74 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 12-10-15”

  1. Good morning. I’ve been awake since 3:30….today is the day my mom has her colonoscopy and esophagus scope to see if she has stomach cancer. Her tests are scheduled for 10:00am. I guess I’m more worried than I realized. Prayers are appreciated…

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  2. Annms, it is such a struggle to give over all our concerns to God. I think at one point in the Bible it says our work is Faith. That is probably the truest and hardest work we ever do—keeping the faith and trusting God through all things♡

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  3. I’m remember her Ann.

    🙂 I’m not driving back from Surfside Beach today.
    We had the place until Saturday, but were planning to return today because the Lions are having a luncheon for 47 VIP’s (Visually Impaired Persons). I am signed up for transportation. It’s tomorrow.
    ON Saturday, we have the Children’s Film Festival. A big money raiser for us.
    In this case, not all of the money goes back to the community because we have to rent film, pay professionals to run it. Etc. But we make $15k on a good Saturday. We have made as little as $10k. But that buys lots of eye exams and glasses.

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  4. Mumsee. From yesterday.
    When Chuck lived in Augusta, Ga. He went hunting with his co-workers. We were out practicing on the firing range, and I reminded him of something I learned in the AF.
    “Never point a gun at someone you don’t want to kill”
    I’m sure Mike remembers that.
    Some people learn too late.

    Chuck, BTW, was surprised at how well I could handle a gun. He had never seen that before.
    But you never forget some things.

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  5. My personal question of the moment: with the worst of the storm moving in soon, should I take my muscle-aching body to the gym or hope it breaks up into squalls by the afternoon and go for a walk?

    People who have lived in drought for many years (or their entire lives in the case of three of my grandchildren), don’t really remember how to live with rain.

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  6. Californians don’t know how to drive in the rain (I get this from my LA living Southern Boy) just like Southerners don’t know how to drive in the snow. I say you stay home, curl up with hot tea or chocolate, and read a good book—NOT a research book! Some sort of fluff with a happy ending. Everyone needs a “cheat” day ever now and again.

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  7. I am exhausted. This morning around 3 I thought I heard the alarm that lets us know if a door or window has opened. I got up, checked on BG, set the timer on the TV, and went back to sleep. Some time later I thought I heard a door slam, I got up, checked on BG, and went back to bed. As you can imagine, about the time I got back to sleep (after worrying about everything I could think of) the alarm and alarm dogs went off.
    I think I shall get through the day by knowing that at 4pm I have a massage scheduled. I have been editing a paper for a friend and this was my “thank you” happy. I may be just a little tense.

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  9. http://www.gotquestions.org/food-sacrificed-idols.html

    Google is my friend, so I had to read a little bit about your question to get my thoughts straight on what my answer would be. First I thought, “Not respecting another’s beliefs”. That is too broad of a answer. I could decide to become a Muslim and you would be sinning by not respecting my beliefs. Then I thought about weakness–perhaps you shouldn’t drink alcohol in front of an alcoholic, but they are taught in AA how to deal with the temptation Of course that is the description that bests fits.
    You should not knowingly do anything that will make another who is not as strong in their faith stumble and fall. There should never be a statement—Oh, look, there’s Kim and she is pillar of her church and she is at the bar slingin’ ’em back. I guess it’s OK for me to hang out there too and drink.
    I am trying to teach this lesson to BG right now. You are judged by the company you keep…. and yes, people do make judgements based on how someone looks. I have explained to her that she needs to find a whole new set of friends because she is the one who will go to jail if she is in the wrong company. Fair? Yes, No, Maybe? It just is. If she had good, and by good I mean “upstanding” friends they would want to help her and not do anything that would cause her to stumble, fall, and end up in jail. I doubt they are the type and the flip side of this is that only she is responsible for her actions. I have also explained that REAL jail is not “Orange is the New Black”.

    Did I make any sense at all? You know I am tired.

