66 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 7-9-16”

  5. Good morning. Hope you find your pet rock, Chas.

    Hubby said it was 107 yesterday in west TX where he’s working. We have been busy here with all the Texans trying to escape the heat.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. Good morning.Whew — 107°? I’d be trying to escape that, too.

    I have a QoD. My question is, how long has it been since someone’s proposed a QoD?

    Just kidding. 😉

    This is prompted by some thoughts I had yesterday after reading about whether piano teachers tend to keep a repertoire going of pieces they’ve played in the past (and, if so, how), or whether they learn specific pieces and then discontinue playing them when they begin new ones.

    My QoD is an adaptation of the question, do you keep maintaining and building on your musical repertoire, as I’m pretty sure that specific question wouldn’t apply to many people here. So I’ll ask, what is your “repertoire,” and do you revisit it once it’s over, or not?

    For example, maybe you travel a lot. Do you have places you make a point to revisit regularly, or do you just go once and then each time you travel, you go somewhere different?

    Or maybe you’re an avid reader. Do you make plans and follow through on rereading certain books so that the details of them don’t fade in your memory?

    Maybe you have a home repertoire established where big or small undertakings, once completed, stay maintained?

    Or not. 😉

    Feel free to adapt this convoluted question (or questions, probably) to your situation. 🙂

    Like

    Reply

  7. Good morning! It’s hot here, too, but not that hot. It was around 92 degrees at 11 p.m. Thankful for the air conditioning, oh yeah!

    Art and I watched the Turkish film (subtitled), Bliss, last night. It was so good. It was about a teenager who was suppose to go through an honor killing because she was thought to have been raped. They gave her a rope to kill herself, but she would not do it. Then they sent her off to Istanbul with her male cousin who had been a soldier. He was to kill her. He took pity on her and they ended up traveling together, and eventually ended up on a sailing vessel with a rich man who hired them to help him with ship duties. He has been a university professor but is escaping from things himself. Wow! What a movie! The scenery in Turkey is magnificent. There are no sex scenes, and the two men are protective of her although jealousies form creating conflict. Men from the village go in search to find and kill the girl. Fascinating ending with some mystery solved. Our library has many foreign films to choose from. We are blessed. As I engaged with the movie, I felt as if we were traveling in Turkey.

    Like

    Reply

  9. It is the RSA Battle House Tower. The tallest building in Alabama. It is a “safe” building. You check in with the front desk, tell them where you are going, receive a visitor badge, and are only able to go to that floor. It was built after 9/11, When you read the link to the building you will see that the foundation is over 7 ft thick. That is because much of Mobile is swampy and wet.
    RSA stands for Retirement Systems of Alabama. Over the last 20 years they have bought up everything they can. The Riverview Hotel near it has been bought and received the same topping. Interesting history, the Riverview was built on the site of the very first hotel in Alabama.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSA_Battle_House_Tower

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  10. This came up on my Amazon Prime Music yesterday and after the week we have had, I found myself driving home with tears running down my cheeks. We are a hurt nation but we have been through hurt and pain before.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  11. 6 Arrows, I don’t typically go back to repeat things such as rereading books and rewatching movies. I do have writings I need to go back to and rework so I can polish them and submit to magazines for possible publication. Of course we do keep going back to our timeshare for vacation, and we go back to our favorite restaurants. If I had the extra money to spend, I would probably buy some of the plants we once grew that died out. I researched plants and found what I liked so I would go back to replant in the landscaping arena. One of my part-time positions (on top of my full time work) was working in the office of a plant nursery so I often brought plants home that I liked. I have had opportunities to revisit my college and university campuses and that was fun to see how they have changed. Also, every so often I drive by the house I grew up in and the old neighborhood since it is only about 20 minutes away

    Thoughtful question, 6 Arrows.

