Religious Cursors

Here is another interesting way to remind yourself to behave while using your computer. It occurred to me last night that surely someone out there had come up with cursors with religious themes. And it turns out they have. You can get an ichthus, a cross, or any of a number of other shapes. You can probably get a star of David; I haven’t checked.

Here’s how it works. You download a file with the extension “cur,” and you put it in your Windows/cursors folder. Then you go to  your control panel, click “Mouse,” and use the browsing feature to find and activate the cursor.

Might make it harder for you to be a jerk while you’re online.

Here’s an ichthus cursor you can download: CLICK.

Most Intimidating Tool of All

According to Mish, Leah Friedman i snow responding to pain. I assume that means her caregivers are poking her or something to see how she is. Her responses are considered encouraging, but she is not awake yet. So prayer is still needed.

Reader JeffW is trying to get himself banned from my comments by pushing me to get Sherline mill. The thing that saved me from getting a mill last time was the expense. That, and the fear that I would never learn how to use it.

Actually, here is the whole complex of neuroses. 1. I didn’t want to spend the money, especially since small mills aren’t much cheaper than used big mills. 2. People told me small mills were useless, because they could only make tiny objects. 3. Big mills take up as much room as bumper pool tables. 4. I was afraid I’d never learn how to use a mill.

Seriously, though, how hard is it? I thought woodworking tools would be hard to use, but they’re not. Most of the skill is in setting them up for various procedures. Once you get your jig or fence or whatever set up correctly, things work pretty smoothly. Are machine tools the same way, or do you have to go be an apprentice on a swamp planet for 25 years?

Don’t Forget Her

I should have posted this yesterday.

Leah Friedman had her aortic valve replaced on Wednesday morning. She is now on life support; Mish Weiss says this is normal, but things are not going as well as hoped.

Please continue praying for her recovery.

Plus More “Coincidences”

I just had a treat which I could not have predicted last week: Turkish coffee. I used to drink it in Israel. They sold it in little funny cans with coffee beans on the label. It’s just coffee ground to a very fine powder. I don’t know if it’s finer than espresso, but it’s pretty fine. The Israelis simply dumped it in hot water, stirred, and drank. That’s what I did today. I don’t think that’s the correct way to do it, but I wasn’t looking for the correct way. I was looking for the past.

It’s not the world’s finest coffee. It’s a hundred times better than instant, but a good cup of espresso or American coffee would be better. But it’s fast and easy, and it reminds me of Israel. I wonder if I can find the Israeli brand on the web.

I have Googled. My best guess was that the brand name was “Elite.” That’s what I seemed to remember. And look what I found!

Click to visit The Jerusalem Gift Shop!

Man, this is an odd coincidence. Funny how those happen to me all the time these days. I feel a little woozy thinking about it.

Check this place out. I know about as much about it as you do, but it appears to be run by Christians in Israel. They have a newsletter about Israel, and all sorts of items from Israel, including this pendant (hope they don’t mind me stealing the picture):

That is fascinating. When my sister and I began communicating again, it was because of Christianity, and almost as soon as we started, she brought me a book by Perry Stone (The Meal That Heals) and a home communion kit with that symbol on it. According to Stone, that symbol is very old, and it was used by early Christians. I suppose there are many Jews who would be horrified by it, but anyway, there it is. You can click the link and buy that pendant.

We are part of prophecy; no doubt about it. The growing interdependence of Christians and observant Jews is a wonder to behold. We help Israel with its physical needs, and the Jews bless us with spiritual enlightenment. Just as Isaiah predicted.

I had no idea I would end up writing about this. I planned to write about coffee.

Check that site out. Wonderful stuff.

More

In case it’s not obvious, in the symbol above, which is referred to as the “Grafted In” symbol, the Magen David is formed by the base of the menorah and the tail of the ichthus. Nothing extra is added.

Help Leah

Leah Friedman is fhaving an aortic valve replaced! Seems like her troubles never stop.

Prayers solicited.

What Would Aslan Eat?

I just got back from church. My sister really likes late services, and we had lunch on the way home.

Interesting experience today. A preacher named Darrell Hines was speaking at Rich Wilkerson’s church, and my sister wanted to hear him. But soon after we got there, she started feeling the presence of God, and she was pretty much inert for the remainder of the sermon. Kept asking me if I felt it. When we got up at the end, she was barely coherent, and she kept talking about it all the way home. She kept asking why people were interested in the things of this world, when they could have God’s presence instead. That’s exactly how I always feel when it hits me.

I felt it today, too, but not to the same extent. At one point while she was in this state, she bumped my arm, and for a time after that, I felt pretty wobbly. Very strange.

She said she didn’t hear much of anything Darrell Hines said.

This is what I like about this church. The music is too loud, and the sermons are good, but not mind-blowing, but God sits on this place like smog on Los Angeles.

