by

Our Daily Thread 3-28-15

Good Morning.

Thank you all for the prayers and condolences for Mom’s passing. My family and I appreciate it more than I’m capable of expressing at the moment, but I wanted you all to know that it helps us, and we are thankful for them.

Allen, Cheryl, and Elizabeth

______________________________________________

On this day in 1774 Britain passed the Coercive Act against Massachusetts.  

In 1864 a group of Copperheads attacked Federal soldiers in Charleston, IL. Five were killed and twenty were wounded.  

In 1933 the Nazis ordered a ban on all Jews in businesses, professions and schools.   

And in 1963 Sonny Werblin announced that the New York Titans of the American Football League was changing its name to the New York Jets.

______________________________________________

Quote of the Day

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.”

Elie Wiesel

______________________________________________

 Today is Evelyn Tornquist Karlsson‘s birthday. It’s also Bill Gaither’s. So here’s Evie on Bill’s show. From GaitherVEVO

And on this day in 1943 Sergei Rachmaninoff died. 😦 From theoshow2 who has a nice collection of classic performances. 🙂

______________________________________________

Anyone have a QoD?

45 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 3-28-15”

  2. AJ, Words cannot express enough sympathy and none of us can truly know how you are feeling. What little time I had to “prepare” (because you really can’t) for my father’s death was not enough. I can’t imagine it happening suddenly like this. You never are ready to lose a parent. I think I can safely say we are all thinking of you and your family and praying for all of you.
    You are our blog leader and kept us all together as our loosely knit family, so of course we hurt because you hurt. It cannot compare to how you feel.

    Because I always turn to the Book of Common Prayer for the right words when I have none here is this portion from Rite 1

    I am the resurrection and the life, saith the Lord;
    he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live;
    and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.

    I know that my Redeemer liveth,
    and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth;
    and though this body be destroyed, yet shall I see God;
    whom I shall see for myself and mine eyes shall behold,
    and not as a stranger.

    For none of us liveth to himself,
    and no man dieth to himself.
    For if we live, we live unto the Lord.
    and if we die, we die unto the Lord.
    Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.

    Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord;
    even so saith the Spirit, for they rest from their labors.

    Liked by 7 people

    Reply

  4. AJ- Those of us who have lost parents can sympathize with you. And, of course, there is One who “bore our sorrows” on whom we can “cast our anxieties because he cares for us.” Isn’t it great that we have a God who cares for us in our times of sorrow?

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  5. Mama Ruth Humor:
    Last night she was returned to the nursing home. They have put her on a cardiac diet, but even with that she managed to scam 5 meals on Thursday. One of the nurses even went in her own lunch bag and pulled out a banana for her because she was making such a fuss about them not bringing her anything to eat.
    She called her youngest daughter last night to find out where she was. R told her, “Mother you are at G O”. She said she thought she was home, R told her, “No M’am you live at G O now”. She questioned about being in the hospital. R explained that “Yes M’am you have been in the hospital but you are back at G O. Her reply? Wait for it…

    “Well no wonder I didn’t answer the phone and only got the answering machine when I called the house. I wasn’t there!”

    Now, isn’t it perfectly logical that if she wasn’t at home she didn’t answer her phone when she called?

    Liked by 8 people

    Reply

  6. Makes perfect sense to me Kim! 🙂

    Continued prayers for you AJ, Cheryl and Elizabeth…thinking of your dear sweet family and asking our precious Lord to carry you through…knowing He will…. ❤

    Like

    Reply

  8. Kim, your Book of Common Prayer is so inspiring, and does say just the right words.

    Peter, those of us who have lost parents do have a bond in knowing depths of hurt that we knew not before.

    We are all heavy-burdened over this loss during Easter season, yet this of all times reminds of the better place A.J.’s mom is at right now. ❤

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  9. I’m so sorry, AJ. I lost my mom in much the same way — suddenly from a heart attack, by the time I reached the hospital she was gone. It leaves your head and your world spinning when it’s so unexpected like that (although I knew if she — or any of us — had a choice, that’s probably the way to go, without the lingering illnesses).

    But it is so tough on those left behind, there’s just a lot to process all at once. 😦 Hang in there. You & your family have our prayers, as you already know.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  10. Yes, I think that is a bleeding heart, Kim. As soon as I opened the page, I thought, “How appropriate!”

