Chris Loehmer Kincaid's Blog, page 126

What do you collect?

Friday morning, Hubby and I went to Mondovi to a junk sale. I bet that 20 or 30 years ago, people would say, “A junk sale? Why would anyone buy someone else’s junk?” Today, however, it seems pretty popular. From local rummage sales to shows like “American Pickers”, everyone wants to get their hands on old stuff.
Why is that? Coz I sure know that I have enough old junk of my own, yet I went to that sale two days ago and picked up some new old junk.
Why do we collect the junk we do? Why can’t we part with some stuff? Why do some people become hoarders? And what’s going to happen to all that junk when you die? Coz I am positive you can’t take any of it to heaven with you.  
It’s interesting that in the Old Testament, whenever any groups went out to war, the winner always took the spoils – the gold, silver, animals and all the other possessions owned by the defeated party. They took all the plunder and spoils, including the people and animals. (Numbers 31:11 New International Version)
In the New Testament, however, Jesus says:
            “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. Matthew 6:19-21 New International Version

So while it is fun collecting all kinds of treasures here on earth, we need to remember what is important and keep our eyes on the prize – Heaven. 

Downtown Ottawa

Ottawa, Illinois, is an adorable historic town in north-central Illinois. On vacation near there last week, we spent a morning touring the downtown, but I think we could have spent several days there. We probably would have seen more of the town, taking a walking tour, except that the temperature was in the mid-thirties that particular day. The only good thing about that was that we were the only people out and about.   I already alluded to Washington Park in my blog post of April 5, so I won’t repeat myself. I will share one more picture though.
 A series of outdoor murals brings the history of Ottawa to life, including this one of General W.H.L. Wallace, who had been a friend of Abraham Lincoln’s.  The LaSalle County Courthouse  Jordan Block Park. As cold as it was outside that day, it was great to see flowers blooming and green grass.  We didn’t buy any Wisconsin Kringle at the Ottawa bakery, but we did pick up some treats for later.
 The Scouting Heritage Museum. The little old man who was volunteering there that day followed us around the entire time, talking non-stop, making it hard to enjoy the museum, but he meant well. (That’s a picture of a scouting uniform, and not the little old man.)  Before we left the downtown area, we took a tour of Reddick Mansion
   It was built before the Civil War for an Irish immigrant, William Reddick. At the time it was the most lavish home in the Midwest, having been built for a whopping $25,000, certainly a small fortune at the time. 

 One last cool old building, the Ottawa Visitor’s Center. 

Snowy start and finish to vacation

 Last Friday, with heavy snow falling, we returned home from a one week’s vacation to north-central Illinois. I wasn’t expecting summer-like conditions, no sunning on the beach, but I thought that the weather would be bearable 320 miles south of here. I was wrong. We changed plans a bit, only spending two days outside all day, and doing a lot of driving and viewing from the car the rest of the time.

Our first full day there, Sunday, turned out to be the best weather wise. Though it started out at 40 degrees, the sun was out all day and it warmed to 70 degrees. Unfortunately, the constant wind blowing didn’t make it feel that warm.
We made a mad dash through as many parks as we could, knowing that the forecast for the rest of the week wasn’t very promising.
Morris City Park and Pool.   Gebhard Woods State Park in Morris.
 Mt Carmel Cemetery outside Morris 
 Illini State Park in Marseilles.  
Council Overhang at Starved Rock State Park  
Ottawa Canyon and Falls at Starved Rock State Park
 Kaskaskia Canyon and Falls at Starved Rock State Park.
Upper Dells at Matthiessen State Park  
Lower Dells at Matthiessen State Park  
Actually, with a total of 900 taken on this trip, I don't think this few pictures from each day is going to be enough. Do you want to see more at each place or should I zoom through the week and not bore you to death? 

Snow, Snow, Go Away

 “The rain and snow come down from the heavens
    and stay on the ground to water the earth.They cause the grain to grow,    producing seed for the farmer    and bread for the hungry.It is the same with my word.    I send it out, and it always produces fruit.It will accomplish all I want it to,    and it will prosper everywhere I send it.” Isaiah 55:10-11 New Living Translation
A co-worker emails a daily Bible verse and a week ago, she sent this one. A great passage, but I can’t get past the word “snow”. Because here it is almost the middle of April and we still have snow on the ground.
On Friday, as Hubby and I were driving home from vacation, there were white-out conditions and we got a fresh four inches in the backyard. We’ve had a relatively mild winter, few days where the temperatures stayed below zero and no big snow storms, so we’ve been anticipating an equally pleasant spring. But it’s as if old man winter is just spreading the season out this time, making up for lost time in January and February.  
As the Bible passage above says, we need the moisture to water the ground so our plants can come up. But why can’t that moisture be rain and not snow? The saying isn’t “April snow showers bring May flowers”.
“It will accomplish all I want it to,” God says. So whether snow, rain, monsoon, or even drought, God’s got His plan and we have to go with it.
Lord, Heavenly Father, thank you for the weather You send. Help us to see Your glory in whatever is in our skies above. Amen

Chicken Work

I don't want to steal the thunder from my daughter and the rest of the team she is in Kenya with, so you need to click on this link to see the blog my son has been posting while they have been there.