We stopped at an Arab restaurant and grocery on the way home. I made some buys. I got some mamoul cookies. These are butter cookies filled with dates. Made in Saudi Arabia. I did not realize I could buy a single cookie, so I got a box. They’re not bad at all. I also picked up some Turkish coffee. This is what they drink in Israel. It’s very finely ground, and the Israelis dump it in hot water like instant coffee. It leaves a layer of mud on the bottom of the cup. I bought it for nostalgic reasons. I also bought a box of Turkish delight. I had to try it. When I was in the first grade, my teacher Mrs. Schabacher read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe to my class, and ever since then, I have wondered what Turkish delight tasted like. It’s very good. I was surprised.

Some pastries somehow ended up in my shopping bag. Funny how that happens.

I think the presence of God is the missing ingredient that has caused American churches to become so weak, perverted, and worldly. A typical church is not much better than a Moose lodge or a YMCA. It’s no wonder no one wants to go. The supernatural is what fills pews. Without it, what is Christianity? Unrewarding self-denial, plus prayer and study that accomplish absolutely nothing. Wouldn’t you go to church if you knew you would sense God there? That’s a pretty big draw.

He’s still with us, if you’re willing to look for him.

Give it Your Sunday Best

I want to make sure everyone sees something that was posted in a comment.

Reader Pbird says:

Sigh. Now its me asking for prayer. I just found out my elderly aunt who raised ten children and babysat their children and their grandchildren and even some greatgrandchildren and worked hard and faithfully for eighty years has badly metasticised breast cancer. Of course its not fair is it? Life on earth is not for sissies.
She wanted to make Christmas for all the kids so she did what she wanted and didn’t mention the cancer which she must have known she had. Her name is Clara. I don’t know what the Lord wants for her now, but she has a huge family of terrified people and they certainly need prayer. I think she is a Christian in a sort of sedate way.

Join me on this one, if you will.

I note the part about her aunt being a Christian “in a sort of sedate way.” These days, I never pray for anyone without including a prayer that they will turn to God and learn to walk in faith and obedience. You have to give, to get.

Good Test Result

Here is what Christians refer to as a “praise report.” It came last night from Heather, whose mother had a test in connection with her treatment for cervical cancer:

I want to update everyone about today’s appointment.
Mom had her PET scan, her lungs are clear as are the other organs. Dr. Cottrill told us that there was just a small amount of involvement with some of the lymph nodes in the stomach area, however she feels fully confident that it will be taken care of by the raditation treatments.
We will get the schedule for those on Monday.
I know the Lord answers prayers. He answered mine today.
I thank you all for lifting us up in prayer. I wish I could give each and every one of you a great big hug!
I am eternally grateful for your prayers and for God’s Blessing.
God Bless,

Hard to top that. Thanks, everyone who joined in prayer.

I continue trying to locate a decent drill press that will give me good service for a very long time. It looks like used ones are just too hard to find and check out. There are two new ones that look good. One is the Steel City 20520, and the other is the Delta 20-950, which costs a lot more. The Delta has a lot going for it, but it does not have a split head design, so it probably can’t be fixed once it gets sloppy. The Steel City is smaller and less fancy, and the table isn’t as good, but it has a split head. I may just give up and get one.

Another alternative is to find a $50 Craigslist special and make do until a nice used one comes along.

Today I plan to finish my router insert/table saw extension. That will be fun. I may also make a planer sled. I’m wondering if I can use MDF. Seems like it should be more accurate than plywood.

Accident or Intervention?

Because of a clerical error, I received a document that should have gone to someone else. It was a court’s notice of filing deficiency. The plaintiff was a prison inmate. They like to sue the authorities.

Nothing in my life seems to happen accidentally these days. I was going to shove this thing in an envelope and mail it to him with a Post-It saying it had come to me by mistake, but I decided instead to include a short note saying I would offer a prayer for this guy.

Maybe you will join me. I just ask that God lead him to turn his life around and give faith and obedience a chance. His name is Charles Jones.

Journalism

Today people are talking about Joe Wurzelbacher’s new assignment as roving Mideast correspondent for Pajamas Media. Needless to say, many people have low expectations, and it seems like a bad idea. The liberal media managed to convince the public that Sarah Palin was stupid, and the smell has rubbed off on other conservatives. We really don’t need to give them another weapon with which to club us.

Nonetheless, the deed is done, so I suppose the correct thing is to pray for his safety and that he surprises us.

I don’t blame him for taking the assignment. It probably seemed like a great idea, and from his perspective, maybe it’s a real opportunity. Fame has monetary value, and while PJTV is obscure, it is possible that some of the few people have the power to help Joe move on to bigger things, and maybe one of them will come up with a gig for him.

It probably beats laying pipe in Ohio in the winter. And Joe deserves a little success, after the vicious treatment he received from the press.

