Friday, June 09, 2006
Open House
Ckick on the link below to find my new blog address. To leave comments, you will need to register ... please do! Because I have no life, your comments often are the only thing that really make my day. Pathetic, but hey . . . it's like, you know? (That sounds so Californian, doesn't it?)http://www.gregengland.com
Thanks!
Thursday, June 08, 2006
Last Blog
If you tried to do anything on Blogger yesterday, you know the on-going frustration of this sponsor. At the behest (R U impressed?) of my friends, Randy and Brad, I'm going with theobloggers. When we get it all set up I'll give you a link on this site to send you to the new site.
If you're interested in a better blog sponsor (if that's what they are called), you might want to check out theobloggers. You'll have your own domain name and will own all of the content of your blog. And it works! ... unlike Blogger far too much of the time.
See you soon from my new home.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
666
Monday, Janice and I had lunch together and she mentioned that her students (she only has a baker's dozen this year) were all but going into a frenzie over Tuesday's date: 6-6-06. So who said 5th graders were ready to deal with the world's problems anyway? They have enough on their hands just surviving the first Tuesday in June!I told her for one thing, the date is not 6-6-6. We're not in the year 6AD. We're 2000 years beyond that. But so much for logic and reason. We're talking 5th graders.
Over the years we've seen people beyond 5th grade get just as crazy over numbers and Revelation. Chapter 13:18 reads (NLT): Wisdom is needed to understand this. Let the one who has understanding solve the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. His number is 666.
Ancient people had a way of using letters of their alphabet as numerical values and would express words in values. For instance, on a wall of ancient Pompeii someone wrote, "I love her whose number is 545." Gematria was the adding up of numerical values of letters in a word or name. The number of the beast is not simply three sixes. Rather, it is 600 + 60 +6. Some have even postulated that the internet is the beast of Revelation (and often trying to work w/ Blogger.com adds some merit to this claim!) because the equivalent of "w" in Hebrew is the 6th letter of their alphabet. So www would be 666. But to add the value of the letter "waw" (or "vav") three times would not be 666 (six hundred sixty-six). It would be 18. (6+6+6) Those of you who know my math skills are probably picking yourselves up off the floor and declaring this day a holiday!
To think that John, who wrote long after the year 6AD, was referring to a date in June of 2006 is nothing less than stupid ... unless you are a 5th grader or a prophetic scholar! Then it's perfectly reasonable that yesterday something quite ominous occurred and we are too simple to have understood. If so, just slap me and call me "simple" ... or "stupid."
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
No Comment Needed
You get those plain envelopes in the mail that you suspect contain another offer for a credit card with a $50,000 limit, don't you? But every now and then it actually contains a legitimate replacement card for your ATM / Debit VISA. It's very important that you make sure the "replacement" card received actually replaces the card you just shredded! No further comment other than we're awaiting our new ATM cards to go with our new VISA cards.I'll sure be glad when this phase of mental fog is over and we can return to thinking with the clarity we had in our younger years.
For many years, Janice and I have wanted to go over to Temecula, California, for the annual Temecula Valley Balloon and Wine Festival. Problem: We never seemed to figure out the date until after the fact. Speaking of fact(s), here are some balloon facts to jump start some potentially boring conversations today:FUN FACTS:Aren't you glad you stopped by today? You are so much more informed now than just a minute ago! So this past Saturday Josh, Jan and I got up about 6am ... had breakfast and drove out to where the balloons were being launched. There were a few dozen balloons in the air, a few dead ones on the ground and others both going up and coming down. All in all, it was a fascinating morning as we'd never been so close to hot air balloons.
Sept. 19, 1783 - first hot air balloon launch with a sheep, a duck and a rooster as passengers. It flew for 20 minutes over Paris. Those whacky Frenchmen!
November of 1783, first manned balloon flight. In Paris.
1785 - first long distance balloon flight over the English Channel.
Jan. 7, 1793 - first balloon flight in North America. Launch was witnessed by George Washington.
August, 1932 - first manned flight to reach the stratosphere. Reached a height of over 52,000 feet.
1978 - first balloon flight to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
1981 - first flight to cross the Pacific Ocean.
1999 - first hot air balloon flight to circumvent the earth.
Before I Googled and found the interesting facts, Josh wondered how balloons were flown prior to learning how to compress gasses. (I did a little research on that as well and it seems we've been able to compress gasses for a LONG time.) Not knowing that, I replied they were powered by the forerunners to televangelists. Where else would man find such a concentration of hot air? Actually, the trend is to use nothing more than hot air (hence the name, hot air balloon) rather than the gasses used earlier. They proved to be far too dangerous for flight.
As you can see, it doesn't take much to entertain people our age!
