Wednesday message- I was Greeked

I could really come to hate Greek.  More in a minute.

This week our verse is one I would have never thought controversial, or would lead me on such a merry chase.  We are up to- and I really should have known it would from where it's located- 1 Corinthians:

1Co 3:16  Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you? 

As I looked at the commentators, I saw my preconceived notions buffeted.  Because, where I had always thought that this referred to every believer as a temple- we've ALL been taught that- the original meaning is that we AS A CHURCH are that temple.  And that bothered me- I guess because if you consider yourself a temple, you have less excuse for sin, more reason to AVOID sin- and I could really use that!  But if you are a brick in a building (which makes sense Biblically), you might lean on the CORPORATE morality and not so much your own.

So I asked the webs- which is it?  And I came upon a GREAT article by Bill Webb on a site called Word and Way.  He references a study by  David May, professor of New Testament at Central Baptist Theological Seminary in Shawnee, KS, which makes several valid points.  First of which is that, the Greek translated as you in all three cases are PLURAL.  Which makes sense, I guess, because Paul wasn't writing to "the Corinthian".  Here are some excerpts:

“Paul is not writing about individual Christians being individual temples with separate Spirits in each temple,” May explained. “Paul highlights that many folks make up one temple, which is the community of faith/church. And in that one community is the one Spirit (unity)...

“A small band of believers is created as a temple without walls that stands in contrast to the various pagan temples in Corinth and its environ,” he explained. “It is David against Goliath but just set in a different form. How can this ‘temple’ thrive and survive when it does not have all the necessary characteristics of a temple: building, rituals, priests, sacrifices and public festivals?”

May believes it survives and thrives because of its distinctive — the Spirit in its midst.

May further believes that the conclusion of verse 16 translated “God’s Spirit dwells in you” or similarly in several translations is best captured in the NIV: “God’s Spirit dwells in your midst.” In this context, it is not so much that a person is possessed by God’s Spirit, but rather that God’s presence among God’s people allows them to worship and serve God.”

For May, verse 17 — “If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy that person; for God’s temple is sacred, and you together are that temple” — should not be separated from the previous verse. (Emphasis mine)

So I thought, "Well, this is a useful happenstance.  I wonder if it could be applied to Matthew 16:18- the verse that calls Peter a rock and leads Catholics to name him Pope?"

Never shoulda went there.

What I found was a fascinating- if possibly apocryphal- exchange between a Catholic and a Jehovah's Witness.  The Jehovan brought up the points I would have, after looking at the verse, because in the Greek Peter is masculine and "rock" as in "on this rock" is feminine.

At this point, I hope you will allow me a fragment of a dirty story to make the point that was about to skewer me.  Working around many Mexicans, I picked up some, er, "gutter Spanish".  I learned in Spanish, everything had a grammatic gender- with masculine marked with an "o" at the end and feminine with "a".  So I asked a friend why the word for the masculine sex organ ended with the feminine "a"?  He told me, "Because it is strong enough for a man, but made for a woman."

Point being:  It might make sense to a speaker, but it'll never make sense to me.

The Catholic answered the Jehovan that the Greek in Matthew had to come through the original Aramaic, which was not a gender language.  For them, rock was rock.  In the Greek, though, the large mass of rock on which Christ would build the Church was in the Feminine gender- and he couldn't give Peter a feminine name.  So he became Cephas, which is more like "pebbles"- and Flintstones aside, that WAS masculine in Greek.

I shook my head and left the bunny trail.

So I set out to find if there was any place that could bring me back to the concept of the Spirit living IN the individual.  For most of my quest, the only thing I learned was: If KJV says "ye", it's plural; if "thou", it's singular.  Not much help.

Then I came to Galatians 4:

Gal 4:4  But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, 

Gal 4:5  to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. 

Gal 4:6  And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" 

Gal 4:7  So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. 

And in 4:7, son, slave, and heir are all singular.  So I guess I am happy now.

