The Pilgrim

The Pilgrim made the long and difficult climb to the mountain top where the guru sat in deep meditation, then breaking the silence asked the age old question "what is the meaning of life?" Looking up the guru spoke without hesitation "have you not heard? The true meaning of life is only found in Christ!" His gaze resting on the tired Pilgrim, lifting his hand he motioned and bid "come, sit and I will tell you of His Magnificent Glory!"

Stepping Into Action

One small act can make a difference!

The other day I stopped into my local Quick Chek store to pick up a sub, some lunch meat and bread. The first thing I always do is to place my sub and lunch meat order on the automated kiosk screen, which I did, then walked around the store gathering all the other things I’d come to get. I returned to wait for my order to be filled, as I stood there I noticed an older woman go up to the machine and start punching the screen. I say older because she was older than me and I’m pretty old, so she was probably in her late 70s or early 80s. I watched for quite awhile as she punched at the pictures on the screen with her fingers, becoming more frustrated by the minute! Finally I got the nerve to go over to her and ask if she needed any help, to which she said yes.

So I then set about to try to help her, but I found that somehow she had gotten the screen into the Spanish mode which I couldn’t get it out of, so we moved to the other machine. I managed to direct her in the operation of the machine and she was able to order her half pound of ham thin sliced. She seemed happy that I had taken the time to help her! By this time my order was done and I walked away feeling like I had actually accomplished something!

Although it wasn’t a feat of magnificent strength, it was a small gesture which I believe was showing this woman a hint of God’s love! I didn’t have to rattle on about the attributes of Christ; I just had to be willing to take the time to show her one in a little act of kindness. I believe that even the smallest act of kindness can show God’s love to anyone! If we want people to see God through Christ, we need to present ourselves as a mirror of Jesus!

It’s important to remember that all we do should be done for the glory of God, every act; every word should be done as a conscious thought, in love. Matthew 25:40 reads “The King will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.’” And in verse 45 of the same chapter, “He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’”

Look at all that Christ did for us on the cross, if we truly believe; we should be willing to step into action for Him!

Rock Redemption!

I have been listening to and collecting music since the early ‘60s, starting with “45s” as they were called back then, which were small vinyl records with a single song on each side. Side A was the hit song from the radio and side B was another song offering. I then began collecting full size vinyl records or albums, which were around 12” in diameter containing 5 or 6 songs on each side, I managed to accumulate about 300 before moving on to cassettes and now CDs are my fancy. I never got into 8track tapes though; since I didn’t own a car when they were popular and they came and went so quickly. When I finally got my own car I had a cassette player put in. At one point I even owned a reel to reel tape recorder which I ended up using to record my friend’s band and later on I bought a cassette deck that I also used for recording the band.

I’ve been attracted to all types of music over the years and all types of music groups. Even when I got married and started having kids, I still collected music. But after awhile, I realized that as I was listening to the radio or a cassette in a car full of kids, something didn’t seem right. These kids were listening to the music too and sometimes the words that were being used in the songs were not what I would want to hear coming out of the mouths of my children!

Around this time I had decided that I needed to get back to church, I had been brought up going to church every Sunday and for some reason I felt I had to give my children the same in their upbringing.  Although all of my kids went to public school, all but one of my six kids went to a Christian preschool, basically because my sister-in-law had sent her kids there so I just trusted her judgment.  My son had ADHD and went to a special Ed preschool run by the public school system.

Anyway, through my sister-in-law and another friend, I found the bible Chapel I now attend. The more time I spent there the more I learned and soon it all seemed to make sense! The music being sung was of a current contemporary kind and I began to like it! Pretty soon I preferred to listen to it over some of my old fare because of the kids; there was even a new local Christian radio station I could listen to in the car!

Now, the music I listen to most is music that is not necessarily all about God or even what’s known as “Christian”, but is more God friendly than that of the past. One thing I have noticed a lot recently is that many of the people I listened to in the past keep popping up in the strangest places! Guys like Alice Cooper, Lou Gramm, Richie Furay, John Michael Talbot, Bob Dylan and even Charlie Daniels have shown up in Gospel and Christian Contemporary music.

Actually there are many genres of “Christian” music, Hip-Hop, Pop, Ska, Rock, Alternative, Punk, Punk Rock, Metal and I’ve even heard of Rastafarian!  Whatever kind of music genre you can name there is a version of it with a Christian theme. I like mostly Christian Rock or Hard Rock, bands like Blindside, 12 Stones, Thousand Foot Kutch, We As Human, Kutless, Spoken, Project 86, Stryper, Seventh Day Slumber, Demon Hunter, etc., the list goes on forever!

