Before I start getting hate mail for not taking Scrappy on the good ol' walks, know that a) during the week I've been giving him "low-impact" walks around the back yard in the evenings and b) he's been to the bark park the last two mornings. It's been flat too hot for him, even though he doesn't agree, and the amount of exercise I need (and haven't been going after because of his situation) would kill him (though he'd like to try). But I need to step up for me, and Sunday I did just that.
Ah, the woods... been a while...
Ran into this little cutie right off the bat. Five feet away and too little to be scared...
They finally re-gravelled the trail in our absence
At least the creek looks better...
Two nice in-flights before he settled down and let me get a still
Signs at the Alumni Center are new: Left says AC parking only- as if you can wedge in there, it's always so busy lol
Ah, the scum has moved to south canal
Scrappy woulda loved chasing this fatso
Reminds me, last week KC took me my first time kayaking. No pictures as I didn't know if I would fall in or not (I didn't, BTW). From the hips up, I would have stayed out twice as long. Hips down I was ready for traction.
The swamp is basically a really squishy mini-golf course.
"Well, duh! This hot, even I'm staying in the shade!"
More new signs courtesy Fart University AKA PFW
They still haven't got this new bridge open? Me and Scrappy coulda built it by now! Screw it, I'm going over.
"See Natasha? I told you squirrel is a spy!"
Nice shady spot. It's hot, I'm whupped!
Cute as buttons...
I do have to go back and show you one from our 21st annual fantasy football draft- and it's first time participant:
I put this on FB as "Isaiah in penalty box as Daddy pees in corner"...
We've all heard the phrase, "You can't get there from here." This week, I heard it in a bit different form. And, I had a couple of experiences that reinforced that way. Let me start with the experiences.
The first one is a rather sad commentary on a former friend, that I won't go into detail on. But what I will tell you is a phrase that I thought of at this last contact: "It's easy to make up the rules when you have a made-up god". In other words, this person could even change the "time honored rules" of what he claimed to believe, because there's no consequence. That which he claimed to believe can't ever answer him back, can't ever tell him, "you're doctrinally wrong," so he can choose to believe in a "salvation" no matter how he "serves his god". An atheist could tell him, as they have tried to tell me, "you might just as well worship the Easter Bunny"- and in his case, they'd be right.
The second one was an offhand, half asleep comment I made to myself that was totally wrong headed. In the course of spreading around my giving, I have accepted e-devotionals from three different pastoral ministries. I get something a little different from each one. But being a human with the normal human distractions, there are way too many times that I just glaze through as I read these. Sometimes it's because the day's topic really isn't speaking to me; more often, I am not listening as I should. So when I was listening to a broadcast by yet another pastor, and his host mentioned he had a devotional, my mind thought first, "that's the last thing I need!"; but then, put together an even worse idea: "why not just get a LOT of such devotionals, and read them in ROTATION- read one each day and disregard the rest, and trust in God to get you to read the "right one for you"?"
Because God's Word is not a slot machine. What you get out of it needs to grow like the Vine, not pull a lever and say, "here's what I got today." #6 of the 'Doc Martin's Rules' is, "While looking up random verses may help SOMETIMES, the BEST way to hear God is with a disciplined reading plan." The Word of God is a journey, and it needs to be taken step by step, not by 'watching Bourdain's travel show once a week'.
And that brings us to the phrase I got this week. In one of those devotionals lie a story called, "The way you got HERE, won't get you THERE." You are, whoever and wherever you are, at a certain point, whether you are a Christian or not. Out there is the goal, heaven and the promises God gives to those who believe. What you have done so far in your life has gotten you where you are RIGHT NOW. Unless you are reading from the Great Beyond, you are not THERE. You have growth to grow, and choices to make. And you are not going to advance any closer TO that goal without growing in knowledge of God, Christ, and His Will for you. And that means reading and studying the Bible for the living work that it is.
Dennis Miller just brought this up. You can go into a library and find all sorts of different kinds of books. All of them have a similar concept, they are the writings of man written by man. The only book that is different than that is if you have a Bible in the library. Written by men under the inspiration of God, it is the one book that will speak something more to you every time you read it believing.
