75 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 1-11-17”

  1. Good morning all. Lovely header! A beautiful sunrise or sunset are among those things that rarely fail to spontaneously provoke my mind and heart to ponder the majesty and kindness of the Creator—that He would create something so spectacular (and reoccurring) and give us eyes to perceive it.

    I have a very full day today. Hope yours is wonderful. :–)

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  2. Good morning, everyone. I love the photo. I, too, am moved by glorious sunrises and sunsets. Becca commented on the beautiful colors in the sunrise a few mornings ago and asked why it was so beautiful. I answered that it is because we have a good God who loves to provide our lives with glimpses of beauty….

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  7. There wasn’t anything particularly unusual about that sunrise but it struck me as beautiful. If you look closely on the left is a little evergreen tree that no one on earth but me can see. One day before Christmas, I casually said, “I would like lights on that tree” and walla, three days later they were there. They are solar, which is why they are quite faded by morning. I think I am spoiled.

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  11. The God who says, “Behold I do a new thing,” is not obligated to the past. Yesterday does not determine tomorrow. But we who fall into routines can make them into ruts—and miss the Spirit.

    How foolish to think that God will automatically bless our plans because we have creative ideas. Good ideas often prove a hindrance to the kingdom of heaven coming into our midst.

    David didn’t need a good idea to defeat the Philistines. He did something far better than to check with his generals—he wisely consulted God. We need to do the same.

    https://pastorpaulanderson.com/2017/01/11/how-to-overcome-presumption-part-1/

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  12. Last night I was hopping around on Youtube and this song came up then this morning on my way in to the office it came on Willie’s Roadhouse on Sirius Radio, so I took it as a sign that I should share a happy, catchy, little song with all of you.

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  13. Kim, last night I dreamed that my family and your family (including, in your family, an elderly couple) were living together in a two-story house. It was temporary, but had been happening for several months already in my dream. In the dream BG wasn’t present, and neither was Mr. P (although I was aware he lived there too–not sure about BG), but you and the older couple and I were all in a room talking and I was glad we were all getting along well and that the situation was working out well. And then I think my husband came in or I went to him.

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  15. Bet the bathrooms were nice in that 2-story house.

    Beautiful cold sunrise, we often get the spectacular colors which I see as my bedroom window faces east, toward the harbor below.

    I’m up early as the tile man gets started early today — spent much of the night fighting a wracking cough off and on, I’m going to call my doctor to see if he can prescribe something for the cough that I can just pick up at the CVS. Didn’t feel like I got a very good sleep last night even though I did sleep through (in between coughing spells).

    On a positive note, I have the remnants of my voice back today, but just barely. The cough now is more of a problem.

    I may try to just lie down on the sofa today while he’s working, I feel completely wiped out and really just want to sleep. I also woke up with a headache.

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  18. Looks like we got about five to eight inches more snow overnight (forecast of one) with winds and drifting but son is no longer up at the mailbox a quarter mile away so the bus must have gone through. They have not plowed our road so other son will have to monster truck the Ranger up to the mailbox where they probably have plowed. I love the snow. When I have my home to retreat to and all the food and water needed.

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  19. I saw the tree on the left of the photo, where the tree line meets the snowy hill. I noticed the lights too, so I didn’t crop it out. :).

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  20. 8.5 inches of rain in 72 hours–20 inches in the steep canyons that shelter the thriving redwoods!

    The Russian River will crest above flood stage again today, people are displaced, roads closed, plenty of property damage, major landslides, but no deaths.

    This morning the skies are clear, the air fresh and I hear a chirping bird. It’s supposed to be in the high 50s today.

    I’m going to take a walk and be thankful– Sonoma County, while still requiring plenty of clean up, is not in drought for 2017.

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  22. Reading an interesting article on BBC about how unproductive the open office space is. I relate that to how unproductive the table idea is in public school, with all the team members collaborating. In other words, the interested students will accomplish the mission while the disinterested entertain themselves and each other and don’t learn much in academics.

