42 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 7-14-17”

  1. Good morning! That is a big nest in the header. Where is that?
    I have many errands for today. They never stop, do they?

    We watched the movie, The Education of Little Tree, last night. It was a gorgeous movie and worth your time if you have not seen it. It does contain some bad language, but it was needed, in this case, to clearly present the character in film. A book could have gotten around it with other expressions, but the movie had to go through the weeds and thorns to be true.

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  2. Am I still first?
    Good morning everyone.
    IT’S FRIDAY!
    You know what that means?
    I take Elvera to the Adult Center and since it’s the second Friday, I have lunch with my SS class.
    Otherwise, Samolol

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  4. Good Morning Everyone. Busy day ahead. Potential listing appointment at 11. Kick off for new agent training class today at 1.
    Lulabelle wasn’t taking no for an answer this morning at 5. I couldn’t go back to sleep so I have been doing the on line licensing course.
    Yesterday one of the agents I was counting on to be a member of the team told me that after looking at the numbers they just wouldn’t allow him to pursue his goals. He was on staff as a minister with a large church in Texas before he moved here. He wants to work with a church to help it grow and create the right culture but he no longer wants to be on staff. Real Estate is a means to an end with him and the team numbers didn’t add up for him. Too bad. He really is a great guy.
    Off to prepare for my day.

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  5. Good morning, Chas, AJ and Anon. Is Anon today the same person as Anon last night? Did we ever discover who that was? Last night I thought either DJ (because the post ended with “Guess who?” and she used to be Guess Who for a while) or Kim (because it “sounded” more like Kim). 🙂 Today I’m pretty sure Anon is not DJ, posting at 7:33 Eastern time! Go back to bed if it’s you, DJ!

    I really think it’s Kim again, though. 🙂

    Very, very busy weekend for us! This morning I finally get my permanent crown put on that tooth you’ve been hearing about for two months. Then I’ve got the usual housecleaning and homeschooling routine. Then tonight is Hubby’s 40-year high school reunion. Date night! Can it really be? 🙂

    Tomorrow we go to my mother-in-law’s to spend the day with, among others, Hubby’s brother and family who are traveling up from Missouri. Sunday we go to my parents’ to visit with them and my sister and her family who are driving to the Midwest from Maryland. The arrows out on their own will be heading to these parts, as well. Lots of driving, and very long distances for the extended families I mentioned. I’ll put my prayer request here for their safe travels. Thanks.

    Oh, and 3rd Arrow is singing in church Sunday with a group of high-school-age and college-age members of our congregation. First time she’s done that, and she’s got a short solo in one of the pieces. I’m glad she’s participating in that.

    Exciting weekend! All of you have a very blessed one!

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  8. Oh, I’ll bet you’re right, Linda. Very good deduction. 🙂 And last night’s reference was to rain, which Atlanta has certainly had plenty of.

    Good morning, Janice. 🙂

    Off to the dentist — whee, here we go!

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  11. Good Morning…that is a big messy nest….are they osprey?
    I was alone yesterday and got a lot of cleaning done…with more to do. Having overlapping company is not my idea of fun…although it will be good to see them…I just am not a fan of chaos…as my dear mother in law would always say “so it goes”…. 🙂

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  12. I sat on a school board committee 25 years ago, “the controversial books committee,” and we had to evaluate every new book introduced to the school district that was purchased in multiple copies (i.e. classroom sets).

    One of the book was The Education of Little Tree, which I had never heard of before. I dutifully read the book, thought it was fine and went on.

    At the discussion meeting, the same book prompted an uproar. Good heavens! It had just been revealed that the author was NOT Cherokee!. Therefore several members denounced the book.

    I looked at my copy. “This is a novel,” I said. “The author doesn’t have to be Cherokee. It’s fiction.”

    “But he says he’s Cherokee at the beginning of the book!” Self-righteousness abound!

    “It’s a novel.”