    I too have lost both parents, my mom of a heart attack in which she apparently died instantly (alone). But she was 78 and had known heart trouble, and in that sense it really wasn’t a shock. But losing your mom is just . . . weird. She’s the one who gave birth to you–how can she cease to exist? It’s a hard loss, and you have my sympathies.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  11. My sister, meanwhile, also lost her husband (less than a month past his 46th birthday) less than two years ago, without a chance to say goodbye, since he died in the ambulance that was taking him from his workplace to the hospital. It’s a stunning loss.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  12. I find it interesting that I can grow bleeding hearts way up here and Kim has grown them way down south.

    Yes, losing a mom is very hard. My mom had been very sick with cancer for over a year so we were as ‘prepared’ as anyone can be, but it is still hard and, like Cheryl said, weird. I found I held up quite well during all that time – it seemed hardest on my daughter and my sister, but more than a year later we were driving home from the city and I just started sobbing, I was missing her so much.

    But it does get easier and the memories fonder. I’m so grateful that I know where she is and that I will see her again. Such a hope that we have.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  13. Now, isn’t it perfectly logical that if she wasn’t at home she didn’t answer her phone when she called?

    I have a friend who went to visit another friend while in St. Louis (this is a farmer’s wife). Since her friend wasn’t home, she went to leave and met the postman on the driveway, who was holding out the mail for her, thinking she was the one who lived there. She said, “I’m not me.” Then, realizing what she said, she added, “Oh. I’m me, but I’m not here.” The postman just took the mail to the mailbox.

    If you knew my friend, you would understand her confusing statement. And she is able to laugh at herself.

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

  14. The bleeding hearts were one of my Mom’s favorite flowers. She always had them, roses, and peonies. Even though her name was Rose, it’s the bleeding hearts that always remind me of Mom.

    I just don’t know what to say. I’m too shocked to get my head around it all right now. Tomorrow is the viewing, then the grave side service will be later in the week. So we’ll see how things go. I’m worried about Dad too. He’s lost his wife of over 50 years and the adjustment will be rough.

    And again, thank you all for the prayers and condolences. 🙂

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  15. AJ, I always think of my parents when I see carnations. Dad brought them home to Mom periodically. I suspect he chose them because they were inexpensive, but they are pretty, smell good, and last longer than roses, and they are to me still a reminder of my dad’s love for my mom.

    May you and your family love each other well during this season of loss, transition, and memories.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  17. For me it’s tulips.

    My mom had just planted tulips before she died. A few weeks after she was gone, surprise, up they came, in all their colorful splendor. I’d completely forgotten that she’d mentioned to me she’d planted the bulbs in the front yard.

    I laughed and cried at the same time when I saw them.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  18. Aj is correct in that it will be more difficult for his father. The children have things to do and other people requiring their attention. For over fifty years she was part of everything he did, regardless of what it was.

    You just saw me talking about “bringing my woman home”. You may be surprised at the difference it makes. I may be sitting in my room blogging or reading and she is in her nook watching TV or something. No interaction for hours. But she is THERE and it makes a difference. It’s hard to explain. But they become part of each other after so many years.
    He will walk into the room and nobody is there, snoozing in the LazyBoy. And He is alone. He will need to work it out. Not much you can do but understand.

    Liked by 9 people

    Reply

  19. It somehow doesn’t seem right that flowers go on blooming and life continues when your world has just turned upside down.

    I remember dreading the end of each day because it took me yet another day away from a world in which I had a mother.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  21. Gardenias remind me of my mom. She planted some in a box under our living room window before she got sick and died later in the year.

    Like

    Reply

  22. It is funny to me because we all know my mother was a certifiably crazy alcoholic, but before all that got away from her she was a master gardener. She grew roses, azaleas, dahlias, and a host of other plants. She had been a member of the Camellia Club, but what I remember most is that she grew prize winning amaryllis. Some of the blooms were the size of dinner plates (is the way they were described). The photography department of the University of South Alabama came to the house to take photos of them. No one knew her secret…that is no one but me and a fat lot of good that has done me in life!
    Should you wish to grow them the secret is cotton seed meal. It stinks to high heaven but you will have the greenest green, the reddest red right on through the rainbow.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  23. Chas, my great uncle and my uncle both lost their wives to cancer in the same year. My uncle got sick and died a year and a day after his wife’s death. I took care of him in his final illness, and my great uncle and he visited together and talked about what it is like to be a widower. They both spoke about the loneliness (we did not know then that my uncle’s illness would be fatal), and the vivid dreams of having their beloved wife again only to wake to reality. It has been several years now, and my great uncle says he still looks up, expecting to see his wife.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  24. It is snowing here in Connecticut. It is March 28.

    Those two statements shouldn’t go together.

    I also thought the Bleeding Hearts were symbolic.

    My mom was a wonderful gardener, but I am definitely not. I even killed an air fern once.

    However, I have managed to keep alive – & thriving – children, pets & my husband.