So imagine my surprise when I’m listening to internet stations like Broken FM, Reign Radio, Static Radio and URrock Radio and all of a sudden I hear “Salvation” by Alice Cooper or when I’m at a Christian festival in my state and one of the groups playing is The Lou Gramm Band, whose front man just happens to be the former lead singer of the band Foreigner! Or when I find out that one of the founding members of a band I listened to as a teen back in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s, Mason Proffit, has gone rogue and joined a Catholic Brotherhood as did John Michael Talbot and is writing worship songs about God. We have heard over the years about Bob Dylan finding faith and the songs he has written professing it, along with Johnny Cash. I even found some Charlie Daniels albums in my local Christian book and gift store!

Then I found out that Richie Furay of the bands, Buffalo Springfield, Poco and the Souther Hillman Furay Band was pouring out music with a new theme and that he has become a Pastor of a Calvary Chapel in Colorado! Or when I find out crazy stuff like, Michael Sweet of Stryper was the co-lead vocalist and guitarist for the well known group Boston, from 2007 – 2011, it just blows my mind!

My latest find has me reeling as well; I was listening to a mainstream rock radio station in my car that I’ve listened to for years that plays what’s known as Classic Rock. They played the song “Never Been Any Reason” by a group I had only vaguely heard of before, Head East. Over the years I think I’ve only heard that name once or twice, but the song sparked my interest and I had to find out more about the group! So the second I got home I googled it (thank goodness for modern technology!) and what I found out freaked me to no end, turns out that the lead vocalist was none other than John Schlitt of Petra fame! I also found out that John Elefante of the band Mastedon was once frontman for the band Kansas from ’81 – ’84! Wonders never cease! You never know who has turned their life over to the Lord!

Over the years I have come across many groups with songs that hit a spiritual cord, like Blindfaith’s “Presence of the Lord”, Eric Clapton’s “Tears In Heaven”, Bruce Cockburn’s “Lord of the Starfields”, The Hooters’ “All You Zombies”, Norman Greenbaum’s “Spirit in the Sky”, the Rolling Stones had “Prodigal Son”, Rush’s “Peaceable Kingdom” or Collective Soul’s “You”, along with tons of others as well. The first time I heard the album "Far From Home" by Steve Winwood and Traffic with the songs “Here Comes a Man”, “Holy Ground” and “State of Grace, I couldn’t help but notice the spiritual message ingrained throughout. Not all of these people were devout believers; many were just searching for something to fill the void in their lives at one time or another, others were just trying to spark more interest in their music, but some actually found God!

So it does my heart good to learn that many of the people in the mainstream music world have turned to the Lord. It’s actually a good thing when bands don’t flaunt their “Christian-ism”, because people can be drawn in by the message in the music and not scared away by the thought of listening to Christian music! Bands like Emery, actively look for venues that are “outside the box” to play at, bars, clubs and mainstream music festivals like Vans Warped Tour, just as Jesus reached out to those around him, tax collectors, lepers, drunks, the demon possessed and harlots, anyone in need!

So it just goes to show, you can’t always judge a rocker by their appearance or the type of music they play! They might just be ROCKIN’ FOR The Lord!

Ever feel violated?

Have you ever had a time in your life when you felt violated? Maybe you’ve had something taken or stolen from you, had someone break into your car or home? At first you have those feelings of horror, desperation, fear, anxiety and then anger! How could this happen to you?

I got my first car in 1972 when I was 20 and had a full time job. I was still living at home and my parents helped me buy a brand new VW Super Beetle! I'd had it for about a year or so, when one day I was visiting a guy I was dating at the time at work. He worked at an electronic store that sold all kinds of stereo equipment and records. I was planning on buying a record (those were the days when vinyl was all there was!) and had taken my money inside with me thinking I’d be right back out.

While I was inside going through the record section, there were these two guys wandering around the store, all of a sudden the alarm went off and the guys ran out of the store. My friend noticed that someone had tried to remove a stereo unit from the shelf which had set the alarm off and we figured it was the two that had just taken off, we didn’t think much about it until another guy that worked there came in and told me he thought someone had broken into my car trying to steal my stereo! So we all ran out to discover that the back side window on my car was smashed and the purse I had so foolishly left on the floor behind the driver’s seat was gone!

