So I am taking Cthulhu’s advice & working up a draft post that has been pending for a while to use for one of my fill-in posts for DP while she is tending to the needs of her family in this challenging time. Please keep DP & her family in your prayers…and as Duchess reminds us daily, please pray for one another…
This post was originally begun as a reflection on our journey as my husband transitioned from purchasing, which he had done for more than 20 years, into truck driving. It was intended as a reflection on the past year but through procrastination now is from slightly more than a year & a half since jumping with both feet into that transitional time.
Note: if you don’t care to read what is a personal testimonial, please just scroll down to the next time you see the below page divider. Thanks for stopping by!

Some of you may recall that I was asking for prayer as this journey unfolded, when my husband precipitously decided to leave his long-time company, just months after getting a 25 year “award”, to go to trucking school. What was billed as typically a 6 week process in our particular case dragged on for more than 3 months in the schooling portion before the job search could officially begin. There were many ups & downs & significant frustrations as the system, including the state entities, conspired to keep my husband, & our household, in a seemingly ceaseless state of flux.
During this season of upheaval, uncertainty, & frustration there were a number of songs that really ministered to my husband & helped him hold on through all the changes. Some of these songs even ended up being part of the worship sets that Michael played as he continued to faithfully minister musically at church and have one area in his lifestyle that remained relatively unchanged. This post’s title, “Furious Love”, grew out of a reflection on some of the music that ministered to him during this very challenging time 🙂
The video below, being filmed near Michael’s birth-zone, is personally moving to him…
During transitions, upheaval, & uncertainty focusing on the Lord, His peace that passes understanding, His provision, & His comfort were keys to overcoming the obstacles…
God did provide for us in sometimes miraculous & very timely ways over the many months we were without direct income. A number of times God spontaneously moved on the hearts of people to give us money, just when we really needed it, & had mentioned it to no one but the Lord. It was scary, exciting, and even strangely serene to be in a place where God alone was the source of our supply & there was sometimes a sense of wonder and definitely a pervasive deep gratitude when He would come through Just In Time for our material needs, especially as He also continued to address those needs we both faced in emotional and spiritual arenas.

This next song has been ministering to my husband for quite a while, especially in relation to work upheavals. Years back Michael made a lateral move within his company to a different site & returned to purchasing after a few years as Shipping Manager at the company’s corporate headquarters. One motivation for this change was to get out from under the boot of a VP who was his direct boss while over shipping. For a season it was like M had been exodused out of Egypt and he really enjoyed his new boss & some of the perks of the location. Well, tragically M’s new boss had a massive heart attack at work & went home to be with his Lord. This unexpected vacancy in the company ended up being filled by the very VP M had rejoiced to previously escape from. The stress, sorrow, & intensity were overwhelming & Michael ended up playing this song on his way to work nearly daily as a way to shore himself up in the Lord.
It turns out that TobyMac, Toby McKeehan of DC Talk fame, wrote this song & filmed this video shortly before unimaginable tragedy struck in his own family. His son died unexpectedly & Toby’s music & faith was a huge part of what helped him get though that unbelievably painful season, as he shared in the clip below the music video…It is such a tremendous blessing to us all when others allow their pain & heartache to be molded in the Potter’s hands & used to minister to the needs of others–To God be The Glory!
There are many uplifting and heartfelt comments at the above video, including:
@cece8095
1 year ago (edited)The fact that He said “God is kind” is nothing but the Holy Spirit. Human beings alone cannot do that by themselves after something like the loss of a child. Toby is a man of God, he is. And when you walk with God & you give your life to Him & things go terribly south in your life.. there’s gonna be many moments when you’re gonna be able to look at God and say, “You are still good.” God’s comfort is like no other. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFwrsv0bdrI&lc=UgxmSUcrIWGtHeDRve94AaABAg
Details on TobyMac can also be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TobyMac

Getting back to our personal journey, Michael has mentioned a number of times how instrumental I was in helping him through some of the darkest days of his transition into trucking. He has wrestled significantly with areas of change in his life (don’t we all) & God has enabled me to really be a stabilizing influence for him, & our kids, in times of major upheaval. [At one point I was doing quite a bit of work on PTSD issues & began a blog as a repository of both the researches & the reflections–something I can return to and further develop as the seasons of life permit.] He has said that he thinks of this movie scene as a good representation of the way he sees certain of my interventions in his life…
This next song has spoken to me for many years especially in the “desert place”, the “wilderness”, & “the road marked with suffering”. The pounding of the special needs parenting situations created Many Times when the message of this music was so very relevant. Years ago our young assistant pastor & his wife were expecting their first child, who tragically died in utero just before her due date. They played this song at their daughter’s memorial service & I will always associate it with that loss laid on the Altar.
Although none of us will ever suffer to the degree that Job endured in scripture it is a beautiful thing to take the sufferings & hardships in our lives and pour them out like drink offerings to our Lord, allowing Him to transform them into beauty in His Kingdom.

This next song has been one that’s ministered to me over the years in times of heartache, stress, & loss; bringing key scriptural truth alive musically. Though perhaps a bit dated now the album from where I first heard it, Integrity Hosanna Music’s “My Refuge”, helped me through many dark days, broken engagements, & even deaths in the family. There is something so healing to the wounds of the soul in making the Choice to praise the Lord when it truly is a Sacrifice of praise. He is Always Worthy & focusing on Him in adoration during seasons of suffering can actually be a mechanism that He uses to ease our pain.
So now in hindsight, the journey to a stable trucking job was pretty interesting & challenging. In the natural world my husband worked for 3 different companies, one for days, one for weeks, & one for months, before landing his current job, which he’ll have been at for a year next month. The variety of work he encountered: fuel delivery, bottled gas delivery, & over-the-road training, plus gravel hauling exposure during an interview process for a job he didn’t accept, have served to make him especially thankful for the job where he landed. He is doing a daily route making local/regional deliveries for a large distribution center mostly associated with the heating & cooling industry.
