Good Morning!
23 Days ‘Til Christmas!
Today’s header photo is from Misten and her personal photographer. 🙂
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On this day in 1816 the first savings bank in the U.S., the Philadelphia Savings Fund Society, opened for business.
In 1917, during World War I, hostilities were suspended on the eastern front.
In 1961 Cuban leader Fidel Castro declared in a nationally broadcast speech that he was a Marxist-Leninist and that he was going to lead Cuba to communism.
And in 1970 the Environmental Protection Agency began operating under its first director, William Ruckelshaus. 🙄 You can read more about how that’s working out in today’s news thread.
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Quote of the Day
“An expert is somebody who is more than 50 miles from home, has no responsibility for implementing the advice he gives, and shows slides.”
Edwin Meese
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As I seem to recall, several of you are fans of this song, and the performers. 🙂
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Wandering Views 
Good morning Mistin, Good morning Aj.
I thought all of WW I ended on November 11.
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Peter: I say go for the contest this week. I posted the TB game in the Pigskin thread.
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Good morning!
Musical Advent Calendar – Day 2: The same words and tune as yesterday, but in a very different style.
http://youtu.be/Si7_s0AJ3-c
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Good morning to those awake and may Jo be enjoying a good night’s rest and sweet dreams.
Mister is a real beauty and named appropriately. I love seeing her expression about being out in the fresh snow. I also had a fleeting thought that her face structure reminds me a bit of a horse. When I was young the first dog I ever saw that inclined my heart to want one was a collie. You are blessed to have her, Cheryl, and she is blessed to have you.
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Edwin Meese is old and out of date. Now it’s PowerPoint presentations.
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I know I typed Misten, for Miss Tennesee, but Smartphone changed it to Mister. Does Hal reside in this phone?
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Janice, Smartphone is too smart for it’s own good.
It made the same mistake yesterday.
You, in a comment to-about me, had mistyped “Chase”. It didn’t like the capital c, and changed it to “chase” .
But I knew what you meant. But you have to be careful when machines get too smart.
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Someone else probably has a better question for today, but something I am curious about concerning churches is regarding outreach. If a church resides in a community that has a distinct population it could serve, do you think that God has placed the church near the need so that particular body of believers should be called to make a difference for the closest need? In particular, the two churches in my neighborhood are both located in what I see as unique places. One is beside the county school which serves the special needs children of the area. The other church is just down the road from the regional VA Hospital. From what I have seen, neither has an outreach to those needy groups that God has passing by the churches daily. Do you have any thoughts on this?
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Good Morning all. This morning my stepmother called. My dad would have been 76 today. Hard to believe it has been six and half years without him. Oh to sit on the back deck and drink to much coffee. I’d even enjoy a nice spat with him. We spread his ashes on his birthday.
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Chas, I think it was Donna ‘ s phone that changed your name yesterday. Mine phone is underlining your name with red to indicate a misspelling. We will see if it changes it when I hit send. As long as your name, Chas, is at the beginning of a post it probably won’t change it.
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Misten thought that cats have been overrepresented on here recently. 🙂 (Birds too. My husband and I think she sometimes gets jealous of the attention we give the birds. “Look at me! I’m prettier than they are, easily.”)
My girl is ten years old now, but don’t tell her she’s an old dog, because she won’t believe you. She was very happy for our November snowfalls, as you can see. She’d rather spend an hour eating snow than a minute drinking water. My husband joked, though, that after three escapes over the fence on packed snow last year, she is probably picking up snow in her mouth and spitting it next to the fence so she can pile it up. 🙂
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I see where Donna is getting some rain.
Janice, I used to belong to Boulevard BC in Falls Church. It was in a mostly white middle class community. Modest homes. My first home in the area. Eventually some others of different race and culture started moving in. We tried an outreach to them. We had some black members, but they didn’t stay long. They sang in our choir, but didn’t stay.
We had a Korean congregation that met in our church on Sunday afternoons. There was a culture problem because the ladies in our church constantly complained about the mess the Koreans made. They eventually formed their own church. When we joined Boulevard, it had two Sunday morning services. Soon after we left, they sold the church building and moved in with FBC Annandale and changed the name.
It wasn’t due to lack of effort. We tried outreach. I participated in a survey in which I concluded that if everyone who said they went to the local Catholic church actually attended, they would need a giant cathedral.