Just in case you don't want to bother going to that link, here are some pictures to tease you.



So go check it out. And let me know when you are ready to join one of us on a trip to Kenya to make a difference.

Food for Thought on this Election Day

Today is the primary election in Wisconsin. I can’t – and I won’t – talk politics here or tell you who you should or shouldn’t vote for. Instead let’s look at a different presidential election.   
It began on August 21, 1858, in Washington Park in Ottawa, Illinois, when Stephen Douglas of the Democratic party debated a little known Republican lawyer named Abraham Lincoln for a Senate seat. The most heated topics of the day were slavery and state’s rights. Lincoln, as we all know, believed that slavery was wrong and that as a united nation, all states needed to stand together to abolish it. Douglas, on the other hand, believed that each state should be allowed to decide if slavery was right for them.  Lincoln lost the Senate seat to Douglas, but two years later he would win the presidential election. The Civil War broke out immediately afterward and we all know how it ended. Slavery was brought to an end.
No man has a right to own any other man. That was the basic premise on which this country was founded and it was upheld at the cost of many American lives, on both sides of the issue.
How would our country’s history have been different if it hadn’t been for Lincoln? If the northern states hadn’t prevailed in bringing an end to slavery? Are the issues any different in 2016? Aren’t our freedoms just as important now as they were in the 1800s?

Just food for thought. Now get out and vote. 

The Stone was Rolled Away

 Very early on Sunday morning, just at sunrise, they went to the tomb. On the way they were asking each other, “Who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance to the tomb?” But as they arrived, they looked up and saw that the stone, which was very large, had already been rolled aside. Mark 16:2-4 New Living Translation
Last Sunday, Easter, we celebrated the empty tomb. The stone had been rolled away and Jesus had risen from the dead. As Christians we know that this act granted us forgiveness from sins and that at the time of our deaths we will be raised as well.
But who wants to think only of dying? Does being a believer mean all we have to look forward to is our last breaths on this Earth?
That’s where the stone comes in, a large stone, so large that it had taken several of the Roman soldiers to roll it into place. The women who went to the tomb that first Easter to care for Jesus’ body had no idea how they would ever roll that stone away.
Yet, God had barely lifted a finger to move it. He barely has to lift a finger to remove our heavy stones, the burdens of our lives. There is no weight, no physical affliction, no emotional pain that is weighing us down that is too much for God to eliminate.
Lord, God, thank you for sending Your only Son to cure of us our sins. Help us to find peace and joy in knowing that the stone was rolled away. Amen When I starting writing this post, I had a picture in mind that I wanted to use. It is of a huge boulder which rolled into a house near Alma, Wisconsin, many years ago. I could not find that picture or any of the pictures I took between 2008 and 2010. As disappointing as that is, I guess God wanted me to use a different picture. This is from the Wari Ruins in the Andes mountains of Peru. I was there in 2009, and the pictures from that trip are the only ones I seem to have from that year. 

Rock in the house at Alma 

Easter Morning

From the Book of Matthew, Chapter 28 (the New Living Translation)
The Resurrection Early on Sunday morning, as the new day was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went out to visit the tomb.
2 Suddenly there was a great earthquake! For an angel of the Lord came down from heaven, rolled aside the stone, and sat on it. 3 His face shone like lightning, and his clothing was as white as snow. 4 The guards shook with fear when they saw him, and they fell into a dead faint.
5 Then the angel spoke to the women. “Don’t be afraid!” he said. “I know you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. 6 He isn’t here! He is risen from the dead, just as he said would happen. Come, see where his body was lying. 7 And now, go quickly and tell his disciples that he has risen from the dead, and he is going ahead of you to Galilee. You will see him there. Remember what I have told you.”
8 The women ran quickly from the tomb. They were very frightened but also filled with great joy, and they rushed to give the disciples the angel’s message. 9 And as they went, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they ran to him, grasped his feet, and worshiped him. 10 Then Jesus said to them, “Don’t be afraid! Go tell my brothers to leave for Galilee, and they will see me there.”
The Report of the Guard11 As the women were on their way, some of the guards went into the city and told the leading priests what had happened. 12 A meeting with the elders was called, and they decided to give the soldiers a large bribe. 13 They told the soldiers, “You must say, ‘Jesus’ disciples came during the night while we were sleeping, and they stole his body.’ 14 If the governor hears about it, we’ll stand up for you so you won’t get in trouble.” 15 So the guards accepted the bribe and said what they were told to say. Their story spread widely among the Jews, and they still tell it today.
The Great Commission16 Then the eleven disciples left for Galilee, going to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him—but some of them doubted!
18 Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. 19 Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. 20 Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Saturday Vigil

