Cybersalt Digest Archive

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Cybersalt News

Sunday greetings everyone!

You may notice a little formatting change in the Cybersalt Digest today. There will continue to be a CleanQuote in each issue, but we are no longer going to make a graphic version of each quote. Grandma Cybersalt, who lines up each item before I write the news and send everything out, has been making those graphics.

I think Susan has done a great job making them, but she is super busy with her work for refugees and running our household so I thought I'd make it a bit more efficient for her work on the bi-weekly digest. I am regularly in awe at how she gracefully organizes and juggles all the roles and jobs she has taken on. 

In fact, the person in this week's video share has nothing on my wife!

Click watch to watch the video.

Enjoy the rest of today's mailing!

~ Pastor Tim

Driving to a new restaurant, a woman took several wrong turns. When she finally found the right road, she asked her husband, "Why didn't you tell me I was lost?"

"I thought you knew where you were going," he replied. "You always know where you're going when I'm driving."

Fish bite twice a day ... before you get there and after you leave.

"Be a Billionaire!"

and Help

Refugees and

Persecuted Christians

I was the editor of a small daily newspaper. Someone came into the newsroom and asked if anyone was a notary public.

One not too bright reporter said, "I guess I am. I voted that way in the last election.”

"Since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage."

- C. S. Lewis

A golfer, now into his golden years, had a lifelong ambition to play one hole at Pebble Beach, California the way the pros do it. The pros drive the ball out over the water onto the green that is on a spit of land that juts out off the coast.

It was something he had tried hundreds of times without success. His ball always fell short, into the ocean. Because of this he never used a new ball on this particular hole. He always picked out one that had a cut or a nick.

Recently he went to Pebble Beach to try again. When he came to the fateful hole, he teed up an old cut ball and said a silent prayer.

Before he hit it however, a powerful voice from above said, "WAIT...REPLACE THAT OLD BALL WITH A BRAND-NEW BALL."

He complied, with some slight misgiving, despite the fact that the Lord seemed to be implying that He was going to let him finally achieve his lifelong ambition.

As he stepped up to the tee once more, the voice came down again: "WAIT...STEP BACK... TAKE A PRACTICE SWING."

So he stepped back and took a practice swing.

The voice boomed out again, "TAKE ANOTHER PRACTICE SWING."

He did. Silence followed.

Then the voice spoke out again: "PUT BACK THE OLD BALL."

Featured Illustrations are items well suited for illustrating or inspiring a point in a sermon, speech, or devotional. Funny, moving, or perhaps even graphic, the point of them is the point you make with them.

Rev. James Snyder, God's Penman, writes . . . . 

Several months ago, I had two cataracts removed from my eyes. How they got there, I don't know. As far as I can remember, they never asked my permission, and furthermore, they never paid rent for being there.

According to the eye doctor, and doctors are never wrong, I now have 2020 vision. I've never had such vision since I was ten years old.

All I really need now are reading glasses, and my vision is quite good.

The Cybersalt Digest is a ministry of Pastor Tim and Cybersalt.

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Cybersalt News

Oh look, Chicken Thursday!

One of my favorite things about my consulting business is that I am often contacted by people from around the world who are looking for help with their web pages, businesses and organizations. I enjoy learning about the situations they live in and a bit about their lives.

One recent contact was a person in Italy. He was looking for help with the website of his healthcare focused company (a site with 1.5 millions users and 3 million pageviews per month.) After taking care of business we visited for a while and I learned that he was an avid tennis player. He has also been confined to a wheelchair since he was hit by a car when was 17 years old.

Tennis is not a sport that has ever "floated my boat" but I do admire the athleticism of those who play it - on foot or from a chair!

Today's video share is tennis related. It's a video of Mansour Bahrami, who makes tennis look really easy to play. Of course, only the best in the world can make challenging things look easy.

Click here to watch the video.

~ Pastor Tim

The orthopedic surgeon I work for was moving to a new office, and his staff was helping transport many of the items. I sat the display skeleton in the front of my car, his bony arm across the back of my seat.

I hadn't considered the drive across town. At one traffic light, the stares of the people in the car beside me became obvious, and I looked across and explained, "I'm delivering him to my doctor's office."

The other driver leaned out of his window. "I hate to tell you, lady," he said, "but I think it's too late!"

Just a warning if you're buying a watch on Amazon - I learned the hard way that if it says you can swim with it, this only applies if you can already swim without it.

"Be a Billionaire!"

and Help

Refugees and

Persecuted Christians

“I saw the man remove my ballot from the box," said Tom devotedly.

"Look deep into nature, and then you will understand everything better."

- Albert Einstein

A minister in Florida lamented that it was difficult to get his message across to his congregation:

"It's so beautiful here in the winter," he said, "that heaven doesn't interest them." Then he added, "And it's so hot here in the summer that hades doesn't scare them!"

Featured Illustrations are items well suited for illustrating or inspiring a point in a sermon, speech, or devotional. Funny, moving, or perhaps even graphic, the point of them is the point you make with them.

The Cybersalt Digest is a ministry of Pastor Tim and Cybersalt.

Click here to view this edition online!  

Cybersalt News

Sunday greetings everyone!

Today, Grandma Cybersalt and I are going to a church building to participate in a worship service for the first time since March of 2020. I realize that's an odd way of saying "Today we are going to church" but let me explain.

I don't think worship only happens in a church building. Worship is showing reverence and adoration to God. That can be done in many ways and in many places. Throughout the pandemic we worshipped with our church family through tuning into the streaming of our church's worship team and pastors leading us over FaceBook or YouTube. Songs and sermons were heard, and communion taken with reverence and adoration. 

