Free Music!!!!

Songs of Innocence by U2

                                      

Free music is always exciting, especially from an iconic band like U2, but I must say that when I saw this image as the album cover, I was a little taken aback! I wasn’t exactly sure what it was depicting and it made me a bit skittish about even bothering to check the music out. Amid all the controversy it appeared in my iTunes and I hadn’t even taken the time to listen to it until recently. I’m not exactly sure what U2 had in mind when they decided to enter into this deal with Apple and I had no idea what to expect as to the kind of sound it would have. 

Now that I have spent some time listening to it, I’ve found it is typical sounding U2 and I’m not so frightened. Although the title of the first song “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)” had me wondering! I love the Ramones, but what miracle? As it turns out, it’s not so much about Joey, but more about finding one self. The story goes that Bono as a teen, after seeing the Ramones live, was inspired by the way Joey Ramome sang, like a girl, because he also sings like a girl. Interesting thought process there, I’ve noticed over the years that there are many male lead singers out there in the music business that sound like girls when they sing. Bono goes on to explain that the whole album is basically a revisiting of their youth, first journeys geographically, spiritually and sexually.

After listening to the complete album several times I do get the vibe of a tribute to the 70’s and 80’s sounds mixed in with the current sounds in music. Especially the song “California (There Is No End To Love)” which in the beginning has a little teaser sounding almost like the Beach Boys “Barbara Ann”. The song “Iris Hold Me Close” is a song that is written about Bono’s mother. The rest of the songs follow the same kind of pattern centering around events or memories of the past.

It’s starting to grow on me a little more each time I listen to it, but I wouldn’t really say it’s their best album. I don’t feel the impact yet from this one that I felt with most of their early work. My favorite album so far would be “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” followed by “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” and “No Line On The Horizon”. 

The songs on this one don’t leave me mesmerized like “Vertigo” and “All Because Of You” from “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” or “Beautiful Day”, “Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of”, “Elevation”, or “Grace” off the album “All That You Can’t Leave Behind”, along with the songs “Magnificent” and “Moment of Surrender” from “No Line On The Horizon”. Going even farther back to “Achtung Baby” with “Even Better Than The Real Thing” and “Mysterious Ways”. 

I never paid them much attention when they showed up on the scene back in the early ‘80s. I’d hear them playing on my local mainstream stations and one day I started paying attention to the lyrics, I’m still very big on lyrics, then the music crept into my brain and I realized I actually liked listening to them. Songs like “I Will Follow”, “Sunday Bloody Sunday”, “New Year’s Day” and “Pride (In The Name Of Love)” were popular and played a lot on the radio. Soon they began to stick in my head! Then came “With or Without You”, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and I was hooked!

But getting back to “Songs of Innocence”, so far I'd have to say I'm drawn to the songs "The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone) and "Every Breaking Wave" the most, if you have received it on your iTunes then you should really check it out! It’s free and you might just like it!

Jehovah’s Witnesses & God’s Kingdom

I was going through the canvas bag that I keep my bible in for Lady’s Bible study, which I attend every Thursday morning from the beginning of fall and all the way through the beginning of summer. I was doing kind of a fall cleaning when I came across two publications given as handouts by local Jehovah’s Witnesses. I received them in the typical door to door fashion, we have all been accustomed to lately. I usually skim through them briefly trying to figure out what it is exactly they are dishing out. I guess I had done that very thing back in 2010 when I initially received the pamphlets and then filed them away with my study bible thinking I’d bring up some of the questions I had during bible study, but don’t think I ever did.

I have since taken a second look and was a little troubled by what I uncovered in these writings, one was the April 1, 2010 Watchtower which bore the title The Man Who Changed the World: His Message and You and the other the October 2010 Awake, with its title Whom Can You Trust?  Every time I had taken the opportunity to discuss my misgivings with the door-to-door Jehovah’s Witness, I was surprised to learn how versed they are at quoting the bible, but not very good at explaining how they fit in with their theology or even what that theology was! Whenever I questioned them about whom or what Jesus was and how he fit into the picture of this utopian world they were painting, they became a little agitated and basically ended the conversation.

