120 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 9-23-17”

  1. Look at that beady eye and the sharp beak! Beware! Beware! Stay away from that one. Unless you have a license to shoot with a camera. Good shot, AJ. Now, what is it?

    Like

  7. Good morning, all. I am being photo challenged this a.m.

    The new refrigerator is in and the old one is out. I have only a tiny amount of food in my new one. I threw out several hundred dollars of food partly because it was old and partly because I did not know if it was good due to the length of the Irma power outage.

    Here is a link to what I got for $1,100.

    https://m.jcpenney.com/p/lg-energy-star-241-cu-ft-33-wide-2-door-bottom-mount-refrigerator/ppr5007110487?pTmplType=silver&catId=cat1006250002&deptId=dept20026090025&urlState=%2Fg%2Fbottom-freezer-refrigerators%2FN-1b2ke21Dgn3fgyZ1z12vpl&page=1

    Liked by 2 people

  8. Janice, Nice. I followed your link and looked at the different selections. No wonder your head was spinning. I didn’t even know they made 4 door fridges—double french for the top and bottom. Both my refrigerator (french) and stove (gas) could use replacing, but I’m not going to do that just yet. Ours is an older house, and the kitchen wiring could use a little updating first. Not as much fun I know, but foundational. ;–)

    Liked by 2 people

  9. Even though I knew when Oswald Chambers died, I still had tears running down my cheeks when he did—in the book. It isn’t just every writer who can draw you in that emotionally.

    Liked by 6 people

  10. So the book has arrived for some of you? Did I give Michelle the wrong address? Or did FedEx put it by the door we don’t use?

    Like

  12. In reply to Chas’ question about the end of the world, from Russell Moore: https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/09/22/why-americans-love-doomsday-prophecies/

    While it is hard to find a nameable proponent of Sept. 23 prophecy, one can watch various Christian television evangelists and talk-show hosts and find a more general, but just as frantic, message: that the world is ending soon.
    Usually proponents will just note how interesting it is that Bible prophecies about signs in the heavens and earthquakes just happen to sound like earthquakes and hurricanes and solar eclipses in the news right now. Many of them will then have books for sale about how to discern these times, and some even have for sale, conveniently enough, freeze-dried packets of lima beans one can purchase for one’s post-Armageddon bomb shelter.
    This is not new. The 20th century saw much of this — especially in the 1970s and 1980s, which many promised would be the “terminal generation.” Those who propagated such talk could sometimes identify the Soviet Union as a key player in biblical prophecy and then pivot after the fall of the USSR right into identifying Saddam Hussein’s Iraq as a reconstituted Babylon.
    Followers would wait, in vain, for these people to apologize for failed prophecies; they would just move right on to the next one — with books and videos and kits all available for a short time only at these low, low, rates.
    None of this has anything to do with biblical Christianity.

    Glad to see a prominent Christian leader call out, however subtly, people like Hal Lindsey, who wrote The Terminal Generation in the 1970s, for their profiteering.

    Liked by 3 people

  14. Copies of the book have been sent by my publisher to people who volunteered for the launch team. Some were mailed last Friday, others on Tuesday or Wednesday.

    The copies I purchased for some of you (and those of you who are also on the launch team, do you want a second copy? Please advise), won’t be shipped from Amazon until October 17–or maybe a day before so you get it on October 17.

    I can’t control any of this timing. 🙂

    Thanks for your comments, Kim. It’s hard to be objective at this point . . .

    Liked by 1 person

  17. I must be on the later mailing for the book unless our post office takes longer to process. I look forward to receiving it. Miss Bosley does, too. She knows she will have a captive lap for the reading time. ❤🐱

    Like

  18. I need to double check, but I’m sure I pre-ordered it via Amazon — as for the launch team, I figured I may be writing a story about the book’s debut by a local author instead so … 🙂 that saves me any “conflict” issues.

    Nice refrigerator! It is fun to get new appliances. I still nearly swoon every time I “get” to do laundry.

    I have a full list of things I hope to get done in and around the house today, as usual. I’ll get to some of it, never all of it.

    Liked by 2 people

  19. I never heard of “The Terminal Generation,” only the “Late, Great Planet Earth.” Someone wondered recently if Lindsey had never written that runaway best-seller (and before that by only a few decades, if Scofield had not published his notated Bible) whether dispensationalism would ever have even appeared on the landscape.

    Interesting as dispensationalism was such a recent idea/theory & yet it so dominated eschatological views for so many decades.

    Liked by 1 person

  20. I’ll probably be the last to get my book – living up here in the wilds of Saskatchewan! Husband said there was wolf sign all over our road this morning as he was out running.

    Like

  21. I have heard about dispensationalism and we have discussed it on here but I still don’t know what it all means. All I do know is Jesus Christ and Him crucified, He rose and is coming back some day. I am supposed to be ready.

    Liked by 7 people

  23. A wolf holding a sign?

    Great ending to Moore’s above-linkws column:

    ” … History could, of course, come to consummation on Sept. 23, or on Sept. 24 or 1 million years from now, on Feb. 29. I don’t know. Neither do you. And we’re in good company. Jesus said that he himself, in his human nature, did not know the timing of his return, but only the Father (Mark 13:32).

    One thing is for sure. When that day does arrive, we will not need numerology to figure out if it’s here. Jesus will be visible and indisputable. And he will not be selling anything.”

    Liked by 2 people

  25. I have this picture now of a wolf holding up a sign: “Hungry, please help, God bless” — popping up in front of runners at every turn in Canada.

    We have growing homeless and (smart, crafty) coyote populations, it could happen here.

    Liked by 1 person

  27. I forgot the world was supposed to end today…..

    I thought the photo was a bat, until I put on my glasses.

