Gina Stopped By



Gina stopped by today.  Gina is about 5'4 and weighs 280 pounds.  She stopped by yesterday and asked my brother, her neighbor, if he would like her to come to the house and perform a cleansing with sage.  "It's a meaningful Native American custom," she said.  She continued, "I can go through the house with the sage (burning incense), cleanse and bless your home."  I turned away thinking of something I was trying to finish in the living room.  I heard my brother say, "sure come by tomorrow."
I turned around, waited for her to leave, and screamed at my brother. 

My brother's wife died less than two weeks ago. Cleanse with sage!  An old Native American cleansing!  I got over it quickly because I was there to support my brother not to stop people from supporting him.

Gina stopped by the next evening.  We followed her from room to room.  Then downstairs until we entered the room where my sister-in-law died.  "Should we do this room?" she asked.  My brother said yes, and we proceeded to gather near the room we wanted to avoid.  She had filled the entire room with the smell of sage and then turned to leave.  My brother said wait, and then embraced her with a hug of thankfulness.  We weren't converted to any new strange belief.  However we were touched by this act of kindness and this symbol of closure.

Gina Stopped By-And I'm Glad She Did.

LTL

Paradise

                                                                

Jesus said to the man hanging next to him on the cross, "Today, you will be with me in paradise."  It's easy to argue over the grammar used in the translation of Jesus' words.  Perhaps it's not so easy to see the thief on the cross hearing those words.  What good thing had he done?  Not much good is reported about this man.  He was a thief.  How real was his repenting?  Doesn't sound like he repented.  What theology did he follow?  We're not sure he knew any theology.  What "hermeneutic" was the driving force behind his study of scripture?  Doubtful he new such a thing as a "hermeneutic?" 

So what did Jesus see in this man that he would offer him paradise-on that very day?  One thought is that the story revolves around not what Jesus saw in the man, but rather what the man saw in Jesus.
Maybe that thought holds the key for the thief, and perhaps that thought holds the key for me in living with and for Jesus.

When I can see that Jesus is the center of my faith and not my accomplishments, perhaps then I'll be able to see Jesus as my daily rescuer, my companion, and my friend.

And what a friend he is!

HTBH


He seemed to know Jesus.  In his travels he probably had heard of this man who offered hope and acceptance to everyone he met.  He seemed to sense this person hanging next to him was different.  He thought he could tell there was hope for him.  Then he did the unthinkable.  Then he took a step that was as difficult as the one Zacchaeus took when he climed the tree to see Jesus.  Then he did what would be hard for me, maybe all of us.  Then he asked Jesus to be a part of his kingdom.  There was no waiting to ask this question.  Time was running away from him.  There was no time to formulate the words.  There was no time
wonder if it was the right thing to do.  He simply said, "Lord, remember me in your kingdom."


Often we refer to Orcas Island as paradise.  "Just another day in paradise."  Orcas is cool, but to be remembered by Jesus is beyond description.  I'm glad he will remember the thief on the cross, and I'm glad he will remember all of us!

Writing Revelations

Interesting how something can take your thoughts in a new direction.  When the blank rabbit said writing
styles differ, I began to wonder why.  I also wondered if I could change mine enough that it would seem fresh and like someone else was blogging for theocs360.  Not sure if this brain teaser will stay with me.  However, it must be like personalities.  Not famous people, but the personality that has been developed over time, including the one with which we receive at birth.
Never thought of changing a writing style.  Where to start.  The Apostle Paul wrote more than half of the Bible's New Testament.  His writing style was so predictable that the New Testament book of Hebrews is assumed by many Bible scholars to be written by someone other than Paul.  The theology is not the problem, but rather the writing style is significantly different than Paul's other letters (books).
Can I do it?  Can I blog and leave the impression that it isn't roger worley?  How do I begin this quest?
Stay tuned-particularly you blank rabbit! (We don't know his color or what kind of rabbit he is-this is a tough time for all of us at theocs360)

rabbit chaser

Times Are Changing

As we kickoff the year, we're looking at new options.

An idea we proposed was to stick with this blogging website, and create a YouTube account in order to upload videos. However, we also considered other outlets of creativity. We thought we'd check out some other blogging websites. One of these, Blog.com, ended up being exactly what we needed, without every capability we needed to be able to use on the iPads (curse you Adobe Flash Player!!!).

TBC...

Sprinting, Jogging, But Not Quite Running...

The OCS 360 has officially kicked off for the school year, and with its brand new season come brand new technical problems. We've already found major ones, including a direct inability to post videos on the Blog while using the iPad. We can still post videos through a regular computer, but we have no way to get them to that computer from the iPad.

Another one is more of a personal issue for me. As you all know, last year I was known as The Blue Rabbit. However, this year, at least currently, I am at a personal inability to go by the aforementioned name. This is due to not being able to change the colors we type in on the Blog (yet again, so far). We're trying to resolve this matter, but it may require using an app for the iPad, which would mean we may, or may not be down for a week or two while we figure out all of the shenanigans we can come with through the app.

As we start adjusting, the Blogs will become more frequent, and hopefully by November we'll be running along at top speed.

Another change this year is our number of staff. Sierra Haugen, known on The OCS 360 by her pen names Rambunctious Commentator, Nudge Nudge Wink Wink, Bwana, and many more, will not be joining us this year. This leaves us with a total staff of two people; Mr. Worley and myself. Now, since this proposes a 50/50 chance of who's writing what blogs, I'm going to issue all of you, the readers, a challenge: Try and be the first to say who wrote which blogs. This can be done by logging in using a Gmail account, and then posting a comment on the blog.


Good luck.



~The ____ Rabbit

PS: Keep in mind tht even if we use our pseudonyms, It does not guarantee that it is actually that person. Think of how we differ in our writing standards. Then again, those are changeable, too. ;)

Sorry About That...Wait, What?!

It's a bird!
It's a plane!

No, it's The Blu-

...........................Wait...what? Where's my color? Now I'm...Am I forced to become...The Rabbit? No color? What is this madness?! And...and...no videos? What in the world? How could this happen?! What do we do?! Oh no!!!


~The Sad ____ Rabbit

Our First Commericial! (And he didn't even know it was happening!)

///:::~>>>>>>#{\\|://Technical (//:bbbbbzzzzzzttttt://) diff/---4;(((//sigfntmsg/iculties///::>>>||:bbbbbzzzzztttt))/: please///bbbzzt:::/-///:::stand));(:by////.2..........

Cc...//:............(END TRANSMiSSION)