Wednesday Bible Study: What Jesus asked, part 13

 

This week, Jesus asks a very simple question... but it covers a whole lot of territory, both literally and figuratively.

Mat 13:51  "Have you understood all these things?" They said to him, "Yes." 

Now, the 'all these things' He's talking about cover 7 different parables- and I'm not going to look at the parables themselves.  Instead, I want to look at what they were pointing out to the disciples, who may have said, "Yes", but may have been kidding themselves.

#1- The Parable of the Sower

The big takeaway they should have gotten here is, no matter how they preach it, they cannot guarantee success in getting the word to grow.  First off, their commission is to sow the seed EVERYWHERE- and everywhere includes a whole lot of people who will flat refuse to hear, some that will hear but never make time or space for it, and so on.  In a sense, this is the dynamics of the Gospel.  

#2- The Parable of the Wheat and Tares

This is the struggle of the Gospel- that while we sow, so is the Devil.  And it is NOT OUR JOB to sort them out.  If we try to remove the 'evil seed' we see out there, we might just be 'pulling up' someone who might actually be fruitful someday.  So first, share everywhere, second, share equally.

#3- The Parable of the Mustard Seed

Here, we see that a proper seed, properly placed, will grow.  But more...

Mat 13:31  He put another parable before them, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field.
Mat 13:32  It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches."

What we plant not only grows, it becomes a haven, a blessing for others as well as ourselves.

#4- The Parable of the Leaven

Mat 13:33  He told them another parable. "The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened." 

 

This is the other side of the coin- evil, hidden, causes evil to grow.  But here's the thing- ALL of these conditions Jesus explains as 'the Kingdom of God'.  The hard soil, the tares, the leaven- all are in the Divine Plan, just as the wheat, the mustard tree, the fertile ground.  The Kingdom of God is what we deal with on earth just as much as the reward we await in Heaven.  Oh, and speaking of which...

Parables 5 and 6- The hidden treasure and the Pearl of Great Price

Mat 13:44  "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.
Mat 13:45  "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls,
Mat 13:46  who, on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.

Some will stumble onto the Gospel; others will seek it out.  In both cases, though, to make it work in you, you've got to be willing to give it all up to gain it.  And like a coin of the treasure, or the pearl, it's not what having it gets you; it's what you will get in return FOR it.  And in this case, that's more than anything you have now.  But you have to see the value.

Parable 7- the Dragnet

This, like the wheat and tares, lets you know that there is a cost to the choice.

Mat 13:47  "Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind.
Mat 13:48  When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad.
Mat 13:49  So it will be at the close of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous
Mat 13:50  and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

So in the end, the Kingdom of God is a place where you have to determine what is valuable, and what you will be.  Choose rightly, and great reward is yours... choose wrongly, and a bitter fate awaits.  So did the disciples really understand? Ask them when they all fled from the crowd that took Jesus to the Cross.  But they-and you- had another chance.  Theirs was being there to witness His resurrection.  Yours is contained in a following eighth parable:

Mat 13:52  And he said to them, "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a master of a house, who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old."

You can be a 'master in  the house', and the treasure is your Bible, which contains both the old and the new, the familiar and the deeper spin. But you have to allow yourself to be fertile ground, you have to grow for others, you have to be willing to pay a great price.

M10 update week 20

 As my back is acting up and not allowing a lot of computer chair time, here's a very quick and less than entertaining version of this week's M10...

First, a debut at #10.  Weezer is doing a four-part release this year, called SZNZ (or 'seasons'), and Spring's first single comes in at 10...

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Beach House continues its streak, but slips back to 9 with Hurts to Love. 

Matthew Sweet and Susanna Hoffs slip in week #7 with their 2006 cover of Run To Me, from 3 to 8.

High debut at #7 this week is from April March, who is not only a singer, but was the lead animator for Ren and Stimpy at one point... 

Which, admittedly, might be a dubious honor...

..and comes in at #7 this week...

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The next three songs all move up one spot:  Daisy Glaze with Ghost Of Elvis Presley at 6, Maddie and Tae with Grown Man Cry at 5, and Melody's Echo Chamber at 4 with looking Backwards.

Duran Duran steps back a spot to 3 with Laughing Boy; so does last week's #1, Cactus Blossoms and Is It Over?

And the new #1, up from four...

...Sunflower Beam and Who Put You Up To This?- their second M10 topper!

