partsofspeaking

My teeth and mouth are quite different now, which is good, but the experience has been frustrating because of almost weekly breaks in the brackets, especially the lower ones.  They, and the wires, are broken now, but I can't get to the dentist til Wednesday.  GRRRR.  Would I do it again?  Thankfully, we can't redo the past  It is nice to have straight front teeth.

Hubby and I started watching the BBC program Land Girls on NetFlix, which lends itself to binge watching.  The show is the television equivalent of potato chips.  You can't watch just one, but it is as intellectually satisfying as chips are nutritional.  It's quite the soap opera, with cliff hangers, one-dimensional characters (especially the villains), artificial conflict, and problems and characters that go away when the plot no longer needs them.  The Americans are the particular bad guys, despite the historical proof that the Americans were pretty good to the British locals.  The story between the lord of the manor and the land girl with an Italian background was about stupid.  But I do like the scenery and periodness (although their clothes look way too good considering what the Brits had been through by then and the land girls hardly ever actually work), and I like some of the characters. A friend's mother, they found out later in life, was a land g...

I am no fan of Trump, but when a supposed moderator asks him in a supposedly real debate (i.e., public forum) if he is a cartoon villain character idea of a president . . . Shame on you, CNBC.

Today is celebrated as Reformation Day in some churches, and of course "A Mighty Fortress is Our God" will be sung, hopefully with an organ with all the stops pulled out.  To reflect on this (and because I am not in church this morning due to traveling), I will write a reflection/paraphrase of this great song, not because it is needed, but because it helps me and perhaps someone else see the deep doctrine of it.  A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing; Our helper He, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing: For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe; His craft and power are great, and, armed with cruel hate, On earth is not his equal. Our God is a mighty fortress, a never-failing defense. He is our helper through the flood of sin and death that seems to prevail in this world. Because Satan still seeks to do evil to us; His craft, power, and hate used against us are great,  and no human has the power that Satan does. Did we in our ow...

I am traveling today to a conference, and it will be combined with seeing family.  Enough said on this point.  But on the short flight to where I have a layover, I sat in front of a quintessential Southern woman.  I say that ironically, because there is no such thing, but she was loud, brassy, cursed a bit, and got along great with her seatmates.  I know she annoyed the other passengers on the packed-in flight, but other than the constant use of God's "name in vain," I found her amusing.  I learned all about her life, her boyfriend, her ex-husband, her job, her trip, her child.  So did the rest of the flight, I think.  She was sort of like Paula Deen in looks, voice, and personality (which shows I am not a fan). It occurred to me that God never called anyone to be a curmudgeon, which is easy to be at times.   

I am wading in and might get in trouble, but here goes. Joe Biden said he would not run for president today, and it was one of his finer moments.  For a man who has made a career out of goofy and embarrassing gaffes, he is coming across with gravitas since his son passed away.  I respect him more now.  We are at least spared the possibility of his running against Donald Trump. Then we find out today that the plurality of Republicans think Donald Trump will win the GOP nomination.  What is going on?  How can this narcissistic, egoistic, buffoonish,  sexist loud mouth have convinced that many conservatives that he should be their candidate for the leader of the free world?  Who are these people?  Can they not see this guy's propensity to spout off without knowledge, his inability to accept responsibility, and his crassness? Being against the "political class" is no excuse for stupidity.

Apparently some professor somewhere assigned a paper on group dynamics in Twelve Angry Men."  This blog is getting bombarded with hits for that article.  I hope these professors use Turnitin! If you come here, please buy my books: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Barbara+G.+Tucker and http://www.amazon.com/Unexpected-Christmas-Visitors-Barbara-Graham/dp/1475107471/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1445116531&sr=8-1&keywords=Barbara+Graham+Tucker My books are good.  Sorry, it's just true.  They are better than a lot of stuff out there.   This afternoon I went to the Goodlet Family Fall Festival in Rock Spring, GA.  Many thanks to Chris Jemison who got the local authors together, to the Goodlet family for doing this festival, which supports breast cancer research, and all the helpers. 