    I did not ask for one of Michelle’s books, as it might be 2 years before I get time to read it. However, Miguel and I are going through ‘My Utmost for His Highest’ as our devotional. I was given that little, book years ago. We are enjoying it.

    Liked by 5 people

  29. DJ, my father, as a younger Christian, had bought all of Lindsey’s books up to a certain point, so we had: ‘The Late, Great Planet Earth’, ‘Satan is Alive and Well; and Living on Planet Earth’, ‘The Terminal Generation’, and ‘The 1980s: Countdown to Armageddon’. Since three of my father’s four children were born in the 1980s, Lindsey’s books became an object of scorn and ridicule in our older teen years. We would read the backs of them, which predicted The End, in mock dramatic tones, and enact seeming distress at the terrible tidings. When, in the late 2000s a man at our church – who delighted in relating the most lurid details of any signs of cultural disintegration (I remember actually plugging my ears a few times) – brought brochures for a conference containing Lindsey’s continuing predictions I was shocked to hear that Lindsey had been permitted to continue the chicanery. I would have expected thundering condemnation from Christian leaders after his first batch didn’t turn out as predicted. The man who brought the brochures was a relatively new, immature Christian. New converts are often fresh meat for the false prophets who enjoy false profits.

    Dispensationalism, however, is older than Lindsey and older writers were just as ridiculous and prolific in their interpretation of Biblical prophecy. One of my relatives has, as an object of curiosity, an old, clothbound, coffee-table sized book dating from somewhere in the late 1890s to early 1900s. It is filled with double page lithographed charts, aligning world events up to that point with prophecies from the Bible. We had some fun at the book’s expense. Dispensationalist publications would be good entertainment, if it weren’t for the underlying reality that there have been vulnerable Christian who have fallen prey to these wolves.

    Like

  30. Charts — complicated charts — seemed to be a hallmark of dispensationalism (which, yes, did pre-date Lindsey but still is a relatively recent phenomenon).

    I will say, though, that I know a few Christians who were drawn into the faith initially by Lindsey’s ideas & attended the church he pastored (Tetelestai Christian Center which is in our immediate area). They later moved on to more grounded churches in the area.

    Guess it was heady stuff back in the day.

    Like

  31. The man I mentioned as bringing the brochures eventually left our church after some years because we wouldn’t get deeply involved In the cultural issue he was all fired up about (he kept changing cultural issues to be fired up about), calling us hypocrites, and greatly wounding Pastor A and his wife, who had been very caring to the man’s family. When the man turned up at the funeral for Pastor A’s wife (she died less than a year after they retired) it was a shock to see how he behaved as if nothing had happened. He was attending another church which was led by woman pastor and was known to be more liberal. After the years he spent in our church railing against liberal/progressive cultural rot, it seemed a decidedly strange choice. From that example and others I’ve witnessed, I’ve come to regard the obsession with prophetic fulfillment (and also with cultural rot) as highly dangerous to spiritual maturity.

    I taught the man’s younger children for about a year, trying to interest them in the Bible, but I quickly realized that for all the man talked about the Second Coming, and how things like gay marriage were the signs of the approaching end, he did not instruct his own family in the word of God. As a result, his children had a very strange idea of what God and Christianity were, despite several years of Sunday School instruction under first the Pastor A’s wife and then myself. Seeing that made me realize how much greater an impact parents have in witnessing to their children than any other influence. It also made me question the benefit of Sunday School, especially if parents would use it as an excuse to abdicate responsibility for not just teaching, but also modeling the Christian life.

    Liked by 1 person

  32. Mumsee, in brief, dispensationalists believe there are dispensations (time periods) of history, five in all I think, in which God dealt with people differently. We are now in “the church age” in which God deals primarily with the Gentiles and people are saved through Christ (not, say, through being good or offering sacrifices).

    They believe that at the end of the church age will come the Rapture, in which Christians will be taken off to heaven, but life will continue on earth through seven years of Tribulation. Many, many people will die during the Tribulation, and then there will be a battle at Armageddon in which many more people will die, but Christ will come to earth again, with His previously raptured saints, and be victorious in the battle, and then He (and we) will reign on earth for 1,000 years, in which people will continue to live and marry and have children. Many will be outwardly obedient but will be seething in the desire to overthrow their King. Hmmm, maybe Armageddon is at the end of the 1,000 years, and they try to overthrow Him but don’t succeed. At any rate, Christ wins that battle. Some will become true Christians during all of it, but they won’t be part of “the church.” All the living Jews will come to salvation at the end of it, but they too won’t be part of the church. Jews and Gentiles remain distinct throughout eternity–I have never heard whether they think that Jewish believers saved now will be part of the church or part of Israel, or how they justify the permanent Jew/Gentile distinction in spite of very clear Scripture saying otherwise.

    Dispensationalism has some very clear contradictions with Scripture. Here are a few: (1) All who are saved, whether before or during or after Christ’s life on earth, are saved through Christ. If it was possible to be saved without His death in the Old Testament, then His death was unnecessary. This point makes the system heretical. They believe that when Christ came, He offered the kingdom to the Jews, but they refused it and crucified Him, bringing in the church age (which was not predicted in the Old Testament and is therefore a “parenthesis” in biblical history between His periods of dealing with the Jews). They also believe there will be a literal, God-approved, temple again in the future, offering sacrifices, but they will be “memorial” only. (Why would such be needed after Christ’s death? Read Hebrews!) But if He had indeed offered the kingdom, what would happen if they accepted it? Was Christ’s death unnecessary and in fact wasted?

    (2) The Jew/Gentile distinction, which is core to the system, is unbiblical and at heart even potentially racist. (Keep those Jews out of our heaven. They can live on earth, but not with us in heaven.)

