Wednesday Bible Study: A Deep Dig Into Proverbs XVII

In many ways, Proverbs is the same lesson repeated through many examples.  And as I look at the back part of chapter six, we have a similar set up again.  The writer starts out with a structure for the lessons he and his wife have tried to impart onto the child; then follows with the dark reflection if the child refuses.  Here again, he also stretches the description of the adulterous woman.  Rather than dig through the structure again, I want to dig a nugget we might otherwise miss in this story.

The verses 24-35 all focus on the evil woman- except for two verses in the dead center:

Pro 6:30  People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his appetite when he is hungry, 
Pro 6:31  but if he is caught, he will pay sevenfold; he will give all the goods of his house. 

So this would seem a contrast between sins; thievery for motive is a lesser sin than adultery.  But, that isn't the point being made- the point is about sin's consequences.  Need can drive sin.  Or desire can drive sin.  Does the man who commits from 'need' get a free ride?  No, he pays far worse than he took.  But over and over, Solomon shows the difference of when desire is the driver...

Pro 6:29  So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife; none who touches her will go unpunished. 

Pro 6:32  He who commits adultery lacks sense; he who does it destroys himself. 

Pro 6:33  He will get wounds and dishonor, and his disgrace will not be wiped away. 

I guess what I see most here is that, needs we can't control, though we can control our reactions to them.  But desire can control us, and it is the opposite of the lesson Solomon is teaching.  There is one verse that I struggled with at first, but because of the way it was translated.  The clearest reading is from the LITV:

Pro 6:26  For on account of a woman, a harlot, a man comes to the last loaf of bread, and another man's wife hunts for the precious soul. 

Some translations make it sound like the harlot only costs a loaf of bread, but that's not what it means.  Otherwise, you'd have guys thinking that the Bible allows them to go out and ask, "What can I get for a crescent roll?"  No, this verse again splits desire into two parts- the desires that seem to 'harm nobody but me', and the desire that can screw up whole strings of lives.  One might cost him everything on this earth; but the deeper desire drags you into the forbidden, the more it is your soul that comes into question.  And there comes a point that desire will drag you so deep, there's no coming back:

Pro 6:34  For jealousy makes a man furious, and he will not spare when he takes revenge. 

Pro 6:35  He will accept no compensation; he will refuse though you multiply gifts. 

Fallen women apparently was a great way for Solomon to make the point to Rehoboam.  But I think it is also a metaphor for the progression of sin;  First, need excuses it.  Then desire rationalizes that it is of no consequence.  Before you know it, a point of no return is reached.  How do you get off this path?  Well, there we go back to the beginning of this section:

Pro 6:20  My son, keep your father's commandment, and forsake not your mother's teaching. 

Pro 6:21  Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck. 

Pro 6:22  When you walk, they will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you. 

Pro 6:23  For the commandment is a lamp and the teaching a light, and the reproofs of discipline are the way of life, 

Pro 6:24  to preserve you from the evil woman, from the smooth tongue of the adulteress. 

As David Jeremiah said earlier the week I write this, the Word consists of two parts- the written Word and the Living Word.  One is the Bible, which you take into your heart; but the Living part is Jesus THROUGH the Bible, and it comes out of you like an ornament worn around the neck.  Being the same outside and inside, fear of the Lord hand in hand with Wisdom.  One is the Lamp (the commandment, the written Word), which does no good unless it is lit (the teaching, the Living Word), which then shows you the way.  If you do this, God gives you three guarantees:

-as you live life, working and doing, it will become your principles and LEAD you;

-when you are at leisure, it will WATCH OVER you, keeping you from sin and hopefully temptation;

-and when you begin the day anew, it will SPEAK to you- lessons you've taken to heart will come to mind as needed.

So then, the question is, do you wear the ornaments of Wisdom, or get distracted and destroyed by the ornaments of sin?

Life with Misty

Getting used to Misty after a dog that was like me in every way (except his wanting to eat poop) can be challenging.  For one, picture taking will never be the same, lol!  For example, Saturday night I was taking a picture of my latest 'new beer' that I was sampling to post on BeerAdvocate...

...and somebody INSISTED they be included!  Apparently, though, BA is a doggie-friendly site, and she's not alone in wanting to get attention there.   Speaking of Saturday, we have a couple of doggie-related stories to tell you about there...

Not as enthused about the follow-up beer.  Nor was I, for that matter.

