67 thoughts on “Our Daily Thread 4-13-18”

  2. It’s Friday,
    And Peter is ahead of all of us. I’ll read the funnies after breakfast.
    Good morning Peter, Aj, et. al.
    Nite nite Jo.

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  3. Good night all. So tired. Had dinner at the teen centre with some other teachers. All of us felt like we could hardly stay awake. It has been a long week. Hearing some noise in the distance. Praying that it is not gunshots. Exploding bamboo??

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  6. Question:
    Does anyone remember when this blog started?
    It was originally a World Mag. blog and was monitored by a lady who quit to help write a book.
    Make it Man made a scepter for her.
    I’m asking because it occurred to me that you who have been here have seen a couple get old before your eyes.
    I remember that it was well established when I was president of H’ville Lions. over ten years ago.

    Question: When did it start? How did I learn about this? (You may not know that.)

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  9. I started peeking in maybe around 2003-05? — blogs and online commenting were kind of “new.” I ‘joined,’ I guess (started commenting), somewhere around 2007? But you all had been here several years before that, I’m sure.

    Have I said how weary I am of this house lately? Hitting another wall — I’d scheduled a bulky item pickup with the city yesterday for this morning (old wooden pallets, chunks of concrete, the last of the mid-century window valances, an old wooden ladder), but when I called last night to add to the list the person indicated they’d take none of that. (Earlier person said otherwise.)

    So I’m relying on the local scavengers to have at the pile and hope they take most of it. Until then, it’ll sit out front looking horrible.

    Front steps lantern is out. I’m almost sure it isn’t the bulb (which I believe was new 6 months ago when we put it in), but I’ve been unable to detach the top after unscrewing everything to check that — top piece should come right off, the store told me. Uh-uh. So I have dark steps again. It still looks cute. Maybe it’ll just be a decorative piece for now. Can’t deal with another ‘thing’ on this house right now.

    I tried, it is what it is. End of story. For now.

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  10. Chas, I suppose like all of us you started going to World Magazine online when they launched their website — and then spotted that there was a place for comments on all the stories. This ‘anything goes’ random thread was part of the site, it was non-specific, and it seemed to foster more of a relationship-style thread where people began just to get to know each other, talking about anything and everything though mostly still news-related topics I think.

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  11. I think it was Marvin Olansky that started the original blog back in 2002 or 2003. I think I joined late 2003, when it was still “the Wild West”. Lynn came along a few years later.

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  13. Dj–go back and try getting the top off again when you are refreshed. Sometimes we miss the simplest things. I almost ruined a brand new food processor trying to take apart some items that needed to be apart. I misunderstood where they actually connected. Seems simple now and the crack I put into it is just an irritation to me. ;(

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  14. I will kathaleena — I’ve tried a couple times, did a live chat with the store where it was purchased to try to figure out what I wasn’t “getting,” but that didn’t help a lot. It was put in long enough ago that the instructions are gone though I might try looking for them online.

    I tried being gentle in trying to figure out exactly what portion of the top of the fixture would lift off once it was unscrewed, but nothing came loose, lifted up, or separated easily and I didn’t want to force it and wind up breaking something. I’ll have another go at it over the weekend when I can catch up on my sleep and rest first. It’s been a crazy week and I’m really just very tired and feeling frustrated with the house overall again. Had to deal with water heater issues yesterday, it’s just one thing after another with this place.

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  15. We had some interesting conversations with Sawgunner who was in Iraq at that time.
    We met him and his wife once while he was stationed at Fort Jackson.
    MIM made a scepter for Lynn.

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  16. 2002-2003 sounds about right. I remember the magazine had a column for awhile called “Blog Watch” where they excerpted items from various blogs. I thought the word sounded so strange I could hardly bring myself to say it. Then they launched their own blog and I had to go check it out.

    Didn’t we have a nickname for Lynn, Benevolent Dictator or some such? It went well with the scepter.

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  17. One thing I know for certain. The rapture will not occur on 23 April.