    (3) The various details of the systems, such as perhaps the best known element, the seven-year Great Tribulation, come together by throwing together passages from various books of the Bible and making unwarranted leaps of logic. For instance, the insistence that Christians will not be on earth during the Tribulation comes from the letter to the church of Philadelphia in Revelation 3:10 (ESV): “Because you have kept my word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell on the earth.” How that can be applied to the church today, in a system that prides itself on being “literal,” boggles the mind. The reality that nothing at all in Scripture speaks directly of a seven-year Tribulation, and that there is nothing in Scripture that says that saints on the earth will be kept out of it, is what caused me to determine the system is completely erroneous, though the unbiblical Jew/Gentile distinction already had me uneasy.

    It was years later when I realized that a full acceptance of the system makes the Cross unnecessary, and that boggled my mind. I don’t think that all dispensationalists are heretics. I do think that those who take it to this full (and in fact necessary) conclusion are. This is serious doctrinal error, at minimum. In full, it is a false gospel and thus no gospel at all. There are different strains of it, and different beliefs, but my critique here would encompass someone as “mainstream” as Charles Ryrie.

    Liked by 1 person

  34. …Before I start, I need to state my conviction about the rapture.
    I am not a dispensationalist. I believe there will be a millennium and a rapture. Timing unknown. But Jesus, in Matthew 24 says that there will be a period of great tribulation. And v. 29 “Immediately after that tribulation…. v 30 Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man ,,,,, v. 31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet and they shall gather together the elect….from one end of heaven to the other.

    We don’t know when that will be.
    I speculate that it will be the seventh trumpet of Rev. 10:7, Rev. 11:15.
    Paul, II Thess. 2:3 “That day shall not come until…….the man of sin be revaealed..” 1 Thess 4:16 Paul says the trump will sound at his coming.

    Point I’m making is this: Whatever conviction you have about the last days and return of Christ is not important. Except that you believe He will return.
    Most of my professors at Southwestern were non-millenialists. I didn’t agree. But I didn’t question their commitment to Christ. My mother spent her life looking for the imminent return of Christ. He didn’t come during her lifetime. But at the end, I suspect she found that she did the right thing.
    What I find disturbing is that this subject divides Christians.

    This is too heavy a subject to discuss on a blog.

    Liked by 5 people

  35. Yes, I double checked and I did pre-order the book — in March. Looking forward to getting it 🙂 (And I went ahead just now & ordered the Kindle edition, too)

    Like

  36. I recall being at a homeschool convention, years ago, where Hal Lindsey was discussed. It was at a seminar about the influence of parents on their children. If I properly recall, it seems his grandmother spent much time with him in the nursery. She read Revelation to him over and over. His theology was not dabated, just the root of it.

    Like

  37. Chas, it shouldn’t be divisive to Christians. I know the Christians within my own family who hold to several different eschatological positions – from dispensationalism to whatever it is Presbyterians believe, and most of us can agree on the basic truth of the Second Coming and not get entangled in bitter arguments, though some of us aren’t averse to a good debate (one cousin used to claim that that of my mother’s family name were born to debate). But a few have become entangled in fruitless attempts to interpret Biblical prophecy in light of current events, and in each case I’ve seen that happen, whether within my family or within the wider Christian community I move in, it has not helped the person’s spiritual maturity and has often hindered it.

    Liked by 1 person

  38. I belong to a church that encourages lively (but loving) debate and has been known to draw sharp, young seminarians for that reason. I agree it should not divide, but debate can (and should) quicken us and our understandings. Ultimately, as Chas said, our primary (and most important) point of agreement is that we all believe Jesus is coming again and on that there’s full unity.

    Liked by 3 people

  39. Mumsee, no he doesn’t carry anything defensive on his runs. He is ultra alert, but remains calm if he does see a wolf or a bear. A cougar would be more dangerous as he probably wouldn’t see it first (and we do have one in the area). I wish he would take the bear spray or at least a stout stick – it would make me feel better.

    I have seen him in action when we were out walking and a large bear crossed the road in front of us. I completely panicked and wanted to run (I’m not sure where to), but he just held gently onto my arm and calmly and quietly suggested we wait to see where the bear was going and what it was going to do. The bear wandered back into the brush and we turned down the side road and made it home without incident.

    A couple of days ago, he and the dogs heard growling in the bushes about 1 mile from the house, but couldn’t see anything. He said it was very unnerving!!!!!!

    Liked by 2 people

  40. Looks like I am part dispensationalist or something. I know I am a child of God. I know that He is coming for me or I am going to Him or however it works, but I will be spending eternity in Life. I know a lot of people who have used that term, negatively and positively. I have never heard one of them say Jews were not welcome in Heaven.

    If you don’t believe Old Testament folk were saved by His death on the cross, what do you believe? Are you saying Old Testament folk aren’t saved or are you saying disp people say that?

    Chas is correct, not worth arguing over but a discussion without calling the other side idiots or heretics might be helpful.

    I am still confused on how a lot of people are so dogmatic on things in opposition to others who are clearly saints as well. All I know is Jesus Christ and Him crucified for me. About the sins that I did commit for which Jesus died on that tree. He is coming back.

    Liked by 5 people

  42. Is there ever just one? (cougar)

    We’ve had mountain lion attacks on cyclists in the hills in LA (not close to me, though there were persistent and numerous reported sightings of a mountain lion close by some years back that went on for 2-3 years then abruptly stopped).

    New kittens recently were recorded, nothing much more adorable. And officials continue to discuss how to build a safe crossing for the mountain lions and other wildlife over the 101 Fwy where several have been hit and killed through the years.

    Like

  43. In real life, cougars have a very large territory and the males don’t want other males in theirs. The females are a bit more generous at least with their kittens. However, in California, life is different. They may congregate in dog parks for all I know.

