90 freaking percent, man. $.40/share to $.04/share.
Crazy.
I can just imagine that anyone who has a huge investment in our company has lost out on some serious cash. (Honestly I’m a bit surprised Gannett didn’t do this earlier.)
Let’s see how Wall Street responds tomorrow morning.
Earlier: A look back at Part 1 of this series.
I never did until about the age of 18 truly grasp the concept of, or really even begin to figure out, the role of the Holy Spirit in my life.
Believe it or not, it took the Air Force and experiences in non-Pentecostal churches to provide me some forced perspective. With me being stationed overseas at Lajes Field, Azores for a good portion of my military career, I attended the base chapel’s Protestant service and Bible studies at the home of my station manager who was also a Christian.
It was there that I found it refreshing that we were still growing in faith, learning more about the Lord and being of comfort and prayer to one another — and none of it required the use of tongues. Everything was done in an orderly fashion and there was a method to this non-madness, so to speak.
So why couldn’t this have been the case through my formative years?
Why did it take a 15-month stint in Lajes to figure out that I needed the Holy Spirit to provide peace, understanding and comfort in my spiritual life? Not some major spiritual whiz-bang that can instantly cure your disease or make your life better with a magic touch on the forehead and some foreign words, but an actual powerful extension of Jesus’ ministry that He Himself said He would leave with us until He returns?
My parents, as my mom pointed out the other day, did a wonderful job in teaching me what the Holy Spirit was. The church, not so much. As much as I love the COGOP and its people, the church overall did a horrible job in educating us as to the workings of the Spirit. Once again, that’s a holdover from the church’s legalistic era.
It’s a holdover that continued to bite the church in the fourth point of contact, at least in Washington state. Remember my Camp reflections in Part 1 of this article? If I tried to count how many people I attended Camps with that are still in the COGOP today, the number would be in the teens. Out of hundreds. I won’t speculate as to the exact cause of that, but I do believe the miseducation of all things Holy Spirit was a major factor.
Having found myself conflicted between slight, yet major, differences in viewpoints on tongues and interpretations — you can only imagine I would be confused in church settings that highly encouraged the use of T & I to a fault.
That confusion, largely, seemed to disappear during my first couple years in the military and I could not have been happier.
In late 2004, I was transferred to Langley Air Force Base in Newport News, Virginia. I had the privilege to attend Lakeside Church, and initially found it to be by far the best experience I had in the COGOP as it was the largest COGOP church I had attended but it wasn’t too large (200 people at best, which I found perfect), and I was immediately accepted by and shown love from everyone.
Their use of tongues was different in that they seemed to use it more for worship rather than directives aimed at the church or even during personal prayer times. I could buy that for a dollar too, and even to this day I see tongues as more of a worship language than anything else. After all, the Bible does say that we worship God, who is a spirit, in spirit and in truth.
Every now and then we’d get a T & I in the middle of the service, but it was so rare that I actually felt the gravity of it and somehow knew that it was legit in most cases.
Wait a minute, me calling it legit…was my perspective changing a bit?
I believe it was. Honestly, my personal endeavor was to strive for a greater relationship with God and in turn, people — all the while trying to continue to grasp my newfound knowledge of the Holy Spirit.
In July 2005, I was called on to share a message with the youth of the church about faith, and our need to take our faith on the move whether it be to our towns, foreign countries, etc. and share Christ’s message in unique ways.
As I remember it, I used Google Earth as the sermon illustration but can’t exactly remember the correlation. I do remember that people rather enjoyed it though, as it was something different.
Speaking of something different, we went into prayer time and we each prayed for each other to be bolder in our declarations of faith to the world, and for the Lord to continue to make us strong. You know, typical altar call time.
A couple of the guys came up to me after that altar call was over and said the Lord had told them we need to pray for our church. I felt it too, and before long four of us marched outside to pray around and for our church, that the Lord would protect it and continue to make it a place of ministry and a beacon to our community.
We prayed in earnest and with the best intentions, and we even laid hands on our church. (If you think that’s dumb, research what the laying on of hands means.)
It wasn’t long before one young man out of our group started marching around the church as if defending it, and he was praying in tongues in earnest. Once again, well intended and we couldn’t understand what he was praying, but as I said earlier the tongues and interpretations were so rare in that church that there was a real gravity and seriousness to them when they did occur.
