38 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 6-18-16”

  2. This morning as I was in the kitchen to prepare my coffee, I decided to turn the fan toward the refrigerator to give it a nice chill. Something hit the floor. It was a Bible verse that flew off when hit by the wind from the fan. It says, “I am the vine; you are the branches…” John 15:5.

    When my coffee finished making, I went upstairs to do my daily Bible reading which was on schedule for today to be the chapter of John 15.

    Interesting how God’s word shows up in two different places so close in time on a Sat. a.m.

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  4. What a beautiful flower Janice! It looks so very tropical…what is it?
    Your reminder of John 15:5 caused me to recall Keith Green’s lyric “He is Devine, you are de branch….He’d like to get you through it if you’d give Him a chance…. 😉

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  5. Awake at quarter to 4 because, of course, I need to be on my toes and speak at 2 this afternoon to a group of strangers about the importance of devotions.

    Why was I awakened?

    I’m back to working on the Biddy bio–how can we tell?

    I don’t sleep.

    Spiritual warfare comes in many forms . . .

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  6. Good morning. I am off to do a walk through on a condo that will close on Tuesday. I also have to get a photographer in to take photos of a Gulf front house we are putting on the market and an inspector in another.
    As we all know this has been a strange election cycle. Usually real estate slows down in an election year because people don’t know what the next administration will do. This year not so much.

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  7. Sorry to be selling something, but it’s free! If you’re interested in entering a contest to win a free copy of my latest book signed by all 12 writers, here’s your chance:

    I’m the guest on Stitches in Time this morning, stop by and enter the contest for a copy of The 12 Brides of Summer Collection signed by all 12 authors!

    http://stitchesthrutime.blogspot.com/2016/06/gabbin-about-12-brides-of-summer-with.html

    Not many people enter these giveaways, so I’d rather give a copy to someone I know . . .

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  8. What an eye-popping flower! And I notice that my orange vine/plant has reappeared after the gardeners removed it “for good” in the fall. 🙂

    Nothing can kill that, but I’m actually glad to see it back, despite the trouble it causes. And the humming birds love it, too. (I call it honeysuckle, but I don’t really know what it is.)

    Are Chas and Elvera in their new house?? Always so exhausting when you finally “land” amid all the boxes and chaos. But at least you have some breathing room and don’t have to do everything on a schedule like you do when you’re trying to get out of a place.

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  9. Regarding election years, prepare also for a downturn in the stock market after a new president is elected, it apparently happens every time we have a “regime” change in this county. Things might be rockiest if a Trump (or a Bernie, more unlikely now) wins, I’m thinking, but either way, a new president brings not-so-good economic conditions, apparently. At least for a while.

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  10. Wow, Michelle, that was too complicated for my brain today. Perhaps seventeen year old coming in at two fifteen this morning had something to do with it. Not to worry, he passed the breathalyzer test.

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  12. Yesterday I was at T-Mobile with Art’s phone and my tablet, neither working. I was reading a book, The Atheist Who Didn’t Exist, and the young man helping me asked about it. I ended up inviting him to church and found out his parents came over as refugees and we’re helped to settle in the 80s by a church. He seemed very open to hearing about the book. I told him I had just read the part where the atheist puts up the argument. “I just believe in one God less than you.” Then I continued as the author said about how the atheist has a kind of faith In believing there is no God and that I can just take the next step on that ladder and say I don’t believe In atheism. It was pleasant to talk with someone so interested. He said his parents entered the states in the 80s.
    I guess that would perhaps be the boat people. Maybe I will ask about that when I pick up my new tablet. Already.

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  13. The cooler weather here is so welcome. I still have not turned on the air. I just keep wanting the freshness of having windows open part of the time. Miss Bosley enjoys it so much, too. We were playing this morning, and she really snagged my pinky fingertip with a claw (accidentally). It hurt like crazy and bled. Just another reminder of how easily animals can hurt people. It also made me feel like a real wimp with all my yelping.

