partsofspeaking

Netflix has changed its design and now gives you a percentage match, I suppose based on what you have watched before.  Here are some interesting ones: Twilight:  85% Archer:  95% Escorts:  73% I think there is something wrong with their algorithm. I despise and never watch Vampire movies in any shape or form.  I avoid adult cartoons with a passion.  And escorts?  Are you serious? And this is my 1700th post over 11 years.  It will be a while before I can focus on this blog again; I am taking a hiatus to finish the semester and get some control in my life.  I will come back with a fury, in the late spring.  So I'll post some fun photos.  

When I survey the wondrous cross, on which the Prince of Glory died, my riches gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride. Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast, save in the death of Christ my God.  All the vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to thy blood. Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small.  Love so amazing, so divine, demands my life, my soul, my all.  I was blessed today to attend a Good Friday service at my church at noon; the pastor, Micah Fries, preached the cross to our edification, our emotional uplift, our encouragement.  Focus on Isaiah 53:3-6: 3. He is despised and rejected by men, A Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him. 4  Surely He has borne our griefs And carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted. 5  But He was wounded for our transgress...

I finally had the time to take two or three hours off to see this film.  I had hesitated because life has been too full, because of the "gay" controversy, and because I don't like to support Disney unless there is a really good reason.  I came across another reason yesterday;  I paid 8.50 to see it at a matinee.  Ridiculous.  It will be a while before I do that again.  I like the experience of a big screen, darkened theater, even the trailers, but not that much. I went because the animated version in the early '90s is my favorite Disney cartoon by far and because I saw  a traveling Broadway version a few years ago at the Memorial Auditorium in Chattanooga and because the Jean Renoir version from the '40s is spectacular.  I have a special fondness for the story. After seeing the '90s cartoon version, I was pleased that this was a Disney product that did not have the message "believe in yourself" but "give of yourself for the good of others....

Another Isis Attack

--> I am approaching this lesson from Matthew 4 as an interactive one.  Here is the sheet I am using.  There are three accounts of this incident in Jesus’ life.    Matthew 4:1-11 Mark 1:12-13 Luke 4:1-13 They have similarities and differences. What are the differences on the surface?   Matthew and Luke have a different order Some slight wording and detail differences Mark does not include the temptations, but mentions the wild beasts.   Matthew 4:1-11 : Answer these questions with a partner. Satan first tempts Jesus to _____________________________________________.   This is a temptation about The body            Possessions       To test God’s word     Taking power Satan then tempts Jesus to _______________________________________________________, This is a temptation to Fulfill his own desires  ...

At this point Jesus is using parables and Matthew says it is to fulfill a prophecy in the Psalms. While God reveals truth, he doesn’t reveal it on our terms. That is a core theological truth, I am afraid. The Great Commission does not seek to please or make acceptance easy for the audience a al times. “I will utter things kept secret from the foundation of the world.”   We moderns may think we are smart enough to figure these out, but just because Jesus utters them (in parables or directly) doesn’t mean they are automatically understood. He does explain two of them to the disciples in private, and thus for us; the multitude would thus hear it later, after the cross.    I am absorbed in the method as well as the message.   We are told to use stories to communicate like Jesus did, but his stories or object lessons were not always crystal clear.   Other times they were.   The ones about the birds in the trees and the leaven perplex me. ...