47 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 6-28-16”

  1. Good morning everyone.
    I went to the Lion’s Club meeting last night. There were twelve men there. Quite different from Hendersonville which usually had about 36 men and women attending.

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  2. Bye-bye river view. By this evening Mrs L and I will be “homeless”. Of course, the FHA threw another wrench in the gears. Someone didn’t get the paperwork done in time for closing tomorrow, so it’s Friday at the earliest. Bureaucrats!

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  4. Good morning! So many here are experiencing changes.

    Chas, we’re some of the members out for vacation? Since it is so close to the 4th that could make attendance low.

    Sorry to hear about the delay, Peter. That is frustrating.

    Art and I watched The Princess Bride last night. It was different than I expected. We enjoyed it, but once was enough. Son had told us that a lot of people at his previous college, Covenant, really liked that movie.

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  5. Ever move is a small death, even when you want to move and are excited about your new house. Make sure you grieve a little–the kids were raised there and many happy events took place in that house.

    Also, it usually took us about 6 months to grow into a new house and place. The first few month at least was full of confusion about where things were and everything took longer to do. My husband pointed out many of our activities are rote and suddenly having to remember where the toothpaste was kept or which drawer housed the brush, meant even getting dressed took longer.

    It’s part of the process and eventually smooths out.

    We were homeless once. My mother was distraught our mailing address was “General delivery Bremerton, WAshington.”

    “How could you do that to your children?”

    Not because we chose to. We found, bought and moved into a house a week later.

    God is good and will move quickly to confound us sometimes!

    Blessings on your new adventure!

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  7. Janice, a lot of people like The Princess Bride for its quotable one liners, and the way it makes fun of saccharine sweet fairy tales while keeping the fairy tale structure intact, happy ending included. Fairy tale satires often make the original tale dark and twisted, thereby ruining the story, and The Princess Bride avoids that pitfall.

    Speaking of films, here is an interesting review of the new film The Free State of Jones, by a Christian who specializes in American history: https://faithandamericanhistory.wordpress.com/2016/06/28/based-ever-so-loosely-on-a-true-story-mathew-mcconaghy-and-the-free-state-of-jones/
    I had not heard before of the rebellions against the Confederacy, though I now understand that Jones County in Mississippi was not the only region to revolt. So I suppose that the film at least made me more aware of a hidden part of history, even though I have not actually seen the film.

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  8. My dilemma has been solved temporarily, as second sibling-in-law was given more time off work by his boss, who insisted that he stay a couple more days with his wife (his boss is a Christian, who was a friend even before he hired him). So, as long as youngest sibling has her baby in the next two days, it will work out 😉 In any case, my mother has said she will go to second sibling if I’m needed elsewhere.

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  10. I am having dinner tonight with a group of women I was close to about 15 years ago. One of them is home from overseas where she and her husband are in the import/export business (read that as that they are missionaries but cannot be in that country as such). She has a wonderful story. She had been a wild child with at least one abortion. Now look at her and what she does.
    One of the women is BG’s other godmother (in the Episcopal church a girl has two godmothers and one godfather, boys have two godfathers and one godmother). I haven’t seen most of them in person in about 12 or so years. How did that happen?

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  11. Morning ya’ll….it is another beautiful day! Lovely birds on the tree up there…how does one get suet to stick to a tree?
    Princess Bride is Paul’s all time favorite…I hear quotes around here all the time!!!
    I hope you have a most joyous time this evening Kim…lots of laughs and encouragingly words spoken amongst friends can be the most precious of moments in this life! ❤

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  13. Janice, we watched The Princess Bride once and had the same reaction.

    Kim, time flies so much faster the older you get. Before you know it, decades go by.

    We were, technically, homeless at one point, too. We had two little children. We managed. Hope we never have to go through that again, though. We are glad for it, though, for what we learned.

    Michelle has some wise comments about grief. It is difficult to see my mom grieve for both my dad and the home, (she poured her life into) which was recently sold.

    Chas, you have a lot of grief right now and not just the home and former community. Even as you move forward, give yourself that permission to grieve. I pray you find people around you who understand.

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  15. I still think a dog would be nice. 🙂 Eventually, not right away. But walking a dog every day is also a great way to get to know your neighbors.

    Then, if you have a parka in the closet somewhere, maybe you can try out the local dog park …

    I think I watched part of Princess Bride on TV once, lost interest. I’ll try it again maybe.

    So this morning there was a “Save the Coyote” rally (we’re photographing it only, I believe, no story per se). I have a major homeless piece to work on today — then tomorrow is the coyote hearing in LA which I’ll cover via council phone.