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  11. Musical Advent Calendar – Day 10: O Little Town of Bethlehem was written by American Episcopal minister, Phillips Brooks, in 1868. It was inspired by his visit to Bethlehem in the Holy Land. There are two different tunes used for this carol. One is an English folktune, ‘Forest Green’ and is used in the UK. The other, ‘St. Louis’, was written by Brooks’ organist, Lewis Redner. When British Prime Minister Winston Churchill visited President Roosevelt on Christmas of 1941, he sang this carol to the American tune, later writing that he thought it fit the words much better.

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  12. Michelle, the average rainfall in Phoenix is six inches, most of it in January/February and July/August. I drove for only two years before I went to college, and then went five years (college and my first year out) without driving. On the day we were expecting the first snowfall of my driving career, I elected to work at home so that I could practice driving during a non-rush hour time. A Chicago-born-and-bred co-worker didn’t understand why I did that, telling me that driving in snow is no big deal. I told her I’d hardly even driven in rain! (And I had, in fact, had a bad driving experience driving in rain. It got so hot and dry in Phoenix that rubber parts got brittle and brakes didn’t always work as expected when it rained. One day I put on the brake at a traffic light and the left brake seized hard and the right brake didn’t grip at all–I felt it under my feet–and my car did a 180. Cars behind me saw what was happening and they kept their distance, but I had one of those frame-by-frame life experiences that up to that time I thought was an effect made up for the movies, not something that actually happened. I still haven’t experienced it again since. Another time my brakes refused to respond at all as I was approaching Grand Avenue and a six-direction intersection, and the emergency brake stopped me from running a red light in such an intersection.) Having learned the hard way to pump my brakes when it rained, I wasn’t about to drive in Chicago rush hour in snow without some prior snow driving. But once we had accumulated three or four inches, I went out and drove around the block a few times, and felt like I had some sense of how one needed to steer in snow. (Chicago had on-street parking everywhere, so even years later I still sometimes elected to work at home on a snow day, though I racked up a lot of snow-driving experience, too.)

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  13. Re Rev. 2:14 To the church at Pergomos, the issue was not sacrifice to idols, but the doctrine of Balaam. Balaam was a stumbling block to Israel. Kim makes some good points. The essence of the problem is this:
    Any act of leading one astray is .sin.
    Paul clearly states the Christian .perspective in I Cor. 12-13.

    “Therefore, if meat makes my brother stumble, I will never eat meat again.”

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  14. Michelle, I hope your body does not break up into squalls! 🙂

    QOD:
    Could mean when living around people from so many cultures who worship a variety of diet is that a person does the cafeteria choice, noticing what looks fun in their practices and begins to take part in those things. It is basically a lack of purity in following Jesus as He would want to be followed. It is not being set aside for Him. It could be an obsession with materialism, having to have the latest gadgets and toys to keep up with co-workers ( I would say neighbors but many don’t know their neighbors). I think it can be seen when anything takes over as an obsession that takes focus from Jesus and sets sights on knowing goals contrary to His.

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  16. I hesitate to tell this little tale because It reveals how stupid I can be. But.
    Yesterday, the car was running low of gas. So I stopped. I gave the pump my credit card. It wanted me to do something. But I couldn’t read the message on the pump. I figured it was the sun light on the pump. I couldn’t figure it out. So I left and went to another station.
    At the Shell station, I inserted my card. I couldn’t read the pump.
    Exasperated, I went into the store and told the cute cashier. She came out and fixed it so that I could pump the gas.
    After pumping the gas. I got into the car and noticed-
    I was wearing my sunglasses/1 :00ps:
    I wouldn’t have had a problem with the others.