He is often in the position of driving a B truck for A truck wages, which is an ideal scenario according to one of his truck-driving school instructors. His boss and co-workers are pleasant to work with, which hasn’t always been the case in his career trajectory. His job-related stress is Way down. Overall he is much happier at this job, is now in better shape physically, & is mostly adjusted to the Very Early weekly schedule this position requires–he wakes up at 3 am, leaves at 3:30 am, & starts his shift at 4:30 am.
He managed to pursue a number of hiking and backpacking adventures with some friends during this transitional time including 2 separate 55 mile hikes along Lake Superior’s Pictured Rocks lakeshore. We just returned home from his most recent backpacking trip last weekend! This major hike revealed to him how much better he’s doing physically since the same hike last year. He hasn’t had lingering pain nor fatigue, so even though he’s a year older it’s like his body is younger now than it’s been in years!
Also I can thankfully report that just this weekend we discovered that he is apparently healed of what appeared to be a gluten allergy. I asked for help here at the Q-Tree in identifying what might have been going on with him physically after he had a sudden onset of troubling digestive symptoms following a weekend back-packing trip. Several of you suggested it could have been “Beaver Fever” or giardia, but Michael was convinced he had sudden onset gluten sensitivity. Regardless, whatever the condition was–& it caused him significant problems & missed work a number of times in the early months–it now appears to be healed or resolved. We even had an experimental pizza dinner at a favorite local restaurant to test his digestive status, without issue Finally. I am so thankful that Michael can now be liberated dietarily, though he plans to continue a number of his healthier eating habits going forward since there have been benefits to some of these changes. I cannot emphasize how much this represents a weight lifted from his shoulders! PTL…again!
We’ve also mostly adjusted to the many family changes that occurred in this transitional time. All of our kids also faced significant changes while Michael was going through his lengthy transition. Our oldest son & daughter-in-law became parents for the first time just a few months after Michael made his huge leap. They are actually now expecting another baby in a few more months! In addition Nathaniel has joined Michael in the creation of a new band that just recently started practicing in our home. They haven’t worked together musically before so this really is a new & exciting adventure for them & the guys that are rounding out the band. I am thankful to have band practice in our home for the first time after more than 2 decades of musical endeavors on my husband’s part.
Another aspect of family transition involves our middle son Brandon, who had been working as a hydraulics technician at Michael’s old company & ended up leaving some months after M did. This son had gone through Fire Academy while still a full time employee & was making efforts to change his career to that of a Fire Fighter. He ended up being hired on by the City of Detroit & is now almost done w/ his 6 month EMT training phase & about to begin Fire Fighting training for the city next month. Like my husband, each time he is facing a time of transition it becomes quite overwhelming. We are available to shore him up as needed, & to give him an outlet to process some of the crazy situations he’s encountered working for & in Detroit…He is in joyful pursuit of a lifelong dream!
Seeing our special needs son Josiah marry & move-out & then return to live with us part time, at a time when we were also having a dear friend stay with us for almost half a year as he was dealing with his own life’s upheaval, was a Very Challenging addition to the ongoing chaos. Helping Josiah with his marital upheaval was a very demanding & emotionally draining strain on both Michael & I but was also used in God’s economy to model marital reconciliation strategies for our friend who was reeling from his own marital trauma. Because of Josiah’s autism this very personal journey was lived out very directly in an unmasked manner before our friend, overlapping the majority of his stay with us.
Finally our daughter & son-in-law went through the dual changes of becoming parents & moving into their own home almost simultaneously. Thankfully by the time This baby was born Michael was settled into his new job so that we had steady income & the familiarity with the new schedule & lifestyle for me to be able to help Clarissa in the birth process while Michael & her brothers helped her husband in moving their belongings from his dad’s house to their new home while C & the baby were still in the hospital. They have not done all that must be done to have their home fully functional yet, so periodically Clarissa will come by to use aspects of our kitchen in the creation of some of her culinary masterpieces.
We are blessed to have our youngest & oldest kids & their spouses & kids live in our neighborhood now. Our youngest son alternates between living with us & living a couple miles away in our city with his wife & her multi-cultural & partially disabled family. Our middle son has been stopping by regularly, especially on Sundays, to have some dedicated family time. In fact he just left our home after doing “gear day light” with my husband as they are preparing for an upcoming bow-hunting trip next weekend.

Life is good, relatively stable now, & abundant in a number of ways–Praise the Lord!

Tomorrow I’ll try a post that is more current events focused. Today I hope our Q-Tree family will be happy to bring the links & the insights in our typical treehouse fashion.
If you need leads for where to find such material, please consider checking out some of the sites WolfMoon has suggested in this post:
I enjoy perusing Whatfinger.com for links among many other sites 🙂
Thanks for stopping by. May the Lord guide, direct, protect, & bless us as we all keep fighting the good fight in our individual lives, our families, our communities, our nation, & our world! God Bless YOU!

In Jesus’ Love, Valerie
Good morning,
I take it this is the daily for today.
At about 1:30 this morning, my mother went to God. As per her family tradition, she waited until she was alone to do so. Both of her parents went that way, as well as a number of other relatives.
Thank you so much to all who have been doing the dailies. I anticipate being back for the Wednesday post next week. There are so many things we are in the middle of doing.
Please, pray for my sister who is exhausted. My dad is going to be lost.
Thanks for being here for us and praying.
DePat
Prayers for you and family.
Amen!
🙏
Be well and at peace, DePat.
Amen
God be with you & your family DP as you make the arrangements, comfort each other, & begin the process of going on without your mother here, knowing she is finally at rest & freed from the burdens of this world.
I speak for no one else here but Please Don’t put any timeline pressure on yourself for the blog posts. There are several of us willing to step in to help cover the gaps as needed…
Please take care of yourself & your family…In Jesus’ Love

Morning DePat
my deepest condolences
i hope there will be time to rest, regroup and celebrate your mother’s life and love for you all.
find peace
Amen!
DP I stuck your comment to the top of the replies so more people will see your update & be actively praying for you and your family.
🙏 🙏 🙏
DePat
Thank you for sharing this news with us all here. My deepest condolences to you and your family. May the Almighty God send Deep Comfort and Peace to all of you.
Amen!
Praying for you and your family to find peace. I know how devastating it is to lose your Mom. And I feel so for your Dad. If is so hard to lose a spouse.