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  23. Interesting development here, that connects to the recent conversations about Bible reading guides. The Kid’s best friend who is 16 has recently started taking his Christianity more seriously. He has been a good influence on the Kid. Now the Kid has decided to read the Bible but he insist on starting in Genesis and reading all the way through. Not sure if I should just leave it alone, knowing he will bog down somewhere in Leviticus and quit or to try and persuade him to try a more balanced guide.

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  24. KBells, I would be best, if you could, get him to read the NT first. A gospel, then Acts and Paul’s letters. Then John’s gospel.
    A person is certain to get bogged down in the OT. Parts should not be read without help.
    A Psalm at a time, same for Proverbs. You don’t want to read them straight through.

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  25. We have several here who like to try to read through the whole thing, and I know if I suggest otherwise, they will quit. I do remind them that there is some tough reading ahead and that there are probably quite a few believers who have never read beyond Genesis but prefer to remain in the New Testament. If he is competitive and resistant to authority, that may be all it takes to help him work through those tough books.

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  26. My co-worker a few years ago insisted on starting in Genesis (she’s the daughter of a PCUSA minister, seems to be intrigued by the faith but doesn’t know much about it; possible she’s being drawn, however). Her church upbringing (in Maryland) was filled with social justice efforts, working at the soup kitchens — but not a lot of actual theological knowledge about the gospel or Christianity.

    I did tell her, walking out to the garage after work one night, that I’d started in Matthew and read through the NT first (with the exception of Revelation), not sure how that all worked out for her, but she seemed intent on “starting from the beginning.” She’s not brought it up but maybe I’ll ask her at some point.

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  27. If you’re openly seeking, you’ll probably not be that open (yet) to suggestions of what to read and in what order. That’s a good approach for new professing Christians, however.

    But for those who aren’t professing the faith and want to see “for themselves” — I think it’s probably best to let them be. If they’ve been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and are thus being led to the truth, they’ll get to where they need to be eventually. 🙂

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  28. Tile guy has arrived. Onward.

    I left a message with my doctor’s office asking for a prescription for cough medicine but this is their late office day, 12-7 p.m.

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  31. I know someone who wasn’t bogged down until the psalms. This is a person who loves music and songs, so I was quite surprised. We are all so different.

    I would keep praying for eyes that see, ears that hear and a softened heart to receive. I would be willing to discuss whatever is being read and encouraging wherever a person is reading.

    I see the tree and it is lovely.

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  33. So Chas and others. I have made it to 1968 in my Kennedy Brothers book. It’s looking like Bobby would have done his best to get us out of Vietnam? He just helped Cesar Chavez break his hunger strike and lo and behold Saul Alinski was a “mentor” to Chavez.
    Interesting how certain threads seem to run through history (time)

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  38. You did. I like seeing what God is doing in other parts of the world. Though it does not get any better than right outside my window. It is comparable.

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  39. I first tried reading through the Bible shortly after I made a profession of faith at age five, because that was what Christians did. I could read by then, but I didn’t grasp the concept of reading comprehension – to me, if one could read, one could read anything. I distinctly remember that I had reached Isaiah before I admitted to myself that I really didn’t know what was being said. I can’t remember how long it was between starting to read the Bible and getting to Isaiah, but since about a year later I stunned my family by reading Anne of Green Gables in one day, it might not have taken me very long. I was a natural speed reader as a child, though I have slowed down a little over the years. It was a least a decade before I attempted to read the Bible through again. I didn’t get through it all the way until my mid-teens, then I read it through several times between then and my mid-twenties. Since then, I’ve read it less rigorously and regularly, but because I remember much of what I read, I can still locate the passages that come to mind when discussing a related topic. For me, rote memorization doesn’t work, but I compensate for that by reading things repeatedly.

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  40. DJ, yes, 1968 was really crazy. We moved, I learned to use the potty, Mom’s lap got much smaller, and then someone littler and not nearly as cute insisted on taking a spot on Mom’s lap . . . overall, quite a stressful year.