    Liked by 4 people

  45. Pentecostals gathering in dog parks?

    Always fun to see how we jump around on Saturdays, from refrigerator models to Sweedish meatball recipes to wolves, mountain lions and dispensationalists.

    But back to coyotes …

    Urban Coyote Trivia
    1) Coyotes can squeeze through a 3”- 4” gap in a fence or wall.
    2) Coyotes can leap over a 4’ fence or wall without ever touching the fence or wall.
    3) Coyotes can jump over a 5’- 7’ fence or wall by first jumping from the ground to the top of the fence or wall, and then jumping to the ground on the other side.
    4) Although uncommon, coyotes can utilize foliage (vine plants, bushes, and trees) to manipulate themselves to the top of an 8’ wall.
    5) Coyotes will scale neighborhood block walls in search of food in residents’ backyards.
    6) Unlike rural coyotes, urban coyotes have no fear of chain link fences.
    7) Coyotes can slide under a chain link fence through a very small clearance.
    8) Coyotes can dig a tunnel under a fence in a matter of minutes.
    9) Coyotes prefer to travel alongside fences, walls, bushes, and buildings where it is more difficult to see them.
    10) Coyotes can travel up to 40 miles per hour.
    11) Coyotes can throw their voices so only a few coyotes can sound like a dozen.
    12) Coyotes are very quiet animals and will even walk on their tip toes to be even more quiet.
    13) Coyote litters can range in size from 2 to 12 depending upon what the environment will support.
    14) Coyotes inhabit every state except Hawaii.
    15) Weather patterns affect coyote activity and coyotes become more active during hot temperatures and as storm fronts pass through: the increased activity leads to increased thirst and hunger for coyotes so they hunt more during these times.

    Like

  46. I became a Christian because of reading Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth. I read the next book he wrote and then decided I didn’t want to go in that direction with my spiritual beliefs. Living in a house with folks hostile to God and not pleased I’d become a Christian, I didn’t want to get caught up in something I couldn’t explain well.

    The Lutheran Church I attended at the time focused on studying the Bible, and the Bible was such a revelation to me, I stayed with it!

    Sticking to the truths, the simple truths, of the Bible works better for me and is “easier” to explain if I can just point to the words.

    To have to come up with charts, which my brain doesn’t remember well anyway, doesn’t work for me.

    Chambers was a dispensationalist of sorts. Biddy used a Scofield Reference Bible.

    I can learn from but don’t need to claim everything that comes along in –I don’t want to use this word, but it seems to be what I mean–Christian fads. Dispensationalism doesn’t make sense to me.

    Liked by 3 people

  47. Mumsee, there are heretics amongst the Biblical prophecy group. As Cheryl said, some of these teachings, taken to their logical end, deny basic Biblical truths and there are teachers who do take them to their logical end. I have seen the extremes of movements like Christian Zionism, that separate Jews from Christians. What Cheryl said was nothing new to me – I’ve read it all before. Having two Jewish uncles – who themselves were orthodox in their Christian theology – I was exposed to the publications and teaching of Christian Zionism, as some of my relatives made the mistake of thinking that organizations and publications that talked about Jews and Christianity were all for the same things we were. When it came to eschatology, many of the Christians around me made the assumption that anyone who talked about the Second Coming was a legitimate authority on Scripture.
    God said, that even if a prophet used the name of God and prophesied something that did not come to pass, that prophet should be treated as a false prophet (Deuteronomy 18:20-22). By those standards alone, people like Lindsey and Hagee are not teachers of God. Peter (in II Peter 2) and Jude had some very harsh things to say about false prophets and teachers in the church who “through covetousness… with feigned words make merchandise of you”, while Paul and John called them out by name. When angry words of judgement are directed at individuals by Christ and his Apostles, it is to those in positions of spiritual leadership, who should have known the truth, but instead deliberately misled their followers for their own profit and lust. Those who decade after decade sell books predicting the end are making merchandise of Christians, and if they bear the name of pastor or elder in the Church, they are the more to be condemned.

    Like

  48. Mumsee, yes, Old Testament saints were saved by Christ’s death–I believe that, and beleive strongly the Bible teaches it. But full-fledged dispensationalists believe that Christ’s death is for the church age, and that Abraham (for instance) was saved by other means, and that tribulation saints will be saved by other means.

    Is there a better word than “heresy” to describe a belief that the Cross of Christ was not necessary, not predicted in the Old Testament, and basically a last-minute problem when the Jews rejected the kingdom and killed Jesus, and God the Father basically covered for Him by raising Him from the dead? (They wouldn’t put it quite like that, but I don’t believe I am saying it inaccurately.) Can we call Mormonism heresy? Can we use the word at all?

    Mumsee, I am not meaning to be divisive by using the term–but I do think some untruths rise to the level of heresy, that truth is important enough to call out heresy for what it is, and that some beliefs of some dispensationalists rise to that level.

    Like

  49. I’m teaching on the life of King David this fall. Our first real lesson is Tuesday morning. Last week I passed out books and gave my ladies a pop quiz. How would you do?
    King David Quiz
    1. What was David’s last name?
    2. Where was he born?
    3. Did he have any siblings?
    4. What did David look like?
    5. What was his occupation?
    6. Any talents?
    7. Name one of your favorite David songs.
    8. What catapulted him into the headlines of the local paper?
    9. How did he court his first wife?
    10. Did he have any close friends?
    11. Why did he take his band on the run?
    12. Did he have a temper?
    13. How many kids did he have?
    14. Was he a good father?
    15. What’s your favorite story about him?

    Like

  50. Mumsee, I don’t think they say Jews “are not welcome” in heaven, but they (some of them, at least) do say that the earth will be the eternal dwelling place of Jewish believers, and heaven is for the church. I don’t think they mean it as a racist statement, they mean it as literal fulfillment of the Abrahamic covenant, but I cannot help but think there is some racism innate in it as well, if only the racism of some long-dead proponent who came up with that idea.

