It’s still dark outside here with cloud cover and rain. A lot of leaves will be rained off the trees today. Not looking forward to the drive to the office. Slow, slower, stop, go one inch, stop, go, stop, go…stop, wait for accidents to clear, finally go slow again, stop, go, stop, go…an hour and a half after departure, finally get to the office.
Let’s put it this way. If I were using 36-exposure rolls, I’d have taken about four dozen rolls.
Not sure exactly how many I took, since a lot got deleted on the camera and several more were fast-action settings of a creature that never moved (giving me seven or eight identical shots, leaving me to delete most, but they can’t be deleted on the camera without deleting the entire set), and some were of the days before the trip started. But I uploaded 1700 photos Saturday night.
I thought I would share this with you this morning:
As an eagle that stirs up her nest, that flutters over her young, He spread abroad His wings and He took them, He bore them on His pinions.
—Deuteronomy 32:11
Baby eagles spend the first three months of their lives in the comfortable nest their parents have prepared. But the eaglets get a big surprise when they are about twelve weeks old. Their mother suddenly begins to throw all of their toys out of the nest.
Next, she begins to pull out all of the comfortable material in the nest—the feathers and the animal fur—and leaves the babies sitting on thorns and sticks. This is what the Bible means when it mentions that the mother eagle “stirs up her nest.” The reason she stirs the nest is that she wants her babies to get out and fly.
Before long, the mother eagle begins to nudge them out of the nest. The little eaglets, who have no idea how to fly, fall through the sky, probably very frightened. Soon, though, they hear a “whoooooooosh” as the mother eagle swoops up under them to catch them. At that point, the mother eagle takes the babies right back up to the nest and then nudges them out again. She keeps repeating the process, over and over again, until they finally understand that they have no choice but to fly.
The mother eagle does this because she loves them and wants them to have the best lives they can possibly have. Most eaglets won’t get out of the nest without this push. Similarly, most of us will also choose comfort over challenge unless we have no choice at all.
Do you feel God is working in your life the same way the mother eagle does with her young? Has He been pulling some of the padding out of your nest so you find yourself sitting on prickly branches? Is He saying to you, “Come on, it is time to fly”? If so, remember the mother eagle’s intentions and know that you can trust God’s good intentions for you.
We are getting hit by the leftovers from Hurricane Patricia. It started raining yesterday evening and hasn’t stopped yet. We are supposed to get more today.
I did a little home decorating project yesterday afternoon. A photo is on FB if you would like to see. Still needs to be tweaked.
I love the hardwoods this time of year. Most of ours are bare already, but we see a magnificent tree here and there. We also have stands of tamaracks which is the only deciduous tree to lose all its needles. They turn gold and stand in stark contrast to the other pine trees. They can really brighten things up on cloudy, gray fall days.
Yes, that header is lovely. I did send AJ fall pictures from our day trip up to Lookout Mt. We went over to Cloudland Canyon which is my favorite Georgia State Park. I asked Art if he would like to stay until 11:00 p.m. and wake up the Ranger to let us get into a cabin. 🙂
Many years ago, before the birth of our son, I had wanted to go there for my birthday. Art kept trying to finish up his work on a Friday and it got later and later. Finally we left, and he had to awaken the ranger to get us into our cabin. I was pretty angry at the time, but now it is something to laugh about. We rode by Covenant College on Scenic Highway on top of Lookout which is where son got his undergraduate. Along that stretch between the college and the park, we stopped at the look over to view hang gliders. We had meals at some favorite places and then hit a used bookstore that our son had given us a $15.00 credit for probably a year ago. It was a good chance to see something from our past and a place of mostly good memories (waking a ranger at 11:00 p.m. not being one, of course).
Monday morning, and 6th Arrow posed a question that has me stumped. There might not be an answer, but if there is, I’m thinking there may be one or a few of you who has the answer. 😉
Actually, she didn’t say “first” cousin, but just cousin. I’m assuming she meant first, as I don’t believe she knows about second cousins, once-removeds, etc.
Cheryl – In a comment last night, you mentioned the Seventh Day Adventist’s belief in soul sleep vs. the verse where Paul says that to be absent from the body is to be with the Lord.
That latter verse is the one I have believed, but I do puzzle over another verse: “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed…” (1 Corinthians 15:51), which seems to be referring to deceased Christians as sleeping. Or am I misunderstanding this?
Here’s something I shared on Facebook yesterday. It hit close to home, & brought tears to my eyes. Although this is about women, I think men could relate to this as well…
Linda, I was thinking something along those same lines — cousin from mom’s side? from dad’s side? which generation?