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  42. 1968? I have no memory of the year 😉 :-P. Let’s see, my mother would have been finishing up teacher’s college and then starting her first year of teaching, and my father would have been working in Toronto and drinking, smoking (he tried marijuana, but said it did nothing for him), drag racing, and generally living a wild life. They would not meet and marry until the mid-1970s. I wouldn’t be born until the mid-1980s.

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  43. There was a good book written by a couple of the journalists who covered the presidential election that year (and segued into so many of the cultural issues that were so tumultuous).

    I think this is the book I’m remembering:

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  46. From one of the Amazon reviews:

    __________________________

    it is, in fact, the best book about an American presidential camapaign that I’ve ever read. The book, which covers the presidential campaign of 1968 – one of the most dramatic, emotional, and tragic elections of the twentieth century – was written by 3 British journalists, who then combined their writings into a single book. Although this technique often doesn’t work, in “An American Melodrama” it does so brilliantly, and in fact you’d never know that it was written by three people instead of just one if they didn’t tell you in the prologue. The authors cover all of that year’s stunning events – Eugene McCarthy knocking President Johnson out of the race, Martin Luther King’s murder, Bobby Kennedy’s murder, the bloody riots between the antiwar hippies and the Chicago police at the Democratic Convention, the racist third-party candidacy of Alabama’s George Wallace, and the down-to-the-wire fall campaign between Democrat Hubert Humphrey and Republican Richard Nixon. What makes this book so outstanding is the author’s realism and refusal to be overly respectful or impressed with American politicians, while not descending into the cynicism and harshness of today’s political reporting. One of the flaws of Teddy White’s books is that he can be overly respectful, even worshipful (especially with the Kennedy brothers) of the political leaders he wrote about. In an “American Melodrama” we get to see Bobby Kennedy, Eugene McCarthy, Lyndon Johnson, and Hubert Humphrey on the Democratic side as they really are – warts and all – without being too cynical or harsh. And on the Republican side the authors give the best analysis of Richard Nixon that I’ve ever read in any campaign biography – they neither idealize Nixon or are overly harsh. The author’s insights of the leading politicians in this book – what makes them tick? – have been proven to be right on-target by subsequent events. This book did generate some controversy in the chapter on Bobby Kennedy’s assassination in June 1968. The authors, while definitely showing sorrow and sympathizing with the family, also refused to accept the self-pitying, “America has gone to h***” attitude that many intellectuals and journalists adopted in the wake of Kennedy’s murder. They pointed out that, statistically speaking, the late 1960’s were much less violent than earlier decades, and that blaming all of American society and culture because of the acts of a single madman (Sirhan Sirhan, RFK’s assassin) was absurd. Although some Americans were offended that a team of British reporters would criticize the American liberal establishment in such a manner, events in the years since have largely proven them to be correct. To sum up, this book’s insights into the major politicians of the sixties, combined with the genuine drama and tragedy of the 1968 campaign, makes this book a great read. Highly recommended
    ________________________________

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  47. Ah, so Jo is close in age to my mother 🙂 Teacher’s college in those days was just one year, so my mother, as she once pointed out to me, started teaching when she was nineteen (she turned twenty within a few weeks). She must have been a good teacher (I know she was with her own children) since once, in my twenties, I was with my mother in town as she ran some errands. A middle aged man came up to her, greeting her by her maiden name. It was one of her public school students, who remembered her after all those years.

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  52. We could have gone far with that.

    In 1968, I was enjoying the biggest snow in a long time, while delivering newspapers on foot and bicycle. My brother and I were offered hot chocolate. We accepted.

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  53. Roscuro was teasing me, but that may be the reason they changed the name to Astrotopography Branch. Almost as difficult to type.

    9:54 I had that silly song running through my head all through dinner. Still is.
    The words make sense if you consider them.

