Time Machine co-ordinates VICL6317356

Today we go to July 3rd, 1956- another of those "nothing happening here" days, apparently, as I was forced to look at one of those "if you were born on" sites- a very lousy news-gathering procedure, fer shure- and this is what I got:

On 28.August.1955, Sunday, your father has produced the semen that will be half of you soon.

He produced 1000 sperms every second of his life and you will be lucky one out of 500 million sperm he sent on their way in the conceivement. You may find interesting to know that if he had drunk (or not drunk) coffee on this Sunday morning, you might be born completely as someone else (for instance in the opposite sex) as Caffeine changes the speed of male sperms.

Ugh.  On the other hand, if your particular sperm had been born today, you'd be due May 9th of next year.  Or something like that.

Anyway, welcome to a near- 4th of July Time Machine!  Here at the lovely Dominion of Misty, it is hot and dry, and with the proclivity of neighboring additions and fireworks, this may well be the last TM before we are rendered homeless from a wildfire (unless it rains between now and then, which would seem to be an event on  the Noah or Elijah scale of miracles), so let's enjoy Perez Prado as POTM and see what else we can come up with- hopefully nothing that involves more biology...



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I have a sneaky live plan on Independence Day celebrating, so before we go there, let me do a 6D!  And I want to do it now because there are NO M10 debuts and I thought I would throw in a song to play that went with the 6D.

His name was Ira Kosloff, and he was a hard man to find anything about.  He was the co-writer of 6 songs.  One of them was our 6D victim; the others had various very small successes, none of them on their own passing #24 on the charts.  I decided to play the other five songs with Laurie the other night, and we agreed (I know I agreed) that I liked EVERY ONE of the five better than the big hit.  There was one I liked the most, and I will play that tune- right after I tell you about the other four.

Venus De Milo, recorded by Bob Manning and Orchestra- it peaked at #29 in 1954.
Love Me Again- its most famous appearance was as the b-side of Bell Bottom Blues by Alma Cogan, a #4 UK hit in 1954.
I Spoke Too Soon, a #24 hit for the Crew Cuts in 1954.
Heartaches At Sweet 16, the b-side of Kathy Linden's 1959 #11, Goodbye, Jimmy, Goodbye.

And the one I'll play for you, which I don't believe was ever released; the Viscounts first recorded it, but I fell for the cover by Skeeter Davis...





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Senor Prado, how nice to have you along!

Gracias, Mr Martin!  A lovely, er, ship you have here!

Yeah, you'll have to excuse the mess, those Fleetwood Mac Kids really tore the place up last week.  So are you up for playing a new game- even if I fall flat on my face doing it?

Well... si, bien!  

Okay, so what I am going to do, with no real preparation beforehand, is I'm going to look at the Martin Era 2.0 charts for Billboard and Cashbox this Independence Day week... and if they have different number ones, YOU get to pick your favorite!  Sound good?

But, Senor Martin, que if I no know the song?

Relax, it's a Time Machine!  We'll merely stop time, have you listen to the songs, and then start things back up to make your pick!

This ees no dangerous?

The only danger is if I don't find any they differ ON...

Ah.  Then eet will be jour fault?

Si.  So let me fire up the charts, and let's see how it goes.... (flips levers... smoke rises... Perez coughs quietly, growing fear in his eyes...)

Okay, so 1955 should be an easy one!  Cashbox has Les Baxter's Unchained Melody, while BB has your Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White...

I take my song. How you chain a melodia, anyhow?

Er, yes. Next up... 1962, my birth year!  Here it was CB playing David Rose's The Stripper, vs Billboard's Ray Charles doing I Can't Stop Loving You...

Is a very good song for Ray, but I like the Stripper, she is more fun...

She sure is!  Our next year is 1965, where CB puts up the Byrds' Mr Tambourine Man against BB's I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie Honey Bunch) by the Four Tops...

I like the Tops... makes me more want to dance!

I'm glad I made you pick these instead of me on this one, amigo!  Next song battle... the very next year, where BB puts up Frank Sinatra's Strangers In The Night against the Beatles and Paperback Writer...

Oh, I like Sinatra for a long time.  I take him.

1969 then gives us Henry Mancini's Love Theme From Romeo and Juliet against Elvis's In The Ghetto...