All right, have a nice day, time to get back to the heating pad for me!

Wednesday Bible Study: What Jesus asked, Part 12

 

One thing I have learned over years of trying to listen to the weak signal of Bott Radio on FM headphones in a metal building like I work in: You have to listen through the static.  More;  God WANTS you to listen through the static.  It sharpens your focus- and if it isn't, you just may not be listening at all.  I learned this lesson anew a couple of weeks back.  And if I got static, you know Jesus did too.

Perhaps no topic in the Bible has more implications to me, with my Catholic upbringing and certain FB friends' posts, than Mary.  And the post this day could be a BIG source of that static, if I let it.  But let me tune us first razor-sharp into what Jesus was aiming at.

Mat 12:46  While Jesus was talking to the people, his mother and brothers stood outside. They wanted to talk to him.
Mat 12:47  Someone told him, "Your mother and brothers are waiting for you outside. They want to talk to you."
Mat 12:48  Jesus answered, "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?"
Mat 12:49  Then he pointed to his followers and said, "See! These people are my mother and my brothers.
Mat 12:50  Yes, anyone who does what my Father in heaven wants is my true brother and sister and mother." 

 

It was Matthew Henry's commentary that opened me up to what was really going on here.  Backtrack:  Jesus had begun this message a while back, and it must have been one that was hitting home.  He had just left the Synagogue after winning an experiential battle with the Pharisees- healing a man on the Sabbath.  Then after healing another, they tried to put off the crowd with slander- "This man heals by Belzeebub". They tried again, interrupting Him for a "sign"- "Perform for us, if You are God!"- demanding proof when proof was already there to be seen.

Now, Henry paints the picture, Satan shifts attack from dramatic to subtle.  Among the levels to this:

- Will Jesus be drawn off-mission by His family?

- Or will He ignore His family, casting Himself in a bad light?

-While Mary believed, we are told in John 7 His brothers did not, which would change when Jesus personally went to the eldest of them, James, as we are told in 1 Corinthians 15:5.  What would they say about Him in front of the crowd?

- And on a PR standpoint, it would be easier to believe in Jesus as a supernatural Messiah for the masses if not confronted with an all-too-human family, as we see not long after our passage...

Mat 13:53  And when Jesus had finished these parables, he went away from there,
Mat 13:54  and coming to his hometown he taught them in their synagogue, so that they were astonished, and said, "Where did this man get this wisdom and these mighty works?
Mat 13:55  Is not this the carpenter's son? Is not his mother called Mary? And are not his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Judas?
Mat 13:56  And are not all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?"
Mat 13:57  And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, "A prophet is not without honor except in his hometown and in his own household."
Mat 13:58  And he did not do many mighty works there, because of their unbelief. 

 

But as was His usual, He handled this with the following traits:  He stayed on point, and used the distraction as a teachable moment.

Mat 12:50 "... Yes, anyone who does what my Father in heaven wants is my true brother and sister and mother." 

The focus is on the next life, not this one; doing the Father's will, not our own or anyone else's.  He taught THROUGH the static.  He wants us to HEAR through it, as well.  This is Satan's world, and the only way to hear God clearly is to be close to Him.

And with His message shown, let me point out one true teaching in the midst of the static.  If Mary is the ":Queen of Heaven", to whom we should pray to get messages to Jesus, as my Catholic brethren believe, then tell me, why did He not invite her in at this point to TEACH that, rather than shutting her out that the people could listen to Him?  In all the Gospels, Jesus in His adult life has three main contacts with Mary: At Cana, where He let her know His time did not belong to her; here, where she was not allowed to distract from the message; and on the Cross, where He showed He hadn't neglected His family duties by passing her care on to John.  "Devotion to Mary" is just another layer of static.

Walk pics

 

A couple from Wednesday first, and then Sunday...

A new home, Groundhog version

Bright blue day at the Duck Pond

River WAAAY down- especially for as soggy as the ground is

Even the creek way low

At this point, we hear a LOT of close sirens!  All we see is a cop going up to the Plex office...

...and a fire truck leaving the river landing...

Didn't bother the tons of turtles at the Swamp

Even Mushroom ridge is squishy

Little tree:  "Do you mind?"

Stump: "..."

And the first tiny flowers...

