43 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 8-4-17”

  1. IT’S FRIDAY!
    You know what that means.

    How did it get to be Friday so soon?
    My little brother world be be 78 today. I still remember. He was killed in an auto accident in 1952.

    I agree with Donna about sports seasons.
    If you had elected me president, I would have made it illegal to play football before Labor Day. And after Jan 1. Basketball would be illegal before Thanksgiving and after Easter.
    Baseball Could start at Easter but had to finish by Columbus day.

    Bring some order to this thing.

    Liked by 9 people

  2. Well yesterday I made the statement that this morning the sun would rise in the east and I would survive. Well, there is light outside but it is pouring rain so I have yet to see the sun “rise”.
    As you can imagine, I spent some time awake last night talking to God–I can’t say it was praying. I was asking a lot of questions. Some people go through life blaming others for their circumstances. I don’t think I am one of those people. I am the kind who was born guilty, so I always wonder what it is that “I” (emphasis on I) have done to attract the things that happen to me. What did I do to cause it? How can I change? What can I do? Why?
    I also tried to remind myself of the old saying “It ain’t personal. It’s business”. Of course, there is that moment of “I am tired. I am tired of the same things happening. I just want peace in my life.” I don’t think I am destined to have it.
    On top of my own personal crisis yesterday ex husband called. BG got another speeding ticket. She wasn’t going to tell anyone. She went to pay it, but had to appear in court. The court called G to make sure the car belonged to him. She may have lost her license. He is threatening to take the care away. Of course, he was steaming mad and yelling at me. I was pretty proud of myself. I told him that he and I had already had the car discussion and I told him months ago to take it away. There isn’t anything I can do about that. I resisted the urge to call her and ask about her latest tragedy and offer solutions or scold her. While she IS my monkey, that “ain’t” my particular circus and I am not the ring master.

    I do have a couple of other things I can pursue. One that I will look into is doing on line teaching of English. Perhaps one day one of you may run into someone from China or the Middle East who speaks English with a southern accent. Won’t that be funny?

    Liked by 9 people

  3. Chas, it’s good you didn’t get elected president if your platform included executive order about sports. We’ve had enough of that sort of nonsense! 🙂

    Liked by 1 person

  4. It’s interesting who Facebook lists as “People I may know”. One of them is a nude model.
    I’ve never heard of any of the rest. Thought some are “friends” of people I know.

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  5. I get it when Facebook suggests friends of my friends, but I do wonder why it comes up with people I have no connection to. I’ve seen some pretty weird characters, though I don’t remember any nude models.

    Liked by 3 people

  7. Kim, you’re resilient and this job may work out yet? The paying-you part is crucial, though, I’d agree. 😦 It sounded like such a good fit, I’m hoping it’ll still work out somehow.

    BG, BG. A little hard-headed, but so pretty and cute (and a bit too clever for her own good?). She’ll come out of it someday

    I’ve been so careful with my speed since getting that expensive ticket and having to waste most of a weekend day and a few nights doing the online ‘traffic school.’ The other day, I’d just gotten on the freeway when I spotted another Highway Patrol officer shoot out from the where he was waiting in the wings and nab another driver right in the same spot where I was caught. It’s common for people to speed up just as they get onto the freeway there so I guess the authorities have decided they need to crack the whip. I felt bad for the guy who was caught, been there done that, and yes, many do it without getting caught along that stretch; but getting caught is probably for the best. It’s definitely slowed me down since going through all that.

    Well I put in another very restless night, it’s simply too hot to sleep — it doesn’t get out of the 70s all night long (my house was still at 81 when I got up around 1 a.m.) and even the fans don’t help much, my skin feels clammy all night long and I toss and turn. I think it’s supposed to start cooling off a bit (and the humidity is supposed to go down) starting today. Wish I could go back to bed, I feel like the sleep I got wasn’t very satisfying and I’m quite tired and sleepy. I can sleep in a little bit tomorrow. I just have to perk myself up enough to get through today.

    Liked by 2 people

  8. Kim, I have learned to attribute all the utter craziness in our lives to the simple fact that we live in a fallen world. It’s not you! It’s that. There is no escaping that until we get to heaven. Do not blame yourself. That is not fair to accept all the fault of the fall from the perfection God made for us in the beginning upon yourself. Keep your eyes on Jesus because everything else is fallen.

