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Our Daily Thread 5-19-15

Good Morning!

Today’s header photo is from Karen O  and Heidi. 🙂

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On this day in 1568, after being defeated by the Protestants, Mary the Queen of Scots, fled to England where she was imprisoned by Queen Elizabeth.

In 1608 the Protestant states formed the Evangelical Union of Lutherans and Calvinists.

In 1906 The Federated Boys’ Clubs, forerunner of the Boys’ Clubs of America, were organized.

In 1926 Benito Mussolini announced that democracy was deceased. Rome had become a fascist state.

And in 1962 Marilyn Monroe performed her rendition of “Happy Birthday” for President John F. Kennedy at a fund-raiser at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

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Quote of the Day

“A fellow who is always declaring he’s no fool usually has his suspicions.”

Wilson Mizner

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Today is Arthur Meulemans’ birthday. 

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Anyone have a QoD?

46 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 5-19-15”

  1. Heidi looks like a happy dog.
    😦 Someone named Mary DeWalt keeps telling me that I have an approved credit card for me.
    All she needs is some information.

    😦 It’s cloudy in Hendersonville, but no rain.
    Good morning everyone.
    🙂

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  2. Good morning to all. I enjoyed all the otterly entertaining posts yesterday.
    I wanted to post yesterday, but when I finally found time to do so, my phone rang and I never got back to it.

    I am doing the May Day prayer event for several more days online with Anne Graham Lott’s ministry where you pray for an hour each day through her prayer prompts. Very good thing to do for our national benefit.

    The media center at church where I am doing The Reading Room class on Sunday am has a bad leak from the pipes overhead that supply and drain the kitchen in the fellowship hall area. 😦
    It is a big mess in one area, but not right in the area where we do our workbook studies.

    So glad to see Annms again!

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  3. Son made it into Waco at 2 am Monday from his conference in Kalamazoo.
    Scary about all that motorcycle gang warfare just down the road from the university.

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  4. The rain and storms yesterday cooled things down for a bit. I finally could turn my fan off for the evening.

    My brother has a conference call today regarding his employment. Prayers appreciated.

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  5. Chas, a young man from our bank called me the other day.
    YM: Hi, I’m calling to interest you in a credit card
    Me: Oh my gosh, darlin’, have you ever heard of Dave Ramsey?
    YM: Ah, no.
    Me: Well how about you go look him up and then call me back.
    YM: Ah, OK, bye

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  6. Donna, I ordered that “Thriving in Babylon” book you’ve been talking about; I received it but have not yet read it.

    Last night you were musing, “I still remain persuaded, for the most part, that redeeming the culture is part of the Christian calling.”

    I guess (my opinion) it depends on what you mean by that. We do rightly have employment, we are citizens, and we have places we can volunteer or help our neighbor. So you can, for example, write news stories that highlight issues in your community, vote for the candidate you think is best, take food or money to your neighbor who is out of work, drive a different neighbor to the doctor, and give some of your money to Habitat for Humanity and some to the crisis pregnancy center down the street. Those are all good citizen/good neighbor actions, and some of them are directly commanded by Scripture (such as working responsibly at a job).

    Where we get into trouble, I think, is when the church starts thinking it can exert its power and authority in culture change rather than preaching the gospel and loving people. We get distracted from our real mission, and we end up looking like just another political party, and we also end up, like any politician, with political “enemies.”