I’m sure your mother was focused purely on the road home when she went. Looking straight up at Jesus.
So sorry 🙏
Trust you’ll stay focused and looks forward to the return of your daily post as it rivals anything out there. Your mom is in the best of hands now. Prayers your sister and dad.
Thinking of you, and praying for you and your family…
You all have each other and your strong faith… (((DePat)))
Into your hands, O Lord, we humbly entrust our sister Linda. In this life you embraced her with your tender love; deliver her now from every evil and bid her enter eternal rest. The old order has passed away: welcome her then into paradise, through Christ our Lord. Amen
Amen
Amen
Continued prayers for you and your family, DePat, and condolences at the loss of your mom. I would imagine that you’re as exhausted as your sister. Please take some time for yourself. I know we all miss you, but you don’t need to rush back before you’re ready.
Peace for your Mom 🙏 a bit of respite for you and your siblings 🙏 and prayers for your Father who has lost his mate 🙏 So many of us have been in your shoes, DPat ; I encourage you to look after your own health and know that in time, all the decisions and tasks will get done. In retrospect, no task or decision was as urgent as taking time to grieve and recover. May God be with you all.
Amen
Our condolences and prayers for you and your family!! God bless all of you!
Amen
Im very sorry. The best is you had some time to prepare and begin grieving. I hope you and your family find comfort and peace in thecoming weeks.
I am sorry to hear your Mom has past but at least she, you and the family did not have to hang in limbo for weeks.
Stay safe and Rest as you can. Prayers for you and your family.
A piece of advice from an accountant….
Death certificates are very inexpensive if you get them immediately, and not cheap if you have to get some later. Get a whole bunch. Everybody (banks, credit card issuers, insurance carriers, real estate title agents, government taxing authorities) and their second cousins will want a copy. Get as many as you think will be necessary, then get a whole bunch more.
Thank you. That’s all in the works.
I’m so very sorry, DePat! God Bless you and your family and your wonderful mother in Heaven!
You and your family remain in my prayers, DePat.
DePat,
My heart breaks for you. Continued prayers for you and your family.
For reasons unknown, I can no longer log into The Q Tree, so I don’t know if this
comment will even publish.
Love, Sylvia Avery
I saw your comment here just fine Sylvia. Did you try logging in with Word Press?
You could always do what I did – add a 2 after your name and create a new account. Everybody knows there could only be one sylviaavery plus there’s the shovel [unique to you 😆 ].
😍
DePat
Our deepest condolences.
You and your family are in our thoughts and Prayers.
(I don’t know if this will post or not since I’ve always had issues with the site)
I had to let it out of the bin. You can try another!
TY, I didn’t get a chance to mention Kea to you cause on was too busy on a final check on Wednesday’s post…I’m glad you let her in!!!
Come back when you’re ready – take your time as needed!
We’ll be here and praying! 🙏
Amen!!!
I’m sorry for your loss. Please give yourself some much-deserved rest before diving back into the fight. Praying for you and your family.
Amen Sadie
I was hoping you’d stop by…
Do you care to weigh in on this Ashli Babbitt conversation at all?
https://www.theqtree.com/2023/10/03/furious-love/#comment-1165234
God Bless YOU–hope things are well in your world 💜
Many of us look forward to Sadie’s visits.
Yes!
If anyone is reading here & wants to comment but is not allowed to do so here at the Q-Tree please feel free to comment on this companion post at my main blog:
https://specialconnections.wordpress.com/2023/10/03/furious-love/
Hello. Is it Taco Tuesday anywhere?
I thought it was Taco Tuesday EVERYwhere 😉 😉
An old favorite of mine. THANKQ!
Fred Astaire, 25-second clip. For some reason, YouTube doesn’t have the entire original.
AHHHhhhh they just do not make movies like those any more.
Will this do? 🙂
Truths…Thanks for this…What a genius! Astaire w his nearly supernatural body/mind coordination! Such a joy to watch him!
My oldest grandson’s favorite day and meal at the local Mexican food diner.
Somewhere close by there are several “2 for Tuesday” taco joints–yum!
Tostadas….
We used to have to travel to get these but now a new restaurant in town carries them.
Sounds good. Traditional, new mexican, or tex mex?
In the land of the free, there are many types of tacos.
Indeed! And i appreciate that!


And you can be the taco the town 🙂 🌮
[groan]
Yes!!!
Thank you for posting this, Valerie. I haven’t had a chance to read it all yet, but I appreciate your efforts!
TY TT. Blessings!
And to you! 😊
Love! 3 heart emojis when I get to the actual post & not just the notifier 🙂
❤ ❤ ❤
Thank you for this substitute post! Enjoying the cornucopia of diverse parts, including Mission Impossible! 😃
TY Wolf. That means A Lot to me 🙂
With God, All things are possible 😉 😉
Nancy Pelosi did it best!
She pulled a fire alarm?
She promoted The Great Reset.
Hillary was also into the reset thing.
Did anybody else notice that Lavrov used his middle finger to ‘push’ the button?
Good catch. I doubt if Hillary was made aware of it until after the fact.
Afternoon Wolf. I was just doing my usual reading, and I think i have come up with a way to turn both Ukraine and the green imitative against the Cabal.
All it will take is ONE honest person to simply ask this. “Since the Biden administration is so set in on climate change, and have declared it the greatest threat to humanity, I was wondering what there thoughts on sending hundreds of billions of dollars worth of munitions and weapons to Ukraine. Money that could be better be spent of fighting climate change. Also I would like their thoughts on what kind of green house gas impact thousands of tons worth of high explosive, and millions of rounds of exploded ordinance and ammunition have on the environment?
See, WE know the answers. THEY cannot answer. It would highlight their own duplicitous actions. They CANNOT have it both ways. IF green house gases are SOOOOOO bad for the environment, how do they justify sending so much ordinance to Ukraine, ordinance that has FAR more greenhouse gas emissions (and carbon) released than a gas stove or car produces.
Time to use their own hypocrisy against them. Oh and i know they will simply blame Russia. The premise STILL stands.
P-rex, you never cease to amaze me.