As we followed him around the church to pray with him, I do remember feeling the Lord and His presence right there. It was unmistakable. I don’t know if He was trying to relay some message or something, but still He was there.
Nothing huge happened that night, and we didn’t go home feeling like our lives had turned a 180 or anything. We had simply prayed for our church as instructed to do in the Word.
Seventeen months after that prayer though, a course of events occurred that shook my foundational belief once again. I don’t know why it did so much, especially with me having moved to Oregon and not being a member of Lakeside any more after I separated from the Air Force.
But it did, and I wish to God it didn’t.
I still don’t know the specifics of the situation, but the church had been in a huge battle with trustees — members of the church who did not attend because they found fault with the current Pastor. Issues had been raised and business meeting after business meeting, the courses of events would always lead to an impasse. I saw it as the old guard opposing necessary changes brought on by the new guard to more effectively minister to the congregation.
To make a long story short, the Virginia state offices of the COGOP got involved by sending a ministerial review board to look into the situation that had become horribly ugly by the time I left. The board took its time in finding a conclusion, and from what I remember friends from the church called me, stunned at the measures the state board took.
Basically the church as I knew it would be no longer. The pastor was removed and an interim pastor brought in. The memberships of each church member were revoked and they were told they could reapply to be COGOP members if they fell under the authority of the new pastor.
Something had to have happened that I wasn’t aware of, but it crushed me because of all the time we took praying for the church and its protection, and for its people to come together under Christ’s unity.
It was all for naught, and I still well up with tears when I think about my friends in Newport News who went their separate ways because of the situation.
If I felt the Lord and the Holy Spirit during that one massive prayer session, and at other times when we prayed for the church, how could something like this happen?
It brought forth the ugly memory of praying for people in tongues and never seeing a result. Something I thought I could shake came right back and continued to haunt me even at 22 years of age.
To be continued, in Part 3.
There is a spiritual topic I’ve struggled with all my life and this one is a huge point that many denominations and individuals are so divided on — the whole realm of the Holy Spirit’s work tongues and interpretations.
Through my formative years, the ability to speak in tongues in and of itself was stressed in children’s and youth groups — and it seemed that those who did so had some sort of magic gift that I really couldn’t grasp.
If there was one bad portion of growing up in the Church of God of Prophecy during a time when the last vestiges of legalism were present, it was the overreliance of tongues and interpretations as the de facto way God spoke in the church. This was a known denominational barrier that the church has slowly begun to overcome…but then, it seemed downright cultish in its overuse.
To a kid like me at the time, it was scary beyond description to see people’s prayers in English transition to an instantaneous loss of their physical and mental faculties, and going crazy with a language I couldn’t understand.
As I got older I read in the Bible about how tongues was the initial evidence of the Holy Spirit indwelling in a person’s life. Cool, so it was legit!
Church camps in the COGOP in Washington were a prime ground for the Holy Spirit to work. I remember having fun at the camps by day and preparing for massive movements of the Spirit at night. Every night you knew someone was going to be healed or their life changed for the better.
During those services, we would all spend some time in worship with a live band rocking the stage and leading us into God’s presence, then we’d hear a good message from the night’s guest speaker that would keep in tune with the camp theme of the year. Then the speaker would always hold an altar call, and those were the most hyped and anticipated moments of the evening.
I remember one evening in a 1994 camp I attended in which one of the kids had prayed for their group leader to be healed of a sickness, and they were. Praise God…the speaker for the night had the kid stand up and pray, and before long others stood up and prayed as well.
It didn’t take long before people began to do the same thing that freaked me out as a kid…speaking in tongues and going a little crazy physically. In the space of about 20 minutes kids were running, jumping, shouting, praying for each other…and others were getting a little out of hand.
I would know, I was one of the out-of-hand ones. I was nine, so I didn’t really know better.
But that was because the Holy Spirit was never fully explained to me or my peers. You see, we were always simply told for years by church staff that the Holy Ghost, as it was called, would give us a greater spiritual power…as if somehow we could connect with God in a way that we couldn’t if we didn’t have this Holy Ghost. It didn’t make sense but all our parents and respected church leaders had it, so we wanted it.
And we wanted it badly.
