thousand notes of Praise

Won't it be grand when the tributaries all come together in the River that makes glad the City of God

Leap brother

Birthday Greetings to my Leeetle Bro, Donald Louis Houser.  Not sure what the chicken-in-cheek means but beats tongue-in-cheek.  Always a good time!

Donald dodged the leap year by one ~ 1952 was a leap year.  He was born February 28, 1953.  The  leap year upside: You'd only be 14.5 years old.  The downside: You'd be acting like a perpetual teenager.

Happy Birthday Peter Pan, from your leeeetle seestah.

inexorable thirst

I've been on the rim of several conversions.  One of the Great Wonders of The World is following the zig zag trail from skepticism to surrender.  From lethargy to Light.  


Ofttimes pain is involved.  When the lights go out, travel toward The Light seems the only viable option.  But what intrigues me is the catalyst.  The tipping point.  The last-straw heartache that pushes the cry from deep within, "My Lord and God.  I need Thee."   


A year ago I hitched my string to the kite of a columnist on The American Thinker, Robin of Berkeley.  Robin's early life was spent in a secular Jewish family which practiced no faith other than the superstitious 'spit over your shoulder' crapshoot variety.  Against all odds, God's Invisible Hand steered Robin to a Christmas Eve service a year ago.  She describes the experience in this article:  http://www.robinofberkeley.com/2011/01/30/the-hungry-ghosts/

Robin is falling in love.  There's no turning back.  Once the water-alive has been tasted, nothing else will do.  

One of my favorite baby features is this fact:  They cannot manage their face.  Complete transparency. There is no hiding.  Childlike.  No pretending.  Games aside.  Their precious faces reflect guileless truth.  Isaiah Robert doesn't even know to pose yet.  Wonderful. 

His beautiful godmother, Laura, exudes pure love of godson.   

Kindle light-up

My first Kindle read was "Heaven is for Real."  I'm somewhat dubious about near death experiences but the credible tale of 4-year-old Colton Burpo had me lighting up the kindle into the wee hours.  Fascinating.  Highly recommend.

And thank you for the Kindle, cheri0

Every tribe and nation

Revelation 7:9-17

Elisabeth's wisdom

There is an Eternal Word which has been spoken. For thousands of years Christians have taken their stand on that Word, have driven into it all the stakes of their faith and hope, believing it to be a liberating Word, a saving Word. They have arranged their lives within its clear and bounded context.

sing sweet SD songbird

These color-dipped Baltimore Orioles sing their glorious song in spring.  In the midst of the last blast of winter, I'm hankerin' to hear one of these Bad Boy's songs. Soon

worth reading

When Teachers Strike: A Memoir  enlightening narrative from a mother who became teacher for a short season.
Mrs. Gunn's personal story offers a voice of reason in the midst of the Madison mayhem. Count me in. 


As a teacher, I serve at the pleasure of those who pay my salary. 'tis a sacrificial calling of service much like pastoring. All jobs worth doing require diligence and sacrifice.  But frankly, I'm tickled pink to have work that is both fulfilling and puts food on the table.  It seems arrogant to tout teachers as unusually sacrificial.  What worthy job does not require sacrifice?  


My trust will always land in the lap of the taxpayer not the union, local or national. Let us remember who we serve: Taxpaying men and women of goodwill and their children. Those folks have a dog in this race. As a gainfully employed teacher in Watertown School District, I serve the taxpayer. And ultimately I serve God who sees the hearts of all mankind.  

humor from the MidBorn

Context:  Danny Beth and I were talking about Kristi Noem's visibility since her election.  Folks recognize her so she has to be on her game every minute, so to speak.
****
Care:  "I love to be invisible." 
DB:  "Says the woman with the orange hair."  


I laughed myself under the table!  The orange table

Remembering Robert

Robert's ordination, August 1977, holding his niece, Emily.
I married this handsome man,  July 1, 1978.

You gotta love it when science discovers what's been known since the Bible's genesis.  "Man is immortal."  chazaaaaaam!!!  Thanx Time, who knew?!  We'll try not to mention that you're a bit behind-the-8-ball in your empirical observations, hypothesis and data-based research.  too funny

Tipping point

or the last straw.