In a good or bad way LOL
Good way IMHO
Excellent…Grrr! I just put that out on Gab–TY!
Thank you, Valerie, for a beautiful retrospective of the recent challenges and successes in your family, with musical accompaniment!
And thank you, also, for helping our little community here keep going, while we worry for our dear DePat.
While DePat’s away, the nice will play…..
Aw shucks, you are being such a sweetheart LOL
It’s official: Gaetz to force vote on McCarthy’s speakership
Give me a break!
Looks like excuse-making to me. The time to oust the Speaker is right after he has reneged on his promises.
Nice 🙂
🙂
Bring it on.
Spoken like a Bushie.
Video of this historic moment on the House floor:
TYVM!
YW!
No matter how this gets sliced there is surely some element of “look squirrel” & uniparty theater going on 🙁
It’s hard for me to understand why RealPOTUS wanted McCarthy, a seeming perpetual swamp rat, in the Speakership At All!!!
“It’s hard for me to understand why RealPOTUS wanted McCarthy, a seeming perpetual swamp rat, in the Speakership At All!!!”
____________
Hopefully he communicated his reason to Gaetz.
Either he did, and Gaetz is doing what he’s supposed to do now, or he didn’t, in which case who knows what’s going on, or why, or when it will end, or won’t end, or whatever 😂
Hopium, copium, nopium theater arises!
BB & Kyle discussed this on Defected. They think it is for the purpose of EDUCATING Americans on how the ‘sausage’ is actually made. Remember McCarthy made a backroom deal with the DemonRats for a 45-day temporary funding measure that excludes border security and $6 billion in funding for Ukraine.
Yet a $5 billion request FOR OUR SECURITY (border wall) by POTUS Trump WAS TURNED DOWN!!!
02/09/20
DEFECTED:
fourteen MINUTES
Somewhere in there is an McCarthy interview where he complains about the border and Fentenyl killing Americans
@ 32:45 Matt Gaetz TELLS YOU this
https://rumble.com/v3m9zh6-defected-ep-42-sun-900pm-et-.html
If you have the time it is worth watching and seeing the clips they have to back up their ideas.
TY Gail for the insights AND the sauce!!!
Swamp will survive. Perhaps mutate some. Though not for the better.
DC was literally built on swamp land so it’s there to stay 😡
It is all a scam. Maybe folks will eventually realize the theater versus the back room dealing that happened well before the play/movie began.
grrr
“Nobody thinks this is the right time to pull the trigger,” said one conservative lawmaker, who warned that supporting Gaetz’s move would look like a “personal vendetta.”
______________
Nobody EVER thinks it’s the right time to pull the trigger.
It could be the year 2525, the same people would still be in office, earth could be a smoking ruin, and these corruption professionals would be saying “nobody thinks this is the right time to pull the trigger”.
Someone ought to pull the trigger on them.
That time for that is always right.
Remember how it was NEVER time to arrest a bunch of SOBs.
it would interfere with an election. It’d be tacky because some politically important pile of shit had just died. You name it.
And nothing got done in four years.
Exactly! “It’s never the right time” is their go to answer for everything concerning ACCOUNTABILITY.
Yes!
You’vewe’ve been here before…sigh… 😡 except the dems didn’t have a problem “pulling the trigger” to arrest people before an election.
It appears that virtually nothing is out of bounds with them 😡
TY Scott!
“….He added that he had hoped Gaetz would “hold off” on his push in order to give Republicans more time to pass spending bills that the Senate is certain to reject….”
AHHHhhh, but this is EXACTLY the correct time to ‘PULL THE FIRE ALARM ‘ 😜 and short circuit Congress.
you’re so right. the let’s-wait-till-the-speaker-gives-the-left-all-the-stuff-it-wants-in-the-spending-bills-so-we-have-nothing-left-to-fight-for-or-use-as-leverage strategy is ASININE!
if you think he will give the freedom caucus anything it wants now that the dems are on board with keeping him as speaker for his continuing to play ball? you’re an idiot.
the right is weak, weak, weak!!!!
It makes sense that the teleprompter is absent but where’s the fly?
Missing in action! No bags of cash either, but that makes sense since they’re walking in the woods.
But Mendez is holding two bars of gold 😁
Nice, I missed that. Got to get out the magnifying glass 🙂
It’s right under his sippy cup.
Good Catch!
I’m not sure that that’s the fly. It usually has a little trail of dots showing its trail of flight, like this:
But I don’t know…
Maybe he hasn’t 💩 his pants yet.
!!!
Thank you for pitching in, Valerie! I enjoy family snippets, memories and anecdotes that help us know online friends and acquaintances a bit better. I’m glad your family has made it over some tough hurdles, and how nice for you to have some of your children nearby.
God is always present, and we are very very blessed to share His Grace.
hmmm I thought I replied to you via the notifier but it seems to have disappeared…
Amen & TY Alison for your kind words & insights. Blessings!
Just a short note on authors this week.
Monday – Wolf
Tuesday – Valerie
Wednesday – Valerie
Thursday – Aubergine
Friday – PAVACA
Saturday – Steve
Sunday – Carl
PAVACA is a new author – it may take a few days to get things squared away.
APPLAUSE!!!
APPLAUSE!!!
Great thanks in advance for all authors stepping up to keep things going! It is much appreciated!!
TY blush emoji 🙂
Hope you catch Wolf’s line up so you can anticipate what’s yet to come…
https://www.theqtree.com/2023/10/03/furious-love/#comment-1164489
Ha by replying In the notifier I missed that You were replying to Wolf’s post…
You should wait until you read (or scroll) my post before applauding. You might not.
On the other hand, do you remember Fate Magazine from back in the day? Weird tales, etc.? If so, you might be thrilled.
Sounds intriguing 🙂
I was a subscriber to Fortean Times for a number of years…..
Oooh, cool. You may enjoy Thursday!
How about 2600? 😀
I’ve got a couple of issues around here someplace….
Yep. I have a bunch, somewhere, too…
It’s the somewhere that always seems to be a problem 🙂
Weird tales… YES!