Aunt by marriage or blood? I suppose if it’s an aunt by marriage (the wife of a blood uncle), then that aunt’s cousin would not be a relative at all to the little questioner. 🙂
Kim at 9:30, those are profound thoughts of God’s care. Problem is, none of the actual “facts” about eagles are true. It’s a set of myths that were apparently created by Christians. Or at least, if any of it is true, I have not yet been able to find any species of eagle for which it is true. (It’s not true of the two American species, bald eagles and golden eagles, and I haven’t found any information of the sort when researching eagles–except in Christian information that is using the data as an object lesson, not a science lesson.)
Interestingly, the sources that tell these data as though they are true also frequently tell a myth about eagle courtship: that female eagles trying to find a good mate will drop a stick for the male to catch. If he catches it, she drops a larger stick closer to the ground. She keeps dropping larger sticks, closer to the ground, until she has proven he is sound enough to be her mate. (The female eagle is larger than the male, so technically she might be able to do this.) The reason for this test, it is said, is that the male eagle must be able to catch young eagles as they fly out of the nest (or as Mom shoves them out). Problem is twofold: one, it isn’t true. Two, does the male eagle catch these sticks in his talons or on his back? Presumably he would catch the sticks in his talons but catch the eaglets on his back–two very different skills, which is conveniently left out when this “fact” is presented.
Oh, and a very large percentage of eaglets don’t survive their first flight out of the nest. I think I’ve seen 25%. The tree with the nest is usually very tall, and there is no parent waiting to catch the baby, so if it can’t successfully land on a limb on its way down, it will probably crash and die.
Scripture does say that God will carry us on eagles wings, but to the best of my research, this presents no actual parallel with true eagle behavior. God is a better parent than an eagle ever was, though eagles are diligent parents.
I did this research several years ago after seeing a book about eagle behavior by a Christian publisher, with lots and lots of facts like these, not one of which matched the data in either of the two books about eagles I owned at the time. I did research in other places, too, on the remote chance my books had left it out. Eagle courtship in fact consists of the pair locking talons and spinning through the air, and disengaging (if they’re lucky) before they hit the ground. And baby eagles, like other birds, flap their wings for weeks to strengthen them, eventually take a short test flight, and over time they become strong enough to fly well–if they survive those first dangerous flights. The nest is made of branches and twigs, unlined I believe. (Though many birds do line their nests with moss, feathers, spider webs, etc., if I recall correctly eagles do not. For sure they do not line the nest and then pluck out the lining later.)
6 Arrows. The aunt’s cousin is of no relation to the child unless they share a common ancestor.
Karen: I don’t know what the others will think but that post is spot on. I read it thinking perhaps this woman spied on me…but then you all know my story so I won’t torment you with all the similarities.
I am sure most of the Christian Women who read it will relate.
Heaven: what I have gotten out of it is that Heaven is where God lives. Earth is where we live. We were made to live in physical bodies and quite likely, forever (we had access to the tree of life after all). But we chose sin. God is Spirit. When we die, our spirit/soul goes to wait with God. When it is time, He will burn up the earth (or the sin on it) and heavens and will make them new. As He makes us new. The whole creation groans under the weight of sin and He will fix that in His time. When the new earth is ready, restored, remade, whatever, we will dwell on it, which will probably include the ability to settle the billions of planets for all eternity, ongoing exploration and building and creating. And He will dwell with us. And that will be absolutely astounding. Meantime, we are here on earth, doing what we do, and what we do in Him will survive the destruction and be part of what we are when we are on the new earth. Now, whether that is true or not, it does seem to line up well with Scripture for me at this time. It encourages me to stay strong in Him, knowing that what I do here and now matters.
As to time, I used to think it was only temporary and Heaven would be timeless. But then, why do the martyrs ask, How long? And how can there be half an hour of silence in Heaven? Etc. We won’t know, we don’t need to argue it, we can discuss it, we can look forward to it, and we must be ready for we know not when He comes.
Lots of truth in Karen’s post, we all go through tough seasons, and it can seem like those actually outnumber and outlast the *easy* seasons for the most part.
Good post from Paul David Tripp today on how to keep it simple:
I’m going in to work late today, have a doctor’s appt at 11 (annual check). After working a long and late Friday (didn’t leave work until 8 that night), it will feel good to work only half a day today.
And I’m fasting this morning as I know it’s also time for blood work, too, although they didn’t mention it when I set up the appt — but might as well do that today, too, to save an extra trip.
