Welcome to Tuesday and another jam packed edition of Tuesday's Musical Notes!!! It's the last Tuesday of February and coincidentally the last day of February as well! Wow, that month flew by....
Thanks for taking a couple minutes from your day to read up on things that make you go hmmm. We bask in the sunlight of all musical genre's and time periods as we provide thoughts that hopefully cause you to consider life change from the One who is timeless. So sit back and get in the groove of a reggae beat as we ponder a time for which we all long. It is a way of life that many say we desire, however, do we really do things to make a world like this come to pass...ahh mon, maybe one day...
This is what can happen when someone comes to themselves. (Think parable of the lost son when he was eating with the pigs, The Gospel of Jesus according to Dr. Luke chapter 15:11-32 English Standard Version of the Bible/The Message paraphrase of the Bible parallel) Matisyahu, (Hebrew name), his given name is Matthew Paul Miller, lived a life that was experiential by nature as a teenager. He existed in the drug culture during his formative years and after a time in rehab, began to rediscover his Jewish heritage. He combined this heritage with the beats of Reggae and Hip Hop and in October of 2004 released his first studio album, Shake Off The Dust...Arise.
His first album failed to chart, but with constant touring and exposure of the album success of his second album in 2006 entitled Youth was insured. Youth soared up the Billboard album charts finally peaking at #4 in the US rock charts and all the way to #1 in the US Reggae chart (who knew there even was a US Reggae chart?) This increased publicity caught the attention of NBC advertising execs as they decided to utilize today's feature song in advertising for the 2010 Olympics (NBC 2010 Olympic promo). The exposure caused significant interest in the song and it would break into the Hot 100. However, the Olympics would not be enough for the single of "One Day" to see gold. It peaked at #85 in the US, but not surprisingly went all the way to #1 at Media Forest, the Israeli version of Billboard Magazine.
Lyrically, the song speaks to the positive message of a world wear "our children will play". It is a song that breaks down cultural barriers as it attempts to find avenues of unity which all of the human race can support. ("Are There Really Different Races?" - by Ken Ham answersingenesis.org November 19, 2007, "One Race" by Dr. Georgia Purdom, answersingenesis.org, April 1, 2010)
How would the positive embrace of unity affect our world and be the impetus to show a love that was taught to a bunch of folks on a hillside long ago? The Gospel of Jesus according to the Disciple Matthew chapter 5 Holman Christian Standard Bible If embraced by this Teacher's followers, this message has the capacity to be the most unifying of declarations.
I recently had the opportunity to attend a "Christian" Rock and Roll Show. That really is the only way I know how to put it. The visuals and production alone were worth the price of admission. It featured 7 diffferent acts. A couple of the artists took to the stage to attempt cultural reconciliation, however, their lead was, "You know how divided we are as a country..." While well intentioned, I firmly believe this type of rhetoric plays right into the narrative of the very division to which they refer, as well as into the hands of the enemy of which we despise.
Think about it for a moment. When was the last time you heard or read a news story about black folks and white folks living together in peace and love? While we rarely hear about it, "community" happens every day in cities across our nation. In churches, in workplaces, in sports teams, professional and amateur, even in our governemnt, we see examples of folks getting along despite differences in their culture and skin color. Matisyahu performs with Muslim beatboxer, Kenny Muhammad and recorded a remix of "One Day with Muslim rapper Akon. And finally the best commercial your humble blogger has personally ever seen went viral on youtube.com (Two Old Friends Meet for Tea and Discover They Share a Problem- Amazon.com ad)
Unfortunately, our media outlets choose to feature stories tainted with the ever present discourse of negativism and cultural conflict fueling both of these in the process. Do we have issues? Absolutely! However, when all we are fed is a constant barrage of garbage and hate, a self fulfilling prophecy tends to take control. Wouldn't a self fulfilling prophecy of unity be better?
What would happen if tomorrow we awoke and the very first thing that our eyes beheld were the efforts of white officers in predominantly black neighborhoods building relationships and trust. What would happen if our newspapers featured stories about how multicultural churches are making a difference in their communities and world wide? What would happen if folks who disagree were respectful of their differences and did not bloviate on facebook causing hard feelings? What would happen if celebrities talked more about their own multicultural relationships than fueling their political disagreement while trying to be funny (or not getting the Best Picture Award correct)?
What would happen if everyone would listen as the Teacher told this parable: The Gospel of Jesus according to Dr. Luke chapter 10:25-37 New King James Version of the Bible/The Message paraphrase of the Bible parallel ? How would our nation and our world be impacted if we chose to focus on the partnerships and positive relationships among cultures that live in communities all over the nation that get along and indeed flourish every day? Stop with the violence, stop with the hate. The Beatles may have had something..."All you need is love, love, love is all you need." Maybe they were paraphrasing the Teacher...
Repentance is a word that is far too seldom used in our world today. It means to turn away from something and turn to something. What would happen to our world if we turned to Jesus and focused on Him and the love He commands us to give to others? The Gospel of Jesus as written by the Disciple Matthew chapter 22:34-40 NKJV/The Message Is this too much to ask? We can defeat the enemy through Holy Spirit's power by focusing on the positive. As followers of Jesus, "we can make a difference, we can make a change, we can make the world a better place" by exposing the positive examples that are going on all around us and destroying the rhetoric of hate and narrative of the negative. Yes the negativity abounds, but as believers we don't have to let it get us down. Because our focus is on One Day...The Revelation of the Disciple John chapter 22:1-5 NKJV/The Message
'Til Tuesday,
Serving HIM by serving you,
Randy
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