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Our Daily Thread 6-27-15

Good Morning!

Today’s pics are from Roscuro.  

Peony - Insects

And Happy Birthday Cheryl!!! 

🎂🎂🎂🎂

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On this day in 1787 Edward Gibbon completed “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.” It was published the following May.

In 1893 The New York stock market crashed. By the end of the year 600 banks and 74 railroads had gone out of business.

In 1905 the battleship Potemkin succumbed to a mutiny on the Black Sea.

And in 1967 the world’s first cash dispenser was installed at Barclays Bank in Enfield, England. The device was invented by John Sheppard-Barron. The machine operated on a voucher system and the maximum withdrawal was $28.

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Quote of the Day

“A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way.”

Mark Twain

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Let’s have readers choice for the music this weekend. What’ll it be? 🙂

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Anyone have a QoD?

81 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 6-27-15”

  3. A corollary to Twain’s quote:
    My dad used to tell me, when I tried to carry a cat by the tail.

    “A fool has to learn everything the hard way.”

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  4. I went to find a song to post, but ended up on a Youtube adventure and couldn’t choose one.
    I heard one on Milk the other day that I would love to find. It was Something Branch Meeting and was built around Shall We Gather at the River and Give Me That Old Time Religion.

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  5. I tried to find “Seal Us O Holy Spirit”. The song Gloria Johnson sang at our wedding. But all I could find was instrumental. One link had sheet music.

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  6. It rained all night and is expected to rain all day, and I’m not sure where they’ll put it all. Water from the last big rain hadn’t totally gone down yet! At least our backyard doesn’t gather the huge puddles our next door neighbor’s does, but our front gets a couple mini lakes (not nearly as bad as some people’s . . . two doors down, a farmer’s field and not a house, water collects so that we’ve seen geese in the past and we had a duck Sunday). I fear this will be a bad year for mosquitoes. Or, more likely, a good year for mosquitoes and thus a bad year for people who don’t like them!

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  7. I think I have heard that Alaska of all places has a huge mosquito problem. I have friends who live near the Bay. They have a huge mosquito problem and have tried just about everything to control it. They have a lovely multi-layered deck and a beautifully landscaped back yard. It has the perfect ratio of sun to shade and is one of my “happy places”.
    Several years ago they had something that was citronella but in stick form like incense. They haven’t been able to find it again, but she was digging through some drawers looking for matches and found a packet of regular old “stoner” incense that one of her children must have had. She tried it and IT WORKS. She said it works better than just about anything she has tried for mosquitoes. She laughed and said they must not like the smell of patchouli any more than she does, but with it being outside she can’t smell it as much.
    She did caution about buying it at the health food store. She said there 10 sticks were $5.00 but when she was recently down at the beach, she popped in to the local ‘alternative lifestyle” shop and bought a big package of it for $5
    If you can stand the smell, give it a try

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  8. My husband is spoiling me. I turn four dozen today. Two days ago he brought me roses. Yesterday we had plans for a date. We still had $25 on a gift card to a fancy restaurant (wedding gift), so we went there for lunch. (He told me to tell people he took me out to lunch and it only cost $1.50 . . . and he made me pay. There wasn’t enough left on the card to cover the whole tip!) Then we went to see an arboretum with a butterfly garden; I’ve been in several butterfly gardens before, but I got the best photos in this one, including several of the butterflies that kept landing on my husband’s hat. (I could potentially have gotten better photos in a butterfly garden in Chicago, but I didn’t have as good a camera then, and also a friend and I paid a lot of money to get in but then she wanted to rush through since her leg was hurting. So I didn’t get a chance to go through leisurely and take dozens of good photos. I did get one exquisite one that day, still one of my favorite photos ever.)

    We came home a different way, and I didn’t think anything about it since my husband tends to vary his routes and I don’t really know “the big city” well enough to know where we are when we drive in it. But it turns out he was taking me by the fancy chocolate place to pick something out, so I did. And then we stopped by Walgreen’s since he made a card on his computer to send to them to print out. (He did that once before–they have some sort of photo program where you can play with a photo and make it look like a painting. He chose one of our wedding photos last time, and I don’t know what he chose this time.)

