FYI post part 2

 

No, not dead yet.  Here's the update.

I made it through three days of work... barely.  It seemed that the first three hours were the worst each day- pain on day one, breathing on day two, exhaustion day three- but after first break, I generally did better.  I never did set up an M10 chart ( two of those days, it was really in my ears), and have generally took it easy at night.  One day of weaning off sinus meds meant that my brain is finally back at peak performance (such as it is) today.

Never, though, was I as bad as Joe Biden at the debate.  Neither here nor there.

Our ownership has decreed a company wide shutdown next week, so I have plenty of time to rebuild my strength, and weather cooperating (which it is NOT today), we'll be back at our picture taking finest soon.

The FYI post

 So I have been sick this week.  If I've missed posts, comments, etc, I apologize.  Here's the scoop.

Laurie was sick Thursday felt better Friday, but nosedived Sunday.  I was fine till Sunday afternoon, when Laurie presciently asked me how I felt.  At the time, just an increasingly scratchy throat.  By Monday morning, I had added her aches and congestion, and raised her with a chest that felt like an elephant had slept on it.

4:30- I called in to work sick.

6:00- Had to take doggie out.  Plus her meds, plus her bone.

7:30- Our smoke detector decided to have a meltdown, had to have maintenance come over and replace it.

9:30- The worst nosebleed of my life commences.

3:00- Woke up from nap shivering cold- a real trick when it's 80F out.

4:20- Talked to Boss.  "If you even think you're not going to be over it, just call in tomorrow." Word.

Tuesday was better, somewhat... although the weather radio going off at 7:30 for a severe thunderstorm watch felt eerily familiar.  Fever was about gone.  Aches were controllable.  No more nosebleed, though bending over to get Misty's bone almost set lose another liquid from another orifice.

Wednesday (AKA today) I made it to work, and when I got home, Laurie looked at me and I said, I yet live.   But I am not motivated to do any heavy lifting, so I will say right now that this week won't have an M10 post, as I'm not of a mind to do my top ten tonight (when I usually do it), and am just hoping to have enough gas in the tank tomorrow to at least get that done.

So have a nice week, I'll update as needed when I am back to what passes for normal.

Wednesday Bible Study: the fifth seal

 

Rev 6:9  When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the witness they had borne. 

Rev 6:10  They cried out with a loud voice, "O Sovereign Lord, holy and true, how long before you will judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?" 

Rev 6:11  Then they were each given a white robe and told to rest a little longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brothers should be complete, who were to be killed as they themselves had been. 

I have to admit, this was a tough one.  So many different opinions on every part of this passage as to what is happening.  At first, I wondered if I might have to do the last three seals together.  That, it turns, was NOT going to happen.  Let me take you on my journey.

I saw under the altar

Wait a minute, some commentators noted (and I just paraphrased), "What altar?"  Here is the story.  When God gave Moses the plan for the Tabernacle in Exodus 25, he was told to make it "Exactly as I have told you" (v 9); and the Author of Hebrews explained that this was so it was an exact copy of what was in Heaven (Heb. 8:5).  In that vision, Heaven held TWO altars, just as Moses would then make them: a golden altar for incense (which will come up in a very soon post, God willing), and a bronze one for the sacrifice.  The blood of the sacrifice was poured at the foot of this altar.

This, then, is the altar of sacrifice; here are poured the souls slain for "the word of God and for the witness they had borne. "  Martyrs are special above other saints to the Lord; again, God willing, we will get to that.  

the word of God and for the witness

The commentators to a man found this phrasing significant, but for the life of me, I couldn't see why until I remembered this passage:

Isa 8:19  And when they shall say to you, Seek to the mediums and to wizards who peep and mutter; should not a people seek to their God, than for the living to the dead? 

Isa 8:20  To the Law and to the testimony! If they do not speak according to this Word, it is because no light is in them. 

The Law, and the testimony- the prophets.  This is all they had before Christ, the Word of God.  After, they had the Word and the Testimony.  These, then were, as Jesus Himself named them...

Mat 23:33  Serpents! Offspring of vipers! How can you escape the condemnation of hell? 

Mat 23:34  Therefore, behold, I send prophets and wise men and scribes to you. And you will kill and crucify some of them. And some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city; 

Mat 23:35  so that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah the son of Berachiah, whom you killed between the temple and the altar. 

And all those martyred after.