Just so you know, I tend to do the Wednesday Bible Study ahead on Saturday, and the Sunday Message actually Sunday morning, so I have a slight advantage of knowing what is to come there. And this week, what is to come is something I called "The Mighty But." After the but is the promises of God in all their loving glory. But, before that but, there is a lot of pain, despair- yes, and judgment. To stop where you are is to accept that pain, despair, and judgment is all there will ever be. You have to keep growing every day to get to where you cross the but. To stop part way, or to make up your own rules with a god from Ronco that you can manipulate, modify, and ignore at your own desire, won't get you past the but.
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Phil. 3:12
So today I thought I was going to have to bring down the mood by telling you of a grisly murder that happened on our target date- BUT I was off one day, so we missed it. Instead, on August 3rd, 1976, NOTHING happened. I defy you to find something that did. Put it in the comments and we'll vote on the best one. On the bright side- no plane crashes!
Anyway, here we are for another Time Machine- just 2 more weeks until the big 500th-slash-M10 3rd anniversary celebration! This week, we have the Captain and Tennille, a surprise interview, and a bigger surprise debut on the M10! Yeah, I know, it sounds like another crash comin'...
...and it don't stop there, because the Cashbox numbers I gathered are actually ONE WEEK AHEAD... but close enough for government work. The Panel numbers are a-okay, though, so just pretend you don't know what I told you, and I'll let you live and we'll all be happy!
Anyhow, let me start off with our one M10 debut this week... and if I told you that their new lp is called Baby DON'T Come Back, would you be able to guess who it is? That's right, for the first time in many years- I give you... Player!
*******************************************
This week, the Captain and Tennille are our guests! Hi, guys!
T: Hello! C: ....
So I have to say, you guys are kinda hit and miss for me... I either LOVE your tunes or hate them, very little middle ground. Do you run into that a lot?
T: I really don't worry about it that much. Not every song is for everyone, so we just do good songs the best we can, right Daryl? C: ...
Well put. So anyway, we have a short list of 13 songs from 38 stations- the numbers seem to drop as you get more into the "programmed music" era.
T: That's the real shame of what happened to music. The scene itself is as vibrant and alive as it ever was, but it's harder and harder to hear the variety of what's out there. Don't you think so? C: (Nods...)
Okay, so basically, with this few songs, we'll go with two lists- the "one vote wonders" and everybody else. Cap, would you like to lead things off?
C: .... T: Hon, you better let me handle this... First, we have Dr. Hook's A Little Bit More... it was #2 in England and #27 in the States. I like this kind of song... sensual...
And that's the kind of your songs that I don't care for- with the exception of The Way That I Want To Touch You...
T: I HOPE that wasn't implying anything... Daryl can be SO jealous, right? C: (Looks down)
No, no implications. Just not a big fan of "bedroom" music. Not a big Barry White fan, either.
"Don't write checks with yo' mouth, honkey..."
Simple opinion, guys. Can we get back to the list?
T: Oh, sure, where was... ah. Next is an Australian tune, by a band called Fox. It is called SSSSingle Bed, and it was a #1 in Australia, #4 in the UK, and #10 in the Netherlands...
...and about as entertaining as that song by Baccara...
T: Boy, you're certainly Mr Negative today! Next is The Bee Gees and You Should Be Dancing. It was #9 here, and #20 in the UK... and what's this number?
Oh, yeah, I forgot about that! Just save that for me, I need some filler want to do that special...
T: All right... The Beatles got one vote for Got To Get You Into My Life, #3 this week on Cashbox... The Beach Boys, too, for Rock N Roll Music, #19... And KC and the Sunshine Band with Shake Your Booty at #21 and 22 in the UK, Tavares with Heaven Must Be Missing An Angel at #20 and 6 in England, and Peter Frampton's Baby I Love Your Way at # 24. I suppose that one is too bedroom for you, too?
No, not at all. Frampton does bedroom right.
T: Well, it's nice to know you have some romance in your grumpy ol' soul... (Scoots over, bats eyes...)
Uh, yeah well, we better get to the big 5, right, Cap'n?
C: .... T: Okay, the ones you get to choose from include... hey, you never said it was a tie...
A TIE? Holy crap, I missed that, too? Here, let me shift back in time for a sec... HEY! Don't grab that... ZZZZZIPP...
