I Think That Makes the Joke On GOB

I mentioned a while ago that I was waiting until I learned a little on Jewish Spirituality to write my first post in the God category. I ordered a Jewish New Testament Commentary today, but it's going to take a few days to get here, and it's almost a thousand pages. And I don't want to wait, so here goes.

On the off chance that someone may read this at some point who doesn't already know me well, I'm going to provide some background info about myself that should help with the clarity of what I have to say. I'm a recent graduate from Cincinnati Bible College (now Cincinnati Christian University), a relatively conservative school. I've grown up in Non-Denominational Christian churches my entire life. In case you're wondering, I can't totally explain the whole "Non-Denominational as a denomination" thing. Communion every Sunday. Baptism=immersion. Baptism is essential for salvation. Etcetera, etcetera.

And I've been totally fine with all of these things. My appreciation for the time I get to spend in communion has been growing even more as of late. I'll always remember the Sunday I was baptized. I know the Scriptures that support the ideas I've been taught all my life, and I agree with and embrace these practices.

But I'm wrong often.

I wasn't listening the day we learned about magnets in kindergarten. I had to sit in a desk that the teacher separated from the rest of the students because I was disrupting class, and at the end of the day, she quizzed the class to see what we had learned. When she asked us what magnets were atracted to, I couldn't understand why the choir of my fellow toddlers answered "metal" while I answered "everything." Not only did I think magnets were attracted to everything, I was convinced of it.

I had two of my friends convinced that Renee Zelwegger starred in "The Ring" because I was so sure I saw her in the previews. I didn't.

I went to the Baptist Church Mark Richt attends while we were in Athens (although I didn't get a chance to see him). One of the main doctrinal differences between the churches I attend and the Baptist church is baptism. Our belief is that baptism is an action that needs to occur for salvation. The Baptists, on the other hand, place no necessity in Baptism. While our services often end in an invitation for those who would like to become a Christian to be baptized, the Baptist services end in an invitation to say a prayer to "ask Jesus into your heart."

A favorite preacher of mine is Louie Giglio, who also heads Passion, a group that runs popular Christian conferences and also houses a record label that puts out most of the "popular" Worship music being created today. When he was also the lead teacher at 7:22, a college ministry in Atlanta, I took a look at his bio. His moment for becoming a Christian described the time he said the afformentioned prayer to invite Jesus into his heart.

My point is this: the congregation at the church, and those involved in Passion share the same faith in Christ that I do. I've spent time genuinely worshipping alongside people who haven't been baptized. Yet I believe in the vital importance of baptism. So how does this fit together in terms of salvation?

We're lucky it's not up to me, because I'm wrong often.

Actual poll question from UGA's official athletic website.

What are you favorite poll questions?

Ones about Georgia football - 80.6% (648 votes)
Ones about Bulldog mascot UGA - 9.8% (79 votes)
Ones about Georgia basketball - 5.3% (43 votes)
Ones about other Georgia Olympic Sports - 4.2% (34 votes)

I couldn't be any more proud.

P.S. Nominations are accepted, so here goes:

Special Double Issue of Ho-Fish/OK Chicken

Ho-Fish(s): Kim Possible and Ron Stoppable, for obvious reasons. The name Kim Possible didn't strike me as funny at all until I found out she had a sidekick.

OK Chicken(s): The Naked Mole Rat and ESPN.com. I DO want to read about the draft on your website. I DON'T want to ever see this: again.

On the run from Johnny Law. Ain't no trip to Cleveland.

My Fall Saturdays would be so much simplier if I lived here. I'm tired of having to struggle to find a way to watch one of 12-14 games UGA plays each season. My Moms and Pops took care of the problem for this next season, getting me a subscription to ESPN Gameplan for next season, which gives me exactly 557 days after today to move to a place where I know I can find all of the games, including ones againt UAB and Middle Tennessee State. Other places I could move and easily see all of Georgia's games: Anaheim/LA, Baltimore, Chicago, and Denver all make the list only because of an ESPN Zone. Atlanta, Augusta, Macon, and Savannah should all have it based on location. I should be able to find it in New York based on its size alone. Vegas will almost certainly carry it because someone in town bet their life savings on the outcome. Everyone from D.C. is from somewhere else, so I'd assume you can find a place owned by Georgia natives. Being a town full of colleges, Boston also has to be a town full of college bars. I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt. That's thirteen cities where I could move and be confident that I'll never have to search hard for the game. But based on my trip, Athens may beat any of these metropoleis. Maybe I'll just watch the game from the stadium.