People generally want to meet with others of like circumstances and preferences.
That’s the reason we attend the early service. If I had nothing but the standing and clapping service, I would leave.
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I understand what you said, Chas, but it somehow gives the appearance of the church as being a social club. I don’t know what it takes to get out of that mold. It seems there will not be effective outreach until something about that changes.
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Given the choice in services, Chas, I would be at the early one with you and E ❤
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I think that a church in a black neighborhood should have black people attending. Really, ideally at least a decent percentage of people in a church should live close to the church–though I know that isn’t always the case. (It isn’t the case with my own church.) People within the church should be reaching out in love to their neighbors (not necessarily as some official church function–I definitely don’t see a problem with getting fellow church members together to reroof the house of the widow who lives next door to the church, if you have those skills within your church, but that is Christians acting in love, not an official church gathering). In Nashville, I had a church down the street from me. An unbelieving neighbor and I were once walking through the neighborhood, and she said with disdain that the house next door to that church had badly overgrown shrubs because the couple in that home had grown elderly and could no longer do the yard care they had once done, and the church should be doing it. And really it would have been a kindness if someone in the church had seen that need and had taken care of it–but do people attending a church even know the people who live around the church? (I do think that in that way, a house church has some things going for it.)
The idea of separate church services for separate constituencies really bothers me. I think the apostle Paul would speak against it strongly, if he saw such a practice. We come together as a body, and we need all parts of the body. Realistically, if some people speak Korean, then they will be gathering with others who speak Korean, but that’s a language issue. Having one service for young people and one for older people is contrary to how the church functions. (And so is having one service for children and another for adults!)
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It was me (or, more precisely, my computer, not my iPhone) that changed chas to chase (did it again just now — automatically does it if I don’t remember to capitalize the *c*). On my screen now, *chas* is underlined in red, warning me that I’ve made a mistake. Our computers and our phones are all smarter than we are. Or they think they are.
There’s always a human override function. For now anyway.
Misten!
And, yes, it is raining in southern california. At long last. And what a beautiful sight and sound it is.
“Let All Mortal Flesh” is one of our regular hymns at church. But serious Presbyterians don’t do the rap version. 🙂
My former Presby church was very small (50ish on a big Sunday) that was located in a largely black and Latino part of town, next door to a large Jehovah’s Witness church that was always flourishing and had 5 times the numbers of people we did. Our congregation had a number of black members, but was definitely more “white” than the surrounding area had become at that point.
But a few times a year we’d go out into the neighborhood to knock on doors and pass out copies of the gospel of John if the people were open to them (never my “thing,” but I went once teamed up with our pastor). We had marginal success, I believe one of our elders helped one woman we’d contacted through a Bible study, not sure if she ever came to the church or not though.
My current church is active in conducting services at a couple local hospitals and serves at the homeless mission near the port. Our immediate surroundings are typical “beach city” Californians, comfortable middle and upper middle class for the most part. And we don’t have our own building, we meet in a rented space so the physical church isn’t very evident. We’ve done the door-to-door cold calls there, too. But, in general, I’d say churches are called to minister to those in their immediate areas.
We also buy & deliver gifts for Angel Tree families every year and I believe the families we are matched to are local. All of us could be doing more of course. 😦
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Churches I’ve been with (Presby and Quaker) shared space, also, with Korean congregations — which are really separate churches that just lease space for their services.
But I don’t like the idea of the contemporary vs. traditional services that many of the mega churches have adopted. Something for everyone. But then I don’t like mega church setups in general anyway, they’re simply too big.
A few times we’ve added an early-morning (2nd) service at my current churches when numbers became big enough that it was a fire concern (one of our elders being a city firefighter). And when we’ve been looking at buying existing church properties they seemed too small for one service. But having 2 services seems too much like a division. Our early service, when we had one — and the services were exactly alike otherwise — seemed to attract an older crowd, much older; with with families all sticking with the regular 10 a.m. service.
It becomes a hindrance for people getting to know one another.
My friend Norma preferred the early service so I’d go with her back then, but I much preferred the livelier 2nd service that was much more well-attended. I’m glad we’re back to just the single service for now, but the room does get packed.