    We got nowhere and ultimately, mob rule prevailed and they didn’t accept the book.

    That afternoon was my first taste of what has become horribly familiar in our age. 😦

    Bigoted?

    Yes. Some of the committee members were.

    But we’re all familiar with Pharisees. Aren’t we?

    (Michelle looks in mirror.)

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  13. This may be belong on the prayer thread, but I’m typing it here, anyway.
    (Self-righteous? Michelle looks in mirror again . . . )

    I was very discouraged yesterday. When I prayed this morning, I asked God to counterbalance discouragement today with affirmation/words of encouragement/Scripture.

    It occurs to me that perhaps we could all share some encouragement here today–so, please share some encouragement: a positive event in your life like Kim above, Scripture, hope, a fun story, anything to take our eyes off our circumstances and plant them on the rock that is higher than . . . well, I, but it can be you, too! 🙂

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  14. Yes, Anon was me on the tablet. I am on my phone for now. I figured the comments would be determined to be from Janice since they were so typical of my life at the moment.

    Today I have to try and get Art’s new phone operational. It is a Nokia which has a larger screen than his Smartphone. Maybe that will help.

    We had a nice phone conversation with Wesley last night. I will put his cards in the mail today. I had bought gifts for him, but he said to wait on that for when we see him soon.

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  16. Encouraging: Fifteen year old daughter is doing wonderfully! She is the pleasant daughter. She takes care of all of the animals and is helping husband with projects. She is doing the painting and helping with construction. I asked her yesterday if she liked or did not like being told what to do. She says she very much likes it. On her down days that is one of her big complaints, that we tell her what to do. So we don’t. Now we do and she is scurrying here there and everywhere, helping everybody. What a blessing she is! All the time, not just when she is fun and easy going.

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  17. I had to stop and try to think of something encouraging, Michelle. My life right now is something of what Paul described in 2 Corinthians 7:5, “without were fightings, within were fears.” I’m struggling to complete an assignment for Monday, despite feeling so tired and overwhelmed (is there such a thing as studying fatigue?); and there is a tragedy going on in my extended family which we cannot do anything about but pray, even though it is breaking our hearts.

    I think the modicum of encouragement I have had this week has been from church. We are going through the Apostle’s Creed in both Sunday sermons and Bible Study. In Bible Study, we are going line by line and looking at the Scripture verses which support the Creed. We were on the section about Jesus Christ: “He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary”, and looking at the well known readings surrounding that birth. I noticed two new things, the first that the shepherds receiving the announcement about the child born in the city of David was an echoing of the fact the David was a shepherd and foreshadowing that Christ would call himself the Good Shepherd. The second was during Gabriel’s announcement to Mary, when he explained how she would conceive, “the power of the Most High will overshadow you”, which is an echoing of the opening of Genesis, “the Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters.” Christ is the firstfruits of the New Creation, and His conception is described in the same way as the creation of the world.

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  18. Encouragement for Michelle,

    While I did not catch it all, I did see some of your live stream yesterday and found it interesting. You did a fine job, didn’t look nervous at all, and were clear and articulate. Nice job.

    I have this thing where if I know a person’s voice, I read their writing and it’s their voice speaking it in my head. So this morning I “hear” Michelle when reading her posts. 🙂

    Liked by 4 people

  19. Writing in my journal last night, I thanked God for the respite I’ve had this summer (thought I fought against it, doesn’t He know my foundation needs to get done, like yesterday!??? And the windows and the painting?).

    But as everything has skidded to a halt, I’ve discovered an unexpectedly peaceful peaceful routine this month — when I come home from work (and I am getting home a bit earlier these days, thankfully), I change clothes, head out front to water for 30-45 minutes, sometimes even longer.

    I’m getting to say hi to some new neighbors I hadn’t seen before (not sure how close they live, but they seem to walk by nightly — the threesome of Croatian ladies, another man all tangled up with 5 scruffy little dogs all on leash, and one group that I don’t see all the time — a young family train — dad followed by a toddler on a tricycle, an elderly dog, then mom with a baby, all walking in a little line).