C: ....
AND we're back...
T: That was fun... (Grinning...)
Uh, yeah, let's not go into that... anyway, so yes, we do have a tie at the top, and there will be a run-off. So, uh, could you please give the final five...
T: You know I can... first, we have ... oh, look at this! Afternoon Delight by the Starland Vocal Band, #1 on Cashbox and #47 in the UK. Chris, do you...
DON'T say it... T: All right then, MR Touchy... Then we have Elton John and Kiki Dee with the #2 here and #1 in the UK... (singing) Don't Go Breaking My Heart...
Ugggg....
C: .... T: At #5 here and #7 there, the Manhattans and... Kiss And Say Goodbye...
(Whispering) Lord, let this end...
T: Wings are #4 here and # 28 there with Let 'Em In... ...and Wild Cherry with Play That Funky Music at #17. Anything else you need some... help with?
Nope, we're good. So choose from SVB, Elton and Kiki, the Manhattans, Wings, and Wild Cherry, and we'll be back in a bit to give you the run-off contestants.
********************************************
So in lieu of a 6D, we have a chunk of a local interview that one Mark H Stowers did with Bruce Blackman of Starbuck -whose Moonlight Feels Right was at #6 without any Panel love- to see the battle they had to get the record played...
With a new company to call on, Blackman hightailed it over and Private Stock signed the band and put out the record. "But when the record came out, nothing happened." He wasn't about to give up so he devised a plan with his bandmate Bo Wagner to split up and take the record to every possible radio station they could get to. In his estimation, Blackman visited every radio station in Mississippi personally, except the major ones in Jackson that already had music services and didn't take anything off the street. While on his "radio tour" Blackman got a taste of real radio in Meridian. "We probably went around to 300 or 400 radio stations each," Blackman said. "I went in and they guy said he'd listen to my record if I'd read the farm report." Not one to look a gift horse of any sort in the mouth, the red light came on and Blackman was the new "Les Nessman" of Meridian. "He said 'go' and the report was about the agriculture minister from Russia. And his name was unreadable and unpronounceable. So when I got to his name in the report I said 'his name looks like the alphabet backwards' and then I kept reading. They just died laughing and they took the record. They didn't hear it until they played it on the air." His "tour" paid off as WERC program director Mike St. John in Birmingham, Ala., loved the song but told him it wasn't a fall song but a spring song and he'd start playing it in the spring. He did and the requests for it hit 25,000 in one week. "In late March, he added the song in Birmingham. Then we call from our publisher and he said y'all have to stop calling WERC and requesting the song and jamming up their request line. But we figured out later that none of us had done that."
*************************************************
So about those numbers that Ms Tennille mentioned- Ft Wayne station WMEE was actually on the Panel this week! And here in River City, the top ten looked like this:
1- Afternoon Delight
2- John Travolta's Let Her In...
3- Gary Wright's Love Is Alive...
4- You know who with Shop Around...
5- Seals and Crofts' Get Closer...
6- America's Today Is The Day...
7- Dorothy Moore's Misty Blue...
8- Elton and Kiki...
9- The Manhattans...
10- The Beatles.
Other panel picks on the list were Let 'Em In (21), You Should Be Dancing (22), Play That Funky Music (20), and Shake Your Booty (28).
Certainly a new record with 8 of 13 Panel picks on the current British chart, including Elton and Kiki with the current #1. And I knew 20 of their 50, along with 53 of our 100.
Our #101 is the correctly named Hamilton, Joe Frank, and Dennison, with a tune that would make #67 on Billboard called Light Up The World With Sunshine...
The #76 in '76 was Chicago's If You Leave Me Now. Originally the b-side of Another Rainy Day In New York City, which stalled last week at #33. The b-side would make it 32 notches higher, becoming the band's first number one.
Oh, and the big mover was Orleans and Still The One, going from #61 to 43, an 18-spot jump. And last week, they were the #75 in '75, so they've gotten a lot of press here lately...
*****************************************
So who goes onto the run off? Why, that would be Afternoon Delight and Kiss And Say Goodbye. Geez, good thing Tennille is back home where she belongs now...