Back to the Camp scene. I remember my first year at the teen camp we held called Senior Camp in 1997, seeing multiple staff members pray for kids who would boldly proclaim “I want the Holy Ghost!” There was no real clear explanation of how the Holy Spirit worked or why we should desire His leading in our lives in the first place.
It was just the staff member clasping hands with the kid, raising their arm in worship or putting their hand to their forehead…then praying something to the effect of “Fill him with your spirit, Lord” and when they got tired of that, they would tell them “go ahead and receive it, it’s a free gift and it’s right there…you’re so close.”
I wondered if the staff member would get a bit tired of not seeing a result and they’d encourage the camper to “just receive it” without explanation of what was going to happen, how to spiritually open up to receive it. Just receive it so I can move on, dangit.
When that happened to me, I was around 14-15 years old. I had two staff members praying for me at a camp in a prayer line, trying to prod me along as if they could push me into some other spiritual realm. I got tired of not seeing a result, so I did the only thing I knew how to as my way out.
I began to rapidly spit out a series of stuttered letters and elongated vowels — and I was fully in control of myself. I felt bad at first but when everyone around me bought it and I was shocked. Yes, I did it intentionally.
But everyone around me bought it! Hook, line and sinker!
Was this really all it really was, this speaking in tongues? All you do is feel the Lord around you and begin to talk in another language? Is that really the “next level,” that power we were always told about?
Surely that couldn’t be it…or could it? After that turning point at Senior Camp ‘99, I would see people in my church I loved and respected speak in tongues on a consistent basis, and I wondered if they simply felt the Lord so strong that they couldn’t put it into words — and that was their way of worship, as weird as it sounded.
It didn’t harm anyone so it must have been okay. So I continued to speak in “tongues” when the situation called for it. As I got older and attended more church camps, and even times at my church in Vancouver, I felt like a spiritual giant praying for my friends and speaking in tongues.
Kids with all sorts of different struggles — bad home life, alcoholism, drugs, sex before marriage, anger, rage, you name it — I’d pray for them in English first, but I’d always seem to run out of words. So there I went in tongues. It was a good crutch, I must admit, and my intent was pure, but then they would start to shake, quiver, or speak in tongues too.
Suffice to say it confused me and really shocked me when on many an occasion, the kid would fall to the floor as if the power of God hit them.
Maybe it did. Maybe the Lord was still working through me…after all me speaking in tongues was well-intended, but I just couldn’t lose myself mentally like everyone else seemed to, and simply “let the Lord take over.”
By the time I graduated high school, turned 18 and eventually left for the military, I wondered what this supposed gift of the Spirit in my life really accomplished. How come I had prayed for so many but seen them fall back into their old lifestyle? What about the ones I just walked up to, thrust my hand on their forehead and began to stutter away? Were they really healed?
Why did I want the Holy Spirit in the first place?
To be continued, in part 2.
Apathy…it’s a word we all hate to hear because it generally means a lack of passion or excitement. When that word has been used to describe a current state of being at a place of worship, it’s definitely not good.
The church I attend has had a serious battle with apathy attacking some or all people in the congregation. There’s reason for it too — attendance is dwindling, we’re running out of money, and the building is falling apart around us. Literally and figuratively, our church could collapse at any moment.
But as much as there is room for apathy, there’s room for hope. The bus ministry has helped us reach an audience of up to thirty young people each Wednesday night. People are coming to know Christ, and there is a set vision for the church in place.
So why is the apathy there?
Well, it was documented that in the last prayer meeting, the Holy Spirit spoke through a message in tongues and interpretation, saying plainly that the apathy was a spirit and we needed to rebuke it.
I can buy that for a dollar, even with my misgivings about tongues and interpretations in my church.
But I don’t know if the line has been clearly drawn between someone being apathetic and simply being a realist.
Let me put it this way:
A good real-life scenario is that the church is losing money each month and does not have the funds nor personnel to fix a building that is crumbling around us.
The spiritualist in this instance says God is going to provide, not knowing how but he’s going to do it…and they wait for the Lord to provide a solution.
The realist in this instance says there is no way given our current situation that we can stay here in this building…let’s sell it to the highest bidder and go rent a place to worship. They want a solution now before the situation becomes insurmountable.
The spiritualist and realist in this instance butt heads. But see, this is where a healthy dose is needed of both spiritualism and realism. Me being more of the realist, I’m sure there is a happy medium so I’ll let the more spiritually attuned people chime in.