Think I’ll go ahead and get a flu shot, too, after last year’s horrible bout. I rarely get the flu — and I don’t think the shots are all that effective in general as so much guess work is involved with regard to all the different strains that come our way — but what the heck. 🙂
I see Heaven is under discussion still. When I spoke yesterday about all arriving at the same point, the idea was that because eternity is outside of time, those who die and enter eternity before the Second Coming will immediately find themselves at that point – no waiting, no sleeping. A literary example, though not a perfect one, of what I mean would be in the Last Battle, when a train accident immediately brings Peter, Edmund, Lucy and the rest to the end of Narnia, but they speak of Susan as still living on earth.
Karen, the word picture of the dead sleeping is from an earthly perspective. I’ve seen people die and I’ve seen people who are dead, and I cannot shake the uncanny feeling that they have just fallen asleep and might wake at any point. The Bible recognizes our point of view of death, as well as speaking of death from an eternal point of view. The Seventh Day Adventists like to point to David’s words in Psalm 6, “in the grave there is no remembrance of you”, as evidence for their position. The problem is David clearly did not think death was oblivion, as a cursory reading of Psalm 23 would show, “and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Similarly, Job in his agony wishes for the forgetfulness of the grave, but also says, “I know that my Redeemer lives… and though worms destroy this body, in my flesh will I see God.” Christ, the God-man, uses both perspectives when He went to raise Lazarus, telling the disciples that Lazarus slept and weeping at the grave, while also telling Martha that He was the Resurrection and the Life and “he that believes in me shall never die.”
If the aunt is the sister of a parent, then the aunt’s first cousins are also the parent’s first cousins, which makes them the child’s first cousins once removed.
If the aunt is the sister-in-law of a parent, then the aunt’s first cousin is just the aunt’s first cousin.
All right, those who want to see my vacation photos (including some nice photos of a bald eagle and reflections in Sugar Creek–where the Sugar Creek Gang series is set, as Paul Hutchens grew up near Turkey Run State Park, where we have done our anniversary for three years running), here is a 132-page version of the book: http://www.picaboo.com/?share=2409508ac92f5c5c1a04a0e54b46a55b&version=659516&siteID=ViaPreview
Both are lots of pages, I know. I’ll send AJ a few of the very best, but there are no guarantees he’ll post any. FYI, when I click on one of these links, it will say “loading” for some time. I wait about a minute and then I start clicking the right arrow and it will let me.
That makes a lot of sense, Kevin B — thank you for getting my mind out of the Monday morning muddle. 😀
Was there a little spoiler in The Last Battle commentary up there? 😉 That’s OK, by the time we get that far in the series, I’m sure I will have forgotten that detail. 🙂 (There are advantages to not having a good memory with some things!)
Karen, thanks for sharing that article. There is someone I have in mind to pass it along to. A fairly new person in our church just came for the first time to a Bible study my friend leads on Fridays. This new member had a stroke sometime in the recent past, I believe, and struggles with forming her thoughts and expressing them.
She is suffering from confusion, as well, and asked us ladies in the study — in all seriousness — whether there are people who never have anything bad in their lives. We tried to gently explain that we all have trials in this life, but she just stared, mouth agape, shaking her head like she couldn’t believe that other people have challenges, too. (She listed several of hers, some of which appear in the examples given in that article, and does have the self-awareness to recognize and admit that she is a very negative person, and finds it difficult to think on anything but her difficult circumstances.)
I think that article might help assure her that she is not alone in her sufferings.
Donna, I enjoyed the Paul Tripp article, too, and passed it along to my friend who leads that Bible study I just mentioned above. We recently finished 1 Peter and have moved on to 2 Peter, so that devotion was timely.
Cheryl, looking forward to paging through your books. I have to get back to other things right now, but will look at them a bit later. Thanks for sharing them here.
So the doctor wants to try me on another low-dose statin (crestor) and only every other day.
Told me I decided I just didn’t like the way the other one (zocor, generic) made me feel. He said the crestor has fewer side effects, supposedly, but is not in generic form yet (not until next year) so unless I can get enough samples and convince the pharmacy to take the coupons he gave me, it would cost something like $150 a month. grumble.
He was telling me about one of the statins and saying that cardiologists like to prescribe it in very high doses (way more than he likes to give personally).
“You’ll feel really beat up taking that much,” he said. “But it’s a good drug.”
6 Arrows, don’t bother looking at both links, just choose the long version or the short version. The longer one has all the photos the other one has, just more of them. The “long” version has some photos of squirrels on the bridge, more reflection photos, and more bird photos, but I tried to delete pages of photos that really just weren’t as good to make a shorter option available.