    I think, for example, of a large church on the South Side of Chicago. An election was coming up for state senator in which the Democratic candidate had just made himself irrelevant–if I recall correctly, he did something that landed him in prison. But he was the Democratic candidate; there was no chance to take him off the ballot and remove him with someone electable, which meant that part of the South Side of Chicago was in danger (shudder) of electing his Republican opponent. So what happened? The pastor of this large church quickly entered the race–as an Independent, wink-wink, with everyone understanding he was really a Democrat. Driving to work I saw a large billboard with this pastor’s picture on it. Naturally, he won the election–and also continued to “pastor” his church. It was an inappropriate thing for a pastor to do, on lots of levels. Later, Jesse Jackson was caught having fathered a child by someone other than his wife, and he promised to take a certain amount of time out of the public eye, I think it was five or six months or something like that. The very next Sunday (three days later, I think it was) this same pastor gave Jesse Jackson his pulpit for part of the morning service (in other words, forget staying out of politics for your sin, you don’t even have to stay out of religious influence) and then it was reported that people wouldn’t “let him” step aside for a few months. This same pastor became (might have happened before this) Jesse Jackson’s designated successor for RAINBOW/ Push. This is what it looks like for a church to seek cultural influence rather than preaching and discipling, and the members individually living out their callings and loving their neighbors. It’s ugly. The black church does it all the time, and the black church is actually a good example of an institution that has largely lost the power of the gospel OR of effective cultural change.

    The black church could be focusing on the gospel and discipling its members, training its young men to be prepared to be husbands and fathers, and in the process affecting cultural change indirectly (since godly men who marry and are responsible fathers are sorely lacking in the black community), but instead it has become largely just another branch of the Democrat party, pushing for more money for a specific community, better schools, and so on–an emphasis that will never ever do much good in a community rotting from the inside out with only a tiny percentage of families having married fathers.

    The black community sees 70% of its children born out of wedlock. Note that if you marry before the baby comes, even if you marry someone other than the father of the child, statistically the baby is not born out of wedlock, so the number of babies conceived out of wedlock is quite a bit higher. Numbers in inner-city neighborhoods would be much higher still, and my own personal hunch is that it’s more like 90% of first-born black children who are conceived out of wedlock; mothers who marry after a child or two take the percentage down, but the vast majority of firstborns are not born to married moms. I’m not even speaking at the moment of the morality of this–many of these are young teens with no father to protect them or teach them a better way, and in some neighborhoods this is such a cultural norm that a virgin bride is truly shocking. But the family in such a neighborhood is not going to be rescued by more money spent on food stamps and schools. Political solutions won’t save it . . . and when the church becomes political, too, they are turning in their gold for fool’s gold.

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  7. Good Morning Everyone. Heidi is a pretty girl. Such a happy face.

    Cheryl, you bring up some interesting points. I have been pondering a question since Sunday night’s 60 Minutes. They had a piece on the Museum of African American History being built on the Mall in DC. I realize that being from the South my question may sound racist, but that is not my intention, so cut me some slack.

    Why do THEY have to have separate everything? I thought that was settled in the 1950’s that separate is NOT really equal. Why have a separate museum (it was approved by Congress in the 1920’s)? Why not just demand to be part of AMERICAN history? The regular student union? Etc and Etc????

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  8. Kim, this is just a guess, but in the past, everything the blacks did was forced upon them to be separate from whites. The Native Americans were also separated from main culture. It therefore became logical to have and desire a separate historical recording not filtered through the eyes of another race. It is somewhat like all the women’s studies at colleges, too. No one wants people who are not like them to record their history from another viewpoint. Just my humble opinion. Of course, from God’s point of view, none of this separation is necessary because it is all His-story of all of His children.

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  10. Good points and ones I generally and wholeheartedly agree with, Cheryl. And I see the proper motivation for “redeeming” the culture as a love of God & neighbor, not presuming to “force” our viewpoint on anyone — but rather wanting to see godly values reflected in the laws that govern us (by general consensus, not imposed). So it starts with the people (although ungodly leaders also can be a curse on a people).

    I do believe we’re heading down a dangerous path culturally in this country. And I think our leaders and laws reflect what the people want more often than the other way around. When the people go astray (even passively in laziness and ignorance), the government runs with it.

    And I absolutely agree that the most important thing the church can do is to be faithful and to preach the gospel — and to love our neighbor (which is where I grieve when I see laws passed that will only put more hurdles in their way to cause them to stumble). But be that as it may, i suppose … One issue I do think Christians should be watching closely is our guarantee in this country of religious freedom (for everyone, obviously, not just christianity). We may very well lose some of those freedoms we’ve enjoyed for so long — but not without the general population’s consent, whether overtly or passively.

