Category Archives: Day to Day

Last Sunday we sang our tradition Christmas Hymns. I love these old songs and thought I would share them with you. As you listen to these hymns, please remember the reason for them. To give praise, honor and glory to Christ Jesus, our Savior, Lord and King. Merry Christmas!

Joy To The World

Hark The Herald Angels Sing

Angels We Have Heard On High

Good Christian Men Rejoice

We have much to be thankful for this year. Many might disagree with all that is going on, however, in James 1 vv. 2 and 3, we find advice from this Apostle to consider it all joy, my brothers and sisters, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. Do you find it hard when trouble finds you, to be joyful? Consider this story from Bestie ten Boom, sister to Corrie.
https://deeprootsathome.com/betsie-and-the-fleas/

I believe that faith is the issue here. As mentioned in my last Bible Study post, everything you have comes from above. This pearl of truth comes from John the Baptist in John 3:27. The ruling class of that day rejected that truth, just as our own ruling class has rejected it today. Solomon absolutely nailed it when he said there is nothing new under the sun. (Ecc 1:9) So, 2000 years later, or in the case of Solomon, almost 3000 years later, we as God’s creatures have not changed one bit. Still not wanting to believe or even be thankful to the One who has given us our daily bread. (Matthew 6:11) Our local Caesar has outright banned Thanksgiving this year, for anyone outside your home.

Saturday, Nov. 21 through Friday, Dec. 18, Executive Order 20-99 requires all Minnesotans to:

* Limit social gatherings to one household.
* Not gather outside of your household.
* Postpone all celebrations, events, receptions, and parties, including any social gatherings for weddings and funerals.

He doesn’t seem very thankful to me. As I said, faith is the issue. Do you have faith in Man or God? Much of this beleaguered land seems to have chosen poorly.

My daily reading of the scripture has brought me to Psalm 139. David, the author of this Psalm and a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14) says something that I think most of us have forgotten or have just plain rejected. I think it is the absolute key Psalm for what ails the nation. Everything that is wrong with this country could be fixed with understanding and belief in this Psalm. Read it and bolster your faith and trust in God and truly be thankful. His arms are indeed not too short. (Isaiah 59:1)

Psalm 139
1 Lord, You have searched me and known me.
2 You know when I sit down and when I get up;
You understand my thought from far away.
3 You scrutinize my path and my lying down,
And are acquainted with all my ways.
4 Even before there is a word on my tongue,
Behold, Lord, You know it all.
5 You have encircled me behind and in front,
And placed Your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
It is too high, I cannot comprehend it.

7 Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Or where can I flee from Your presence?
8 If I ascend to heaven, You are there;
If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there.
9 If I take up the wings of the dawn,
If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea,
10 Even there Your hand will lead me,
And Your right hand will take hold of me.
11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me,
And the light around me will be night,”
12 Even darkness is not dark to You,
And the night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are alike to You.

13 For You created my innermost parts;
You wove me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will give thanks to You, because I am awesomely and wonderfully made;
Wonderful are Your works,
And my soul knows it very well.
15 My frame was not hidden from You
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully formed in the depths of the earth;
16 Your eyes have seen my formless substance;
And in Your book were written
All the days that were ordained for me,
When as yet there was not one of them.

17 How precious also are Your thoughts for me, God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the sand.
When I awake, I am still with You.

19 If only You would put the wicked to death, God;
Leave me, you men of bloodshed.
20 For they speak against You wickedly,
And Your enemies take Your name in vain.
21 Do I not hate those who hate You, Lord?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
22 I hate them with the utmost hatred;
They have become my enemies.

23 Search me, God, and know my heart;
Put me to the test and know my anxious thoughts;
24 And see if there is any hurtful way in me,
And lead me in the everlasting way.

I received an email from my Sister in Law a few days ago. It was a rather poor quality audio recording of her granddaughter Rachel schooling her 3 sisters in the Trinity. I worked 2 days on cleaning up the audio and finally got it to the point of being able to understand what’s being said. In typical Rachel fashion, she’s got a pretty firm understanding of theology, for a 5 year old, and brooks no dissension from her siblings. Hyperbole and irony are used with reckless abandon. There are many adults with weaker understanding of the subject at hand.

And because it’s so darn cute, here’s Rachel a bit younger, singing the Doxology.

It was a beautiful day yesterday. 70 degrees and light wind, so I decided to take a stroll around town. The only fly in the punch bowl is my strolling capability has become less than desirable of late, so I used the drone to see the town. Took a whole 5 minutes from 300 feet up. Enjoy!

I was up early as is my usual habit. What is early you ask? Around 4:30am although of late 2:30am has been calling my name more often than not. When that happens, I come downstairs, fire up Grace Stream and let Johnny Mac lull me back to sleep with one of his 50 years of sermons. My wife thinks I am crazy because MacArthur gets a bit shouty at times, but I drift off anyway. 

Getting back to my story, I checked the weather forecast while sipping coffee and it looked good, real good. Along about 6:30am, after a rousing bowl of oatmeal, I glanced out the still dark window and went back to my computer, checking again at what time the sun rises. I started to get antsy and pace around; my pacing game has suffered a bit with the onset of ALS. I tend to shamble about instead of prancing smartly, from window to window, but it’s all good.