    Liked by 8 people

    Reply

  25. When my dad died, I was still living at home (not yet 17) and so were two younger siblings. My older brothers were out of the house and they had never lived in the town where we moved after Dad retired, but they all came within a day or two. I don’t remember how many of them had made it by the next morning–probably only one (and his wife) or two, since the others lived farther away, but at least one. And somebody started cooking breakfast, and it all just seemed so off. Why would we want breakfast? Our father had died a few hours before (11:00 or so at night). But then I realized that it was “illogical,” that we really should eat. But for a few moments the idea that normal parts of life could continue felt a bit like a sacrilege.

    Chas, I’ve entered it from the other end. I became a bride at 44 (the same age my sister became a widow). I had lived for many, many years as a single woman, and I know how hugely my life has been changed. I don’t think I can ever take his presence for granted, because I know what it is not to have it. But I was old enough when I married that “till death do us part” was a very real part of what I was undertaking–I think that a 20-year-old bride may think of that as so far in the future she’s hardly aware of it, but I’d already lost both parents (and my stepfather), had already lost a sister-in-law who’d barely entered her fifties, and had seen many people lose their spouses to cancer or other things. Even before I married him, I knew that statistically speaking I was signing up for great pain someday. (And then two years later, we suddenly lost a 46-year-old brother-in-law who seemed healthy–younger and healthier than my own husband, by appearances.)

    Death is an enemy for those left behind, a great enemy. But our own time till it is so short, and for believers, death is the door to glory. But it sure is an ugly enemy from this side.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  26. Saw this on Facebook. Anyone know how true this is?

    “Why did Jesus fold the linen burial cloth after His resurrection? I never noticed this….

    “The Gospel of John (20:7) tells us that the napkin, which was placed over the face of Jesus, was not just thrown aside like the grave clothes. The Bible takes an entire verse to tell us that the napkin was neatly folded, and was placed separate from the grave clothes.

    ” ‘…Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying to the side.’

    “Was that important? Absolutely!

    “Is it really significant? Yes!

    “In order to understand the significance of the folded napkin, you have to understand a little bit about Hebrew tradition of that day. The folded napkin had to do with the Master and Servant, and every Jewish boy knew this tradition.

    “When the servant set the dinner table for the master, he made sure that it was exactly the way the master wanted it..

    “The table was furnished perfectly, and then the servant would wait, just out of sight, until the master had finished eating, and the servant would not dare touch that table, until the master was finished. Now, if the master were done eating, he would rise from the table, wipe his fingers, his mouth, and clean his beard, and would wad up that napkin and toss it onto the table.
    The servant would then know to clear the table. For in those days, the wadded napkin meant, ‘I’m done’.

    “But if the master got up from the table, and folded his napkin, and laid it beside his plate, the servant would not dare touch the table,
    because……….. The folded napkin meant,
    ‘I’m coming back!’

    “HE’S COMING BACK!!!!”

    Of course, I know the part about Him coming back is true. 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  27. KarenO, I was talking about that with my massage therapist a few weeks ago. It meant so much to her, yet I don’t know that we need that with all the other scripture telling us not so subtly that He is coming back again. It seems quite obscure. And how is a grave cloth the same as a napkin? Just some thoughts. I don’t know why the cloth was folded and not just laying there like I leave the sheets on the guest bed when I go home from visiting my sister. (Sometimes I bring them to the laundry room – depends what she wants at that time)

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  28. Karen,I have heard that before. But I haven’t verified it. It makes a good story, but the resurrection and eating are different events. I’m not sure it applies.
    But. as I said. A nice story.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  29. I think sometimes rather than just taking something at face value we look for a deeper meaning. I do think it is interesting to view the Bible through a knowledge of Hebrew, Roman, and Greek history and custom. It can give us a better understanding. Just last week as we were studying Revelation the priest read something from a Roman history book written about Caesar. It didn’t change the meaning of what we had read in Revelation but it did give us a better context in which to understand it.
    Karen’s story is a nice story, but I don’t think it sheds any better light on the fact that Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  30. Thank you, Karen, for sharing that. I do not remember ever hearing that before. It is interesting to consider the customs of the day that we do not do now and think how they ate woven into what we read in Scripture.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  33. Last Sunday in my independent workbook time where I am working in Jennifer Kennedy Dean”s study, The Transforming Blood of Christ she makes note of how in the Old Testament, to cover sin, blood is sprinkled seven times. Then she shows how Jesus shed drops of blood seven times:
    1)Garden of Gethsemane, sweated blood drops
    2)pulled out beard/beat his face
    3) crown of thorns 4)scourged back
    5) Nailed hands
    6) Nailed feet
    7) Pierced side

    Like

    Reply

  34. Our worship service today was mostly a music program. It was well done, and the pastor spoke for a short time making an appeal more to those who have not yet received Christ as Lord and Savior. The music was great for those who know the background of the story in the Bible. I am not sure if it would have appealed to a true seeker who has never been to church before.