I also loved Analog SciFact/fiction
Thanks for the heads up! I’m close to getting Wednesday’s post scheduled 🙂
Hey Wolf, just a short note to let you know that I scheduled Wednesday’s post for 12:01 on 10-4-23. If you want to check & make sure that looks OK (I’ve only Ever just hit “publish immediately” for myself before) as a double-check I’d appreciate it.
Thanks again for allowing me to occasionally write here at the Q-Tree–it remains a surprising AND humbling honor 🙂 Blessings!!!
Wolf Moon
Yours Truly is grateful and humbled for the opportunity to become an author on this board. Will proceed to the instructions from you on how to get started.
God Bless you in this new adventure CV ❤
Wolf Moon
Test two. Just changed one’s WP password.
fwiw this reply did NOT show up in my notifier 🙁 (I should see All comments when I’m the author I believe)…
I know I haven’t seen All the replies in the notifier today either but the scrolling back in time function isn’t probably even allowing 100 comments to be visible, which doesn’t work great on a 600+ comment post day…hmmm…
Thank you, Valerie, for stepping up. I’m really glad to hear that all the changes you’ve been through in the past year are working out so well for your family. God is good.
TY Linda! It takes us (all) a while to regroup so it’s nice to finally feel like we’re back on solid, or at least familiar, ground now. Michael & our boys are Really anticipating this year’s Deer Hunting Season which for M was truncated unprecedentedly to Just ONE hunt last year 🙁 He’s leaving to head North after work Friday & then Brandon & our dog & possibly Josiah (who doesn’t–yet–hunt but Loves being at the Hunting Shack) will join him on Saturday. Good times incoming!
https://jonathanturley.org/2023/10/02/four-biden-impeachment-articles-and-what-the-house-will-need-to-prove/
(boldface mine)
No matter what is unearthed FJB/LGB will skate unless & until the Deep State wants him gone 🙁
In the meantime, we make them squirm as much as possible! We cause stress, we make them incur legal fees, we cause them to rethink their political strategy, we make their international compatriots uncomfortable, we turn some Dems against them, etc.
We should be doing this a lot, like they’re doing to President Trump. And not just to Biden, but to more of the commie sleazes in every part of government. There should be thousands of lawsuits against Faucci and many others for damages from the jabs. Give them the death with 1,000 cuts like they’re trying to do with Trump. But our side just talks and does very little.
Hear, hear!
Call me weird, but I think Fauci needs the death by a long walk on air, followed by trophy hunting opossum portraits. The 1,000 cuts are because the charges are bogus.
A lot of us were raised to “turn the other cheek”…fwiw 🙂
AND THE SATANISTS USE THAT TO ADVANTAGE!
21 MARCH 2022 – Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition
THIS^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
they do use our “civility” against us!
Pretty much All the time! 🙁
Yup.
Hence the title of my BIMD – Civilized War.
Yes!
TY Gail for these important insights. Jesus admonished his disciples, recorded in at least one gospel, to bring their swords (possibly when Peter used his to cut off the servant’s ear in Gethsemane), which are clearly offensive weapons. Discerning where the self-defense/offence line lies is a very challenging task for Believers, to be sure.

REMEMBER the Churches have ALSO been invaded by the Marxists who see us as the ‘ENEMY.
Therefore it is to their advantage to teach us:
“… Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also..”
” …Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.”
“…Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment...”
And other defeatist thoughts instead of to FIGHT EVIL.
There is much wisdom in what you’ve shared here. TY
You are quoting Scripture. These words apply to Jesus’ followers. If it your goal is to be a disciple of Jesus then you have to make sense of these words. I see no alternative. You are saying clearly that these Scriptures are defeatist thoughts. I believe most people, of whatever religious inclination, would say that it is Christian duty to stand against evil. How that is accomplished includes the Scripture you quote.
^^^ This.
Even secular folks need to spend more time reading the nonviolent methods of Gandhi.
Violence begets violence.
He was dealing with rational adversaries.
We are not so blessed.
Correct.
I can’t speak for Gail. This is my take. I think she is showing that the Left takes Scripture verses out of context and says, “See, the Bible tells you to do ____,” whatever thing would suit the Left’s ends.
Scripture is full of paradoxes. We have to love our enemies but also fight evil, etc.
That is what I was saying.
Remember, what we read in English was TRANSLATED by scribes who were in the pay of NOBLES esp the King James version, It is the version I have.
We would have to do as my father and learn Hebrew, Greek and Latin to actually understand the Bible.
Careful now…remember a LOT of denominations think the KJV is correct…even where it conflicts with the manuscripts. They maintain God used the opportunity to fix corrupted older texts (especially ones kept by the Vatican).
To be clear, I do not agree with them either about cause (obviously) or effect.
I think we’ve discussed this a bit before so I won’t belabor things.
I had an Old Testament professor in grad school who was on the committee to translate the ancient texts in the creation of the NIV. He explained how there were certain OT passages where the Hebrew words, or how they sounded, gave a clue to the meaning of a vision, iirc, for example.
God would give a vision to the person/prophet & ask the man what he saw. He would say something like “I see a basket of grapes” but the words sounded similar, in Hebrew, to “a burning fire” (these are made up & inaccurate examples). Then God would say to the prophet “Yes, & like a burning fire I am purifying my people”…
Anyway, the point is that such wordplay, dependent upon the Sound of the spoken Hebrew would be completely lost on non-Hebrew speakers. So translating the words accurately doesn’t fully do justice to what the actual interplay between God & the prophet entailed.
I appreciate the BibleGateway.com website where we can look up scripture in (m)any English translation(s). We can also look up an individual verse & see All (available) translations of any language & compare the various available translations. This allows us to more closely approximate the “full” & “accurate” message of a given Bible passage.
God has been at work Throughout History to preserve & protect His Word. I expect you are well versed in the minutiae of “discrepancies” between various “original” manuscripts &/or translations. That the “Word of God” has persisted virtually unchanged for thousands of years is reflective of the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit to reveal God’s Truth to the world throughout the ages…
Of course I would very much expect that your mileage on this topic will vary. Thank you for sharing your insights, which are Much Appreciated!
Any form or wordplay, in any document (even something as “light” as a low-grade comic book), will almost certainly be lost in translation; scripture is certainly not unusual for that.
