Posts
I appreciate the focus this week has brought to the final days of Christ's ministry on earth. I thought I would share just a two things in brief of what I've been thinking about.
Even as His death approached, Jesus, the God of the Universe, grabbed a towel and washed His disciples' feet. A servant is not greater than his master. If Jesus can be a humble servant, how is it that I find so much room in my life for my own ego? Do I think I am better than my Lord? With humility of mind consider others better than yourselves.
It is finished. O death, where is your victory? Jesus rose again, and death no longer has any sway over us. We who believe in Him, even though we die, yet shall we live. And we will be like Him, for we will see Him face to face. What a promise, what a hope!
Praise the Lord! Bless His name, all you saints!
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Wednesday Sundries
I tweeted yesterday about having so many things to blog about that I can't pick any and thus don't blog. I'm going to use the few minutes I have this morning to just get some of it out, so there may be little logical flow to this post. Consider yourself warned.
I am blogging this morning from work because Dan's car is stalling with some frequency these days and he hasn't had a chance to get it fixed yet, so I'm taking him to work in the morning, grabbing breakfast, then coming to work. He gets to stay here until 6, so it's a bit of a fair trade. It does give me some free time, and as I don't have several days of e-mail to catch up on today, I can blog.
I'd love to post pictures of Puerto Rico, but I don't have my laptop with me, so those will have to wait. Keep asking, I'll throw a few up :). The trip was fantastic. Everything was done well for us from start to finish. We had every meal provided for us from the time we arrived at the resort on Sunday at lunch time through breakfast Thursday morning, when the program officially ended. I won't expound on these much, but if anything sounds interesting, I can tell you more about it later.
As we were preparing to leave the hotel in Puerto Rico on Friday, a gunman entered the Binghamton American Civic Association and killed 13 people. That building was on the same block that I lived on when I first moved to Binghamton. My insurance agent is right across the street from it. Although I now live a few miles down the road, that hit close to home. One of the people killed was a professor at the university I attended for graduate school. The university is doing a memorial service and has asked that the planning group put together a service, blank check on doing whatever kind of service the family would like. Half of the family is Buddhist, the other half are Christians. This is a state university, and one of the people on this planning committee happens to be on the worship team at my church. We don't know what they'll want yet, as the family is coming in from China, but this may be an unprecedented open door for the gospel. This weekend our church had 200 more people in attendance than they have ever had for a "regular" weekend service. People come to church in a time of crisis and they come to church around holidays. We have both right now, so we might see a great opportunity to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ with a lot of people who might not otherwise come to church. God is at work in the midst of tragedy.
Lucy has had bows in her hair for over 3 weeks, since she was groomed last month. Usually it takes her less than a day to get the first one out and then a week or so to get the second one out. This time she still has both. I think they're way too cute to take out, so she can keep them! I took her to Dan's mom's house on Saturday and she behaved herself very well. She walked over to where the cat was sleeping, sniffed a few inches away from it, then walked away. She was friendly with everyone, too. She really is a sweet little dog!
I think it was Tim who shared a blog post about Omegle.com. It's an online chat service where you talk to random strangers. I haven't tried it, but I find the concept intriguing. I might have to try it.
I was thinking this morning about how a pregnant woman was treated while we were in Puerto Rico. One of the days was set aside for "beach olympics". It was a combination of activities that we did in teams. There was a young woman on the team who is due in July. She was given tasks that required much less physical activity than what most of the rest of us did. Was this just consideration for her alone or for her child as well? If it was for both of them, does that not reveal an underlying respect for the life of the unborn baby? Is that baby's life only valuable in their eyes because the mother wants it? How arrogant are we that we think our own feelings somehow change whose life is valuable and whose life is disposable?
I am blogging this morning from work because Dan's car is stalling with some frequency these days and he hasn't had a chance to get it fixed yet, so I'm taking him to work in the morning, grabbing breakfast, then coming to work. He gets to stay here until 6, so it's a bit of a fair trade. It does give me some free time, and as I don't have several days of e-mail to catch up on today, I can blog.
I'd love to post pictures of Puerto Rico, but I don't have my laptop with me, so those will have to wait. Keep asking, I'll throw a few up :). The trip was fantastic. Everything was done well for us from start to finish. We had every meal provided for us from the time we arrived at the resort on Sunday at lunch time through breakfast Thursday morning, when the program officially ended. I won't expound on these much, but if anything sounds interesting, I can tell you more about it later.