    He got up before I did this morning, and I believe he has already made a cake for me. We have a luncheon at noon (not for me), and last night I found out the girls plan to make me supper. Then his parents are taking us out Monday. So I get to stretch this birthday out quite a bit. 🙂 (I haven’t gotten my gifts yet, either. It sure feels like I have!)

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  9. Cheryl, you can follow my line of thinking….It isn’t your BirthDAY, it’s your BirthWEEK and it isn’t just your BirthWEEK, it’s your BirthMONTH!!!
    Enjoy and Happy Birthday

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  15. On Twitter last night I saw that the White House was lit in rainbow colors.

    I did put a snarky post on Twitter. The Koolaid company has a pitcher of their drink in rainbow colors with a smile. I put a comment: ‘A lot of people been drinking the Koolade today that leads to their eternal destiny.’ Later I thought of the irony of Kool-AIDS, but that is so overboard and I do not wish Aids on anyone.

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  17. Janice- If the liberals don’t want the Confederate flag flown on government buildings because it offends them, can we not say the same about the rainbow flag? When the local news started last night with a live shot of the rainbow house, I turned to the other station. They, at least, had stories about local areas getting too much rain, and they did not mention the rainbow house until later in the broadcast, and did not show a picture.

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  19. I braved up and called my friend and asked how things went yesterday. She said it was a really good day. Plans were changed to Monday so family could attend. The girls went to a downtown Atl. celebration, arrived early, and were interviewed on ABC news with my friend’s daughter holding flag. I asked what the cats thought about it all. They are oblivious except for the fun of getting in friend’s closet while she decides on what to wear. It will be good when this all settles down.

    In other news, I have a relative who is having a baby by a surrogate mother who is another relative.

    My life is certainly full of controvery. Never a dull moment!!!

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  23. Ironic that today is the anniversary of the famous book The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. It is also the first full day of the fall of the American experiment. The Decline started years ago when immorality became acceptable to the majority of society.

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  24. Happy birthday, Cheryl! Enjoy.

    Get used to the rainbow-lights White House, I’m guessing it’s on every front page — saw it almost continually flashed last night on the news (seems to me that Megan favored the ruling, but that was just my take from seeing the end of her show and her comments late last night, I didn’t watch the whole thing; and at least the discussion I saw was more thoughtful and respectful, at least, to the “other” side).

    But, yeah, what’s not to like about gay marriage? I read last night that a PA newspaper declared it would no longer publish op-eds or letters to the editor that were opposed to gay marriage (especially those that argued it was “wrong” or unnatural). They got some blowback and backed off, but not much, agreeing to print opposing viewpoints for a while only. I think that disturbed me more than a lot of this — the threat not only to freedom of religion but to freedom of speech. No one is apparently thinking twice about these things. What’s wrong with us?

    Well, this is probably more suited for the political thread.

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  25. Kim, the link you posted showed that the Rainbow Girls are affiliated with the Masons . . . which is trouble in its own right.

    Well, the best-laid plans . . . since we had an event to go to on my birthday, we celebrated yesterday. One of my girls told me they are going to fix supper for me tonight. I made macaroni and cheese to take to the luncheon. Well, my husband and I went to leave, and the streets are too flooded to get through (especially with a Prius . . . you don’t want to short it out!), so we came back home. Our older daughter tried to call her boyfriend, who was supposed to pick her up for that same church event, to tell him not to come. But he has lost his phone and didn’t get the message, and was worried that if she couldn’t reach him she would worry about him, so he braved the floods and got here. She asked if they should take the mac and cheese, so I said sure (which means we can’t eat it for lunch, nor can we have the luncheon as planned) . . . and instead of coming back home afterward, she is going to be dropped off where our other daughter is house-sitting. So I made our lunch, but don’t have any, and instead of having both supper and dinner covered by making one side dish, I don’t have either meal taken care of.

    I know, there are worse things in life, but I was kinda happy about not having to cook today except for baking the macaroni . . .

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  28. I have decided that we will decline the offer to link to us. I’m thankful for it, and pleased that Lynn remembered us as well. But due to the personal nature of things many of us have shared over the years I feel it’s the right thing to do. We’re an open blog, we’re on Google, but there’s still a certain amount of “private” about us. That’s important to who we are, and I wouldn’t want to lose that or have someone else feel they can’t be open.