This should be a lesson to all of you:  I am not Paul, Peter, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John.  I do my best, with a LOT of help, but you need to check up on me.  There may be a lot of times- like this one- where I "translate" based on my preconceived notions, and don't know it.  I am just a learner like you.

Guess what? Autumn has autumned!

We went out to check the scenery, and guess what?  The colors have exploded!

And I wasn't the only one!

Once upon a time, Scrappy MIGHT have noticed that that dot in the distance is a ground hog... well, maybe not...

Nor did he notice the SECOND one.... until he got up there..

River down, color up

We did a circle of the duck pond, drank out of the river (not me), and moved on down the road...

 Wooly worm forecast still the same... not a HORRIBLE winter, but a rough one...


Then, it was deer time...

At the entrance to the ravine trail...

I was aiming for the one that was leaving, never saw the one landing...

God's Golden Cathedral...

"Hmph.  All these pictures of trees and not enough dog!"

Sunday Message: On Hate

I was woke up from a nap Saturday by Laurie telling me the tragic news- a man had come into a celebration of life and brought death- had come into a celebration of love and brought hate.

I could say my initial thought process was compromised because I was waking up, but I will not.  I will say it was just as tragic because it was.


First thought:  Like the "bombs" this week, or the caravan in Mexico, another fakery for political gain.  What kind of game are they playing now?

Second thought:  What manner of terrorist this time?  Who do we direct our anger to?

Third thought:  Which direction will the media go to spin this against the President, because as we all know, he IS responsible for the dead squirrel on your street, the bird that dropped a load on your car, and the heartbreak of psoriasis.


I staggered into the bathroom, shook off the mid-afternoon cobwebs and said, "Chris, wait a minute."


Eleven innocent people dead.  Several injured including the brave law-enforcement officers who stopped the maniac- and the still-breathing maniac himself.  THESE should have been my first three thoughts.


I could give myself points for how quickly I recovered.  I will not.

I have allowed myself to be infected by the hate that is eating away everything and anything we hold dear.  The concept, as Dennis Miller put it, that "if we disagree, we are enemies."  Buffeted by the thought process (being charitable) of those who look for ways to preach their political hate in every circumstance, I instinctively pushed back with the same hate.   Where's the lie?  Which Hollywood so-called celebrity will blame you-know-who first?

Who do I punch/slander/spit venom at?


And that hate is easy to justify (as Paul would say, here I am speaking as a fool to make a point).  Why, look how the shooter did it!  He built it, by his words, around John 8:44:

42 Jesus said to them, “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I have come here from God. I have not come on my own; God sent me. 43 Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. 44 You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 


From that, even though Jesus was speaking only to a SPECIFIC GROUP- the Pharisees- this man concocted that ALL Jews are children of the Devil.  To do that, he had to use this verse as an anchor to many false assumptions.  Among those were that a local Jewish charity involved in the settling and care of immigrants were "bringing in the people who will destroy us."  Never mind that they were only helping out people who were already being brought in by a government policy.  And that, of course, didn't bother him because he believed that the government, INCLUDING the President, was part of a vast Jewish globalist conspiracy.

Oh, and he was of course a holocaust denier.  Ticking off all the boxes of hate and stupidity.  Calling those he murdered "oven dodgers".


I want you to consider this- a mind so full of hate that he would gladly put Jews into ovens can't believe that someone did it BEFORE him.  This is why they say a mind is "twisted" by hate- in a single coil, they can have completely opposite logics face each other in apparent agreement.

Not a place I want to be.


So, I prayed.  Of course for the people that went through this tragic idiocy.  And for, as I do every day, the LEOs who put their lives at hazard each and every day, including the ones who worked this crime.

And for the shooter.  He still lives, and instead of joining the mob pushing him towards his own personal "oven", we should remember- where there is breath, there is hope.  A convicted felon who moments before was joining the crowd in insulting Christ came to faith in his last moments.  It is NOT for me to judge who God will or will not save, only to pray for that salvation.


