A Quote to Start Things Off

All of the beef I have with Religion has nothing to do with Jesus. Bob Bennett discussing his conversion experience on the 1 Degree of Andy podcast.

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Snow kidding! These "kids" now range from 17 to 23

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Showing posts with label Mid Week Music Break. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mid Week Music Break. Show all posts

Thursday, October 31, 2024

The Protestants are here

The Protestants are here. 
 That's what my father-in-law would say when our family would come to visit. My father-in-law and my father, as I mentioned in my last post, were both the oldest of 7 children and were both raised Catholic. I was thinking of my F-I-L today . There is a student in my school with  his exact first and last name, and I was subbing in that student’s first period class today.  Their first name is Donnell so it's not exactly an every day name.

My wife's Dad was not only raised Catholic, but he also was a Benedictine Brother living in a monastery before he gave up his vows and married  my mother-in-law.   So when he called us Protestants,  this was a little more than the average layman's opinion. 

This opinion was true. We were in fact, Protestants.  We never referred to each other as such.  While it was true that both Amy and I had grown own of our Catholic beliefs and were attending a Bible church when we married, we simply referred to our selves as Christians. 

It was on this day in 1517 that a professor of moral theology at the University of Wittenberg by the name of Martin Luther is credited for changing the course of religious history and making a distinction between Protestants and Catholics.

What's A Catholic?

The first use of Catholic dates back to 110 A.D. It basically means universal.  Saying the Catholic Church in it's original meaning was talking about all Christians.  In AD. 380 Christianity became the state religion of the Roman empire.  In essence the Roman Catholic church just means the Christian church operating in Rome.  

What's a Protestant?

A Protestant is called this because historically  they protested against the teachings of the Catholic church.  These protests led to the Protestant reformation.  The reformation was meant to reform the Catholic church not to necessary split from it,

Martin Luther was one of the original reformers. He nailed 95 theses on the wall of the Wittenberg Door.  These theses were protesting Catholic practices like indulgences.

What's an indulgence?

In the medieval church, a system developed of how to earn your way out of purgatory into heaven.  It began as  a series of "good works" like fighting in the crusades and then devolved into a practice of purchasing indulgences from the church in order to get sins forgiven.  Lost in all these practices were the biblical teachings of Grace, Faith and Redemption.  One of the myriad reasons for this is that the truth of the Bible was not accessible at time to the masses.  The Protestant reformation  that followed changed 
Christianity back to its Biblical roots. 

What Separates Protestantism And Catholicism?

The Reformation highlighted 5 core beliefs that distinguished it from the Catholic church.  These are often referred to as the 5 Solas (Latin for Alone).

Sola Gratia  - Faith Alone 
Salvation is in no way deserved, cannot be earned and is entirely from God.

Sola Scriptura - Scripture Alone
The Bible is God's authority on how we are to live.

Sola Christus - Christ Alone
The Bible teaches that salvation  comes from Jesus Christ.

Sola Fide - Faith Alone
Faith (not works) in Jesus Christ is the only way to Salvation

Soli Deo Gloria - Only God receives the glory
There is nothing special in us that allows us to be saved.

My Father In Law would often use the phrase Sola Scriptura but not in a positive sense.  He disagreed that scripture in itself was enough.  This is not only a typically Catholic belief but it is also present in all of us.  It is in our nature  to think more of ourselves and our traditions than actually exist.  The truth is that we as individuals and institution are always in need of Bible based reformation.  I hope today on Reformation Day and every day you endeavor to let God reform you into his image. The image of God who created, lived for, died for , and redeemed you.  It sometimes may seem tricky but it really is a treat. 









  

95 Reasons by First Call

Friday, October 21, 2022

Keith Green and Rich Mullins celebrate another posthumous birthday.

In the world of Contemporary Music their are few bigger names than Keith Green and Rich Mullins. Admittedly, there are literally  bigger names as the aforementioned take up only 5 combined syllables and fit comfortably  on the 1/3 of the first line of this text.  Their actual names may be small but their impact on the lives of believers has been great indeed,

Keith Green share many of the same attributes including the same birthday, today, October 21st (Keith in 1953, and Rich in 1955). They were both gifted musicians and lyricists.  They both were outspoken in their faith and counter cultural in their approach to ministry.  They also died very young in vehicular accidents.  

Due to a plane crash in 1982, Keith Green did not live to see his 30th birthday and Mullins who covered a Green song on the 1992 tribute album No Compromise died in a car crash in 1997, just over a month before his 42nd birthday.  