Saturday, for those in the know, was the big January Day and Night Of Rain here in northern Indiana.  About 1 AM, I cracked the window, only to hear the howls of what had to have been 3 coyotes.  They sound like they gather in the nearby office park, but it's hard to tell.  So I shut the window, thinking they might get her riled up (which did NOT happen).  Then about 6:30, something did wake her up and get her growling, and even a bark, not an often thing with her.  In the gloaming I saw something, and grabbed my binoculars to confirm.

In the pouring pissing rain, a deer lay in the middle of our back yard, taking a nap.

If it was Scrappy, sleep for the morning would be cancelled, as his smeller would have activated and he would be ready for battle.  Misty, though, is 'sight and sound', and so I merely closed the blinds and she was right back to sleep.

Pictures from this morning.

Sunday we actually got a walk in (no pictures, dead battery), and among the things we saw was an amusing 'traffic jam'.


Set the scene:  Walking south down the greenway trail, the canal on our right. (Mind you, this is the old canal feeder; think, 'ditch')  up ahead on the other side of the canal was an outlet from our complex, making a small inlet.  About a foot out from it (keep in mind, a lot of water b/c of all the rain), a patch of tall grass stuck up about a foot or so out of the water.  Heading towards this, in mid-stream, a muskrat.  On the other side, coming towards us and close to the far bank, Mr and Mrs Duck.  The ducks are attempting to go between grass patch and far bank; muskrat takes a hard right at just before the patch (and thus the inlet, which was his goal).  Mr Duck gets there first, and is just clearing the patch when muskie makes his turn.  He says, no biggie, I'll just go around the patch and in.  So Mrs Duck had decided to lag behind (surprise), and as muskie cuts the corner and heads for the inlet, she's right on his butt, thinking, "He doesn't smell like my hubby..."

Luckily for all, Muskie continued on, making another hard right at the inlet and disappearing, while Mrs Duck continued on her merry way, no doubt regaling her hubby with tales of her smelly encounter.  For all of her sharp eyed-ness, Misty isn't good at motion detecting, and missed the whole thing from a dozen feet away.


And believe me, she has eyesight down pat.  She has chased cats, rabbits, even blue jays that I didn't necessarily catch until after she did.  Squirrels too, but...

OMG, an iceberg on the St Joe!  Global warming, call Greta, quick!

Misty has one big difficulty with squirrels- she doesn't grasp the concept of "he went up the tree".  Squirrel jets up the tree, she runs past it a few steps and looks around, wondering where he went.  Then a few more steps, with a "I know he went this way" look on her face.  Eventually, I fear they will catch on and start pelting her with acorns.


She did see ONE squirrel at height- and I nearly died because of it.  It was on the roof of a neighbor's shed as we were going one way.  It went the other across the roof, and the yard, Misty in hot pursuit.  My hand was firmly on her leash, which spun me partway and then crashed hand and handle square into my chest.  On the bright side, I wouldn't need the defibrillator.

Is it MY fault you're an old man?

Sunday Message: Jericho

As I type this, I'm not sure whether this will be this Sunday's message or a Wednesday study, so bear with. (I'm going with Sunday, but be warned, it's a long one.) Of the many things I have shared with you about the new perspectives of God's 2020 'Prayer of Jabez' work on me, one of them is just HOW to deal with the world without.  You might have noticed that in posts past, particularly the ones about 'Pastor Cole' and his idea of non-protest, and the one about how to treat the sinners in your life.  I suppose I was in a political mindset when, one day listening to Michael Youssef, he was talking about Jericho, and I felt God's gentle tapping on my shoulder, saying, "Herein lie your answers."  And it wasn't what Youssef said thereon, but the meditation it started, that leads me here.  First, the story, so far as we need it.  At the end of Joshua 5, the people had crossed the Jordan and Joshua was in prayer about the next move.  Jericho was the key block to moving any farther.  Suddenly, he was met by an angel armed with a sword, who IDed himself as the Commander of the Lord's Armies.  As with Moses at the burning bush, Joshua was told to take off his sandals as he was on Holy Ground.  Then, the story goes on:

Jos 6:1  Now Jericho was shut up inside and outside because of the people of Israel. None went out, and none came in. 
Jos 6:2  And the LORD said to Joshua, "See, I have given Jericho into your hand, with its king and mighty men of valor. 
Jos 6:3  You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. 
Jos 6:4  Seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark. On the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, and the priests shall blow the trumpets. 
Jos 6:5  And when they make a long blast with the ram's horn, when you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout, and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up, everyone straight before him." 
Jos 6:6  So Joshua the son of Nun called the priests and said to them, "Take up the ark of the covenant and let seven priests bear seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD." 
Jos 6:7  And he said to the people, "Go forward. March around the city and let the armed men pass on before the ark of the LORD." 
Jos 6:8  And just as Joshua had commanded the people, the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the LORD went forward, blowing the trumpets, with the ark of the covenant of the LORD following them. 
Jos 6:9  The armed men were walking before the priests who were blowing the trumpets, and the rear guard was walking after the ark, while the trumpets blew continually. 
Jos 6:10  But Joshua commanded the people, "You shall not shout or make your voice heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth, until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout." 
Jos 6:11  So he caused the ark of the LORD to circle the city, going about it once. And they came into the camp and spent the night in the camp. 
Jos 6:12  Then Joshua rose early in the morning, and the priests took up the ark of the LORD. 
Jos 6:13  And the seven priests bearing the seven trumpets of rams' horns before the ark of the LORD walked on, and they blew the trumpets continually. And the armed men were walking before them, and the rear guard was walking after the ark of the LORD, while the trumpets blew continually. 
Jos 6:14  And the second day they marched around the city once, and returned into the camp. So they did for six days. 
Jos 6:15  On the seventh day they rose early, at the dawn of day, and marched around the city in the same manner seven times. It was only on that day that they marched around the city seven times. 


Now, before you say, "Hey, wait!  What about the finish?", my story here today is what we draw JUST from this much.  I want to look at the following elements:  The obstacle, the obedience, the silence, the procession, and the enemy.

So, what do we see about the obstacle?  The enemy are NOT the obstacle- they are all WITHIN the obstacle.  God does not send us out to fight against people, but against obstacles.  Put this, say, in the political world.  How do we serve the Lord?  By trying to change the laws, or by attacking the people who disagree with us?  Too many just want to pull their sword, jump the wall, and go in swinging.  I must ask those people- what if you hit Rahab?

Rahab was the barkeeper/harlot who saved the Hebrew spies, and they were under orders (in one verse of the part I left out) that she was to be taken unharmed out of the city for her service- and she would become part of the lineage of Christ Himself!  How many Rahabs do today's "Christian soldiers" kill indiscriminately, driving them off with hate and insults instead of saving them?


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Next, the obedience.  Every day, they marched around the walls.  They did their job, they went back home.  Every day.  It was 6 days for their obstacle... for Caleb, it was 45 years!  Did it seem like nothing was accomplished?  Probably.  Did they feel like they should just get on with it?  Maybe.  Should you evangelize your workplace by standing up on a break table one day, preaching brimstone and fire, or by the way you approach your job, the parts of Christ you show TO your co-workers?

Note also the idea of that the army had JUST SWORDS- no siege tools, nothing that would actually bring the obstacle down.  The enemy probably thought, "These idiots!  All they can do is walk around, as they have nothing to breach the walls!"  Because the Fool says in his heart, 'There is no God'...


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Thirdly, we have the silence.  Did you catch that?  "But Joshua commanded the people, 'You shall not shout or make your voice heard, neither shall any word go out of your mouth, until the day I tell you to shout. Then you shall shout.' "  This silence has many layers:  One, this precludes grumbling about the task.  The soldiers weren't to be discussing as they marched the doubts they might have had, how sore their feet were, what brand of beans the guy in front of them had last night.

Two, this precludes returning the insults they were no doubt getting FROM the enemy WITHIN the obstacle.  As they circled the wall, they were in effect (though not physically) 'turning the other cheek.'

Three, it wasn't a full time state- every day, they returned home.  And at home they had their wives, their fellows, their priests to speak to, draw comfort from, and encouragement.

And fourth, it prevented consorting WITH the enemy.  In a way, the obstacle prevented them from being corrupted BY the enemy.  Until it was the Lord's chosen time to eliminate the enemy, the focus was to be on but two things- God, and the obstacle.

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Next, the procession.  I had a bit of problem studying this.  You had the armed men- note v3, "ALL the men of war"- going first.  Then came the priests, blowing the shofars.  Then came the Ark Of The Covenant- the very symbol of God-With-Them.  Finally, the rear guard, or as the KJV puts it, the "rereward".  My first thought was, "Why aren't the priests and the ark going first?"  But put this back as an analogy.  If our Christian life is our priest or pastor going first, taking on all the risks, we aren't anywhere close to where we need to be.  Our church life needs to be the cannon that shoots US out ahead, not the cannonball we trail behind, waiting for it to lose momentum and do the 'damage'.  The armed men go first because WE need to go first.  If we only live the life BEHIND the pastor (eg on Sunday), we aren't doing it right.