I also think apathy could be linked in with introversion. Our church has a large number of introverts as opposed to extroverts when it comes to regular attendees, and that poses a simple problem. When people don’t get out and don’t make efforts to communicate with everyone, you’ve got the breeding ground for an apathetic spirit among the introvert (never tries to reach out), the extrovert (reaching out and fruitlessly trying to get the introverts to reach out as well) and the new people (“why are only a few people talking to me?”) right there.
The best way to beat apathy here is to get involved — get in the Word and stay in it, and get out of the comfort zones so easily built. That’s it.
But if someone is a realist, on the other hand…you’re not going to easily shake their points of view.
Because I’m a realist, I tend to think we are over-spiritualizing our problems at times. If we all looked at practical solutions to the situations facing our church, put our heads together and started thinking instead of waiting for God to say something that has a good chance of getting lost in translation, the apathy will go away and good things will start happening.
Personally I’d like to see the apathy disposed of, and ultimately my church move onto a place physically and spiritually conducive to everyone being benefited in equal fashion.
Now since I’m a realist, does that make me apathetic in your view? And how can we better distinguish between apathy and realism in the church?
Your thoughts are most certainly entertained and welcome.
I am not an economist, and I am not a political science major. In fact, I’ve never even stepped foot into a university for the purpose of learning. However, it doesn’t take those three facts, or even any given one of three, to figure out something that Wall Street and Washington D.C. cannot — why our economy has failed.
My view is a little different than the rest of the world’s, so bear with me through this. It’s a viewpoint I think every one of you, my readers, needs to see.
In the 1930s our nation faced a Great Depression. For whatever reason, Wall Street panicked, our dollar was severely devalued and millions of people’s investments were turned to rubble. It sounds a lot like what we’re going through now, right?
In a sense, yes, but the end won’t be the same. The Depression ended thanks to (I’m not sure if “thanks” is the right word but I’m sticking with it) World War II and the economy it brought forth. People were put to work in a united effort to see the United States come through the war on top, and it succeeded.
Today’s economic recession won’t end in similar fashion. Instead of putting people to work, we’ve outsourced jobs to China, and in our infinite wisdom have created computers that have surpassed the human race in technical proficiency, and thus can perform the job of a human much more quickly and efficiently. And about the war? Debate it all you want to, but the fact of the matter is the folks of America aren’t necessarily united on this one, and we kinda started the one in Iraq.
The federal government and big business have not helped the average citizen one iota — which is ironic because it is the collective purchasing power of the average citizens who drive what businesses can and cannot do. It is the voice of the average citizen who should drive what the government does.
For all intents and purposes, the government has failed the people. In the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 — otherwise known as the big financial bailout — Congress, and ultimately President Bush, authorized up to $700 billion dollars to buy distressed assets and attempt to restore confidence in a credit market — a credit market that, in my humble opinion, would be just fine if it didn’t lend to people who couldn’t afford to pay it back. What Congress did was basically take a chunk of your and my hard-earned money (money we will need even more so during this economic slowdown) and give it to companies that apparently need it, a step toward nationalization and a leap away from free enterprise.
If that doesn’t upset you, consider the recent auto industry bailout. The Big Three will not finance you for a new or pre-owned vehicle if your credit history is shot, yet they as companies are in the same situation and they expect to use OUR MONEY to rescue them. Of course, the government came to the rescue once again.
As an average citizen myself, it seems odd to me how the United States can seemingly create funny money out of thin air, inject it into our financial markets and expect that to somehow stave off an economic crisis that will by all accounts (including that of our next President) get worse in 2009.
Hearkening back to the Great Depression, our dollar becomes devalued, stock prices plummet and people panic. Only this time, people are doing so by saving their money. What is the government doing? You guessed it, spending our tax money in order to restore confidence in an economic system so we can ONLY SPEND MORE MONEY.
Personally, I lost faith in America’s political system when the afore-mentioned bailout bill was passed. You had better believe I wrote my senators and representatives encouraging them to let the free market run its course and not interfere with the boom and bust cycle. The bailout showed me that Democrats and Republicans proved they are one and the same — I shall from here on out refer to them collectively as Republicrats — by putting big business interests above that of the common man, the very people who elected them to the position that, in turn, should be a platform for them to represent their constituents and not their own self-interests.