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I posted something on the political thread about Jim Webb launching an exploratory committee on 2016
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Don’t know much about Webb, he’d be challenging Hillary as a Dem? I only watched the first couple minutes of the video Kim posted.
I do think Hillary’s time was in ’08. But I suspect the Dems may swing left of Hillary this time around, not centrist (as with someone like Webb). But the party as a whole would do well to beef up its centrist “blue dog” members for the future.
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Good Tuesday…is it still GratiTuesday?
Our church has a more “traditional” service at 9…and then two services at 10:45…not certain what the newly added service in the old sanctuary is like…I stick with our Senior Pastor in the main building…the young Associate Pastor/Jr High Pastor gives the sermon in the old sanctuary…
I don’t particularly care for the music played in the second service…it’s loud and some of the words in the songs are such that I cannot bring myself to sing….I am not a tree…and God is not an ocean…and just what does it mean that “all my fountains are in you”? I know…I just don’t get it 😦 (walking away to work on my attitude……….)
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Donna,
Blue dogs are extinct. They were killed off by the liberal wing of the party. They’d attack him en masse if he considers it.
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Kim,
And as for Webb, ummm…. no.
While I admire his military service record, it pretty much ends there.
He’s pro-abortion and a Roe v Wade supporter. Also thinks it’s OK to take minors across state lines for abortions without parental consent. Also supports embryonic stem cell research.
Voted for the stimulus and against paying down the national debt.
Supports gay marriage.
Supports ENDA- special rights for gays.
Voted for 2 billion in additional funding for cash for clunkers.
Against Voter ID.
Supports federal funding for sanctuary cities harboring illegals.
If I want a serial husband (he’s on his 3rd) married to a lobbyist I’ll just vote for Gingrich who’s much smarter on policy. Sorry, it matters to me.
And if you don’t like class warfare, you won’t much care for him.
I’ll stop now, but I think you get the point. Don’t look just at what he says, but what he’s done. While some has been admirable, much more has not been.
More on Webb here.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Webb
And even more, including some of his voting record here.
http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/james_webb.htm
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I agree with Cheryl, it is ideal that a church should have members and work in its own neighbourhood. If that neighbourhood is diverse, the church should reflect that diversity. Cultural conflicts will arise, but they must not be allowed to divide the body. In Acts 6, when the Grecian Jews complained that they were being neglected for the Hebrew Jews, the apostles responded by forming the second office of the church, deacons. There are ways to solve perceived issues, like people not cleaning up after themselves, without driving away a whole group of Christians of another culture.
Nancy Jill – As you know, I, for the most part have little time for most contemporary Christian music [I included the above example because it is a rare case where the modernized setting did not distort the rhythm of the poetry.] mostly due to poor taste – in poetry, music, and volume – and showy presentation. However, I would like to point out that all those metaphors are Biblical and have been used in traditional works too. For example:
Christians as trees – Trees, branches and vines are a recurring metaphor in Scripture. Among the people that God compared to growing things were – the nation of Israel (Isaiah 5), Neduchanezzer (Daniel 4), Assyria (Ezekial 31), Christ (Isaiah 11 & 53), and Christians (John 15). David also used the metaphor of the tree in Psalm 1, “He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water.”
God as an ocean – David used this picture: “Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.” (Psalm 42:7). Fountains, river, water in general are a very important image in the Bible for life and salvation. It is used in the song in Isaiah’s prophecy (chapter 12), “With joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.” Christ fulfilled that prophecy at the feast of Tebernacles, when buckets of water would be poured on the ground, “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water” (John 7:38); and his encounter with the woman at the well was another image fulfillment. Anne Cousin’s beautiful hymn second verse put it well:
😳 I didn’t close the blockquote properly.
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so much to organize and remember, oh, and I’m supposed to teach too! Principal and several others are sick. Lots to do. Not sure if I will be able to get out the door with all the piles I am taking to school. Good news is that someone is interested in purchasing my old van. I would so like for that to be taken care of. And perhaps I should remember to email Japan because I have no documents saying I purchased my car. oh, well..