Monday, June 05, 2006
A Good Kind of Tired
What a busy weekend! First, we spent the night on a vibrating bed in Siberia. Sort of. Actually, we were in Josh's apartment and he keeps it so cold, Janice shivered all night ... providing me a most relaxing vibrating-effect bed. I woke Josh up Saturday telling him we needed to take his mama to the hospital. His eyes popped wide open, "What's wrong?" I replied, "She's frozen solid!" After breakfast, we headed out to the annual Temecula Wine and Hot Air Balloon Festival. More on that tomorrow....
The drive over Friday afternoon was an event in and of itself. Thinking we got away before the traffic nightmare began, we quickly discovered we were so-o-o-o-o-o wrong. It's only about 85 miles from Long Beach, but it took us 3 hours! And, we were in Jessica's Civic, which is a five-speed, so add to everything else the never-ending clutch work. I was exhausted when we reached Josh's home. For about an hour we didn't get over 10mph in stand-still traffic. Just one of the many advantages of living in Southern California. Same trip home took about 90 minutes.
After spending the morning with Josh in 101 degree heat, Jan and I headed home to a much cooler Long Beach temperature of about 97 to celebrate Grad Nite with our church family. Josh and Heather came over and Jessica came home, as we are very close to our two graduates this year. Joanna (JoJo) and Morgan (Morgie) are almost like our own daughters. Fun evening. Great food! Lots of laughs. More than a few tears. And air conditioning!
Yesterday morning I preached lesson #7 in our journey through Romans. Chapter 3. Salvation by Faith, Part 2. Expressed many of the same thoughts (though I didn't steal them from him) of what my good friend, Steve (The Puckster) Puckett, wrote in one of his recent blogs. For many years I've thought our "doctrine" on salvation was shakey at best, if not down right spurious. We've been so focused on "our" response and "our" part in salvation, as if we have anything to offer God. Trying to respond to Acts 2:38 has been our battle cry: What must I do? The only thing we bring to the process is our sinfulness! Paul is rather emphatic in Romans 3 (and elsewhere) on the biblical doctrine of salvation by grace through faith. It began as a covenant with Abraham, only God's name was the only signature on the contract (so to speak). It's all about God's gift of Jesus. God's satisfaction with and resting in what Jesus did. God's justification of us based on Jesus. No wonder Paul asks, "So what do we have to brag about?" (Ro.3:27-28). I suppose we could boast about receiving an undeserved gift, but isn't that rather pathetic in comparison to God's love when we were so unlovable?
Then to have one of our elders publicly thank me and affirm the teaching (as well as many of the church family) is always a serendipity. I am blessed in many ways to be a part of this church family. For instance . . .
Our church family treated Josh and Heather to a luncheon / gift shower. And they were most generous both in gifts and in attendance. We were blessed with having Heather's mother, sister, and grandmother with us for worship and the afternoon events. Josh and Heather (hereafter referred to as J&H in future blogs) filled two cars with gifts. I'm talking trunk and back seat.
Five weeks from yesterday is the event. I've thought all along that I would be able to officiate their wedding without emotional breakdown. Almost bragged to others about it. But this gift-shower brought some significant lumps to this old daddy's throat, so now I'm not so sure. But it'll be all family there, so if I happen to shed some tears, then it will be with people who understand. And when it comes to my kids, I'm not above being an emotional whimp.
After spending the afternoon with Jessica ... doing a bit of shopping for the remainder of one of our wedding gifts to J&H ... dinner with dear friends ... Jan and I completed the weekend filling out loan apps for Jessica's final year of college. My life's goal now is to live long enough to pay off these college loans!
So I finished the weekend tired. But a good kind of tired. As always, thanks for stopping by. Have a blessed week.
The drive over Friday afternoon was an event in and of itself. Thinking we got away before the traffic nightmare began, we quickly discovered we were so-o-o-o-o-o wrong. It's only about 85 miles from Long Beach, but it took us 3 hours! And, we were in Jessica's Civic, which is a five-speed, so add to everything else the never-ending clutch work. I was exhausted when we reached Josh's home. For about an hour we didn't get over 10mph in stand-still traffic. Just one of the many advantages of living in Southern California. Same trip home took about 90 minutes.
After spending the morning with Josh in 101 degree heat, Jan and I headed home to a much cooler Long Beach temperature of about 97 to celebrate Grad Nite with our church family. Josh and Heather came over and Jessica came home, as we are very close to our two graduates this year. Joanna (JoJo) and Morgan (Morgie) are almost like our own daughters. Fun evening. Great food! Lots of laughs. More than a few tears. And air conditioning!
Yesterday morning I preached lesson #7 in our journey through Romans. Chapter 3. Salvation by Faith, Part 2. Expressed many of the same thoughts (though I didn't steal them from him) of what my good friend, Steve (The Puckster) Puckett, wrote in one of his recent blogs. For many years I've thought our "doctrine" on salvation was shakey at best, if not down right spurious. We've been so focused on "our" response and "our" part in salvation, as if we have anything to offer God. Trying to respond to Acts 2:38 has been our battle cry: What must I do? The only thing we bring to the process is our sinfulness! Paul is rather emphatic in Romans 3 (and elsewhere) on the biblical doctrine of salvation by grace through faith. It began as a covenant with Abraham, only God's name was the only signature on the contract (so to speak). It's all about God's gift of Jesus. God's satisfaction with and resting in what Jesus did. God's justification of us based on Jesus. No wonder Paul asks, "So what do we have to brag about?" (Ro.3:27-28). I suppose we could boast about receiving an undeserved gift, but isn't that rather pathetic in comparison to God's love when we were so unlovable?