They cried out with a loud voice

The word here for loud is the word we get out prefix 'mega-' from.  Of all those who pray, God hears them the loudest.   That makes me wonder if I have at last found a reasoning for a passage I may have mentioned before...

Joh 12:20  Now among those who went up to worship at the feast were some Greeks. 

Joh 12:21  So these came to Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and asked him, "Sir, we wish to see Jesus." 

Joh 12:22  Philip went and told Andrew; Andrew and Philip went and told Jesus. 

Joh 12:23  And Jesus answered them, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. 

Joh 12:24  Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. 

Consider:  The Greeks came out of what appears to be curiosity; Jesus seems not to hear.  The Disciples came wanting to help them learn about Jesus; their desire to lead others to Himself, He hears!  The more obedient, the more desirous of His things we are, the more He hears us.

Then they were each given a white robe

I noted to myself, white robes were mentioned twice in the letters to the Churches: Once was when they were to be given to the survivors of Sardis, the dead Church.  The other was when the lukewarm Church in Laodicea was counselled to buy them....  God continually finds His best gems in the worst places...

 and told to rest a little longer

They have entered God's rest- their journey is complete.  Something in them, though, is discontent.  Not the desire for revenge, the desire to see God fulfill the promise they died for.  

Deu 32:35  Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip; for the day of their calamity is at hand, and their doom comes swiftly.' 

Deu 32:36  For the LORD will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone and there is none remaining, bond or free. 

But here's the thing: God is going to allow their number to be ADDED to first.  To grasp this, I went here...

Rev 20:4  Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 

So here's the deal: Those under the altar died PRIOR to the Rapture- yet another proof of its reality.  These here in Rev 20 had died under the rule of the AntiChrist, and after his defeat, they get their resurrection.  Note the same wording: they died for word and the testimony- only this time it was the testimony of Jesus- the Revelation of Jesus, if you will- and not the prophets.  What need for a prophet when you're living through the last prophecies?

So this seal teaches us two valuable lessons:  The special place of martyrs for the faith, and the connection between our obedience and God hearing us.

Just a curious note to end:  My mind asked, if the martyrs get special billing- what must have happened to the 24 Elders we saw back in Chapter four?  And then I thought about my speculation, that perhaps the Apostles were half of those 24 elders.  And then I said, but one Apostle was NOT martyred...

And he's the one Raptured up to write the book...

M10 show Week # 124

 

An' this week's show brought ta you  by Red Robin Burgers, where...

Wait a minute!  Are you doing a commercial?

Well, I got ta thinkin', we oughta let 'em know what we just et in a more... "commercial-like" way, an' if'n they hear about it, maybe we can make some money on the side...

And that's exactly how you get charged for putting posts on Facebook and X/Twitter, and end up being labeled spam...

Serious?  But ah seen other people do it...

Other people monetize their blogs.  If I did that, we'd probably have made 15 cents by now... 

Off this post?  That ain't...

Off 14 years of blogging!

Ouch.  Okay, so what's up this week?

1973 this week, and one debut, a third time for Shannon and the Clams, at #7...

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Wow... that's a number one if'n I'm a judge...

Pretty much my thoughts.  So lets look at this week in 1973, and what 11 year old Chris would have on his list...

We ain't gonna go fetch you from then, are we?

No, that would cause a metacrisis in the Tardis.  Besides, I was a dork...

On the right, just under the lady in the chair (That's no lady, that's my sister Pete!), hamming it up.  See, dork.

Uh, I hate ta agree wit' ya, but... point made.

So this week in Australia, they were in the sixth of seven weeks for Dawn's Tie A Yellow Ribbon 'Round The Old Oak Tree- a song that had hit #1 across North America a couple of months back, and was on this week's Cashbox chart at #34 in its 21st week.  In Canada, Clint Homes and Playground In My Mind was the topper- it was 5 here, on its way to #2, while Australia- who agreed with us once this week and will not a second time- peaked it at 66.  At one point, the song has a little girl singing, "My name is Cindy...", which was notable because I had a crush on a Cindy at the time....

Oh, how innersting!  

Geez, can a fellow reminisce? (NOTE:  I'm stunned I spelled THAT right the first time!)  Here, queue it up whilst I prepare my top 5...

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

That wuz so cute..

Are you crying?

Nah, I gotta bug in my eye!  Durn gnats!

Uh-huh.  So here go my top 5...

5- Paul Simon, Kodachrome.  #7 on its way to 2 here, it peaked the same in Canada, and 20 in Australia.