Oh, I like Mancini, the soaring, rising...

"I don't know if I like your attitude, amigo!  Just because it's an instrumental..."

PP:  You know what they say, Senor Presley- busca la etiqueta de la unión*...

(* "Look for the union label...")

Next year, and we're almost to the end, is 1976, where it's Afternoon Delight by Starland Vocal Band on CB and Wings with Silly Love Songs on BB...

Ai, I don' know on this one, ese!  I think I take the first one, for the girls...

EP:  I bet Chris would too, seein's as he's got that crush on Taffy Danoff...

We should have HEEM pick his winners too, si?

EP:  Yeah, that'd be a good idea...

Just hold on a sec, pahdners... let's see if we have one more contest... and we do!  BB has the Rocky Theme (Gonna Fly Now) by Bill Conti, vs CB and Alan O'Day's Undercover Angel...

EP: He'll take the instrumental again...

PP:  I'll take the instrumental again...

EP:  See, toldja!

All right, so I will follow your suggestions and pick MY winners...  Right after Horace Bellbottom gives us the Panel situation this week!

AHEM, yes, this week the survey of 31 stations gave us 15 contestants to choose from.  Of these, only three had 3 or more votes, and thus become your finalists.  Please choose from:

Miss Gogi Grant with her #1 this week, The Wayward Wind...
Er, Be Bop-A-Lula by Gene Vincent and his Blue Caps at #12...

And the last contestant, I have to make mention that its position on Cashbox was due to the combining of 2 versions.  The song was entitled Moonglow and Theme From Picnic.  On the Billboard charts of this week, Morris Stoloff was at #3; George Cates was #9.  On Cashbox, both versions were at #2, but it was the George Cates version that got the votes necessary to make the finals, and thus his version is your finalist.

I should note also, that Laurie and I put them to the

test, and we both took Cates, for the same reason:  That constant brush on the cymbal got annoying.  Cates' version was much cleaner and more enjoyable for us.

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At this point, I've left us a lot to clean up here, so hang on tight!  First off, our big mover this week was Be Bop-A Lula, climbing 22 from 34 to 12; our charts from the English Speaking World show Pat Boone's I'll Be Home on top in the UK ( it peaked at 5 here at the end of March), and Kay Starr ruling Australia with the Rock And Roll Waltz (which hit the top a few weeks before).

That song that Ira Kosloff had the big hit with?  Elvis's I Want You I Need You I Love You....

EP:  That damned thing?  I never liked that chopped up, rushed out thing either! Uhm,  I mean, hey wait a minit?  Whaddya mean, ya didn't like MY song?

Anyway, the Panel didn't like it either, and it got no votes from Cashbox's #6 slot.

And this week's M10...

 Badfinger's Baby Blue redux tumbles from 6 to 10.

The War And Treaty hold at 9 with Jealousy.

The Jayhawks' 2020 hit, This Forgotten Town, gets shoved from 3 to 8 this week.

The Explorer's Club are still at 3 songs on the chart.  One Drop Of Rain up one to #7.

Blackberry Smoke's Midnight Rider up one to #6.

Margo Price shoots up 5 to #5 with Letting Me Down.

Explorer's Club #2:  Can't Find The Time reverses course and moves back up one to #4.

The Jayhawks' 1995 hit Bad Time slips from 1 to 3.

Also reversing course are the Shacks with Smile Now Cry Later, back from 4 to #2...


And the #1... seems we still are waiting on one more from...

...the Explorer's Club, at the top with Didn't Want To Have to Do It!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


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Hey, jou no forget to make your picks!

Alright, alright, let me see here...  Perez, I take you over Les Baxter... I guess I'll take The Stripper over Ray... You can't beat those Four Tops vocals, Levi Stubbs, man... we part company at Paperback Writer, one of my favorite Beatles tunes... definitely In The Ghetto... Silly Love Songs, so there!  And Undercover Angel, if for no better reason than the Rocky theme continues to be overplayed, while the broccoli gods have let off on Alan O'Day.  Satisfied!

PP: Si!

EP:  Yep!

Good!  Would one of you like to pick up the Panel winner?

PP:  Por favor, you do it, Senor Presley!

EP:  Okay, li'l feller!  So we have a 2 way tie for loser... Moonglow an' Be Bop-A-Lula both got 9.7%, and yer winner with 22.5%...