The priests/our pastors, they 'blow the shofars'- they proclaim the Word of God, to us AND to the enemy.  And when you put the Ark next and the 'rereward' last, this all makes perfect sense.  Why?  Hang on, I'm getting to that.  But I have to tell you first, the answer I got when I asked, "Why wouldn't the Ark be out front?"  And I was reminded of Eli's sons, the evil Hophni and Phinehas, who put the Ark out front when THEY went to war- and were killed, their army crushed.  The Ark had become, not a symbol, but an IDOL.   Faith is the evidence of things NOT seen- as the army went before the Ark, before the priests, they were showing FAITH.

Now, why this makes sense.  The army = US, showing our faith and obedience to the world.  The priests/pastors follow; once the unbeliever sees the faith and want to know more, they hear the 'shofars' and get the message.  At that point they get to the Ark- they SEE God.  But what about the rereward?

Well, the commentators have some differences here.  The Jews thought they were the tribe of Dan, as they were always the rear guard in the march through the wilderness.  Go back to v3, though- ALL the men of war were at the front.  Others thought they might be carrying the aforementioned siege engines, or the equipment for the Tabernacle, as they followed the Ark.  Closer to it, others still suggested that these were the people, following behind the Ark as they always had.  In trying to figure this out, I discovered something curious.  The word used for the 'armed men' at the front translates to 'those who pull down'- a fairly apt description of an army.  The word for the 'rear guard', though, meant, 'those who GATHER'- and if you apply it to our analogy, you see a perfect progression:

Our lives of obedience and faith spark the interest;
The Pastors proclaim the word of that life;
The Ark= meeting God on a personal level;
and the rereward, gather them in, by teaching and nurturing.

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Finally, the enemy.  It was on the seventh day, when GOD brings down the wall, that everyone had a part in destroying the enemy.  When do WE get to destroy the enemy?  When God says, not before.  This is a far-future day, in eternity (7 trips around equal completeness).  While we are on earth, we are marching around the walls, once every day.  In our proper place, in our proper obedience, focusing on God and the day the obstacle falls.

Time Machine co-ordinates VICXXVI60611020

Today was January 10th, 1976 (not 1975, as the dreaded beginning of the year temporal claudication shifts us 2 years from the last post), and the National Association of Fire Marshalls would like to let you know why it's significant- and why building managers shouldn't spend three hours mucking around...

On January 10, 1976, a natural gas leak caused a massive explosion in the basement of the Pathfinder Hotel in Fremont, Nebraska. Chunks of sidewalk the size of compact cars were hurled into the air. The bottom two floors of the hotel collapsed into the basement. Windows were broken on buildings blocks away. Twenty died; 40 were injured. Eight buildings were destroyed.

Extremely cold weather played into the tragedy. Workers had retrofitted 4-inch gas mains in the area by inserting 2-inch plastic pipes within them. Low temperatures, which fell to 25 below zero that winter, caused a new fitting to contract. It began leaking gas beneath the hotel. People started smelling gas about 6 a.m. on the day of the explosion. Around 9 a.m. the hotel maintenance man located three service men from the gas company who immediately determined that there was an explosive concentration of flammable gas in the basement and requested the hotel be evacuated. Only the kitchen had been evacuated before the explosion occurred at 9:33 a.m. and the building erupted in flames.

"...the maintenance man LOCATED three service men from the gas company..."?  And why did he have to locate them?  Why did not management call for the gas company to investigate at 6 AM when the calls started coming in?  Not ours to muse on here, though, because for the first time in a while, we have a regular, honest to goodness Time Machine post!  And this lead in is gonna be brief, because I have no idea where were going, or how I got there!


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And of course the week I debut NO new songs in the M10 is the week I have NO idea what to do for the 6D!  Reason being, last year we hit this stage at the beginning of February, and guess what?  The song that got the 6D nod (highest on Cashbox's chart without a Panel vote) that week, is the one that got it THIS week- John Denver and Olivia Newton-John with Fly Away, # 7 on the way up this week.  And I strained and stretched THAT time to come up with something- and this week, after spending an hour drilling a dry well, I said to myself, "This all seems eerily familiar."  But I have come up with a topic for discussion, and we will have that discussion with our guest this week, Mr Carl Douglas!

'Ello, glad to be here!

Glad to have you, but I wouldn't want to take you out of the Tardis into the world outside right now, because it has gotten absurd beyond belief.  Why, just a while back, a gentleman got arrested for singing your Kung Fu Fighting...

