Latin (tem-pu̇s-ˈfü-git): Time Flies
Our hope is in a Person, not in an event.
So though we might experience disappointment and setbacks, our hope is not defined by that, but by the word of God. Hope can be a quiet confidence, while we are waiting, while we take one step after another.
“I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope.”
Psalms 130:5 NIV
https://www.bible.com/bible/111/psa.130.5.niv
This is the problem child. He came to our house for Christmas in 2019 and was perfectly well behaved. This year it seems he’s in a “terrible twos” phase.
Shortly after taking up residence along side our front door we found him down on the ground propped up along side the car!
The fine wire that I used to hang him up and to be virtually invisible had broken. It seems that in a strong south wind he gets a little excited and flys around banging against the house. Being a little slow, me not him, I re-hung him using the same wire but with a new safety improvement. I attached his power cord to a screw that hold the facia on. This way if he slips off his perch at least he wouldn’t hit the ground, or so I thought.
The other night both Shirley and I were woken up at 4 a.m. by our problem child banging around in the wind. As I stood at the front window he decided he’d had enough and jumped off the house. Sure enough the safety system worked and he was now dangling around suspended from the edge of the roof. Well, I couldn’t just leave him there so I got dressed and headed out to rescue him.
However, in the 2-3 minutes it took me to get out there he’d completed his escape and was lying on the ground in the flower bed. Not only that but he took some of his friends with him! A section of aluminium facia was also on the ground with him and about 20′ of Christmas lights were also ripped from the roof and flapping around in the breeze. Well, at 4 a.m. it’s still dark and things couldn’t get much worse so I left him there until after sunrise.
At 9 a.m. I’m out there with a new plan to rescue the boy. The facia is hammered back into it’s original shape without looking too much the worse for wear and easily re-attached. A new 1/16″ stainless steel cable is used to secure him from above and a 150lb test line is used to secure him from below, hopefully to eliminate the flapping around in a breeze. Christmas lights are re-positioned and everything is re-connected and it seems all good.
But we’re not done yet! This morning he’s banging around again! Pretty sure he can’t jump off the wall this time but the string holding him down has some slack in it now allowing the flapping around. So, I teach my self the Trucker’s Hitch knot, the gold standard in securing a load and keeping the string tight. So far, so good.
Every morning in this advent season when I come to reading this devotion just looking at the title image brings me joy.
It just resonates on so many levels. Historically, the coming of king Jesus as a baby, presently as the king comes to people who accept him, and prophetically as the future second coming of Jesus. All of these are so exciting. And, if I’m not alive to see the second coming, king Jesus will come to meet me when I die. Either way, what a day that will be.
OK, so I’m a bit of an Apple fan, not quite a fan boy, but up there.
With the latest iOS and the ability for widgets on the Home Screen I did some playing around and settled on this Apple widget at the top of my screen.
By default it shows my 6 things in a sort of random, but also some what intelligent way.
First thing in the morning I get a display about what apps I might want to launch, scarily predicting what I might like to do based on past usage. Then the weather, generally useful, the calendar for the day with the next 1-2 events, again useful. Top Apple News stories which is OK but I have not yet succumbed to subscribing. A Map, a bit of a mystery for me and not yet useful. And then there is the best of all!
It’s the photo! Generally, some combination of Grandkids like today’s where we were going to the 2019 Santa Claus parade with all of them together, which is a bit of a rare event to go somewhere all together with just Shirley and I. As I recall it was like hearing cats, but a lot of fun.
If it’s not Grandkids it’s some other photo that Apple has figured out as a “Featured Photo”. Not sure how they do that. Some of them I’ve flagged as “liked” other are well… just photos that show up.
Always brings a smile to my face and an extra bit of happiness to my day.
Pulled this from a Rick Warren devotional that really spoke to me today. I had this revelation about a week ago regarding Jesus as The Truth, so today this just drove it home more.
We know God’s Truth: Jesus Christ
Truth is not a principle. Truth is a person; truth is Jesus Christ.
One of the clearest and best-known statements by Jesus is: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6 NLT)
Notice Jesus says, “I am the truth .” He doesn’t say truth is a religion, or a ritual, or a set of rules and regulations. He says “I.” Truth is a person.
This is what separates Jesus Christ from every other leader of every other faith. Other leaders have said, “I’m looking for the truth” or “I’m teaching the truth” or “I point to the truth” or “I’m a prophet of truth.” Jesus comes and says, “I am the truth.”
A lot of people say, “I think Jesus was just a great teacher.” But he couldn’t be just that: No great teacher would claim to be God if he wasn’t. Either Jesus is conning 2.3 billion people who believe a lie, or he was nuts, or Jesus is who he said he was.
Everybody’s betting their life on something. I’m betting my life that Jesus is who he said he was.
Rick Warren’s Daily Devotional on Youversion – Day 288
Forget about the presents needing to be wrapped and…
focus instead on being present in each moment.
Take time to celebrate God in the process. He is at work this Christmas season. Don’t wait until December 25 to notice.
Really liking this devotional on Youversion. Every time I see the title “The King is Coming” I get a bit more excited about the season and the 2nd coming.
Somewhere along the line in my meditation journey I discovered encounter, “A daily podcast of sacred and mindful meditations to help you encounter the divine presence of God throughout your day.”
I usually end my devotional readings listening to the meditation of the day. These meditations are almost always synchronized to the “Verse of the Day” from the youversion app that I use for my devotional readings.
On Tuesday (2020/11/17), Romans 8:6 (NASB) was the verse of the day. “For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace”. This particular translation has “the mind set on the flesh” and I has this thought. I know this isn’t totally accurate and for sure way to literal perhaps but I had the thought anyway and it helped me. My focusing or thinking about (“and set on”) the cancer, the tumour, the treatments etc. is “death” but if I set my mind on the Holy Spirit it is “life and peace“. This probably only makes sense to me but who knows. Anyway, for sure the meditation is worth a listen.
I’ve been a geocacher for a few years, since 2004, and been sporadically active over the years. Last year I introduced my Grandkids to geocaching and it was a pretty big success. A lot of it was probably due to the first cache we found which was loaded with toys! They could hardly believe they could find these things and then just take stuff. This was tempered a bit when I explained that you should also leave something and it was more about the hunting than the scoring some new trinkets.
During 2019 I got the idea to create a cache for each one of them. We launched The Parker and then kind of let things slide a bit. Earlier this year I pulled together the other three with the idea of hiding them with each of the Grandkids. Well, that wasn’t working out too well as on hot summer days when they were at the lake nobody really wanted to leave the dock to wander around in the bush.
So, I recently hid them myself and hopefully we can “find” each of them together with the grandkids in the near future.
The Geocaches
The corresponding Travel Bug trackables
www.bible.com/reading-plans/135/day/288
www.bible.com/116/isa.41.10.nlt