Lots of doggies out

2022 Ato Z Mashup part one

 

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So I'm a little late on my annual mauling of the well-respected A to Z April blog challenge.  The proper way to do this is a post for each letter of the alphabet each day of the month, weekends excepting.  Well, as that's never gonna happen here, I decided long ago to 'play along' by doing two posts, one toward the beginning and one in the middle, splitting little factoids about each letter of whatever the subject is between the two.  As it is already about halfway to the halfway point, I'll probably do the other one towards the end.  So what's my subject this time?  I used a random word generator to give me a random noun for each letter, and now I will look for a random factoid to give for each- call it "Random²"!

 

Now, let's see if I can find the random factoids...

A is for ARTISAN

In ancient Egypt, the artisan was stuck below the scribe in the bureaucracy.  Which is kind of funny, since the most highly skilled artisans were the stone carvers, and what were the scribes' hieroglyphics written on? You can see it now... "Take a letter, Thutmose..."

B is for BIRTHDAY

The first cakes with candles were made and lit in ancient Greece, not exactly for birthdays, but to worship the Moon Goddess Artemis.  The candles were lit to represent her symbol, the moon.  They would have to wait to worship her brother the sun-god Apollo until they invented little electric floodlights... 

Hope he only wanted one per cake...

C is for CUSTOMER

Wikipedia has a definition for the origin of the word "customer" that really could use a 'for idiots' version.  Boiling it down, the customer is a client who buys from a seller, helping the seller to establish a "custom" of making, promoting, and selling his item in an efficient way.  Is it just me, or does the word seem dumber now that you know?

D is for DITCH

My randomizer did me no favors here.  First, it gave me description, which when put into the sentence "Random facts about..." makes Google give you random facts, assuming you want the description of a random fact.  Its second choice was "definition" which I didn't even bother with because you KNOW I'm going to get the exact same thing.  Third try, it gave me "ditch".  I thought, surely this will lead down an interesting path.  What I got was, "Did you mean, 'Dutch'?"  And the realization that when Google asks that question, it gives you no way to tell it, NO!

E is for EAR

 So I learned the human ear is supposed to be able to hear as low as 20 Hz and as high as 20,000 Hz.  Not knowing what that meant, I consulted YouTube, which has videos for each sound.  The 20 Hz, with my ear right up against my speaker, was what I imagine a hummingbird's growling stomach might sound like from about 10 yards.  The 20,000- complete with a warning to "adjust your speakers"- was a 'sweep' from 20 TO 20,000- which I lost around 12 or 13,000 Hz.

 

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F is for FARMER

So I clicked on "The six weirdest farming facts you ever heard", and this self-explanitory piece was at their #1...

 

While the answer to the above question ("What kind of milk do brown cows produce") might seem obvious to many people, an online survey conducted by the Innovation Center for U.S. Dairy uncovered a shocking statistic. They discovered that approximately 7% of the adult U.S. population believes brown cows produce chocolate milk.

Apparently, that’s not the only cow fact that the adult population is confused about. A study conducted by the Department of Agriculture in the early 1990’s, revealed that almost 20% of adults didn’t know hamburgers were made with beef.

 

G is for GROWTH

One site said, "Babies triple their birth weight their first year.  Imagine if adults did that?" I'm not doing the calculations clear out to MY age, but if I did that starting now for the next two years, I'd weigh a ton.  It also said that if we grew at the rate a baby does height wise, most of us would be 70 feet tall by the age of 50.  That would make for a lot more skyscrapers, I'd warrant...

 

H is for HAT

So there is a National Hat Day- January 15th.  Why this day?  Because a legendary (and quite possibly fictional) haberdasher named John Hetherington was arraigned that day in 1797 for wearing the first top hat in public, causing...

"several women fainted at the unusual sight, while children screamed, dogs yelped and a younger son of Cordwainer Thomas was thrown down by the crowd which collected and had his right arm broken".

 It should be noted that the first recorded mention of this story didn't come out until a hundred years later- supposedly in the Hatter's Gazzette, which I'm sure was a riveting read.

I is for INVESTMENT

From The Motley Fool...

Sure, there are stock markets for shares of companies offering various products and services, and bond markets, for debt obligations that investors trade. But did you know that even pirates have had a market, and not so long ago? The Wall Street Journal covered it in 2011, saying: "The world's first pirate stock exchange was established in 2009 in Harardheere, some 250 miles northeast of Mogadishu, Somalia. Open 24 hours a day, the exchange allows investors to profit from ransoms collected on the high seas, which can approach $10 million for successful attacks against Western commercial vessels."