I’m already rethinking my router insert/table saw extension. I really enjoyed using the Mag-Switch featherboard, and it would be nice to be able to use it while routing. That means cast iron is required. I have to see if anyone makes an insert that is exactly 28″ wide. Peachtree Woodworking makes one with a 27″ width, which seems crazy. How would you fit that between my rails? You would have to fill the missing inch somehow.

My readers are bad influences on me, and now I have returned the favor. Reader Ed complained that he had not been able to lay his hands on his late father’s table saw. Inspired by my shopping, he got on the web and found a saw just like his dad’s, and he bought it! Pretty cool. It would be better if he had received his dad’s saw, but this is a pretty good substitute. It’s funny how often things that should be handed down to certain people in families go to the wrong people, and then to the dump. I’ll bet this happens more often in families that are away from God. This phenomenon has an Old Testament smell to it.

Speaking of the Old Testament, Elisson has a post concerning his relationship with pork. Elisson believes in God and belongs to a synagogue, but when it comes to bacon, he might as well be a Baptist. He even eats whale bacon.

Finally, Pam Anderson says you can send food to our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Is this true? I would think brownies would ship pretty well in winter.

More Testing

I can’t believe I forgot to blog this. I was tired and preoccupied, but that’s a poor excuse.

As you know if you follow this blog, Heather’s mother has cervical cancer. Tomorrow at 9 a.m., she is going in for tests. Here is what Heather asks:

Tonight we are going to go to Lexington to spend the night at the American Cancer Society’s Hope Lodge, so she can make her 9AM PET Scan appointment and 1PM doctors appointment. That is to see if the cancer has spread. I am asking everyone to pray that the cancer is contained and has not spread and the tumor is shrinking away from the kidneys and bladder.

I didn’t know she had emailed me until this evening. Wish I had seen this earlier.

Anyway, there it is. Please take a minute and help. Prayer makes all the difference in the world at a time like this.

Battle Ends

A while back, I posted a prayer request from a reader. His mother was coming to the end of her struggle with lung cancer, and he asked people to pray that the end would be easy. Here is an email I received yesterday:

Mom left us today @1:00. Please thank everyone at the blog for the prayers. A prayer that I don’t come apart at the seams would be nice. Thank you for any good thoughts my way.

I thought you would want to know.

Back to the Land of Barbecue and Bass Boats

As stated previously, I had to travel this weekend. Believe it or not, I went to Frostproof again!

Last week, we were not able to get my sister to go. During the week, she said she regretted missing the trip. On Friday, I realized there was no reason we couldn’t make a second trip. So I made the proposal, and my dad and my sister accepted, and off we went!

This was a better trip; my cousin Wade was there this time, so we got to visit.

I’ll show you a few things.

This is from the first trip, in December. It’s a purple gallinule. My cousin Peg took us down to a public dock, and she opened a bag of crackers, and this bird heard it and made a frantic dash for us. They like crackers.

Here are Gladys, my father, and Peg on the dock.

Here is Gladys, looking out over Lake Reedy. She was there about five minutes before she made some new friends and got into an animated conversation. Not bad for nearly 93.

Here are some shots from the second trip. First, Gladys’s Caddy. Note the Bush sticker.

Here’s a garage wall with a bunch of stuff from Kentucky on it. Cast iron, a wooden bowl, a butter churn, a washboard, and of course, Big Mouth Billy Bass.

I got some photos of my cousin Steve’s workshop. Here’s a dust collection cyclone he built himself. Wade was a little miffed because he didn’t get credit for the metal parts, which he put together for Steve.

This is Steve’s rotating table. You can see the miter saw on the top. On the bottom, there is a lathe.

Here’s the old drill press. He says he got it from a Montgomery Ward that closed. They were using it to drill bowling balls.

Here you see my dad, Gladys, and Wade.

Frostproof is a wonderful town, although the landscape is pretty scrubby. Central Florida is not a feast for the eyes. You can have a very nice yard or small farm, but big pieces of land tend to look dry and forlorn. If you go a little farther north in Florida, things look a lot better.

I asked Gladys about the churches up there. She attends a Baptist church, and she used to teach Sunday school for them. They bring her recordings of the services when she doesn’t feel like going. They have several other churches.

While we were at the dock a week ago, I found a stainless steel fish hook on the planks. At first, I didn’t think anything of it. Then I thought of the prayer Rick Wilkerson offered for my dad, the last time my sister were in his church. He prayed that God would put a hook in his jaw and bring him to church. And it occurred to me, how nice it would be to be drawn out of Miami and into a peaceful place like Frostproof, with nice people and lots of breathing room. I put the hook in my pocket and brought it home.

Here it is on the railing at the dock:

You will also see it on this blog’s header.

I have stuff to do. Enjoy your Monday.

