Something I wrote in my journal the other day. Seems like it would fit here in this subforum.

Quote:May the waters spill as they glorify You.
May the stones crack and crumble as they praise You.
May the skies rend like threadbare garments as they honor You.
May the galaxies spin and spend their flames as they bow down to You.
May the cosmos return to the impenetrable chaos of the dark depths at the sound of Your command.

A pair of photos I took yesterday morning.

We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

Hi all.  I am still down near the coast.

Today I am taking a break. My ribs are hurting pretty badly so I need to rest. Tomorrow (Sunday), I will go with his wife to the funeral home as she starts making the arrangements. There is a lot to do this week with his "stuff", courthouse, bank etc.,  and I will stay so I can help. He doesn't have a will, so that could be a problem.  

 Mom in-law arrives here at midnight on Monday.  I will have to return home on Friday as she flies out of RDU Airport that evening.  I live about 30ish miles from that airport.  The three of us, hopefully, can get a lot done before the week's up.

It was very hard for us last night, watching Bryce take his last breaths. I've been with other people when they passed away. It's always a difficult thing.  I am trying not to dwell on it because things turned out the way they were meant to.  He was a very, very sick man and would never have made it back home had he survived this last round.

Anyway just thought I would check in.

Love you all and thank you for your prayers.

Paul's letter to Philippi was largely a personal note. The church had sent Epaphroditus to Paul in his Roman house arrest during the first trial with a gift and asking after his welfare. While he was there, Epaphroditus got sick and nearly died. His home church got wind of this and were very concerned, and sent yet another courier to check on his condition and to deliver another message to Paul. This letter went back with both that second courier and Epaphroditus. The letter is mostly personal, and we sense that Paul is about to be released.

So, the first chapter is predictably personal in nature, as is most of the next. However, early in chapter 2 Paul says something that stands firmly in the purpose of this study to show the continuity between the Old and New Testaments, verses 5-11.

He advises the folks in Philippi to embrace the mind of Christ. This is quite possible for one very good reason: Jesus knew He was the Son of God, but He set aside all of His divine privileges. Instead, the life He lived was as a human. All of His miracles were built into the Covenant, not His Person. A major element of all that He did was to demonstrate what came in the same package as faithfulness to divine revelation. He was restoring the full power of the Covenant of Moses before He closed it out.

He was willing to face the fate of all humanity. Moreover, He faced what was in that day the worst fate a human could encounter, the most gruesome execution known. And more to the point, He faced it with the burden of all our sins, for He had none of His own.

This was such a high victory that His Father granted Him authority over every power in Heaven and Earth. The Devil and the Elohim Council were subjected to Jesus, who had become the ultimate advocate for humanity against the agenda of the Devil and his allies in the Spirit Realm. They were compelled to declare their allegiance to Him.

The question of whether any other being warranted glory was answered: It all belongs to Jehovah, the Creator of all things.

There is no more doctrine in this letter.

We had a conference call with the attending physician at the hospital where Bryce is.  They were going to transfer him to a LTACH (long term acute care hospital), but she said that his prognosis as of right now is three months and that would simply be him laying in the bed, in pain, struggling to breathe.  His stats are way off. 

So, we three ladies discussed between us and decided it is time to "let him go".  His wife wants to wait until we are all there, but that's too long to wait for his sake.

I am going to try to get down there tomorrow or Saturday.  I popped out two ribs and it is very painful and was going to schedule PT for next week, but that will have to wait.

Hopefully we can get him "unhooked" over the weekend and he will die peacefully.  His step-mom plans to come on Monday from Michigan.  She has a really bad cold.

Anyway, I will keep you posted as good as I can.

Love you all

Thought I would pose this question to my fellow believers here, in case any of you have experienced this in the past.

Anyone ever gone through the trouble of attaining a "medallion guarantee" stamp for financial documents? Usually they are for transfers of funds...something like an approval from a notary public, but at a higher level. Usually only banks or other financial institution can do them. Without going into details, I've been having trouble getting a document stamped. Reading some things online, they are sometimes given out "at the pleasure" of the institution, depending on the manager and probably other things I'm not aware of. Weird situation to be in the middle of.

We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

The whole point of this two-volume series is to highlight the continuity between the Old and New Testaments. One thing we notice is that the ritual conduct under Moses was far more stringent than the broader code of conduct. This is reversed in the New Testament. Ritual purity is not gone, just reduced to generalizations. Instead, the purity of heart is the emphasis, and thus, any code of conduct is structured quite differently. Insofar as there is a Christian Law, it is more strenuous, but is essentially a matter of asserting privilege to live above sin, not wallowing in restrictions.

These final two chapters of the Ephesian letter are mostly exhortation that sounds very much like a summary of Christian Law. The life of privilege looks like this. Walk worthy of Election. Insofar as there is doctrine to extract, that would be it.

Of particular interest is the strong statement about a Christian household, which runs over into the final chapter. The patriarchy is rooted in God's revelation of Himself as a Father figure who also happens to be Creator and Lord. The way that Christ handled His own Body is how a man deals with his wife. His wife is his greatest, most valuable treasure on earth, but she is not a deity. He is worthy of her submission because of willingness to sacrifice for her.

The issue with children is very firmly rooted in Moses. It bears no resemblance at all to American society in which youth and childhood are sacred. Also, there is a very strong parallel between fathers/children and masters/slaves. It's a two-sided sword; being a Christian means it's not a one-way relationship.

But a softening of ritual does not mean absence. If there is anything I might highly recommend believers today should turn into a ritual, it is the "Armor of God" passage. It should not be something that turns into a trademark that everyone shares everywhere. Rather, believers should prayerfully consider making it song, or a prayer ritual that guides our awareness, particularly in times of difficulty when you know the Enemy is attacking.

The courier who brought this letter was Tychicus, someone who had spent time with Paul in his Roman custody. In those days, a private courier was the only way correspondence could travel. It was for sure this courier would then return to Paul with whatever response the churches offered.

We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.