    Like

  51. I might note, that the fact that some people came to Christ through Lindsey’s books does not justify him. Peter, in his condemnation of false prophets in II Peter 2, compares them to Balaam, who was a prophet of God, but turned his real gift into something of profit for himself. Balaam did prophesy the truth about the future of Israel, under reluctant compulsion by the Holy Spirit, but that did not save him from the consequences of his greed, and he died at the hands of the very people he was hired to curse. As Paul said, those things that were written beforehand were written for our learning, to the end we should not commit the same errors.

    Like

  52. Heresy is a true label but it gets thrown around a bit casually, not saying you did. I suspect claiming to be a Christian without acknowledging the Sacrifice would be one. As mentioned, I don’t know what others believe, I know what I believe and part of that is that we will inhabit the new earth and it will contain all believers of all ages. I hope we get to explore all of space and maybe start up some gardens here and there. But even if we stand around saying holy holy holy, it will be glorious and I cannot think of a better plan than whatever He has.

    Liked by 1 person

  54. Still behind on Our Daily Thread, but I am making progress. 🙂

    Anyway, jumping in here with a couple thoughts so I don’t forget them when I catch up (like I usually do).

    Going back to the subject of how the Holy Spirit leads, I have three specific times when I can look back & recognize that He was preparing me for a trial. The first was about three weeks before Hubby was arrested for DUI back in 2002, & I didn’t even know he had become an alcoholic. I was folding laundry, thinking of how thankful I was that he had not followed his father’s footsteps into alcoholism, when the thought struck my mind – It could still happen. It was not a natural progression of what I was thinking & feeling at the time, but a surprising, almost shocking thought. And about three weeks later I had to face that reality.

    The middle example is kind of personal, & is related to what has happened with Chickadee, years before it came to pass. It was one simple sentence dropped into my heart while enjoying my sweet daughter’s company, with absolutely no hint that things would progress as they eventually did. The thought was disturbing & perplexing, & at the time I decided it must have been merely my imagination. But it came to pass.

    The recent one is that I had “a feeling” occasionally over the last few months that “something bad” is coming, & I knew it would be a test of my faith, & that I would need to trust God as never before. I believe Hubby’s hospitalizations & the stroke, & needing to leave his job are that “something bad”. And it has indeed had me (both of us) putting more trust in Father God & His love, grace, & mercy, leaning heavily upon Him.

    There have been many other, less dramatic ways I have sensed the Holy Spirit leading me one way or the other, giving me wisdom & insight in various situations.

    Liked by 3 people

  55. A couple questions I thought of recently (& please know that I ask them respectfully):

    1.) It has been said that Christians have the scriptures to guide us, so God does not give us personal direction. But what about the hundreds of years when the ordinary believer did not have the scriptures available to him? Were they supposed to rely upon their pastors for such direction?

    2.) (Forgive me if this is an exaggeration or twisting of Reformed theology, but I have read it explained this way.) If one believes that everything that happens, even the horrible (such as children being abused) is God’s will, then why wouldn’t one believe that He wants to give direction in whom to marry, or how many kids to have, or to take or not take a particular job?

    Again, although the tone of those questions could sound argumentative, that is not how I intend them. I am honestly curious.

    Liked by 2 people

  57. The test:

    1. Benjesse
    2. in a house
    3. yes
    4. good looking ruddy fellow
    5. shepherd
    6. musician, good throwing rocks
    7. don’t know them well enough
    8. anointed by Samuel, then the Goliath deal
    9. hung out with her dad
    10. yes, Jonathan
    11.Saul wanted to kill him
    12. Yes, don’t we all?
    13. thirty seven?
    14. not so much but maybe in some ways
    15. Dancing in the streets

    Like

  58. Michelle’s Quiz – without looking anything up:
    SPOILER ALERT for anyone else doing the quiz

    1. Ben Judah?
    2. Bethlehem
    3. Seven brothers, I seem to remember a sister or two being mentioned
    4. KJ version, “ruddy, and withal of a fair complexion” or something to that effect.
    5. Shepherd
    6. Consummate poet, musician, music director and instrument maker. Rather good with a slingshot too.
    7. Psalm 37: “Fret not…”
    8. Killing Goliath
    9. Killed a hundred Philistines.
    10. Jonathan
    11. Saul’s murderous intent
    12. He certainly did – see also Abigail and Nabal
    13. Oh great, I didn’t count them – but there were the four sons of Bathsheba – including Solomon and Nathan, Abigail’s son Daniel, and Ammon,the son of the Ammonite wife whose name I cannot remember, and also Absalom and his sister Tamar, and that one who tried to usurp Solomon, whose name I’ve forgotten. Michel didn’t have any children.
    14. He loved his children, but he spoiled them terribly.
    15. The last one about him, in II Samuel, where he makes a terrible mistake and then God redeems it and uses it to provide the field where Solomon’s temple is built.

    Like

  60. Interesting… I looked up ‘ruddy’ in the Hebrew lexicon, and the same word to describe David is the one used to describe Esau. So, it seems that David was another redhead, or, as they say in the UK, a ‘ginger’.

    Liked by 2 people

  61. I have a little round accent table, wood, very Spanish looking, old, that used to have 4 tiles inset into a recessed space in the middle. The tiles eventually broke and have been gone for a long time but I would like to replace them with 4 new cute tiles, with a Spanish flavor.

    How hard can that be? Even for me?

    I think I’ll take a trip to the tile store this afternoon to see what’s involved.

    Meanwhile, I’m using the “power wash” setting on my washer for the first time (for some throw rugs that were really dirty as they’d landed on the patio almost a year ago with all the inside work going on).