    Meanwhile, I have 2 estimates for the roof (and maybe the overhangs, back and front, woodwork I need done) lined up, one today while I’ll be gone at work and another on Thursday morning before I leave. The one today is being brought over by my former neighbor & real estate guy (whom I still see regularly at the dog park) — he’s having work done on a house by this guy and figured maybe he could at least check out my house and provide an estimate.

    The company coming Thursday was used by a colleague and comes with overall high reviews.

    Depending on those two estimates, I may or may not go for a 3rd. But it really is time to get some of this done and the roof & back-front overhangs are the biggest jobs. So if I can get those done, I’ll feel much better and can then plunge ahead on painting & some of the other things.

    Poor little house needs some love. 😦

    Annie is stretched out at my shoulders on the back of the couch, purring and occasionally pushing me with her feet. If I could only train her to do shoulder massages, I’d have it made.

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  16. Speaking of wildlife, a colleague has a red fox staying behind her apartment building (apparently a neighbor is — unwisely, of course — feeding it rotisserie chicken and other delectables). She posted a video of the fox the other day, SO CUTE. He’s a perfect little specimen, big bushy tail, beautiful red coat (thanks to the rotisserie chicken diet). But he’s in danger of becoming dinner for the coyotes, of course, as they’re also hanging out on her block.

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  20. As we all know, the Old Testament is full of some very perplexing, even disturbing, stories, such as when the Israelites are told to wipe out a whole population of a people, even little ones (which we would today call genocide). At some point in my Christian walk, I came to the place of deciding to trust in God & His will, even when it seems inexplicable, & be at peace with what I cannot fully understand.

    But how do we explain those difficult OT stories to either an unbeliever or a new believer who is bothered by them? I have developed somewhat of an explanation, but it doesn’t seem enough.

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  22. Karen– I was just reading in Leviticus about sexual relations and how God said he threw the Caananites out of the land because of their deviant sexual practices– which is why he went to such detail to explain all to the Israelites.

    I found myself thinking how my country is choosing to be Caananites . . .
    But I also thought about how my husband explains the concept of the Israelite army being asked to clear the land, to children by asking if they have ever known a really mean dog.

    Children all nod.

    He explains that the dogs take on the attitudes of their owners, often because of the way they have been treated. It’s almost impossible for them to change, which is why God allowed the armies to kill them all.

    Not the prefect answer, but I maybe it helps.

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  23. New roof– my husband estimates it is 10 degrees cooler in the house with our new roof. It’s light colored– but not to be a distraction and your house is above the road anyway. We got an energy efficient rebate on it as well.

    I’ll see if I can find the details and email them to you. It was not more expensive.

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  26. I wish I had read or known what to expect from The Princess Bride before I saw it. I thought it was going to be a sincere type of romantic story with realistic characters instead of characturatures. The beginning was a bit on the sillier side so I almost said I did not want to continue watching, but it got a lot better. It does have many funny scenes. I think it was also a bit weird to have the main male character named Wesley who we know to be someone else entirely. There are not too many movies that I want to see more than once, so don’t consider that as a major criticism.

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  28. I really did like the way Peter Falk played the granddad reading the story since that was very realistic and added joy to see how much the boy loved being read to (except for the kissing part).

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  33. Kim, I just received the very comfortable. Bernie Mev sandals. The color is more like a smoky blue gray than a true navy. They will go great with my blue outfit and with some jeans. They said to order a little larger so I did and the length is right, but I think I need an insert to make the heel area tight enough because the strap is not adjustable. Thank you for letting me know about this brand. Very nice! They do feel like walking on air.

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  34. NATIVE AMERICANS OBJECT AND ARE OUTRAGED OVER COYOTE TRAPPING!!!

    NATIVE AMERICAN REPRESENTATIVES WILL BE JOINING THE PEACEFUL PROTEST ON TUESDAY MORNING
    ____________________________________

    The save-the-coyote protest only drew 4 people, apparently.

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  35. thank you for any roof advice michelle — mine is a Spanish-style flat roof, of course, so unique issues (including drainage which I need to ask about).