 

"Well, my broker is EF Hutton, and EF Hutton says..."

 

J is for JELLY

Our second choice here, as "Judgment" didn't pan out.  Didja know that Dr Thomas B Welch- who would go on to invent Welch's grape jelly, started with juice clear back in 1869. Almost 40 years later, he made his first jam, which he called "Grapelade".  The US Army, stocking its troops for WWI, bought his entire inventory.

 

 

 

K is for KING

 

This one isn't exactly a "king story," or exactly accurate as it was first found by me, but...

At Tsar Nicholas II's coronation party about 1389 people died after being trampled due to a rumor that there wasn't enough free beer and food.  

 So, let me get at the real story.   This was the 1896 crowning of the last Tsar of Russia, the ill-fated (and ill-qualified) Nicholas II.  Second, while there may have been beer (more likely vodka) involved, it is not mentioned in the kindly-supplied source material.  Instead...

Thrilled by the coronation and excited by the prospect of the carnival to be held at Khodynka Field, the people were “stirred up and restive.” (1) The night before, thousands thronged to the area and camped out in the open, waiting for dawn, when the turnstiles would open and they could enter the fairgrounds. As the group waited, a rumor began to spread, "that there would not be enough gifts or food to go around. They had been promised sausage, bread rolls, sweets, nuts, gingerbread and a precious keepsake – a pink enamel mug bearing the arms of the city of Moscow and the words “In memory of the Holy Coronation,” all wrapped together in a colored kerchief stamped with the tsar and tsarina’s pictures.”

 About dawn, the people pushed through the barricades- a crowd of a half-million with about 100 Cossacks trying to control it.  At first, "Nicky" wanted to call off the whole thing- but since their French allies were planning a celebratory ball at HUGE expense, he started his reign off as he performed it throughout- by being talked into the wrong thing.  They cleaned up the bodies and went on as if nothing happened.

Finally, L is for LITERATURE

The best selling NOVEL of all time is Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote, from which comes the title of this blog.  That's it for today, now excuse me while I snap this stupid keyboard into tiny little pieces....

Sunday Message

 

You might have noticed the "Better Part" posts have dwindled.    Right now, I'm sharing when I am led to, but I do want to share my heart at this point.

One lesson I learned early last week is something I bring up in the next Bible Study- that if you don't pay attention, you're not listening. If all I get out of tuning my radio in at 6 AM to listen to Pastor A is the fact that I tuned in my radio on time, it does me no good.  In studying for the following week's Bible study this morning, I read two parables, side by side, that reminded me of one thing- for the seed to grow, it's got to get into my "ground".  My 'good soil' is nothing if the seed doesn't get into it.  Maybe that's why the BP posts have dwindled, but not entirely.  However, this post is not "Chris psychoanalyses himself" so we move on.

Almost every pastor I DO pay attention to is hitting the same subject right now- the End of the Age.  I'm not going to stand here wearing the posterboard telling you 'the end is near'.  But it is drawing nearer.  A lot of prophecy is being moved towards a final goal right now.  And if you are the seed that falls on the rocky soil, who likes my warm and fuzzy faith posts but not the 'look in the mirror' stuff, you might react different than I do.  You might not see the Russian war in Ukraine as one sign of what's coming, but their presence in Syria as a bigger one.  You might see the coming 'cashless society' as a convenience and miss the connection to 666.  You might see some of the current "tolerance" preaching as a good thing and not know it was predicted as a 'falling away.'  But if you read, truly read, the Word of God, you cannot help wondering how close we really are.  How much worse it's going to get.

You might not realize you are the frog in the pot of water, not noticing death coming on as the water goes from warm to boiling very slowly.

I'm not looking at panicking you, exactly.  There may be time; man doesn't know how hot the pot will get before it's too late to get out.  What I will say is this:  It takes just a few minutes to read a page or two of the Bible.  It takes a lot longer to understand that you need the wisdom to understand it, and get something out of it.  It takes the willingness to ask, to dig, to seek counsel.  It takes prayer and meditation.  And it takes being willing to sell all to obtain the Pearl of Great Price.  It takes weeding out the astrology, the 'settled science', the 'all paths lead to heaven' prophets, and gain ONE FOCUS.

It don't take me.  It takes you and Him.

M10 show week #19

 

Boss, you realize you ain't posted nothin' but the Bible study an' this all week?