    Like

    Reply

  13. Thanks Kim.
    It breaks my heart to see our country falling apart.
    But I saw it coming.
    We don’t need a revival in our country.
    We need a prophet.
    The difference is that on conversion without repentance of sins that people assume are natural practices, we will continue the degrading practices and attitudes that brought us here.
    You can’t call evil good and make it so.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  16. Well Six I will try to answer your questions.
    There are some places I have been many times. I don’t know how many times I have been to New Orleans, Houston, Washington DC, or Maryland. I have been to New York City at least 4 times. I already want to go back to Northern California and see what I didn’t get to see. There is a highway there that is cental in a series of books I have read. I was close enough to it on the Interstate to recognize the names of towns but not on the actual highway. Michelle told me it would have taken my two days to make a six hour trip.
    Generally, though, I would like to go to new places and make new memories. My goal in life is to have one of those map stickers you see on the back of motor homes where the retirees fill in all the states they have visited. I think I am halfway there.
    Books? I consume books and I read for pleasure. I have a few books that I read over and over. Back at Christmas I received a Kindle Paperwhite so that I could read outside. I went back to Jonathan Kellerman’s Alex Delaware series and read it from the very first book published in 1983 or 84 through the latest one published in 2015. I enjoyed reading them in order back to back. Since I have been reading them since 1986 or 87 I had forgotten some things and in later books I questioned certain things, or couldn’t remember the back story to something. It felt like catching up with an old friend. Eventually I will re read Faye Kellerman’s Peter Decker/Rina Lazarus series but right now I feel that I have already contributed about $300 to the Kellerman coffers this year so I will spread the wealth out to something new. Just to balance that out with some classics I can’t tell you how many times I have read Little Women and the whole series of books by Louisa May Alcott or how many times I have read Gone With the Wind, Shakespeare plays, and several others that escape me this morning. I have read The Fountainhead more than once, but don’t know how many more times than at least twice. Every time I read To Kill A Mockingbird I pick up something new. I admit I am curious about Watchman, but I love Atticus Finch the way he is and I do not want anything to disturb my “memory” of him.
    Just last night Mr. P and I were discussing the racial tensions going on in the US. He had recorded the new mini-series Roots and told me I needed to watch it. I told him I didn’t want to watch it. He asked if I had seen the original from the 1970’s. I have. I confessed to him that I really am not interested in African or Native American Art and culture. I know it is there and I can appreciate it if I am around it but I do not want to go out of my way to do so. What I DID tell him I would be interested in doing is reading the BOOK Roots, by Alex Haley. I would like to read his words and form my own opinion instead of being force fed the 2015 revisionist history opinions of Roots. It should be a free Kindle download at this point—after all I am almost positive it has entered the realm of “classic” by now.

    There is no Frigate like a Book
    To take us Lands away
    Nor any Coursers like a Page
    Of prancing Poetry –
    This Traverse may the poorest take
    Without oppress of Toll –
    How frugal is the Chariot
    That bears the Human Soul –

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  17. I am in Austin with Mother. We are going to San Antonio to have her 80th birthday party on the Riverwalk. It will only be 100 degrees here in Central Texas, but the humidity will be high near the rivers. I hope y’all have a good weekend.
    Chas, Mother will be happy to see all her Texas relatives, but she might wish we were all in the mountains of North Carolina.

    Liked by 4 people

    Reply

  18. Re – 6’s QoD: Well, as a musician, I do have a core musical repertoire which I add to gradually. The most frequent addition of repertoire to both piano and violin are improvised arrangements of hymns, since that is what I play for church offertories. My taste for the kind of music I play fluctuates by season, and by instrument. So, in the winter on the piano, I was working on Mozart piano sonatas. I already had a core of his sonatas in C+ (K280) and E flat + (K282), and I added F+ (K332), C+ (K330), and A- (K310). I haven’t had much time to work on music this spring and summer, but I began to add Albeniz’s ‘En la playa’, to my repertoire of his music, which includes his ‘Prelude’ and ‘Cordba’ from his Cantos de Espana and ‘Sevilla’ from his Suite Espanola. I also have some perennial favorites, such as Couperin’s ‘Les Barricade Mysterieuses’ and Poulenc’s ‘Suite Francaise’.

    On the violin, I have a smaller core repertoire, including the solo part of Vivaldi’s ‘Spring’, Faure’s ‘Berceuse’ (the solo one in D+, not the one from his Dolly Suite), Elgar’s ‘Chanson de Matin’, Vaughan Williams’ ‘The Lark Ascending’, and the ‘Presto’ from Bach’s solo violin Sonata I. I’ve been working for a while on Bach’s ‘Preludio’ from his third solo Partita, and on the ‘Gartenscene’ and ‘Hornpipe’ from Korngold’s suite from Much Ado About Nothing. It gets lonely playing on the violin, since, with the exception of Bach’s fiendishly difficult Sonatas and Partitas, all violin pieces are accompanied by other instruments. I often play folk music, usually Irish, just to make myself feel less lonely.