From the Book of Matthew, Chapter 27 (the New Living Translation)
55 And many women who had come from Galilee with Jesus to care for him were watching from a distance. 56 Among them were Mary Magdalene, Mary (the mother of James and Joseph), and the mother of James and John, the sons of Zebedee.
57 As evening approached, Joseph, a rich man from Arimathea who had become a follower of Jesus, 58 went to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. And Pilate issued an order to release it to him. 59 Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a long sheet of clean linen cloth. 60 He placed it in his own new tomb, which had been carved out of the rock. Then he rolled a great stone across the entrance and left. 61 Both Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were sitting across from the tomb and watching.
62 The next day, on the Sabbath, the leading priests and Pharisees went to see Pilate. 63 They told him, “Sir, we remember what that deceiver once said while he was still alive: ‘After three days I will rise from the dead.’ 64 So we request that you seal the tomb until the third day. This will prevent his disciples from coming and stealing his body and then telling everyone he was raised from the dead! If that happens, we’ll be worse off than we were at first.”
65 Pilate replied, “Take guards and secure it the best you can.” 66 So they sealed the tomb and posted guards to protect it.

Good Friday

From the Book of Matthew, Chapter 27 (the New Living Translation)
11 Now Jesus was standing before Pilate, the Roman governor. “Are you the king of the Jews?” the governor asked him.
Jesus replied, “You have said it.”
12 But when the leading priests and the elders made their accusations against him, Jesus remained silent. 13 “Don’t you hear all these charges they are bringing against you?” Pilate demanded. 14 But Jesus made no response to any of the charges, much to the governor’s surprise.
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 23 But the mob roared even louder, “Crucify him!”
26 So Pilate released Barabbas to them. He ordered Jesus flogged with a lead-tipped whip, then turned him over to the Roman soldiers to be crucified.
27 Some of the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into their headquarters and called out the entire regiment. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him. 29 They wove thorn branches into a crown and put it on his head, and they placed a reed stick in his right hand as a scepter. Then they knelt before him in mockery and taunted, “Hail! King of the Jews!” 30 And they spit on him and grabbed the stick and struck him on the head with it. 31 When they were finally tired of mocking him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him again. Then they led him away to be crucified.
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35 After they had nailed him to the cross, the soldiers gambled for his clothes by throwing dice. 36 Then they sat around and kept guard as he hung there. 37 A sign was fastened above Jesus’ head, announcing the charge against him. It read: “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews.” 38 Two revolutionaries were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left.
39 The people passing by shouted abuse, shaking their heads in mockery. 40 “Look at you now!” they yelled at him. “You said you were going to destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days. Well then, if you are the Son of God, save yourself and come down from the cross!”
41 The leading priests, the teachers of religious law, and the elders also mocked Jesus. 42 “He saved others,” they scoffed, “but he can’t save himself! So he is the King of Israel, is he? Let him come down from the cross right now, and we will believe in him! 43 He trusted God, so let God rescue him now if he wants him! For he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” 44 Even the revolutionaries who were crucified with him ridiculed him in the same way.
45 At noon, darkness fell across the whole land until three o’clock. 46 At about three o’clock, Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” which means “My God, my God, why have you abandoned me?”
47 Some of the bystanders misunderstood and thought he was calling for the prophet Elijah. 48 One of them ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, holding it up to him on a reed stick so he could drink. 49 But the rest said, “Wait! Let’s see whether Elijah comes to save him.”
50 Then Jesus shouted out again, and he released his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain in the sanctuary of the Temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. The earth shook, rocks split apart, 52 and tombs opened. The bodies of many godly men and women who had died were raised from the dead. 53 They left the cemetery after Jesus’ resurrection, went into the holy city of Jerusalem, and appeared to many people. 
54 The Roman officer and the other soldiers at the crucifixion were terrified by the earthquake and all that had happened. They said, “This man truly was the Son of God!”