But Not Two Mommies

I just got a wonderful report from Heather, whose mom needed prayer earlier today. God clearly came through, as he so often does:

Thank you everyone for lifting mom up in prayer. God is AWESOME(but we already knew that)!
The prayers were successful, the doctors were successful in inserting the stents in the urethra’s from the kidneys to the bladder!
She is by no means finished but I feel such a victory with this success! I was pretty distraught this morning when Dr. Grimm wasn’t able to initially place the stents.
Next Friday they want a full body PET SCAN, to determine if the cancer has spread anywhere. They are talking about maybe releasing her Monday.
Thank you all and God Bless you all!
Love & HUGS,
Heather

It’s funny; God gives us what we ask very often, but most prayers are for small things, and when we need things that are really important, we can forget his faithfulness in spite of our success with the little prayers. The more important the need, the easier it is to feel doubt. So it’s that much better when you get what you ask for.

And it’s Time-Sensitive

First up, a prayer request. Fellow blogger Heather says her mother Penny has been diagnosed with cervical cancer, and it’s pretty far along. It is considered inoperable because surgery may damage her kidneys. The doctors believe they can cure it with radiation. Right now they are performing procedures to open up the connections between her kidneys and bladder. They tried this morning and failed; they are trying again at 1:00 p.m. I believe that’s Eastern time.

Heather says: “I am asking for your help in praying and asking that the Lord shrinks this tumor away from the kidneys & bladder.”

Prayer for healing works. There is no doubt about it. I am aware that there a lot of failure stories out there, but there are also a lot of legitimate successes, and I have experienced healing, personally. So I hope you will take a minute to consider Penny’s plight. You might also pray that her relationship with God would be deepened and strengthened, and that he help her turn to him and serve him. Prayers are most effective when coupled with a turn toward God.

It’s funny, I was busy with my unusually late morning prayer and study, and although I don’t like interrupting that, I felt like coming in here and checking my email. And there I saw Heather’s request. I’ll be going back to my personal business as soon as I post this.

I have a product to recommend. You may be tired of hearing about my sister and me, but I have to tell you, she has turned out to be like a buried treasure chest. All I hoped for was a relationship and a turn to God, but she keeps providing me with unexpected blessings, like the incredible Bible software she got me.

A couple of days ago, she dropped off a Wayne Cochran CD. Like most charismatics, he is very big on memorizing and claiming the promises of the Bible. Sometimes they go overboard on this, but there is no doubt whatsoever that it works. He has created a package of CDs, in which he reads selected verses, with music in the background. He repeats them over and over. The idea is that you play these things in the background while you live your life, and it soaks into you.

I ripped the CD to my MP3 player and gave it a try last night. It’s fantastic. Much better than I expected. If you can listen to this stuff and not feel powerful and full of faith at the end, there is something wrong with you.

I tend to be suspicious of things like this, because they generally cost a fair amount, and I am leery of Christian products where the profit motive seems too prominent, and I would be afraid of giving people the impression that having material like this playing in the background has a magical effect that allows you to receive blessings with no effort. Prayer wheels don’t work. But it has turned out to be a very helpful product, so I can’t criticize it at all. You can find these things at Voice for Jesus.

I am considering asking if I can send a couple of these to Mish Weiss and Leah Friedman. As you probably know, they both have severe medical problems. This stuff is all Old Testament (at least the disk I listened to), so I don’t foresee any problems over the Christian aspect.

Here’s some weird news. A few days back, Rich Wilkerson’s Trinity Church sent me a card promoting their “My 40-Day Challenge” event. They are helping people make changes in their lives for the New Year. You can see the promotional website here.

Shortly afterward, I got a call from my sister. She has decided to quit smoking, as of yesterday. I can’t tell you what great news this is. We have had so many cancer deaths, and apart from that, smoking creates a lot of friction. It’s irritating, riding in a car with someone who has to have the windows open even when it rains. The smell on a person’s belongings and clothing is very hard to tolerate. And smokers inconvenience people all the time, going to buy cigarettes or insisting on taking breaks to feed their addiction. Also, my sister has hopes of finding a husband, and smoking makes that much harder. Truthfully, a cigarette in a woman’s hand is like a flag that says, “Don’t marry me.”

I told her about the card. I don’t know if she’ll make any use of it.

Yesterday, I was IMing with Aaron, and we were talking about religion, and on his own, he mentioned a bit of rabbinical wisdom. I may be distorting it. I believe he said they believed that if you can make a change for the better and hold onto it for 40 days, it will become permanent.

Of course, I had not mentioned Rich Wilkerson. So I was all freaked out. I think I’ll tell my sister.

Wilkerson seems to have gotten the 40-day concept from Jesus’s fast in the desert, although I suppose he might be familiar with the Jewish reference Aaron cited.

That’s it. I’m posting so you will have time to help Heather’s mom.