    I actually created us a Facebook page for the blog, like 2 years ago, but I’ve never activated the page for the same reasons. While I’d love to open up what we have here to like minded folks, I don’t want the other type that comes with “publicity”. It’s a double edged sword.

    I do plan to research a bit and see if I can make certain stuff “private” and then open it up going forward. Or archive it and make you sign in to see it if you’re an approved user. I’m told it can be done, but we’ll see. It might be beyond my skills. I don’t want to delete it all and start over, but going thru 80,000 comments and removing personal stuff would just be way too time consuming. If something can be done though, I’ll let you all know.

    And thank you all for your input. 🙂

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  30. Turns out we’re now experiencing a drought, too. We went for a walk this morning (I’ll send AJ the picture) and stopped to talk to our neighbour who is a bison farmer. He is running out of the pellets he feeds his bison (ordered 15 super B’s full and has only had 2 of them deliver) as the drought in Alberta is taking all the feed. He cut his first hay yesterday for an organic farmer whose hay is too full of weeds due to the drought. Everything is green here still, though there are forest fires just to the north of us. Husband just fixed the rain collection eavestrough so we will at least have some extra water around in a tank.

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  31. Some good proactive advice for churches (details on each point on the link):

    http://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/what-your-church-needs-to-knowand-doabout-the-courts-marriage-ruling

    1. Churches should update their statement of faith on the issues of marriage, human sexuality, and gender.

    2. Pastors will not be legally compelled to officiate same-sex wedding ceremonies—for now.

    3. Churches should ensure their facilities usage policies are revised to allow only uses consistent with the church’s religious beliefs.

    >i>Despite the ruling of the Supreme Court, marriage has not changed. Society may suppress the truth in unrighteousness, but it cannot any more change the truth than it can the color of the sky. The church has always proclaimed the gospel to cultures and societies who have rejected truth. Now, more than ever, the church must fulfill its mission. We may not know in every detail how the marriage decision will affect America’s churches, but groups such as Alliance Defending Freedom we will continue to work aggressively to keep the legal door open for the spread of the gospel. You and your church are not alone.

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  34. Mr P set the satellite radio to a Johnny Cash station for me while we were cleaning and organizing the garage. We finally gave up and I cam inside to take a shower. When I came out the music was still on and he was sprawled on the floor. The perfect Johnny Cash song came on to post today in light of all that has happened recently, so I stopped folding towels and found it to share with you.

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  35. Chas, what you suggested is what we do. If you are a member of the church or the child of a church member the facilities are free if you aren’t it is a couple of thousand dollars. Most churches around here do that.

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  36. I do have a question to ask. I know many of you have lost your parents and Chas, I know you probably have some of these things yourself, so I would really like to know your thoughts…

    While we were cleaning out the garage, we were also throwing some things away which in itself is amazing because I am married to a man who “may need that one day” and I am brutal when it comes to throwing things away. Anyway in a box was a large framed photograph that Daddy took when he was in Colorado in the late 90’s, and there were 5 or 6 framed awards and certificates that hung in his office. He retired in 1994 and put them in a drawer. Through his death and my many moves I have known they were in the box but I moved them with me each time. Today I took them out and looked at them. I stacked them up as I looked and I had the thought that they really don’t mean anything and they will never hang on a wall again. I started to throw them away, but just couldn’t do it. It was just one more step towards letting him go and the thought that one day no one will remember what he was like and what he did. I moved them to another box and put them up on a shelf.
    Do you think it matters?

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  37. “I’ve never been so aware of my need …”

    I’m not a huge fan typically of contemporary Christian music, but I will turn it on in the car — some of it isn’t bad, though I’d not choose to hear it in church. 🙂

    But this is one (“It’s Way Beyond Me”) that I’ve liked, reminding us of how God sometimes puts us in “waters a little too deep” in order to drive us to see our need for Him

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  38. But it’s nice when churches can share their facilities, too, with other like-minded (though not necessarily officially connected) churches or Bible study groups in the area.