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  16. No babies yet. Every time the phone rings, I half expect it to be one of them saying that they are headed to the hospital. They both have midwives, but for Second, this is her first and protocol says the first should be born in a healthcare facility (one is never sure how a first time mother is going to be); and Youngest’s spouse’s family has a history of babies born with a serious congenital defect, so she has hers in the hospital just to be on the safe side, even though the ultrasounds haven’t showed anything abnormal. They have now both passed their due dates, but both my mother and Eldest were always at about two weeks after their due dates (except for me, as my mother always reminds me, I was induced early because I wasn’t doing too well). We keep joking about them having them on the same day.

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  17. Last night on yesterday’s daily thread, I wrote about my feelings about smiles & smile surgery. I forgot to say that I recently discovered that if I didn’t have Moebius, my smile would look like Emily’s. I don’t remember how or why I came to do it, but I smiled in the mirror, covering the right side of my face (that doesn’t smile), & what I saw looked just like Emily’s smile. (And she has a beautiful smile.) 🙂

    Lee has said in the past that he thinks Emily looks a lot like me, but neither Emily nor I can see that. Maybe he sees something we don’t.

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  18. We are in Greensboro, Donna.
    We have some of the stuff unpacked. We can’t find some thing.
    But we had supper and the bed is made. That is all that counts now.
    We will be joining Friendly Ave. BC tomorrow. I am wearing a dark suit and brown shoes, I can’t find my black ones.
    If anyone says anything, I will go back to FBCHNC
    Chuck and Linda were lots of help.

    A guy from Time-Warner came over about 2:45 and worked till 6:30. I have phone, TV and internet now.

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  22. Yes, Jo. Elvera and Linda are taking me and Chuck out to lunch after church today.

    I suspect other motives, rather than Father’s day.
    Chuck now has four grandkids with two on the way.

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  23. Chas, You are a great example to us all.

    There reached a point when my Grandmother sold her house in Lamesa, Texas and moved to an apartment in Abernathy, Texas close to my aunt. The first Sunday after the move she transferred her membership from First Baptist of Lamesa (where she had been for 82 years) to First Baptist of Abernathy. Within a matter of weeks she had many new friends at her new church.

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  25. Happy Father’s Day

    It’s going to be hotter today than yesterday (around 88 where I am — a whole lot worse in our inland areas where it will be over 100). Tomorrow it goes up again — to about 90 — but at least I’ll be back at work and in air-conditioning.

    We’re usually shrouded in our cool June Gloom weather pattern at this time of year, hope this isn’t a sign of a hotter-than-normal summer to come.

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  26. We are now members of Friendly Avenue Baptist Church in Greensboro.
    QoD :”Are you Chuck’s dad?”

    That’s what I have become. I don’t mind. I am also Becky’s granddad, and Brian’s by marriage (Becky’s husband) He is a deacon and usher too.
    We will like it there.

    Still trying to get settled in here for now.

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  27. I know what it’s like to be “someone’s relative” rather than who I am. When I first moved to Kirksville, MO, I was “X’s brother”. Now when I visit the church we attended for 16 years I am “X’s dad” since my children attend there.

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  29. There was a little incident in church today with a young couple (John & MIssy), though it was quiet, & I don’t think many people witnessed it. We found out about it later this afternoon when John sent Lee a private message on Facebook, asking his opinion.

    What happened was that Missy had been breastfeeding their baby son during service, in the sanctuary. Other mothers had done the same, but were a little more discreet than Missy. Our pastor’s wife, Renee, had to tell her that some people had complained, but that they had a more private place for her to nurse, where she could still hear the sermon. (They put a chair behind the greeting desk, which is actually a high wrap-around counter, in the foyer.)

    Well, Missy & John left, with Missy in tears. Now she has posted on Facebook about how offended she is by this treatment, & that she & her family will not be back to our church. 😦

    Although Missy is 35 (John is only 23), I have seen that she is quite immature, & seems to get offended easily. I hope (& pray) that she & John will calm down, & not let this keep them from coming back to church. (They’d been coming steadily for at least a couple years.)