    I suppose I do have a core reading repertoire, consisting mainly of classic English literature. Charles Dickens, Charlotte Bronte, Jane Austen, G. K. Chesterton and O Henry are authors I have read over and over, and will no doubt do so again. Individual children’s books like The Hobbit, The Little White Horse, The Prince and the Pauper, and The Good Master are also in the core of my reading. I usually add non-fiction these days to my repertoire, since, with the exception of Thackeray, whose books I find dull, I have read the majority of the works of every great novelist who wrote in English, including Antony Trollope, Sir Walter Scott, John Buchan, Rafael Sabatini, Louisa May Alcott, Anne and Emily Bronte, Wilkie Collins, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, C. S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mark Twain, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Oliver Goldsmith, and Dorothy L. Sayers, among others. Perhaps my most favorite novelist is one most of you have never heard of, but whose quality of work deserves to rank with the finest of children and young adult writers, Rosemary Sutcliff. It is not easy to find her work, so I treasure my copies of The Eagle of the Ninth (yes, that was recently made into a dreadful film, ‘The Eagle’ which slaughtered the book), Blood Feud (which is really not as violent as it sounds), and The Lantern Bearers (which won the Carnegie Medal – the British version of the Newberry award – in 1959). I’m still looking for a copy of The Shield Ring, which is the first Sutcliff book that I discovered.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  19. Lovely evening here with an impromptu barbecue. Three kids, one daughter-in-law, two adorables sharing a set of butterfly wings, and the young couple who have worked on our house, my books, the yard and the wife is my husband’s co SS teacher.

    We laughed at stories, the dancing children (each one of us in turn got up to play with them), ate blackberry pie made from wild blackberries picked by the adorables ( missing a number a la “Blueberries for Sal” without the bears) and savored the fellowship.

    A blessing.

    Daughter leaves for Nicaragua this morning, eldest son and family drive home from Boise and I should spend the day with Biddy.

    I wish the same joy for all of you!

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  21. Kim, ‘Roots’ is one novel I have never read, but I know the novel begins in The Gambia, as the book title was used as a tourist attraction to visit the ruins of the Portuguese slave trading fort, where the African slave trade to Europe and the Americas began. There is a Canadian novel, The Book of Negroes, based on the records of the Black Loyalists, which also begins in The Gambia. It was recently made into a TV series, and I watched the first episode to see how accurately they portrayed the region (can’t say I would recommend watching it). I could tell the actors hadn’t been trained in proper diction of the languages of the region, as they spoke their Wolof, Fula and Mandinka with appalling accents – I may only be able to speak some Wolof but I know what all three are supposed to sound like 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  22. I remember my teammates snickering over the film (the new version with Heath Ledger, not the 1930’s classic) The Four Feathers. It is supposed to be set in the north Sudan region, but it was clearly shot around Senegal and/or Mauritania, so that some of the actors playing tribal Africans are speaking Wolof, not a Sudanese language. I watched the film too, just to see, and sure enough, the English subtitles do not match what the actors are actually saying in Wolof. At one point, when the subtitles are talking about war and death, the actors are talking about bread. The film, which is a soul-stirring epic, was unintentionally hilarious.

    Like

    Reply

  25. We finally get a break today. It’s only supposed to get into the low 80’s, but the humidity is far less than it was the last 4 days. Makes a huge difference in the feel.

    Like

    Reply

  26. I read Roots, but a long time ago. We used to get Alex Haley sightings when I worked in Hollywood (he had a personalized license plate and it was at the height of the Roots phenomenon with the mini series).

    So it’s been an early Saturday morning for me, I had to meet a contractor at 8 a.m. so he could look t the front port and back patio wood frames that need (largely) replacing. But now it’s complicated since I already have a guy coming to do the roof and these projects will intersect. Contractor is super nice (and a Christian who lives in my same town), I’d received the referral from my former roofing company but he somehow missed picking up my voice mail until just recently (after I’d already decided to go with the one roofer — this guy could have done all of it). He apparently goes back and forth to Mexico a lot for a church house-building ministry (Hands of Mercy? They may be only in SoCal) so he said my call from a month ago slipped in between the cracks with all the back-and-forth trips they were doing in early summer.