    End of the world 2018: Will the Rapture occur on April 23? SHOCK prediction says YES

    I’m just trying to figure how long I have been here.’
    It has become kinda like family. Though some of you have changed names from what I knew.

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  18. The above quite I forgot the quote marks. But you know.
    It came from Drudge.
    I was searching for a story that hadn”t appeared yet.
    A 16 year old guy died strangled in a van.
    He called 911 twice but the response was muddled. They found him dead 9 hours later.

    It seems we have a dangerous plague of incompetence by people who are responsible.

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  19. And I cut my previous post short because I thought the guy who was supposed to be here sometime between 10 and 11 had arrived.
    But he hasn’t.

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  20. I suspect they get enough crank calls that, after looking through cars and finding no one, they considered it another. They go in with good intentions and good training but misuse of the system is telling, even though they are aware of it and try to fight against it. All of our first responders we have dealt with have been very professional and very caring. But he did describe the car he was in to the operator. They may have thought it too far fetched to be real. I am sure they regret not finding him. Man knows not the number of his days. Sad.

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  21. Morning! We got snow!! Some around these parts are quite fearful these days due to the dry conditions and extreme winds. I will admit is has been disconcerting. I am so thankful for the new fallen snow and predictions of more to come next week…
    I remember that Pastor Roy suggested I come over to the World Mag blog to get to know some of ya’ll…I just cannot remember exactly when that was. I lurked for a while and once I did jump in with a comment I was jumped on by a certain gal who shall remain nameless and thought perhaps I would never comment again. Having said that, I lurked some more and she was gone so I jumped in again. I recall the sadness of the prospect of never communicating with ya’ll again when World said adios…then AJ decided he would have none of that and he kept us together…the Lord has wrought together some sweet relationships via this blog and I am forever grateful…. ♥️

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  22. November- December 2003. I first commented about a month after it started. I went to work in Christian publishing a month later in January 2004.

    Between the two– blog comments by Christians and ridiculous theology by query writers, I discovered a vast section of American Christianity I’d never experienced before.

    Frankly, it was horrifying.

    Eye-opening and very sad.

    But I love all you reasonable people! Lol

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  23. Chas, I think you have been around as long as I have, or possibly longer. I didn’t come on till after I moved to Nashville (I didn’t have internet at home until then, though I had already subscribed to World for several years), but it was fairly soon after my move. I posted something on the blog about how surreal my mother’s death was (that losing a mother felt like having all the stars fall out of the sky) and World contacted me to ask permission to put it in the print edition. Mom died in September 2003, so I don’t know if I was already on here or on here within a few months, but it was sometime in 2003-2004 that I joined.

    I posted as “Cheryl” the first time, and then someone else posted as “Cheryl” and so I posted as Cheryl D. and never saw another post from the other Cheryl. (That wasn’t AJ’s wife, was it?)

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  24. Yes, Kevin. I dubbed Lynn “The Benevolent Dictator” when she came on board.

    The blog had to have started before September 2003, as I first got on it before we moved to this area for a job. That was Fall 2003 when we moved.

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  27. I was just wondering. I knew it was a long time, but the only events I could date was that I remember talking about being Lion’s president back in ’06.
    By then, we became something of a family and I heated losing some of the regulars who didn’t come over when Lynn dropped out and World gave up on us.
    I can’t blame them.
    But Aj has done a superb job. A real ministry here Aj.

    I’m off to the rehab blace now.
    The guy I was looking for came and went without checking with me.

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  29. Roscuro, I started to write something earlier but don’t think I finished. I finished reading that little book on the “Sabbath” a day or two ago. I kept expecting him to say something like “I have been using the word ‘Sabbath’ for convenience, to pull together the Old Testament and the New Testament, but ‘the Lord’s Day’ is the New Testament designation, and there is not a one-on-one correlation with the Old Testament Sabbath,” but he never did.

    Finishing it, I got the sense that he wrote the book “knowing” there was a case to be made from Scripture, and thinking he had made the case, but in fact he had not done so.