    After the watering is done, I come in to putter, maybe throw in some laundry. Then it’s out for a short but satisfying dog walk just before it gets dark, checking out a couple houses undergoing “flip” work in the neighborhood.

    I still get crazy thinking of the things that need to get done on the house — big things, and expensive (and I’m having to keep an eye now on that bottom line).

    But it’s been good for everything to just come to a halt this summer. I needed that — and God knew that apparently. 🙂 And I’m OK with the thought that the house may not be done by the end of this year as I’d hoped.

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  20. Encouragement I learned on Tuesday.
    1. A “balanced” life is a myth. (Think of a ballerina stain en pointe. She isn’t “balanced” she is constantly shifting her weight to make it appear that she is balanced).
    2. Out of balance is where the magic happens.

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  22. Regarding Eugene Peterson’s remarks about being willing to officiate at a gay wedding (from our transplanted-to-Tenn elder again, tongue in cheek as he usually writes while hitting the mark):

    Turns out, Eugene Peterson did not actually write the Bible; evangelicals confused. Think to themselves, “hmm… maybe “The Message” version of the Bible was just a commentary on the Bible by some guy with strained exegesis? Bono responds by saying something vaguely Irish. Sunday school teachers say, “What will we do now that we don’t have a text for Sunday school?” KJV only guys – frothing at the I told you so. Reformed guys say, “who’s Eugene Peterson?” Fuller seminary calls for a national day of mourning and a reconsideration of traditional gender models based of the findings of Near Eastern Religious texts that show that the Apostles were ladies and gender was a concept created by Luther and Calvin in the 1500s. The Henry Center for theological Understanding develops an entire series of lectures on why that Bible never means what it seems to say in English.

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  27. Incredible encouragement today, totally unexpected:

    After my dentist appointment, I stopped in at a music store to browse. Why? There was nothing I needed, but I had a strong feeling that I should go there nonetheless.

    While looking through their selection of piano arrangements of hymn tunes, worship and praise songs and the like, a friend from our local music teacher’s group who works at the store stopped to chat with me. We had a brief, pleasant conversation, then she resumed working and I continued looking at more music.

    A while later, after writing down a couple of titles I might purchase some day, I made ready to head out the door to pick up groceries and go home, when M said it had been nice chatting, and asked if I’d like to go to lunch with her, as her break was coming up soon.

    And I thought, how fun! So I called home to see if everything was going fine there — it was — and M and I met for lunch, eating our salads (hers, homemade, and mine, from the nearby Burger King) outside at a picnic bench on the church property across the street from her workplace.

    But more than fun, our half hour lunch together was a blessing. M told me about her youngest daughter, married with three very young children. Last fall I requested prayer here for M’s daughter and grandson. Her daughter’s first child was born in January 2016. Then, a few months later, she got pregnant again, with twins. Baby boy twin A was born in mid-September, at 23 weeks. M’s daughter was kept in the hospital, where efforts were made to keep the second twin, baby boy G, from also being born prematurely. M’s daughter, facing all the concern that would naturally come with such a precarious position for her twins, especially the one already born at that point, and missing being at home with her husband and 8-month-old son, struggled with wanting desperately to be home.

    God was faithful through all the trials they faced, M told me today. Baby boy G stayed in the womb six weeks longer, and is 8 months old now, and tomorrow marks 10 months since Baby A’s birth. Both of the twins (and their older, 18-month-old, brother, as well) are totally healthy, and neither has ever needed to be re-hospitalized, which very often happens with preemies.

    M also told me about her daughter’s husband praying over his wife at some point earlier in their marriage, before they’d had children, and the blessings that had come from that, at a time of an intense health crisis. Just imagining a man praying over his wife brought such a beautiful picture to mind for me.