Looks like some good links, but no time now. I am expected at school. One little one had so much to share yesterday morning that she followed me from the playground and I almost couldn’t enter the classroom. She was excited about a scarf that her mom had bought her in Canada when she was a baby. It was raining and it made everything different.
Kevin answered 6 Arrows, so I’ll ask a question of Kim: Is the causeway the long bridge-like freeway we were on going East out of downtown Mobile?
And the banner looks like the Mississippi River bluff around here. I sent three pictures to AJ we took yesterday on the way home from church, including a beautiful fire-red maple that stands in a park surrounded by other trees. Maples are my favorite autumn tree. Aspens are second, but that aren’t many of them around here.
The Causeway is at water level with restaurants etc. The Bayway is the I-10 bridge across the bay. It is up above and crosses the Causeway.
It isn’t even our Hurricane but we have had tropical storm winds, downed trees,loss of power, and flooding. The Gulf State Pier has been damaged and water is over roads.
The rain is still coming down.
Correct, husband did not qualify for disability, though he had worked faithfully for thirty five years and all that. Even though he was basically immobile and in serious discomfort, unable to move to scratch his own nose. But, he is much better now and we did not need disability. We are even talking about him resuming his career by going to Rio for the next few months. Feel free to pray on that one. It would be good for bill paying, and a lot of fun for the older ones who would be able to go along, but a bit challenging on this side
I remember when Carol wanted to go onto permanent disability (6-7 years ago now?), they were saying they were cracking down then. I actually didn’t think she’d get approved — despite her several disabilities — because her doctors were saying she could keep on working (she had a pretty cushy county office job).
But she was insistent and did get approved (though she’s lamented later that she misses her paycheck — I really do wish she’d kept the job while living in a group home, but it’s water under the bridge now).
Totally worn out from adorable grandchildren and several hours in the sun working in my (former) yard. You might find this interesting, I sent it to my Bible study ladies last week:
Weird at the doctor’s today — I remember when I met my doctor, he was taking over the practice (I’d only been to the previous doctor a couple times, but he was ‘my’ doctor I guess). Retiring doc brought him in, introduced us (we were both around 30 years old).
Been with him ever since.
I suspect he’ll be retiring soon, but today he brought in his new practitioner for intros and I really did just have a flashback, thinking at first whoa, I hope I’m not now meeting HIS successor …
The other weird thing I noticed — the ‘musac’ in the office was … Led Zeppelin. “Dazed and Confused” (rather appropriately, I suppose) was playing as I paid my bill and collected my new prescription information.
Finally finished the rest of the book order, claiming the $744.50 in teacher credit! Now I just have to do the transfers and charge each family. What a lot of work. But I am getting lots of books for me to give as gifts. I even selected some to begin to create a library for children on Kar Kar island for the Waskia people.
Wandering Views 
Morning all. Good to see that someone, somewhere is having Fall. Love the colors.
I’m tired. Good Night.
Good night, Chas.
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That picture isn’t of our back yard. But it sure could be.
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It’s still dark outside here with cloud cover and rain. A lot of leaves will be rained off the trees today. Not looking forward to the drive to the office. Slow, slower, stop, go one inch, stop, go, stop, go…stop, wait for accidents to clear, finally go slow again, stop, go, stop, go…an hour and a half after departure, finally get to the office.
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LikeLinda, that could be my yard.Only I don’t see the mountains.
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Aj doesn’t say, but I suspect that was taken by Cheryl on her trip.
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Chas, no, I haven’t sent AJ any trip photos yet. I had way too many pictures for easy sorting.
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Let’s put it this way. If I were using 36-exposure rolls, I’d have taken about four dozen rolls.
Not sure exactly how many I took, since a lot got deleted on the camera and several more were fast-action settings of a creature that never moved (giving me seven or eight identical shots, leaving me to delete most, but they can’t be deleted on the camera without deleting the entire set), and some were of the days before the trip started. But I uploaded 1700 photos Saturday night.
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I thought I would share this with you this morning:
As an eagle that stirs up her nest, that flutters over her young, He spread abroad His wings and He took them, He bore them on His pinions.
—Deuteronomy 32:11
Baby eagles spend the first three months of their lives in the comfortable nest their parents have prepared. But the eaglets get a big surprise when they are about twelve weeks old. Their mother suddenly begins to throw all of their toys out of the nest.
