Ding, Ding, Clang, Clang! Someone must have rang the dinner bell here in the back yard. We have a bevy of visitors this morning. Maybe it has to do with the 45 degree temperature without rain. And it is supposed to go up to 59 degrees today. But my radar shows that 59 will be dragging a lot of rain with it.

This morning's guest list includes; red-headed woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, wrens, sparrows, finches, junkos, a bluejay, cardinals (they're taking a bath), a grey squirrel and a brown squirrel, and of course the local bullies -- starlings. But --- God created them all so we will feed them all. There is certainly enough food out there. I filled most of the feeders Saturday after we got back from Wildbirds Unlimited. I spent over $150.00 there and that doesn't count the $75.00 I saved with my discounts. From there we went to Meijers and shopped for food for us and only spent about $50.00.  I think there is something wrong with this picture. Well, yes --- their supply will last a lot longer than our's will.

Yesterday we chose a nondenominational church to attend for our morning worship.  It is one of a couple of nondenominational mega-churches we have here in Evansville. It was different certainly than we are used to. They had basically a half an hour of praise singing taht you stood for, then the pastor (one of many that they have) came in and gave a sermon on Acts Chapter 2. Then he said a prayer and we were out of there. They might have had 1000 people in the service which is really a lot of people considering they have three services on Sunday and a service on Saturday night. The pastor's message was good, the songs were okay, but some how, for Ms. Kate and I it lacked a sense of spiritual connection with the other worshippers. People were constantly coming in and going out during the service, carrying their coffee cups etc. It is a beautiful, well built sanctuary with nicely cushioned theater seats, and perhaps it is too well built. The sound is dead. In small churches, when the congregation sings and lifts up their voice in praise and prayer to God, it fills the church and it fills the soul. Yesterday, people were singing but it sounded like a dull murmur. I couldn't really even hear Ms. Kate who was singing beside me. The other thing that struck me was that not a single person spoke to us. And I understand why. When you have a church of over 4000 "members", spread out over four worship services, who knows who is a stranger and who is a member. It essentially creates four separate churches. We'll try it again, perhaps at a different worship time. We also want to try some of the other churches around town. We have no intention of changing from our denomination, but it is interesting and it is a good experience to see how others worship. As long as the message is focused on God and the living Jesus Christ --- perhaps the ritual and dogma is unimportant.

Today is a holiday; Martin Luther King Day. Dr. King worked tirelessly back in the 1960's to bring a sense of social justice against the racial bigotry and inequality in this country; and it eventually cost him his life. Unfortunately, we are no closer to solving those issues today than we were before. If anything, the situation has gotten worse. Maybe you could take some time today to lift up our nation in prayer and pray that we might see one another and recognize something that you and I could do to be better fellow citizens in the country. Have a blessed day.