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  39. What our pastor said in response to a very long, angry screed-comment on one of his posts about gay marriage (his comment below being directed as encouragement to those of us in the flock who also were following the post):

    “I post for (among other things) educational purposes. I do hope the responses on this thread are being read discerningly and people are benefitting by evaluating both the content and disposition of the contributors. This has been and will continue to be the kind responses with which you will be engaged. I would encourage you to be gentle, kind, patient, yet truthful. And please don’t be discouraged. Never grow weary of doing good (Galatians 6:9).”

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  40. Kim @ 5:16
    I use the criterion: “Is it going to mean something to someone someday?” I have sorted through my parent’s things. I have pictures and papers that are part of history. Marriage license, photos, etc.(Not all the pictures people take today, just relevant photos that show what great-great grandmother looked like.) I took all that out of frames and have a stack less than a half foot high. It’s mostly in a shelf. I kept some of dad’s tools. He was an electrician and had the best of whatever tool was made. So, for practical reasons I kept them. Chuck will likely dispose of them.
    The next time we move will be to an assisted living facility. That means that we will cull down our own stuff. (At least one of us. We have pre-planned that the remaining spouse will leave this place and go to Greensboro.) I suspect Chuck will take my diplomas out of frames and stack them somewhere. He will dispose of the Lion’s awards I have hanging on the wall. It doesn’t matter to me what he does. I have books and CD’s that he (or Elvera) will give away. For example, I have my .Air Force papers in a file folder that takes less than a quarter inch of space. Chuck will likely keep those.

    The criterion is NOT, “Will this be useful someday?” If you need it, buy another one. The technology will have made whatever it is obsolete. (Unless it’s a hammer). 😆

    My criterion, will this mean something to someone (as in a genealogy search) someday.

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  41. Thank you for the answer Chas. Somehow I have ended up with lots of the family photos and some people I don’t know. I don’t think these items will ever mean anything to anyone and I do think eventually I will throw them away. Today just wasn’t that day.

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  42. Elvera wrote the name and date on the back of every photo we plan to keep. Otherwise, out it goes. I do have some high school annuals that will likely be disposed of. Linda (chuck’s wife)will put my a 35mm camera and similar stuff on e-bay.
    I do have some stuff that will be useful to someone who is interested. I have a loose leaf Bible I used at Seminary and teaching that has lots of comments. Similar stuff like lesson preparation, it would be a shame to destroy. But I have no way of knowing. And by then, I won’t care.

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  44. I don;’t recall hearing Johnny’s Belshazzart song before.
    I have a sermon on Belshazzar’s feast. I call it “The Handwriting on the Wall” I suspect every preacher who has ever preached has that sermon.
    It outllines itself.
    MENE,MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN
    Mene – games over time to close the account.
    Tekel,- Your account balance is zero and you are in default’
    Upharsin– Time to pay up.
    Or some such. (I outlied that sitting here. It’s always something like that.)

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  45. On Satellite Radio he said he had written it a couple of years before he every went to Sun Records and this was the song he sang for them as a demo. Who knows for sure.

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  47. A sermon that has stuck in my mind was given by a minister who would preach at our former church each year on the Sunday after New Year’s Day. He preached from the first sentence of Psalm 23, preaching on each word separately.

    For “The”, he emphasized that God is “the” Lord, the only Lord, not one of many.
    For “Lord”, he talked about what the word means to us.
    For “is”, his emphasis was on the firmness of the word, that there is no doubt about it.
    For “my”, he talked about the personal aspect of having Jesus as Lord & Savior.
    And for “shepherd”, he described all the things a shepherd does to lead & protect his sheep.

    It’s been many years since I heard that sermon, he made it so memorable in this manner.

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  49. I went through my mom’s photo albums this week and it nearly killed me to toss out all the scraps of paper on which my mom had jotted notes. No one will ever care, and I don’t know anyone will want her photos of Egypt circa 1975, so I left them in a pile and will probably toss anything that doesn’t have them in it. As for awards, scan them and toss is my plan–especially since no one else will ever care.

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  50. Good decision, AJ. It would be a massive undertaking to go through and delete anything really private.

    But please do include a link to Lynn’s blog in your “Blogs I Follow” list.