One can try to counteract this by inserting wordplay in the target language, but then you’ve added something that wasn’t there and your translation isn’t literal. (No doubt this is part of why paraphrases are popular…very loose translations where the goal is to keep the spirit of the original not the letter. Of course that works only if the paraphrasist correctly understands the intent of the original.)
Of course the best thing to do as far as preserving meaning is to simply keep it in the original language, but the problem is few people know that language, and even fewer know what it was like “back then” (languages change, sometimes they change a lot). And there are often arguments as to what a particular ancient idiom meant.
An interesting issue with regard to the OT is that the oldest *Hebrew* text we have (IIRC termed the Masoretic text) is over a thousand years *newer* than the oldest *Greek translation* we have. In the case of any conflict between the two, which one should we trust? Do we assume the Septuagint was an accurate translation of the Hebrew manuscripts of its day, so in case of a conflict, go with LXX? Or do we assume the Hebrew has been very accurately passed down, scribe to scribe to scribe, so use the Masoretic? If I recall correctly the KJV simply used the Septuagint. Many more recent translations at least considered the Masoretic.
One of the things I actually admire about Islam is that they explicitly claim that *only* the original (is it though?) Arabic is authoritative. That stops issues stemming from people relying on translations as authortative, but it leads to Muslims who literally don’t know what it is they are chanting. (The Koran is meant to be recited, more than it is mean to be read, and the reciting should be done in the original Arabic.) Imagine memorizing and chanting hundreds of pages of sounds that, to you, are literally meaningless. Which means you need some imam to tell you what it means…which is the sort of thing that helped light off the Reformation and all of the translations of the Bible because the *Latin* (not even Greek which would be original for the NT but not [see above] for the OT!) had to be interpreted by priests.
Translation gives you the feeling that you know what was in the original text, more than some guy reading out of a Latin book and explaining the Latin to you. But neither mode is perfect.
This is an Excellent explanation of some of the many issues in play with trying to bring ancient texts up to modern “snuff”. I believe that the NIV translators consulted a number of the extant early texts for clarification & per that OT professor, when the translation team couldn’t unanimously agree on the meaning the majority one was put into the NIV text w/ the minority one(s) noted in Footnotes. This was also true for disputes on where the breaks between words would occur w/ the alternate ones footnoted.
The intro to the NIV goes into pretty great detail about multiple aspects of the translation. One part that was interesting to me was how they would designate names &/or titles for God. iirc, one version of the word “Lord” was designated by using all capital letters. This might have been one of the ways the NIV team presented “Lord” when the actual words from the text were “Lord of hosts”. That team thought the longer designation would have little meaning to modern readers so devised the shorthand designation.
In my view “Lord of hosts” connotates a more militaristic view, like of a general leading an angelic army. By truncating LoH into a stylized way of showing the word “Lord” the reader is robbed of that LoH meaning being in the forefront of their mind. I rarely turn to the into to find out which way “Lord” is designated in a given text while I am reading a passage.
In my mind, at least in that arena, it seems that the translation team removed a portion of what was present in the original texts & did so in a way so as to have it not be very noticeable as one reads along. I would much prefer that the “Lord” distinctions were presented on the relevant pages, or at least books, so as to not lose the Actual “Lord” designation originally written within the text while reading along!
Typesetting to make distinctions isn’t terribly new; IIRC the KJV used small caps to denote the tetrragrammaton, and that’s pretty much standard practice now (and the italics is used for words the translators put in, largely grammatical stuff, to make the text read like English (e.g., “He saw that it *was* good” from memory of early chapters of Genesis, so maybe not those exact words. Apparently in Hebrew I mean Koine Greek since this is LXX most likely, you don’t need a past tense of “to be” there for that sentence to scan well.)
But just from recollection there were names like “elohim” (which interestingly is a plural, bu the way) and adonai…which I think did get carried over into the NIV. (The only Bible I ever read cover to cover was an NIV so I tend to remember it better (low bar–this was 30 years ago), though now for reference I’ll pick either NRSV or KJV depending on who I am talking to.)
I grew up on the KJV so still think of many scriptures I’ve memorized over the years in that way. I’ve been using the 1980’s NIV for a long time & read the Bible through a few times using that version too 🙂
In the YHWH domain I believe the Jews consider it unpronounceable or at least so Holy as to Not speak, or perhaps even write, it. They often write G-d to indicate “God” & this form of reverence seems reasonable to my view. Protestants seem to turn the Tetragrammaton either into Yahweh, which I prefer, or Jehovah.
Well gotta run to my son’s house to babysit my granddaughter, so Maybe more later 🙂
there is some good info on the NIV here:
https://www.learnreligions.com/new-international-version-niv-700664
OH NO, I just ran across an article that has gender crapola infesting a new version of the NIV published in 2011–yikes! 🙁
In March 2011, the publisher of the NIV, Zondervan, issued a new edition, the 2011 New International Version. This edition replaced the 1984 NIV, which will no longer be published. Like its predecessor, the TNIV, the 2011 NIV was translated using gender-neutral translation rules, resulting in the replacement of gender-specific words (e.g. man, woman, he, she, son, daughter) with gender-neutral words (e. g. person, they, child). In many cases these replacements are made even when the original language clearly intends a specific gender. The Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood, which reviewed the 2011 NIV, issued a statement saying they could not recommend the 2011 NIV because of “over 3,600 gender-related problems” that were previously in its critique of the TNIV. It is crucial to understand that from 2011 on, the NIV will not be the same NIV the world has known and loved since 1984. When purchasing a Bible, “NIV” will now mean the 2011 NIV. Previously printed copies of the 1984 NIV will be sold out and no longer available. When an author quotes a Bible passage in a book and notes it as coming from the NIV, it will probably be the 2011 NIV.
https://www.gotquestions.org/New-International-Version-NIV.html
In some cases gender neutral CAN be appropriate–if the original language doesn’t, for instance have the custom of defaulting to “he” when gender is actually uncertain.
But from this it seems like they went overboard.