    Like

    Reply

  35. Our (interim) pastor (whom I wish could stay on as pastor) spoke about Jesus’ lamenting over Jerusalem, the cries of “Hosanna!”, & the meaning of the word Hosanna (“Save, I pray!” or “Save now!”).

    We also had palm fronds to take with us, some shaped into crosses. Do your churches pass out palms on Palm Sunday? (Not all Assemblies of God churches do this, but some do.)

    Like

    Reply

  38. The palms & palms-into-crosses I think is mostly typical of more historic high-church traditions, including Roman Catholics, Anglicans/Episcopalians — also Lutherans, probably some mainline Presbyterians as well?

    Like

    Reply

  39. We continued our study in Romans this morning — we also were all encouraged to invite people to church next week (though he said we should be inviting people to church EVERY Sunday). The church has printed out cards to distribute if we wish and there also are social media tags and links available to use on our church website.

    Like

    Reply

  41. Church trivia. Where do the ashes for Ash Wednesday come from?
    The Palm fronds left over from last year.

    I was once upon a time Mrs. Episcopal Church Lady. The ashes are mixed with an oil so they are easily spread on the forehead.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  42. We haven’t seen the palm fronds & crosses done before, except in Catholic churches (Lee grew up Catholic, my parents were lapsed Catholics). But they were a nice touch.

    As for the folded napkin, our belief in Jesus coming back is certainly not based on whether or not He folded it, but it would be an interesting tidbit if it were true. I don’t trust these little stories that go around Facebook or via emails, because so many seem plausible, but are made up.

    Like

    Reply

  43. The folded napkin as Jesus-returning wouldn’t make sense, as if it “said” anything it would be “You will see me again” (since they hadn’t yet seen Him after the resurrection), not “I will come again.”

    But speculating (anything beyond “oh that’s interesting”) on the possible meaning of trivial details seems pointless. We aren’t told what it “means.” It may simply mean it was by itself (not touching the graveclothes) since it was on His head and they were on His body, and it was folded in on itself because now it was empty. At least I’ve always figured that such a casual meaning was likely. But since we aren’t told who folded it (if it was folded by hands), it could have been Jesus or the angels, or . . . but it really doesn’t add anything at all to the straightforward accounts that He rose and that He is coming again.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  44. Sometimes I find trivial little things interesting. I don’t base my faith on them, though.

    Seems much of what I’ve written today on here or on Facebook is pointless.

    Like

    Reply

  45. Yeah, Karen, I don’t see anything wrong with these “what do you think?” conversations on here. I’m thinking more of whoever wrote about this in the first place. Teaching napkin folding as a hidden “I’m coming back” message when Scripture doesn’t say anything about the meaning of the napkin seems pointless. We know from direct revelation that He is coming back, so why bother with unclear passages that “may” say the same thing? Someone else could speculate “in that time and place, only women folded napkins. Jesus folded this napkin to show His feminine side. Maybe it was a hint of secret homosexual tendencies. . . .” Obviously such speculation would be wrong on several levels . . . but once we start nitpicking details to find out “what they mean,” we open ourselves to other people doing the same thing.

    This just isn’t a good way to interpret Scripture.

    One time I was at someone else’s church, and that pastor was preaching on the Good Samaritan. A good part of his “sermon” was focusing on how the man who got hurt was leaving Jerusalem, and he interpreted that to mean he was walking away from God and that’s why he got hurt. Balderdash! He further said that the Good Samaritan poured wine and oil on his wounds, and the oil represents the Holy Spirit and the wine represents joy. No, they don’t–they represent medical treatment! Later in the sermon he got into a mini lecture on the evils of smoking and drinking, and it was all I could do when I shook his hand after the sermon not to ask, if wine represents joy and the Christian is pro-joy, why is it wrong to drink alcohol. But I was a guest, so for my host’s sake I held my tongue. (I would have asked just as an innocent question, not as a confrontation, but I desisted anyway.)

    We can’t over-analyze the details of the text beyond what they say. The big-picture stuff, sure. Let’s get all the meaning we can out of the resurrection and what it says of God’s power. But by the time we’re looking for the significance in the girl Jesus healed being 12 years of age, we’re over-analyzing.

    Like

    Reply

Leave a reply to nancyjill Cancel reply