    He made some good points. For instance, he pointed out that it is a false dispensational argument that something is only valid if it is mentioned in the New Testament (and, therefore, that the other nine commandments are still in force but this one isn’t). He made a so/so case for the Sabbath being a creation ordinance (like marriage) and thus predating the formal Ten Commandments . . . but completely failed to follow through with why we don’t, then, have the Sabbath and the Lord’s Day as two separate weekly days.

    The biggest part of his case seemed to be that Christ taught on the sabbath a lot and never taught that it is being done away with . . . but He also never said the day of the week is now about to change, so that isn’t really a good argument. It would have been a better argument if he were a Seventh-Day Adventist. He simply never made a case. He made a case for why we have a Lord’s Day today, but not for why that is the same as the Sabbath but just a different day of the week.

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  31. Lynn may have been around when I first started reading, but I wouldn’t have noticed, since I was learning how to read webpages. I was a latecomer to the blog, although it has been over seven years since I started to comment on World Mag Blog. I was first made aware of World Magazine through a Canadian-American family who attended the family church. Then, future Eldest in law, when he was courting, was a subscriber to the magazine and brought copies up for us to read. Somewhere along the line, I noticed they had a web address. I was just learning how to navigate the internet (ATI had deplored the advent of the internet and greatly discouraged its use, so I was well out of the program before I became comfortable with the idea of using the internet for anything other than email) and I thought that the World site would be a safe place to visit. I began visits to the site around the time I started in my first nursing program (2007/2008). The comments on the blog were at first bewildering, and it seemed a hostile environment. It took me a while to discover the Whirled Views page (don’t forget, I was still figuring out how to navigate a webpage). The conversations on there seemed a little friendlier and I started to realize that one could comment regularly. It took a long while of research to figure out about how to make an online personality, and another long while of overcoming my natural inhibitions about speaking to strangers. After setting myself very careful rules for protecting my identity, I finally jumped into the fray in the first months of 2011. So, I’ve been around for over seven years now.

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  34. My blog name changed between World and here because for some reason, when I went to sign up for a WordPress account to comment on this blog, WordPress said my old name was taken and it wouldn’t recognize the password I had used to sign in for World. I set up my new username using the same email address, and I could even use my old gravatar account, but the old username itself was forbidden me.

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  35. I found this blog around 2008, when I went online to order a subscription for my SIL for Father’s Day. I was looking around the site, and noticed “Water cooler chatter”. I read it almost daily for years before ever commenting. I, too, thank AJ for this forum. I enjoy following your lives: joys and sorrows.

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  36. I was thinking recently about the second of the Great Commandments, and how the commandment to ‘love thy neighbour’ was for all people, not just Christians. This short essay (from a Reformed perspective) compares and contrasts the Great Commandment with the Great Commission: https://corechristianity.com/resource-library/articles/how-the-church-gets-justice-wrong-and-how-to-begin-getting-it-right

    Social justice is not a conversation that anyone can opt out of: every day we are engaged in secular rituals that either support or threaten the good of our neighbor. Evangelicals score high marks for charity (giving what we do not owe), but, in comparison with other traditions, evangelicalism has lacked the depth of theological reflection on justice (giving what we do owe).

    Part of this is due to the tendency in the church’s history to separate the Great Commission given to her from the Great Commandment given to all human beings. Some culture warriors on the right have claimed recently that “social justice” is code for secular humanism. Its very mention should raise “Red” (i.e., Marxist) flags.

    Today, however, the pendulum is swinging in the other direction, toward collapsing the former into the latter, or the Great Commission into the Great Commandment. Both of these extremes exhibit a tendency to undervalue the distinct importance of both callings, as if everything that is worthwhile for Christian engagement must somehow be subsumed under the church’s commission and ministry. Both of these extremes separate the Great Commission from the Great Commandment…

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  37. On the more mundane: Workers somehow convinced city truck, which pulled up just after they arrived for the day, to take all the rest of the ‘stuff’ on the curb, as long as workers loaded it on themselves. So it’s all gone.