    Liked by 2 people

  62. The quiz. Hmm.

    1. What was David’s last name? Bar Jesse
    2. Where was he born? Bethlehem
    3. Did he have any siblings? Yes.
    4. What did David look like? Haven’t you seen the statue? Actually, he was ruddy and good looking, but not particularly imposing.
    5. What was his occupation? King, of course. Before that, shepherd, musician for the king (and the King), and soldier on the run from the king.
    6. Any talents? Yes.
    7. Name one of your favorite David songs. Psalm 19 if that was a psalm of David.
    8. What catapulted him into the headlines of the local paper? Goliath
    9. How did he court his first wife? by killing Goliath
    10. Did he have any close friends? Yes. If you want more than yes or no, then Jonathan.
    11. Why did he take his band on the run? Because King Saul liked his job too much.
    12. Did he have a temper? In comparison to King Saul, no. And what temper he did have could be reasoned with.
    13. How many kids did he have? As far as we know, he had only sheep, not goats. I caught the trick question!
    14. Was he a good father? Not particularly, with the favoritism thing and overlooking legitimate discipline and all that.
    15. What’s your favorite story about him? Maybe Michal hiding a fake David in the bed while she sends the real one off on a head start. But probably his willingness to repent when confronted by Nathan.

    Like

  66. Mumsee, YouTube tracks IP addresses and will offer content based on your previous viewing. I find setting my Internet settings to delete all cookies will stop the tracking, provided I close the internet browser periodically. When I keep it open, it seems like more and more information is being gathered on me, and I will get suggestions on YouTube on topics I’ve been discussing or viewing in other places.

    Liked by 1 person

  67. King David Quiz
    1. What was David’s last name? Not given, other than son of Jesse
    2. Where was he born? Bethlehem
    3. Did he have any siblings? 6 older brothers
    4. What did David look like? “Ruddy” I’ve heard that means redhead
    5. What was his occupation? Shepherd
    6. Any talents? Music & killing lions and bears
    7. Name one of your favorite David songs. Psalm 139
    8. What catapulted him into the headlines of the local paper? Killed Goliath
    9. How did he court his first wife? He didn’t, Saul gave Michal to him
    10. Did he have any close friends? Jonathan
    11. Why did he take his band on the run? Saul wanted him dead
    12. Did he have a temper? We all do, he controlled his
    13. How many kids did he have? 8 or 9
    14. Was he a good father? No
    15. What’s your favorite story about him? When he took Mephiboseth into his home.

    Like

  69. Squirrel. Have I mentioned that I have a probably with getting distracted easily? I was looking for something that might say settings but I found an interesting place that said change background. And I thought I wonder if this is where people go to do that. And I saw a thing that said pictures and I clicked on it and who should arrive but little granddaughter! She is now my background though she looks a bit stretched.

    Liked by 3 people

  72. Mumsee, when you open your internet browsing window (e.g. Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge, Google Chrome, Safari, Mozilla Firefox, etc.) usually the internet settings is somewhere in the top right hand corner of the window – there may be a little gear shaped symbol.

    Like

  74. Tess is my computer background while Cowboy is my social media (Fb) background.

    ok, so I checked out the Mexican/Spanish tiles (I need four 6×6 tiles forming a pattern) at the tile center, but didn’t find anything that sent me over the moon. And since you had to special order them, I didn’t want to pick something I wasn’t really sure about.

    On the way home, I stopped at the hardware store to pick up screws for the new cabinet knobs (the ones that came with them are too long). I drove through the more secluded Peninsula back roads coming and going, such a beautiful day out and I love seeing all the wild bougainvillea and plumbago and other bright-colored plants spilling all over the canyons and blanketing the hillsides.

    Liked by 5 people

  76. I just got chills. Michelle’s last post about writing Mrs. Oswald Chambers included an Anglican priest praying over her. I come from the Episcopal/Anglican Tradition where we believe that the Bishops can trace the laying on of hands and blessing of their ministry all the way back to Christ. This priest was the son of friends of Oswald and Biddy. They blessed Eva and Stephen Pulford, who surely blessed their son, who in turn blessed Michelle. Serendipity indeed.

    Liked by 3 people

  77. I turned that off and turned on talk Christian radio. Somebody is singing a song. But I don’t understand the words other than..I am a soul on fire….over and over ….

    Like

  81. Mumsee @ 7:24
    That’s the way they sing now days.
    Most of the songs are praise songs.
    No songs of personal comfort or commitment.
    No, “When we All Get to Heaven” “Amazing Grace”, “Just As I Am”, “In the Garden”, etc.

    Like

  82. I knew the answer to all the questions except how many children David had. And I forgot the number of siblings.
    Did you know that Jesus was not a descendant of King Solomon?

    Like

  84. Chas, @8:46, yes, if by that you mean that the genealogy of Luke 3, which is thought to be Mary’s, lists Nathan, Solomon’s full brother, as the next in line after David. However, both genealogies list Zerubbabel – who returned from Babylon with the first wave of Israelites during the reign of Cyrus – so I assume that Solomon’s and Nathan’s lines must have intermarried during the Babylonian captivity (Matthew’s genealogy does some jumping around at that point, so it isn’t quite clear what exactly happened, but a levirate marriage seems to have taken place).

    Chas, I share your reluctance to call anyone who claims Jesus for salvation a heretic, but Christ himself warned that not everyone who called him Lord would enter the kingdom of heaven, and he warned in the same sermon to watch for the fruit of teachers and leaders, to know whether they were wolves or sheep. Peter, when Simon the Magician tried to purchase the power of the Holy Spirit, basically told Simon he wasn’t saved and needed to repent, even though Simon had been baptized by that point.

