Who is in Charge?

I have decided I am sick to death of reacting to everything I see on my laptop. Since I got rid of my TV after Cecil died I have the radio and the Internet from which to get my news. The final straw was yesterday, the Ides of March, when I clicked on this which was on Drudge. When I saw Gingrich's tweet with the word "dictatorship" in it I went into panic mode as usual. Okay, the article is about the U.S. relinquishing remaining control over the internet. How much did I know about it in the first place? Very little. How enlightened am I now that I've read the article? Um . . . . . not very. But Newt's tweet said this: “What is the global internet community that Obama wants to turn the internet over to? This risks foreign dictatorships defining the internet.” So I emailed the link to my best friend Eileen, whose son Nelson has a great mind, and is my go-to guy for issues such as this. She texted Nelson and told him to go into her email and find the link. Bless her heart, she doesn't email.

Anyway, this morning Nelson emailed me and said he thought it was good as opposed to bad. I am slightly reassured. But I'm still upset with husband Cecil for dying the way he did 3 1/2 years ago. It would be so easy to call into the next room "Honey, look at the article on Drudge about the U.S. relinquishing yada yada yada." He would click on the link, read it in about seven seconds and tell me what it really says. But I am so thankful to have Nelson to ask about these worrisome things. He's so patient.

Then a little voice inside my head asked, "Who is really in charge?" It's supposed to be a no-brainer. But we mortals have short memories. So I googled "God is in control" and got about 270,000,000 results. I brought up a page that lists 37 Bible references. I'm going to go through them and you can, also. Here's the link. It's a King James website but you can use your own translation. I use ESV because it's more accurate and I like the ease of reading, even though my church is King James only.

Which brings me to my next worrisome thing, and that is: IS THIS WINTER EVER GOING TO END?

Jan

The Winter Doldrums

Let's face it, it's been a bear of a winter. Housebound, although one of my favorite sports, is nevertheless a matter over which I would like to retain some control. But freezing rain, wind chill factors of minus anything, snow too high to allow me to open my door to go outside, and day after day where the temperature refuses to go above 32° get a little old. Couple that with a vehicle that refuses to start and the mechanic doesn't know why, and house bound is on the agenda. Yeah, I could sort old photos which date back to 1983, and get rid of some of the Colorado mountains and canyons, or the five thousand pictures of Alaska, or some of the board by board progress on the west deck and office/dressing room that Cecil designed and built I don't know how long ago. I could stack up all the furniture and call the carpet cleaner. I could get busy on the sequel to the book I published last year.

New Year, New Beginnings

Just realized I've not visited this blog since October. I guess I should either keep it going or delete it. And since it doesn't get read by anyone but me I can use it as a journal and say anything I want. I'd like to say I'll keep it up by writing a new entry every day in 2014. But I know myself well enough that it's not going to happen. So I'll go for maybe one or two a week. That's 104 in a year and that's a lot—for me. Cecil did one every day on Zion Beckons, right up until the end. He even apologized to his readers for having to take a day off for an angiogram, which never happened because his heart gave out the day before his appointment. I try not to think about the what-ifs. What if I'd made him go to the ER on Saturday even though it was a weekend? What if his doctor had sent him to the hospital on Monday even though the St. John's cardiac doctor said it wasn't necessary? What if St. John's had made the appointment for Wednesday instead of Thursday? Enough.

So here we are in 2014. The Washington DC criminal establishment is going to hell in a handbasket and taking the rest of the country along with it. That hasn't changed. Obama is still a narcissistic scumbag and we've got two more years of him. Harry Reid is still rearing his ugly head and the Republicans are still selling their souls to the liberal left. However, God is still in control and we know He wins.

My book is still languishing on Amazon which is no big surprise, since I've done almost no marketing.I should send postcards to the Southern Baptist churches I've printed off. Nothing happened with the Independent Fundamentals. We're a rather insular bunch and hate to add anything new to our agenda. Mark's Remarkable Summer probably doesn't measure up on some level.