... Gogi Grant an' The Wayward Wind!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nice job, bud!  Next week, Gogi Grant and 1957!  (Barring the wildfire, that is...)

Wednesday Bible Study: The end of all things- James

James 5 is packed with so much stuff, I couldn't believe it when my physical Bible's lead in (I usually use e-Sword) said there was debate on this book's canon position "because of it's lack of doctrine caused it to not circulate as much as other letters."  I said, "Have you READ the thing??"  Anyway, there are several fascinating sections, but I have a part that touched me I want to focus on.  So let me do three VERY important sections in a more-or-less hit and run manner, so I can get to what spoke to me.

The first six verses are an attack on those who are rich and got there by taking advantage of people.  I am just going to nod and say, very true, very true;  if I got expounding on this subject while working overtime at work, you might think I'd been hitting Lenin and Marx too hard!  Then let me slide down to v 12:

Jas 5:12  But above all, my brothers, do not swear, either by heaven or by earth or by any other oath, but let your "yes" be yes and your "no" be no, so that you may not fall under condemnation. 



I had to look into what caused this outburst, and particularly why James thought it was an 'above all' statement.  Problem was, James was addressing a diaspora Jewish audience, and back then they had a real problem with this.  In fact, less than 100 years after James, according to Adam Clarke's commentary, Rabbi Akiba taught, “a man might swear with his lips, and annul it in his heart; and then the oath was not binding.”   I'm not sure what kind of religious leader would teach you "Do as I feel, not as I act", but that was the mindset James was dealing with, which is why that became an 'above all', I suppose.

The end of the chapter is another great section- the value of prayer, and how to use it to fight off various maladies in life.  And yet, with all this great stuff, my attention was drawn to the middle of the chapter:


Jas 5:7  Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.
Jas 5:8  You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.
Jas 5:9  Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door.
Jas 5:10  As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord.
Jas 5:11  Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.


This is in response to the depredations of the rich before it, and the power of prayer below- practing patience first.  Let me point out the highlights here.

1- The rich man had his fruit corrupted by his greed.  But the farmer is to be the example- He plants, he waits.  He can't see what's growing at first.  He can't speed it up by meddling, begging, or getting mad.

2- In the meantime, our job is to 'establish our hearts'.  What does that mean?  Study and prepare, learn to live a life emulating Jesus, because "Heah come da judge"!

3- "Take the example of the prophets".  This is something that has come up in our recent church sermons.  Think about it:  These dudes risked life and limb to receive and relate visions that would never come true in their lifetimes, and they would never really grasp in those lifetimes.  1 Peter 1 says:

1Pe 1:10  Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully,
1Pe 1:11  inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.
1Pe 1:12  It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but you, in the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. 


Remember the end of Daniel?  Daniel asked when it would happen, and got told, "Go your way!"  Sometimes we don't grasp the import of Hebrews 11:1...   Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. They had to be patient for something BEYOND THEIR DEATHS, and we whine about waiting ten minutes in a burger line.


4- On the morning of Thursday last week- one of the single most disastrous days at work I'd had in a long time-  I read v 11:

Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. 

When you start your day with the 'example of Job' being pointed out, you know you're in for it!  BUT... keep this in mind about him...

-He NEVER lost faith in God, just lost track of his place.
-God first talked to him softly through Eliphaz- "I have my reasons for your trials".  And then loudly in His own voice- "Who are you to question ME?"
-The fact that God still loved Job is shown by the fact that everything Satan took away, God DOUBLED.  Seeing as he got another 10 kids, I'm guessing that that included a shiny new wife to replace ol' "curse God and die"...  either that or He forgave her by making her amazingly fertile, and God could have done that, too.

Thing of it is, just like Job, we don't see the reward lying at the end of God's purpose.  And, like the old Prophets, maybe we aren't GOING to.  But the end is God is compassionate and merciful.  Like Job, that compassion might come right after the trial.  Or like in some of the prophets we've studied recently, it might be way on down the road.  But it's there, waiting.  And in the meantime?  Let me end by giving you the verse AFTER the ones I quoted from 1 Peter, a verse very similar to James 5:8:

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.


Preparing your minds for action- establishing your hearts.