And these dudes can visit if they'd like.

The city so nice they named it twice. Manhattan is the other name.

T-minus four days til my trip to the Promised Land. Not the one flowing with milk and honey, but the home of Sanford Stadium and the greatest college music scene in the nation. It seems that all it needs is a great church to become my perfect city. I'll keep you informed on how it turns out come next Monday. Sunday may be my first appearance at a Baptist Church, strictly because it's where Mark Richt attends. There's always debate as to whether or not I should introduce myself when seeing someone like Coach Richt. His birthday is Saturday, so maybe I could simply wish him a happy birthday. But maybe being wished happy birthday from someone I've never met would just add more pressure to my life and creep me out a little. I should probably just stare at him during prayers. If you're not a fan of sports, it could be more comforting to you if you try ignoring the fact that I know both the birthday and the church of a man I've never met that lives over 500 miles away from me.

The trip is helping to keep my schedule exciting while I wait for the draft. By the way, with the Texans giving Carr an extension, any more of this talk about Reggie Bush not being the top pick is foolish. The media is trying to add drama to the situation by adding the possibility of Houston trading down, but that would be even more ridiculous than the Vikings waiting too long to announce their first round pick and getting passed over by the next team twice (two times) in a row.

Speaking of the draft, I'm planning on doing a running diary for at least the first day, maybe both. Let's hope I become entertaining to read by then.

Finally, today is the first installment of my Ho-Fish/OK Chicken of the day, or week, or whenever I decide to add another pair. I'm not going to explain where I got the name from, but I know of three people that it makes sense to, and that's good enough for me. Although I only know two of those people, and only one that reads this. The Ho-Fish is the good one, and the OK Chicken is the bad, by the way, because it's funnier that way to me.

Ho-Fish: North Texas Mean Green. You may have a horrible nickname, but you start Spring Football earlier than anyone else, and that's good enough for me.

OK Chicken: Eddie Sutton. You went from disgracefully leaving Kentucky because of a drinking problem and gross misconduct with the program, to becoming a beloved coach at OK State who everyone thought had recovered and found a strong faith in God. Now with his son named as successor when he decides to retire, and his legacy so close to being locked in Stillwater, he gets busted for DUI on the way to the team plane. Although witnesses have claimed to see pain medication in his car, one has to wonder what witness comes close enough to this scene to see that outside of a cop with Cowboy tendencies.

It's not Bull; It's not Harry Anderson.

I was going to keep silent about the Super Bowl, then I read this quote from Pittsburgh guard Alan Faneca in the newspaper today: "You want to talk about the officiating, but it still doesn't add up to 11 points in my book."

7 - Roethlisberger's "touchdown"- "I told Coach, 'I don't think I got in,' Roethlisberger told (David) Letterman. "But we were getting ready to go for it on fourth down anyway, and I would have run it again. So we would have found a way to get in." If he admittedly didn't make it the first time, I don't think he gets away with assuming he'll make it the next time.

+

4 - Darrell Jackson's touchdown that was nullified by offensive pass interference. What should have been the definition of a "let them play" call turned into the definitive "late flag because of a whiny player." The pass interference call in the 2002 National Championship game was a late flag because the ref panicked and wanted to make sure he didn't screw up the call. Although the call wasn't pass interference, it was defensive holding. The call in the Super Bowl was the equivalent of Jordan's last shot with the Bulls. Only in this situation, Bryon Russell whines his way into getting the ref to award him a penalty on a play the ref was in a great position to see and obviously had no intention on calling. The Seahawks ended up settling for a field goal.

+

3 - Phantom holding call on Sean Locklear in the fourth: Locklear's penalty erased an 18-yard completion from Matt Hasselbeck to Jerramy Stevens to the Pittsburgh 1. We hear all the time that holding could be called on nearly every play, but instead it's called on one of the rare occasions where it didn't occur. I'm not giving them the seven because I didn't give it to the Steelers, but they would have been at the one on first down rather than fourth.

=14

Although it doesn't add up to exactly eleven, I don't think that was really his point.



By the way, I'm still waiting to study up on the whole Old Testament life into New Testament writings thing for my first writing about God.

And PLEASE tell me you were able to watch the final four episodes of Arrested Development tonight.

One I've got, and two I'm working on.

