46 degrees this morning

So says my temp gauge on my MacBook. I knew I woke up chilled this morning around 6, with the window having coming open more than the little crack I'd left when I went to bed. Vicki usually sleeps with another half-blanket on her side, so I scooted over and snuggled with her to warm up.

But with two pieces of pizza last night, the lactose intolerance had already kicked in and my nose started running like your outdoor faucet. By mid-day that should taper off, I hope.

Maybe I'll work from home this morning; the office is going to be really cold. No indoor heating or air condition around here. I did have a little heater cube at the office before it burned out.

Let's see, I've an editorial for FMag to write ...

Sunday night debriefing; sermon outline

The day was blessed in the churches' meetings. Jorge taught the Bible school this morning on gratitude from the story of the ten lepers. Vagner led the singing; he's become our de facto song leader, if not in name. Adauri led the meditation for the breaking of bread and for the offering. I preached this morning from the prophet Micah, using the verse (2:13) from my article last Monday's Forthright Magazine editorial, but I went a different direction with it, citing four characteristics of God's rescue of his people then, and how those impact us:

The one who can break through barriers will lead them out; they will break out, pass through the gate, and leave.

The title was (translating from Portuguese) "God the Breaker." Here's the outline:[more]
  1. FUTURE. Micah's prophecy about both God's punishment and his rescue of his people were yet future, sign that God is sovereign, in control of history and our affairs. We speak of providence today. It's a code word to say that God still is working, is still in charge, still moves nations and men and affairs toward the goal he has established. The book of Revelation is kin to Micah's prophecy, painting a picture of suffering and of the need for faithfulness, a message that opens the window to what God is doing in the world, a call to faithfulness to the Lord and his work. "To be sure, my commands bring a reward for those who obey them" (Micah 2:8).
  2. DIVINE. The series of third-person singular verbs highlights that it was God's action that changed the people's situation. The phrase sometimes used in Portuguese, that a situation can change only by God himself (so Deus mesmo), seems to carry more despair than hope. But God does act, even today, in his people's lives.
  3. COMPLETE. The Portuguese versions have "opens a way," one translates the phrase as "make an opening." These are very weak for the impact of the verb, which transmits the idea of a complete defeat for the enemy. Much like a brother in Christ who uses explosives to break boulders and rocky ground for buildings or highways. This violent action is God's to overcome, much like the atomic bomb in WWII resulted in unconditional surrender of Japan.
  4. SUDDEN. Though God does not always act in sudden and quick motions, he does so here. Just as in 2 Kings 7, when, after a long period of siege, God caused the Syrian army camped around Samaria to flee, resulting in the immediate relief of the inhabitants of the city. God may, though there's no guarantee that he will, act in our lives so suddenly and reverse our fortunes, alleviate suffering, provide solutions. We expect things to happen slowly, often expressing doubt at God's power, like the Samaritan king's right-hand man, "even if the Lord made it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?" (2 Kings 7:2).
The outline was nicer in Portuguese, with all the adjectives in the masculine: futuro, divino, completo, repentino.

As usual, we had lunch with Jorge, Paula and Daniel, at the Colinas Mall today, and Rose from Taubate was coming back with them from Sao Paulo. We all came back to the house afterwards, had some tea and cake that Paula had made and brought.

The Taubate meeting was also blessed. Ricardo led singing, Jorge led the communion meditation, Humberto directed the offering, Haroldo read 1 Cor. 13, and I preached from some material I used at the Southern Illinois Preacher's Retreat earlier this month on the gifts of the Holy Spirit. I went a bit longer than usual, I never time myself, just preach until I get finished. Leila usually tells me how long I preach afterwards, but she stayed at home this afternoon since she was not feeling well, had the flu last week, and wasn't any better after the ladies' day in Sao Paulo yesterday. She did go to church this morning at SJC, however. She almost never misses either place, unless she's at camp, so everyone asked about her.

At Taubate, we meet in a hotel conference room. Today in an adjoining room, some religious group had loud instrumental music, hand-clapping and loud singing in a sound system, that made it hard at times to concentrate in our meeting. Afterwards, I went and asked if this was going to be a regular thing or one-time. Was relieved to hear the latter.

After a busy weekend for the ladies in Sao Paulo, I nodded on ordering a pizza, so it's getting cold as I write.