At 7am, I took the drone out of its travel pouch and got it set up. I am banned from the porch roof so the back step is now my launch pad. I sent the drone up and gave it orders to snap a photo every 15 seconds. Once it was at altitude, I went back in the house and sipped some more coffee. The drone can stay up there for about 30 minutes and that was good for one coffee and a chocolate bar my Mother in Law made. I stepped back outside and the sky was lit up and red.   

My Pi Camera was also doing its job. It gets everything from 0’dark thirty to sun up. Also got a shot of my drone coming back to earth. Looks like I missed a nice flush of color early, but that’s Ok, my ground team took care of that.

And since we are at peak color, I put a new battery in the drone and sent it up for a look at the town. Lots of nice color, but with all the wind we have been having, I don’t think it will last long. We’ve been blessed with a nice fall and remember to give thanks to the Father for all that you have.

The wind finally died down and I had seen the Harvest Moon rise last night through the trees to the East. My plan was to send the drone up 10 minutes or so before sunup and get images of them both by swinging the drone from East to West. Ah, the best laid plans of men quite often run awry of our Creator’s Will. Namely clouds in the West.But all was not lost. This is my favorite time of the year, the colors, the soft light, the absolute lack of mosquitoes buzzing in your face. A glorious time of year. I did get a few curious looks from High Schoolers who walk past our place on the way to school. They saw some old dude staring up into the sky and then periodically looking down at something he was holding, all the while waving around like some dandelion being buffeted by the wind, which there was none. Probably thought, “just another day in the neighborhood, this being 2020 and all.” From some of the teenagers I have encountered, I’m pretty sure I did not register on their internal radar at all. I pointed my drone to the East and waited for the sun to rise. And it did so with a beep, from my drone controller saying it was going to land the drone right now, cause the battery was doing it’s storage discharging thing, which it is not supposed to do when 200 feet in the sky. Smart machines being not so smart. I got some nice photos anyway. Enjoy

It’s been windy of late, noticeably windy according to the weather forecasters. Too windy to fly the drone for the most part. This morning was a beautiful sunrise, as captured by my Pi camera and that got me thinking about flying. I had to reposition the Pi camera several times last week due to it being moved around by the wind. And that got me thinking about not flying.

This afternoon, the sun peaked out for a bit and my caution over flying in the wind abated to the point that I dragged my drone from its resting place, blew the dust off it as it had been sitting around for several weeks and sent it up.

I went up to 141 feet in altitude and called it good enough. Did my traditional picture taking, and got caught in a shower that I knew was coming but had not paid any attention to while flying. Found out that my drone will come down like a somewhat buoyant rock when asked. These things are not waterproof but won’t melt when wet either. The leaves are coloring up nicely. That is something I like about living in Minnesota. Kansas leaves sort of yellow up and then turn brown. But then Kansas generally doesn’t get below zero and 100 inches of snow that lasts until late April.

Many things have changed in my life since being converted to a believer. My life as a dry branch was what I think most people experience. Frustrations of daily life, petty hate of people you disagree with. You do things, and wonder what compelled you to do such a thing. Short answer, satan.

John 15:6 If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are burned.

The bible is pretty clear on what happens with dry branches. Cast into the fire. This includes people that think they are “good.”

The bible is also crystal clear on who is good.

Luke 18:19 And Jesus said to him, Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.

But God wants none to be lost, and dry branches can be brought back to life. 

John 15:1 I am a true sprouting vine, and the farmer who tends the vine is my Father.

Really, you should read all of John. You’ll be better for it.

2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

And remember, if you are interested in God, God is interested in you.

My love of history and my new found willingness to obey God has led me to study early Christianity. 1st century Christians, those from 100AD to 200AD chose to follow and express their faith in something I see similar to our small Baptist church. Those early Christians would sing hymns and praises to start out their service and move on to fellowship and the breaking of bread. This is pretty much what we do, with the exception of not breaking bread every service. Yes, I have made mention of that, but tradition is strong, even outside the Catholic church, and they’re not willing to entertain communion every Sunday, yet.

And because of the mandate from our local Cesar, we cannot shake hands or greet each other, at all. And this is a very big change for us. It used to be all of 10 minutes of fellowship, hugs and smiles. New people coming to the church always were amazed at this. Sadly, we can’t now, but I am sure if we called it a protest of some current idiocy, we would be granted full access to each other. Crazy times.

Here is one of our favorite hymns that was used to close the service. Even if we are restricted in our lives, God is still good and it truly is well with our souls. Remember to read John, all of it.

Today’s sunrise.

And a lilac blossom from our huge lilac bush. I walked past and did a double take. Lilacs bloom in May not September. Another one of those small, almost unnoticed blessings from our Lord.

And since winter is edging toward us, I thought it would be a good time to fix our side door and primary entrance to our house. When we bought this place, the door had seen better days. The house was a rental for the last several years and lived in by, I can only assume, feral people. They had several cats and not much interest in changing the litter box. My dog wrinkled his nose when entering the house for the first time. 

I bought the same style door at our local big box outlet, but it was already November and too cold to replace the door frame with the new door. I slapped the new door into the old frame, with some difficulty but no blood and it has been that way until today. The Brother in Law came over and started on the project yesterday afternoon. We came to the conclusion at sundown that we needed to sleep on it and try again in the morning. Door frames can be that way most times, I have found.