Next, she begins to pull out all of the comfortable material in the nest—the feathers and the animal fur—and leaves the babies sitting on thorns and sticks. This is what the Bible means when it mentions that the mother eagle “stirs up her nest.” The reason she stirs the nest is that she wants her babies to get out and fly.
Before long, the mother eagle begins to nudge them out of the nest. The little eaglets, who have no idea how to fly, fall through the sky, probably very frightened. Soon, though, they hear a “whoooooooosh” as the mother eagle swoops up under them to catch them. At that point, the mother eagle takes the babies right back up to the nest and then nudges them out again. She keeps repeating the process, over and over again, until they finally understand that they have no choice but to fly.
The mother eagle does this because she loves them and wants them to have the best lives they can possibly have. Most eaglets won’t get out of the nest without this push. Similarly, most of us will also choose comfort over challenge unless we have no choice at all.
Do you feel God is working in your life the same way the mother eagle does with her young? Has He been pulling some of the padding out of your nest so you find yourself sitting on prickly branches? Is He saying to you, “Come on, it is time to fly”? If so, remember the mother eagle’s intentions and know that you can trust God’s good intentions for you.
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We are getting hit by the leftovers from Hurricane Patricia. It started raining yesterday evening and hasn’t stopped yet. We are supposed to get more today.
I did a little home decorating project yesterday afternoon. A photo is on FB if you would like to see. Still needs to be tweaked.
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Pretty trees. That looks like the view in our little valley.
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I love the hardwoods this time of year. Most of ours are bare already, but we see a magnificent tree here and there. We also have stands of tamaracks which is the only deciduous tree to lose all its needles. They turn gold and stand in stark contrast to the other pine trees. They can really brighten things up on cloudy, gray fall days.
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Yes, that header is lovely. I did send AJ fall pictures from our day trip up to Lookout Mt. We went over to Cloudland Canyon which is my favorite Georgia State Park. I asked Art if he would like to stay until 11:00 p.m. and wake up the Ranger to let us get into a cabin. 🙂
Many years ago, before the birth of our son, I had wanted to go there for my birthday. Art kept trying to finish up his work on a Friday and it got later and later. Finally we left, and he had to awaken the ranger to get us into our cabin. I was pretty angry at the time, but now it is something to laugh about. We rode by Covenant College on Scenic Highway on top of Lookout which is where son got his undergraduate. Along that stretch between the college and the park, we stopped at the look over to view hang gliders. We had meals at some favorite places and then hit a used bookstore that our son had given us a $15.00 credit for probably a year ago. It was a good chance to see something from our past and a place of mostly good memories (waking a ranger at 11:00 p.m. not being one, of course).
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Monday morning, and 6th Arrow posed a question that has me stumped. There might not be an answer, but if there is, I’m thinking there may be one or a few of you who has the answer. 😉
What relation to me is an aunt’s first cousin?
Inquiring 8-year-old minds want to know. 🙂
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Actually, she didn’t say “first” cousin, but just cousin. I’m assuming she meant first, as I don’t believe she knows about second cousins, once-removeds, etc.
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Cheryl – In a comment last night, you mentioned the Seventh Day Adventist’s belief in soul sleep vs. the verse where Paul says that to be absent from the body is to be with the Lord.
That latter verse is the one I have believed, but I do puzzle over another verse: “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed…” (1 Corinthians 15:51), which seems to be referring to deceased Christians as sleeping. Or am I misunderstanding this?
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Here’s something I shared on Facebook yesterday. It hit close to home, & brought tears to my eyes. Although this is about women, I think men could relate to this as well…
http://www.kimberleysuchta.com/2015/01/27/do-you-fit-the-profile-of-the-average-christian-woman/
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6, I would think that would depend upon “how” that is a cousin, as it could go in multiple directions.
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Linda, I was thinking something along those same lines — cousin from mom’s side? from dad’s side? which generation?
Aunt by marriage or blood? I suppose if it’s an aunt by marriage (the wife of a blood uncle), then that aunt’s cousin would not be a relative at all to the little questioner. 🙂
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Or would it?
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I suppose I should just ask who she was thinking of. 🙂
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Kim at 9:30, those are profound thoughts of God’s care. Problem is, none of the actual “facts” about eagles are true. It’s a set of myths that were apparently created by Christians. Or at least, if any of it is true, I have not yet been able to find any species of eagle for which it is true. (It’s not true of the two American species, bald eagles and golden eagles, and I haven’t found any information of the sort when researching eagles–except in Christian information that is using the data as an object lesson, not a science lesson.)