************************************************
The rest of the M10:
The Jayhawks have a mixed week. Everybody Knows drops 5 to #9 in week #8 for them... Backwards Women goes forwards to #2.
Also 8 weeks for Caroline Rose, whose More Of The Same slides down 3 to #8, and into a 3-way tie for 13th all time.
Gilbert O'Sullivan, who is 44 years older than Miss Rose (but amazingly 6 years younger than Toni Tennille) moves up 3 to #7 with The Same The Whole World Over.
Baywaves moves up a pair to #6 with 1954 Egyptian Drama.
Kidsmoke puts on the big move, rising from 9 to 5 with Patterns.
Jim Croce is up 3 to #4 with Lover's Cross.
(knock knock knock) What in the world... oh, never mind. Black Joe Lewis is out of the top after a 2-week reign, down to #3 with Nature's Natural.
And that leaves as the #1 song....
(knock knock knock)
...Geowulf with Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And the winner of the run-off, by a 5-3 margin, is...
....Starland Vocal band with Afternoon Delight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Tune in nex... (knock knock knock) ...NARDOLE! What is that infernal knocking?
This week were go "into the fire"- the fire that the faithful ones Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego are thrown into. It is a story of idols vs God, of blindness vs sight, and common sense vs amazement. Our verse is this:
Dan 3:16 Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.
Now, for a change I used the KJV version here, and we'll get to why later. But first, let's backtrack our way to the verse.
The Names: When Daniel and his companions proved themselves to Nebuchadnezzar in the first chapter of Daniel, he was so impressed that he put them in high advisory positions. Ignoring the fact that they had been blessed BY God and intuiting that they were blessed by A god, he then named them, according to Donald Gill's commentary, after the four main gods of Babylon. Daniel, whose Hebrew name meant God My Judge, became Belteshazzar, "Bel's Prince". Hananiah, "God Has favored, became Shadrach, "Inspired by the sun god"; Mishael, "Who (is)What God (is)", became Meshach,"who is what Shak (the earth goddess) is?"; and Azariah, "God has helped", became Abed-Nego, "servant of the shining fire". This is the blindness: Nebuchadnezzar thought by pasting pagan names and pagan dedications over the four, he could take advantage of the divine blessing they had without really caring what deity it was blessing them.
This strikes me as a lot like mainstream denominational Christianity. Not just the obvious catholic corollaries, like saints pasted over pagan gods and Mary pasted over Astarte, but churches like the one in St Louis which will be hosting a conference on accepting LGBT as normal members, despite the fact that God calls it a sin and in irony that the church in question is a Presbyterian branch that broke off BECAUSE the main church was getting too liberal... Everywhere in this world you can find examples of what I call "Seventh Heaven" churches, from the TV show where the leading man was supposedly pastor of a church and at no point did you really ever hear God mentioned. Just paste "christianity" over the face of it and they will come, but were are totally PC and acceptable to all schools of thought.
That isn't acceptable to God, and it wasn't to these three, as we'll see.
So the day came that ol' Nebby (this is just too long a name!) decided to erect an idol, in his honor, for everyone to worship:
Dan 3:1 Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof six cubits: he set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon.
In the Bee Gees song Edge Of The Universe, they sing, "I am ten feet tall, but I'm only three feet wide..." And this is kinda like that to the extreme. This image in modern terms was 90 feet tall and nine feet in circumference. So it was basically a tall pole on which an idol was set at the top. Maybe the whole thing was overlaid with gold, but the whole thing wasn't gold. Gill calculates that if we assume the pole was circular, such a solid gold post would require well over 8 million pounds of gold- and cost on today's market about 150 BILLION dollars. Dura was a plain within the walls of the city, in the southeast corner. Now, he sent out the command that, when he struck up the band (literally), everyone had to drop what they were doing and worship the idol. Apparently Bel didn't mind his king "tooting his own horn", like Our God does.
Needless to say, our fellows ignored the command. Now Daniel was apparently so high up in the king's favor that they dared not accuse him; but the jealous Chaldean priests quickly accuse, S, M, and A of not bowing to the image.
And boy did that enrage Nebby- who had dedicated the three TO those gods.