What?  You mean recording without license or some such?

No, nowadays, we have a thing called Karaoke, where they put the words of a song on a screen and play the music without vocals so that pub patrons can take a hand at singing it.

And that's bad?

No, that's good, but this guy sang Kung Fu Fighting, and a Chinese guy got all bent, claimed it was racist and the guy did it just to humiliate him, and had him arrested...

WHAT??? The arrest is a little unbelievable because there’s no racism in the song.  It’s very strange indeed.  I’m very proud of the song. Everyone told me that a fusion of the west and east couldn’t work and I said “no, it can”. I have cousins that are Chinese in Jamaica, so I knew it could work.  Why would I sing a song that could be interpreted as racist?*

(* NOTE:  Actual quote after the event, from the Mirror, dated April 2011)


Well, that's the world of idiots I've found out there.  In fact, here in a little bit, I'm going to put up a few of the songs that you almost can't sing anymore, because someone's bound to have a coronary over them now.

Let me ask you this:  Am I still alive in this world?  

Yes you are.

And I no longer sing the song?

From what I understand, you had requests for it in CHINA during a recent Olympic games...

But a Chinese man in England thought it was racist...

Yep.

I think I'd like to go home and find a way to not get any older...

Elvis:  Hey, man, you could stay here with me...

Hey, bud, before I forget, Happy Birthday, a couple of days late!  In the main timeline, you woulda been 85...

E:  EIGHTY-FIVE???  I'd be headlining at the Old Folks Home!

Or you could do like Keith Richards and just keep getting transfusions of much younger blood..

E:  Nah, man, I've seen what he looks like now...

Anyhow, this week we had just 13 contestants from 44 stations, including an Australian hit which I'll bring up a little later, and a South African vote for Joe Dolan- an Irishman who had tons of hits throughout the British Isles, but neither the UK nor Ireland charted this one, called Lady In Blue.   Also, 6 of the Cashbox top 10 made the list- as did Gary Wright's Dream Weaver, despite having just charted for its first week at number 123!  The race itself was a bit of a blowout, and thus you get just three choices for the final vote!  Carl?

Thank you, man!  Your choices are:

The Ohio Player and Love Rollercoaster at #5...

CW McCall and Convoy at #3...

and the #1 this week, Barry Manilow with I Write The Songs!

Thanks, Carl!  Last time we were this way, Barry won for a second straight week.  Can he do it again?  Stay tuned....

E:  'TUNED'... betcha think yer clever, dontcha?


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The Australian vote I held out on was the Ted Mulry Gang with Jump In My Car, a fun tune that would have been unacceptable today.  It was about this guy trying to talk this girl he finds walking along the road to accept a ride from him, going on about how nice he is, how pretty she is, and it's far too long a walk.  Then she tells him that it's 84 miles to where she's going, and he kicks her out!  And I bring this up because the plight of the karaoke singer made me think of some of the other songs that might well be unacceptable now.  Not the ones that are unacceptable in ANY era (like Lou Reed's Take A Walk On The Wild Side), or ones that play at unacceptable (say, for instance, the Kinks' Lola), but ones that were just normal, mostly acceptable songs at the time.

I looked at a couple of articles to get some ideas (and sorry, Carl, but your song was on ALL of them), and I noted a few that were not big surprises- and I also noted that one that I think should be HUGELY unacceptable NEVER gets mentioned.  Anyway, why not start out the list with YOU, Elvis?

Me?  I never did anything that was unacceptable- 'ceptin to that old prude Sullivan..

Well, one site stretched the incest angle to knock you for Kissin' Cousins...

But they were DISTANT cousins, man!  This is bogus!

I agree, but nonetheless it got you on one list.  Others ranged from racial questioning (like Elton John's Island Girl- far be it from a gay white man to sing about a straight black prostitute, I guess- and the Stones with Brown Sugar...)

I see no point in objecting to... ah, wait.  Forget I said anything...

... to ethnically questionable (Like Kung Fu Fighting and the Vapors' Turning Japanese, which combined to offend Japanese people and those given to masturbation), or sexual preference (OMG, how can you listen to Dire Straits' Money For Nothing, you brute?). 

But the one I have never figured out why NO ONE bitches about is that popular ballad in tribute to segregation, and those who fought the National Guard to defend it, Lynyrd Skynyrd's Sweet Home Alabama.  I have stood next to a black dude singing this song at a club and wondered, do you even get what this is about?  But I'm not gonna throw stones, because for me, I don't always understand or even hear the lyrics, and I consider the vocals to be just another instrument.  Thus I never had any problem singing along to Marlene Gold crooning to Betty on the Pom Poms song I had at #1.  Or questioning just why Victoria Legrand thought wide eyed girls "got it right" on Beach House's Space Song.

