2Pe 1:7 and with godliness, brotherly kindness....
You would think that, as famous as these verses are, I wouldn't have had such a time tearing them down! But if there are two things God is trying to get through our heads with them, they are 1) they are gifts from Him, and 2) we need to WORK at them- and apparently that applies to the research, as well. So let's get right to the breakdown.
You may already know that "brotherly kindness" comes from the Greek words that give us "Philadelphia". And that is where we start (no, not in Philly!). Philos works out to 'actively fond' of someone. Adelphos is "a brother". It is the same word used when John talks about the Brethren...
1Jn 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
...and so we better realize that that word "active" covers a LOT of territory. But what about the word brother? One linkage I found was in Leviticus...
Lev 19:17 "You shall not hate your brother in your heart, but you shall reason frankly with your neighbor, lest you incur sin because of him.
Lev 19:18 You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against the sons of your own people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the LORD.
Clearly drawn here is the link between 'brother' and 'neighbor'. Interesting to look at the words used for each. The word translated 'brother' is expressly noted as being 'in the widest possible sense'; That for 'neighbor' actually connects to the bond between a shepherd and his flock. Thus, what God was expressing to Moses was, that EVERY man should be treated as your CLOSEST friend.
And that is HARD. I got side-involved in an X discussion between a Christian friend and someone who took her to task over her stance on immigration. This is highly charged politically, but we fail to see it from a SPIRITUAL side near as much. The friend had a well-deserved blind spot: the weakness of border security has allowed "immigrants" to bring fentanyl into this country, and fentanyl killed a relative. The other person was coming at it from another angle, one that shows Christian love even to our enemies. Where I jumped in was trying to explain to her, if she disagreed with everything else the other person said, he was dead right on one thing: "Fentanyl kills the body; hate kills the soul". Her response to me began with "This person is 100% infected with Marxism."
That is a reason to disagree; not to judge, name-call, or hate. And the person's response, I hope, hit her dead center:
If you think it is your job to stop evil, you don't really believe Jesus saved the world
Jesus forgave all sins
Your job is turn away from your own.
Now his theology is just slightly off, but the point is there: Brotherly kindness means we CANNOT hate our enemies.
In closing, I am brought to mind how many times a different commandment- "Honor your mother and father"- is the only one that comes with a promise. But this one, adding brotherly kindness, comes with one as well, from Jesus's own lips:
Mat 10:41 The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward, and the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward.
Mat 10:42 And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly, I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward."
Well, the car had to be dropped at the shop today, so I took a day off, and Laurie's back-issuing Restoring Galveston, so there's no time like right now...
Yeah, ta sleep in...
But we have two weeks to let everyone know about! Last week's lone debut was at #10, and it is somewhat new from Beabadoobee...
For a third week at #9, The Tragically Hip and Wait So Long...
Dropping 3 to 8, Linkin Park and The Emptiness Machine...
Up one to 7, Matt Berry and I Gotta Limit....
Up 4 big to 6, Nothing More and Jenny...
Slipping one to 5, Geowulf and Nightmare...
Up 3 to #4, Lucinda Williams and While My Guitar Gently Weeps...
Out of the top spot, Linkin Park at 3 with Heavy Is The Crown...
Make that, Heavy WAS the crown, haw!
Honeycutters hold at 2 with Jukebox...
And a new #1-
...Leon Bridges and That's What I Love!
Okay, so let's hit THIS week's first debut while I gather the feature year info! I have been trying to shove this one into the top ten since the end of August, and I have finally succeeded! Here is Phantogram at # 10....
So this week we go to 1984, and our 5 biggest movers in the top 40 are-
5 (tie)- 7 spots from 16 to 9 for Sheena Easton's Strut- peaking 4 here, 8 Canada, 13 Australia.
- 7 spots from 31 to 24 for the Honeydrippers and Sea Of Love- At least one Canadian chart had it peak at 2, it hit 3 here, and 5 in Australia.
4- 8 spots to 34 for Duran Duran and The Wild Boys- a chart topper on Cashbox, 3 in Australia, 2 in Canada.
3- Up 10 to 22 for New Edition and Cool It Now- a #2 here, but only 38 in Canada (where they didn't need it any more cooled down, I guess), and non-existent in Australia.
