QUARANTINE BLOG # 602

November 22, 2021

Today’s sermon, from the Crawfordville Pulpit is “Come Ye Thankful People, Come!”  The Bible reading is Luke 17:11-19.

👉  President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, by Lee Harvey Oswald, 58 years ago today.  President Kennedy was 46 years old.

👉  Saturday, Google which ignored September 11, the day terrorists killed 3,000 of us, doodled Edmond Dédé, an American musician and composer from New Orleans, who moved to Europe to study in Paris in 1855, settled in France, and died in 1901.

In case you were wondering, Google has no salute today to the slain president.  It’s blank.  No doodle at all.

👉  If you were driving on Interstate 5 in Carlsbad, California on Friday, you might have thought you’d found the pot of gold, or green, at the end of the rainbow.  Shortly before 9:15 a.m., drivers were scrambling to grab cash as bags of money fell out of an armored truck.  “One of the doors popped open and bags of cash fell out,” California Highway Patrol Sgt. Curtis Martin said.  Several bags broke open, spreading money all over the lanes and bringing the freeway to a chaotic halt.  Video posted online showed some people laughing and leaping as they held wads of cash.  Two people were arrested at the scene, and Martin warned that any others who are found to have taken the money could face criminal charges. He noted there was plenty of video taken by bystanders at the scene and that the CHP and FBI were investigating.

Well, here is a video I made editing a local CBS breaking news story and adding my own sound track.  One woman is seen gathering up some money and then walking furtively away.  And then she is seen wearing CHP bracelets.  Moral of this story: if someone is pointing their cell phone at you, don’t pick up the money!  Better yet, you know it’s not yours – don’t pick it up period.

👉  Reading that some folks did take money into the CHP headquarters reminded me of a story I heard some 40 years.  Raise your hand if I’ve told you this before.

One Friday morning while I was serving as the “editorial assistant to the editor in chief of Church of God Publications” (and all of that was on my letterhead) the president of Lee College – now Lee University – spoke at chapel at the publishing house.

In those days Lee had a 12 inch rule.  Couples – and those were always one male and one female – were required to walk 12 inches apart, no touching.  Dates had to be chaperoned.  They were serious about morality.  Well, one day as the president was walking to his office he noticed a couple in violation of the rule.  Not only were they not 12 inches apart, they shared a quick kiss.  Getting up in the Lee chapel that noontime, he recounted the story and said if the offending couple would come to him and confess, they would not be expelled.  The next noon the president again spoke to the chapel and said, “Three couples have confessed, but the one I witnessed has not yet come in.”

I wonder if something similar will happen there in Southern California.  Nah!

👉  A couple of early morning smiles:

👉  I found a site featuring rare vintage photos of what life was like in the ’50s.  If you are my age, this is a walk down memory lane.  If you are a “youngster” this is history.

McDonalds Hamburgers Cost Just 15 Cents

While the fast-food giant first launched in 1940, the iconic Golden Arches logo wasn’t introduced until 1953 at a location in Phoenix, Arizona. The photo here shows a McDonald’s drive-in in 1956. The restaurant advertised hamburgers for just 15 cents. Due to inflation, things cost considerably less in the ’50s than they do today. The average price for a gallon of gas was 18 cents in 1950 and 25 cents by the end of the decade. In 1959, a new car cost on average $2,200. A one-carat diamond ring was $399. 

Buying A House Wasn’t Incredibly Hard

Back in the 1950s, unlike today, buying a home for your family wasn’t entirely out of the question for most people. While homes cost lifetime amounts of money these days, forcing many people to rent, in 1950, the average home only cost around $14,000. Not only could people afford houses, but they could also pay them off relatively early and not spend their whole lives paying their mortgage.

Incidentally, that 18 cent gallon of gasoline would be $1.96 today, and the $14,000 house would be $153,000 – both far less than today’s inflated prices.

👉  Snoopy is back at his typewriter:

👉  A sign for the times:

👉  Today’s close, “Grace That’s Worth the Wait,” is from The Story by Zondervan.

“Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age . . . Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him” (Genesis 21:1-2, 5).

When has God called you to blind obedience? To act according to a pretty bare-bones call or command? Maybe you’re in such a season right now, putting one foot in front of the other and watching for evidence of God’s reassuring presence.

God had told Abraham, “Go!” God didn’t specify the where. God had promised Abraham both a son of his own as heir and descendants as countless “as the sand on the seashore” (Genesis 22:17). God didn’t specify the when.

Whenever we step out with unanswered questions, that space where we wish there were answers is actually room for faith, room for trust. And God will never disappoint. Great is his faithfulness. Great is his grace.

Step out in faith, expecting your gracious Father to do the good he loves to do for his children.

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