    Have to scoot down there today to get them paid for several days more work, let’s hope there’s enough left in the painting fund when I finally “get there.”

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  38. Well, they convinced the driver of the city truck.

    mumsee maybe you can add a number after your name to give it more gravitas. Like Mumsee I (the First — why isn’t there a proper Roman numeral on a keyboard?).

    We were reminded in last week’s sermon that the Lord’s Day is designed to be a blessing and a refreshment to us. It is something God has provided so that we can rest in and savor the commandments that come before it (and after it, for that matter).

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  39. Cheryl, it does not surprise me that the author of the book could not make a case for the Sabbath being replaced by the Lord’s Day. The Reformed position on the Lord’s Day being a replacement for the Sabbath is not the historical position of the Church, who from the earliest recognized the Sabbath as having been fulfilled in Christ. From Tertullian’s Answer to the Jews:

    It follows, accordingly, that, in so far as the abolition of carnal circumcision and of the old law is demonstrated as having been consummated at its specific times, so also the observance of the Sabbath is demonstrated to have been temporary.For the Jews say, that from the beginning God sanctified the seventh day, by resting on it from all His works which He made; and that thence it was, likewise, that Moses said to the People: “Remember the day of the sabbaths, to sanctify it: every servile work ye shall not do therein, except what pertaineth unto life.” Whence we (Christians) understand that we still more ought to observe a sabbath from all “servile work” always, and not only every seventh day, but through all time.
    And through this arises the question for us, what sabbath God willed us to keep? For the Scriptures point to a sabbath eternal and a sabbath temporal. For Isaiah the prophet says, “Your sabbaths my soul hateth;” and in another place he says, “My sabbaths ye have profaned.” Whence we discern that the temporal sabbath is human, and the eternal sabbath is accounted divine; concerning which He predicts through Isaiah: “And there shall be,” He says, “month after month, and day after day, and sabbath after sabbath; and all flesh shall come to adore in Jerusalem, saith the Lord;” which we understand to have been fulfilled in the times of Christ, when “all flesh”—that is, every nation—“came to adore in Jerusalem” God the Father, through Jesus Christ His Son, as was predicted through the prophet: “Behold, proselytes through me shall go unto Thee.” Thus, therefore, before this temporal sabbath, there was withal an eternal sabbath foreshown and foretold; just as before the carnal circumcision there was withal a spiritual circumcision foreshown. [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Ante-Nicene_Fathers/Volume_III/Apologetic/An_Answer_to_the_Jews/Of_the_Observance_of_the_Sabbath]

    Furthermore, if the Lord’s Day is viewed as being a replacement for the Sabbath, then it is quite clear from Paul’s warnings about attempting to follow the law that following the Lord’s Day as the Sabbath is being entangled again in the yoke of bondage. John Chrysostum on what observing the Law means, from his Homily on Galatians (2:17):

    For though few are now circumcised, yet, by fasting and observing the sabbath with the Jews, they equally exclude themselves from grace. If Christ avails not to those who are only circumcised, much more is peril to be feared where fasting and sabbatizing are observed, and thus two commandments of the Law are kept in the place of one. And this is aggravated by a consideration of time: for they so acted at first while the city and temple and other institutions yet existed; but these who with the punishment of the Jews, and the destruction of the city before their eyes, observe more precepts of the Law than the others did, what apology can they find for such observance, at the very time when the Jews themselves, in spite of their strong desire, cannot keep it?
    Thou hast put on Christ, thou hast become a member of the Lord, and been enrolled in the heavenly city, and dost thou still grovel in the Law? How is it possible for thee to obtain the kingdom? Listen to Paul’s words, that the observance of the Law overthrows the Gospel, and learn, if thou wilt, how this comes to pass, and tremble, and shun this pitfall. Wherefore dost thou keep the sabbath, and fast with the Jews? Is it that thou fearest the Law and abandonment of its letter? But thou wouldest not entertain this fear, didst thou not disparage faith as weak, and by itself powerless to save.
    A fear to omit the sabbath plainly shows that you fear the Law as still in force; and if the Law is needful, it is so as a whole, not in part, nor in one commandment only; and if as a whole, the righteousness which is by faith is little by little shut out. If thou keep the sabbath, why not also be circumcised? and if circumcised, why not also offer sacrifices? If the Law is to be observed, it must be observed as a whole, or not at all.[Link: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nicene_and_Post-Nicene_Fathers:_Series_I/Volume_XIII/On_Galatians_and_Ephesians/On_Galatians/Galatians_2:1,2%5D