For some reason, on several fronts, an inexorable return to Eternal Truth - both personal and political -seems to be on the horizon.  Is our great land reaching a Tipping Point where the weight of sin brings the collapse of 'business as usual.'  Spiritual renewal.  Purging!  Head in toilet after an ill-fated bender.  The proverbial Last Straw which brings the camel to his knees.

The Egyptian uprising now spreading like a good/bad virus throughout the volatile middle east portends change.

"Nations are in an uproar, kingdoms fall.
He lifts His voice, the earth melts."   Ps 46

Perhaps it's the Wisconsin fray between taxpayers - the folks who pay the tab and are to be served - and unions.  Or Everyman's increasing disgust with the Machiavellian deception of public 'servants.'  The fleecing of those they swore to serve.  Do we hear the rumblings of collapse from the skyscraper that dominates American culture: moral relativism?  I hope so but be careful what you pray, I say.  When will the tipping point turn for gross disregard of God's ways?  Ask Rome.  Or 100 other civilizations that forgot "Whose they were."  

I feel emboldened.  To stand.  To speak.  To swim against the cultural current.  For the children.  For the future when I'm gone from here to There and shouldn't care.  But I do.  I almost feel that I would die for truth.  For integrity.  For what God loves ~ righteousness, truth, goodness and venerable eternal veracity.  For in the end, Friends, only what God wills will stand.  The rest will fall like the blocks of a 2-year old.  Wheat vs. chaff.

Emboldened.  Are there enough Truth-Loving God-Noticers who are emboldened?  To tip the compass from south to North?  To toss the last straw?  Do you feel it in your chest?  Stirring, welling up like the last prayer of Jesus before His cross?

"Renew, Lord of love, the focus of Your children.  May we see You high and lifted up in contrast to our humble estate although we are, wonder of wonders,  cherished beyond knowing.  Be praised in all the earth.  Hear the cry for righteousness among those who bow the knee.  In short, Thy Kingdom Come, Thy will be done on earth as 'tis in Heaven.  amen and so be it"

ancient enduring Wisdom

Venerate C.S. Lewis writes, “I do not think that all who choose wrong roads perish; but their rescue consists in being put back on the right road. A wrong sum can be put right: but only by going back till you find the error and working afresh from that point, never by simply going on.”

"In The Great Divorce nearly all of the ghosts on the bus reject the opportunity they are given to make a new start. As the George MacDonald character explains, 'There is always something they prefer to joy.' This something always involves holding on to a false perception."

And this from one of his many commentators: "If making a new start begins with seeing the world rightly, Lewis would hold that seeing the world rightly begins with seeing ourselves rightly, something that Gumpas and most of the ghosts in The Great Divorce are either unable or unwilling to do.
Lewis argues that God 'whispers' to us in our pleasures, 'speaks' through our conscience, and, if these voices are not heeded, 'shouts' to us in our pains.

In fact, it could be argued that all of Lewis’s characters, in ways big and small, are continually called to journey 'further up and further in' their ways of seeing.

In Prince Caspian, the first comment Lucy makes when she finally meets Aslan is to declare that he seems to have grown bigger. However, as Aslan points out, he has not altered since their last encounter—it is Lucy’s perception that has changed. Aslan explains, 'Every year you grow, you will find me bigger.'

And the same can be said for us as well. Each time we grow in awareness—each time we come to see the world and our place in it more accurately—can be viewed as a new start, or, as Lewis writes at the close of The Last Battle, as a new chapter of that Great Story 'in which every chapter is better than the one before.'"

Governor Christie: People are Ready to Hear the Truth

I just miss my Girls

http://www.robinofberkeley.com/2011/02/15/berkeley-a-shining-city-on-the-hill/

Psalm of the day

"None of them that trust in me shall be desolate" Psalms 34:22

ah well

Someone ornery once said, "We end up with the face that we deserve."
Cheers!

harmonic but dissonant

Maybe that it would do me good 
If I believed there were a god 
Out in the starry firmament 
But as it is that's just a lie 

Mercy Friend, no wonder No love is guidin' thee.

annoying political habit

Giving you back what was always yours and expecting a thank-you for it. 