    We are to quietly and calmly trust in God’s sovereignty, to know that he is working our his will through good times and bad — and that hard times for His people bring about our good and his glory. We are not to grumble and complain, but to praise Him in all things and in all times and conditions. For everything.

    And I’ve long seen some of the black churches as horribly led astray from the gospel by being too closely tied to politicians (perhaps somewhat understandable as the civil rights movement played out). But it is in black churches where actual POLITICIANS will be invited to “preach” on Sunday mornings. I’d be horrified if something like that happened in our church.

    I’ll be interested to see your take on the book, much of it I agreed with and I found it quite helpful as a check on many of my own attitudes and perspectives. I may be wrong, but I think the pastor might be Adios’ minister? Maybe not, but something about the church sounds familiar and it is in her geographic area. I’ll have to check her FB page to see what church she goes to again.

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  11. So Annie’s curfew has been moved up after my neighbor told me yesterday that the guy across the street saw a coyote come up out of the canyon (which cuts through our block) and grab his cat the other night when he got home from work around midnight.

    I always keep Annie in at night, but have allowed her to stay out in the early evening hours after I get home from work. Now I think as soon as dusk hits I’ll be locking her in for the night — and not letting her out until the sun is mostly fully up in the mornings.

    I realize coyotes can grab cats anytime they want, but they are much more likely to do that during the nighttime and early morning hours …

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  12. Keeping her in 24/7 makes her miserable, she was an outdoor cat when I adopted her and she really needs at least some outdoor time for her quality of life, though it comes with risks, I know.

    Heidi! What a cutie …. 🙂

    And I love the long eyelashes that shaggy dogs “come” with.

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  13. So I noticed an upcoming item on a port agenda for this week and in the process of checking it out yesterday I learned it’s going to be a very cool interactive entertainment event coming to our waterfront this fall … But the port guy told me it’s extremely hush-hush as there is an underground “surprise” factor that needs to be maintained for the producers to pull it all off.

    He’s arranging a conference call for me with the producers on Wednesday to see how we can proceed. They put on pretty amazing events from the looks of it on google (it’s been popular in the UK). Just awkward for us as they’re going to have to start set construction soon which could be rather visible.

    And, of course, our natural default as reporters is to blurt out everything we know asap. 🙂

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  14. Karen, in reading my Discovery Bible study this morning I was in Matt.16:13-20 where Jesus asks Peter who Peter thinks Jesus is. You will remember Peter says, “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.” Then Jesus says, “You are blessed, Simon son of John, because my Father in heaven has revealed this to you. You did not learn this from any human being..” I thought of you and YF and Chrissy when I read it. The responsibility to reveal rests with God, in His way, in His timing. Prayer is your responsibility.

    When I went to the Restoring All Things conference I got a book written by a youn man, Jonathan Morrow, Questioning the Bible: 11 Major Challenges to the Bible’s Authority that might be helpful to your girls if they would read it. The related website to this man’s ministry is impact360institute.org .
    Since he is a youngish person perhaps they would be inclined to hear what he has to say? May be just wishful thinking.

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  16. I have these books to read from the conference, but I am behind on promised reviews so those review books are first in reading pile. I need to be a speed reader but am not. I just did a review for The Advocate by Randy Singer. It was a wonderful book, a classic, in my opinion.

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  17. I think what’s hard about the particular situation in the U.S. also is that it has been a nation founded on religious liberty — and one where the government, in many was, was based on the judeo-christian ethic.

    We see that now rapidly (very rapidly) vanishing/changing and in the civic sphere — having been raised in an evangelized culture where many individual benefits have long been enjoyed (and perhaps taken for granted), we feel naturally compelled to engage in the battle.

