird husband has kinda cramped my style on late nights. But when he goes to bed much before 11:00, I end up getting back up for an hour or two. I’m on my way back to bed now, though. Good night.

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  108. Interesting eschatology discussions we have on here from time to time. We don’t really hear much about that at our church, so I enjoy reading and learning more about the different viewpoints on here.

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  110. I didn’t think I would even get online this weekend, but here I am talking to myself, it appears.

    Well, good night, and have a nice Labor Day, those who celebrate it tomorrow.

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