Dan 3:15 Now if ye be ready that at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, and dulcimer,(See what I told you about striking up the band?) and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship the image which I have made; well: but if ye worship not, ye shall be cast the same hour into the midst of a burning fiery furnace; and who is that God that shall deliver you out of my hands?
And here we get to our verse, and the reason why I used this version:
...we are not careful to answer thee in this matter...
Most versions translate this to, "we aren't required to give you an answer." I dug into the word careful, and it landed with a word that basically meant, "in a hurry" or "eager". But in the modifications taking it to the word actually used, it conveys the idea of "necessity"- thus the idea of there was no need to answer this- actually, no need for debate on this. The trio explains this by saying, "If our God WANTS to deliver us, YOU, Nebby, can't do anything about it. And if He doesn't, we STILL aren't bowing down to your gods."
And Nebby blows his top, because it isn't so much that his gods have been insulted, but HE has been insulted. In naming them his way, in asking them to worship his way, he was in his mind creating super-intelligent "yes men" who would validate him and bring glory to HIM- just like the Great Pole a' Fun was supposed to. And here were these three, in whom he had invested SO much, telling him the last thing he wanted to hear- there was someone GREATER than him.
Now, why do I draw the inference it was all about him, and not his "faith in his gods"? Follow what happens. The trio are thrown into the fire- a fire stoked so hot, that the men who tossed them in got burned to death! And yet:
Dan 3:24 Then Nebuchadnezzar the king was astonied, and rose up in haste, and spake, and said unto his counsellors, Did not we cast three men bound into the midst of the fire? They answered and said unto the king, True, O king.
Dan 3:25 He answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt; and the form of the fourth is like the Son of God.
Seeing this miracle, he called the trio out. They weren't burned- not even smoky- and Nebby immediately switched sides:
Dan 3:28 Then Nebuchadnezzar spake, and said, Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who hath sent his angel, and delivered his servants that trusted in him, and have changed the king's word, and yielded their bodies, that they might not serve nor worship any god, except their own God.
Dan 3:29 Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort.
Now, look back in time to when Elijah called Jezebel's priests of Baal together so God could flash fry the sacrifice and Israel would kill them all. Jezebel, devout in her faith to the defeated gods, commanded that Elijah be killed by the next business day. She didn't go, wow, look what Elijah's God can do, as Nebby did. Jezebel was sold out to her false faith; Nebby was sold out to himself, until he saw something HE couldn't top.
And here's the thing in this story: Jesus was not with the people bowing when the band played. He wasn't in some comfortable chair next to Nebby, telling him what he wanted to here. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego knew where He would be- in the fire lit by not compromising, WITH THEM. So, is your Church in the fire, or listening to the music?
One other question: What is a "sackbut"? Apparently, a horn of some type. Glad they changed THAT one.
So Scrappy is home and still baffling medical science. Essentially, yesterday he was to go on a controlled water fast, in which he would be taken out to do his business at intervals until he dropped 3 lbs. That would concentrate his waste in the urine, so that if it still wasn't concentrating, they would be pretty sure he had a problem they needed to treat with a (assumedly expensive) medicine. Of course, Scrappy actually GAINED a pound at first weigh in, at which point I imagined he giggled and tapped the bag of Cheetohs he had in his pocket.
Eventually, they got him down to test weight and everything turned out normal. At this point, next step options are a) just give him the damn water; b) give him the water plus 25% Gatorade to make sure he has some electrolytes; c) give him an ultrasound to see if he has a hidden nefarious problem that I just don't even want to know about. We'll be trying option b) for now.
The refrigerator, a problem that was about to roll into day seven, finally was solved by the BRILLIANT expedient of, "why don't we just swap it with the one in the unoccupied unit next door until we get Stuckys to come look at it." Needless to say, one "clean out the icebox round two" later, we were back in business, with all of the "iffy" stuff saved from the last round not surviving to see a round three. Of course, there was a size differential against us in the swap, and a slightly higher door guard in the freezer led me to drop the ice tray. No problem there; our canine camel promptly ate about half a tray and licked up the rest.
And, the new flooring: I described it yesterday as "barndoor brown". I took a picture to show you, but with my goofy camera, I had to wait till some of the battery charge wore off before I could post it. Here is what the camera saw:
And frankly, the camera flattered it a bit. But, through the magic of my toolbox, I can show you how it looks in real life:
Yeah, barndoor brown. But it is done, and all of our hassles are done...