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  40. Roscuro, I’ve always been curious about what your blog name means. Is there a story?

    I think I originally came on as Kevin, but there was another Kevin for awhile so I switched to Kevin B. For a short time I used my full name, then decided I didn’t want someone Googling my name to find everything I might say here. I try to be careful what I say but I might let something slip.

    I’m not worried about all you reasonable people, though.

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  41. Kevin, my first name, Phos, was the Greek word for light, and I took it to serve as a reminder to myself that I was always to be a light for Christ in my interactions with the non-Christians who were present on the World Blog, and thus to be very careful of what I said and how I said it. My second name, Roscuro, was a play off the idea of my first name. I do not know if you have ever heard of or read of the children’s story The Tale of Despereaux by Kate DiCamillo? In the book, there is a character, a rat, named Chiaroscuro, shortened to Roscuro, who desired to live in light, but who lives in darkness because of something he did – at the end of the book, he receives forgiveness. The word chiaroscuro, incidentally, is Italian, meaning light, chiara, and dark, oscuro, and is a term used in art referring to a painting technique where light and shadow are used to dramatic effect.

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  49. The bulb was out in the lantern. I couldn’t get the top off because I failed to see the little tiny washer that was holding the top on after I screwed the main top-knot off. It was dark when I was trying to do this, though.

    Anyway, my path again is lighted.

    The Times was recently bought by a ga-billionaire MD (very good for them compared to their old owners). But they’re moving out of their grand art deco building in downtown and into our area in the so-called South Bay. We’d so love to be be bought by this guy. I think a few folks have tried to contact him. We’d be cheap.

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  50. @5:13: Sometimes, you have to ask yourself, “Who in the world thought up that TV show? And what programmer thought it would be a good idea?!”

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  51. Oh, Roscuro, You wound me! I learned to program a VCR for that program. Adrian Paul is the ONLY man I have ever thought looked good with long hair!
    He usually ended up doing a good deed for someone. Of course that was 20+ years ago.

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  52. I began reading the blog when I moved over here in 05. I didn’t read daily, but enjoyed getting to know you all. Never even considered officially joining. Then I went on one day and you had disappeared. I emailed World about how sad I was and they gave me this address. So, I started lurking around here. Then one day I noticed that it looked like you could just comment, without registering. So I tried it. I was shocked when my comment posted. Then you all greeted me so warmly that I became part of a new family.

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  55. It was one of the editors, I forget the name. He did not give it to me at first, just referred me to the article where they had explained why they were closing the blog. When I replied and said that I understood, but that I felt like I was losing part of my family, then he told me that you all had continued at this address.

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  58. I like that you’re getting much needed moisture, NancyJill, but I sure wish our snow would melt. Our spring school trips start in less than 3 weeks and we still have about 3 feet of snow and, of course, the ice hasn’t even begun to melt off the lake. We may be doing some activity changes last minute if we don’t warm up soon. We’re consistently more than 10C below normal.

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  60. Do any of you remember when Joe Carter was the moderator? Oh, he would get so frustrated with some of the discussions, and tried to teach basic logic from time to time.

    I see him writing for a couple different sites that I read now and then. I think the Gospel Coalition is one of them.

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  66. Never saw Highlander (or heard of it). I just got in from watering the front and back, I was dismayed to see my front yard is already browning — just a few days ago it was bright green! The warmer weather is arriving and that’s deadly for lawns out here anymore.

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