4- Seals and Crofts, Diamond Girl.  Moving up to 28 this week, it would stop at 6- just like their other two big hits- here, 13 in Canada, 57 in Australia.

3- The Spinners, One Of A Kind (Love Affair).  Moving to #10 this week, here it would stop at 8, 16 in Canada, and as per usual with Motown- style tunes, wasn't released Down Under.

2- Doobie Brothers, Long Train Running. At 14 this week, it would make #8 across North America, and 58 in Australia.

And my top song this week?

1- The Carpenters, Yesterday Once More.  Making the 11 notch jump to 20 this week, it would hit the top across North America and #9 in Australia.

That's close to agreeing... 

Yep, not a bad way to finish that look-see!  You got the rest of the M10?  I know 9 songs is more than you're used to handling...

Oh, hardy-har-har!  Get back, Jack, an' let a professional do this...

10- and 10 weeks on, fer Real Estate an' Somebody New, fallin' from 5.

9- Another dropper, Wings an' Juniors Farm down 6...

8- Up 2 fer the Decemberists an' Oh, No....

6- Back up 3 fer Lake Street Dive an' Better Not Tell You...

5- an' 3 fer the Man In Black an' Well, Allright...

4- an' up 2 fer Lucius and friend with Go Home...

3- an' up one- and a classic line up with them an' Lucius in the countdown- Geowulf an' Dolly...

2- an' holdin', Lorde an' Take Me To The River...still leadin' the Songs of Summer...

An' a second week at the top fer...

...Rainbow Kitten Surprise with Meticulous!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Not bad, Mr Professional... I only counted 19 mispronounced words or words with the ends chopped off...

HEY!  You type my lines right!

If I did that, people would think you were Wayne Newton....

Pastor fail

 

I'm going to say something about a pair of recent falls by Pastors I listened to on the radio and had/have respect for.  No, I'm not going to tell the stories, and I'm not going to identify them.  But I am going to address what we all need to learn, whatever the circumstances.

To we, the people:

First of all- We worship the God, not the man.  To the non-Christian, it is oh so easy to say, "This just goes to prove..."  But all it proves is the lesson every good preacher drills into you from day one:  We are fallen.  We are human.  We mess it up.  God is not tainted by our failings; faith is not rendered impotent when a pastor falls.  If you have a relationship with Jesus Christ, that relationship goes on.  So does the pastor's, if he had one in truth.

Second- The victim is not damned for being the victim, for being the one who 'brought him down.'  The victim is the victim, and needs our prayer first and foremost, whether we are praying for, mourning, or damning the pastor.  And the pastor doesn't need damning, mourning, or defending.  He needs help- and for most of us, that means he needs our prayer.

For the pastors out there:

This NEEDS to be a wake up call.  One man at least ended up this way by using the logic Satan used in the Garden.  Confession- but only to the point he could get back on the horse after a time and ride on.   He forgot there are three parts to the testimony:  the truth, the WHOLE truth, and nothing but the truth.

What that means for you, not that pastor, is you'd better examine YOUR closet.  Time grows short, and God is going to allow Satan to expose what we hide.  If you have had to come clean about something, good.  Make sure you tell the whole story.  If you don't, Satan will make sure someone else will.

For the Church elders-

This one group of elders did an investigation when the pastor was hired.  They investigated until they found what they wanted to find, were satisfied, and whipped out the 'approved' stamp.  That doesn't cut it, and now they are having to do a NEW investigation, due to several-decades old "new" information.

Lesson:  Investigate until you hit the TRUTH, whether you want it to be the truth or not.  This group took a man at his somewhat ambiguous word, and now every person who is haunted by having listened to this pastor- every one who bought one of his books- everyone who is doubting their salvation because they were led to it by this man- that is all on THEIR ledger.  And even though it is a different group of men by now on that board, the current board, and the church they run, all bear the taint in the eyes of the world.  Their witness will never be the same.

For that pastor:

I ask you now- you fudged the line between fact and fantasy, because instead of asking GOD whether you should return to ministry, you wanted so bad to get back to "your calling" that you would lie (because that's what it was) to do it.  Look around you at all the people you hurt because not what you did, but what you did ABOUT it.  You've preached David and Bathsheba, you knew it wasn't worth it.  I just hope you have a Nathan to make you see the sin from the outside and make you angry at it, because until you are, your repentance and your "rehab" just isn't worth on of your books in the 'free to good home' bin.