  

Green before his conversion to Christianity was headed to a career as a rock and roll teen sensation.  The below footage is from a guest appearance on the panel show I've got a Secret when he was 11 years old.  After revealing his secret The youngster performs one of the songs he composed.  


     

It is no secret that the music, the vulnerability, and the passion of both Green and Mullins has informed my own journey.  It is fitting that they shared the same birthday , the same passion for Christ and the same method of expressing that passion.  They also share a place in my heart for how their music and ministry still inspires me to this day.

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Comedian By Steve Taylor

 I lived in Russia between the end of 1992 and the end of 1994.  During those 2 years abroad, I missed many things.  By missed I don't mean longed for, although I certainly did miss Mountain Dew and Lou Malnatis's pizza by that definition and was glad when my brother brought those along when he visited me.  I also don't mean by miss that I wasn't there for it, yet heard about.  While I want there for the Bronco chase , Nolan Ryan's pummeling of Robin Ventura, Michael Jordan's retirement announcement , or  the birth of my first niece,  I was acutely aware of all 4.

No, what I mean by missed is there were some events that I did not hear about until I was back in the states, sometimes for several years.  Some of these were deaths of famous people, others were books, movies, or music that came out during that time.  It wasn't uncommon to hear someone talk about a movie I had never heard of, only for me to ask if it came out in 1993 or 1994 and quite often it had.  Finally, I had to come to grips that due to my decision to leave the U.S. and plant a church in Russia in the early 1990's that there would be indeed certain things that I left behind and missed entirely.  I never regretted that decision and certainly experienced many more things that I would have never experienced in the states had I stayed put.

Over the past few years I have realized that I have experienced another gap without leaving the U.S. for more than a fortnight every 10 years or so.  I experienced it today when I was playing with my Spotify account in between classes.  There was a recommended song by Steve Taylor and some band he was in and I had never heard of the song or the band.  Now not to be confusing Steve Taylor uses to front for a band called Some Band.  So, I am not referring to them.  The name of the band is The Perfect foil,  and according to Wikipedia it is an alt. rock supergroup featuring artists from 2 more of my favorite groups (Peter Furler from Newsboys & Jimmy Abegg from (A Ragamuffin Band).  What was odd is this super group was formed in 2010, and I was only just hearing about it 11 years later.  Not really odd when you think that in 2010 I was homeschooling my 3 children all under the age of 11.  Listening to old music on c.d.s is something I did when I had the occasional spare time. Keeping up with music was  not something I invested much time in.  Again, I would not trade that time in my life for anything but it does explain how a song like Comedian stayed off my radar for so long.

A nice thing about discovering something you missed from long ago is that when you do eventually discover it, you also  discover many other things alongside it.  In finding out more information in this missing chapter of Steve Taylors musical journey I discovered a blog that writes an awful lot about Christian Music and other topics that interest me.  It is a blog by Keith Shields called Thirst  and he does an entire post about this song.  I encourage you to do what he suggests in his post which is listen to this song (I have put the Spotify link below at the same time you read the lyrics to the song and then read how the song affected him.  (The link to his post is here.) 



I enjoyed his interpretation of a song from 11  years ago that I only just discovered this morning.  Still in all I'm glad I didn't miss it.  

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Happy Anniversary

 
AS IN J JUMP JOYFUL JUMBLE


Today is my 14th wedding anniversary.  Yes 14 years today I woke up as a single man and went to bed as a married man.  There has been good and bad in my life since that day.  But the truth is that our life really has been a joyful jumble. 



I found out that the traditional 14th anniversary gift is Ivory while the modern 14th gift is gold.  Both these songs are golden oldies and notice that Barney is tickling the ivories in the video below. 


Happy Anniversary Amy, I heart you big time. 

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Not Friday; Got Fragments

Just a  few programming notes for those passing by.

Taking Puppy and company to see the Disney on Ice production, Dare to Dream in Rosemont today.  Here's a little I See the Light to get us in the Tangled mood.  I'll be back tomorrow with a review.

COH is at Janice Campbell this week.  She has a nice Wintery Mix all ready for you.  My HSBA page is one of the many articles available. 

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Mid Week Music Break

I have made it clear that my Puppy loves the music of J.J. Heller.  I thought I'd give you a chance to find out for yourself how good she is.  Here she is with What love really means, the song that Puppy fell in love with.

What Love Really Means (Single)

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The HSBA winning blog for Best Group Blog was TOS Homeschool Crew.  This blog continues to provide excellent product reviews as this sample post attests.

Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Christmas Time

I just heard this guy's music for the first time today.  His name is Buck Storm, which you have to admit, is a cool name.  I hope you like this song.

Next Time: The tooth, the whole tooth, and nothing but the tooth.

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