I had a very limited experience with Jehovah’s Witnesses growing up, I knew a guy who was in my friend’s band back in the ‘70s, the bass player, who started dating a girl who claimed to be a Jehovah’s Witness and she seemed nice enough. She never seemed to preach about her beliefs. They later married and had a child, then just seemed to disappear, that was my only real dealing with members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

After rereading the two pamphlets, a couple of things stuck out in my mind: number one is that they present God as real and trustworthy, along with how important it is to present yourself as trustworthy in the world and number two; they talk a lot about the Kingdom of God and the teachings of Christ. The things that trouble me the most are those two facts, if God is a real person as they are depicting Him, with human attributes such as: God has a personal name, Jehovah, God is unique, Jehovah hates bad behavior, Jehovah is a loving God and you too can be God’s friend. Then I don’t understand why they go into such detail about the teachings of Christ and the coming of God’s Kingdom while presenting Jesus as nothing more than a teacher or profit, instead of God incarnate, God’s son and the King who will rule the Utopian Kingdom of God they are proclaiming?

If they believe that God is real and trustworthy, why don’t they believe that Jesus is God’s only son or God incarnate? They quote the bible right and left, but somehow they don’t think it’s the truth. I get the impression from these writings that Jesus is viewed as just some nice guy who taught the world about the coming of God’s Kingdom and then died and nothing more. If they believe that God is trustworthy and real, why don’t they believe it when God himself says from heaven “this is my Son, in whom I am well pleased”, that Jesus’ death was the ultimate sacrifice and He has returned alive to His Father in Heaven where He now sits at His Father, Jehovah’s right hand? Why aren’t they proclaiming his victory and that he is coming back ALIVE to rule God’s Kingdom on earth, as it says in the bible?

This is the part I don’t understand, how can they paint this beautiful picture of a utopian world, with animals and man all living in harmony, if the Messiah isn’t around to help it along? Actually I spoke to a Jehovah’s Witness woman who came to my door a while ago, who acknowledged that Jesus was in fact God’s son and the King who would rule God’s new Kingdom on earth, but thinking back on it now I realize she never said she believed Jesus was actually God in the flesh or that the Bible was the” inspired word of God” as Christians believe.

I’ve read several more copies of their hand outs and I find it very disturbing that they emphasize Christ death more than His resurrection, even going so far as to have an annual event every year called “The Memorial of Christ’s Death”. As an explanation for this event they quote Luke 22:19 “Do this in remembrance of me” but not the rest of the complete reference in Luke 22:19 & 20 “And he took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which is given for you. Do this in remembrance of me.^" And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup that is poured out for you is the new covenant in my blood.” I don’t read anywhere in the Bible that this was to be a once a year commemoration of His death only. They stress that one should believe in Christ’s work on the cross as the end of death, but don’t spend much time on the fact that it’s only the beginning of life through Christ. Christ clearly says in John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Then what about the Holy Ghost? I get this feeling they don't believe in the Trinity either.They talk about Jehovah, but what about “the Father, Son and Holy Ghost”? First God the Father creates the World and everything in it and then when His most prized creation, man, rebels, He sends His son to reconcile them through His earthly life and death on the cross, the ultimate sacrifice. Christ does not end on the cross, He returned to Heaven as King to sit at the right hand of His Father, Jehovah, where He began, but He leaves the Holy Ghost or Spirit embedded in the hearts of believers to help guide them.

Jesus is the one who intercedes for us with Jehovah God, not Mary his mother, as some religions believe, not a Pope, but Christ, so how can they leave Him as dead? How can you claim to follow God and totally disregard His Son! I just can’t fathom it! Even if you acknowledge Him as God’s son, but not as God incarnate, you have missed the whole point of His death on the cross, the sacrifice, grace, mercy and forgiveness given on your behalf!  