I think, though, next time KC drags me to karaoke, I might just sing Kung Fu Fighting...WAH HAH!

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It's time again for Crazy Covers, where we pick out the more unusual covers on this week's Cashbox hot 100 and Laurie and I do the Siskel and Ebert thing on them!  First up, a dude name Gino Cunico was doing a version of the currently climbing Bee Gees hit Fanny Be Tender, which was at #91.

Laurie: Not as good as the original, but good!  Up.
Chris:  Awesome!  Almost liked it better than the original! Up.

Second, our apparently obligatory Tavares cover of the week.  This time they had Edgar Winter's Free Ride at #58.

Laurie: They did nothing different.  Would have been better without the vocals. Down.
Chris:  This is like one of those Ronco remakes where they're too cheap to get the original act and cover it with some studio outfit.  Down.

Third, we have Jim Capaldi covering Roy Orbison's (and later Nazareth's) Love Hurts, at #96.

Laurie: NO.  Down.
Chris:  If Nazareth never did it, he might get away with this poppy arrangement... but, no.  Down.

Fourth, we have a story we featured a long time back on a years-gone TM.  The song is Somewhere In The Night, and it was brought to the chart simultaneously by Helen Reddy and a duo called Batdorf and Rodney.  The legend says that Reddy's hubby/manager threatened radio stations not to play B&R or else they'd never get another Reddy hit.  B&R would go on to form the band Silver, who hit with Wham Bam Shang-A-Lang- a song I always loved, but THEY hated.  Anyway, we judged the B&R version, at #75:

Laurie:  Like Barry Manilow's version the best.  Sideways.
Chris: Like Barry Manilow's version the best.  Up.

Finally, we have Al Martino with a cover of Volare that starts out like one of the earlier ballad versions- then abruptly becomes hard disco.  At #69:

Laurie:  "I saw that face you made when it changed tempo..." Down.
Chris:  I was with him till it went disco.  Down.


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Our stat pack this week:

Hot debuts this week included:  Larry Groce's Junk Food Junkie at #88, Dr Hook's Only 16, one of my all-timers, at #89, and the second coming of Dream On by Aerosmith (it had charted earlier and spent 11 weeks going nowhere) at #86.

Barry White got the big mover with Let The Music Play, 16 spots from 70 to 54.

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen was at the top of the UK charts- here, it was in its second week on the CB charts at #76.

And the song I woulda had at the top?  No question, I Write The Songs.


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The debutless M10:

Our two 8-week former number ones take the bottom two slots- the Derevs and It's The Love falling 5 to #10, and Criminal Hygiene's Incompletely 3 to #9.

The next three all parade up two spots- Pure Bathing Culture's Black Starling to #8, Temples' Shelter Song to #7, and Jeff Lynne's ELO to #6 with Goin' Out On Me.

Khurangbin and Leon Bridges slip to #5, down 3 with Texas Sun, while Saint Asonia holds at 4 with This August Day.

Huey Lewis and the News rocket up 4 spots to #3 with While We're Young.

Tennis makes it up one more spot to #2 with Runner.

And holding at the top...

....MGMT and In The Afternoon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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And that Panel blowout?

Well, a vote for the Ohio Players got you 6.8%...
One for Barry Manilow got you 11.36%...

But yer winnah, with a whopping 54.5%....

...CW McCall and Convoy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Catch ya on the flip-flop, good buddies, next week with 1977!

Wednesday Bible Study: A Deep Dig Into Proverbs XVI

We return to Proverbs 6 this week, and the second section thereof- the "six things and seven" list of traits that God hates.  And it mirrors the definition in the previous verses of the worthless and wicked person:

Pro 6:12  A worthless person, a wicked man, goes about with crooked speech, 
Pro 6:13  winks with his eyes, signals with his feet, points with his finger, 
Pro 6:14  with perverted heart devises evil, continually sowing discord; 
Pro 6:15  therefore calamity will come upon him suddenly; in a moment he will be broken beyond healing. 
Pro 6:16  There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: 
Pro 6:17  haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, 
Pro 6:18  a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, 
Pro 6:19  a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers. 

So my question in studying this is, what do we need to learn?  To act like a worthless person?  No.  We need to get a grip on what it is God hates in us.  And what He hates the most.