    Liked by 1 person

  86. AJ, I got lots of boat-tailed grackle photos in Florida . . . females and young, that is. I saw males a couple of times (overhead on wires), but couldn’t get even a halfway decent photo, but female-plumaged birds were everywhere (late June). I wasn’t able to ID them for some time after getting home, though, since there were no males in the groups and that made ID trickier.

    It’s cool that you got males, too.

    Liked by 2 people

  90. First on Sunday! (But still not caught up yet. And it looks like I picked the wrong day to ask my questions, since there are other interesting discussions going on.)

    Like

  92. I finished Mrs. Oswald Chambers last night. As someone who has battled depression in the past, it re-confirms that people are about as happy as they make up their mind to be.
    (I am not discounting those who are chemically depressed and need medicine. I have been in those shoes myself).
    Biddy found herself in some circumstances that would have made most of us look around and think, “Oh, poor me!” She didn’t think this at all. She just did the next thing that needed to be done. How many times have I heard those words in my own life…Just do the next right thing. I never knew they were part of Oswald Chambers.

    Liked by 5 people

  93. Yep, I leave the sorting out of goats and sheep to God, but it burns me to see folks being deliberately misled by absurdity. Who do the false teachers believe God is if they can behave the way they do?

    But I see the same false teachers through the Bible, too. Yikes, so many innocent sheep being led astray . . .

    Like

  94. My answers:

    1. Son of Jesse, so Jesseson? (Hmm, sounds like stuttering)
    2. Bethlehem
    3. Yes.
    4. Ruddy, handsome.
    5. Shepherd, musician, song writer, warrior, fugitive, king
    6. Guitarist, worship leader
    7. Psalm 36
    8. Killing Goliath
    9. He won her in a contest.
    10. Jonathan
    11. King Saul wanted to kill him
    12. He could be impetuous.
    13. With all his women, we don’t know for sure.
    14. He loved his children but didn’t raise them well.
    15. It depends on my heart on any given day!

    Like

  95. I knew all the answers to Michelle’s little David quiz, except how many children he had. And yes, he had seven brothers, but because there is something special about the number seven, he was somewhere referred to as the seventh son, not the eighth.

    I don’t think anyone has mentioned that part of how he courted his first wife was by delivering to Saul the foreskins of those Philistines he had to kill. Can you imagine them hanging out with other couples, & answering the oft-asked question of how they got together? No one could top that story!

    Like

  96. I think Bar Jesse would be the way they would refer to Son of Jesse.

    Some have mentioned that being ruddy means being red-headed. It may be that the actual Hebrew word means that, but the English word ruddy can merely refer to a reddish, healthy tint to the skin, especially the facial skin. Hubby has a ruddy complexion in that way.

    Like

  98. I got my book yesterday, but forgot to check the mail until this morning. Thank you, Michelle!

    It will take me a while to read it, since I’m more of a plodder than a speed reader, & I have other things I need to read or do, but I will start it very soon. I’ll even put aside the book I was already reading (Robert K. Massie’s Catherine the Great) for it. 🙂

    Sometimes, I’ve felt somehow not as good a reader as those who read a book in a day or a weekend or even in a week, but I realized that it is because I prefer to take my time with a book, savoring it here & there over a period of time.

    Liked by 1 person

  99. Okay, when I started this string of comments, I really did not know how close to 100 we were, & wasn’t running up the number on purpose. But since I have. . .

    Like

  102. The reunion went well last night. I knew enough to leave after dinner before the drinking got worse. I had come the farthest. Got to connect with several. So glad that my friends came. I was okay visiting, but needed someone to eat with and to share with. Turns out my friend had never been to a reunion and many were very glad to see him.
    One fella had come from Guam or somewhere close. So he came up to speak to me. Well after he was introduced I read the comments he had written for the book they gave us and knew he was not someone I wanted to talk to. When he came to our table, I shook his hand and said hello and then he began to speak to my friend. Worked out just perfectly.
    The funny part was that several had also gone to the same college as I had and were even in the same dorm freshman year, which I had no memory of at all.

    Liked by 2 people

  103. Speaking of sixteen year old son who has no responsibilities but to go to school, be home by seven fifteen on nights he does not have prearranged activities (like football), and do his laundry on Saturdays. He has not done his laundry in weeks/months. I talked with him about it last night, told him to take it to the laundromat in town (there is one next to the trailer campground) or to his friend where he played video games all day, I am sure they have a washing machine. He assured me they did. He seems to have forgotten to take it with him this morning. I took the liberty to bag it up for him this morning, even though some of those socks and pants just would not bend, and plan to deliver them to him at church. Do you think I should do that before or after the service and before or after the dinner if after church?

    Liked by 2 people

  104. Glad you enjoyed the reunion, Jo.

    I see 100 was nabbed. The early bird gets 100.

    I read in small bits as well, partly due to time available but also because I realize after all these years that I also tend to be a slow reader. John Piper has written about his struggle with that as well, he eventually just had to accept it in himself. One of my bad habits is the have several books going at once which too often can lead to “dabbling” and not finishing. 😦 That’s a pattern I really should work on changing, I realize.

    Tomorrow we have training on WordPress as all our newspapers are switching over to that (from something called Saxo for newspapers). I think we’re in the final group of papers making the switch which also come (thankfully) with a new website format.

    We’re in the final chapter of Romans now following what’s been 2-3 years, I believe. While we do bounce to topical sermons in between on occasion, our pastor argues that exegetical preaching is the best guard against pastors riding their favorite hobby horses time and time again while being able to gloss over or skip the more perplexing verses of the Bible. And even though we’re in “a book” for long periods, the sermons also involved other portions of Scripture, of course, and all are designed to include the message of both law and gospel.

