On Money

...well, sort of. You see, being a big Ramsey fan, I appreciate cash. BUT I hate change. Stop in at the Bucks on the way to work and buy my coffee. And at day's end, stick the change in the money jar in the closet. Yet, by doing so, I ended up LOSING several day's worth of coffee each month. So I figured time to venture into this brave new world of "no cash." I bought a $50 card and then entered the card in my Starbucks app and loaded it to my iPhone's wallet. Voila! Paying is simplicity itself and all that change still goes toward my coffee purchases.

But that doesn't mean I'm not a little creeped out. We've progressed from precious metal, to symbolic paper, to...what? Numbers that we all agree to, but that truly exist only on a screen? It is convenient and wonderful and I'll keep using it, but it's also very weird. Money itself is becoming a fictional construct, even more than it already was. 

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Thou receivest all from God; render in return all to Him.—Johann Gerhard, Sacred Meditation XXXI

Patristic Quote of the Day

To Thee, O Victor, pierced by nails on the cross Who calleth out to sinners say: come, receive forgiveness freely—to Thee I unrelentingly pray, O my Savior: turn Thine eyes away from lawlessness, and by Thy sufferings heal my sores that I may glorify Thy kindness.—St. Ephrem the Syrian, A Spiritual Psalter 8

An unfortunate discovery

I can think of at least three times it happened. Twice with coffee and once with a full glass of wine. I set them down and went to reach AROUND them and ended up knocking them over. And is there a common denomenator to when they got knocked over? Funny you should ask. Because there is: each time I was wearing my contacts.

For years and years, I LOVED my contacts. I wore them as my regular lenses. But in the last few years it has gotten increasingly more difficult to do so. My eyes are drier, for one, and invariably a lens or two gets stuck to the eye itself. That's uncomfortable, of course. But far more devastating: with the contact lenses in (using monovision), I simply cannot perceive depth.

Hence the spilled beverages. I literally can't see that I'm not reaching around, but through my glass or cup. The last spill was so aggravating (at work, with full cup of freshly purchased Veranda Blend from the Bucks), that I decided: THAT'S IT. Seriously. Over. Done. FINISHED.

No more contact lenses except occasionally in the pool. Otherwise, I'm sticking to my trusty progressive spectacles. Yes, I'm old. I need to face it. Gray hair? Check. Wrinkles? Check. Speactacles? CHECK.

Judica

What joy, quite apart from getting to sing in choir today, that our parish celebrated three baptisms, one at each of the Divine Services this weekend. Here's a pic from the final Baptism of the day, that of Calvin Michael Schwarz. I'm hoping to get some pics of Hunter's too, but I didn't get any myself. The thing that amazed me was how many youngsters are in the pic at Calvin's baptism. I counted about 20 teens and younger.

Towards simplification

Just thinking again of the items that the iPhone/iPad combo basically has made obsolete:

* Alarm clock

* Library (replaced by iBooks and Kindle app - Treasury, The Lutheran Study Bible, Lutheran Service Book, Luther's Works, Church Fathers, etc.)

* Photo albums

* Camera

* Video Camera

* TV

* Newspaper / Magazines 

* Laptop computer

* Desktop computer

* House phone / work phone

* Kindle

* CD player

* DVD player

* Metronome

* Photo albums

* CD Collections

* DVD Collections

* GPS

* Maps

* Credit cards (on the way)

* Debit cards (on the way)

What have I left off? I'm sure I have left off tons!

Prayer of St. Ephrem

Still prayed daily by devout Eastern Christians during the Lenten fast, and a worthy gift from the early centuries of the Church to be treasured by all the baptized:

O Lord and Master of my life, give me not the spirit of sloth, meddling, lust for power and idle talk.

But grant unto me, Thy servant, a spirit of chastity (integrity), humility, patience and love.

Yea, O Lord and King, grant me to see mine own faults and not to judge my brother. For blessed art Thou unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Sending Service

crowns the two weeks of Missionary Orientation at the International Center. I particularly love the sounds of children in the chapel—and there were TONS of children and young folk in evidence these last two weeks. I was blessed to lead (most days) the morning devotions for the missionaries and to serve today as the celebrant. Pr. James Krikava preached a wondrous sermon on John six, the Gospel for Laetare. He majorly featured the pelican in her piety. My mind right away went to Hope's beautiful altar. The Trinklein musicians helped enormously, as did our IC musicians: Dr. Vieker, Deaconess Cara Patten, Pr. Michael Meyer, Anna Karsten and Aaron Nielsen. Missionaries were sent to Ethiopia, Panama, Perus, Dominican Republic, South Korea, Czech Republic and I can't remember where else! Next week the building will be strangely silent with the joyful noise of the children absent, but what joy to know that they'll be going forth with the good news of great joy for all people.

Used

the iPad Pro all day. Preached from it. Did my email and writing on it. Used it for Thy Strong Word (KFUO's daily Bible study; you should be listening!), where split screen shines: intro sheet in one panel and Logos open in the other, divided into Greek and English. Worked on some upcoming conferences.  Blogged a bit. Caught up on some news. Now it's 8:44 p.m. I'm at 41% battery. Yeah, pretty sweet. It basically means that I never have to think about battery, as long as I remember to plug in each evening.

AND last month I bought the weird looking, humpbacked iPhone battery case and have been using it. I have NEVER had an issue of needing to think about battery life, even when travelling. It lasts all day no matter what. I'm thinking this is very near to the perfect set up. Phone and iPad Pro together. 

Way to go Apple!