In looking at this list, it strikes me that they are in the order of what a good man might notice first.  "Haughty eyes, winking with the eyes" is probably the first thing we would notice in a person we'd tend to distrust.  Someone acting high and mighty, seeming to share "hidden thoughts" with others with a glance.  If we miss that clue to a character, the next one will probably bite us sooner or later- the 'lying tongue.'  A storyteller, if you will, prone to exaggeration or 'bending the truth' if it serves their purpose.

Hands that shed innocent blood, you might think, pushes it into the obvious, but remember how Jesus taught that the thinking about an act is the same as committing it?  Consider that the part of the description in vv12-15 that fits this is the part about 'points with his finger'.  Cutting people off with a gesture to his mates; a dirty business deal excused by 'everybody does it'.  The trick here is not letting you REALIZE it's been shed.

A heart that devises evil, or wicked plans... yes, now it's getting more and more obvious, but by now you would have excused his pride for 'charisma', his lies for 'little white ones', and his malice for 'just business', so as long as you're included on the 'profit' side of the plan, are you really worried?  This isn't just a description of 'worthless men', this is a 'how to tell when you are being sucked in by' admonition from Solomon to Rehoboam.

"Feet that make haste to run after evil" pairs up with "signals with his feet", and for the same reason that "pointing with the finger" paired up with shedding innocent blood.  It is being always evil, but subtly, so you can continue to excuse it through the "everybody does it" excuse- even though it's getting harder to do so, it's still easy when you've been sucked down the trail this far.

And the false witness is the last step before the end- you begin to tell the tale as good as he does.  You back up his lies with YOUR lies.  

All of the commentators point out that in these 'six, and seven' or 'three, and four' sets in the Old Testament, the last one- the 'added' one- is the most extreme of the set, thus it is the one God hates above all others here.  And that one is "one who sows discord among brethren".  Seven stands for completion, the commentators say; and this is the one that covers them all.  This is where the wicked completes his plan and shows himself by turning on you... and you have the choice of doing the same to others, or 'be broken beyond healing.'

One last observation:  The word for 'worthless' is the word we've translated to Belial; further generations turned this word into a personification of evil.  But the original meaning was the valley where the pagans- and fallen Israelites- sacrificed children to Moloch.  Josiah turned it into a trash dump; in the NT it became the trash valley that was known as Gehenna, and Jesus used as a name for hell.  So then I can sum up this chapter-part in the lyrics of Chris Rea:

Look out world

Take a good look what comes down here

You must learn these lesson fast and learn it well.

This ain't no upwardly mobile freeway

Oh no, this is the road

This is the road

This is the road to hell....

More attempts to get the galloping ghost on film

You try capturing this dog at the bark park...

Wore me out without doing the running!  Now, today we went back down around the Duck Pond...

"I saw something, I know I did!"

River's way up.  One of these times I'm not going to say, "No," and see what happens...

"What are you?  Where'd you go?"

If Daddy sits on the roller, I gets on the roller

A mile in, finally slowing down.

"We still have all THAT to go?  Goody!"

Oh and finally, just a little something from work- "Winner, worst placement of a motivational sign, workplace category:"

Thank you, no, I got this myself.  Go check on John Holmes.

Sunday Message: The Long Way of Faith

A lot of scattered pieces have floated around in our mix since last I did a Sunday Message, and I hadn't shared it all since I had been lax in praying to put it together.  But when two consecutive lessons I listened to on Monday reminded me of all we learned about the Fear of the Lord in Proverbs, I knew I was being called to get at it.  And it sat heavy on my mind Friday night, as I prayed about what it was that God was waiting on me to get busy about.  The only thing I truly knew was that there were at least two factors working in. 

The first of those was the story of Caleb in Joshua 14.  Caleb, with Joshua, was the spy that pleaded with the people to obey the Lord and enter the Promised Land.  They were too scared, and thus Caleb was promised his potion, BUT not until ALL of the rebellious generation had died off.  That would take 40 years- and a LOT of death.  Can you even begin to imagine what it took from Caleb to wait, watch people he knew, maybe loved, pass on, keeping that one great goal of God's promise in mind?

The other part is the book of James, which I had another two sources recommend as daily reading.  So I have been reading chapter one every day this week.  And the verse I kept coming back to was vv 5-6:

Jas 1:5  If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 
Jas 1:6  But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. 

