College football kicks off today. I’m sorry. I don’t know where these predictions come from but, yeah, this all seems legit. The big news is that the college football playoffs are expanding to 12 teams. Sometimes four doesn’t seem like enough but the current CFP (College Football Playoff) series has been in place since 2014. The 12 teams will consist of the six highest-ranked conference champions and six at-large teams, similar to other NCAA tournaments. 2026 is when the expanded format might begin, after the CFP contract expires. But the powers that be would like to it start as early as 2024.
I know what you’re thinking. That’s a Happy Monday post. Most any given week you would be right. This week’s Happy Monday was hard to put together. There just wasn’t enough stuff in the folder. Oddly enough there were Bible verses and quotes but a lack of funny bits. So this week we have gone overboard and have enough material for three Monday posts. I also drink coffee on Saturday; I’m headed to a men’s prayer breakfast shortly. Sometimes the Saturday posts are a little thin on churchy sort of things. What could be more churchy than a nuclear family walking out of a church in the 1950’s? The dad is wearing a suit and a hat, I mean come on. Coffee, church family, just a hint of sacrilege, but they’re not wrong.
Sabbatical is over; conventional wisdom; continuing discussion of Cornerstone seminar on the Evangelical Wilderness.
We have come to the end of the line. Two years ago I started posting all the Internet Monk Radio podcasts I had archived. Some fellow iMonk fans volunteered to share what they had and that’s why the posts began at #104 and came all the way around. Click this link to easily find all the podcasts from the past two years and of course this page contains the episodes I had on hand at the time of Michael’s passing, #’s 48 – 81.
Atlanta curse my foot. Earlier this year I had to chance to see the World Series trophy on tour as it traveled not only across Georgia but a few other southern states. This week the Georgia Bulldogs Championship trophy was on display for a few hours at our local Food City. Dr. Pepper handed out t-shirts and 12 oz. can drinks and now I keep walking walking around the house shouting “Ice cold Dr. Pepper here!” If you know you know.
How did I miss the intro change? The intro theme changed at episode #100 and that version would last through the end of the podcast series. I didn’t notice until I listened to this one.
Sabbatical winding down; Cornerstone ’08; talk about The Shack; Michael breaks down his seminar on the Evangelical Wilderness from Cornerstone.
Trapper Keeper – There is no good reason a 2nd grader would need one of these. But they were all the rage in 1983 and I had one anyway. Then another in the 3rd grade and again in the 4th. By the time I started middle school, and may have actually benefited from the kind of organization these monsters offered, the trend had run it’s course. Seeing these at Walmart this week warmed that soft 80’s spot in my heart.
I was accused a few years ago of being in a cult of Paul. The assertion was that myself and others made too much of the Apostle Paul, his writings and his particular brand of New Testament theology. We needed to be less Paul-focused and more Christ-focused. I argued that Paul was Christ focused and studying Paul should bring Christ into focus. Paul pushed back on some of those same accusations during his ministry stating the Christ is not divided and there are not Paul Christians, Apollos Christians, etc. Here is a link to my first Defense of the Apostle Paul from eight years ago. The comment thread was very involved, and might be longer than the actual post.
Discussion of George Carlin leads to broader discussion of how Christians relate to others, particularly atheists. This is the George Carlin post that apparently set some people off, or whose comments set Michael off, either/or.
The original muesli was created in Switzerland around 1900. A physician by the name of Maximilian Bircher-Benner came up with the dish as a remedy for his hospital patients. (In the United States, two brothers named Kellogg invented corn flakes at a sanitarium in Michigan and as that business took off a former patient, C.W. Post, began a rival company. There is a strange correlation between doctors, patients, hospitals and breakfast cereal.) If you grew up in Europe, especially Switzerland or Germany, muesli may have been a staple for breakfast or even lunch. In the United States I never heard of it until Kellogg’s began marketing Mueslix. Pictured above is a store brand box of Muesli from Kroger. I discovered that cereal a couple of years ago while working at Kroger, otherwise I wouldn’t know it exists. I can buy Muesli still but not Kellogg’s Mueslix… at least in the store. I have now learned that i can order Mueslix from Amazon.com or even Walmart.com. Our local Walmart doesn’t put it on the shelf but Kellogg’s makes it and I can order it from Walmart and get it with two-day shipping. Just like I can buy store brand bran flakes at Walmart and Food Lion but cannot find Kellogg’s or Post bran flakes anywhere. Those brand name cereals are also still produced but not carried by grocery stores, at least where I live. Your mileage may vary.
The Heritage Singers once said “Forever is a long, long time.” That’s the way many of us probably think about eternity; a very, very long time. A verse of Amazing Grace starts out “When we’ve been there 10,000 years…” The truth is that eternity takes place outside of time. It’s not made up all time but is rather the exact opposite of time.
The Master's Table 