Moving morals: attachment disorder

In California architects create buildings that will roll with the punches.  They have to.  It's earthquake territory.  Ball bearings allow a structure under earthquake siege to roll with the pitch.  The ball bearings remind me of relativistic morals; both move with the stress or the sitch.


I first remember hearing about (sitch)uational ethics during my college years forty years ago.  That 60-70's evolving state of affairs did not worry me as much then as it does now.  Unfortunately for man, woman and beast situational ethics grew up to be moral relativism.  Moving Morals.  They shift.  Drift with the ebb and flow of trend and cultural group-think.  

Moving morals are currently the ball bearings of most decisions; political, professional, personal.  Decisions are made without ancient foundations that have served man under God for several millennium.  The Bedrock of Wisdom is now routinely ignored for the bed.  Every one does what feels right for them.  Moving Morals.  Collapse is inevitable.  Shifting sand does not a good foundation make.  Neither do ball bearings.

Recently a young student told me that she had a brother.  When I explained that her mother's boyfriend's brother's son was not her brother, the poor child was crestfallen.  A nation is as strong as its families.  America's family tree roots are shallow.  All the shift and roil and drift has taken an immeasurable toll.  Some children no longer know to whom they are attached.  Mother, father, sister, brother.  Attachment disorder.

Fluid ball bearings might be helpful in preventing the collapse of buildings.  But moving morals will cause collapse in lives and neighborhoods and cities and states and nations.  "Build on the Rock, not the sand." 'Tis a bedrock truth.  You can stand on it. 


The irony is that although the rolling bearings save some buildings, others fall in a heap.  The foundation - when the dust settles - ends up having the last word.  

"O God, help me to build on The Rock that cannot be moved.  Children are watching, for goodness sakes."

Contented cows produce

Happy cows make more milk!  (Not to be confused with "Why buy the dat-burn cow when the milk is free?")

A seed dream just hit me after visiting with the MidBorn about her week in Washington: I'd make an excellent business consultant.  (Cocky, yes!  sorry)  This may not happen a week from Thursday in Real Time but perhaps in the sweet by and bye.  After all, we will have jobs in Eternity.  Substantial Kingdom jobs that perpetuate goodness in thoroughgoing  partnership with the will of The King.  O hasten the day, I say.  Maybe this earth dream will come to happy fruition later.  Much later

Back to earth:  Keeping in mind that production is directly related to happy workers, wouldn't it be fun to offer wise counsel on the interface between fulfilled employees and the bottom line production of companies?  "What makes people tick?" is knee-jerk intuitive for me.  (Not to say the occasional jerked knee has never caused pain.  That doubtless has happened.  If you, Dear Reader, nurse a bruise, please forgive.)  But using intuitive skills to help companies bridge the gap between frustrated worker bees and the drones above could be fun.  If one didn't get stung.

My new company's name:  Fly on the Wall.  Observation would be the first order of business in the marketplace.   Target:   Match passion with position.  Folks soar when they are getting to do what they were created to do.  For God's glory and man's delight.   A winning combo to be sure.

How do teenagers get pregnant?

Snow sweet Snow

Good Neighbor - Lar Bear - snapped the homefront

Elisabeth Elliot's Daily Devotional


Title: No Love Without Grief

Author: Elisabeth Elliot

Tell us, fool, who knows more of love--the one who has joys from it or the one who has trials and griefs? He answered: There cannot be any knowledge of love without both of them.

(Ramon Lull, The Book of the Lover and the Beloved)

When I imagine that I want to learn to love God--and to love my husband and others whom God has given me to love--let me test the desire of my willingness to accept trial and grief. If I can welcome them--Yes, Lord!--and believe God's purpose in them, I am learning the lesson of love. If I cannot, it's a fair indication that my desire to love is a delusion.

Daily devotions courtesy of Devotions.org, a ministry of Back to the Bible.

Copyright 2008, Elisabeth Elliot
All rights reserved

Wholesomeness.  Sometimes I tangibly ache for it.  

Notable quote

"Mr. New Castrati, if they can force us to buy health insurance, they can force us to buy broccoli. Once you get this in your head that they can force us to buy health insurance, what's to stop them from making us buy a stupid electric car?"   Rush
(Who the heck is Mr. Castrati?)

just for the record:  My dad would've loved Rush