The weekend blogging tradition that is my ‘Saturday Night Retro’ CONTINUES into its 22ND month of memories. And the hits just keep on comin’ !
24 years ago this weekend on the 28TH of June of 1986 (a Saturday) a young and crazy 19-year-old version of me was among over 75,000 rambunctious fans in attendance at London England’s historic (and original) Wembley Stadium. It was an unusually hot and sticky day in London Town, and what made it even more sweatier was the fact that over 75,000 of us were dancing and screaming in unison to all of the stars that were performing all of the hits during the all-day final farewell concert of the pop supergroup Wham ! (George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley and friends). I didn’t realize how much energy I actually had in myself until that jumpin’ and jivin’ day. It was the very first concert of my entire life, and it turned out to be the first of 17 concerts in all during the remainder of my wonderful life in the U.K. 24 years later I look fondly back at that memorable event as the moment that I finally arrived on the British scene.
Here’s the farewell worldwide smash from Wham ! – “The Edge Of Heaven”:
In Ephesians – Chapter 4 – Verses 7 to 16 – The Bible Says:
7 However, He has given each one of us a special gift through the generosity of Christ. 8 That is why the Scriptures say, “When He ascended to the heights, He led a crowd of captives and gave gifts to His people.” 9 Notice that it says “He ascended.” This clearly means that Christ also descended to our lowly world. 10 And the same One who descended is the One who ascended higher than all the heavens, so that He might fill the entire universe with Himself. 11 Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. 12 Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do His work and build up the church, the body of Christ. 13 This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. 14 Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of His body, the church. 16 He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
Those apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers – that’s us within God’s church family – each and every one of us who believes and trusts in Him.
Very early on during the first year of my fantastic journey one of the new Pastors within my church family called me out during one of his first Sunday morning teachings. The man stood up there on the stage right in the middle of his message that morning, and he boldly exclaimed these 7 words in front of everyone, “Chris Day – YOU’RE a Disciple of Christ !” A series of chills – sent from up above – totally consumed my body. That was instantly one of the most groundbreaking moments of my fantastic journey. That’s when it all really made sense to me as a born again Christian. From that point forward I realized that I had a real role – an urgent purpose – a definite mission on this journey.
Those gifts that God gave to us – those are our special talents. We all have them whether we accept them as legitimate or not. We should indeed use them to benefit and progress the Kingdom of Christ – our Creator – our Provider. If our skill is in speaking then we should speak up for Christ. If our skill is in writing then we should write to the world. If we know that we have that special skill – that gift from God – then we should use it, for if we don’t do so then we are essentially aiding the enemy that lurks in the nearby darkness. Don’t be that weak link within God’s Kingdom. Be alive ! Disciple to the world as you walk.
‘Cause after all man’s intellect and power
All you get is 650,000 hours
If you’re lucky then you’re dead
Says the voice inside my head
Keeps me moving on
Keeps me singing these songs
– Here’s another collection of my spontaneous combustion ‘Mini Thoughts’.
– What else would you expect from me on a Thursday night here on my blog ?
– Tonight I may offend pick-up truck drivers – the bullies of the open roads.
– I may also offend soccer-mom mini-van drivers who are just plain horrifying.
– Let’s start with the bully pick-up truck drivers who think they own the roads.
– Pick-up truck drivers rarely surprise me, as they are very predictable.
– Stop signs and lane markings generally mean nothing to them.
– I often wonder why they run the stop signs yet stop for a red light.
– If you break every other law in the book then you might as well just keep goin’.
– Speed limit signs along the sides of the road don’t apply – and don’t exist.
– What do I see in my rear-view mirror – a GIANT pick-up truck tailgating me.
– Do you really need tires that are bigger than most humans ?
– Do you really need your truck to be so high that you can walk underneath it ?
– Does it really need to be as loud as an F-16 jet ?
– OK soccer-mom mini-van drivers it’s your turn now.
– Men and women are equally bad drivers in soccer-mom mini-vans.
– You guys and gals are stark raving mad lunatics behind the wheel.
– You’re driving your giant gas-guzzling tanks as if they are little sports cars.
– And you’re usually doing so with half a baseball team as passengers.
– When you make a fast turn a wheel should not lift up from the road.
– It’s no wonder that you cause more accidents on the road than any other.
– There should be a special license that’s required to drive a mini-van.
– Incidentally a mini-van is any vehicle that’s not a car or a pick-up truck.
– It’s my somewhat generic label for every obnoxious vehicle on the road.
– Some of the nicest most friendliest people turn demonic behind the wheel.