But the hardest group to pray for are those who immediately rose to battle on social media- the majority of which were finding "new and exciting" ways to pin everything on the President and his followers.  Even the fact that he moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem- showing far more support for the Jewish people than that lot will EVER muster- is, like with the shooter, twisted.  "If he hadn't moved the Embassy, he wouldn't have made THESE Jews in the US a target."

And personally, I know a Jew who, if he skulks over to read this post, will say of me, "This post PROVES that you LOVE Trump, and if you love Trump, you HATE the Jews.  Because that's what Christians do."


Lord, a few years back, John Lennon wrote the words, "But if you're collecting for people with minds that hate/ all I can tell you is, 'Buddy you'll have to wait' ".  But that cannot be what WE do- what I do.  "Buddy" can't wait- he needs prayed for, now.  He needs to just once, get up in the morning and see Your beautiful dawn and the glory of Your creation.  He needs to look at the wonder of a little child, the cuteness of a kitty, the loyalty of his dog, the majesty of the ocean, a mountain.  He needs to see Your hand in all things, and release- reject- that hate.  Do not wait for Him, Lord, but come to Him, break his chains, present him- even if he has rejected it 1,000 times- the Choice.

Time Machine co-ordinates VILXVIII510102664

Today we arrive at October 26th, 1964- and we just missed the Rolling Stones in their first appearance on Ed Sullivan!

Apparently Ed was miffed that some of them came in t-shirts and suggested that if they return, they 'reform' " in the matter of dress and shampoo"

Instead, we get:


Ten days into his new administration, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson addressed the nation and announced a 15 percent surcharge on all imported manufactured goods in order to combat the nation's trade deficit, as well as tax rebates to encourage British exports.

Dash it all, how Trump-like.  Was he a Nazi?


**************************************************

ANYway, I have no idea what is coming up on today's TM other than two new M10 debuts and a special "I have no idea what to do with Jimmy Gilmer" countdown.  Let me pop out for a minute to see if I can do anything with the 6D victim, and we'll be ready to roll!

***********************************************

In the meantime, enjoy the latest from The Knocks, with help from a duo who slightly altered their first names to come up with the nom de guerre of Sofi Tukker, and our #10 tune...






******************************************************

All right, how's this for a 6D: name the man who, already a household name in music, decided a great cure for depression would be to play professional football?  What singer had a number one hit with two football players singing backup? And what singer, despite already being a singer AND songwriter of some repute, played drums on the 6D victim?  Oh, that's only three, is it?  How's this for a fourth:  Who wrote Beechwood 45-789?


Answer to all of the above:  Marvin Gaye!  Let's start with this article from Jason Plautz of Mental Floss:


Appearing as background singers on the track  (What's Goin' On?) were two of Gaye’s friends, Lions cornerback Lem Barney and running back Mel Farr. Barney had once introduced himself to Gaye by knocking on the door of his Detroit home and the two became fast friends, eventually roping Farr into the friendship. Gaye brought them to the studio when he recorded “What’s Going On” and invited them to sing on the track. However, when Motown producers refused to release the politically-charged single, Gaye again turned to his friends to pursue his longtime dream of playing in the Super Bowl with the Lions.

Barney and Farr helped Gaye bulk up and train to become a wide receiver. He approached coach Joe Schmidt and asked him for the chance to try out. When Schmidt asked him for game film, Gaye reportedly said he had never played, not even in high school, but that he always believed he would score a touchdown the first time he touched a football.According to Schmidt, the first time he met with Gaye he said “If I could sing like you, I certainly wouldn’t want to play football.” The second time Gaye approached him for a tryout, Schmidt decided that he couldn’t put the singer in harm’s way and declined to let him on the field.

It probably all worked out for the best. A few months later, “What’s Going On” was released and Gaye was once again catapulted into the spotlight with what would become his most acclaimed album. And the Lions? Well, they’re still waiting on that Super Bowl.