Read this and read it over again if you need to: YOU ARE A SLAVE TO THE GOVERNMENT. As long as you subscribe to the two-party political song and dance that runs our nation, you are a slave that will never, ever emancipate yourself from the power- and money-hungry mindset of the slave drivers who run our nation.
So that’s the economy and the political side of things. Now here’s where my views begin to become even more unpopular than I’m sure they are already.
Let me preface this portion by stating clearly that I am a Christian and I believe the Bible to be the Word of God, that was inspired by God and written by men under that same inspiration.
That having been said, I believe America is on a crash course with the same destiny that doomed the nation of Israel and led to their captivity by Babylon.
The similarities between both nations are remarkable. America and Israel pre-captivity:
ON THE UPSWING
- Were blessed mightily by the hand of God Himself at the time of their birthing.
- Were God-fearing nations that had the Lord first and foremost in their minds.
- Were given great freedoms and great liberties, yet a set of guidelines which how to govern their nations.
- Grew exponentially in knowledge, wealth, and political power.
ON THE DOWNSWING
- Seemed to forget the very One who got them to the place they were.
- Encouraged physical, mental and spiritual idolatry of gods, ideas and personalities.
- Fell fast and hard when God allowed them to make decisions contrary to His teachings.
- People cried out for hope blankly realizing that it wasn’t a ruler or even spiritual leader that could save them.
There are many more, but I am sure you get the idea.
I will echo the sentiments of George Mason, who is best known as the Father of the Bill of Rights, as he said: “As nations cannot be rewarded or punished in the next world, so they must be in this. By an inevitable chain of causes and effects, Providence punishes national sins by national calamities.”
Sins? What do I mean by sins? America has sinned by accepting lifestyles and choices that are largely contrary to God’s word. In my opinion, he is not directly punishing us but similar to Israel in the Old Testament, we are beginning to feel Him remove His hand of protection over our nation.
I may sound like a prophet of doom and gloom, writing my own book of Lamentations, but there is a hope that our nation can turn itself around, and it’s not in any government or figurehead, but rather it begins with one decision we can make.
You see, the writer of the 33rd Psalm plainly stated “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.” This was written during a time in which Israel collectively feared God and were prospering under His guidance. The writer had obviously seen what happened when the nation strayed from His teachings.
A nation is defined as “a large body of people associated with a particular territory.” Nation, meaning as many individuals we make up one body. However, there would be no nation if there were no individuals.
Which means we are all left to make our own decisions about our lives. When to wake up, what to eat today, where to go after work for some after-hours fun — but the most important decision, and the one in which hope is ultimately offered, is one that doesn’t impact our current life nearly as much as where we’re going afterward.
Here’s the long and short of it. Whether you want to believe this or not, it’s still documented historically that a man named Jesus Christ lived on this earth for 33 years teaching people the ways of the Lord, healing the sick, and preaching a message of love, peace, and unity.
However, the most thing He brought to the table was an offer of eternal life. Not in and of our physical bodies, but spiritually. The only catch is that we must sacrifice our personal wants and desires, and trade those in for a lifestyle emulating that of Jesus Christ himself.
John 3:16 is readily quoted by many a believer — This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life.
But as much as we quote that, we kinda fail to look at the next two verses which put it in an even greater context (I put the bold in here for emphasis):
“God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person’s failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him.”
That’s just it. Jesus came to help. Those who make the decision to serve Him have that help and a hope in something greater than anything we can ever imagine.
I was sent a link to a video of noted atheist Penn Jillette describing an encounter with a Christian fan who handed him a Bible. Watch this the entire way through before reading further.
It really spoke to me personally when Penn says he doesn’t respect any Christian who doesn’t care enough to try and proselytize…saying that if one really believes there’s a hell and they don’t do everything they can to stop someone from going, how much do you really have to hate someone to do that???
THAT is the kind of stance I take on faith in Christ, and it’s the whole reasoning behind potentially the longest article I’ve posted on my website to date. I believe God has given us a gift freely through Jesus Christ, and I want as many people possible to share the joy and hope that only Jesus can bring on this earth, and enjoy the everlasting life that John 3:16 speaks about.
So how does this all tie into the government and the heavy points I weighed on above?
The world around us may be crumbling. Our economy is failing, people are failing us left and right…there is civil unrest in the world, wars and rumors of wars. But the only constant and the only Hope is the message of Jesus and the cross.