I hate Memes

I'm getting to the point I hate memes.

What?  These colorful bon-mots that make our social media experience so much brighter and happy?  How could you hate memes?

Glad you asked.  Let's talk about the memes I saw today.  First up, how about the "NASCAR is doing away with the National Anthem and opening prayer, let's do away with them!" meme.  I have snoozed 2 and explained to 2 more that this is provably FALSE.  But no, you have to share stuff that you don't know is true about a sport you apparently don't watch.  I for one am proud of NASCAR's recent stands, and how they stuck by Bubba Wallace.

On that subject, a lot of people who decided not to look into anything made meme hay over comparing Bubba to Jesse Smolett.  Let's see here, first off, Bubba was NOT the one who found and reported the noose that wasn't a noose.  Second, in the climate of the stand he just made before this- a stand that NASCAR was intelligent enough to see he was RIGHT on, unlike our meme warriors- anyone can and should be forgiven for jumping to conclusions.  Third, Jesse was not an innocent victim, nor even mistaken- he was a proven liar who reaped the benefits of being related to a (at the time) Democrat Presidential candidate.

Let's move on to the COVID mask wars.  Today, the featured attempt at humor was, "If the Government told you to crawl on the ground to avoid COVID, a lot of people would do it."  Do you want to know who is gullible in my opinion?  People who would rather hawk conspiracy theories, insult people who have concern for their fellows in society, and put their selfish desires and political persuasions above all else.  Especially the Christians- some of whom I respect a lot in other areas- that seem to forget that when Jesus had a choice between compassion for the sick and downtrodden and pushing a political platform- well, I never read where He EVER pushed a political platform.  But I did see Him have compassion on a lot of people and heal them.  And the only ones He ever insulted were the ones who talked religious and lived for themselves.  Something to think about.

On the subject of politics- don't get me wrong, I like what Trump has done.  Lord knows I owe all these lovely OT hours to him.  HOWever, some people have lost their freaking minds declaring him "the best President ever."  I'll grant you 'best President since Reagan' especially considering all the men who have revealed themselves to be horse's rumps in the office since then.  But better than Washington, Jefferson, Adams, Lincoln?  "Methinks ye dost not know the meaning of the word 'ever' ".  And I really love the ones that have Jesus guiding His hand.  Because if you read Proverbs every day, you'd know that you could factually put every President, King, mayor, Prime Minister, etc in that picture and still be right.


I won't even bring up the, "If you love Me, share this post" stuff.

So yeah, I'm a bit sick of memes tonight.  So you know what I do?  I hide the friend's post, and snooze where they got it from so I don't have to see the next guy share it.  And get more and more particular about what posts I put 'likes' on.  Because I want to look more at a question than joke-deep.

Time Machine co-ordinates VICXLIX63062655

So I'm back here- no, WAAAAY back here, in June 26th of 1955, the first summer of the Martin Era 2.0!  I struck out on actually interesting history of the date, so I'm gonna start us out with our 6D victim.  And it's kinda hard to get to a 6D victim the way I have to do 1955.  You see, my go-to Panel site only had 4 stations:  KTSP Minneapolis, WJR Detroit, KIJV Huron, South Dakota, and WHEC Rochester NY.  And with each having a different song at the top, here's what I did.  I added in the Cashbox and Billboard charts, and any song that made top ten on any of them got to play.  Cashbox had the biggest chart, and the lowest song on any of the lists (that actually made the list, which all 27 songs did on CB) was #45, so I made a point system with #1=45, #2= 44, etc.  Averaged them out for the average score the song got per stations that charted it- and then, just to make it fair, added the number of times it was on a chart  (hence, if you averaged 37 points on 3 stations, you got 40 points, where a song that got 37 points on just one chart got 38.)  ALL that said, it was Cashbox's #14 that gets the nod, and here's its story.

Once upon a time, there was a band called the Quarrymen, whose first single was a cover of That'll Be The Day on one side, and In Spite Of All The Danger on the flip.  Now, of course, 2 of those boys were George Harrison and Paul McCartney.  The original acetate was estimated by Record World 16 years ago to be worth upwards on $193,000 in today's money, give or take.  Paul and George put the song together with Paul using as a model for an "Elvis-type song" a song from the King's first lp called  Trying To Get You, which was first recorded in 1954 by the Eagles....