And the thing that sent me on the quest that led to that gem of a story:  Despite the fact he already had NINE top fortys pop as a singer, he was still playing drums for Motown's legendary Funk Brothers as late as this week in '64, as he did on our 6D song- Martha Reeves and the Vandellas' Dancing In The Street!  It was at #4 this week without a Panel Vote.

************************************

All right, I admit, I was at a loss of a schtik to do with Jimmy Gilmer for his Sugar Shack win, but I have a sweet (see what I did there?) backup plan coming up in a bit.  In the meantime, it's time I did the Panel pi... yes, Nardole?

Well, you could let ME do them...

You don't know earth songs- except what you hear here...

I've been practicing- I've been sneaking down to the mid-seventies and watching The Midnight Special!

All right, I'll let you try- but no Wolfman Jack bits, you hear me?

Yes, Mr Crankypants.  Let me have the one vote wonder list...

Here you go- 19 contestants from 67 stations- AND it's a run-off this week!

Yes, yes... This first one was actually pretty good-  an Australian vote for the first New Zealander to hit #1 outside his own country!  He was Ray Columbus and the Invaders, and the song was She's A Mod.

The Blend wells...

That's Blendells, it's not a recipe...

Er, Blendells were at #88 with La La La La La.   Did this win a grammy for songwriting?

Don't be a cue ball, cue ball.

The Beatles' first American concert opening acts, the Sounds Incorporated, did not chart with this vote from Australia- a version of the William Tell Overture.

Travis Wammack was scratchy- no, wait, he had a song called Scratchy, at #99.

Gayle Garnett was at #2- how did she only get one vote?- with We'll Sing In The Sunshine.

Here are the Beatles with their one representative- so much for your "infestation"- the song Slow Down, which had actually fell off the chart after peaking at #34.

The Kinkys- no, wait, Kinks- were at #35 with You Really Got Me.  Such grammar!

This one is a one hit wonder with a one vote wonder- the Volumes with a song that was NOT their one hit, Gotta Give Her Love.

Oh, how delightful- one vote for Elvis and Ask Me at #67.  Well done, sir!

E:  All right, Shorty, gimme the next runners-up list for I put your head on a golf tee!  Have I The Right by the Honeycombs was at #9 an' got 4 votes...

Chad n' Jeremy, couple'a sissies from England, had A Summer Song at #8 with 2 votes...

The Zombies got three votes for She's Not There at #44.  She ain't here, either, hyuk!

An' Roger Miller got two votes for Chug-A-Lug at #6.  Back to you, El Capitan!

Gee thanks, Elvis.  So like I said, two of our finalists went OT in this battle!  Choose from Leader Of The Pack By The Shangri-Las (#29); Baby Love by the Supremes (7); Doo Wah Diddy-Diddy by Manfred Mann (the top dog); O Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison (4); or Last Kiss by J Frank Wilson and the Cavaliers (3)!  I will be back in a bit to let you in on the last two.


**********************************************************

Ready for our second debut- all the way up at #6?  From 2006's 30th anniversary re-release w/bonus tracks of A New World Record, here's ELO!





************************************************

So to do something in honor of Sugar Shack, I decided that I would look into songs that had sugar in the title- and there were so many, I hadda go take a metformin after compiling my top ten!  So here ya go, Chris' top ten sugar songs:

10- Sugar Shack, Jimmy Gilmer and the Fireballs.  Honestly, I don't care for the song that much, so this is an honorary position.  In fact, I spent half the day changing the lyrics:

Drink a lot of coffee, smoke a lot of hash, but the cops pulled me over- and took my stash
That's why I've got to get back, o to that sugar shack...

9- Sugar Town- Nancy Sinatra.  Again, not a huge fan, but it was gonna be Sugar In The Morning or A Spoonfull Of Sugar- or worse yet, Sheena Easton's Sugar Walls- if I didn't...