    It would appear we seem to be pretty much losing that, at least in this moment in history. Those with children and grandchildren are burdened with knowing their families could face future hardships as a result. The church could come under formal and legal restrictions in the years to come. Maybe sooner than we think.

    But of course, taking the long/eternal view — His story — we also know that God is making good use of all of this.

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  18. I think many of the ideas in the “Thriving in Babylon” book are helpful — and even encouraging –for us as a people of God living in a hostile culture.

    But while we are no doubt living in a hostile culture, it’s also a culture that is still somewhat in the midst of that transition. And that’s where I think my sense of conflict nags at me. Is it too late? Do we accept this is Babylon now, that it’s essentially past the time when it can be salvaged? Has the battle been lost? Perhaps it has and we need to move on in how we view the country in which we live now.

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  19. Just remembering when Obama said we are no longer a Christian nation and how so many disputed that. We have a history of being a Christian nation, and we still have many who are nominal Christians, but in reality I don’t think we are a truly Christian nation anymore. In that sense, yes, we do live in Babylon. We are given over to sin as a nation…just consider the abortion numbers and push on that front although there is the push back now. In considering the earlier question about the black history museum, I hope they get it right in the history about Obama’s stance on abortion of viable babies born alive…and how he encouraged abortion worldwide and what affect that has had on the killing of innocent black babies. Black lives do matter, especially the most vulnerable in the womb or just born.
    Soapbox, is it Ivory or Lava?

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  24. I don’t think we’ve ever been a “Christina” nation, just a nation founded on Judeo-Christian ideas. After all, would a Christian nation ever have allowed freedom of worship to include other religions (or no religion at all)? Jesus never intended for His kingdom to be a political entity.

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  26. I would take issue with saying we are (or ever really were) a “Christian” nation, though our formation certainly was influenced by Christian values.

    And the concept of separation of church and state was designed to protect the church from the state, not the other way around.

    Funny story we’re pursuing today — there apparently is a thriving and lucrative black market for junk food at one of our local high school campuses, complete with couriers and an underground operation involving the smuggling of unmarked duffel bags filled with chips and other goodies …

    Capitalism lives.

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  28. Heidi is a happy & sweet little dog. (Well, she’s actually a medium-sized dog, a little over 40 lbs., but short.) If you want, compare her picture above, with her short summer hairdo, with the photo of a shaggy Heidi in “Wandering Views 4”.

    Which Heidi do you think is cuter? (I can’t decide. I think she is adorable either way.)

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  29. Jo, my sister is in Colorado visiting her son.

    I hear on the radio that the USS Constitution is being refitted. Maybe they have work for her.
    I visited the ship once. The Constitution, launched in 1794, is registered as a fighting ship in the US Navy. It is understood to be the oldest fighting ship in the world.
    No, they didn’t send it out against German subs.

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  33. From Politico today:
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    Support for same-sex marriage has reached a record high, according to a Gallup tracking poll released Tuesday.Sixty percent of Americans now support legally recognized same-sex marriages that carry the same rights as traditional marriages, compared with 37 percent who believe such marriages should not be considered valid. This is the highest level of support witnessed by Gallup since the organization began asking the question in 1996. Back then, 27 percent of Americans supported same-sex marriage. In the past year alone, the level of support has risen by five points to its current high…..
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  34. For ball money? Are they having a Military Ball on that ship Chas mentioned? Christina will be there dressed in Red, White, and Blue with Uncle Sam for her date!

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  40. Cheryl, one of my followers on Twitter gets lots of good bird photos. Her name is Jane Sobie. I think she may be in England. You may want to see her photos on Twitter or perhaps she posts other places, too.

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  43. Kim, I wrote you an answer this morning, and it said it was posting, but I wasn’t sure if it actually went through since we’ve been without internet ever since. (I also wrote a brief second post later, will post in a moment.)