Wife and Daughter arrived safely from ladies day in SP, husband now content

 
Late they arrived, but they did make it fine. I picked them up at the bus station around 8 p.m. Vicki didn't teach at this one, but she had people requesting her material in written form that she'd given at other ladies' retreats and had requests for advice throughout the day.
 
One of two speakers was Marlene, a sister in Christ from Belo Horizonte. She blames me for getting her started with public speaking. She's been a speaker at ladies' events nine times so far this year, with two more commitments already set, and two more invitations came to her today. I'm not sure how I served as an encouragement to her during the time we worked at the congregation where she worshiped, but I'm glad to have been a small cog in her life. She's told me she's writing a book as well.
 
Vicki also heard that Belo Horizonte missionaries Mike and Melody Ford, with whose lives ours has intertwined at different points, will be returning permanently to the US. They were instrumental in establishing the El Dorado congregation in the city of Contagem.
 
About 120 participated today in the ladies' day at the Itaquera congregation in the capital. Besides Marlene, a sister from the hosting congregation also spoke. It started, after registration and breakfast, at 9:30 a.m., and finished around 5 p.m.

How Many Read My Lines I'll Never Know

 
HOW MANY READ MY LINES
 by J. Randal Matheny
 
How many read my lines I'll never know,
Or if they quickly scan or read them slow, 
For few, so few, will ever leave a note
 To say they stopped for truths that I promote; 

Nor can I say if they were touched within, 
Where only God's invisible Spirit has been; 
As fingers click to advance the restless soul
And opinions quick to vote from poll to poll.

Although my frequent posts have paltry views,
'Tis mine this task to write and tell Good News;
As few below there be who're moved or stirred,
There's One above who reads my every word.
 
If you like this poem, please link to it from your site or email, rather than pasting or copying it elsewhere, without permission. Thanks!

I thought my cellphone chirped in my pocket. Turns out that ...

With cellphone in my jeans pocket in case one of the ladies (read, wife or daughter) calls while at the ladies day in SP, I thought I heard a signal, one of those from the company. Turns out it was my stomach moaning.

Not that I'm hungry, mind you. Just ate freshly toasted bread and a cappuchino over at the padaria just now. So I'm rarin' to go.

My breakfast consisted of a wonderful little banana (no time for kitchen duty), such as one cannot get in the US, ripe, sweet, tasty, but that didn't last long, so I had to get reinforcement once I got here to the office. :)

Still playing around with this new service, all this done by email and then getting distributed all over the Internet. Nice!

Calling it quits for the night, eyes are crossed

Whew! It's been a long day, started at 5 am, and since the ladies left,
I've been sitting here plodding on with posterous and various nefarious
apps and ideas.

Officially midnight according to my clock. Way past time to run the dogs
out of the house and call it quits.

More tomorrow. I'm glad for what I've learned today. For sure. Gonna
help a lot in the near future.

Ladies gone to SP for meet Sat.; just me and the dogs here

The ladies left on a bus for Sao Paulo this afternoon and I returned to
an empty house. Unless you count two dogs and three fish, which I don't.
Unless someone can hold an intelligent conversation, the house is empty.
That even excludes some people I know.

Anyway, they're staying the night in the capital for a ladies day
tomorrow. Leila has a "festa junina" party, a cultural party, something
like country, done during June every year. All the schools and many
clubs host them. This one will be hosted by the music school where she
attends, but held at the owner's home, the next block down from our
house.

Speaking of block, yesterday the last lot in our stretch of street was
cleared for construction. When we moved here 12 years ago, only about
half of the some 96 lots in our little neighborhood had houses on them.
There are now few left. Our area of town is becoming highly developed;
it was nearly open country behind us when we arrived. SJC is growing,
exploding, and the property values have likewise ballooned, so much so
that we couldn't buy our house today if we tried to do it over again.

Some of that is the steady decline of the US dollar over the past 10
years, a good part also unusually steep rise in property here in SJC.
The population has grown from mid 400k to 700k today, over a 15-year
period. A huge hike in human souls packed together.

Speaks all the more why we need to be here teaching the gospel.

Lackluster game w/ Brazil already classified; only the bread was tasty

What a slow dance this game between Brazil and Portugal! No attack, no
serious play, just running down the clock. My eyes got heavy from the
ping-pong.

It's going to have to be a different team when they meet Spain or other
teams advancing to the final. Kaka's return will help, but seriously,
time to get moving!

Anibal had homemade sausage bread, and Vicki took coffee cake for
halftime. That's about the only thing that had flavor to it. Plus the
company!