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  51. You all know by now that I wake up with certain songs playing in my head. This is the one from last night although it isn’t this version. The version I heard last night was from the movie Matewan.
    This AJ does a pretty good version though

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  53. The oldest photos of my folks’ extended family etc. were scanned into DVDs or CDs and offered at a nominal cost to anyone in the extended family. I have not seen them yet. That way (as long as that medium is stable and available) they will be able to be seen by anyone wanting to do so.

    I still have a ton of stuff to throw out. I have kept many old receipts for my own research, for example. Same with old payment books and articles. So many decisions. 😦

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  56. All of this discussion of getting rid of stuff made me decide that I need to dispose of a bookshelf of paperbacks. I have lots of paperbacks that I meant to read sometime. But my old eyes don’t do print that small anymore.
    I had to discard my old Bible and get a large print version.

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  57. Post from our pastor on FB:

    Two accusations Christians should be prepared to patiently endure: being called self-righteous for seeking to obey your Bible or hypocritical for not obeying it enough.

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  58. We had a PCA minister from TN preach this morning. He is a coach to other clergy who are planting churches. He is currently helping the priest at our church plant in downtown Mobile. He preached on giving. It was a good sermon.

    I had lunch with a friend and that was nice. The garage is cleaned out and before she left for work BG thanked Mr. P for making room for her to park Baby Steps

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  59. The young minister who preached this morning, who is a candidate for pastor, preached a solid, scripture-filled sermon on the core values of the early church (prayer, fellowship, praise, etc.). Lee & I appreciated this sermon, as we did his previous sermon. We are both planning on voting for him, unless God changes our minds at the last minute. 🙂

    I have to say that I had hoped, after our bad experience with the immaturity & arrogance of our last pastor, that we’d get an older pastor with more experience. But we are willing to give this young man a chance, because he seems quite solid in his preaching. And I think of Paul’s words to Timothy, “Let no one despise your youth…”

    Also, although he is young (late 20s, I’m guessing), he has six years experience as an associate pastor.

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  60. Kim – I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: I am so very happy for you. You & I both know it won’t be sunshine & roses day after day, but it’s a good situation for now, & something to build on. God bless all three of you.

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  62. We have about thirty people in our congregation on a mission trip so the church pews were a bit sparse with folks today. Our pastor to the seniors did the sermon. We did not have any praise music, just piano and hymns today. The whole service was focused on the cross and Jesus’ death on it. In some ways it seemed a bit like a service you might get around Easter. It was a good sermon and music, but young visitors may not have considered it the type church setting they would be looking for.

    I am almost finished with a book I am reading for review, Too Many to Jail: The Story of Iran’s New Christians, by Mark Bradley. It is really eye-opening. I don’t read too much nonfiction history so at first it seemed a little dry as it was giving background to all that led up to the current great number of Christians and house churches in the land.I think Chas and Peter may like this book, along with some others. Not too long ago I read a book that told about house churches in China, The Heavenly Man, so this is nice as a comparison.

    I

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  63. Janice, it’s a long article, but I read most of it. To me the important part is in the first paragraph.

    “I do believe that any nation that continually ignores God’s plan in all of life, as our nation has been doing for years and years—not just now—will be subject to consequences that perhaps we are already seeing throughout the world. The consequences may be sent by God or simply allowed by God as some of his protections are removed. We see such things noted throughout the Old Testament and there is no reason to believe God’s hand is not active today in the affairs of nations. As it says, we reap what we sow.”

    I commented on Pastor Steve’s assessment elsewhere.
    This is a dark world. It’s getting darker.
    The Muslims see a decadent society worthy of destruction.
    I can’t immediately find the quote, but Jeremiah lamented to God that these people coming to destroy Israel were more evil then Israel.
    Neither Islam including Iran, nor China, nor North Korea are better than we are.
    Most of them even allow abortions.
    But they don’t allow men to marry each other. They think that is evil.

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  65. Our (afternoon) sermon today will be on the money changers being thrown out of the temple, one of our elders & staff members is preaching as our pastor takes a bit of a summer break.