8- Sugar And Spice, The Cryan Shames.  It barely cracked or barely missed the top 50 in 1966, and deserved better.

7- Sugar On Sunday, the Clique.  Almost entered the early M10, and hit #22 in 1969.

6- Pour Some Sugar On Me, Def Lepperd.  Oh, come on, you knew this would be on here somewhere...

5- Brown Sugar, Rolling Stones.  One of those songs, along with Sweet Home Alabama, I can't figure out why it hasn't gotten PCed off the radio...

4- Sugar Sugar, The Archies.  I thought I was going to have this at #1, until I found...

3- No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature, The Guess Who.  And I thought THIS was going to be #1 until I hit...

2- I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch), The Four Tops.  And I certainly thought THAT would be my top, until...

1-  





***************************************************

And did you get one of the two who split 15 votes apiece? You did if you picked The Supremes or J Frank Wilson!  If not, you picked one of the three that had 17 combined.  Make your best guess at the winner...


**************************************************


Stat Pack!

I should note what Nardole missed on the Ray Columbus Panelist She's A Mod:  While it hit #1 in Australia in '64, it never CHARTED in New Zealand until 1981- and finished at #2...

Big mover was the a-side to Elvis's Panel song- Ain't That Loving You, Baby.  It went from 53 to 21, 32 spots.

The #64 in '64  nets you a bargain- the ep 4 By The Beach Boys.  EPs were big in the UK, but not so much here.  This was the only one to chart here by the boys, and included Wendy (which peaked at #44), Don't Back Down, their gorgeous rendition of Hushabye, and Little Honda- which peaked at #65 for them, but the Hondells had it at #11 as we speak (relatively).  The ep peaked 57 here and 11 in the UK.

The Ventures held the #101 slot with Slaughter On 10th Avenue.

I knew 31 here and 15 of 50 in the UK, which had several Panel songs aboard (Baby Love #24, Have I The Right 25, O Pretty Woman 2, She's Not There 45, and You Really Got Me 26) and at the top was Sandie Shaw's cover of Always Something There To Remind Me.


***********************************************


The rest of the M10:

ELO is on twice this week, with Train Of Gold falling from 6 to 9.

Also slipping were Escondido's Crush On Her (5 to 8) and Rad City's Ghost Organ (4 to 5).

Alkonost's instrumental of Paporotnik climbs 3 to #7.

Roseanne Cash, makes the 8 to 4 jump with Not Many Miles To Go.

And the top three holds, with What I Want at 3 for Anna Burch, Frankie Cosmos and Apathy at 2, and still at the top...

The Decemberists with Sucker's Prayer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


***************************************

Now the final battle seemed at first to be going nowhere- I was through over a dozen stations before either one got a #2!  But then one of them picked up momentum and won the run-off by a 6-2 margin!  Who was it?  Why, it was...

...the Supremes with Baby Love!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  So you know there'll be good stuff coming next week when the girls and I visit- 1965!

Wednesday Bible Study: The deep dig

Sigh... I just typed this out, and Blogger ate it.  Let me try again...

This post will connect to the yet to be written Sunday Message, which hopefully I can write sometime today, Blogger...  and it gets us back on track in our 3:16s tour in Romans.  The point being, comments have mentioned amazement at the various versions of verses in Scripture, and as I intend to mention, these I think are there to get us to dig, and deepen our understanding.  God has a reason for EVERY word He uses... no matter which one He uses.  This is a study in that.  Another thing you will have gleaned from SM is that I have started to read through Psalms again, and thus it was no surprise when the verses THAT I HAD JUST READ in Psalms 14 this morning were quoted by Paul.

Rom 3:10  as it is written: "None is righteous, no, not one; 
Rom 3:11  no one understands; no one seeks for God. 
Rom 3:12  All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one." 

