Our oldest cat, something like 17-18 years old (a very young cat when he showed up and demanded to be let in to become a part of our household) has become more and more finicky about what he eats, lately. I’ve finally found an expensive dry cat food (he’s even been known to turn his nose up at canned cat food he previously ate with relish) that is clamed to have no grains, etc, etc., that he finds irresistible. Each time I dish some out for him, I am tempted to try some. Yes. It does smell delicious.
All Night Long. . .
All night long, it seemed my Wonder Woman’s phone just would not stop with that annoying weather alert. *heh* Constant warnings to “seek shelter,” etc. “Stop it! We’re sheltered already!” 😉
HEAVY rainfall over almost all of America’s Third World County™ yesterday resulted in many of the back roads being flooded out overnight, fords washed out, and even some state roads rendered impassable as roadways collapsed (largely because of poor initial construction, poorly-maintained, IMO). Rural schools with more than half their students coming in from areas closed off from safe travel resulted in countywide school closings. Rescues of contenders for Darwin Awards weren’t many, but a few Darwin Award aspirants did decide to drive into raging waters. Silly puppies.
Some folks around TWC Central measured 5” in their rain guages. I can believe it. Our street was flooded and the recently-covered public works excavation replacing their leaking water line needs to be repacked. We didn’t even try to measure, because at least half of our precipitation seemed to be in the form of hail. 100% coverage of our lawn to the extent that it looked more like snowfall. Really beat up our impatiens. *shrugs* They’ll live or they won’t. Short power outages, no biggie, throughout the county. Touchdown of two funnels juuuust over the county line to the east.
Fun times.
Sly Cheats
I have recently bought meat at two different grocery stores. Weighing the packages at hom on two different electronic kitchen scales, the scales agreed: EVEN WHEN WEIGHED IN THE PACKAGING, all but one of eight packages of prepackaged packages of meat were short of the stated NET weight (weight WITHOUT packaging, supposedly), anywhere from 0.15 pounds to just over .26 pounds.
And that was INCLUDING the packaging in the weighing, so NOT even “net weight.”
What We Deserve Ain’t So Great, Ya Know
Every day I wake and have not gotten what I, in my own “righteousness” apart from Christ, deserve, BECAUSE and only because of HIS righteousness and faithfulness, His sacrifice and the power of his resurrection is a day to celebrate. And that doesn’t even begin to count all the other gifts He offers as He continues to work His purpose in me.
Minor Victories — I’ll Take ’em Whenever I Can
So, three lil rough spots in the living room, dining room, kitchen, and hallway re-flooring project. Just conquered one of ’em–a transition from the living room to the dining room. I had attempted to match up a couple of partial pieces to link up well with the flooring coming down the hallway, and though they seemed to fit nicely, glued to the laminate planks coming out of the living room, once the hallway pieces moved into the dining room, a wee crack opened up due to a less than 1/32-inch difference in floor height. I tried ameliorating that and ended up exacerbating the problem to slightly over 1/32-inch, so backed off that.
Filled it and stained the fill. Hoped for the best, but was never satisfied. When my Wonder Woman asked if there were a transition piece I could put in that was similar to what I used transitioning between the laminate and some tiling in the kitchen, but with a lower profile, I was stumped. . . until I began digging around in a storage area under the laundry room where I had various pieces of scrap molding and found a 3/4-inch wide, very low profile piece of oak molding. “Hmmm,, I bethought meself, “if I stained this juuust right. . .”
And yeh, some nice, dark walnut stain, nicely wiped to yield a lighter walnut appearance then “varnished” with a satin polyurethane, applied to the eensy-weensy crack with a (transparent and stainable when dried) “30-year” caulk/sealer, and my, that looks nice!
On to the other minor “Oopsies,” now, then baseboards and other trim (particularly doors) changed out, new paint all around (yes, I do have drop cloths and painter’s tape, TYVM ? ), and a few other detail touches (NOW can I install the crown molding? Hmmm? *heh*), and this part of our live-in renos will be finished. Mostly. . . ‘cos the bedrooms haven’t been “re-floored” yet (though that will entail mostly just cleanup after removing the carpeting, since the oak flooring underneath it–as much as I have been able to see so far, at least–seems to be in excellent condition).
Having some real fun, now. ?
“Selfies”
The “selfie” phenomenon generally gives me a rash. Nevertheless, here’s my most recent self-portrait. Methinks it doest have a certain je ne sais quoi, non?