Our pastor's wife, Ericka, inspired me on Christmas night. She played a beautiful rendition of What Child is This ? on the piano. I didn't even know she played. So I've downloaded a couple of songs and have started practicing on my ancient piano. I may not be able to play in church but that's what I'm aiming for. Maybe next month, considering lack of exposure and my arthritic hands. Oh well, it's good exercise for my fingers.

Happy New Year.

J

Blessings

Where but Fellowship Baptist can I drive home from church with a five-gallon bucket of mulch and a dozen eggs on the front seat, from two fellow members? Once home, to be able to make a salad with tomatoes and cucumbers from another member, and zucchini bread from another member's garden. I love my church.

I realize that's not all that church is about. But it's a huge part. We are commanded to love one another. And what better way to show our love but by giving. This has been demonstrated over and over by Christ Himself when He fed the crowds, or when He filled the nets of the fishermen, or healed the sick and made the blind see. And the most precious gift of all: when He gave His life so that we might live. 

Book on Amazon

At last my book is up on Amazon. Title is Mark's Remarkable Summer and it's been in the works for probably seven years. I wrote it under a different title back before the ice storm, for a hugely different audience. Rewrote it for Christian audience. I have fooled around with it probably since 2008. It's not too long so you won't fall asleep while reading it. It's about a teenager struggling with being a teenager, summer school, smoking dope just to fit in; and distracted by voices, apparitions, and the fact his love life is beyond resuscitation.

It's self published on Kindle and that was certainly a challenge. But now that I've done it I guess I can do it again with the sequel. I've known the characters for so many years they're almost a part of my family. Since the book is set in 1988 I'll probably do the sequences in 5-year increments.
j

Thoughts During a Five O'clock Thunderstorm

There's no way I can sleep through a thunderstorm at my house. I have two very sensitive doggies. Maggie, my 60# mixed breed, is slightly hard of hearing. But she's very attuned to sudden or loud noises. So thunder always gets her attention and she becomes my shadow. Early this morning she jumped on the bed and started licking my face. Wakes me up every time; I know where that tongue's been.

Gus, my 16-pounder, simply gets on top of me and stays there. Even with his Thunder Shirt, he is very afraid of the lightning, the thunder, and the noisy downpour. Right now he's on my lap.

I was thinking how dependent these creatures are. They immediately come to us when something isn't right in their world. They never try to "fix it" themselves. They know their master will make everything as right as possible up to and often including giving his life, if necessary.

Isn't that what God did? And even when we weren't looking to Him because we were too arrogant to think we needed anything outside of ourselves. Don't we oftentimes try to plan and implement the plan without even considering our Master, who wants only the best for us? The Bible passage that comes to mind is Proverbs 3-5, 6: Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lead not unto thine own understanding; in all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.

What continues to astonish me is that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8). I was wallowing around doing everything my way and Christ had already died. That knowledge brings me up short.

I need to have the faith of my doggies.

j

A Chaplain by any Other Name . . .

I stumbled across this article the other day. I can't seem to wrap my brain around a chaplain with no faith, whether it be Christian, Jewish, Islamic, Hindu, or anything else. The term "non-theism" linked with that name makes my teeth itch. I know several people who have served and are now serving in the military. I can't think of one who would be in favor of an atheist chaplain giving him or her spiritual comfort or any kind of comfort, for that matter.

So I looked up the word "chaplain" in Websters Dictionary, which is a pretty reliable source of information if you want to know the definition of a word. This is what it says:

Definition of CHAPLAIN

1: a clergyman in charge of a chapel

2: a clergyman officially attached to a branch of the military, to an institution, or to a family or court

3: a person chosen to conduct religious exercises (as at a meeting of a club or society)

4: a clergyman appointed to assist a bishop (as at a liturgical function)

— chap·lain·cy noun

 

 I realize atheism is considered a religion by some. But the Freedom From Religion group would probably disagree. So it seems to me the military might consider coming up with another, more fitting, moniker for this essential position .

j