Interestingly, the sources that tell these data as though they are true also frequently tell a myth about eagle courtship: that female eagles trying to find a good mate will drop a stick for the male to catch. If he catches it, she drops a larger stick closer to the ground. She keeps dropping larger sticks, closer to the ground, until she has proven he is sound enough to be her mate. (The female eagle is larger than the male, so technically she might be able to do this.) The reason for this test, it is said, is that the male eagle must be able to catch young eagles as they fly out of the nest (or as Mom shoves them out). Problem is twofold: one, it isn’t true. Two, does the male eagle catch these sticks in his talons or on his back? Presumably he would catch the sticks in his talons but catch the eaglets on his back–two very different skills, which is conveniently left out when this “fact” is presented.
Oh, and a very large percentage of eaglets don’t survive their first flight out of the nest. I think I’ve seen 25%. The tree with the nest is usually very tall, and there is no parent waiting to catch the baby, so if it can’t successfully land on a limb on its way down, it will probably crash and die.
Scripture does say that God will carry us on eagles wings, but to the best of my research, this presents no actual parallel with true eagle behavior. God is a better parent than an eagle ever was, though eagles are diligent parents.
I did this research several years ago after seeing a book about eagle behavior by a Christian publisher, with lots and lots of facts like these, not one of which matched the data in either of the two books about eagles I owned at the time. I did research in other places, too, on the remote chance my books had left it out. Eagle courtship in fact consists of the pair locking talons and spinning through the air, and disengaging (if they’re lucky) before they hit the ground. And baby eagles, like other birds, flap their wings for weeks to strengthen them, eventually take a short test flight, and over time they become strong enough to fly well–if they survive those first dangerous flights. The nest is made of branches and twigs, unlined I believe. (Though many birds do line their nests with moss, feathers, spider webs, etc., if I recall correctly eagles do not. For sure they do not line the nest and then pluck out the lining later.)
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6 Arrows. The aunt’s cousin is of no relation to the child unless they share a common ancestor.
Karen: I don’t know what the others will think but that post is spot on. I read it thinking perhaps this woman spied on me…but then you all know my story so I won’t torment you with all the similarities.
I am sure most of the Christian Women who read it will relate.
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Heaven: what I have gotten out of it is that Heaven is where God lives. Earth is where we live. We were made to live in physical bodies and quite likely, forever (we had access to the tree of life after all). But we chose sin. God is Spirit. When we die, our spirit/soul goes to wait with God. When it is time, He will burn up the earth (or the sin on it) and heavens and will make them new. As He makes us new. The whole creation groans under the weight of sin and He will fix that in His time. When the new earth is ready, restored, remade, whatever, we will dwell on it, which will probably include the ability to settle the billions of planets for all eternity, ongoing exploration and building and creating. And He will dwell with us. And that will be absolutely astounding. Meantime, we are here on earth, doing what we do, and what we do in Him will survive the destruction and be part of what we are when we are on the new earth. Now, whether that is true or not, it does seem to line up well with Scripture for me at this time. It encourages me to stay strong in Him, knowing that what I do here and now matters.
As to time, I used to think it was only temporary and Heaven would be timeless. But then, why do the martyrs ask, How long? And how can there be half an hour of silence in Heaven? Etc. We won’t know, we don’t need to argue it, we can discuss it, we can look forward to it, and we must be ready for we know not when He comes.
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That was a great blog post about Christian women, Karen O. May we thrive in Christ despite the trials and tribulations!
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Oh, buzz kill, cheryl.
Lots of truth in Karen’s post, we all go through tough seasons, and it can seem like those actually outnumber and outlast the *easy* seasons for the most part.
Good post from Paul David Tripp today on how to keep it simple:
http://www.paultripp.com/articles/posts/the-christian-job-description
I’m going in to work late today, have a doctor’s appt at 11 (annual check). After working a long and late Friday (didn’t leave work until 8 that night), it will feel good to work only half a day today.
And I’m fasting this morning as I know it’s also time for blood work, too, although they didn’t mention it when I set up the appt — but might as well do that today, too, to save an extra trip.
Think I’ll go ahead and get a flu shot, too, after last year’s horrible bout. I rarely get the flu — and I don’t think the shots are all that effective in general as so much guess work is involved with regard to all the different strains that come our way — but what the heck. 🙂
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I see Heaven is under discussion still. When I spoke yesterday about all arriving at the same point, the idea was that because eternity is outside of time, those who die and enter eternity before the Second Coming will immediately find themselves at that point – no waiting, no sleeping. A literary example, though not a perfect one, of what I mean would be in the Last Battle, when a train accident immediately brings Peter, Edmund, Lucy and the rest to the end of Narnia, but they speak of Susan as still living on earth.