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  17. To the QoD: Well, the passages in Romans 14 and I Corinthians 8, 10 on meat offered to idols would suggest that eating such meat is not the problem. The problem must be where, how, and why they were eating the meat. The message in Revelations compares the false teacher in Pergamos to Balaam, who encouraged Balak, king of Moab, to subvert the Israelites by intermarriage and enticing the Israel to join the worship of Moab’s idols (Numbers 24-25). The verse mentions both eating meat offered to idols, and committing fornication, two activities associated with pagan temples in the time John was writing. So, it seems that some false teachers in Pergamos were encouraging Christians to continue participating in pagan worship – probably arguing Christian freedom. In that age, it was increasingly costly to identify oneself as a Christian, and so it would be tempting to just blend in. Modern day examples of this would be churches who ‘re-examine’ marriage, and the troublesome trend of misguided Western missionaries who encourage Jewish, Hindu, and Muslim converts to continue on with their former religious practices, but just incorporate Jesus along with them.

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  21. I agree with Roscuro. You really have to consider all those passages to understand what is meant in Revelation. The Jews would have been familiar with the passages from Numbers.

    There are many who have no problem using religion to feed the lusts of the flesh. By lusts I am not talking about sexual lusts. Power, pride, material desires and even to avoid battle can all be lusted after. The devil delights in using religion and religious people (wolves in sheep’s clothing) to fool people and lead them astray. How much easier to accept this little thing than to be looked down on or (worse yet!) tortured or killed. Yet, it is a lack of faith and another step further away from God. God is not only not glorified, but it leads even more astray as it did in Israel.

    Such things would depend on the particular time and culture. It is a good question to meditate on.

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  22. We’ve been socked in with heavy fog for a couple days now, it’s really our version of snow. The port posted a photo showing just the tops of all the harbor cranes & the bridge barely peaking out above the thick blanket of fog yesterday morning.

    We drive fine in the rain, but remember that we are always (always!) in a hurry and there’s just a whole lot of traffic out there in our way. Sheesh.

    I’m dropping the Jeep off at the dealer this morning then walking the few blocks to work — it’s overdue for a recall check I’ve been putting off for, oh, about a year now. Guess I’m lucky the car hasn’t burst into flames by now, eh?

    I looked the verse up in the Reformation Study Bible and the footnote there says, among other things, that professing Christians in the 7 churches were indulging in the pleasures of the pagan environment.

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  23. Roscuro, here’s a question that you (and/or any others on here with missionary experience) might want to weigh in on. The last few years I have seen several mentions of one of the “misguided” policies of missionaries in past decades was encouraging natives to wear clothes. I’ve seen a range of what type of missionary attention is considered to be inappropriate. For example, some would say that you shouldn’t encourage natives who aren’t even believers that only Western-church-approved clothing is appropriate, and with that I would agree. But others would say that you don’t even encourage Christian converts to take steps outside of their cultural norms, even if those cultural norms include clothing as scant as a loincloth or complete public nudity in some settings (e.g., swimming naked in mixed settings).

    Some of these things are being written by MKs who decry some of the ways their parents did things, and I suspect there is room for improvement in some of it. But by the time we’re saying that Christians can’t do anything different from their culture, whether we’re talking about American culture or another culture, I think we have failed. Anyway, I’ve never served as even a short-term missionary, and my parents were missionaries in the 1950s, which would probably be attacked quite viciously with those who have a problem with missionary interactions with the natives, so I’m curious about any thoughts from those who have been closer to the front lines.

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  24. Donna- If it hasn’t rained in a long time the roads are dangerous at first. This is because all the oil that built up in the dry period gets spread out on the road making it very slick. Wait until after a heavy rain before going out, especially in heavy traffic.

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  26. Rain after prolonged dry periods: it also can cause trouble with the transformers. The dust build up on the wires and transformers gets wet and before it washes off, is very conductive . It seems we have several transformer fires every fall in the nearby big town, attributed to dust getting wet on the transformers.

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  27. Chas, in this case, the two boys were cleaning their guns. One tossed his 22 onto the couch and it went off, hitting his friend. Never enter your home with a loaded weapon. Never jar a loaded weapon. Do not throw a loaded weapon. Lots of basic common sense rules don’t necessarily come into play with seventeen year olds.