One holy apostolic church The church has historically had creeds or confessions that they repeat.   Baptists early on decided not to use them in their churches because, from what I understand, they seemed too much like state churches and they wanted to be people of the book rather than what they saw as manmade creeds.   However, Baptists have always been conscious of them and used them for doctrinal bases.   The two basic ones are the Apostles Creed, which is dated to 390 A.D.   We said this at First Pres but I had skipped “catholic” church and my husband skipped “descended into hell” because some Baptists don’t believe that (it’s complicated—he descended into Hades, not hell as it is now).   I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate,,was crucified, died and was buried; ...

Nothing is wasted. Nothing is wasted. In the hands of our Redeemer, Nothing is wasted. I have this song in my head.  In my first novel, I had the line, "Everything matters."  We think some things are wasted and that some things don't matter, but it is only our perspective.  Even more, no one is wasted, Everyone matters.

Discussion Point I.   Video, “I am a Christian But.   . . “   What do you think of this?   What positive things are being said?   What not-so-positive things?    In my mind, these young people do not understand the body of Christ.   Our passage today is I Corinthians 12:12-30 (12-20, 21-26, 27-30).   I will add Psalm 139 to the mix You have probably heard several sermons or read these passages many times before.   The issue is not so much what they mean but what do they mean for us personally and what are we going to do about them?   What one thing right now can we do differently to make the truth of “the body of Christ” meaningful and real in our lives, and what can we do long-term? Discussion Point II:   List all the parts of the body (organs, limbs, etc.) you can in the time allotted. Question 1:    Which part of the body could be eliminated and it have no effect on the rest ...

Someone posted on Facebook a meme that said, "The bravest person in America is the second person shot in Roseburg, Oregon, for saying he/she was a Christian." I don't know if that is supposed to be funny.  I think the first person was just as brave.  The enormity of this tragedy is unfathomable.  We used to talk about these things happening in Soviet Russia during the Cold War.  Now they happen in our country. We jump to the "too many guns" argument (of course there are too many guns, but we have a right to them, and Americans do everything excessively) and the "mental illness" argument.  We assume the shooter/killer was mentally ill.  Maybe he subscribed to a world view that made himself the center of the universe, the god whom he denied.  Maybe he planned this to accomplish a goal that seemed perfectly sane given his world view.  What makes a person mentally ill if he/she follows the logical dictates of his/her world view, his/her erroneous ...

I am going to make a bold statement here and say that all this talk of gray areas in the Christian life is nonsense.  It's not a Biblical concept.  Read the New Testament, people.  Dark and light; enemies of God or friends of God; sin or righteousness.  No gray area.  Oh, but what about?  You say.  What about them?  If they are right, do them.  If they are wrong, don't.  What makes a thing gray?  Sometimes it's a cultural matter:  what a person in one culture would consider sin a person in another culture wouldn't.  Well, what does the Word say about it?  Sometimes it's an individual matter--"I don't feel comfortable doing something" or "I don't want to offend anyone doing something."  Well, if you only keep from doing something to keep from offending someone, what injury comes from their offense?  The devil is in the details.  Let's take tattoos.  I don't get them, but are they wrong?  Th...

I greatly appreciate the musicians of Brainerd Baptist Church.  The hours they spend, especially in the orchestra, to accompany our worship, are well spent.  Today we sang this song from Casting Crowns: Just to know You and To make You known We lift Your name on High Shine like the sun make darkness run and hide We know we were made for so much more Than ordinary lives It's time for us to more than just survive We were made to thrive This is a good anthem, as long as we remember that we were made to thrive for God's glory, not our own self-fulfillment. One thing deeply missing in worship is corporate prayer.  Prayer is not for the ADD-afflicted, so it gets short shrift in modern worship.