Happy April!!! Welcome to Tuesday's Musical Notes, the part of the week where your smile gets bigger, your brain gets smarter, and the entirety of who you are has the potential to change! Today we go deep, deep, deep, into the Notes annals and fetch an entry from Musical Note lore. It was featured in an email on February 28, 2012, to a handful of friends. Today we take the opportunity to remind those friends and share it with the new friends at the blog that you've come to know and love!!! Enjoy! G'day Mates!!!
It is amazing what is possible when you have a #1 hit in Billboard magazine. Sometimes it gives you the opportunity to reintroduce the world to the culture in which you were raised. If the song is good enough it can even introduce a national favorite to the international world as it provides the stimulus to promote products based on your homelands natural resources. Vegemite anyone?
It can even provide the occasion to inspire the production of a movie based on the wonder that is your country.
That's what can happen if you catch a few Men At Work. The debut album, Business as Usual, from this Australian band not only produced the #1 Hit "Down Under" which celebrated everything Aussie, but it ranks Men At Work as the only Australian band to have a #1 album and #1 song simultaneously. They did it twice. While Business as Usual was the #1 record, "Who Can It Be Now" and then "Down Under" both went to #1 on the singles charts
"It is my privilege to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." I suspect that if you have been witness to a baptism in some Protestant churches, you have heard this phrase recited before the candidate for baptism is taken under water. Sometimes I wonder if we fully get the impact of what is being said as we do this wonderful ordinance of the church. Certainly, we recognize the symbolism represented by the "washing away" of the past and the "rising again" as a new creation. However, do we take the opportunity to recognize the Trinity in whose Name we are baptizing?
Many people who believe that God created everything and that Jesus died for their sins, rarely take the opportunity to allow Holy Spirit to activate or apply that belief in their lives. Given the prompting of Holy Spirit, we sometimes quote Men At Work, "Who can it be knocking at my door, go away, don't come 'round here no more.". In doing this, we effectively do the unpardonable sin.
Matthew 12:31-33 “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come." The Gospel of Jesus According to Matthew, chapter 12, verses 30-32 New International Version of the Bible/The Message paraphrase of the Bible/English Standard Version of the Bible parallel
This passage cautions us to revere and listen to Holy Spirit as we go about our lives. We have the ability to "speak against the Holy Spirit" by our inactivity to his leadership. Our ability to do the good works that we are called to do is incumbent upon our interaction with Holy Spirit. He leads us to those works and empowers us to be able to do them. We certainly need to pray in Jesus Name, but when we don't pray through the power of Holy Spirit, we limit our opportunity to be effective. Nothing is impossible with God, the Holy Spirit. He is one with the Father and the Son. He should be worshiped the same way we do God and Jesus. We worship Him by following His leadership. It is God through the power of Holy Spirit who leads us to do His work as we live as Christians.
'Til Tuesday
Serving HIM by serving You,
randy
That's what can happen if you catch a few Men At Work. The debut album, Business as Usual, from this Australian band not only produced the #1 Hit "Down Under" which celebrated everything Aussie, but it ranks Men At Work as the only Australian band to have a #1 album and #1 song simultaneously. They did it twice. While Business as Usual was the #1 record, "Who Can It Be Now" and then "Down Under" both went to #1 on the singles charts
"Who Can It Be Now" was the first single released in the US from Business As Usual in August of 1982 (it had been released a year earlier as a single in Men at Work's native Australia) and helped propel the boys from down under to the Grammy Award in 1983 for Best New Artist. Unfortunately, due to band member changes and lackluster performance from follow up albums, Cargo and Two Hearts, Men At Work disbanded in 1986. Occasional reunion tours from 1996 - 2002 reignited interest in their music, thus aiding in the continual airplay at"oldies" radio stations. Yup, 1982 was 36 years ago...maybe the song isn't the only "oldie" around here...
From 1982 and a land down under, here's the band from the outback...Men at Work!
"It is my privilege to baptize you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit." I suspect that if you have been witness to a baptism in some Protestant churches, you have heard this phrase recited before the candidate for baptism is taken under water. Sometimes I wonder if we fully get the impact of what is being said as we do this wonderful ordinance of the church. Certainly, we recognize the symbolism represented by the "washing away" of the past and the "rising again" as a new creation. However, do we take the opportunity to recognize the Trinity in whose Name we are baptizing?