Karen, the word picture of the dead sleeping is from an earthly perspective. I’ve seen people die and I’ve seen people who are dead, and I cannot shake the uncanny feeling that they have just fallen asleep and might wake at any point. The Bible recognizes our point of view of death, as well as speaking of death from an eternal point of view. The Seventh Day Adventists like to point to David’s words in Psalm 6, “in the grave there is no remembrance of you”, as evidence for their position. The problem is David clearly did not think death was oblivion, as a cursory reading of Psalm 23 would show, “and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.” Similarly, Job in his agony wishes for the forgetfulness of the grave, but also says, “I know that my Redeemer lives… and though worms destroy this body, in my flesh will I see God.” Christ, the God-man, uses both perspectives when He went to raise Lazarus, telling the disciples that Lazarus slept and weeping at the grave, while also telling Martha that He was the Resurrection and the Life and “he that believes in me shall never die.”
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Regarding the aunt’s cousin.
If the aunt is the sister of a parent, then the aunt’s first cousins are also the parent’s first cousins, which makes them the child’s first cousins once removed.
If the aunt is the sister-in-law of a parent, then the aunt’s first cousin is just the aunt’s first cousin.
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Similar to Roscuro’s comment, someone whom I greatly respect says, “I think we all show up together.”
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All right, those who want to see my vacation photos (including some nice photos of a bald eagle and reflections in Sugar Creek–where the Sugar Creek Gang series is set, as Paul Hutchens grew up near Turkey Run State Park, where we have done our anniversary for three years running), here is a 132-page version of the book: http://www.picaboo.com/?share=2409508ac92f5c5c1a04a0e54b46a55b&version=659516&siteID=ViaPreview
Here is an 88-page version with fewer photos: http://www.picaboo.com/?share=2149cd2862adacf98d12a51d50630668&version=659532&siteID=ViaPreview
Both are lots of pages, I know. I’ll send AJ a few of the very best, but there are no guarantees he’ll post any. FYI, when I click on one of these links, it will say “loading” for some time. I wait about a minute and then I start clicking the right arrow and it will let me.
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Sharing what my day is looking like. KBells and Peter recently traveled along this stretch
http://www.local15tv.com/news/features/top-stories/stories/EB-Causeway-Ramp-Closed-224001.shtml#.Vi5rCPnnuM8
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That makes a lot of sense, Kevin B — thank you for getting my mind out of the Monday morning muddle. 😀
Was there a little spoiler in The Last Battle commentary up there? 😉 That’s OK, by the time we get that far in the series, I’m sure I will have forgotten that detail. 🙂 (There are advantages to not having a good memory with some things!)
Karen, thanks for sharing that article. There is someone I have in mind to pass it along to. A fairly new person in our church just came for the first time to a Bible study my friend leads on Fridays. This new member had a stroke sometime in the recent past, I believe, and struggles with forming her thoughts and expressing them.
She is suffering from confusion, as well, and asked us ladies in the study — in all seriousness — whether there are people who never have anything bad in their lives. We tried to gently explain that we all have trials in this life, but she just stared, mouth agape, shaking her head like she couldn’t believe that other people have challenges, too. (She listed several of hers, some of which appear in the examples given in that article, and does have the self-awareness to recognize and admit that she is a very negative person, and finds it difficult to think on anything but her difficult circumstances.)
I think that article might help assure her that she is not alone in her sufferings.
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Donna, I enjoyed the Paul Tripp article, too, and passed it along to my friend who leads that Bible study I just mentioned above. We recently finished 1 Peter and have moved on to 2 Peter, so that devotion was timely.
Cheryl, looking forward to paging through your books. I have to get back to other things right now, but will look at them a bit later. Thanks for sharing them here.
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Crazy news day.
NORTH WEBSTER, Ind. (AP) — Authorities say a northern Indiana woman is recovering after being shot in the foot by her dog.
And the dog’s name? Trigger.
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So the doctor wants to try me on another low-dose statin (crestor) and only every other day.
Told me I decided I just didn’t like the way the other one (zocor, generic) made me feel. He said the crestor has fewer side effects, supposedly, but is not in generic form yet (not until next year) so unless I can get enough samples and convince the pharmacy to take the coupons he gave me, it would cost something like $150 a month. grumble.
But I’ll give it a try. 😦
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I told him, not me. Sheesh.