    Liked by 4 people

  9. Isn’t that the truth, Janice (10:01)? The longer I live, the more aware I am of the fallenness of us all in so many ways — and of the world around us, of course. I cry out often to God about all of that, and that’s a good thing. In fact, I’m convinced he shows us those things in the world and in ourselves to prompt us to continually (and more often) do just that.

    Liked by 3 people

  10. Art said it drizzled at the office most of yesterday and it poured on him when he left the office. When he got home, he could tell here there had not been a drop of rain. I had another good laugh, but I’d truly rather he not have to drive in the rain in Atlanta traffic.

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  11. Good Morning ya’ll. We continue to be in the monsoon season here and for it I am thankful. It has been a bit autumnal here in the mornings and evening….the furnace came on this morning!

    Liked by 2 people

  12. I have a yahoo email. You know when you start typing in a contact so you can send an email, they pop up a bunch of possibilities of what you are looking for? I have noticed that a lot of times, I have never heard of the people it wants me to contact. I am guessing it is friends of friends of friends.

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  14. They’re blaming our excessive humidity on a monsoonal condition somewhere. We just don’t get any of the rain, only the heat and misery. 😦 I can deal with the heat as long as it cools down sufficiently at night. When it stays warm 24/7, I start to wilt & sink. …

    Liked by 3 people

  15. Kim – Prayer is talking to God, & talking to God is prayer. Some of our prayers are more formal-sounding, & some are a stream-of-consciousness kind of thing, & some are in-between.

    Liked by 1 person

  16. Four-month-old Puppy Janie is now a little taller & a little longer than Heidi. But she is thin-bodied, & Heidi is stocky-bodied, so Heidi is still wider. 🙂

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  18. Happy BD Mrs. L.
    When entering a freeway, there’s always the temptation to speed up to merge with traffic. Sometimes the foot gets heavier than necessary..
    When I send an e-mail, the only suggestions that come up are already in my address book.

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  19. Not only is it Mrs. L’s birthday, and Chas’s little brother’s would have been seventy eighth birthday, it is son number eight’s birthday. He is sixteen. Only two more years of him having to put up with our silly rules. Free at last! Free at last! Or so it appears from this side. But if he were to ask those who have gone before…..

    Liked by 3 people

  20. Mumsee, some stranger has an e-mail address very similar to my husband’s (one of them uses the full first name, one the name by which most men of that name get called), and somehow at some point I must have sent that stranger an e-mail, since his name and image (and e-mail address) pop up every time I go to send my husband an e-mail.

    I just hope it wasn’t a seductive one I sent him . . .

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  21. I thought we were supposed to speed up when entering the freeway–joining right into the flow of traffic and not disrupting it.

    Of course I learned to drive on the LA freeways when the cars still moved quickly . . . Dark Ages, we could peddle our rock wheels quickly in our youth. 🙂

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  22. Kizzie, 11:18, ditto

    Yes, it makes sense to speed up a bit entering the freeway, the folks who keep plodding along slowly cause more of a hazard. I guess the problem becomes when one forgets to ease up after a mile or so 🙂 and when most of the others are going just as fast, one forget.

    Traffic in general on that first leg of the 110 fwy heading north goes very fast since traffic is clear for the first few miles.

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  23. For those keeping up with new “trends” in Christianity:

    From Veith

    http://www.patheos.com/blogs/geneveith/2017/08/the-new-prophets-and-apostles/

    ________________________________________

    There is a new movement in contemporary Christianity, known as the “New Apostolic Reformation” or the “Independent Network Charismatics” (INC) or “Network Christianity.”

    It combines “signs and wonders” Pentecostalism, the prosperity gospel, and megachurch techniques. But the new elements are an emphasis on leaders who are considered authoritative “apostles” from God and a this-worldly post-millennialism. Most Pentecostals up to now have been pre-millennialists, holding that Jesus will return before God establishes an earthly utopian rule. This new group holds that God will establish His thousand-year kingdom before Jesus comes back.

    The New Apostolic folks believe in the “Seven Mountains Theology,” by which Christians will gradually attain leadership in the “mountains” of business, government, media, arts and entertainment, education, the family, and religion. Whereupon the world will be transformed.

    They believe, for example, that Donald Trump is a “Cyrus,” a non-Christian whom God raised up–like the King of Persia who allowed the exiled Jews to return to their land and rebuild the Temple–to restore America.