And this morning as I tried to draw the weave tighter, I noticed this comment on those verses in John Gill's commentary:

 Not only in the faith of the divine Being that God is; but in the faith of the promises he has made; 

And this is DIRECTLY Caleb's faith, because listen:

Jos 14:6  Then the people of Judah came to Joshua at Gilgal. And Caleb the son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, "You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God in Kadesh-barnea concerning you and me. 
Jos 14:7  I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought him word again as it was in my heart. 
Jos 14:8  But my brothers who went up with me made the heart of the people melt; yet I wholly followed the LORD my God. 
Jos 14:9  And Moses swore on that day, saying, 'Surely the land on which your foot has trodden shall be an inheritance for you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.' 
Jos 14:10  And now, behold, the LORD has kept me alive, just as he said, these forty-five years since the time that the LORD spoke this word to Moses, while Israel walked in the wilderness. And now, behold, I am this day eighty-five years old. 
Jos 14:11  I am still as strong today as I was in the day that Moses sent me; my strength now is as my strength was then, for war and for going and coming. 
Jos 14:12  So now give me this hill country of which the LORD spoke on that day, for you heard on that day how the Anakim were there, with great fortified cities. It may be that the LORD will be with me, and I shall drive them out just as the LORD said." 
Jos 14:13  Then Joshua blessed him, and he gave Hebron to Caleb the son of Jephunneh for an inheritance. 

He had faith in the promise God made through Moses, after 45 years of wandering through the desert, watching people die, waiting for the day it would be fulfilled.  Now, the story gets a new spin.

In the middle of the night I still struggled, but remembered a verse from Proverbs:

Pro 6:22  When you walk, they  (They being, 'your Father's commandments and your Mother's teachings) will lead you; when you lie down, they will watch over you; and when you awake, they will talk with you. 

And needing that watching over and talking to, I prayed that, since I had the radio on as I usually do, that I would wake up to hear what God wanted me to hear.  What did I wake to hear?  Tony Evans telling me to apply the prayer of Jabez, to give it to God, and come back in a year and see what happened.

Many of you know the Prayer of Jabez; I went through it at length in the Wednesday study quite a while back.  To bring everyone to speed:  In the middle of a seemingly unrelated genealogy, this pops up:

1Ch 4:9  Jabez was more honorable than his brothers; and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, "Because I bore him in pain." 

1Ch 4:10  Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, "Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!" And God granted what he asked. 

So how does this connect in?  You'd be surprised.  I actually got insight for this along the way in Hebrews 11, the "Faith Hall Of Fame" chapter, but in the interest of not untying what I have so far tied, let me abridge it thusly:  Faith starts out requiring- you guessed it- Fear of the Lord and obedience.  When you combine the three, you gain certain qualities: Assurance, understanding, power; and as a result, you gain righteousness from Christ and go on to achieve the life promised.  With all this in mind, I compared Jabez's prayer to Caleb's results:

Bless me- and Caleb got his land

Enlarge my border- not only insofar as the land, but the lifespan- 45 years later, still the strength and vigor of a man of 40.

Your Hand with me- Not only getting Caleb this far, but success in driving out the pagans and overthrowing the fortified cities.

Keep me from harm- think about 40 years of wandering with NO ill effects, five years of hard fighting to help clear the lowlands for Israel, and however long it took him to take the hill country and Hebron

So that it might not bring me pain- pain translating to "worry, fear, or anger"; in other words, giving him that power to stay faithful for those 45 years.

In addition to this, several clues that I stumbled to along the way make it seem to me that Jabez MAY be a direct descendant of Caleb!  Funny how the loop closes.

So where does that bring us?

Well, we certainly have at least one undefeatable obstacle looming at us.  But Faith almost requires "a dragon for the knight to slay."  And Jesus said this about faith:

Mar 11:22  And Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God. 

Mar 11:23  Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. 

Mar 11:24  Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 

Mar 11:25  And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses." 

Two takeaways there- "Believe that you have received it"- which means don't worry it, but give it to God.  Second, note how forgiving is tied in.  Sometimes, you have to FORGIVE the mountain. Is the obstacle a person, a group, a company, a political party, that is- or you feel is- wronging you?  Start with forgiving them.

It also takes us to the promises of God.  We have also had a couple great blessings- one of them a four-legged blessing- and to see how things fell together in God's time, in the best way for all concerned, once we (read I) were obedient, it all came together when our prayers recognized that God WOULD keep his promises.

I think Caleb knew the "prayer of Jabez" well.  I think Jabez knew the faith of Caleb well.  And if last year was our "40 years in the desert, watching people die", then maybe this year will be our "five years of hard fighting" with God's promises this close, and maybe the next will be when "God granted what he asked."  For you, too.