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  28. Cheryl, to start off, I think the cultural faux pas of missionaries on the subject of things like clothes wouldn’t be in the same category as encouraging converts to continue with their old religious practices. The former is a matter of conscience, the latter is a matter of salvation.

    I only once came across an internet criticism of missionaries interfering with native dress, and in that example, it was missionaries calling modest what the native called immodest. Now, that is a real problem. In West African culture, ankle length skirts are worn. Trousers and short skirts are not considered modest. Now, there is a very good reason for this. Each culture has, if I may express it bluntly, sexual triggers in a woman’s appearance. In Western culture, it is the bosom. In West African culture, breasts are for babies, and thus women breastfeed in public and no one gives it a thought – except the bewildered Western missionary who has some cultural adjustment to do. Since the Bible talks about breastfeeding in a way that would suggest that it was also done openly in that culture, that is something that Western missionaries shouldn’t interfere in – especially when Western culture is marketing the idea that formula is a sign of wealth. To suggest the mother should cover-up for modesty would only reinforce the message that breastfeeding is undesirable. The Western African sexual trigger is the hips and thighs. Wearing trousers exposes that part of the body, and a shorter skirt allows for more possible exposure of those areas. One really does not want to be wearing clothes which for the culture are the equivalent of wearing fishnet stockings and leather bras. And this varies widely from culture to culture, so that one should never assume. For example, in Pakistan and China, trousers are considered modest attire for women, while skirts are associated with prostitution.

    I think, in the wider field, for those cultures who only wear a loincloth, the important thing is to teach them the dignity of their own body, rather than impose another arbitrary cultural standard of what is modest. The Bible does not tell us what is modest. Paul’s use of the word is more in the old fashioned term of modest price – he is really freeing women to not have to keep up with appearances and fashions. So for us to use our own cultural standards of modesty, we would be preaching the traditions of men as doctrine, which is the error of the Pharisees. Also, we need to consider the context of when they wear the loincloth. In the majority of cultures, except perhaps for a handful of isolated tribes, people may strip for work and then dress in what even we would consider modest at other times. For example, where I was, women would strip to the waist to cook or do the laundry. Since they were in the backyards of private residences, where only welcome guests would go, it would have been the height of discourtesy for such a guest to suggest they were being immodest. Once again, the Bible speaks of such stripping for work. Sometimes, in the heat, it is the only way you will survive. So, we should teach them of the value and dignity of their body, and then, if they are Christians, let the Holy Spirit show them the way they should dress.

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  30. Michelle the self-righteous is back after attending her hard class (another knee twitch, but no pain), having breakfast out with her prayer partner because it was raining and we couldn’t walk, mailing off a package and then watching the sun come out!

    I’ve still got a long list of things to do, but they’re fun things like laundry and picking up the house and decorating for Christmas, but it’s good stuff and I’m thankful.

    Meanwhile, I’ve had an email exchange with a dear Navy wife pal and she had two interesting ideas in her message–which was answer my question, had I sent her a Christmas card . . . the week has been a blur.

    Here it is, with some editing:

    1. Earlier this week I was quite irritated and indignant that our Lord is seemingly not being represented in all of our Christmas preparations so I took two days off from craziness and had my own religious retreat. Tuesday at our own church and yesterday travelling to our cathedral. I’m much happier, but my cards and presents aren’t out yet!

    2. Our favorite day of the holiday so far was the night before Thanksgiving. For about 6 months I’ve been saving change in a coffee can and showing it to E (3 year old granddaughter). Well, D and I stole her for an overnight and took her first to the bank and showed her how it converted into $89+, then to dinner for planning, then to Target and she bought all her family presents.

    The next morning before turkey time she and I wrapped them. Upon arriving home, her parents asked what we did. She said, “first we went to the bank, then to Olive Garden, then to the secret”.