2- 11 spots to 38 for Julian Lennon's Valotte- it topped off at 9 here and in Canada, 75 in Australia. Unlike the last one, this is a song worth Australians to check out.
And our biggest mover this week:
Oops! 'Pat B' was pat Boone...
...Pat Benatar and We Belong, up 12 to 28! 5 here, 7 Australia, 8 Canada. My favorite on the top 40 this week... Probably Huey Lewis and the News, Walking On A Thin Line at 32. That was 23 here, 70 in Australia, 40 Canada (Not surprising it was bigger here, being a Vietnam song).
Um, better get yer other debut in...
Yep, and while I get that together, here's our other M10 debut- the lovely Ms Amira Elfecky....
The #1s this week in '84- it was Prince and Purple Rain here... a song that hit 3 in both Australia and Canada. In Canada, it was Wham! and Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go, a #1 across the board; and in Australia this week, it was Stevie Wonder's I Just Called To Say I Love You, also an across the board #1.
And that leaves us this week's chart!
The Tragically Hip finally move, from 9 to 8 with Wait So Long...
Beabadoobee moves to 7 with The Perfect Pair...
Matt Berry up one with I Gotta Limit at 6...
5 is where the Honeycutters tumble to with Jukebox...
4 and up 2 for Nothing More and Jenny...
3 and holding for Linkin Park, Heavy Is The Crown...
2 and up 2 for Lucinda Williams and While My Guitar Gently Weeps...
And Leon Bridges holds the top spot with That's What I Love!
What, no new picture?
At this point, I'm afraid I'd post Lloyd Bridges....
I suddenly realized it has been a Very Long Time since I've done a MWN post. So let's see if it was worth my while...
ITEM: The Moscow Times
If at first you don't succeed- maybe you should quit
Sergei Andreev of Russia was sentenced to 24 years in prison. His crime?
- Tried to hit an army recruitment center with a Molotov Cocktail. It failed to blow up.
-Tried again, same recruitment center. Exploded, did not penetrate. No damage.
-Apartment search showed he was gearing up for attempt #3 when arrested.
At a guess, I'm thinking perhaps the attacks were caused because the army didn't WANT him...
ITEM: BBC
The jokes write themselves...
A Swedish minister's phobia of bananas has reportedly led to government officials asking for rooms to be free of the fruit.
Local media outlet Expressen has quoted from leaked emails it has seen, in which staff working for minister Paulina Brandberg ask for any bananas to be removed before official visits.
Brandberg, the country's gender equality minister, is said to have posted on X in 2020, saying she has the "world's weirdest phobia of bananas". The posts have since been deleted.
There has got to be a dirty joke about a female "gender equality minister" being afraid of bananas... I'll let the reader deduce them. This was my most appealing story...
ITEM: The Japan News
The 'solution' MAY be the problem
His name is Naoki Hyakuta, leader of the Conservative Party of Japan. His discussion on his YouTube channel: the declining Japanese birthrate. His ideas: Women “would have their uteruses removed when they turn over 30” ; “women who are single after 25 years old not to be allowed to marry.”
Huh?
Later, Hyakuta posted an apology on his X account. “I cannot deny that the expressions were too harsh,” he said. “I apologize for those who were offended.”
But what the heck do they have to do with arresting the DECLINE in population? At the time, he explained, he was “hypothetically speaking of science fiction as a novelist.”
Clear as mud, Naoki-san.
ITEM: APNews
But would you WANT to?
The Trevi Fountain in Rome is where tourists go to toss coins in, the legend goes, to ensure a return trip to the Eternal City. However, currently it is closed and drained for maintenance. What's a superstitious tourist to do? The city has a plan:
...if you can just hit the little bitty pool on the other side of the maintenance barrier, it SHOULD still work...
ITEM:NPR
I think we made a boo-boo, Boo-Boo...
A group of men were arrested in LA for insurance fraud. They claimed- with video to prove- that a bear destroyed three high value autos. Beings as bear attacks in LA are unusual, the insurance inspectors called in the Dept of Fish and Wildlife, who were shown the vids, and declared them "Humans in a bear suit." So they went to the address of the claimants and found...
...a bear suit, complete with handheld claws.
ITEM: UPI News
Proofreading: the lost art
In a somewhat familiar story in MWN annals:
Mattel has apologized after inadvertently directing customers of its new line of Wicked dolls to a pornographic website, stating it is taking action to remove the misprinted toys' packaging.