When all of us from all walks of life and belief systems point to the cross as what unites us, believe in the One that hung from it two thousand years ago and pledge to honor His commands, then our focus will shift to that message, the joy and hope it brings and the necessity to share it with those around us.
And it’s then, and only then, that we will see the solution to the problems facing America right before our eyes.
The choice lies ultimately with, individually, you and only you. And the more that make the decision to simply believe Christ, the more we will begin to see our neighborhoods, cities, all the way up to the nation turn again to the ultimate source of Hope and sustenance.
This week, we are taking a look at musical works that influenced my current musical preferences. This list is by no means a list of my personal favorites, but rather ones that are very influential as to the genres, sounds and chord progressions of what I listen to today.
Yesterday and today, we have covered numbers 25-21, which are as follows:
25. Basement Jaxx, “Rendez-Vu”
24. Axwell, “Feel The Vibe”
23. Hall & Oates, “Out of Touch”
22. Shuggie Otis, “Strawberry Letter 23?
21. Junkie XL, “Dubzilla”
20. Diana Ross, “It’s My House”
19. Smashing Pumpkins, “Disarm”
18. Chemical Brothers, “Star Guitar”
17. Jason Nevins vs. Run DMC, “It’s Like That”
16. Etienne De Crecy, “Relax”
Today, we focus on the middle portion of the Top 25, numbers fifteen through ten. Jump on over and take a look…
Continue reading ‘Tracks That Influenced My Musical Tastes, Pt. 3′
I just read a report online telling of a gentleman who worked inside a Wal-Mart in Long Island being trampled to death by customers who rushed the store right after it opened. Apparently they broke off the hinges of the doors in their mad attempt to get inside the store, and the helpless stock clerk who was trying to control the crowd was bum-rushed, stomped on and died right there.
The afore-mentioned incident is a tragic reminder that greed and consumerism still run rampant, no matter how “in the toilet” our economy may be. Black Friday is simply a reminder of our willingness as consumers to spend, spend, spend to get the best deal before the big Christmas holiday.
It’s also a reminder of the sad shape our economy is in. Retailers are hoping to the high heavens that consumers spend a ton this holiday season, to keep their institutions afloat for now. It would be a bailout in its own right.
I didn’t shop today. Instead, I headed out to get my car’s radiator fixed at the local Acura dealership, and at nearly every store I passed I encountered pushy drivers, mean-spirited pedestrians, and traffic snafus all over a town in which people already don’t know how to drive too well.
All in the name of buying Christmas gifts.
Now, isn’t Christmas supposed to be a time where we celebrate the birth of a man who lived to die for the world…the greatest sacrifice in the history of mankind? And some of us prepare for that holiday by letting our greed consume us?
God help us all.
Here’s some personal perspective. Yesterday, my mom shared with me that gifts are not a priority this Christmas. Dad has a great job, but economic times are rough and they plan to manage their finances wisely.
I can’t blame them one bit. “If you don’t want to get gifts for us, you don’t have to either,” Mom said.
I’ll probably end up buying them all a gift that will prove itself useful for their lives, but otherwise I don’t plan on spending anything. Conversely, I don’t really mind if the family doesn’t have a tree or any gifts under it with my name.
As a kid I couldn’t wait to see what was under the tree for Christmas, and the gifts were always a treat year in and year out. As time passed, the holiday became more of a desire to spend time with loved ones than to put a box of material possessions under a brightly lit and decorated tree.
That rings true especially today. At age 24, and as a young professional, keeping my job will be Christmas gift enough for me. My brother coming home after a medical discharge from the Army would be a great addition. And for Dad’s company to win a new project bid next year would be awesome too. Those would be gifts that you can’t put under any tree, and it would make my Christmas the best one ever.
What a contrast from my child and teenage years. I guess what the Apostle Paul said rings true, for some of us at least.
When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.
Days like today make me wish we could all do the same thing.
Here is the rundown for Week 4 in Flag Football this coming Sunday. I have received emails asking for weekly information, as to the setup and such, so here it is.
WHERE AND WHEN: 1:30 PM at the field adjoining the Gillenwaters Tennis Complex, on Jefferson Avenue across from Kickapoo HS.