    This movement is gathering more and more traction, including here in Australia where I am visiting …
    ___________________________________

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  24. Here’s a longer article linked in the above post:

    http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2017/august-web-only/bethel-church-international-house-prayer-prophets-apostles.html

    ______________________________________

    A quiet revolution is taking place in America religion, say Brad Christerson and Richard Flory, authors of The Rise of Network Christianity: How Independent Leaders Are Changing the Religious Landscape.

    Largely behind the scenes, a group of mostly self-proclaimed “apostles,” leading ministries from North Carolina to Southern California, has attracted millions of followers with promises of direct access to God through signs and wonders.

    Their movement, which Christerson and Flory called “Independent Network Charismatic” or “INC” Christianity, has become one of the fastest-growing faith groups in the United States. Apostles like Bill Johnson, Mike Bickle, Cindy Jacobs, Chuck Pierce, and Ché Ahn claim millions of followers. They’re also aided by an army of fellow ministers who fall under their “spiritual covering.”

    Many of these apostles run megachurches, including Bethel Church in Redding California, HRock Church in Pasadena, and the International House of Prayer (IHOP) in Kansas City. But their real power lies in their innovative approach to selling faith. They’ve combined multi-level marketing, Pentecostal signs and wonders, and post-millennial optimism to connect directly with millions of spiritual customers. That allows them to reap millions in donations, conference fees, and book and DVD sales. And because these INC apostles claim to get direction straight from God, they operate with almost no oversight.

    Nashville-based religion writer Bob Smietana spoke with Christerson (professor of sociology at Biola University) and Flory (senior director of research and evaluation at the Center for Religion and Civic Culture at the University of Southern California) about the appeal—and danger—of these burgeoning movements. … (Transcript of that interview follows)
    __________________________________________

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  26. Well, the gathering of the documents has been accomplished. Now I just need to get them to the school before September.
    I’ve been enjoying seeing family, including the three small nieces and one small nephew whose families live closer. There are now two more nieces/nephews on the way. Second sibling can use some prayer, as she has been having trouble with blood clots in her legs, which is concerning the physicians. Varicose veins run in the family on both sides, and pregnancy always makes them worse.

    Liked by 2 people

  27. Today is Friday, August 4, 2017 and it is the day I decided that optimism is over rated. It hasn’t gotten me very far in life. Still no contract. The Team Leader and the Market Center Admin were going to go ahead with one of the last things that the Partner had said, but the money won’t work because it is dependent upon me being the FL and AL broker. The current broker has decided she doesn’t want to give it up and I am not going to force her to, so that makes the pay $1,500 per month. Yes, I agreed to drive the 100 miles per day to do something I loved but I can’t do it for that amount per month. I have had to take money out of savings this month and can’t continue. It is just not my lot in life to be happy so I am going to quit fighting to be happy and just except what is. This is my life. I am the adult child of an alcoholic and there were patterns set in my childhood that set me up to be where I am now and this is as good as it gets. Accept what is and learn to live with it. I am tired and I am done. I am aware of how I sound and I have never wanted to be this person, but sometimes you have to go crawl in your cave and pout.
    On the other hand, I still appear to be healthy, so there is that.

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  28. Take time to grieve, Kim, and then get up and keep on. I don’t believe in patterns set in childhood that cannot be overcome. I have seen too many people who don’t fit that at all. I see it as a cop out. I also get angry over the so-called ‘experts’ that teach that sort of thing. The bible tells me differently, in addition to all those I know who have gone on to live lives very different from what their early lives would have dictated.

    It stinks about the job, however, and I don’t blame you for your disappointment and grief. Praying for better things in your life, but most of all for the good fruit of the Spirit, including joy, peace etc.

    Liked by 6 people

  29. Kim, I’m sorry. Happiness as the end goal is overrated, but contentment and trust in God never are. Didn’t you have other options when you took this one? Please do not go back to Guy whatever you do.

    Liked by 4 people

  30. I love the water lily pictures. My parent’s had two small ponds they made, which were connected by a bridge and complete with waterfalls. They had these beautiful water lilies. I miss seeing them.

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  31. I’m sorry KIm. But I’ll keep praying.
    Do what you have to do.
    But: Is there a typo in there?
    $1500/month is below minimum wage.
    McDonalds or Wal-Mart pays better than that.
    $1500/mo =$18,000/yr
    Federal schedule says thane are 2080 working hrs/yr.
    That comes to $8.65/hr.

    Something doesn’t figure.

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