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  38. Karen, I have considered Michelle’s solution to the question of why the Canaanites had to all be killed. I have also been turning another thought over in my mind, based on I Kings 14:1-13. The story there is of Jeroboam’s son, Abijah, who became seriously ill. Jeroboam, who, after rebelling against Rehoboam and being crowned king of Israel, built the two golden calves to prevent the people returning to Jerusalem, sends his wife to Ahijah, the prophet who told Jeroboam he would have the kingdom. Ahijah tells Jeroboam’s wife that God will wipe Jeroboam and his male descendants from the face of the earth because of his blasphemy, and then he says, “The child shall die, and all Israel will mourn for him, and bury him; for he only of Jeroboam house will come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel”. This shows that God sometimes takes the innocent away from prolonged suffering. In the sexually depraved Canaanite culture, the children of that culture would not only probably have suffered abuse themselves, but also seen other children not only misused but also burnt alive in offerings to idols. The trauma they would have faced would have scarred them deeply, and if they had been left and only their parents killed, then they would have had the added trauma of being orphans in the midst of a hostile nation. It might be that God was merciful in taking them away from all of that. That, however, is an explanation which would be completely misunderstood by some.

    There is a sense in which we do not need to defend God’s actions in the OT. God is his own advocate, and the hearts of both unbelievers and new believers will only be changed as he wills it. We are free to refuse to explain the actions in the OT. In such cases, we can turn the conversation towards who God is, in all his glory and power, holiness and justice, because it is only as we grow in our understanding of God, that we can understand his actions. We also have to be careful not to cast pearls before swine, because they will only scornfully spurn on our explanations and personally attack us. If we read the OT accounts of the invasion of Canaan, we see that actually, large pockets of the Canaanites did survive, and some were incorporated into God’s plan for Israel, with Rahab’s inclusion in the genealogy of Christ being the most notable example. Rahab’s family also survived, as did the Gibeonites, who were placed under the special protection of God (who judged Saul’s family after Saul tried to wipe them out in a genocide) and who became the temple servants, the Nethinims. They even followed the Israelites on their return from exile in Babylon and helped rebuild the walls of Jerusalem. There were also other groups who survived, though their presence proved more destructive to the Israelites. God, in the OT, used the law to show that we could not earn our salvation; and then gave salvation freely to us through Jesus Christ, but he foreshadowed that great mercy by sparing those who should have died, even in the Old Testament.

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  40. We are having a thunderstorm with much needed rain. Things had started to die from heat and lack of moisture. I think this will be a quickly passing storm, but every bit of rain is a help except for how it brings out the mosquitoes.

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  41. Roscuro – I agree that we have to be careful about how, & how much, we explain about those difficult passages. Some people will just not see, but others may be truly trying to learn.

    One accusation I have seen recently, a few times over the past couple years, is that God condoned, even commanded, rape. They must be referring to the virgins that were spared from the nations & given to the men as concubines or wives. Although it must have been horribly frightening (& I’m sure there was some abuse that did occur), on the other hand, they were being put under the protection of the men. But people these days would not understand that.

    The most recent person who brought up these things is a young man who obviously thinks he is an expert in what the Bible really says, & what the truth behind the Bible really is. Trying to explain anything to him would seem like it would be casting pearls before swine.

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  42. Karen, the passage you would be referring to is Deuteronomy 21:10-14. This article explains that passage very well, within some fascinating historical and doctrinal context: http://www.theologyforwomen.org/2016/04/thomas-jefferson-headship-and-i.html
    Just a sample:

    There you have it, folks. I Corinthians 11 decoded, and all from a simple cross reference in Scripture. The hair issue is about protection from sexual subjugation in a culture in which women were regularly used as sexual slaves. This was major issue in Corinth. And the entire world really. Women were taken captive, and female slaves were considered the sexual property of their owners. Their head covering was integral to their representation in that culture. A woman’s shaved head (and in Corinth apparently even just going without a head-covering) represented her status as a captive. A recent New Yorker article on the hair styles of the presidential candidates pointed this out as well.

    “Ted Cruz would fit perfectly in ancient Rome. Carly Fiorina, absolutely not: short hair was a sign you’d been conquered.”

    God’s children were to act differently. In the Law, if an Israelite took a female captive that he wanted sexually, there was a process. She went through a ritual to mourn her losses, and the Israelite then must marry her. He could not force her to be his sexual slave without the protections of the covenant relationship of marriage. And from the next chapter, Deuteronomy 22, we know that God took the marriage covenant very seriously. Covenant marriage under the Law, especially to a woman who was without family protection, offered the woman much needed protection, provision, and representation (consider also Boaz and Ruth).

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  45. Here’s an article from Christianity Today that talks about the subject Roscuro touched on in her blog post. . .

    “Gender and the Trinity: From Proxy War to Civil War
    An explainer: the latest complementarian debate isn’t over women’s subordination—but Christ’s.”

    http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2016/june-web-only/gender-trinity-proxy-war-civil-war-eternal-subordination.html?utm_source=ctdirect-html&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_term=9474712&utm_content=444335416&utm_campaign=email&start=1

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