Now, off to apply some Budreaux’s Butt Paste for the rash. . .
Ongoing Projects
Flooring–including both new laminate and tiling, along with grouting and sealing the tile–is finished (well, almost entirely; a very few minor details remain) here at Third World County™ Central. . . except for installing new baseboard and matching trim for doors. *heh* As soon as I have made the new baseboard and trim from raw lumber, that can go in as well. THEN, it’s onto finishing the kitchen remodeling. I’ve had some new ideas about that I needed to think through, but I think I have that pretty well finalized, now. More storage, more usable counter space, better flow: I think I’m going to have some fun with that.
Pictures? Eventually. I may even have a couple of the old counter top, cabinets, etc. (Yeh, replacing some cabinets is gonna be fun, too.)
What Is Godly Faith?
Godly faith–faith that is pleasing to God–is not some “woo-woo,” irrational feeling or blind leap, but something much more substantial. A blogpost is not the place for an exhaustive discussion of godly faith, but there is a bit of “news” for most folks via a little exercise.
In a sense that is similar to the trust I have in my wife because she has consistently demonstrated her character, we learn by the evidence of God’s faithfulness in our experience with Him that he is trustworthy.
We also know that God is pleased when we obey what He has already revealed to us we are to do, things like showing others the Way to Him, being truthful, kind, thankful for our blessings (yes, even when in the middle of our troubles), etc.
So, try substituting “trusting obedience” for “faith” in Hebrews 11.
“Now [trusting obedience] is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
“For by [trusting obedience] the elders obtained a good report.
“Through [trusting obedience] we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
“By [trusting obedience] Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.
“By [trusting obedience] Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God,” etc.
While “trusting obedience” does not completely cover _all_ the sense that Paul’s use of “pistis” implies here, it is valid, IMO, and certainly expands on the typical understanding most folks ascribe to the term.
So, when Paul said (2 Corinthians 5:7), “We walk by faith, not by sight,” it seems to me he was saying “We walk by trusting obedience, not by what we see, or by what is obvious to our senses or reasoning, or feelings, but by relying on His Word and by trusting what God has already said and done in our lives.”
Of course, all that is simply speaking of an aspect of our faith. The NT also contains the phrase “`o pistis [tou] christou” (see Galatians 2:16, for example) a phrase variously translated (according to personal preference?) “faith in Christ” or “the faith of Christ.” The “tou” leans my thinking strongly toward “the faith of Christ,” but even then, one must ask oneself if “tou” is genitive or dative in these cases. . .
But rather than get into the weeds about that lil grammatical issue (which does not substantially affect the following), let’s just ask, What would it mean to speak about being saved (or, in the words of Gal 2:16, justified) by “the faith of Christ” rather than (or as well as?) our faith in Christ?
Questions:
- Whose faith is likely to be pure and effective?
- By whose faith was expiation made for our sin and therefore justifies us before God?
- Whose faithfulness effects and sustains our sanctification?
Perhaps it would be easier to grasp the idea that “We are saved by the faith of Christ” to retranslate “pistis” in this case as “faithfulness,” and restate it as “We are saved by the faithfulness of Christ.”
Continue thinking about that while I toddle off to bed. . .
Slow Boat from China
So, ordered an external enclosure for a laptop optical drive from an Amazon retailer knowing full well it would come by “slow boat from China,” since it wasn’t a critical piece of equipment and not needed tout de suite. Eventually, it arrived. Again, no problems with the six week delivery time, since I ordered it with an expectation that delivery would be glacially slow.
But.
It was neither as described in the product description nor as pictured on the product display. It was missing the ONE essential element that allows using a laptop optical drive as an external, portable drive: an interface card. The card was neither built into the enclosure nor flopping around loose in the box. I had a plastic box, a couple of short USB cables, and a faceplate. Useless, except perhaps for target practice.
Corresponded with the seller. Seller wanted pictures of what was missing from the box. Yes, that is indeed what was stated.
*head-desk*
After several emails back and forth (and a complete unboxing sequence sent, along with copies of the text and pictures from the product page for comparison), the company offered to “make me whole” by refunding all but $0.44 of what I paid them for the trash they sent me to dispose of for them.
*sigh*
But at least they didn’t ask me to send their trash back to them.
Still, one strike and the seller is OUT. I’ll never buy from this seller again. Seller “TOOGOO”? “Disrecommended”
Beyond Eclecticism
Methinks my Wonder Woman’s “Welkommen” door plaque clashes with my “Go Away” door mat. . .