Hubble’s Advanced Camera Suspends Operations
January 31, 2007
Here’s a link to the hubblesite.org news release about problems with the camera that has been amazing us with all those beautiful images from space. We may have to wait until 2013 for resumption of these photogaphic masterpieces.
HubbleSite - Telescope News: Advanced Camera for Surveys Suspends Operations
Dave, grieving.
Gas Thief Escapes on Tricycle
January 30, 2007
I’m not going to give away the story behind the post title. You can click on the link below to read all about it.
Photo in the News: Gas Thief Escapes on Tricycle
So now you know “the rest of the story.”
Dave, culturally inclined to find the story remarkable.
But I can spit
January 29, 2007
You may enjoy this little poem by Auden.
I have no gun but I can spit
Some thirty inches from my nose
The frontier of my Person goes,
And all the untilled air between
Is private pagus or demesne.
Stranger, unless with bedroom eyes
I beckon you to fraternize,
Beware of rudely crossing it:
I have no gun, but I can spit.
So back off, pardner!
Dave, feeling a little wierd this morning.
Colossians 2:16-19
January 27, 2007
2:16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you with respect to food or drink, or in the matter of a feast, new moon, or Sabbath days – 2:17 these are only the shadow of the things to come, but the reality is Christ! 2:18 Let no one who delights in humility and the worship of angels pass judgment on you. That person goes on at great lengths about what he has supposedly seen, but he is puffed up with empty notions by his fleshly mind. 2:19 He has not held fast to the head from whom the whole body, supported and knit together through its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.
Remember that Paul is still addressing Christian believers to warn them about paying attention to false teachers who try to foist their empty notions on them to make them feel quilty. Their defense, and ours, is to give all of our heart to Jesus and Him alone. The “inspired” religious observances of the false teachers are just shadows compared to the reality that is Christ. God give me wisdom to know the difference! -sdg-
She nailed it
January 26, 2007
Thanks to Peggy Noonan for nailing the truth of today’s political landscape.
“The Democrats have no idea what they stand for, the Republicans only remember what they stood for.”
And that is as close as I care to get to a political statement.
Dave, thinking, “A pox on both their houses.”
My Blessing era ends
January 22, 2007
I don’t much enjoy annual meetings as a rule, but today’s was an exception. For the last time in 24 years I represented a Blessing entity at the Annual Meeting of Members of Blessing Corporate Services, Inc. Presiding were Michael Foster as Chairman of the BCS Board of Directors, and Brad Billings, BCS President and CEO. The Blessing auditorium was packed wall-to-wall with representatives of a myriad of Blessing member organizations, as well as key staff.
The luncheon was very enjoyable, with good food and good company, and with all of the Blessing Family around me. I sat at table with Mike Klingner, Ted Niemann, Maureen Kahn, Peter Leffman, and Hal Oakley and had a chance to greet many other good friends from my years at Blessing. Another era of my life is ending on a glad note. Brad and Maureen have teamed to bring the Blessing Behemoth in good shape through another tough year, and I honor them for it.
Above is a brick from St. Mary’s Hospital, 1866-1993 with a photo of the entrance to the Maternity Building, built in 1929.
I think back to my first year as a trustee of the hospital, in 1983, unsure of myself and a little bit awed at being on the “board of presidents.” Those good people took me under their wing, and before I knew it I found myself in a leadership role during the acquisition of St. Mary’s Hospital, in 1993, and later as we tried to forge a closer relationship with the Quincy Medical group. At various times during my service to the hospital and Blessing Corporate Services, I was privileged to serve a few terms as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Blessing Hospital, ditto with the Blessing-Riemann College of Nursing and Blessing Foundation. Without a doubt, I received much more than I gave.
Dave, humbled (but it won’t last.)