...no, this is a different Eagles, about whom I found out very, very little.  It was co-written by one Rose Marie McCoy, who also, after a good bit of digging, I learned was also a co-writer on our 6D victim.  It was the #14 b-side to the song at #7 on CB- a song that will be in our finals- and it was Nat King Cole with If I Try.

Welcome to this week's Time Machine!  In a moment we'll get to our act at POTM, Fleetwood Mac!  But first, let's play our first  second of 2 debuts- because the first one, at #10, will be the 500th M10 song, and I wanna save it!  The 499th one, though, is notable, because it marks the first time an act has 3 songs on my countdown simultaneously!  I told you how the Explorer's Club has 2 lps out- one of covers and one of originals?  Here's one of the originals, at #8...





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Now see, why can't that be so easy on Firefox?  Anyway, it's time to bring out... Nardole, what the heck?

Well, sir, their contract stipulated that they wanted only to be from the era of which you were referencing.  So we either had to have them do another 1977 list or...

...Or bring them in at their ages in 1955?

Correct.

Oh, this should be fun... Okay kids, line up and give me names and ages...

Mick, I'm 8 years old...
Johnny, I'm 10...
I'm Christine, and I'm 12...
My name is Lindsey, and I'm 6 yeahs owd...

Okay, so why did you get to come as an adult, Ms Nicks?

SN:  Call me Stevie, Chris.  I'm a witch, and therefore immortal.

Uh-HUH.  So I guess I'm gonna have to lean on you for help here...

CMV:  I got bubble gum (POP)!  Wanna piece?

Ah, no thanks, I...

LB:  I like Sugah Babies bettow, because they stick on my tongue, hee hee!

JMV:  You're such a little doofus!

LB:  Am not, doodie-head!

Children, settle!  So one of the things that came out of this list was that there was exactly ONE song that got just one vote, Sarah Vaughn's Whatever Lola Wants- and exactly one song that got votes on all six charts- and it doesn't even make the finals!

SN:  Which one was that?

Frank Sinatra's Learning The Blues.  He had a 4, two 5's, a 7, and two 9's, but all it got him was tied for 8th.

SN:  You should be very careful with that.  In 1955, he was a very powerful warlock...

Okay, then.  I... hey, wait, if he was a warlock, why isn't he immortal?

SN: Who says he isn't?

But he's dead...

SN:  Is he?

In 2020, he is...

SN:  Is he?

MF:  Johnny just put a booger in my ear!  (POW!)

Hey, stop tha...

JMV:  Oh yeah?  (POW!!!)

MF:  WAAAAAAH!

LB:  WAAAH!!!

CMV:  Why are YOU crying, little baby?

LB:  That weird lady keeps looking at me funny- like she's gonna eat me!

SN:  Not that the thought hadn't crossed my mind in the future...

OOOOOKay, Nardole, would you please take the kids down to the commissary, so nice Uncle Elvis can give them some cookies and ice cream?

N:  Certainly, come along...

And Stevie, perhaps you could give us this week's finalists, perhaps in the order that Billboard had them, which will mix things up a mite...

SN:  Certainly.  So, the #1 on Billboard was Bill Haley and his Comets, Rock Around The Clock...
Then #2, Perez Prado, Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White...
Nat King Cole with the a-side of the 6D victim, A Blossom Fell at #3...
Les Baxter's orchestra doing one of 3 charting versions of Unchained Melody was #4...
Number 5 was Frank Sinatra, Learning The Blues... I thought you said that wasn't in the finals?

I know, I was looking at the wrong list when I said that.  Funny thing, too...

SN:  Isn't it, though? (Smiles)... and the last contestant is Al Hibbler's version of Unchained Melody at #9...

All right, there you go!  Who scored the highest in the Mighty Martin 1955 system? Stay tuned for that in a bit.  But first, a brand new to the M10 (but not country music) act claims the honor of the 500th M10 song!  It almost was another cover, but this one wins out at the last moment... give a hand to Margo Price at #10....






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Okay, that leaves us the minimal stat pack, with the big mover this week going to Sammy Davis Jr, with That Old Black Magic moving 14 spots from #46 to 32.