    Meanwhile, I picked up the roofing permits at the city of LA Building & Safety Dept. yesterday (that alone was $400!). Ugh. But the roofer gave a pretty low bid so I’m saving money there (at least $4,000 thousand less than the other guy who put a bid in on it).

    The patio wood structure replacement will cost the most. 😦 Ouch.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  27. It’s a cool, gray morning here on the west coast. By the time the worst of our seasonal heat hits (Sept., sometimes into Oct.), you all will be feeling quite chilly. But early summers aren’t bad here, with the exception of the occasional heat waves and spikes. We’re mostly staying below 80 these days.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  28. I love “Blueberries for Sal.” When son was young, our county main library was putting together a quilt that patrons could contribute blocks to that were created based on favorite children’s books. I did blocks based on “Blueberries for Sal” and “Thunder Cake.”

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  32. Chas – It is my understanding that true revival begins with true repentance, or it is not really revival.

    Another thing I was taught years ago was that revival happens to the saved, the church, as we’re the ones who have something to be revived.. An awakening is what happens when the unsaved start getting saved in large numbers. Is that how you understand those words, or do you think of them in a different way?

    One of my fervent prayers of late has been for God to bring a spirit of repentance across our land – repentance that leads to real heart-change & salvation.

    Liked by 3 people

    Reply

  36. My own personal Marine will be the American flag bearer at this coming Tuesday’s all star game. I believe that is some sort of nationally televised sports event.

    Liked by 6 people

    Reply

  37. So the roofer arrives Monday morning for the first of the big house projects. Life is going to be chaotic for a while.

    And while I’m at it, I scheduled a Salvation Army pickup for Wednesday — the truck used to take drop-offs here in town is apparently not here anymore; tried to take my several bags to one of the stores that takes donations, but parking lot was an absolute madhouse, I couldn’t begin to get a close spot, so I just came home & ordered the pickup online.

    Like

    Reply

  38. 6 Arrows, I tend to repeat favorites. For example, I have one to two menu items in each restaurant. In Taco Bell, for example, I’ve been getting a taco and a tostada since I was about 10 (40 years!), though about every third visit I’ll change it and get something else. (But I only have a couple of things I substitute, and one long-standing favorite, the taco salad, I finally dropped because they’ve changed it so much it doesn’t taste good anymore–but I’ve been ordering it on and off for about 35 years, too.)

    I once made a list of books I’d read at least five times. Some favorites from childhood were on there (many of them which I’ve reread multiple times as an adult), but I had several I’d read that many times as an adult, and a bunch more that have had at least three readings.

    My husband and I have been going to the same place for our anniversary for three years running. We thought we’d change it this year, but decided to go back (though we won’t be going on our anniversary as we have done past years).

    And so forth. This morning we went to our favorite state park, which we probably visit eight to ten times a year. We like adding new ones to the list of those we’ve seen, but we have our local favorite and our away-from-home favorite, and both are worth revisiting.

    Like

    Reply

  39. And I see that while my husband and I were out exploring creation, and then back home recovering and doing other things, a bunch of my photos got published. (Thank you, AJ, for putting them up!)

    I told AJ that Kim would hate me for sending him the gull photos (she called them “garbage gulls,” if I recall correctly), but it turns out to be Michelle who complains. 🙂 Anyway, the birds are from Florida and Alabama, the gulls from Alabama (though there were some in Florida too) and the others from Florida. Here we go . . .

    The gulls are laughing gulls, and they were absolutely everywhere in Mobile. It’s no exaggeration that (not counting huge flights of ibis really high overhead), seven of ten birds I saw in Mobile were laughing gulls. Their call reminded me of a killdeer’s. I got such good flight shots because children were throwing food for them. In the old days I would have taken photos of the children, but these days it doesn’t seem a good idea to take photos of unknown children, so I focused only on the sky and got shot after shot. After I got a few photos of gulls filling the air, I decided to include one of the buildings and see what i could get, and I liked that shot and one where the gulls pretty much surround the building on all sides. I really can see how the birds can get pesky, the Alabama version of city pigeons except not so messy, but they are very pretty birds, and the backlit spread white tails reminded me of dancers’ dresses.