First the feeling of fear swept over me and then just plain anger! Anger at myself for being so dumb and then toward those who had done this evil deed to me! I was very lucky; there was nothing of any value in the purse since I had the money with me, I didn’t have a check book or even any credit cards at that time. The only thing was a gas credit card in my dad’s name. I found the purse on the side of the road when I left the store and a few days later someone found my wallet with my driver’s license. My dad cancelled the card and we eventually got it back in the mail.

Flash forward to about two years ago and my oldest daughter is living in Brooklyn, New York. We had let her use one of our cars to travel back and forth from the city to our home. We got a call one day from her all in a panic, wanting to know the license plate number and all. She had parked it somewhere near her apartment and it was gone!

It was an old ’93 Mazda with some dents, not in really good shape, who would want to steal it? First thing that pops in your head is that some teenagers have stolen it to take it for a joy ride and it was probably in a heap some place! Or maybe it was used in a robbery of some kind! All these things run rampant through your brain!

So after about a week or so of freaking out, she finds out that it was towed away! She starts to feel the sting of violation, now the fear turns to anger, not only did they have the nerve to take it, but now she has to pay the towing costs along with the parking ticket to get it back! Now she really feels violated! It’s as though it’s being held for ransom!

She’s left mentally kicking herself in the butt for being so foolish! But she has just learned a valuable life lesson; some mistakes will cost you not only grief and aggravation, but some money too!
 

Wake Me Up

By C.S Bosse

Wake me, O Lord
For I am sleeping
I have fallen asleep to your call

Wake me, O Lord
For I am sleeping
I have fallen asleep to your word

Wake me, O Lord
For I am sleeping
I have fallen asleep to your will

Wake me, O Lord
For my heart and soul
Have fallen asleep to your love

I come into your house
Seeking your help
My heavy heart weighs me down
I'm feeling numb and lifeless

Wake me, don't let me sleep
Give me your strength each day
Open my ears to your word

Wake me, don't let me sleep
Give me your strength each day
Lead me in the ways of your will 

Wake me, don't let me sleep
Give me your strength each day
Help me give everything to your call 

Wake me up, O Lord
Awaken me to the injustice around me
And to the plight of others 

Wake me up, O Lord
Show me your love
That I may know how to love them

Won't you wake me, O Lord?
For I have been dozing far too long!

And now for something completely different “Bowling for Geese”!

There was a time a few years ago, when I was very active in the exercise department. I took aerobics three days a week and on two other days I would jog to and walk around the local park. Then I started having some trouble with my foot which made it very difficult to run or walk a lot so I had to give up the trips to the park for awhile. Finally I was able to get my foot problem under control and started making my rounds in the park again.

The park near my house has a lake in the middle with a paved path that goes around it and has three bridges that cross over it at certain points. I would jog from my house to the park and then walk around the park on the path crossing over the bridge in the middle to make a figure 8. I’d make this figure 8 trip around about two or three times before jogging from the park back to my house. By the entrance where I came in there is a gazebo and parking lot on one side and the basketball courts on the other side along with the restrooms, further down was the high school practice field behind the high school itself. The high school gym teachers used the path in the park for running the mile and aerobic walking during gym class, so every now and then you would have to dodge the kids. The park was also filled with seagulls and geese everywhere all during the spring, summer, and fall months, so much so that it was almost a health issue with all the droppings!

So I would start out jogging from home and when I reached the path in the park, I’d walk, sometimes with my friend and her kids or just the two of us or sometimes by myself. One day I was by myself and on my last trip around with my headphones blaring music from my iPod shuffle, when as I passed the basketball courts this fellow walked out in front of me carrying a basketball. I only noticed him because he didn’t look as though he was dressed to play basketball, because he was wearing khaki pants and a polo shirt, as though he was on his way to work or taking a break from it. So I was just walking along behind this guy, listening to my music and day dreaming, we crossed over the middle bridge and started down the path toward the play ground which was near the tennis courts and another restroom. There was a huge group of geese milling around on the grass by the side of the little stream that ran off from the lake. Out of the corner of my eye I could see this fellow leave the path and walk toward the geese, as he got closer he raised the arm with the basketball in hand and let it fly onto the ground just like a bowling ball! He was actually aiming for them! He had invented a new sport, “bowling for geese”! He let his ball go a few more times before gathering it up and walking away after scattering most of the geese!

I was trying not to stare at this marvel, but at the same time wishing I had a camera of some kind instead of my lame cell phone! As I continued my walk, I imagined to myself just how you would score in this game, maybe “x “ number of points for how many you could scare into flight and you’d get double if you actually hit any of them! Although I don’t condone messing with nature on this level, I found it to be far more humane than the popular sport of using a car to try to hit them as they cross the road in a line during rush hour!