(Rest assured my two NIVs predate 2011. So unless yours get burned up in a fire and you have to replace them and can’t find a pre 2011, we should be (ahem) on the same page.)
LOL 😉 😉
I’m going to have to be checking copywrites “religiously” now!
more info from the got questions link above
New International Version – Pros and Cons
Probably the greatest strength of the New International Version is its readability. The NIV is rendered in smoothly flowing and easy-to-read English. One weakness of the NIV is that it occasionally delves into interpretation rather than strict translation. In the NIV, some passages are translated with more of a “this is what the translator thinks the text means” instead of “this is what the text says.” In many instances, the NIV likely has a correct “interpretation” but that misses the point. A Bible translation should take what the Bible says in the original languages and say the same thing in the new language, leaving the interpretation to the reader with the aid of the Holy Spirit. The greatest ‘con’ of the 2011 NIV, of course, is the inclusion of gender-neutral language and the necessity of interpreting rather than translating in order to present a more culturally sensitive or politically correct version.
YOu might find this interesting. The video was done by someone who converted to Judaism, though I don’t think that colors anything until the very end where he gives out his personal preferences (explicitly labeled as being his personal preferences).
Thx, hope to watch it later.
My son Josiah’s respite worker is a Muslim but comes from a family that has had many Christians in it. He has a grandmother who was apparently a radio evangelist even. He also said he had some Christian relatives who converted to Islam, which seems a nearly impossible journey from my view–if you really Know Jesus as your savior how could you possibly decide that no He’s just Only a good person & a Prophet, but no longer the Son of God. Not that Islam promotes logic or anything.
My son Josiah, hearing about these former Christian but now Muslims went into a complete mental/emotional tailspin just knowing that such backsliding was possible. He lived in fear that he would spontaneously turn into a Muslim & was even upset by Islamic words being spoken around him. I wrote about it a bit on my main blog, especially here:
https://specialconnections.wordpress.com/2016/10/09/thoughts-on-faith-crisis/
When Dr. Laura Schlesinger converted to Judaism from some Protestant faith the concept was amazing to me, especially if in her Judaism she stepped away from viewing Jesus as the Son of God, Savior, and Messiah that would be incomprehensible to me. Now if she’s a Messianic Jew, in my mind she’s doubly blessed in Knowing the Truth of Who Jesus is & immersing herself in the wisdom & traditions of an ancient faith, the one in which God Himself chose to reveal Himself to the world!
Posting as is since I really need to run…
Islam is perfectly logical in the formal sense.
It’s just based on some very bad premises. Garbage In, Garbage Out.
As for the issue of Jesus being the Messiah (much less the literal Son of God–the two aren’t the same thing though since Jesus is believed by Christians to be both, the concepts get conflated), you can ask any (non-Messianic) Jew why they don’t think so. Once they’re satisfied you’re not planning to preach at them (or worse), you might get an educational answer. I’m not saying you’d be convinced but you’d at least see how *they* could be convinced.
Thank you for that insight! I would think a Messianic Jewish convert from Judaism Might also be able to flesh out the differences in thinking. AND perhaps be slightly more tolerant of the ignorance their Christian sibling might display in the discussion 🙂
There was a guy here at the Q-Tree some time back, male name in NY as a screen name, who was Jewish & very offended that I’d used the term “Judeo-Christian” in a comment. He tried to explain that Judaism & Christianity have nothing to do with each other whereas I viewed Judaism to be the foundation of Christianity with All of the early biblical Christians–until they began reaching out to Gentiles–being Jews, as was Jesus himself. He went after me like I was the inventor of the concept of “Judeo-Christian” out of whole cloth or something. It was surprising to me 🙂
I usually see “Judaeo-Christian” used by some fundamentalist who wants to have the government more involved in “pushing” Christianity. This is the type, that when push comes to shove, or when he thinks he’s speaking outside of the public eye, WILL forget the Judaeo part.
Quite possibly why that guy was so offended. He likely knows that out of many mouths it just means “Christian actually, we’re just using Jews to sound more inclusive. We won’t be pushing the courthouse to put up a Hannukah display, just a nativity scene.”
There is that for sure. I thought it had more to do w/ legal foundations going back to Mosaic Law. Aren’t the 10 Commandments or a depiction of Moses on a major government building, perhaps the Supreme Court, or something?
I’ve heard the NIV called “dishonest” by some detractors. And of course the KJV-is-THE-Bible crowd don’t care for it because its initials aren’t K J V.
I love the KJV (it’s beautiful, but archaic, language makes it harder to fully understand) but disagree with those who think it’s the Only version of the Bible that’s legit, similar to the Catholics (as I understand it per some of DP’s comments) that Only look to the Douhey-Rheims (sp?) as legit. In Bible Gateway it looks like all of the Catholic usage versions there descend from a Latin translation. Putting scripture through yet Another language as a bridge from original writings to modern versions seems (to me) a sure fire way to increase the potential for errors/distortions…
Now that I’ve run across that material on the 2011 NIV language & gender games I’ll have to be more cautious in just blanket accepting a given NIV Bible as reliable…sigh…
I agree, making a translation of a translation (i.e., a translation of a Latin translation of koine Greek) is not going to help.
ON THE OTHER HAND, many Catholics are more interested in church doctrine than the original text of the Bible (though they’ll claim the former derives from the latter), so in those Catholics’ minds, this is not an issue.
Catholicism reminds me of Phariseeism in that respect, they give extreme deference to the “traditions of men” perhaps to even equate (or rise above) the Word of God. That’s a Really Big No No for me!
What’s interesting is I’ve seen Catholics try to convert Protestants.
They start by pointing out that the canon (i.e., the list of books that actually make up the New Testament) was set *centuries* after Jesus by…the church. (And they are right about that…the first extant list of books that exactly matches what we have today is from 369! And that’s only the first mention; it didn’t get finalized until later.
(The list is by Bishop Athanasius, who 40+ years earlier attended the council of Nicaea. It’s not true that the Bible was *written* at Nicaea, as some idiots like to claim–the individual books had all been written long before–but as of Nicaea there was no agreement as to what was supposed to be *in* the Bible in the first place.)