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

He is the Son of God, entirely holy and without sin, and therefore He should have no part in death nor the curse. We are sinners, under God's curse and wrath, and therefore we should bear death and condemnation. But God reverses it; He who has no sin, in whom there is nothing but grace, must be made the curse and bear the chastisement, and through Him we are in a state of grace, and the children of God. Therefore, we should hold fast to this comfort and especially treasure this testimony of Christ's innocence.—Martin Luther, Sermons from 1545

Patristic Quote of the Day

He [that is, St. John], being such a man as this, says not, You have an advocate with the Father; but, If any man sin, an advocate, says he, have we. He says not, you have; nor says, you have me; nor says, you have Christ Himself: but he puts Christ, not himself, and says, also, We have, not, you have. He chose rather to put himself in the number of sinners that he might have Christ for his advocate, than to put himself in Christ'sstead as advocate, and to be found among the proud that shall be condemned.—St. Augustine on 1 John 1 and 2

Working from Home

today, because of the funeral, and let me just say one more time: this iPad Pro utterly rocks! I think Tim Cook is right. Laptop? That's so early 21st century! Since I've gotten the Pro, the only thing I used the MacBook for was to transfer over some specialty fonts. 

I've gone back and forth a bit on Outlook vs. Mail / Calendar. I decided today to bifurcate work and home. My work Office 365 Account is in Outlook and all my personal accounts in Mail. I'm curious how that will pan out. 

Almost always when I hit a roadblock it's because I'm thinking Mac and not thinking iOS. But iOS feels more and more comfortable as time goes on. Others' experiences?

Comforting Funeral

Went to Holy Cross today for Lynn's funeral. Pastor Wright gave such a comforting homily and conducted the liturgy with reverence and peace, and yet with a keen eye toward those who might be unfamiliar with our service. Karen Shimkus rocked on the organ, as is her usual. We always laughed that Tim was the old one, then Cindi, then Lynn, and I came along as the baby. We're all born in 1960 but in different months and oddly enough, Lynn and Lauren shared a birthday. She will be missed by so very many people, but thanks be to God for allowing us to get to know her. So thankful that Dean, Lauren, and kids were able to be here for these two weeks, and kudos to St. Paul's, Norlina, for allowing their pastor the freedom to be a loving son. He'll come back all the stronger pastor to them for it. Margaret, president of the parish there, travelled here to be at the funeral (just as she and Ashley and Paul had come for Dean's ordination). Yeah, she's awesome like that. And Michael Killian also ventured out from North Carolina to be there for them too. Wow.

The final word of the day really was from "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" as the family marched from the church to plant Lynn into the earth in the sure and certain hope of the resurrection:

He lives and grants me daily breath;

He lives and I shall conquer death;

He lives my mansion to prepare;

He lives to bring me safely there.

P.S. KUDOS to Pr. Wright for letting the LSB Funeral Liturgy stand in its integrity. It is one of those services that doesn't need a bit of "creativity" from the Pastor. Just leave it be!

P.S.S. KUDOS to the Holy Cross choir, and the choice of "My Life Flows On" was just perfect. 

Organ Instruction Videos

If you have been pressed into service as an organist and would like some very practical help on how to play, check out these great videos:

Organ Instruction

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

Thus He is both the greatest and only sinner on earth, for He bears all the world's sin, and the only righteous and holy One; for no man can be made righteous and holy before God save through Him alone.—Martin Luther, Sermons from the Year 1545

Patristic Quote of the Day

Now the Lord Himself not only shows us what evil we should shun, and what good we should do, which is all that the letter of the law is able to effect; but He moreover helps us that we may shun evil and do good, which none can do without the Spirit of grace; and if this be wanting, the law comes in merely to make us guilty and to slay us. It is on this account that the apostle says,"The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."—St. Augustine, On Rebuke and Grace, chapter 2

For Lynn

Lord, let at last Thine angels come,

To Abr’ham’s bosom bear me home,

    That I may die unfearing;

And in its narrow chamber keep

My body safe in peaceful sleep

    Until Thy reappearing.

And then from death awaken me,

That these mine eyes with joy may see,

    O Son of God, Thy glorious face,

    My Savior and my fount of grace.

Lord Jesus Christ, my prayer attend, my prayer attend,

And I will praise Thee without end.

Can't get this out of my mind today...

...thinking of so many who face the valley of the shadow...

Mitten wir im Leben sind Mit dem Tod umfangen. Wen such'n wir, der Hilfe tu', Daß; wir Gnad' erlangen? Das bist du, Herr, alleine! Uns reuet unsre Missetat, Die dich, Herr, erzürnet hat. Heiliger Herre Gott, Heiliger, starker Gott, Heiliger, barmherziger Heiland, Du ewiger Gott, Laß uns nicht versinken In des bittern Todes Not! Kyrieleison!

Old Lutheran Quote of the Day

If He, as the Son of God, sheds His blood in order to redeem us and cleanse us from sin, and if we believe and hold it under the devil's nose whenever he frightens or plagues us with our sin, the devil will soon be beaten so that he must give way and leave us in peace.—Martin Luther, Exposition of John 1.

Patriotic Quote of the Day

Let no one, then, on this subject be either deceived or a deceiver. The manifest sense of Holy Scripture, which we have considered, removes all obscurities. Even as death is in this our mortal body derived from the beginning, so from the beginning has sin been drawn into this sinful flesh of ours, for the cure of which, both as it is derived by propagation and augmented by wilful transgression, as well as for the quickening of our flesh itself, our Physician came in the likeness of sinful flesh, who is not needed by the sound, but only by the sick—and who came not to call the righteous, but sinners.—St. Augustine, On Merit and the Remission of Sins and the Baptism of Infants, Book III:21