TEAMS: Yellow this weekend will be Jason, Ian, Pete and myself. Red will be Jody, Rich, Michael and Jim. Jessica will be a designated full-time offensive player. Any additional players wishing to join will be distributed onto teams, with the first arrival playing for Red, second for Yellow and so on.
BASIC RULES:
Games are played with 30-minute halves, with the clock running continuously for 28 minutes per half. The final two minutes of each half differ in that the clock stops on incompletions, plays resulting in a loss of yardage, plays ending in which the runner steps out of bounds, after each first down, and timeouts. Each team is awarded three timeouts per half.
- Standard scoring of six points for a touchdown, with one and two point conversions following. If a female scores, it is nine points for a touchdown, and conversions remain the same.
- Penalties must be agreed on by both team captains and must be obvious. Normal penalty for an offensive penalty is loss of down, for a defensive penalty, the down is replayed. No yardage gains or losses on penalties.
- No flag guarding or stiff-arming. The opponent must be given a fair chance to pull the flag.
- The defender may not wrap arms around the runner, or impede forward progress in an attempt to grab the flag.
- One defensive player may be designated to guard the quarterback, and may only penetrate the backfield after five seconds have been counted out loud. Once the defender rushes the quarterback, the quarterback is free to run past the line of scrimmage for a gain. However, if the ball is handed off from the quarterback to a running back, multiple defenders may penetrate the backfield to stop the runner.
- Fumbles lost in the backfield are down at the spot where the ball touches the ground. Fumbles lost beyond the line of scrimmage are live and may be recovered by either team.
- Play stops when the runner’s flag is pulled, their knee or the ball touches the ground.
- On kickoffs and punts, if the ball is touched by the kicking team before a member of the receiving team touches it, the ball is marked down at the spot of the touch. If a member of the receiving team touches the ball yet the ball is still live on the ground, it is ruled a fumble and may be recovered by either team.
FOR MORE INFO: Email me at chris -at- chris-brewer.com. Hope to see you Sunday!
Good grief. Kids and their toys that cry out subliminal messages.
Apparently there is a Fisher-Price doll that is supposed to cry and coo until it is held, and in that crying some people are hearing some…Muslim proselytizing. Check this out.
People will hear whatever they want to hear. Play some music backwards, for example. You could backmask some Led Zeppelin and hear talk of Satan. Reverse Britney Spears “Hit Me Baby One More Time” and she describes herself as a slut. Queen’s “Another One Bites The Dust?” Play THAT backwards and you’ll hear them talking about good times smoking weed.
Islam is the light, huh? Makes you wonder if Al-Qaeda bought a controlling interest in Fisher-Price. Still, that’s not quite as good as that talking Elmo doll that traumatized a Florida kid some time ago.
I’m really disappointed in our nation’s toy manufacturers. First Death Threat Elmo, now Muslim Doll. What is this world coming to?
I can’t sleep. I am going to go watch Small Soldiers.
This just came in from the funny farm.
A businessman was in a great deal of trouble. His business was failing, he had put everything he had into the business, he owed everybody it was so bad he was even contemplating suicide. As a last resort he went to a pastor and poured out his story of tears and woe.
When he had finished, the pastor said, “Here’s what I want you to do, put a beach chair and your Bible in your car and drive down to the beach. Take the beach chair and the Bible to the water’s edge, sit down in the beach chair, and put the Bible in your lap. Open the Bible; the wind will rifle the pages, but finally the open Bible will come to rest on a page. Look down at the page and read the first thing you see. That will be your answer, that will tell you what to do.”
A year later the businessman went back to the pastor and brought his wife and children with him. The man was in a new custom- tailored suit, his wife in a mink coat, the children shining. The businessman pulled an envelope stuffed with money out of his pocket and gave it to the pastor as a donation in thanks for his advice.
The pastor recognized the benefactor, and was curious. “You did as I suggested?” he asked.
“Absolutely,” replied the businessman.
“You went to the beach?”
“Absolutely.”
“You sat in a beach chair with the Bible in your lap?”
“Absolutely.”
“You let the pages rifle until they stopped?”
“Absolutely.”
“And what were the first words you saw?”
“Chapter 11.”
What Everyone's Saying
lele
Rachel M, Jason, Doyle, Nina Perozzo
John Stevens, Jason, Chris
Jason
Jim, Sybil
Adam Jiletté, Sybil, Mireya Browning, Carmela, Adam Jiletté