    Mom asked what secret, but Dad said “if it’s a secret with Mae and Pops we shouldn’t ask”. So…….so far she hasn’t spilled. She did come over this week and check on her packages. Pretty good for a 3 year old.

    And she asked about saving some more “monies”.

    I like both these ideas very much–maybe next year on the money saving. 🙂

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  31. Michelle, my stepmother uses coupons but she gets the change back. Whatever she saves in coupon money goes into a coffee can and at the end of the year she splits the money up between the grandchildren.

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  32. It’s short sleeve t-shirt weather again today in Atlanta.

    I am trying to get the house in better shape in expecting son home for Christmas.

    I still have to decide on Christmas cards to mail out this year. I found my old stash, but not the ones I bought last year at Hilton Head after Christmas sales.

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  36. One of the eighteen year olds told us he was pulled over for speeding the other night. And learned they had misplaced the insurance paper in their car. No ticket, just a warning.

    Seventeen year old daughter mentioned the other car owner has come back with a two thousand plus dollar bill for the damage she inflicted on his parked car.

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  38. Roscuro- Good points. I read Maria Von Trapp’s autobiography and she talks about the natives in the South Pacific being forced to wear Victorian clothing, which was in no way suitable for the weather and lifestyle. They had a dress that was able to stand on its own since the perspiration making it stiff. Too many missionaries mean well, but need to learn the difference between doctrine and cultural differences

    Janice- There is no Pigskin Picks this week since the Army-Navy game is the only one, and we all picked that game last week.

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  43. I didn’t sleep well. There was a time earlier today that Guy was in the car. When he is in the car traveling he gets bored. When he gets bored he thinks of all sorts of things he wants (me) to do. He calls and talks to me so that I can’t get anything done. Then things he was supposed to do but didn’t become my fault because I didn’t make sure he did them. He has also wanted me to put together a Christmas card list of his clients this week. He doesn’t have a data base so I had to get a list of all of his closings, dig through his email and try to patch together a mailing list. THEN he told me I was doing it wrong. Now he has decided that every listing needs at the very minimum 4 photos and a survey.

    I am holding on because it is 1:24 pm here and I have a massage at 4. It is supposed to be an Immune Booster Massage with Essential Oils ( I told you it was a gift from a friend for editing her paper on the Mind/Body/Nutrition Link with Biblical references). I am all about a massage, but this is something a little different. I will let you know what I think but I imagine I will like it because I quite frankly have never had a bad massage.
    I am also looking forward to it because I have been quiet about starting to exercise again and I am just a tad bit sore in my neck and shoulders from trying to have the correct posture in what I am doing—sitting at a desk most of the day take it’s toll.

    Anyway the essence of my friend’s paper is that if you think good thoughts, eat organic, and exercise and generally treat your body as a temple of God (and she does mean our God) that you will short circuit a lot of disease. I love her and we have been bossing each other around for over 20 years now, but I can’t keep up with her on this one. She was sending me links to all the chemical filled food I shouldn’t be eating. I asked to please stop before I starved to death 😉 I am going to have to make time for her soon to go harass her into doing something with her house. She used to cry about her parents house because her mother couldn’t throw anything away. Now she is developing the same tendencies and with writing this paper—her house is in danger of bursting wide open.

    Was that everything you wanted to know Mumsee? 🙂

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  47. prayers for my day please as I was informed last night as the gal who was supposed to spend the day with me and then sub on Monday and Tuesday won’t be coming until 9:45. Changes all my plans and not sure what they are changed to. Last day for me and I am ready for abreak.

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  52. Guns in the home:

    I am thankful my husband never has his guns loaded in the house. He doesn’t even keep them and the ammunition on the same floor.

    Tragedy struck in my extended family when I was a girl. My nine-year-old cousin was playing at the home of a friend of his — playing cops and robbers — which involved at least one loaded gun, and no adult supervision.