- The weather remained nice the whole time. There was a little bit of rain, but it did not persist. It never got cool enough that I felt I needed a sweater (I did put one on in the ballroom where we had our final banquet, I confess). It did get hot and humid, but there was usually a good wind, so that helped keep things more comfortable.
- Someone had a seizure just a few feet from where I was sitting at dinner the first night. He spent some time in the hospital but is doing just fine. One of the other guests was a first responder and came over immediately to help out. He was honored later in the week for it. It was obvious to me that a number of people in the room were trained in first aid and CPR - it's something that the company paid for me to do, although my certification is expired now.
- The food was fabulous. I think I gained weight. All meals were buffet except for the boxed lunch we took to Old San Juan and the final banquet. They fed us a combination of more local fare and typical "American" food. I really preferred the less American stuff. I didn't go to Puerto Rico to eat hamburgers, folks! The banquet food was filet mignon that melted in my mouth, lobster tail, salad, and a plate with three small, rich desserts. The last night we were there was no longer on TWC's nickel, so we went to the Italian restaurant in the hotel. I had the most amazing butternut squash ravioli there. I'm not sure when I have ever been so sure that I picked the right thing off of a menu as I was that night!
- Service was exceptional from start to finish. Our luggage was delivered to our room and the hotel staff were all friendly and helpful. I asked an employee where a specific room was and I didn't get directions from him. I got an escort instead. That really impressed me! The restaurant staff were also attentive but not intrusive and really seemed to care about making sure we were happy with everything. I know that place is expensive, but I think it might just be worth it.
- Puerto Rico is beautiful. Pictures will prove this. The water was gorgeous, the rainforest was so raw and green, Old San Juan had a hint of Old World charm. It is an interesting place. It has definite Latin American features - bars on windows, stray dogs, cats and chickens, once-bright paint on the buildings. In the midst of all that are big shopping malls and outlet centers and WalMart. It's Americanized yet still foreign.
- We went to one of the forts in Old San Juan. It was very interesting, complete with barracks and a dungeon. It was for defense against a naval attack, so it was situated right on the coast. Its height provided wonderful views of the coast and the older part of the city.
As we were preparing to leave the hotel in Puerto Rico on Friday, a gunman entered the Binghamton American Civic Association and killed 13 people. That building was on the same block that I lived on when I first moved to Binghamton. My insurance agent is right across the street from it. Although I now live a few miles down the road, that hit close to home. One of the people killed was a professor at the university I attended for graduate school. The university is doing a memorial service and has asked that the planning group put together a service, blank check on doing whatever kind of service the family would like. Half of the family is Buddhist, the other half are Christians. This is a state university, and one of the people on this planning committee happens to be on the worship team at my church. We don't know what they'll want yet, as the family is coming in from China, but this may be an unprecedented open door for the gospel. This weekend our church had 200 more people in attendance than they have ever had for a "regular" weekend service. People come to church in a time of crisis and they come to church around holidays. We have both right now, so we might see a great opportunity to celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ with a lot of people who might not otherwise come to church. God is at work in the midst of tragedy.
Lucy has had bows in her hair for over 3 weeks, since she was groomed last month. Usually it takes her less than a day to get the first one out and then a week or so to get the second one out. This time she still has both. I think they're way too cute to take out, so she can keep them! I took her to Dan's mom's house on Saturday and she behaved herself very well. She walked over to where the cat was sleeping, sniffed a few inches away from it, then walked away. She was friendly with everyone, too. She really is a sweet little dog!
I think it was Tim who shared a blog post about Omegle.com. It's an online chat service where you talk to random strangers. I haven't tried it, but I find the concept intriguing. I might have to try it.
I was thinking this morning about how a pregnant woman was treated while we were in Puerto Rico. One of the days was set aside for "beach olympics". It was a combination of activities that we did in teams. There was a young woman on the team who is due in July. She was given tasks that required much less physical activity than what most of the rest of us did. Was this just consideration for her alone or for her child as well? If it was for both of them, does that not reveal an underlying respect for the life of the unborn baby? Is that baby's life only valuable in their eyes because the mother wants it? How arrogant are we that we think our own feelings somehow change whose life is valuable and whose life is disposable?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
