Welcome to Tuesday! It's time for the Thanksgiving edition of your favorite Tuesday-only blog about music! It's Tuesday's Musical Notes!!! We're here to be your appetizer for that steady diet of incredible edibles and fantastic fellowship with family and friends that is known as Thanksgiving. So before you get ready to see the parades and the football, before you dive into the pecan pies and the fudge, take just a few minutes to ponder anew the things in which you are thankful. We think you might be surprised at what comes to mind. That's right. Find a quiet place and ponder. For what are you thankful?
Here at The Notes, we are incredibly thankful and humbled by your continued reading and support. We don't ever take our Tuesday's together for granted. Thank you for tuning in each week to read our introspections on creativity and Christ!! We hope you continue to enjoy as we go through the remainder of this year and years to come!!!
Welcome again!!! So without further adieu, we bring, for your consideration, musings about music and The Messiah! Relax, pull up a chair, and dig in... to Thanksgiving at our house...in the middle of the street!
The band Madness began in 1976. Their biggest success occurred in their native United Kingdom where between 1979 and 2008 they saw 28 singles reach the top 40. In the United States, however, the band Madness is considered a one-hit wonder with today's feature song peaking at #7 on Billboard's Hot 100 in 1983, their only top 10 hit in the US.
Madness continues touring with 6 of its original members on board and new music, the latest being 2016's Can't Touch Us Now.
This happens to be the first Thanksgiving that I will experience without both of my parents. Fond remembrances of Thanksgiving feasts and family have begun. Our house at the holidays, much like many in our generation, was a time for a bit of a break from the norm. It was a time when we could all be together doing something...or nothing at all. This togetherness was an investment that I didn't cherish at the time, but find myself appreciating more.
It seemed that at these times when we could all be together, our house was filled. Sometimes our house was filled with other family members but at other times our house was filled with the simplicity of the joy that just the 4 of us being together allowed. Regardless, it always seemed that during the holidays, our house was much like one that I read about in the Bible. This house was filled with an intense love that attracted others to want to be a part.
Jesus was born in Bethlehem. He was raised in the home of Joseph and Mary in Nazareth. But as an adult, Jesus made His home in a small town called Capernaum. Jesus was at Capernaum when He had an "our house" moment.
The Gospel of Jesus according to Mark, a companion of the disciple Peter, chapter 2, verses 1-12 Christian Standard Bible/The Message paraphrase of the Bible/King James Version of the Bible parallel tells the familiar story of the paralyzed man who had 4 friends that lowered him through the roof to see Jesus. Because Jesus was in the home, there had amassed such a crowd that no one else could enter. Not to be deterred, the paralytic man's friends made their own way to Jesus by clawing through the roof and lowering their friend into the crowded house. When Jesus saw their faith, He healed the man who got up and walked out of the house to the astonishment of all those in attendance.
Most of the time the focus of this passage is on the friends or the paralyzed man. In our exhilaration at Jesus' miracle of healing, it is sometimes easy to blow past a very important point. Jesus was at the house and it was full. The house was filled to capacity because of Jesus' presence. This house it had a crowd, something good was happening, and it was getting quite loud. Mark puts it this way: "So many people gathered together that there was no more room, not even in the doorway, and he was speaking the Word to them." (CSB), "A crowd gathered, jamming the entrance so no one could get in or out. He was teaching the Word." (The Message) "And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the Word unto them." (KJV) When Jesus was in the house, it was full of 2 things...people and His love.
Here's the point. When Jesus is in our house, it is full. Did you catch the simplicity of that statement? For those who have made Jesus the boss of their lives, for believers, "Our house" is our physical bodies are filled as we display the love and compassion of Jesus to those around us. Jesus' love and compassion draws others (believers and those who aren't yet) to Himself through us. How cool is that?
As a family, "Our house" is the actual dwelling in which you live. This house is so filled with the goodness and the love that you have for your community that it is always filled with folks who are drawn to that love.
As believers gather to worship in congregations, "Our house" is the faith family that loves each other without condition or judgment and works together to see the Name of Jesus glorified and magnified. It is so different, so unique, so peculiar, that it draws the attention of our world and it is filled with folks who want to know what is going on.
There is a commercial that asks "what's in your wallet?" The thought is that their product is the best thing to be in your wallet if you need funding. For those gathered in Capernaum, the question became, "what's in your house?" Crowds gathered as the house was filled with the preaching of the Gospel. Healing happened as the house was filled by Jesus compassion for the sick. Redemption and forgiveness were given as the house was filled with the Savior of all mankind Who taught about repentance.
So friend, the question for us today is, "what is going on in our house in the middle of our street?" Is there something occurring that draws a crowd and fills our house to capacity? Does Jesus abide in us individually, in our families and in our churches to the point that folks wanna know..."Who's in the House?" from the 1993 album, The Standard by Carman
'Til Tuesday,
Serving HIM by serving You,
randy
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