    My encouragement to all of you (and it is for me to remember, too): God is always good. Always faithful. And He blessed me today, far beyond anything I expected when I woke up this morning, to have paved the way for me to have lunch in the park with a sister in Christ, speaking of God’s mercy, goodness and faithfulness.

    Blessings can arrive in the most unexpected of circumstances.

    Liked by 5 people

  28. AND:

    This is twice now in less than a week that the Lord has blessed me with the opportunity to meet a lovely, Christian friend for lunch. Last weekend and today. Both unexpected. Both delightful. I will tell you about the previous weekend’s experience another day.

    God is good.

    Liked by 2 people

  32. Just checking in on Art’s old phone. Now I have this old smART phone and my old dumb phone. The new Kindle Fire arrived and I have not opened it. Art has the new Nokia phone which we will be learning how to use. With all these devises I feel downright like Hillary. Now I need to go get rid of all those silly emails.

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  33. Art just got home. Again we had a giant pour down as he was driving home. Now with his arrival it just stopped. He said it is happening like clockwork. He gets in the car to drive home and it rains.

    I made popcorn and astuff I was enjoying it (saved some for Art’s appetitizer) I felt a bit of my tooth that broke. Not a good feeling to realize what you thought was a piece of popcorn kernel going down was in reality a piece of tooth. As they say, “It’s just extra fiber.”

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  36. Encouragement for today is being able to have a big laugh over all the rain we are having. It seems Art has a cloud that follows him, whereas I go out to mow grass and the rain waits until after I am finished.

    Guess I better go introduce Art to his new phone. This will be interesting. At least it is Friday night when his favorite television programs are on so he will be intent on that and less likely to get frustrated learning how to deal with the new phone. He can pace himself with small doses of the newness between programs.

    Oh, another encouragement for today is that the T-Mobile guy gave me two free Sim cards which he said are usually $25.00 each. He was very helpful. He had never seen the new Nokia phone and seemed impressed with it and the good price I got it for on Prime day.

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  37. What are his favorite Friday night shows? I see where Code Black filming has started up again for their 3rd season.

    I’d love some of that rain …

    It’ll be another house weekend for me but I’m feeling more encouraged lately, there are pockets of success and I’d like to think it’s all “closer than it looks,” at least in some spots.

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  38. Trying to do a story about a local dog rescue that matches disabled dogs with disabled people but when I tried talking to them earlier today it was sheer chaos — dogs barking nonstop and the woman kind of kept going off in unrelated tangents. Spanish station is going by there next week for a story so I told her I’d call her early in the week and we’d try to set something up then.

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  39. More on Peterson:

    Eugene Peterson reminds us: The Christian LGBT debate is far from over

    http://religionnews.com/2017/07/14/eugene-peterson-reminds-us-the-christian-lgbt-debate-is-far-from-over/

    ________________________________

    … A very real question remains about whether someone who affirms same-sex marriage, nonmarital sex, and modern gender ideology can be an evangelical at all. But on the flip side, another important question is beginning to emerge: In mainline Protestant circles, how long will clergy and everyday Christians who believe marriage is between a man and a woman and sex outside marriage is forbidden be welcome in their own churches?

    In other words, we need to be aware of the kinds of pressures Peterson is getting from the left and the right. I want no part in impugning his integrity and making accusations about financial motives, as I have seen both conservatives and liberals do following the interview. But I am mindful of the institutional and accountability mechanisms that affect preachers’ and teachers’ thinking on LGBT issues. …

    LGBT Christians longing for affirmation deserve to be acknowledged and heard. Celibate gay Christians who accept their churches’ long-standing teaching on marriage and sexuality are often made to feel invisible.

    Eugene Peterson reminds us that the Christian debate over marriage and sexuality is far from over.

    And while institutions and leaders fight, the pastoral care of souls should not be neglected.

    Wherever Protestants stand, there is a church where their views will be affirmed. But we are going to be fighting about this for years to come. …
    ______________________________________________

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