Canada was 2 years out from having a record chart, and South Africa 3.  However, Australia had one, and it operated like Cashbox in that it combined all the popular versions into one entry, so it was the combined efforts of recordings by the Four Aces and Billy Vaughn's Orchestra that put Melody Of Love (no, not the Bobby Vinton Polish one) at the top there.  And in the UK, it was yet another version of Unchained Melody, this one by Jimmy Young.  For my money, though, the best one charting at this point belonged to Roy Hamilton, which got a #13 from Billboard, a #2 from Minneapolis, and was part of the three artist collective at #1 (with Baxter and Hibbler) on Cashbox.

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The rest of a very unsettled M10:

The War And Treaty slip back whence they came, down 3 to #9 with Jealousy.
Blackberry Smoke climbs to 7 with their version of Midnight Rider.

The entire top 3 from last week fall three- Badfinger to 6 with Baby Blue, The Explorer's Club to 5 with Can't Find The Time, and the Shacks from 1 to 4 with Smile Now, Cry Later.  And I didn't want to drop any of them, but...

The Jayhawks up one to 3 with their recent song, This Forgotten Town...
The Explorer's Club (again!) with Didn't Want To Have To Do It at #2, up from 7...

And a new number one with an old cover from 1995...

...the Jayhawks with Bad Time!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They climb from #5 in one bound for that one!  And now, that final six....

Nat King Cole scores 6th at 45.25, 4 charts and no #1s...

At 5th, Al Hibbler's UM with 2 #1's (like CB, Huron SD lumped everyone together), 3 votes, and 45.3 points.

#4 was Learning The Blues, you know the stats there, and 45.6 points...

A tie for second at 47 points even- Les Baxter's UM (same stats as Hibbler except the points, b/c he did better in Minneapolis and got a vote from NY that gave him 4; and Bill Haley with his BB #1 vote...

And the winner, with 47.2 points, and 5 votes- three of them at #2...

Perez Prado, with Cherry Pink And Apple Blossom White!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Join a hopefully adult Perez and myself next time for 1956!

Wednesday Bible Study: The end of all things- Isaiah

The 66th chapter of Isaiah puzzled me- on the surface, it seems a stream of interconnected, but not in order, prophecies, that I was having a hard time seeing an overall message.  But I talked out the story with Laurie, and I came to realize it is a mini- version of everything Jesus taught in the Gospels!

Isa 66:1  Thus says the LORD: "Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest?

Matt 8  ²⁰ And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.”

 Isa 66:2  All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.
Matt 9 ¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’^[a] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

 Isa 66:4  I also will choose harsh treatment for them and bring their fears upon them, because when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, they did not listen; but they did what was evil in my eyes and chose that in which I did not delight."
2 Thess 2: ¹⁰ and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ¹¹ And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, ¹² that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

 Isa 66:5  Hear the word of the LORD, you who tremble at his word: "Your brothers who hate you and cast you out for my name's sake have said, 'Let the LORD be glorified, that we may see your joy'; but it is they who shall be put to shame.
John 16 :1“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. ² They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. ³ And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me.

And on and on.  From this point here, though, after a discussion on who is worshiping properly and who is not, the prophecy does a couple of u-turns:  First it goes into how the Jews will be re-established in the New Jerusalem after the Second Coming (vv 6-14), then it backtracks to the destruction of the final battle (vv15-17).  Then it returns to the gathering of Jew and Gentile in the New Jerusalem (vv18-20).  And from then to the end, there were 3 points that made me stop and consider.

First one, Isa 66:19  and I will set a sign among them.  This sign, the commentators struggled with IMHO.    K&D thought it to be the sign of the Lord's Wrath, come upon the evil ones just as the Plagues were a sign to Pharaoh.  But I'm thinking something else here.

Zech 12: ¹⁰ “And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him, as one weeps over a firstborn. ¹¹ On that day the mourning in Jerusalem will be as great as the mourning for Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.

It will be the sign by which the people of Israel will finally see Christ as Messiah.

Second thing:  Isa 66:21  And some of them also I will take for priests and for Levites, says the LORD. 

God is going to be setting up a new priesthood in those days- one not by family, but by obedience.



Third thing- and another you'll remember Jesus hitting in the Gospels:




Isa 66:24  "And they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me. For their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh." 

Mark 9:47  And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ⁴⁸ ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.’ ⁴⁹ For everyone will be salted with fire.