Wednesday Bible Study: The fourth seal

 

Rev 6:8  And I looked, and behold, a pale horse! And its rider's name was Death, and Hades followed him. And they were given authority over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by wild beasts of the earth. 

Rom 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 

I have to put these two verses together, to give you the full picture of the conclusion of the first four seal judgments.  Romans 8:1 in light of Revelation 6:8 is the greatest proof for the rapture- There is to be no condemnation of those who trust in Jesus.  I want to give you this, if you get nothing else from this, in very elemental terms.  Hades- Greek Hell- follows the deaths that come from these four horsemen.  EVERYONE WHO DIES THIS DEATH GOES TO HELL.  

Now, as the Tribulation- the "week of years" before the end- goes on, some will be given chances.  There will be 144,000 Jewish evangelists.  There will be the miraculous two witnesses who many believe are Elijah and Moses.  And there will be a mighty angel that proclaims one last chance.  But not for this judgment.

A quarter of mankind.  We don't know how many that will be, what with the believers removed, how much larger the population will be at the time, etc.  If we went by what the population of the earth is right now, it would make for 2 BILLION deaths.  To get a grasp on that, consider:  All the wars of the 20th century combined killed an estimated 187 million.  That is 9 percent of 2 billion.  All the famines of the 20th century took another 70 million- another 3.5 percent.   At the current rate of all deaths per year, this would be about 35 years worth of deaths all crammed into one spot in time.

There are four causes of these deaths- war, famine, sickness, and wild beasts.  500 million each?  Brian Martin in 1983 estimated 500 million could die from radiation in a nuclear war, so maybe.  Think on this:  What kind of world is it when animals can kill 500 million people?  You can only get over a million deaths by animal per year if you count mosquitoes passing on malaria.

This horseman is called by the Living Creature with the face "like an eagle flying".  Eagles soar to the highest parts of the sky; Isaiah explains to us that Hell is in the opposite direction:

Isa 14:9  Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth; it hath raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. 

Isa 14:10  All they shall speak and say unto thee, Art thou also become weak as we? art thou become like unto us? 

Isa 14:11  Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee. 

Isa 14:12  How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 

And weaken the nations he has- through his Anti-Christ, his wars, his human-created famine... and it only gets worse.   Unless of course, Romans 8:1 lives in you.

Yearly Hockey post

 This was a pretty good year for the Family Hockey League, the subject of this post, mainly for my records.  I won't be hurt (much) if you bail on it now.  

We had a lot of Champions this year.  League championships were won in the UK (My Sheffield, who also took the regular season and the Challenge Cup), Norway (Shenan's Storhamar, also the Reg season champ), France (My Rouen, who also took the reg season title), Austria (Misty's Salzburg), the KHL (Again, Misty with Magnitogorsk, the conference champ), Denmark (My Sonderjyske, who also took the Danish Cup), Czechia (Again, me with Trinec), Latvia (Misty's Mogo, a funny story coming up here), and Belarus (Laurie's Zhlobin).  In addition, we had regular season winners- besides those mentioned- in Czechia (Laurie's Pardubice), Slovakia (KC's Poprad), Poland (Laurie's Katowice), Latvia (Laurie's Zemgale), Sweden (my Farjestad), and another conference championship with Shenan's Dallas Stars.  Add to that a few miscellaneous championships: Laurie's Pardubice wins the Dolmitan Cup; my Cortina taking the Serie A and Italy Super Cups; Misty's Brasov- a team that competes in the Hungarian (which we follow) and Romanian leagues (which we don't)- wins the  Hungarian championship AND the Romanian Cup AND the Romanian championship; Shenan's Tychy with the Polish Cup, and the Polish Super Cup; and KC's Grenoble taking the French Cup.

The funny stories along the way:  Last year in Latvia, Misty's Mogo was unbeatable in the reg season, but loses in the finals to Laurie's Zemgale.  This year, it was Laurie invincible in the reg season, with Mogo pulling the upset in the finals.

Another: Katowice and Pardubice- both Laurie's teams- lost double OT game sevens in the finals of their leagues.

A third: Shenan's Punk Vilnius in Latvia went into the fourth to last game of the season 0-28, averaging a 7-2 loss every night.  Fourth to last game of the year, they rise up for a 4-3 win at last, only to lose the last 3 by a combined 26-2.