"We deeply regret this unfortunate error and are taking immediate action to remedy this," the toy company said in a statement to CNN.
Apparently the box printer left out the "movie" part of WickedMovie (dot) com, leading customers to approximately triple the porn site's usual traffic. Well, they say Disney isn't near so wholesome as it once was...
ITEM: FoxNews
And in conclusion...
The site has a slideshow of "factoids, from which we pull the following:
-It takes around 10 million mouse clicks to burn one calorie...
- Until 2013 in Russia, beer was considered a soft drink- explains a lot...
- Wombats poop in cubes, so they don't roll away when they mark their territory...
- In a lifetime, we eat the equivalent of 6 elephants (I think my 7th one is looking nervous...)
- There are more trees on earth (estimated 7 trillion) than stars in the Milky Way (estimated 100 billion)...
And one more item-oid: The owners of GrubHub sold the company today for 600 million or so. They bought it 2 years ago for 7 BILLION... caveat emptor, dudes!
Unlike last week, the word is almost universally translated as godliness. So what is that? Being like God? Good luck with that. No, it's a way of life with several facets, and for simplicity, I'm going to tell you the facets, and you can look them up on your own if you wish.
The references attached to godliness bring you to these facets:
A peaceful and quiet life (1 Timothy 2:2)
The teaching, learning, and preaching of the Gospel message (1 Tim. 3:16)
The promises of God in your life, both now and in Eternity to come (1 Tim. 4:7-8)
A life in agreement with the words of Jesus (1 Tim. 6:3)
Gaining in life through contentment in every circumstance, without considering physical gain (1 Tim. 6:5-7)
Seeking after that which will keep your faith and build it (1 Tim. 6:11)
The admonishment that you can APPEAR to be godly while NOT being godly (2 Timothy 3:5)
Knowledge of God's truth (Titus 1:1)
It is, like all the rest, a gift granted by Jesus, that you need to work on (2 Peter 1:3)
Waiting for and hastening the day of Jesus (2 Peter 3:11)
It does NOT come from inside us (Acts 3:12)
Now I would like to flesh a couple of these out with the verses so they make sense despite my poor wording:
Gaining in life through contentment in every circumstance, without considering physical gain (1 Tim. 6:5-7)
1Ti 6:6 Now there is great gain in godliness with contentment,
1Ti 6:7 for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.
1Ti 6:8 But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
The anti-world pattern, happiness without the material junk.
The admonishment that you can APPEAR to be godly while NOT being godly (2 Timothy 3:5)
2Ti 3:2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy,
2Ti 3:3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good,
2Ti 3:4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
2Ti 3:5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.
And finally...
It does NOT come from inside us (Acts 3:12)
Act 3:12 And when Peter saw it he addressed the people: "Men of Israel, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we have made him walk?
Now, I know that's a lot, but I found 2 places that really bring it into focus. The one was from one of the commentators- which one I stupidly forgot to write down, even though I told myself to- who said:
"It embraces the confession of the one Living and True God, and life according to that knowledge."
And in the Old Testament, it gets spelled out in Micah 6:
Mic 6:8 He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?
Reminds me of Jesus saying:
Mat 11:28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Mat 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Mat 11:30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."
I had just finished setting the M10 in stone. A quick perusal of X before I began the research for the post. But then...
Kirk Herbstreit
@KirkHerbstreit
This is really hard to write but so many of you have loved and cared about Ben that I wanted to let you know. We found out today the cancer had spread throughout Bens organs and there was nothing left we could do-we had to let him go. I’ve had dogs my whole life but Ben was 1 on 1. He was smart-loving-gentle-patient-inquisitive-and welcoming to all. Always a big smile and a soft tail wag. He and I could communicate..he and I understood each other and had each others backs. He was with me more than anyone at home and traveling with me for work. Such an easy going companion. Hard day-but he will live within all of us forever. God please bless his majestic soul and thank you for putting him in my life for the last 10 years-a true blessing.
Love you Ben. 🙏🏼
Ben had been going with Kirk to the games he covered for over a year... it was sometime during that year that he let us know that Ben was undergoing these treatments for lymphoma. Everywhere they went, the teams made the neatest "credentials" for Ben...