    Liked by 1 person

  105. Happy Sunday, y’all. We had a nice church service. At one point a visitor who had been iin our church at college age gave a testimony about reaching out to youth as a missionary in Germany. He said only about 5% in Germany are evangelical. He spoke about the anniversary of Martin Lither and how many have no idea what that is about. Sad.

    Several people in a church plant that has been using our building on Sunday evenings committed to join our congregation. It was exciting to start to see our congregation enlarged today. We have a business meeting this evening partly to set up a pastor search committee. That is so we can formally call a pastor. I am learning as we move along with this process.

    Liked by 1 person

  106. Since I read backwards on the posts I did not feel I could take Michelle’s quiz having read other’s answers first. I would not have gotten as many right as some did. I probably would have gotten 2/3’s right.

    Like

  107. I read quite quickly which is nice because I can read a lot in the short times I have to read. However, I can go through a pile of books in a very short time and always run out of things to read.

    Liked by 1 person

  108. The girls and I are these days coming from three different households when we are in church together. After church the three of us stood and talked for maybe 45 minutes, just we women. Kinda wonder what everyone else thinks when we form our little circle and chat as though we haven’t seen each other for a week (which actually was the case for our married daughter, and our younger daughter worked a lot of hours this week–overtime at her main job and two or three shifts at her overnight one–so we barely saw her, either).

    Liked by 1 person

  109. Well, I took the laundry, about five loads. I told him when I got there that it was outside. And I reminded him when he started to leave. He kept asking if he could just do it at home and I reminded him that is what I had been telling him to do for two months I told him dad told me to bring it in to you so I have and now I am taking my dolly home. Do whatever.

    The pastor thought it amusing and just fine. He is also sixteen year old’s math teacher. And has several children of his own so knows what life is like. He said he started making his children do their laundry when he realized how much he was doing after his wife died.

    Liked by 1 person

  110. We took a detour into 1 John today as we await the wind-up of Romans. Sounds like we may go through the entire book before returning to Rom. 16, which is good. I love 1 John and today’s sermon provided some things I needed to hear again. 🙂

    We had a young man join the church today and an older couple also join. The man is someone our pastor has known for 40+ years and he also was being baptized, so a very special moment for the pastor.

    The temperature rose today, we’re revisiting summer for the next week or so. Not unusual here.

    Oh, and some interesting remarks on liturgy (every church has one) from our pastor today — It reflects a dialogue between God and his people. In the way our worship is ordered, it opens with the Call to Worship as God calls his people to gather and worship him; followed by the acknowledgment that we are in His presence as sinners in need of a savior. So before we even sing or do anything else we have a silent few moments to confess our sins before God, as Isaiah did, “woe is me” (Yikes, I almost typed Wow is me!); and the burning coal from the altar is touched to his lips to purge him of his sins — and likewise in our case, the pronouncement from the pulpit that our sins are forgiven. Now we sing.

    And so it goes, with God and his people responding and interacting through the reading of the Word, the preaching of the sermon, the corporate prayers, and communion.

    Liked by 2 people

  111. Mumsee, I think that that was a perfectly logical consequence. It must leave your home smelling much better. I don’t imagine that anyone is going to want him to bring that load into their homes. Perhaps someone else will support you.

    Like

  112. His two buddies were kind of amusing. They did not know what to say or do. Embarrassed for him, I imagine. I don’t know why neither boy said, well, let’s go to my house and get it done.

    Like

  113. Church was interesting today. We had a missionary couple from China, They were there when another sixteen year old took his trip to China and they remember him well. They thought it interesting to piece together the family he described back in the States. Would have been fun for him to see them.

    Liked by 1 person

  114. We have been sitting out on the deck watching a golden eagle drift around. It checked out some chickens down by the willows. Even stopped in a tree for a few minutes. Then back up. It got chased by a red tail hawk but did not seem too worried. The hawk disappeared and the eagle was still out there. They sure are pretty.

    Liked by 1 person

  115. Mumsee, that is a bird I would like to see someday. I love the raptors, and am happy to have now seen a bald eagle numerous times (including once over our own backyard), but never a golden eagle.

    Like

  118. Another 100+ thread, and robust theological discussion again, I see. Always interesting to read those.

    Regarding the speed at which I read books: most of the time I’ve got several going at once, so any one book takes longer to read than if I only read one book at a time.

    Right now I’ve got a library book checked out that I’ve already renewed three times. (That’s the maximum, so when it’s due on October 4, that’s when I’ll have to have it back. And I will. I’ve only got one chapter and the appendices left to read — about 30 pages.) The book is This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, by Daniel J. Levitin. None of you will be surprised to hear I am enjoying that book. 🙂

    Earlier this month I finished reading, Vitamin N: the Essential Guide to a Nature-Rich Life: 500 Ways to Enrich the Health and Happiness of Your Family & Community and Combat Nature-Deficit Disorder, by Richard Louv. He is also the author of Last Child in the Woods, another good title I’ve read.

    The other book I finished this month — only seven days after I checked it out — was the third edition of Business Writing: What Works, What Won’t, by Wilma Davidson. An excellent refresher that helped me get past the writer’s block I’ve had for most of this month with my blog writing. I haven’t published a blog post since September 2nd, when I had published five of them in August. I started a new draft (for my seventh post) on September 7th, but never got beyond the first sentence of the second paragraph. Too much other stuff on my mind to express myself musically (both in writing and at the piano), and I hit a dry spot with both.

    Tonight, though, I finally had the energy to write more (maybe it was that two-hour nap this afternoon? — ah, delicious!), and my draft of my seventh post is now sitting at 400-something words. “Make Your Music Sparkle.” I am thinking it will be the first post in a series on how to practice musically. The post isn’t up to publishing standards yet — the rough draft is more rough than draft 😉 — but I’m happy to have finally gotten something down to work with.

    Ha, ended with a preposition. 😛

    Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.