Shenan again, the second straight year her Belarussian team Vitebsk got off to a tremendous start, struggles at the end, and gets dumped early in the playoffs.  It took a lot longer for the collapse this year, and it wasn't the bottom dropping out like it was in 2022-23, but the end result was sadly the same.

OH, and almost forgot.  My Swiss team, Geneve Servette, who won it all last year, struggled all season, bounced in a play-in round- and still stunned the world by becoming the first team to win the Champions League Title!  Go figure.

I like to divide the stats into Euro and North American leagues, what with the disparity in games and style played.  The Euro scoring champ was Peter Quennville of Shenan's Storhamar with 72 points; Anthony Romani of KC's North Bay in the Ontario League took the NA title with 115.  Auston Matthews of Toronto was the goal champ in NA with his 70 (with the 1 playoff goal).  Matthias From of Laurie's Herning from Denmark edges out Quennville for the Euro Goal title 44-43.

The Goalie champs: Save %, William Rosseau of Rouyn-Noranda (Quebec League) .924 and Maxim Malyutin of Shenan's Vitebsk in Belarus, .935.  Wins go to Matthew Greenfield of Sheffield with 38 and (reg season) Juusi Saros of Laurie's Nashville with 35.  GA Ave it was Rosseau at 2.24 and Malyutin at 1.69.  The shutout race was Rousseau and Tristan Jarry of KC's Pittsburgh Penguins with 7 in NA, the Euro by Greenfield with 10.

This years top 25:

1 Sheffield, UK, Chris.  59-9, Won the British trifecta of reg season, playoffs and Challenge cup.

2 Storhamar, Norway, Shenan. 53-5, rolled to re season and playoff titles.

3- Pardubice, Czech, Laurie.  62-20, a reg season title, a 2-1 2OT loss to my Trinec in finals game 7.  Also won the Domlitan Cup.

4- Vitebsk, Belarus, Shenan. 51-18, lost in 1st round to KC's Brest. 10-0 in winning Belarussian Cup.

5- Rouen, France, Chris.  52-16, swept the Reg season and playoff titles- lost the first two games in the finals before winning 4 straight.

6- Mogo, Latvia, Misty. 35-6.  Lost the reg season title to Laurie's Zemgale on head-to-head, but took her 4-1 in the finals.

7- Magnitogorsk, KHL, Misty.  60-31, swept my Lokomotiv 4-0 in finals.

8- Katowice, Poland, Laurie. 47-19, lost a double overtime 1-0 game seven in finals.

9- Sparta Prague, Czech, KC. 45-18.  Lost a 3-2 OT game seven to my Trinec in semis.

10- Rouyn-Noranda, QMJHL, Misty.  52-26, suffice it to say all our junior teams struggled in the playoffs.  First year we had nobody in the Canada Cup.

11- Sonderjyske, Denmark, Chris.  46-20, won the Danish Cup, beat KC's Esbjerg 4-2 in finals.

12- Soo, OHL, Misty. 52-27.

13- Brasov, Hungary, Misty.  44-20.  Champs of 2 leagues, didn't count the Romanian record which was 24-6).

14- Trinec, Czech, Chris.  52-29, turned a 3rd place season into a championship by beating #2 in the semis and #1 in the finals.

15- Lokomotiv, KHL, Chris.  56-32. Capped one of their best ever seasons off by not even showing up in the finals against Magnitogorsk.

16- Angers, France, Misty.  38-15, stunned in the first round.

17- Carolina, NHL, Laurie. 58-35, put out in 2nd round.

18- Dallas, NHL, Shenan.  62-39, lost in conference finals to Edmonton.

19- Zemgale, Latvia, Laurie. 35-12, won the league title, but was running out of steam with a couple of Euro tourneys under their belts by the finals with Mogo.

20- Victoriaville, QMJHL, Shenan.  52-30, about the most successful of our Junior teams, made it to the semis.

21- Tychy, Poland, Shenan.  37-17. Beat Laurie's Katowice in both the Polish Cup and Polish Super Cups, but never made it to them in the playoffs.

22- Valerenga, Norway, Misty.  40-20, last to fall before the Storhamar rampage.

23- Grenoble, France, KC.  40-21, won the French Cup, but got slammed in the semis.

24- Farjestad, Sweden, Chris.  41-23, Won the reg season title, swept in first round.

25- Stavanger, Norway, Chris. 40-22, perennial champs but no match for Storhamar this year.