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He was telling me about one of the statins and saying that cardiologists like to prescribe it in very high doses (way more than he likes to give personally).
“You’ll feel really beat up taking that much,” he said. “But it’s a good drug.”
Yeah, sounds terrific.
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6 Arrows, don’t bother looking at both links, just choose the long version or the short version. The longer one has all the photos the other one has, just more of them. The “long” version has some photos of squirrels on the bridge, more reflection photos, and more bird photos, but I tried to delete pages of photos that really just weren’t as good to make a shorter option available.
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Really good Tripp article, Donna. Thank you for posting his writings.
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Cheryl,
I sent an email to you but cannot find it in my sent mail. Please check and let me know if you got it.
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A laugh for you. I think there may be a bad word or two but it is what some people need to hear…
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Looks like some good links, but no time now. I am expected at school. One little one had so much to share yesterday morning that she followed me from the playground and I almost couldn’t enter the classroom. She was excited about a scarf that her mom had bought her in Canada when she was a baby. It was raining and it made everything different.
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Kim, it’s not in my main e-mail account, if that’s where you tried to send it.
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Yes. I will send again tomorrow
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OK, thanks.
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Kevin answered 6 Arrows, so I’ll ask a question of Kim: Is the causeway the long bridge-like freeway we were on going East out of downtown Mobile?
And the banner looks like the Mississippi River bluff around here. I sent three pictures to AJ we took yesterday on the way home from church, including a beautiful fire-red maple that stands in a park surrounded by other trees. Maples are my favorite autumn tree. Aspens are second, but that aren’t many of them around here.
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The Causeway is at water level with restaurants etc. The Bayway is the I-10 bridge across the bay. It is up above and crosses the Causeway.
It isn’t even our Hurricane but we have had tropical storm winds, downed trees,loss of power, and flooding. The Gulf State Pier has been damaged and water is over roads.
The rain is still coming down.
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Did any of you see us on the national news?
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6 Arrows, I left a comment on my blog for you. 🙂
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OK, I narrowed down my 1700 photos to a mere 12 to send to AJ. Now if my connection will only cooperate to send them.
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Thanks, Janice. I responded at your blog. 🙂 (Actually, you might see two identical replies; if you do, feel free to delete!)
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Correct, husband did not qualify for disability, though he had worked faithfully for thirty five years and all that. Even though he was basically immobile and in serious discomfort, unable to move to scratch his own nose. But, he is much better now and we did not need disability. We are even talking about him resuming his career by going to Rio for the next few months. Feel free to pray on that one. It would be good for bill paying, and a lot of fun for the older ones who would be able to go along, but a bit challenging on this side
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What did you do this time?
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I’ve seen a lot of Anon. people on the news. So, which Anon. person/story are you referring to?
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The above anon is Kim we were on the national news.
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I remember when Carol wanted to go onto permanent disability (6-7 years ago now?), they were saying they were cracking down then. I actually didn’t think she’d get approved — despite her several disabilities — because her doctors were saying she could keep on working (she had a pretty cushy county office job).
But she was insistent and did get approved (though she’s lamented later that she misses her paycheck — I really do wish she’d kept the job while living in a group home, but it’s water under the bridge now).
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Totally worn out from adorable grandchildren and several hours in the sun working in my (former) yard. You might find this interesting, I sent it to my Bible study ladies last week:
Randy Alcorn on Annihilation and Hell:
http://www.epm.org/resources/2011/Mar/15/hell-eternal-sovereign-justice/
Annihilation seems to be what most people are counting on. 😦
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Janice, Peter, and Cheryl,
I received the pics. They’ll be posted with the daily thread over the next 3 days. Thanks.
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Weird at the doctor’s today — I remember when I met my doctor, he was taking over the practice (I’d only been to the previous doctor a couple times, but he was ‘my’ doctor I guess). Retiring doc brought him in, introduced us (we were both around 30 years old).
Been with him ever since.
I suspect he’ll be retiring soon, but today he brought in his new practitioner for intros and I really did just have a flashback, thinking at first whoa, I hope I’m not now meeting HIS successor …
Where do the years go?
How old AM I????
yikes.
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The other weird thing I noticed — the ‘musac’ in the office was … Led Zeppelin. “Dazed and Confused” (rather appropriately, I suppose) was playing as I paid my bill and collected my new prescription information.
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Finally finished the rest of the book order, claiming the $744.50 in teacher credit! Now I just have to do the transfers and charge each family. What a lot of work. But I am getting lots of books for me to give as gifts. I even selected some to begin to create a library for children on Kar Kar island for the Waskia people.
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