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  54. I graduated from 6th grade, but as, like Donna, I lived in LA–was that also the year of the Watts Riots?– I remember it as a scary time.

    The LA Times front page photo of Bobby Kennedy dying was awful to see.

    I read the paper daily even then.

    I do remember sitting up late working a puzzle and watching the Apollo flight circle the moon– one good experience. That was the flight before Armstrong and Aldrin landed on the moon. Pretty sure Jim Lovell was on that first orbit.

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  55. Well DJ I looked at getting that book but it isn’t available on Kindle. I will have to order it and wait for delivery. I am off on one of my researchy tangents

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  56. 1968 — my youngest sibling was born about six weeks after I turned six years. Mom then got her tubes tied (she had thrown up the whole nine months that last time and didn’t want to go through with anything like that again, she told me many years later — after I was already an adult.)

    1968 was also the year I started Kindergarten. I had turned five in September 1967, but K was held for only two weeks at the end of the school year at the one-room country school I attended from K-3. So May 1968 was the start of school for me.

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  57. Watts riots were in 1965 (I think?). I still remember driving by the local Sears with my family and seeing National Guardsmen with rifles posted on the roof. And of course there was the related scary cat story that became part of our family legend that summer. …

    The 1968 election was the first one I followed (I think I was 16). I’d gone to bed already but my mom came in and woke me up when Robert Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel (next door to my mom’s office at the time). I remember that LA Times front page, Michelle, and saved it — it’s probably in a box somewhere in the garage.

    Good thing I called my doctor’s office back, they said they got my message but because of my voice couldn’t make any sense out of it — couldn’t understand my name or the phone #. Guess I still sound pretty bad.

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  62. It’s tiling in the bathroom — 1 wall covered, the 2nd (of 3) about 3/4 finished.

    It’s beginning to look like the picture I’ve had in my head all this time. So exciting.

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  66. And the black border tile line through the center looks better than I thought it might — I was afraid it would be too thin, but it’s just right, not too thin or too thick. Really stands out nicely without being “too much.”

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  67. New book from Westminster looks worth checking out: “Created and Creating: A Biblical Theology of Culture” by William Edgar.

    ________________________________

    The gospel of Jesus Christ is always situated within a particular cultural context. But how should Christians approach the complex relationship between our faith and our surrounding culture? Should we simply retreat from culture? Should we embrace our cultural practices and mindset? How important is it for us to be engaged in our culture? And how might we do that with discernment and faithfulness? William Edgar offers a rich biblical theology in light of our contemporary culture that contends that Christians should―indeed, must―be engaged in the surrounding culture. By exploring what Scripture has to say about the role of culture and by gleaning insights from a variety of theologians of culture―including Abraham Kuyper, T. S. Eliot, H. Richard Niebuhr, and C. S. Lewis―Edgar contends that cultural engagement is a fundamental aspect of human existence. He does not shy away from those passages that emphasize the distinction between Christians and the world. Yet he finds, shining through the biblical witness, evidence that supports a robust defense of the cultural mandate to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). With clarity and wisdom, Edgar argues that we are most faithful to our calling as God’s creatures when we participate in creating culture. IVP Instructor Resources forthcoming
    ___________________________

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  68. I was in high school in 1968. I remember the period as very sad with the Vietnam War, riots and assassinations. I didn’t pay overmuch attention to the news then. However, some things were too big to miss. I was busy working part time, attending school and taking care of my social life, such as it was. I do not miss the 60’s at all.

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  69. DJ, can we get some progress pictures, please?

    In other news, we’re going to have -45C windchill tonight (that’s -49F). But, there’s no mosquitos!

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  71. KBells, I have often given students The One Year Bible in a modern translation. Each day there is an Old Testament passage, a New Testament passage, a psalm and a few proverbs. You start with Genesis, but when you are in Leviticus and Numbers you are also in the Gospels. The Psalms and the proverbs are treats everyday just like AJ gives us. If the one year pace is too daunting, you can do a day’s reading every two days. That is good news that your son is interested.

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