Tentative schedule for reading CHRIST HAVE MERCY

Tentative Schedule

Date                                         Chapter to Discuss

8/9/2014           Week 01           Introducing Ourselves; Reading the Preface and Forward; Finding the                                                           Study Questions        

8/16/2014         Week 02           1. Lord, Have Mercy;Christ, Have Mercy; Lord,Have Mercy

8/23/2014         Week 03           2. Father, Son, and Spirit

8/30/2014         Week 04           3. Mercy Incarnate      

9/6/2014           Week 05           4. The Heart of Mercy's             Heart   

9/13/2014         Week 06           5. Baptized for This  Moment    

9/20/2014         Week 07           6. Spoken Free and Living Mercifully                 

9/27/2014         Week 08           7. Christ's Body and Blood

10/4/2014         Week 09           8. Christ Cares for the Needy, Body and Soul           

10/11/2014       Week 10           9 . The Church: Holy and Whole

10/18/2014       Week 11           10. God against God

10/25/2014       Week 12           11. Mercy, Money, and Missing the Stewardship Boat         

11/1/2014         Week 13           12. Mercy and the Church's Confession 

11/8/2014         Week 14           13. Mercy and Office    

11/15/2014       Week 15           14. What is Lutheran Leadership?                     

11/22/2014       Week 16           15. Mercy in the City

11/29/2014       Week 17           16. Repentance, Word, Vocation, and the Courage to Be Lutheran  and Merciful   

12/6/2014         Week 18           Conclusion: It's Time to Dare Something for Mercy's Sake                                    

Broken People… And how to Serve Them

On Facebook, the other day, I ran across this picture. It caught my attention. It moved me. It is still rattling around in my head.

Not bad for something on the black role of time that Facebook is!

I understand that this is not a complete approach to people in a world of hurt. Believe me, part of the reason I went for my masters in deaconess studies is expressed on that t-shirt.

I still don't know what I can and should be doing.

So… I pulled out one of my textbooks:

Christ Have Mercy: How to Put Your Faith in Action Paperback– July 1, 2008

by Matthew C. Harrison  (Author)

(I am using the one for Kindle…)

Okay, the other reason is that our church's online book club is reading this book. Regardless, I'm going through it again.

Well, it is an excellent book! It is worth re-reading. It is also a challenge to my comfort zone.

A more detailed review is here…

I'm backwards… Again!

I may not have finished my book yet, but http://lmstapp.com/   is open for business?

Finding a favorite old tool again: PaintShop

I did not know that PaintShop still exists! I used the Jasc versions in Windows 95 and XP.  Granted, I didn't use it particularly well. Using speech recognition to draw is… INTERESTING. Still, I could do what I wanted to do for the most part.

Then Jasc was sold to Corel. I could not afford the next upgrades, so I made-do. It worked. I could still do what I wanted to do for the most part. It was really getting clunky to use software that was designed for Windows Xp on a Windows 7 machine, but I've always been the slowest part of my computer.

I've tried installing on Windows 8. Yeah… It was time to find ANYTHING Else. I knew that Photoshop prices were way out of my league and I want all legal software. Besides, my niece showed me her copy. It didn't do anything that PaintShop used to do at well under $100, it just was slicker…

I tried GIMP, and did not like it. It was well worth the price. Other people swear by it, but I would wind up swearing at it.

Aviary had some interesting online editors for a while. SUMO Paint is really good for what it does and has an inexpensive desktop thingy. It just doesn't quite work with my brain.

My nieces and nephews still think that PHOTOSHOP is the gold standard. Next time I win two or three lifetimes worth of Publishers Clearing House, I will think about thinking about trying that overpriced bit of fluff.

For now, this fits my budget:

Help and Kudos for Caregivers

From the gentleman who invented "Granny Pods" so we can keep our elders out of nursing homes comes another Tool. It is an app called MyPart. For the most part, one or two members of the family tend to have most of the caregiving duties when there is a need. This seems to be true whether we are talking about Elder Care or a family member with a long-term disability or a catastrophic illness.

MYPART tries to spread the caregiving among a greater number of families and friends. This is a KICKSTARTER project that I would love to see funded.

Finding Old Treasures… ONLINE

Back before I started my Masters in Deaconess Studies, I was very active in some of the online Lutheran social media-type thingies. One of them that I thoroughly enjoyed was The Wittenberg Trail. Yesterday and today I wandered by there. I'm so glad I did! I renewed a few acquaintances and got involved in several discussions. You really might want to come by and look for yourself!


Look me up!

Two Old Movies, and a New One

I have been on something of a "movie binge" recently. Yes, I'm usually juggling three other things while the movie is on, but still… It counts. I think. Maybe…

I'm not going to tell you that I watched COWBOYS VERSUS ALIENS. It was every bit as bad as it sounds. I do not have any idea how Harrison Ford got roped into that one.

For that matter, I'm not entirely sure how I got roped into watching that one…

I will admit to watching the 1950s flick "Last of the Buccaneers" with Paul Henreid. 79 min. or so… Then lost my attention. When the jungle-covered mountains of Galveston seemed to have cannibals. Maybe if I had watched longer I would see that they were really Native Americans in league with the Aliens and thought that the pirate Jean Lafitte and his men were really Cowboys. Or not.

Then I saw that in 1935 then made the movie that was remade in 1982 with Julie Andrews. I thought that a woman playing a man playing a woman was a recent plot! In "FIRST A GIRL" the main characters were so similar to the ones in "Victor/Victoria," that it was quite disappointing. Even the female impersonator was Victor/Victoria! They did not play up the "gay theme" in the 1935 version. It was quite refreshing.

Today, I saw DINESH D'SOUZA's "America: Imagine the World without Her." It was well done. I enjoyed it. I particularly appreciated the fact that he can talk AND LISTEN to people that he may not always agree with. When he presents what they say, he does so fairly and accurately.

Even if you disagree with everything he says, I think you may want to see the movie.

When I grow up I want to be more like him.