Come gather 'round people wherever you roam, and read with desire this interesting tome. The Musical Notes will certainly hit home. It's Tuesday, your time is worth spendin', so get ready, your life it won't be like before , 'cause the times they are a changin'......
In case you haven't guessed, this is not a lost verse of the Dylan classic....it is however the opening line for this week's Tuesday Musical Notes..so let's get started!!
It all started with 1962's Bob Dylan. It continues in the form of Tempest, released in 2012. That is 50 years of recording music, poetry, social activism, and spirituality. When one hears the name Bob Dylan, immediate thoughts of a indescribable voice, unmanageable hair, and inescapable cool come to mind. He was born Robert Allen Zimmerman. This however, is not the only name he has used in his 50 year musical adventure. Bob Dylan has appeared in one name or another on a number of other people's projects and contributed mightily to the careers of '60s favorites The Byrds and The Band. His body of work is immense. 35 studio albums, 13 live albums, 9 albums in the bootleg series (recordings not originally released by the artist or their record label. Usually studio outtakes or live performances) and 14 compilation records. No other modern artist carries the fan base from across the spectrum of musical genre than Bob Dylan. He is the oldest recipient of a Grammy Award (he has 11 to date) and was one of thirteen people to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2012.
In May of this year Bob Dylan will turn 72. He was 21 when he released his first album, which assisted in defining protest music for the 1960s. He also is attributed with bringing the American Folk Music Revival to popular status. He saw sluggish record sales in the 1970s and in 1979 became a Christian. After his conversion he recorded two strictly religious albums, Slow Train Coming (1979) and Saved (1980). Both of which featured Dire Straits guitarist Mark Knopfler. While he received a Grammy for Best Male Vocalist for the song "You Gotta Serve Somebody", from Slow Train Coming, Dylan did not see skyrocketing album sales during the 80's. However, He was a part of USA for Africa's "We Are The World" and was a founding member of the super group The Traveling Wilburys (George Harrison (Beatles), Jeff Lynne (ELO), Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty were the other "Wilburys") Both of these projects saw commercial sales and critical acclaim for the charity work (USA for Africa), and music contribution (The Traveling Wilburys). The 90's saw his iconic stature continue as he released 2 MTV Unplugged albums and 4 other studio project.
Bob Dylan started the new millenium by receiving an Oscar for "Things Have Changed" from the movie Wonder Boys. Since the turn of the century he has also recorded 5 more studio albums, including a Christmas album, 2009s Christmas In The Heart. Through each decade, he has continued to record his music, his way. With this measure of success, it is easy to see that Bob Dylan certainly understands the philosphy he penned from the title track to his third album. As the times have changed, so has he. With each successive release, Bob Dylan reminds us in a myriad of ways....."The Times They Are A Changin'"
In Genesis, we read about the family of Noah and the great flood of the earth that Noah's family survived. Much of the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Kentucky (http://creationmuseum.org/) is dedicated to the story and science of this cataclysmic event. (If you get an opportunity, make this fantastic museum a part of your summer vacation plans) When reading the first line of "The Times They Are A-Changin'" one wonders if a similar warning was given by the prophet Noah as he delivered his admonition of the approaching earth changing event.
Come gather 'round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You'll be drenched to the bone.
If your time to you
Is worth savin'
Then you better start swimmin'
Or you'll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin'.
A recent conversation with our Student Pastor regarding Noah is applicable at this point. He observed that in our telling of the story of Noah and his deliverance we leave out, or at least minimize, the part of the story that tells the complete and utter destruction of the remainder of civilization. While we think of Noah and his family safe inside the ark, we tend to forget that EVERY other living thing on the face of the earth was destroyed. It is comforting however to think that while God was pouring out His wrath due to man's disobedience, that God also poured out His love in delivering the righteous Noah. We see a similar picture at Calvary where the abundance of God's love is the main emphasis of the story and Jesus bearing the brunt of God's wrath is seemingly minimized. Finally, we have the tendency to fill end times stories with the glories of heaven without balancing that with the hell that will be earth at that time. The difficulty with those who were lost in Noah's time, those who were lost at the time of Jesus' crucifixion and those who will be lost at the end times is that they did not heed the warnings nor embrace God's love as the times changed all around them.
John 3:16-18
Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)16 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world that He might condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. 18 Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God.
Revelation 6:15-17
Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
As we look around our world in 2013, there is a feeling among many that hard times are ahead. But equalling this emotion is the intense anticipation that revival is also coming. We may very well be some who experience both of these diametrically opposed times. Can we honestly say that we are righteous enough we would have been on the ark? If not, please seek out a friend who can tell you how to obtain that kind of right living and redemption and avoid the promises of wrath. " There's a battle outside ragin'..... It'll soon shake your windows... And rattle your walls... For the times they are a-changin'."
'Til Tuesday,
Loving HIM by loving you,
Randy
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