Colossians 2:11-15
January 22, 2007
2:11 In him you also were circumcised – not, however, with a circumcision performed by human hands, but by the removal of the fleshly body, that is, through the circumcision done by Christ. 2:12 Having been buried with him in baptism, you also have been raised with him through your faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead. 2:13 And even though you were dead in your transgressions and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, he nevertheless made you alive with him, having forgiven all your transgressions. 2:14 He has destroyed what was against us, a certificate of indebtedness expressed in decrees opposed to us. He has taken it away by nailing it to the cross. 2:15 Disarming the rulers and authorities, he has made a public disgrace of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
The problem here for me is that I don’t feel very changed, even though I can point to specific changes in the way I think and the way I view the world and others around me. Nevertheless, this passage rings true to me, and I believe that “the rulers and authorities,” however they may manifest themselves, have no power to destroy me. -sdg-
Shiloh Farms Bakery
January 21, 2007
For at least thirty years, I have been sustained, body and soul, by two robust loaves of Shiloh Farms Sprouted Seven Grain Bread every week. Whether buttered toast for breakfast or peanut butter sandwich for lunch, that bread always convinced me that I was being truly nourished. No wimpy store bread for me, thank you.
If you doubt the robust part, consider that each slice weighs 1-1/2 Oz and provides 90 calories. Without butter. Two slices toasted with a glass of milk and a glass of juice was more than enough to kick-start my day.
Well, all good things must come to an end, and when I phoned in my last order, I was told that they were closing down but that I could order frozen loaves from a store in New York.
Here is part of the Shiloh farms story:
The Shiloh Farms Bakery was originally established by the Shiloh Community in upstate New York in the 1940’s. We have been making the finest all-natural sprouted breads and baked goods for over fifty years.
Our location here in the center of historic Sulphur Springs, Arkansas dates from 1968. At that time we moved lock, stock, and barrel to this peaceful 117 acre site amid the pastoral beauty of the Ozarks in Northwest Arkansas. Since then the Bakery has focused on natural, certified organic and chemical-free foods - natural sweeteners and oils, NO preservatives, NO synthetics.
The adjacent City Park, once part of the original property, contains four natural springs - yellow, white and black sulphur, plus a rare lithium spring. Attraction to the healing properties of these waters, plus the lure of local area caves, led to the town site’s layout in 1885 and its designation as the end-of-the-line terminal for the Kansas City Southern Railroad. With the first train arriving in 1891, the railroad soon developed more than a dozen local resort hotels, including the Livingston and Kihlberg which opened in 1909 and later sustained two major fires.
Prior to Shiloh, the original site and hotels were occupied successively by the John Brown Military Academy from 1924 to 1951, then by the Wycliff Bible Translators and Missionary Trainers. Shiloh expanded the complex with the additions of our commercial bakery, swimming pool, large educational-multi-purpose building, a number of separate individual family living quarters, and various other improvements.
Our Shiloh complex retains three nostalgic, restored turn-of-the-century buildings - the 30 room Livingston and the 100 room (originally) grand Kihlberg resort hotel, plus the 19 room Shiloh House Parsonage, which is recorded in the National Registry of historic landmarks.
So it’s the end of an era for the Shiloh Bakery folk and their customers.
Dave, which he is off to the HyVee bakery department to look for a substitute.
Fire and ice
January 18, 2007
My reading on this icy morning turned up this delightful verse:
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in Ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire,
But if I had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
— Robert Frost, Fire and Ice
Dave, resonating.
Colossians 2:6-10
January 15, 2007
Warnings Against the Adoption of False Philosophies
2:6 Therefore, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, 2:7 rooted and built up in him and firm in your faith just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 2:8 Be careful not to allow anyone to captivate you through an empty, deceitful philosophy that is according to human traditions and the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 2:9 For in him all the fullness of deity lives in bodily form, 2:10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head over every ruler and authority.
Thinking back on yesterday’s class, this warning may pinpoint a particular weakness of mine. We are studying the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Scriptures upon which it is based. Although no one that I am aware of is trying to “captivate me through an empty, deceitful philosophy,” I still find myself fascinated with the way the author of our study guide weaves in his own biases and prejudices, and I suspect that, as I expound on the lesson, I do the same. How can I avoid it?
Paul answers that question in vss. 6 and 7. Keep my life rooted and built up in Jesus Christ, a tall order when a bunch of ears are trained on what I have to say (silly people). But I know that it is my only hope, which is to forget myself and focus on God’s word in Scripture. -sdg-