– Parents that are bad drivers raise kids that are bad drivers.
– The national driving age should be 18 – not 15 or 16.
– Kids should not be driving any vehicles on the road.
– That is all that I have to say about this subject.
– Moving on to even more controversy – Politics:
– The media’s intense love affair with President Obama continues.
– He can do no wrong, as he walks on water that’s up to 2% crude oil.
– Everything bad that happens in the world today is still Bush’s fault.
– President Obama and his administration loves to blame others.
– We’ve been down this same road before – the Clinton administration.
– They blamed the elder Bush while their boss was out playing and partying.
– Don’t get me started.
– Yesterday I had a bad experience at a popular local Latin eatery.
– I got bad service and perhaps bad food.
– I ended up with an upset stomach that lasted the rest of the day into the night.
– The bad service alone was quite shocking, as it was perhaps racially-motivated.
– Needless to say I won’t be frequenting that establishment anytime soon.
– I’m boycotting places that don’t treat all customers equally with respect.
– Well this turned out be a rather dismal edition of the ‘Mini Thoughts’.
– I didn’t intend to shred bad drivers, bad political leaders, and bad restaurants.
– But that’s what happened in this spontaneous combustion.
– You should have seen the original unexpurgated version of all of this.
– This weekend it’s an all-new ‘Saturday Night Retro’ here on the blog.
– It’s the 20TH anniversary of my ‘Summer Of Fun’ in 1990.
– It was my Woodstock – my Spring Break – my endless party on the beach.
– I’ll look back at that decadent summer and present a signature rock song.
– It’s the song that brings back all of those vivid memories of a previous life.
– On Sunday it’s an all-new ‘My Fantastic Journey: It’s In The Lyrics’.
– We are like totally going to jam to some awesome worship music.
– After that this blog goes on hiatus for 5 days.
– Stick around this weekend as we kick-off an all-new summer of fun for 2010.
– You won’t regret it pal.
This week on the ‘Grab Bag’ I’ve got something old – something new – nothingborrowed – and something blue. It’s all for you – on this Tuesday night !
Old School – I’m currently experiencing a major 1970s hit music revival. I’m not really talking about the classic rock of the decade or even the disco revolution of the last few years of the decade. I’m talking about those cheesy pop nuggets – those moldie goldie oldies on 45 RPM vinyl. The songs that even sounded good amongst the AM radio static. I’m talking about great tracks from such forgotten artists as Hamilton, Joe Frank, & Reynolds, Albert Hammond, Gilbert O’Sullivan, Climax, Reunion, Andy Kim, Neil Sedaka, Electric Light Orchestra, Dr. Hook, Andrew Gold, Jay Ferguson, and countless others. One of my iPod Shuffles is currently being stocked with a bunch of these timeless classics from yesteryear when my life as a 2-year-old to a 12-year-old kid was so much more simpler. Long live the cheese from my youth !
New England – Next week at this time I’ll be in New England for the first time ever. In my 43 years of life I’ve never been further east than Pennsylvania and New York along the eastern seaboard although I’ve lived on the east coast for 39 out of my 43 years. Next Monday I can claim two new states that I’ll be setting foot in for the first time – Connecticut and Massachusetts. I was actually wondering if my destination next week would be the furthest north that I’ve ever been in North America. The answer is NO. I’ve been to Syracuse (43.1° north latitude), Milwaukee (43.1°), and Detroit (42.3°). All three of these cities are a little further north than Chicopee Massachusetts (42.2°). I’ve also been to Chicago (41.8°) and Cleveland (41.5°) – a little further south. Incidentally Syracuse was where I spent a few freezing cold and snowy days and nights before heading off to war in the Saudi Arabian desert at the start of 1991.
Blue Seas – I’m now just 89 days away from embarking on my next Carnival cruise – and my first as a Platinum V.I.P. cruiser. It’ll be my 10TH cruise with Carnival (since 1999), so I’ll get all of the perks that go along with such a status. It’s expected to be an extremely active hurricane season, and my cruise is scheduled for the absolute peak of the season – the week of Labor Day. Cruises rarely get cancelled because of hurricanes, but could my cruise be out on the high seas at the same exact time as a Hurricane Igor or a Hurricane Julia or a Hurricane Karl ? Those are the ‘I’, ‘J’, and ‘K’ named storms that could be out there during that second week of September this year. Igor and Karl simply sound vicious. Julia – not so much. I’m hoping for a lull in the hurricane season while I’m out there during that week. I’m hoping for peaceful and quiet blue seas.
CountUp 