Many get the "God the Father" part of the Trinity equation. Our worship services tend to emphasize the "God The Son" part by praising Jesus for His sacrifice. But what about the "God the Holy Spirit"? When we feel the comfort that we can't explain during uncomfortable moments.....When we get that sense of direction in times that we feel lost......When we are able to find strength for the next battle that we face....... If we take a moment to check our heart's door.....we realize there is a knocking and maybe we ponder...."Who Can It Be, Now?"
Most Christians would agree that the Trinity is God in three persons and that each of these personifications has an equality of power and prominence for believers. It is also important to note that the Trinity has an equal role in shaping believers daily to be a reflection of the triune God. Many times this equality isn't effectively demonstrated in the lives of believers or the church. The work and person of Holy Spirit has been seen more as an aspect of the more charismatic denominations or movements than it has been implemented in the daily lives of believers on the whole.
In fact, some mainline churches have diminished the work of the Holy Spirit based on misconceptions or disagreements with their more demonstrative brothers and sisters in Jesus. Tuesday's Musical Notes does not claim the authority to be critical or dictate one's praise language, but for a primer on at least "7 Ways to Praise", here is Professor Carman:
Maybe Zoot Suits and big band sounds are a little extreme...but "Why Should the Devil Have all the Good Music?" by Geoff Moore and the Distance from the 1995 album Evolution ...but we digress.
In the book Dug Down Deep by Joshua Harris (Multnomah 2011), the Trinity is explained in a way that amplifies the equality of God, Jesus, and Holy Spirit.
"In perfect unity, the members of the Godhead partner in the great work of salvation. Though equal in power and deity, each plays a unique role. What the Father planned, the Son purchased by His death, the Holy Spirit activates or applies in our lives."
"In perfect unity, the members of the Godhead partner in the great work of salvation. Though equal in power and deity, each plays a unique role. What the Father planned, the Son purchased by His death, the Holy Spirit activates or applies in our lives."
Many people who believe that God created everything and that Jesus died for their sins, rarely take the opportunity to allow Holy Spirit to activate or apply that belief in their lives. Given the prompting of Holy Spirit, we sometimes quote Men At Work, "Who can it be knocking at my door, go away, don't come 'round here no more.". In doing this, we effectively do the unpardonable sin.
Matthew 12:31-33 “Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come." The Gospel of Jesus According to Matthew, chapter 12, verses 30-32 New International Version of the Bible/The Message paraphrase of the Bible/English Standard Version of the Bible parallel
This passage cautions us to revere and listen to Holy Spirit as we go about our lives. We have the ability to "speak against the Holy Spirit" by our inactivity to his leadership. Our ability to do the good works that we are called to do is incumbent upon our interaction with Holy Spirit. He leads us to those works and empowers us to be able to do them. We certainly need to pray in Jesus Name, but when we don't pray through the power of Holy Spirit, we limit our opportunity to be effective. Nothing is impossible with God, the Holy Spirit. He is one with the Father and the Son. He should be worshiped the same way we do God and Jesus. We worship Him by following His leadership. It is God through the power of Holy Spirit who leads us to do His work as we live as Christians.
If you are not currently a believer in Jesus, Holy Spirit is still active in your life. You see, dear friend, He is a constant reminder that something is missing in your life. He is there to draw you to God, through the sacrifice of Jesus blood. He is there to restore the broken relationship with God that you were born with due to Adam's sin. If you deny His continual drawing, you, in essence, have spoken against Holy Spirit and according to the Bible, you will not be forgiven. Please, friend, don't do this. Don't miss the opportunity of Holy Spirit's drawing you to salvation. It won't last forever: Paul's letter to the Roman church, chapter 1, verses 18-32, NIV/The Message/ESV
So the next time you sense a drawing to be whole, or as a believer, an opportunity that seemingly comes from nowhere to be of service to someone.....resist the temptation to wonder...
"Who can it be knocking on my door, make no sound, tiptoe across the floor..."
'Til Tuesday
Serving HIM by serving You,
randy
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