Yeah, it's just been a rough week, for a variety of reasons... but if it helps, I'm thinking about doing that A to Z mash-up this weekend... it is that time of year again...

That always is good for a laugh... Any idears?

Maybe... but our bigger problem is this is a week in which the top ten on the M10 had no debuts!  That's a first this year, and the first since December 8th of last year, with Duran Duran and Tove Lo's Give It All Up in the top spot.  So I considered a "Top ten the same, just shuffled" feature to go with it.

Oh, no THAT sounds rivetin'...

Better ideas?

I'm the music man, not the idear man...

Then, allow me to proceed!  So first I thought, how often is it happening on the charts these days?  To my surprise, it had occurred not once, but twice, this year on Billboard, the most recent being back on the March 12th chart.  And how about in the past?  Now lately, we've been doing things with the Martin Era 2.1 (1960-79), mainly because Cashbox archives HAD been behind a password that the website wouldn't let you create for several weeks... that seems to be fixed now, although I did not know that.  And while I had managed to bring up the 60's and 70's on a cached site (and thanks again to Tropicalglen.com), I had been, until last weekend, too lazy to add the 50's to the list so I could go back to Martin Era 2.0- from the debut week of Rock Around The Clock on the May 7th, 1955 chart, till the debut of How Deep Is Your Love on the September 24th, 1977 chart.  But now that I can, I said, let's diversify- when were the first and last weeks of each of them to have no debuts?  Interesting answers await- after the King gives us some of this week's M10, okay?

 

Gotcha!  And now for a break from Mr Long-Winded Explanations...

10- Down 5 in week #7 for Tears For Fears an' Break The Man...

9- also down 5 in its 10th week, Envy Of None an' Liar...

8- Up 2 fer Beach House an' Hurts To Love...

7- an' up one fer... uh, that song about my ghost...

He means, Ghost Of Elvis Presley by Daisy Glaze....

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So the ME2.0 starts right out with a week that had no debuts!  May 7th, 1955 was the first week of ME2.0 and had no debuts- at the top was The Ballad of Davy Crockett by Bill Hayes- and others- which was in the second to last of 8 weeks at the top.

The ME2.1, however, managed 3 months before having its first no-debut week in the top ten.  It was the March 5th, 1960 chart- and howsabout some statistical irony?  The top song that week was Percy Faith's Theme From A Summer Place- also in an 8 week run at the top.  But instead of its second to last week of the run, it was its SECOND week of the run!

Oh, whoop-de-doo, color me impressed- no, check that, bored.

You're a bit of an ass tonight, aren't you?

C'mon, man!  No videos, no pretty girls...

What would you like? Another "Elvis's movies beauty contest?"

Naw, that's been done...

 

Well, how about your girlfriends?  You got your high school sweetie, Dixie Locke Evans...

Hey, that's my junior prom!  Where did ya...

Or your next sweetie, June Juanico...

 Oh, c'mon!  I look like a dork in that pitcher....

Or how about...

Okay, okay!  Lemme just give some more of the M10....

6- up one fer Maddie and Tae an' Grown Man Cry- which I'mma bout to...

5- up one fer Melody's Echo Chamber and Looking Backwards...

4- and up 5 biggies for Sunflower Bean an' Who Put You Up To This?

Speakin' of which...

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 How about Judy Spreckles?

I look like a dork there, too!  Jus' do yer specials... I promise I'll be good....

Aren't you gonna introduce me?

NO.

Well, fine.  Anyway, the LAST "same tens" on the M2.0 and M2.1 are kind of the long and short of things.  The ME 2.1's final 'same ten' was just 3 weeks from the end, on December 8th, 1979, a week topped by Styx and Babe.  However, 2.0's last 'same ten' took 72 weeks from the end- May 1, 1976, with the Bellamy Brothers and Let Your Love Flow at the top. 

 

 

"Weird, wild stuff!"

And now, King, you may take us out...

Oh, yeah, who am I takin' out this time? Natalie Wood? Anne Helm?

I meant, finish the M10...

Oh, uh, yeah...

 

3- an' holdin' fer Sweet an' Hoffs an' Run To Me...

2- an' holdin' fer Duran Duran an' Laughing Boy... which I'm feeling very familiar with right about now... 

 

An' another week at the top fer....

 

 

...the Cactus Blossoms an' Is It Over?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Man, I sure hope so....