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Chas–the eastern front was between Russia and Germany. When the tsar abdicated in 1917, things fell apart pretty quickly and the Russians ended their participation in what was a detested war led by a weak and pretty much detested tsar at the end. 😦
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It’s a wonderful, dark, rainy day in the SoCal. Had some errands to run so I was out driving about a bit, dashing here and there through parking lots (it’s definitely a boot day). We have some pretty good giant puddles along the curbs that are slamming windshields — and to the north of us they were anticipating mudslides.
But overall, the daylong steady rain was sure needed. I hope this bodes well for more of it to come through April.
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Misten 🙂
Just about supper time here — turkey soup. Then a piano lesson after that.
I enjoy my students. The first one started three weeks ago. He came to his first lesson, sat down on the piano bench, and announced that he knew how to draw stars. So I said, “How about you draw me a star on your piano notebook page in honor of your first piano lesson?”
I pointed toward the top of the page, but he proceeded to draw the star in just about the exact middle of the page. 😉 He was concentrating so hard to get all the lines going in the right directions that he pressed so firmly as he slowly drew the pencil across the paper, he made a little rip in the page.
Of course that was unacceptable to him, so he said, “Let me try again.”
And proceeded to tear the page a little more on the second try. 😀
I complimented him on his nicely-shaped stars, and then we proceeded on to the lesson. 😉
Last week my second student started. She and her dad walked in the door, and as the girl took off her coat and boots, her dad chuckled a little as he pointed out she was wearing her pajamas. 🙂 She explained that they had a special day at school because of their class’s good behavior, and she and her 2nd-grade classmates got to wear their jammies to school.
Eight years old is just so much fun. 🙂
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We haven’t had the kind of drought you have in California, but we have had droughts. When we got the downpours that ended it, and it caused trouble because of so much rain, I reminded them that it all went into the reservoirs. That was the important thing. That’s why we have reservoirs, in case of drought.
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I’ve been wearing boots all day up here–relishing the rain! But only about three inches so far, though my husband said this now means we’re average for December 2. But we’re so far behind, we continue to tell God thanks and send more! 🙂
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So refreshing to come over here, though, where it’s always snowing! 🙂
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Phos thank you for your insights….Biblical poetry is something very different to some of the contemporary “worship” songs I am hearing more and more of in the church these days….
When I sense the words of such a song is objectionable in my spirit…I choose to remain silent rather than join in singing the song….it can get very complicated I suppose….
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one hundred
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Donna made me do it.
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Churches ought to bloom where they are planted. But they are often busy doing things far away or across town. As long as they are doing something, even if is it just “healing the broken” in their own little tiny congregation. That can be a huge thing. But I think, if possible, they are where they are to serve the people of the area, which is why I did not like driving so far to church before.
Our current church is rather interesting in that way. They are active in missions, with missionaries scattered in foreign lands as well as in the States. They help and pray for the Children’s Home in Southern Idaho. And many if not most of the congregants are either schoolteachers or otherwise involved or EMT’s or retired teachers. Small congregation of only about twenty or thirty besides us but they seem quite involved. A lot more than I am. It is interesting to see how many of them know the disconnected and are reaching out to them.
Our church has the local food pantry, hosts the Blood Drive, attends most sporting events so they know the children of the town, has a Bible Club for about twenty five children (that is over a quarter of the children in the local elementary school), and many other things. Very active group of people. Could they do more? I am sure they could as could we. But each individual in the church has a position to fill. I don’t think God misplaces people.
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Piano lesson went well tonight. It was the girl’s second lesson, the first time she played an assignment for me. She did very very well! There’s a lot of confidence in her playing — not surprising, as she practiced every day this week (except Sunday, which I don’t require) — and she’s got a great sense of rhythm, which was apparent even in the music she sightread tonight that I assigned her for next week.
She enjoyed learning a new song where one hand “runs away” from the other, to move to a different area of the keyboard, while the hand “left behind” has to sit on a longer note. Then, the hand left behind gets to chase the runaway hand up to the new position. Her motor planning skills are excellent, and she had a lot of fun thinking of it like a chase.
Both she and the boy student I have show a lot of promise — they come well-prepared and are enthusiastic players. A real blessing.
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This is for mumsee’s amusement.
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That was hilarious.
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It did not get that warm in the school room yesterday. Happens when I let it cool down over the weekend. Oops. Too focused on myself again. But we had plenty of blankets and hats so we survived, as Phos can attest to.
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Two weeks!!
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