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  30. What Lee said, with some input from me, in his reply to John’s message was that they shouldn’t blame Pastor Billy & Renee. Renee was in the awkward position of having to do something to appease those who were offended, while trying not to offend John & Missy. They can’t please everybody.

    On Missy’s Facebook post, I asked her to please not blame or judge everyone at church based on the opinions of some, & I said that sometimes as Christians, we need to lay aside our own preferences to be gracious to others, even if we feel those others are not being gracious to us.

    She replied that they are the ones who should show grace to her, not the other way around, & that she is not going to budge in her opinion, or in how or where she feeds her baby.

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  31. Breast feeding in public, seems that it’s incumbent upon the mom to figure out the most discreet way to do that. At the least, it could serve as a distraction. It’s not common in our culture and it’s understandable that it could unsettle some people if it isn’t handled well.

    I just watched that movie “spotlight” (about the Boston Globe’s expose of the Catholic priest abuse and how rampant it was). Good movie, both from a journalistic standpoint and also (though entirely sad as well) from the perspective of the horrible abuse and cover up carried out by an institution representing Christ. Ugh.

    There was a point in the movie where one of the reporters was interviewing a former priest who had been studying the “phenomenon” for 30 years and he said it really goes back to the requirement of celibacy.

    Bingo.

    I’ve always felt that the prohibition of marriage for priests served to (maybe inadvertently) attract men to the priesthood who had issues with sexuality — some may even have seen taking a vow of celibacy as a way to “solve” their inner conflicts. But of course it only exasperated them. 😦

    In our sermon today also, it was mentioned that the top-down format of church government (episcopal) opens the way for more scandals like that. In the presbyterian form of church government you have the involvement from the bottom up (congregations) in elevating elders from among men already well known and accountable to the body. Just a thought and one I think that has some validity (we’ve also managed to escape those kinds of scandals for the most part, perhaps as a result of that more representative form of church government?).

    I do feel for the believers within the Catholic church, the molestation scandal (and how badly it was handled by merely transferring priests to another parish, causing even more children to be put at risk) has been horrific. Beyond that, the current pope seems to be doctrinally wobbly, at best. Interesting to watch what will happen there.

    It’s miserably hot today, the dogs and cat are aren’t moving, they are splayed out trying to cope. There’s finally a little breeze coming through the windows — and in a while we’ll head out for the dog park. Still 90 degrees inside my house so it’s got to be a little bit cooler outside than it is inside by now. I really am going to look into a/c, my tolerance for these heat waves is lessening with every passing summer.

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  32. It’s hot here as well and we do not have air conditioning, but manageable. My husband pointed out the new light-colored roof was helping.

    So there, Michelle of little faith.

    Had a fun time at high tea yesterday, though it was disconcerting after working on a talk all week about how to have personal devotions, I heard the pastor’s wife introducing me as talking about Oswald Chambers!

    What to do?

    I got up, apologized for not having photos and told them the story of Oswald and Biddy.

    It went well.

    I’m glad.

    Afterwards, we went to dinner with the friends who had suggested us (my husband spoke to the men last week) to the church as speakers. Fun day and it was beautiful in northern California.

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  33. I apologize for the two posts above. It has been brought to my attention that it may not have been appropriate for me to discuss the matter here, although I did not use their real names.

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  35. This phone is in the habit of adding onto the site following an apostrophe some letters to make a word. So when I wrote it’s, the phone automatically put in the letters to make the word seems. I am continuing to be frustrated by the craziness of my tech devices.

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  36. Karen, the birthing instruction class we attended was led by a La Leche League mom and those groups have very strong opinions about being able to breastfeed in public. Maybe the mom is under such influence which does not seem to be in line with our cultural views. She might be confused and just not understand rightly. I think your pastor’s wife handled it appropriately.

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  38. Janice- My Kindle does that occasionally. New phones and tablets think they know what we want to say because the last time we typed “It” we followed it with “seems”. So the phone thinks we want that every time. “Smart” phones are not not intelligent.

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