    The next bird is a great egret. I’d seen them before, since one summer they showed up near us for a few weeks, but by that late in the summer they no longer had their breeding plumes, so I was looking forward to seeing egrets in Florida with their breeding plumes. As it turns out, most of the adults had only some of the plumes left (the ones on their bodies, not their necks), but I did see one or two still in full breeding regalia. Anyway, I find white birds to be really hard to photograph against a blue sky–birds in flight are tricky anyway, since they are moving and you have to look up to photograph them (I’m subject to vertigo and don’t find “up” a comfortable position), but white objects are also hard for a camera to focus on. So a good photo of a flying great egret was one of my small triumphs from the Florida trip. (I also got lots of lovely ones in other poses, including reflected in water.)

    Finally, the middle of the smaller photos is a magnificent frigate bird. Now, I went to Florida hoping to see several specific species (and saw most of them), but this one wasn’t on my list because I wasn’t expecting to see it. I have to admit I was proud of myself when I was looking at this bird and the captain asked if I knew what it was, that I was able to say “frigate bird” (I’m not quite sure how I knew what it was, though I have seen photos of them). They are tropical birds, and best known for the large red inflatable throat pouch with which the otherwise-all-black male impresses his mate. When I saw this one and the captain told me it was a female, and that they are from South America and have a seven- to eight-foot wing span, I wasn’t sure I’d ever see another in my life, and so even though the bird was flying and we were in a boat moving away from her and I had to turn and get the photo behind me, I figured it was an important shot and I needed not to miss it, so I got it carefully. And this, the first shot I ever got of the species, is also the best I got–though as it turns out, we saw many, many of them on our island tour. But they’re super impressive birds, at times comical looking. For perspective on that wing span, it’s as big as the largest female bald eagle (female eagles are bigger) and 50% bigger than a great blue heron. So it’s really a huge bird, and one of the fun surprises of the trip.

    I also got great shots of flying brown pelicans and of ospreys, all on my birthday.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  41. I believe I called them scavengers and pesks. They are lie the here and signs everywhere say do not feed the sea gulls.
    I sent a list of photos for you to send AJ.

    Sea Gulls are next to welfare. Feed them and they will never go away.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  49. And as a matter of fact, coyotes have invaded he Clintons’ home town as well …

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/coyotes-divide-residents-of-westchesters-chappaqua-1467758764

    __________________________

    In the upscale Westchester County hamlet of Chappaqua, friction has simmered for years over how to manage coyotes.

    This summer it boiled over.

    The new tensions stem from a local housing development’s decision to hire trappers when a dog was attacked.

    The question of whether to trap and euthanize coyotes is at the center of the Chappaqua debate. One camp says trapping should be done when the coyote is rabid or attacks a person unprovoked, and in other instances on a case-by-case basis. Another side says trapping should be an option whenever coyotes attack pets—and mandatory if they go after people.

    “The whole town is polarized over this,” said Jennifer Lyne, a Chappaqua resident of two years. …
    _________________________________

    Like

    Reply

  50. Although maternity fashions have been different from my time for a while now, I still am often surprised at seeing a heavily-pregnant woman wearing a form-fitting top or dress. In my day, & generations before, the blouse or dress would flow down from the top of the pregnant belly, but now it is popular to wear somewhat tight-fitting clothes that form around the pregnant belly & accentuate it.

    In some ways, it’s nice that there’s no longer a sense of pregnancy being something to be ashamed of or hidden, but it’s still a bit disconcerting to me. I feel the same way when I see heavy young women wearing tight-fitting things that emphasize their “rolls”. (BTW, I am heavy myself, so I am not making fun of them or putting them down by saying that.) Or girls with big bellies wearing belly-exposing crop tops. In my day (I sound like an old lady), we tried to wear looser-fitting clothes to not bring attention to, or cover up, our heaviness.

    1st daughter pointed out to me, though, that sometimes clothing that is too loose accentuates a person’s heaviness rather than covering it up. I try to go for something between too tight & too loose.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  52. In times of turmoil, either in the family or in the news, I have often been struck by how our pets & little children act as if nothing is different. It’s as if they have this perfect faith that everything is going to be okay, so why sweat it? Perhaps they are an object lesson from God?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  53. Yesterday (earlier on this thread), I wrote, as part of a comment,

    “Another thing I was taught years ago was that revival happens to the saved, the church, as we’re the ones who have something to be revived.. An awakening is what happens when the unsaved start getting saved in large numbers.”