Then to have one of our elders publicly thank me and affirm the teaching (as well as many of the church family) is always a serendipity. I am blessed in many ways to be a part of this church family. For instance . . .
Our church family treated Josh and Heather to a luncheon / gift shower. And they were most generous both in gifts and in attendance. We were blessed with having Heather's mother, sister, and grandmother with us for worship and the afternoon events. Josh and Heather (hereafter referred to as J&H in future blogs) filled two cars with gifts. I'm talking trunk and back seat.Five weeks from yesterday is the event. I've thought all along that I would be able to officiate their wedding without emotional breakdown. Almost bragged to others about it. But this gift-shower brought some significant lumps to this old daddy's throat, so now I'm not so sure. But it'll be all family there, so if I happen to shed some tears, then it will be with people who understand. And when it comes to my kids, I'm not above being an emotional whimp.
After spending the afternoon with Jessica ... doing a bit of shopping for the remainder of one of our wedding gifts to J&H ... dinner with dear friends ... Jan and I completed the weekend filling out loan apps for Jessica's final year of college. My life's goal now is to live long enough to pay off these college loans!
So I finished the weekend tired. But a good kind of tired. As always, thanks for stopping by. Have a blessed week.
Friday, June 02, 2006
National Accordion Awareness Month
I'm embarrassed (if not humiliated) to say I failed to inform you that yesterday (Thursday) began National Accordion Awareness Month. Even I didn't know this until informed by a friend who is a college English professor. (Boy those guys sure know a lot!)He even shared a joke:
Q: Do you know the difference between an accordion and an onion?Several years ago at our church youth camp, one of the counselors told me she plays accordion. I didn't know any non-Hungarians who played the accordion, and certainly no Southern California girls ... not the girls the Beach Boys sang about. I asked where she bought her accordion as I'd never seen one on sale in any reputable Guitar Center, Sam Ash or the local music stores where I worship. She told me her dad bought it from a door-to-door accordion salesman.
A: Nobody cries when you cut up an accordion!
Say it ain't so! I wonder just how many door-to-door accordion salespersons there are in this world? I wonder if they are unionized? I wonder why I wonder such things?
Though we've already missed a day of celebration, please find your nearest accordionist and tell him or her you are actually aware of their instrument! And I'll try and stay more on top of the hottest news stories.
Today is also National Donut Day. Honest! That leaves absulotely (sorry about that misspelling ... it's hard to type with all the sugar glaze on my fingers) no question as to how to celebrate that June is accordion awareness month.
Thursday, June 01, 2006
Welcome to June! Hard to believe we've entered the 6th month of '06. Seventeen days from now is Father's Day. I'm presently reading a couple of books in the evenings: Tim Russert's Wisdom of Our Fathers: Lessons and Letters from Daughters and Sons (a follow-up to his best-seller, Big Russ & Me) and Karen Spears Zacharias' Hero Mama: A Daughter Remembers the Father She Lost in Vietnam - and the Mother Who Held Her Family Together.Since I have nothing better to blog today, I'm going to share a letter from Russert's book. A story I think just warm the heart. You be the judge.
Brian Baker shares this memory of his dad, Bob.
My dad is the biggest New York Giants fan alive and has had season tickets for over forty years. In 1990, he took me to the NFC Championship game against the 49ers. He had four tickets, and he planned on selling the other two.What about you and your dad ... any lessons learned that you'd want to share?
We got to the game early to tailgate, and as we were pulling into the parking lot, I noticed that tickets were being scalped for hundreds of dollars. My father was going to make a killing, which was good because business had been difficult and he could really use the extra money.
We tailgated for a couple of hours, during which Dad must have had twenty-five different opportunities to cash in on his tickets, but he made no effort at all to sell them. I realized that he would probably get top dollar closer to kickoff, and I watched him carefully, hoping to learn a thing or two.
As the start of the game approached we headed for the stadium entrance, and my father continued to pass up selling opportunities. I remember thinking that maybe he was getting greedy. But he was looking around and finally saw what he wanted - a father and a young boy who needed tickets. My father explained that he had two extras and was just asking what he paid for them.
"Are you serious?" the man asked.
"Yes," my father replied. "Now let's go in before we're late for the game."
I did learn something that day - something about having principles and doing what is right. I know today that my father got more enjoyment out of seeing that father and son watch the game right next to us than if he had sold each ticket for a small fortune. In doing so, he taught me a lesson I'll never forget. [pp.39 - 40]