Anyhow, Catholic apologists will use this fact to argue that tradition actually is upstream of the Bible, so stop paying so much attention to it…
I find it amusing, but then I have no dog in that fight.
“…I have no dog in that fight.” Which could contribute to a degree of objectivity, I guess as a sort of sociologist or something…unless you are rather subversively actually on your own (lack of???) faith journey LOL
Of course, as I’ve said before, I really hope that somewhere in the course of your life you have a Saul on the Road to Damascus moment because I would Love to give you a hug in Heaven…AND it would surely be an Even Better place were it to be your eternal abode 🙂
It is interesting to me that you, as a claimed Atheist (& I do believe you really mean it & not Agnostic) have such in depth knowledge of the Bible, The Church, & history as pertains to Christian faith traditions.
Made me think of this, especially about 2:30-3 😉 😉
You would be AMAZED at the relative level of knowledge about the Bible among atheists, actually. Many (but not me) were once Christians, and will happily tell stories about how they read the Bible…and that actually caused them to begin their deconversion.
In fact the *average* atheist knows more about the Bible (they consistently do better on online quizzes and so forth) than the *average* Christian. (The people on this site tend to be far more knowledgeable about the Bible than average.)
I’ve even heard of Christians deciding to go evangelize to atheists and either being told in advance by other Christians, or finding out themselves the hard way, that atheists as a class are *not* ignorant of the Bible and therefore, you can’t expect to convert them by teaching them about it.
So no, it’s not in any way odd, irionic, or peculiar that I know some things about the Bible. it’s just that the Bible isn’t in fact nearly as compelling to non-believers as believers imagine it to be.
Points well taken…
As for “No dog in the fight, ” I have no dog in the fight because I don’t belong to either of the two sides.
And honestly they’re two different ways of going wrong, epistemically. I’m thus not going to prefer one over the other.
Even if we can get the translation right from the Original Languages of Hebrew, Greek, & Aramaic it is doubtful that we can approach a cultural understanding from the eras within which the scriptures were written to give a more complete understanding of the words.
The Holy Spirit does quicken us & our understanding but on this side of the veil we will be ever seeing through a glass darkly, imo…
Interesting. I get a new message from YouTube:
Looks like the BND (our spooks) are starting to step up their censorship… or maybe the Babylonian bastiges of the EC…
Well past time for playing nice, accommodations, caving…
no doubt
So if we can’t beat them (fair & square since they NEVER have to play by the rules we [used to] respect), we join them in Lawfare debauchery???
No, we have to recognize THE ENEMY MADE the Rules that THEY want US to play by and the Uniparty RINOs are very happy to USE THOSE RULES AS AN EXCUSE TO SURRENDER!
So WE DON’T PLAY BY THEIR RULES.
We stand up to racism that is used as a WEAPON and tell the wielder your race card has EXPIRED.
We tell the WEIRDOS, I do not have to BUY INTO YOUR INSANITY.
And we TALK…
We talk to blacks and Hispanics and others so THEY start to see they are NOTHING BUT CANNON FODDER for the elite.
Believe me the tide IS TURNING based on conversations I have at the Hispanic flea market we do on occasion.
Heck, on Saturday Hubby bought me a red hat that says
“ Yes I’m A Trump Girl Get Over”
It is fancier than this one.
Excellent & encouraging points! TYSVM for sharing!!!
REPORT: Democrats Fear the Term ‘Bidenomics’ is Backfiring
I haven’t even read the article. It just struck me as funny. Of course “Bidenomics” is going to backfire when he’s wrecking the economy. C’mon, man!
That’s the point of his installation…in part 🙁
Yes, so why they’re calling attention to it by naming the economic disaster after him is beyond me!
They should have stuck with “Build Back Bitter” or whatever it was.
LOL!
hubris & hindquarters “heroism”–leading from “behind” & all…spit!
because there are actually idiots in CA who joined a major union and got $20 an hour for flipping burgers at mcdonalds who don’t understand how that increases inflation. THEY were celebrating that raise–not realizing they’re instituting their own demise. basic economics baffles them, so they think this is a good thing. and who do they thank for that? bidenomics.
as long as there are idiots, there will be corrupt politicians to exploit them.
“… THEY were celebrating that raise–not realizing…” it means they are going to get FIRED and replaced by a robot OR the place they work is going to close.
It also means NO OTHER JOBS AVAILABLE FOR THEM PERIOD.
Hope they enjoy living on the streets.
it’s CA–won’t they be getting a basic universal income?
so bidenomics will save them again.
cycle of stupidity!
Also higher Income taxes will be required from these newly rich burger flippers.
…. The Freeze Dried Beef Industry Is Exploding — Here’s Why
Eternal vigilance in ever expanding arenas required!
Swines in the USA have been secretly “Vaccinated” with mRNA injections for years; now they’re coming for the Cattle
Bannon’s War Room: (7 minutes)
Thomas Renz | “I don’t know how else to describe these people they’re psychopaths.” 8 April 2023
https://rumble.com/v2gvl3k-thomas-renz-i-dont-know-how-else-to-describe-these-people-theyre-psychopath.html
It’s Almost like they Want to Corrupt the food supply or something/s 😡
But what about the bacon⁉️⁉️⁉️
Damn good question. If they mess with the bacon, that’s worth going to war over.
Wolf, Help please!
I was checking/replying to comments in the Notifier & there was a nice one from Cthulhu that I was attempting to reply to. Suddenly a red bar appeared & said “comment trashed” & I had a second to process this new info & then the “restore” button disappeared.
Can you recover Cthulhu’s comment that I NEVER Meant to Delete???
My laptop has some Really Weird quirkiness that kicks in, random dashes &/or numbers when not anywhere such keys on the keyboard. I was Trying to type in the notifier reply box to Cthulhu when the red notification of death popped up 😥
I was just about to ask whether I’d spelled “accompaniment” wrong…
LOL I’m working so hard to suppress my inner language nazi too!
Now we know it’s Valerie ‘the Hammer’ Curren.
Seriously, though, I bet that surprised the heck out of Valerie. I certainly never suspected she could do that at all — or that WordPress would make it so easy for her to do by mistake.
Valerie found the Secret Censor button 😂😂😂