Paul then goes on to quotes a plethora of verses from both Psalms and Isaiah to continue his point:

Rom 3:13  "Their throat is an open grave; they use their tongues to deceive." "The venom of asps is under their lips." 

Rom 3:14  "Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness." 

Rom 3:15  "Their feet are swift to shed blood; 

And then skips over our verse to continue:

Rom 3:17  and the way of peace they have not known." 

Rom 3:18  "There is no fear of God before their eyes." 

And in between, as I found researching all this, he puts one line that was NOT a quote from Scripture.  Everything else here I've taken from ESV, but I am switching here to MKJV so you can get the gist of the verse:

Rom 3:16  destruction and misery are in their way, 

So why throw a non-quote in the middle of this? First, let's get a little more context.  In this chapter, Paul is fighting a two-front battle: one against the Gentiles, who are using Greek logic to propose that if confession of sin brings grace, then let's sin more to get more grace.  The other side is the Jews who are saying, "You bozos, that's not how it works- let US show you."  So, he has to explain to the Gentiles that it is not a good thing to be a sinner before God; and to the Jews, they are no better off.  And to do that, he throws them a two word curve ball.

The word translated here "destruction" is suntrimma.  This word, when you break it down to the literal base, comes out to be something along the lines of completely turning into a gnawing wound, deeply rutted.  "Grinding into powder" came to my mind.  The word for which we get "misery" is talaipōria, and it also is a deep-dig word, made from two concepts:  to bear the weight of a test, and that test being one that pierces you clear through.  They are the strongest words Paul could find, and they are the ONLY TIMES these words are used in the NT.

So Paul put them here for a reason, to stress what he was getting at.  But why?

The JFB Commentary postulates that the line was "supplementary", connecting to the "feet" reference in v15, and "expresses the mischief and misery which men scatter in their path, instead of that peace which, as strangers to it themselves, they cannot diffuse." 

 But I think it more than that.  

Paul was first dealing with the self-righteousness of the Gentiles and their "logic"; and then dealing with the Jews and their self-righteousness over being the bearers of "the oracles of God" (v2).  The Gentiles could be reached through their logic, as Paul does; then he has to reach the Jews through Scriptures, as we have seen.  But in the midst of this, he had to set this verse- which would stand out as foreign in the midst of all the verses the Jews knew- to get them to pay attention to one simple fact.  They were liable to the same destruction as the Gentiles without Christ- and he used these words so that they understood this was no earthly destruction and misery that they had ever been through- or would be able to say, "Yeah, we've been through that" in, say, 2018.  This was destruction on a scale that could not be conceived as earthly.  And it was not reserved for the enemies of Israel.

And what does it mean to us?

1- God means to use EVERY word He uses.

2- God means to use EVERY version He uses.

3- We all have pre-conceived notions which we use like cookies on a webpage to help us just "skip past" certain things in this life- and God wants us to ABANDON them.

4- At least for me, without the differing versions, the curious words that make me dig deep, I'll never understand or see what those cookies are.  One thing I do know, this process is different than a computer, where I can "clear the cache" and get rid of all the cookies.  These have to be sought out and erased one by one.

Scrappy goes to the woods

What better way to forget about what a stupid direction your job is heading in than to give your best friend his heart's desire?

Somebody's moping that all his water holes are dry...

If you want fall color, the best bet are these little red berries.

"I wonder if they're good to eat?"
"If they were good to eat, something would be EATING them!"

The trees not so much...

"Is that a good enough pose, Daddy?"

"Damn!  This one's dry, too!"

And here we are trying to convince Daddy to go check the dry stream bed for water.
Answer: No.

All right, I'll let you look at this one...

"Damn, dry too!"

Big Guy will be the last to turn colors, and the last to drop 'em

It just amazes me how any specific spot will generate new fungi I've never seen on it before.  Sorry, Jo-Anne...

...but these were cool!

About the extent of color foliage in our area...

And here we have Scrappy examining an amateur Indian encampment.