Are these survivors of the last war, the residents of the New Jerusalem, going to have a mini-picture of hell right in their back yards?  I recall the debate we had in Daniel over the gap in 'days':

 Dan 12:11  And from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days.
Dan 12:12  Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days. 


Which itself is a gap from the 'time, times, and half a time' of 1,260 days the Angel first gave.  And I had wondered if this was the time for the burial of the slain of Armageddon- but it didn't match another prophecy- that of Ezekiel:

 Ezek 39:11“On that day I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers, east of the sea. It will block the travelers, for there Gog and all his multitude will be buried. It will be called the Valley of Hamon-gog.^{[a] 12} For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land. ¹³ All the people of the land will bury them, and it will bring them renown on the day that I show my glory, declares the Lord God. ¹⁴ They will set apart men to travel through the land regularly and bury those travelers remaining on the face of the land, so as to cleanse it. At^[b] the end of seven months they will make their search. ¹⁵ And when these travel through the land and anyone sees a human bone, then he shall set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog. ¹⁶ (Hamonah^[c] is also the name of the city.) Thus shall they cleanse the land.  

And now it sounds like they'll be there until the final judgment, 1,000 years hence.  Either way, it seems that they will have not only the scars of Jesus to look on that day, but the scars of sinful humanity as well. 

Father's day

Okay, so you all know Sunday was Father's Day, and most know I am a father.  So it was not surprising to get a message from my youngest, Shenan, that she was on her way after church.

Shenan, as is her wont, came with a plethora of things.  I'm betting that set above will come in the handiest, though I've yet to determine what will be snuck into work inside it (purely for shock value, of course...)


The coolest, though, was a custom-made tee...

Lloyd is Shenan's BF, whom I usually call Soybean as he is a farmer.  I am a lucky man that I have a daughter able to find a decent, upstanding young man who I have mucho respect for. 

In addition to these items, she gave me more picture frames, which is always handy but I may be forced to build a wall across the middle of the living room to hang anything else at this point.  Just from where I'm sitting in my computer chair, I counted 37 hanging items, not counting the odd cobweb.

It was a bit later, as I was grousing in the disappointment of the Talladega race being rained out till Monday, that my eldest, KC, and his family, minus two young'uns previously engaged.  (BTW, did you know when you right-click on the squiggly line on 'Talladega' to see how the computer would spell it, it thinks you meant to say 'gallbladder'?  Weird, wild stuff.)

As you might imagine between us, the gift haul here was largely beer-related...

These last two items are 'his and hers' bottle cap shooters!

My last surprise came right after this....

...and that was that Misty had 'something planned for her Daddy, with Mommy's creativity and help.  But before we get to that, my baby turned two this weekend, and we celebrated...

Misty was NOT impressed with the candles, and Mommy had to not only blow out the candles, but sit the Brownie Bite 'birthday cake' on the floor and step away...

She also got, on top of her many snacks, a gourmet meal...

So what does the doggie that got everything give Daddy on Father's day?  Something else that hangs...

Sunday message: On forgiveness

If you remember a while back, I did a lesson on what to learn from the mistakes of Peter, and formed it into a personal acronym for my use- BLEST HOW? FAVA.  This morning while I let Misty run at the Bark Park, I tried praying through it- sadly, for the first time in a couple weeks- and found I couldn't get the L to come to mind, no matter how hard I tried. 

So I just went on to pray the rest of it, and when I hit the F- "forgive as you have been forgiven"- I listened as God reminded me that there is a deeper depth to that statement than we usually think about.  When Jesus forgave us, He forgave the "whole" us- Our situation with Him; our attitudes on life that were contrary to His; the things we had experienced that shaped our personality at the time;  not just our sin, but WHO WE WERE in that moment, and who we ARE in this moment, and who we will be in the end.  He didn't just say, "Here's a pile of sins, they are written off".  He said, just as you are, without any plea, I forgive you."


And THAT'S how we are to forgive others.  We need to think about what made them the person that sinned against us and God, consider that there is a lot of human being in there that is going into the person you are trying to forgive.  When you see the whole person you are trying to forgive, you have a better shot at forgiving them- especially forgiving them in the way that you were forgiven.


And that L I couldn't remember?  LISTEN.