Let's start with the music. I've been trying to get away from music lists as of late, as it's starting to feel more and more geeky (although I'm totally fine with having a wall in my apartment decorated with pictures from the Pro Football Hall of Fame). But I do have the desire to come up with a Top Five list for my favorite artists. It gives me something to start with when trying to convince someone to listen to them rather than Linkin Park, Yellowcard, Black Eyed Peas, etc. So here goes:

Ryan Adams
5. Come Pick Me Up
4. To Be Young (Is to be Sad, Is to be High)
3. Let It Ride
2. So Alive
1. Oh My Sweet Carolina
Counting Crows
5. Miami
4. Walkaways
3. Round Here
2. Anna Begins
1. I Wish I Was A Girl (acoustic version)
Ben Folds
5. Not The Same
4. Still Fighting It
3. Alice Childress
2. Landed
1. Smoke
Elton John
5. Mona Lisas and Mad Hatters
4. Border Song
3. Levon
2. Your Song
1. Rocket Man (I Think It's Going to be a Long,Long Time)
R.E.M.
5. Half A World Away
4. You Are the Everything
3. What's the Frequency, Kenneth?
2. Nightswimming
1. Finest Worksong
Radiohead
5. Just
4. Let Down
3. Fake Plastic Trees
2. True Love Waits
1. Idioteque
U2
5. Bullet the Blue Sky
4. Out of Control
3. Where the Streets Have No Name
2. City of Blinding Lights
1. Sunday Bloody Sunday
Wilco
5. Can't Stand It
4. Nothing'severgonnastandinmyway (Again)
3. Ashes of American Flags
2. A Magazine Called Sunset
1. Poor Places

Now to the two things I want to learn:
2. Advanced defensive schemes
1. Old Testament Jewish practices and how they relate to the New Testament

Once I start learning these, I'll hopefully turn them into interesting entries. Or, they'll be so interesting that I'll never write this again. If you know anything about either of these topics, or have suggestions on where to start, let me know.

National Signing Day! (or: Day I Seriously Consider Paying for Both ESPN Insider and a Subscription For Rivals.com)

I promised you an update on USA vs. Britain when it comes to music, but I'm not really 'feeling it' today, so here's the short of it: Americans dominate the British when it comes to lyrics...blah, blah, blah...just look at the hidden track on X&Y and try to imagine Johnny Cash actually singing the lyrics Chris Martin wrote for him...blah, blah, blah...Bob Dylan...Paul Simon...blah, blah, blah..."She Loves You, yeah, yeah, yeah"...Jeff Tweedy...

Now that that's (I went out of my way to avoid "that that's" last posting, but now I kind of like it) over with, here comes the real fun:



NATIONAL SIGNING DAY!!

The day where an 18 year-old boy officially decides which fan base he can least afford to have hating him for his college career. I have a new second-favorite person who lives in Texas (Mrs. Walker's son still resides in Dallas):

win me a National Championship and you can pretty much guarantee a Stafford Wuske roaming the earth in a few years.






Matthew Stafford is from Highland Park High School in Dallas and is regarded as the #2 QB coming out of high school this year. We also picked up three of the top five safeties and the #5 DB starting college. I'd like to think that we'll give up literally zero (0) passing yards in a few years.
I'm not going to pretend that I've been following these guys since they were in kindergarten, in fact, I always feel underprepared come signing day. Living in Cincinnati, my high school football watching seems to revolve around small Catholic kids who are a thrill to watch but seem to choose UC, Kentucky, or the other Miami in Division I-A. One way or another, come college, the only time I'll ever see those guys is if they're busy putting up points but still getting blown out by UGA, as UK seems prone to do.

Until 2008 and 2014, when the Bearcats make the trip to Athens to set the record for fewest fans traveling to see an SEC football game, and in 2011, when all the red and black in Cincinnati will be for Dawgs, not Cats . Two examples of how much college football matters in Athens vs. Cincinnati:

1. Cincinnati has already decided that the game will have to be played in Paul Brown Stadium. This also means that we won't have the chance to break the attendance record at Nippert, which wouldn't have been hard as the top two on the attendance list were the afformentioned high school games.

2. I have heard this game mentioned one time on Cincinnati radio. I was driving home from church at night listening to 700 WLW when the host welcomed a caller from Athens, who proceeded to mention that occasionally at the right time of night, when it's not too cloudy, he can get WLW and called in to ask about how Cincinnati liked David Pollack and see what we thought about the upcoming 2-and-1 series between the schools. After the longest pause I've heard on radio, the host mentioned that Pollack was quickly growing into a great player, and after another extended break, he mentioned that the game was, in fact, scheduled. Very insightful.