...except for that really nasty, unknown smell coming from our half-bath, which our guy is supposed to spray into submission sometime later tonight. So, life is good.
Before we get going, let me give you the lowdown on our weekend. Thursday, the refrigerator the complex JUST PUT IN went belly up. They came out to unfreeze the coil, but that still left it only being cool because the freezer was still operational. So, in anticipation of them actually doing something about it, I took Friday off work because Scrappy had a vet appt that involved him being no-water from 10PM Thursday. I didn't know how long Laurie would be tied up with him and certainly didn't want to miss the frig getting fixed. Scrappy took no time at all, and not even a call about what was up with the frig. Finally we find out, the frig: This requires the company that supplied it coming out, and nobody seems to have a clue when THAT will be (hasn't happened yet). The dog: He is overpeeing his fluid intake, which in turn is not allowing his wastes to concentrate. He needs another OVERNIGHT test to see if it is what they expect, and to find out if we can even afford the medicine (rare case) that he'll need.
That made for a halfway miserable Saturday, but the one bad news/good news tradeoff we had was that Monday is the day the complex picked to install new "barnwood brown" flooring in the dining room, kitchen, and bath/laundry. Which means it's a good thing Scrappy got an overnight stay, but bad because I spent Sunday morning moving every nearly-impossible-to-move object in those areas to places "out of the clear path". Anyway, the status as we speak is- floors are done, Scrappy is away from home, and we're still living out of a mid sized picnic cooler with no idea when that condition will be alleviated. But, just to prove I can have a sense of humor with disaster all around, here we go with the latest craze- pictures off the front page of a news site- paired with another headline on that page that it most assuredly does not go with- or does it?
1- FoxNews
The picture:
The headline:
Gay couple claims airline separated them so a straight couple could sit together
Thankfully, Khan was able to take his Baby Trump instead...
2- CNN
The picture:
The headline:
Mobs of kangaroos take to streets of Australia's capital because of a lack of food
Not many burgers in the Outback, I guess...
3- CNN again
The picture:
The headline:
This could be the food of the future
I guess I better not comment on that one...
4- CNN gets a hat trick
The picture:
The headline:
How Germany goes to the beach
Obviously, this is the smoking section...
5- BBC
The picture:
The headline:
Politician's embarrassing wife gaffe
Wife, soccer player, easy mix-up...
6- Moscow Times
The picture:
The headline:
Protesters Chant Anti-Putin Slogans at Moscow Rally Against Pension Raise Plan
Because "Herman Goering and the Poolside Four" is likely in bad taste...
7- Xinhua
The picture:
The headline:
Tourists visit Nanding Grassland in Baokang, China's Hubei
Runner-up: Detailed report on MH370 disappearance fails to explain mystery
8- Xinhua double play
The picture:
The headline:
Cars used by Queen Elizabeth to be auctioned at 2.6 mln USD
Behind that dignified facade lurked a fast woman....
And finally...
9- The Copenhagen Post
The picture:
The headline:
National crisis group called in as drought crisis deepens
"Prithee, just tell us who we must needs smite..."
When you are a teacher in the Word- or in my case, a "regurgitator of what I've been taught"- you often come around to times where you think you have nothing to share, and then it happens. You prayerfully reflect on a small, seemingly insignificant point, and there you are.
That's where I am this morning. And to explain that seemingly insignificant point, let me go to Peter.
2 Peter 3:15 And count the patience of our Lord as salvation, just as our beloved brother Paul also wrote to you according to the wisdom given him, 16 as he does in all his letters when he speaks in them of these matters. There are some things in them that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures. 17 You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability.
It has always been a comfort to me that I was not the only one to whom Paul frequently sailed overhead on. But in the last couple weeks, as Dennis Miller explained the backdrop of 1 Corinthians 7, I began to see just why that was happening, and what we can do about it.
Firstly, Pastor Miller earlier established that Paul was no local yokel. He was intelligent in the extreme. Which makes sense; he was, before Christ, a Pharisee. That entailed having a good grip on logical processes to get from point A to point B, sometimes in microscopic detail. That same attention to detail, that same mastery of logic, he brings to his letters as well. The difference being, now he is inspired by God, which Peter also tells us. In many ways, he is the Calculus prof teaching remedial math students.
