Welcome
to Tuesday and Tuesday's Musical Notes!!! Each Tuesday readers from
all over the globe, click to find new perspectives on melodies,
memories, and morality. Tuesday's Musical Notes now has over 150 posts
from all genres of music and many perspectives on life. We hope you
find these posts entertaining, thought provoking, and life changing.
Check out the archives, This way...you're almost
there...patience...closer... a little more to the right...here!
While
we attempt to never judge any person, Tuesday's Musical Notes holds to
the highest standard possible in an attempt to share the most important
message available while assuring your blog reading experience is the
best it can be. In other words, there are many things that we love
about music that are certainly left to individual tastes and debate,
there are specific truths however, that we cannot debate and hold fast
to as unassailable fact...in short there are some topics and thoughts
expressed here at Tuesday's Musical Notes that cause us to proclaim
proudly...I won't back down...
"I Won't Back Down" from the 1989 album Full Moon Fever by Tom Petty
It
would be his first attempt to be sans The Heartbreakers. "I Won't Back
Down" was Tom Petty's first solo single from his first solo album,
1989's Full Moon Fever. The single soared up the charts to #12
on Billboards Hot 100 after its April release. It hit #1 on the Album
Rock Chart for five weeks and solidified Tom Petty's credentials as a
Rock-N-Roll icon. The songs on Full Moon Fever were co-written
by fellow Traveling Wilburys and former ELO front man Jeff Lynne. The
album also featured contributions from other Wilburys, former Beatle
George Harrision and Roy Orbison. You may have noticed that the music
video showcased another former Beatle, Ringo Starr, on drums. Ringo,
however, did not play on the album or the single.
With
its "stand up for what you believe" theme, "I Won't Back Down" became a
popular anthem for a post 9-11 America. Since its release it has also
been featured in many political campaigns. One campaign used it to the
chagrin of Tom Petty as he submitted a cease and desist letter to the
Presidential candidacy of George W. Bush. It has also been featured as
a rallying cry for a variety of sports from hockey (Ottawa Senators)
to UFC (walkout theme for Middleweight Champion Chris Weidman). More
recently "I Won't Back Down" resulted in Tom Petty and Jeff Lynne
receiving 12.5% of the royalties and a co-writing credit on the grammy
nominated "Stay With Me" by Sam Smith, due to the extreme similarities
between the songs.
The
Notes finds it very interesting that a song about being uncompromising
in your beliefs became so popular in an age where the words "tolerance"
and "inclusion" are celebrated. Such words are used as artillery in the
peer pressure war to fuel ideologies that may or may not be truth.
Please be clear about one thing. Truth is never changing. Tolerance
for something does not make it right. Inclusion of something does not
make it acceptable by the standard of truth. The friction resulting
from the collision of truth and lies can cause strong emotions by those
holding to their version of the truth.
Hate is never on the
side of truth, however, if you listen to ANY media outlet for a length
of time, you will see an example of hatred caused by a disagreement over
ideology. These ideologies are rooted in the debaters vison of what
they determine is truth. These visions are sometimes formed by research
and education, and at other times, by raw emotion and uneducated,
under-informed creeds.
It seems that as long as the "majority"
believes in a particular thought, it becomes truth for that age. This
rationale is an anathema to those seeking ultimate and real truth.
Truth is not something that can change with a popular vote, or a rally.
Real truth is something that is unchanging regardless of what our
opinions of it may be. Real truth never backs down.
It
seems that Jesus was one that could have easily written today's
featured song. He went about showing His world that you can love
others unconditionally without compromising, tolerating, or including
their vatiety of the truth into His life. Jesus went about healing
everyone that He could. It did not matter if they contributed to His
ministry, followed Him consistently, or were martyred for their belief
in who He was. He preached a message of forgiveness and righteousness.
He stood firm on the truth that He was the Son of the Creator God, and
it cost Him everything. Now, after close to 2000 years after His
crucifixion for telling the truth, millions of people all over the globe
believe in Him.
In
the Bible, a man by the name of Paul wrote several letters. He was a
former persecutor/prosecutor of those who believed in Jesus. He became
a believer after an encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus. On
that road, Paul met Truth in its purest form. From that time, no matter
what happened to him, Paul never backed down from following Jesus. He
wrote of his stance in a letter to the body of believers at the Grecian
city of Corinth.
"Don’t become partners with those who reject God. How can you make a
partnership out of right and wrong? That’s not partnership; that’s war.
Is light best friends with dark? Does Christ go strolling with the
Devil? Do trust and mistrust hold hands? Who would think of setting up
pagan idols in God’s holy Temple? But that is exactly what we are, each
of us a temple in whom God lives. God himself put it this way: “I’ll
live in them, move into them; I’ll be their God and they’ll be my
people. So leave the corruption and compromise; leave it for
good,” says God. “Don’t link up with those who will pollute you. I want
you all for myself. I’ll be a Father to you; you’ll be sons and
daughters to me.” The Word of the Master, God." - 2 Corinthians 6:14-18 The Message Paraphrase
Followers
of Jesus must be about telling this world this uncompromising truth.
The difficulty has been when Christians give in to the temptation of
sharing Jesus' story in a way that doesn't reflect Jesus. When we
engage in hateful debate, instead of measuring our words with love, we
become something Paul describes in another letter to the Corinthian
church... "If
I speak in the tongue of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am
only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal." 1 Corinthians 13: 1 Neither of these are something you want to listen to for an extended time.
The
truths included in the Bible are the ultimate truths for all mankind.
The truth of the creation of the world and how man was formed is found
in the book of Genesis. The truth of man's separation from the perfect
creator is also found there. The remainder of the Old Testament
includes the truths of God's constant attempts to bring man back into a
good relationship with Him. The ultimate display of relationship
restoration is found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John at the beginning
of the New Testament. These books of the Bible are called the Gospel,
or good news. The truth of Jesus being the way God reconciled man to
Himself is found chronicled in these four books. They tell the truth of
Jesus miraculous birth, His ministry, and teachings about how to get to
heaven, how He came to be the ultimate sacrifice for our restoration,
and how He came back to life after being killed in the most humiliating
and torturous way ever created by man. Finally, the truth of how the world ends is found in the book of Revelation at the end of the Bible.
These
are truths that we can stand on for the hope of eternity. If you
would like to find out more about these truths and more, biblegateway.com has a reading plan that is a good place to start and available on your mobile device. Just click here to get started: biblegateway.com - Reading plans
Pray that God will open your eyes to His uncompromising truth. When
those truths are revealed TO you and embraced BY you, it will become
evident that with a spirit of love...."you can stand me up at the gates
of hell, but I won't back down. No I won't back down."
Here's a song that might help start you on the pathways of truth...
'Til Tuesday
Serving HIM by serving you,
Randy
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