I also I don't think worship is only singing and listening to sermons. If you can do it with reverence and adoration to God, it is worship. How you drive to work, treat your neighbours, speak to annoying people, file your taxes, and more is just as important worship as what takes place in church (maybe even more in some cases.) This truth brings a perspective to every aspect of our lives that can transform even the most mundane of places into a cathedral and make the the smallest of acts equal to the greatest performance of any angelic choir.

Don't get me wrong, the Bible teaches God's children to gather together to worship and I'm super excited for gathering in person again! But let's not limit worship to one place and one activity.

Today's video share is also about perspective. This video shows something we all know, but something we probably don't have an accurate perspective on. We know the earth is rotating, but this video shows it really is!

Click watch to listen the video.

Enjoy the rest of today's mailing!

~ Pastor Tim

My friend Ann and I were eating at a Chinese restaurant. When an elderly waiter set chopsticks at our places, Ann made a point of reaching into her purse and pulling out her own pair.

"As an environmentalist," she declared, "I do not approve of destroying bamboo forests for throwaway utensils."

The waiter inspected her chopsticks.

"Very beautiful," he said politely. "Ivory."

My son made the mistake of telling me I was being overdramatic so I just changed the WiFi password; we'll see who's overdramatic in about 5 minutes.

"Be a Billionaire!"

and Help

Refugees and

Persecuted Christians

The time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement?

1 bananosecond

"Keep your face to the sunshine and you will never see the shadows."

- Helen Keller

It seems like every time our piano tuner John comes to our house, he scolds me for waiting too long between tunings. I agree with him that it should be done every six months, but I don't really think about it until the piano sounds off-key.

The last time he came over, I was on the defensive. "If you would send out a postcard reminder like the dentist does every 6 months," I declared, "I would make sure to call you for an appointment in a timely fashion."

Without hesitating, he replied, "OK -- from now on, when the dentist sends you a postcard, call me."

Featured Illustrations are items well suited for illustrating or inspiring a point in a sermon, speech, or devotional. Funny, moving, or perhaps even graphic, the point of them is the point you make with them.

Rev. James Snyder, God's Penman, writes . . . . 

The last several weeks have truly been hectic in every sense of the word. Trying to catch up can be a never-ending job. When I think I’m caught up, I see another thing I need to do.

I have learned that kicking the can down the street only hurts your big toe.

With so much to do lately, it's hard to prioritize what should come first. The one thought rattling through my brain is, will anybody know if I don't do this job?

It doesn’t have to rattle too long before I come to the answer to that inquiry.

The Cybersalt Digest is a ministry of Pastor Tim and Cybersalt.

Click here to view this edition online!  

Cybersalt News

Oh look, Chicken Thursday!

Today's video share is a news story from my neck of the woods.

We live on the coast of the Salish where there are two types of orca (killer whales) swim around. There are the resident killer whales, which only eat salmon, and the transient killer whales which eat mammals.

For context, the whale in this story is one of the mammal eating kind, lol.

Click here to watch the video.

~ Pastor Tim

A customer at Green's Gourmet Grocery marveled at the proprietor's quick wit and intelligence.

"Tell me, Green, what makes you so smart?"

"I wouldn't share my secret with just anyone," Green replies, lowering his voice so the other shoppers won't hear. "But since you're a good and faithful customer, I'll let you in on it. Fish heads. You eat enough of them, you'll be positively brilliant."

"You sell them here?" the customer asks.

"Only $4 apiece," says Morris.

The customer buys three. A week later, he's back in the store complaining that the fish heads were disgusting and he isn't any smarter.

"You didn't eat enough, " says Green. The customer goes home with 20 more fish heads. Two weeks later, he's back and this time he's really angry.

"Hey, Green," he says, "You're selling me fish heads for $4 apiece when I just found out I can buy the whole fish for $2. You're ripping me off!"

"You see?" says Morris. "You're smarter already."

Yesterday my husband thought he saw a cockroach in the kitchen; he sprayed everything down and cleaned thoroughly. Today I'm putting the cockroach in the bathroom.

"Be a Billionaire!"

and Help

Refugees and

Persecuted Christians

“You know you are broke when you can’t even pay attention.”

"Sometimes you won't know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory."

- Dr. Seuss

In his book, Sled Driver, SR-71 Blackbird pilot Brian Shul writes:

I'll always remember a certain radio exchange that occurred one day as Walt (my back-seater) and I were screaming across Southern California 13 miles high. We were monitoring various radio transmissions from other aircraft as we entered Los Angeles airspace. Though they didn't really control us, they did monitor our movement across their scope. I heard a Cessna ask for a readout of its ground speed.

"90 knots" Center replied. Moments later, a Twin Beech required the same.

"120 knots," Center answered. We weren't the only ones proud of our ground speed that day as almost instantly an F-18 smugly transmitted, "Ah, Center, Dusty 52 requests ground speed readout."

There was a slight pause, then the response, "525 knots on the ground, Dusty."

Another silent pause. As I was thinking to myself how ripe a situation this was, I heard a familiar click of a radio transmission coming from my back-seater. It was at that precise moment I realized Walt and I had become a real crew, for we were both thinking in unison.

"Center, Aspen 20, you got a ground speed readout for us?"

There was a longer than normal pause... "Aspen, I show 1,742 knots."

No further inquiries were heard on that frequency.

In another famous SR-71 story, Los Angeles Center reported receiving a request for clearance to FL 60 (60,000ft). The incredulous controller, with some disdain in his voice, asked, "How do you plan to get up to 60,000 feet?"

The pilot (obviously a sled driver), responded, "We don't plan to go up to it, we plan to go down to it." He was cleared.

Featured Illustrations are items well suited for illustrating or inspiring a point in a sermon, speech, or devotional. Funny, moving, or perhaps even graphic, the point of them is the point you make with them.

The Cybersalt Digest is a ministry of Pastor Tim and Cybersalt.