Secondly, the language that this is coming from is early Greek.As Pastor Miller points out, this language has no punctuation marks. We read translations of this which tend to make Paul speak in what we might call run-on sentences. One place of that is what Miller covered this week, involving his instructions to the married people:
7 Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me: It is good for a man not to touch a woman. 2 Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own wife, and let each woman have her own husband.
Now, as you and I read that, we see Paul giving a command. But that is NOT how he meant it. Let me switch from the KJV to the ESV and you'll see what I mean:
7 Now concerning the matters about which you wrote: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” 2 But because of the temptation to sexual immorality, each man should have his own wife and each woman her own husband.
Now we see QUOTATION MARKS. He wasn't giving a command- he was repeating a question asked of him! When you aren't a linguist it can be hard to catch subtle meanings like that. To us, Greek is all one big run-on sentence, and Hebrew is backwards. Here is a matter that my Catholic friends don't quite get. When I tell them that they should read the Bible of their own and question the Church Fathers in their interpretation, they think I mean that I can just pick up a Bible and know exactly what the passage means on my own, and then they bust me for being "so much smarter/closer to God than the Church Fathers". But I do not do that- I rely on men whose prayer life and connection to the Ultimate Author, the Holy Spirit, is much closer than mine, I lean on historical teachers who have studied both language and culture- and I check my sources.
The other day I had decided to check on just why the Catholic Church believes Mary was "assumed" (taken bodily) into heaven. Apparently the root of it came from a Gnostic Gospel (remember "apparently") in which Mary died and was laid in a tomb- but once again, Thomas was late to the party. When they opened the tomb so he could see ( and why, exactly, would he want/need to?), the body was gone. And even though this was from a book that was NEVER accepted as Cannon, they combined that with the fact that they couldn't conceive how Jesus could have been born of a normal (AKA with Original sin) person, that Mary had to be special as well, and that somehow turned into sitting at His side in heaven telling Him what we are praying and pleading our case to Him so He could plead it to God, yada yada yada. And that I should just accept it, however it happened, because the Church Fathers decided it did. And yet, you have this:
10 The brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived they went into the Jewish synagogue. 11 Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
"Examining the scriptures to see if (what Paul told them) was so." Which not only tells us that we do have to check one against the other- which sometimes requires a knowledge we don't have, but leads us to point #3.
Third, Paul becomes hard to understand because often, we try to make him say what we WANT him to. Last week, I believe, I pointed out where some people try to point out that Jesus never DIRECTLY attacked homosexuality (not true), thus it must be okay, just a "cultural thing". Today, Pastor Miller mentioned being approached by a young adult who claimed that the Bible didn't give you directions on marriage- which can only be explained as a statement by someone that didn't want to HEAR instruction on marriage. I admit that I tried to do this very thing during my divorce many moons ago.
So where am I going with this? That it is not enough to just read the Word, just like it is not enough to just listen to me. While I know how to work a concordance, I do not speak Greek or Hebrew and have not been immersed in all the several cultures that the Bible touches- though I prolly have a better working knowledge than the local yokel. I have to be taught. And that comes from examination and prayer, sure, but it also includes being taught by those who know more than I do. The more I learn, the more I am humbled by what I have yet TO learn.
So we see in my difficulties with Paul that:
1- Paul was very smart, very meticulous, and I need to learn which bites are small enough to chew at a time.
2- Other languages are not my forte, and Google Translate doesn't replace hearing a commentary from a scholar well-versed in the area- and checking that against other men of faith.
3- We need to approach the scriptures prayerfully, opening eyes and ears to what God is saying TO US, and not what we want Him to say to us.
And one other thing I hadn't hit. Though the entire Bible is inspired by God, it was written by men, who brought their own personalities to the table. Catching on to the logical, methodical way of Paul isn't much help reading the more mystical, esoteric take of John. And all four of these thoughts lead you to one conclusion: You can't do this stuff on your own. Listen to your pastor. Reach out to people whose faith you respect. Do some digging on your own, based in prayer.
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.
Posts