    My cousin got shot in the arm. Not a life-threatening wound, but the circumstances from there spun out of control.

    I don’t know if it was because his playmate saw the bleeding from my cousin’s wound, or heard what I would imagine were cries of pain, or what, but the kid totally flipped out, grabbed a knife, and stabbed my cousin to death.

    My aunt was pregnant at the time, and my uncle, in an effort to keep the most horrific details of their son’s death from his wife (there were 22 stab wounds), told her their son had died as a result of the gunshot.

    A few weeks later, the autopsy report was mailed to the house, and it was my aunt who opened the envelope… 😦

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  53. Nervous Nellie here. I let her go to the mall with a friend. She is meeting her dad at 5 for dinner. He is going to talk to her, because of my history (non existent really) with drugs she won’t listen to me. Her dad on the other hand smoked his share of pot when he was pretending to be a ski bum. Who would you rather warn you; at saint or a reformed sinner? He will carry more weight in the discussion.

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  54. Well I talked to the Father and feel worse. He told me I needed to prepare myself for our daughter going to jail. He said he told his mom and nephew that last night. I told him to please do something to try to reach her when they have dinner later ….

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  58. Kim, so far, she has only received a slap on the hand. She may well need a real wake up call. The younger the better. They really do try to protect the young offenders from the general prison population. I know this because three of my children have two brothers who spend a lot of time in jail. We had hoped their time in juvie would be enough. It was not. We had hoped their time in jail would be enough. It has not been. We hope that their time in prison will do it. The oldest one is set to get baptized this week. In prison. If he is serious, prison is actually a good place to get grounded. A lot of serious believers are involved in prison ministry. Meantime, we hope she will wake up but her actions do not indicate it so far. Praying with you.

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  60. Oh 6, tragic. My grandfather’s brother jumped off a car when he was 14, holding a shotgun. It went off, he died a horrible death a few days later in 1919 and no one in the family ever got over it. 😦

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  61. Re guns: I don’t know if I have ever touched a loaded gun, but when I was 11 or 12 we had a couple move in next door with their four-year-old granddaughter. We sometimes played with her, sometimes babysat her, over the next few years until we moved away when I was 15.

    Somewhere in there, one day the little girl had a rifle. If I recall correctly, I was in my yard and she was in hers, with the chain-link fence between us. She pointed it at me, pulled the trigger, and said, “Pow.” I said she shouldn’t point guns at people, and she said, “It’s not a real gun.” I said OK, and I took the gun and pointed it at her. We went back and forth several times, and her grandmother came out while she was holding it, took it from her with astonishment and the caution, “Don’t ever point a gun at someone!” And I realized with my heart in my throat that I’d taken a kindergartener’s word for “It’s not a real gun” and pointed it at her and pulled the trigger. I’m sure that, in fact, it was not a real gun, but the point is that I was so used to assuming people were telling me the truth that it didn’t even occur to me that if she was lying (or mistaken), I could injure or kill her.

    I’ve wondered ever since how many gun deaths come from one child carelessly believing the word of another, “It’s not loaded, silly” or something like that.

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  63. Yes, Mumsee, good advice.

    Cheryl, we allowed our children to have toy guns, but they were never allowed to point them at people. Hopefully that grandmother had the same idea, but …! Scary.

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  64. My dad taught brother and me to shoot a rifle, a shotgun, and a pellet gun. I have never shot a pistol. I have personally never desired to own a gun. Son learned to shoot at the Boy Scout rifle range. They would let parents shoot there, but I chose not to. I’ve not shot a gun since I was a child, but I could remember how to if I had to to defend myself.

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  65. That was possibly the most relaxing massage I have ever had. She used all types of herbal oils and used a gentle touch. It was just what I needed.
    G thinks he reached BG tonight. I will tell you more tomorrow. Right now I am enjoying being a slug.

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