    We are all still trying to adjust to this new church schedule. But the facility is nice, some folks lost their heads & were wowed by the coffee bar that’s right outside the sanctuary. 🙂

    Regarding our pastor’s FB comment that I quoted above, of course the first person commented “Both are true” (Christians are self-righteous AND hypocritical). Another pointed out that being a hypocrite isn’t the same as being “bad at something” (or following Jesus poorly). 🙂

    Meanwhile, Karen graciously supplied backup support in a discussion I’d started on FB last night. 🙂

    While things, indeed, seem dark, I’d caution us to remember that in the broad sweep of history, things have been much worse. They may get worse than they are now, America may, indeed, fold given time, but our view of what God is doing is limited. We only know that He is at work, that nothing happens outside of his will and that nothing can thwart his will.

    We’ve been thrown off our footing a bit lately in the U.S., but there’s a purpose in it all.

    Kim, was that PCA as in Presbyterian Church in America?

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  66. Chas- Don’t throw those paperbacks out. Sell them on Amazon or e-bay, especially if they were once popular/well known, as a lot of people like to have original copies rather than later editions. If you don’t want to do that, give them to a thrift store like the Salvation Army or Goodwill.

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  67. But I agree that things do seem especially grim right now. 😦 It’s hard not to feel discouraged.

    What’s strange, too, is that so many of our fellow countrymen are blind to what some of this means for future generations. It’s all good (or neutral) in their eyes.

    But there will be consequences and that’s what weighs heavily on all of us.

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  68. Don Carson on the #SCOTUS decision yesterday to legalize (so-called) gay marriage: “I suspect we will be facing an array of legal challenges for years to come. And how that will all play out, well, I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet. What I am sure about is this: Jesus is Lord. This is a time to be faithful and gentle and firm and evangelistic and loving and principled and not driven by malice or hate or condescension or anger — simply to be Christian.”

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  69. Kim, and Roscuro, thank you so much for the info on soy milk. I had no idea! I really thought it was a healthy alternative to milk for cereal since I am lactose intolerant. Soy milk will be another deleted food from my diet. I finally got to the office where I could easily look at the links. I could not get the Snyder link to work because an ad for her book kept coviering the article. But the other info was enough to convince me. Thank you again for your caring advice.

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  70. I see so many liberal Christians (including YF) who are not content to merely support homosexuality, same-sex marriage, & abortion, but also are compelled to bash & mock conservative Christians mercilessly. I shudder when I think of them standing before Jesus, who told His followers to love each other, & to be tenderhearted & forgiving of each other.

    And that thought, of course, makes me examine my own attitude towards YF & the others I see.

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  71. Janice – How about almond milk? Or the lactose-free “milk”? Though, I guess those are both pretty expensive.

    Emily once made her own almond milk. I asked her “How do you milk almonds”? 😉

    She loves to make a lot of things from scratch. She makes her own yogurt, kefir, & some other fermented drink.

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  72. I suppose it depends on the degree of intolerance. I also am lactose intolerant. Elvera buys lactose free milk for me and it works. But I can eat a bit of ice cream occasionally.

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  73. Donna–the description just said PCA church. I assumed that is what it meant. Is that a good or bad thing? I know there was a split, but I am not sure which one was which. He did say something about being evangelical..
    I would love to know more.

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  74. Kim, PCA churches are a bit all over the map. But more conservative than the PC(USA). We try to distinguish ourselves from them first thing in any conversation when people ask what denomination we are. But PCA are more or less liturgical, more or less conservative. A few find backdoor ways to have women deacons, or teach doctrines the rest of us would call error (federal vision, theistic evolution, etc.). Overall we are probably less “conservative” than Donna’s OPC . . . but our specific church is probably more conservative/traditional than hers. It really varies.

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  78. Our church has a new pastor! Pastor Billy was voted in with by least 90% of the congregation. I’m excited for them, & for us. I have a good feeling about him.

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  79. Donna – A Facebook friend, who is a sweet Christian lady, but sort of an outspoken uber-conservative, claims that California passed a bill that says pedophilia is a sexual orientation. California may be “out there” in some matters, but this doesn’t sound quite right. Here is the link she posted, which mentions the supposed bill, although it is about a federal bill. Any truth in this? This site looks hinky to me…

    http://www.federaljack.com/pedophilia-is-a-sexual-orientation-under-ca-bill/

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  81. Not sure about that one, Karen — seems like it would have had a lot of attention, so maybe it was amended before passing (I noticed the date on the post was from 2013)? Conversion therapy definitely was outlawed here, so I do know that much.

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