    Kim, that is actually a great question. I think part of the desire to be separate is actually “normal,” and part of it is exactly the same thing they fought against. In other words, it is the greatest of hypocrisy if you say “This is our grocery store and you can’t shop in it.” And this is what I will say about that, because I think it’s important: When I moved into a neighborhood where my roommate and I were the only white people on our street (and two years later when she married and I became the only white person on my street, and the only one for at least three connecting streets, though a couple from my church with a white husband did live around the corner from me), I expected a bit of unwelcome from my neighbors. We asked the husband of that couple for his advice, before we moved in, and he told us, “When you move in, initially they’re going to be watching you to figure out if you’re drug dealers or prostitutes. So my counsel is that for the first few months, you need to ignore the men. Don’t make eye contact with them or talk with them, and pretend you don’t hear them if they yell out to you; just focus on getting to know the women and children.” (I don’t remember anyone trying to get my attention or anything of the sort, just being discreet in my coming and going and only saying hi to the women and children.) We did that, and though I think it took them a few months to fully accept us as neighbors, to our neighbors’ credit, I never felt any alienation from them, not one ounce. And when I’d walk to a produce market a few blocks away where I was the only white customer, I felt the eyes of one employee on me, but the sense I felt was protection of me; she looked at me and watched to make sure I was safe, or that was what it felt like. That all felt like grace simply because I knew that 25 years before that had been a white neighborhood, and as black people moved in, white people moved out. They could well have said, “Hey, you all left, and this is our comfort zone now, and you don’t belong here.” Or they could at least have been cautious in their welcome, or treated us differently. But we felt welcome there, and that was grace.

    At college and in the workplace, blacks were always a minority, and it made me sad that they went off with each other at lunchtime and all ate at the same table. I understood the impulse a bit; as minorities in a white world, they could let their hair down at lunch. But I still found it sad, and even self-defeating. I was very, very happy that it didn’t happen at church. In the years I went to my mixed-race church, I looked around the place where we ate our church dinners multiple times, looking at every table, and NOT ONCE did I ever see a full table that did not have both black and white people sitting at it! (There might occasionally be a table with only two people at it because other tables had filled up, but not once did I ever see a table with eight or ten white people and no blacks, or vice versa.)

    But in some book I read or edited, the black author was talking about two or three white guys who decided to take some black course, African-American History or something like that. They decided they needed to go as learners and make themselves as inconspicuous as possible rather than making a big deal of being there, so they sat in the back row. And (if I remember this correctly) the last day of class the professor asked the class what they thought about those white guys being there, and the class all said they didn’t belong there. So one of them apologized and said sorry, they tried to be polite and not be conspicuous, but the class told them their presence changed the whole tenor of the class. And I thought that was extremely rude–not to mention that if the shoe was on the other foot, it would be considered racism. (And even the argument that racism can’t be used by people who “don’t hold power” is silly there, because in a class full of black people, it isn’t the white visitors who have the power.)

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  44. Another point worth mentioning: Often it is used as an example of racism that “11:00 Sunday morning is the most segregated hour in the week,” and yet most white churches don’t resist the presence of blacks, and the couple of times I’ve been in a black church I have felt welcome.

    But the reality is that a large percentage of black people would prefer to attend a church that is majority black. I’ve heard a black person explain that it’s pretty much the last place where black culture has a strong presence. I don’t think cultural reasons should be the strongest motivation in choosing a church, but I can understand that.

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  45. Yesterday, a couple people mentioned that Heidi looks like a happy dog. I forgot to mention that that was Heidi’s mellow face. When she’s happy or excited, her eyes are open wider, & her ears perk up some.

    Happy or mellow, she is a cutie, & a sweetie. And she is so patient with Forrest.

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  46. 😦 Hate to see or hear fellow believers being unloving & rude. A friend of ours (in real life & on Facebook) had posted something about people not obeying God’s laws, so they also won’t obey man’s laws, & mentioned something about illegal immigrants. His “friend” asked, “What did God say about illegal immigrants? Are they allowed in heaven?”

    Our friend rudely began his reply with, “Wow are you a fool!” I cringed when I read that.

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