One week, Texas, Notre Dame, and I believe South Carolina all announced Ben had 'committed' to their teams! As one guy put it, Ben "became the mascot of an entire sport."
Reading Kirk's words are exactly the way I felt with Scrappy. I started scrolling the tributes on X...
...minutes later, Misty was giving moochies to stop tears.
So forgive me, but I can't tonight. Maybe I'll do the show tomorrow morning, maybe not. Right now, I have a heart to put back together....
Steadfastness is how I learned it. My e-Sword program's 16 translations (that I can read) call it steadfastness just once, patience 9 times, endurance 4 times, once 'a quiet mind', and one combination: "patient endurance". The actual word translates to "to stand under". Under what? That's one of many things I had to learn the hard way doing this post.
In between three major learning experiences, I realized it included four elements. I could back them up with Scripture, but this once I want them to stand for themselves.
1- To 'stand under' assault from temptation, circumstance, persecution, maybe a hundred other things, without falling.
2- To do it again the next time, even if the next time is a couple seconds later. And do it again. And again. And again.
3- To do it with the thought of a reward to come, perhaps not in this life. Paul was really good at pointing this out; open any of his letters to a random page and see for yourself.
4- To do it out of love for someone or something- In this case, for the One who died for you.
I was wondering about how else to flesh this out without running through all the usual examples (many of which, to no great surprise, we've hit in the earlier four posts. God decided to give me a whupping instead.
Without details, it was right as the church broadcast was starting this week, and a situation arose. I was scolded for something, and it was indeed my fault. Now I don't know about you, but when this happens my flesh reaction is "Save ego at all costs": Desperately try to find a way to shift the blame back on the blame-er. I was trying hard to shut that down, asking God to shut up these stupid feelings these stupid defenses, and let me just take the blame.
At this point, I return my attention to the sermon, and Pastor Josh hit me right in the teeth. He went through a list of reactions, EVERY ONE of which I was both having and fighting, over and over.
And he closed it out with, "And the reason this happens is, we're just very bad at being God."
Ouch.
You see, I learned that one of those things we have to STAND under the weight of- sometimes- is a sense of ENTITLEMENT. In fact, I'm convinced, at least for me, entitlement is the A-1 enemy of steadfastness. And this was not a big, "I deserve A,B, and C" type of entitlement- I've wrestled that in the past. No, this was a sneaky, 'don't even realize it' moment. Sheer not stopping to think about others. Not bothering to see actions that "have nothing to do with my witness" have EVERYTHING to do with my witness.
Since then, Jesus has been gently showing me other areas where I've had just as big a blind spot. Satan, however, has been rerunning the "turn it back on them" stuff, the "need to get revenge" stuff, and any and every past sin he can possibly get to cling to it, in my head over and over.
And Jesus said, "You DID want to learn about patient endurance, right?"
I could go on, but you get the point, hopefully, and too much would lead to venting and then entitlement and, so on. But God did give me something else that needs to be said about being steadfast. Moments ago, I was looking for something, anything, about steadfastness to help me. One finger was in my Bible's topical guide, seeing how almost everything it could find boiled down to my four elements above. I turned to another finger, which had rested, apparently, right where God wanted it. I flipped it open to Job 10, and listened to another of Job's somewhat whiny rants. But then I went on to chapter 11, and his buddy Zophar gave me another blow to the teeth:
Job 11:12 A vain man is lifted up into pride, and thinketh himself born free like a wild ass's colt.
Job 11:13 But thou hast hardened thy heart, and hast spread thy hands to him.
Job 11:14 If thou wilt put away from thee the iniquity that is in thy hand, and let not injustice remain in thy tabernacle:
Job 11:15 Then mayst thou lift up thy face without spot, and thou shalt be steadfast, and shalt not fear.
"Born free like a wild ass's colt"- another way of saying, I'm no good at being God.
"Put away the iniquity that is in thy hand"- This is me not letting go of certain sins- whether I recognize them/admit they are sins or not.
"And thou shalt BE steadfast".
In short, I'm not steadfast against temptation because I haven't taken my hand off the sin.
A lone man looking for means of expression in a tsunami of information. Seeking truth justice and the American way in the perspective of a Nixon conservative. And the Commissioner of the free world's smallest and best fantasy football league.
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