    Question for you all: Is that how you understand those words, or do you have a different understanding of them (particularly of “revival”)?

    Like

    Reply

  55. Karen, I understand and agree, in principal with what you said.
    However.
    The definition of OK is our culture has changed so much that a person can be converted, turn to Christ and not understand that some practices are not OK with god.
    “Al long as we love each other, I don’t see what’s wrong with………….”

    Like

    Reply

  57. I enjoyed reading the responses to yesterday’s QoD. Wish I had more time to say more than that, because you had lots of good thoughts to share that would be fun to discuss…

    I’ll wax philosophical another time… 😉

    Like

    Reply

  59. Karen % Chas: The past couple of weeks, the pastor has preached some excellent sermons, and all from I Corinthians 7. This week, he was preaching on the passage:

    But this I say, brethren, the time is short: it remaineth, that both they that have wives be as though they had none; And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not; And they that use this world, as not abusing it: for the fashion of this world passeth away.

    He pointed out that this passage was not only dealing with the coming end of the world, but also with how short and fleeting our lives are even now. Governments and nations rise and fall, markets grow and collapse, we pass through times of happiness and times of pain, and even our family members live and die. The fashion, the word conveys an idea of theater scenery, of this world is ever changing and will eventually cease altogether. In passing, he mentioned even the changing fashion of morality, and I reflected that was just what I had been thinking, this phase of Western civilization, of wild and unrestrained self-expression, is just another fashion of this world. It will pass away, as others have before it. Sometimes, remembering that, whether Christ comes or tarries, nothing in this world is permanent, helps me to stand back from world events and remember my stability comes from Christ, not from my country, or my family, or my financial standing, or my profession, or anything else.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  60. Hmmm, what object lesson do coyotes provide, I wonder?

    We had a review in SS today on the order of salvation:

    1/ Election (by God in eternity past)
    2/ Effectual calling
    3/ Regeneration
    4/ Faith
    5/ Repentance
    (Regeneration/faith/repentance are more or less simultaneous)
    6/ Sanctification

    I would say that true revival, by necessity, would certainly include repentance.

    Our sermon today was on “Raising and Calming Storms” — Ps. 107:23-32 and Matt. 8:23-27

    Appropriate subject after the week we’ve had but it also stemmed from a FB discussion our pastor started this past week on the question “Is it wrong to say everything happens for a reason?”

    Our corporate prayer included prayers for the families of (by name) the Dallas officers killed and the two African-Amercans killed earlier in the week, as well as for the turmoil within our nation.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  61. Roscuro & Chas – My hope (& prayer) has been that as people begin to see & experience the fall-out from these ungodly sexual practices & beliefs (as well as transgenderism), they will begin to see the heartache & ruined lives they produce, & will turn back to more biblical morality. Of course, most of all I pray they will turn to the God of the Bible., not only a biblical morality.

    Unfortunately, I think it will take a long time, probably decades. After all, the adverse effect of divorce on children has been known for at least a decade or two, but people don’t seem to have paid much attention to that. (But I certainly hope it will be much sooner. And it will be sooner if God grants us a true revival & true awakening with true repentance.)

    Like

    Reply

  62. Chas – Earlier, I neglected to acknowledge that I know what you mean about people, even Christians, thinking these things are okay, & it bothers me greatly, too.

    That’s one reason I am so glad for our new pastor. Although a young man, Pastor Billy has more of an “old-fashioned” view of what should happen, & be preached, in a church. Since our church has a lot of people who are fairly recent believers, he is building a foundation for the church to know what we believe & why. And yet, his sermons contain enough meat to satisfy long-time believers like Leon & myself.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  63. Donna – In my own experience, I found that in the beginning I had only a slight understanding of sin & repentance, but as time went on, I saw my sins more clearly, & repented more deeply.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  64. That’s been my experience, too, Karen.

    I seem to realize my need for God’s grace and ongoing forgiveness & mercy much more now than I did in my early Christian years.

    I believe the culture will, indeed, suffer for its turning away from the fear of God. But it may take a couple generations before the fallout is seen — and the connection is made.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

Leave a comment