Bad Christian & Believing Lies

I’ve been hearing the term “Bad Christian” being thrown around a lot lately. There is even a website with a blog and podcast that is run by members of the band Emery, in which Toby Morrell and Matt Carter discuss the idea of being a “bad Christian”. The thought of being a bad Christian doesn’t sound right to most people but the truth is we are all “bad” according to God.  Romans 3:22-24 says “This righteousness is given through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

When I was young my mother brought us to Church every Sunday, but she never really explained why or ever talked about what we learned in Sunday school, so I never really understood why Jesus had to die or even what his death meant. I grew up and drifted away from Church and started making some very bad decisions as a teen. I became involved in what I’ll call the “4 no no’s”, smoking cigarettes, alcohol, drugs and sex, as a result, I got myself in some very “bad” situations, I was pregnant at the age of 19 and again at 20 ( you would have thought I’d learned my lesson the first time, but I obviously didn’t) and had two abortions. I had them not because I didn’t want children, but because I was scared and believed a lie.

There are a lot of lies out there in the world and if we are not careful, we can easily fall prey to them. Now one of the lies I believed at that time was that life did not start at conception, but that up until a certain point in the pregnancy it was just a bunch of cells and not much more. So to shield myself and others, I believed this lie and went ahead with the abortions. It wasn’t until long after them that I discovered this lie. I actually saw fetuses that were as young as 3 to 4 weeks, which is the recommend time frame for the procedure and they looked like little humans with all their body parts formed! So that’s when I decided I wasn’t going to let it happen again, so I took precautions.

Much later when I was almost 29, I had met my future husband and we were talking marriage, I got this brilliant idea, that maybe I should take out my IUD, the precaution I was using at that time, so my body would be ready to have children when we got married. Another bad decision, I got pregnant again, but this time I was planning to get married, so we would just have to speed it up a little! Well, God had other plans and I had a miscarriage before we were even married! After I was married I had another miscarriage before I finally had my first child and again in between my second and third, I went on to have two other children, plus I raised one of my nieces who came to live with me just before she turned two.

After I had had my first two, a girl and a boy, I had this sense or feeling that I needed to return to the Church. I had continued to go to my mother’s church once in awhile, on special holidays, like Christmas and Easter. Through my sister-in-law, who was a Christian, I found a church near my home, which I still attend. At first I wasn’t sure I’d like it there, I picked it because I knew two people who went there so I wouldn’t feel so out of place and also because it had a nursery for my son and a pre-school Sunday school class for my daughter.

I had been raised a Protestant in my early years and then as a Methodist from about 4^th grade on, until I finished high school. I had even tried teaching Sunday school at one point in my early adulthood. That’s a really scary thought, how can someone who doesn’t really know the Lord teach kids about him! I had 3^rd and 4^th graders, I tried to follow the lessen books and I thought things went well until I realized one Sunday that a girl in my class was a bully and her mother was worse! I finally gave up teaching Sunday school and soon after stopped going to church, except on special occasions, like Christmas and Easter. I was so put off by this woman’s behavior that I didn’t want any part of religion!

After living this dreadful life in the past, I had settled down, married and started a family, I felt myself being drawn to the Church again, but this time it was a church that used the Bible as its main foundation. The more I went, the more I learned about God and Jesus; I also realized I was a sinner like everyone else! That was something I had never considered, I just figured if I followed the rules for the most part I was ok. You know, just go by the 10 Commandments, even if it was rather loosely to say the least.

But I have now realized it was God’s plan for me to go through these lessons in life to bring me to Him. I think you have to learn to see yourself in the same way God sees you, that we are not perfect beings, but sinners in need of His help. This is the reason Christ came to earth, to take the “bad” in people and make it “good” like Him, that’s where the word Christian comes from. So yes Christians start out as “bad”, but they have learned to let Christ teach them how to be “good” Christians! I believe God wanted to show me, how He grieved when I aborted my two babies, by letting me feel how it felt by the loss of my three pregnancies to miscarriages. God is a just and loving God, merciful and forgiving, but He lets us go through trials and tribulations in life in order to draw us closer to Him! We need to start believing more in His truth and less in the lies of this world!

Déjà Vu?

Taking a good look around the world these days brings home the reality of this; it is a perfect description of the present times, although written to a different generation:

Romans 1:18-32
God’s Wrath against Mankind

     “18) The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, 19) since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20) For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

      21) For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22) Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23) and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

      24) Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25) They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator – who is forever praised.  Amen. 26) Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27) In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

      28) Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29) They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30) slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31) they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32) Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.”

This sounds as though we are in some serious trouble here; we are truly living this out right now! Woe to us!
 

In need of a makeover?