Welcome to Tuesday ladies and lads! It's the week before we celebrate our fathers, our dads! This Sunday remember the discipline received, the love and the laughter, our moments of need. He was there in a jiffy, without much a tussle, with wisdom, and care, and a bit of his muscle. So take a moment and call, write, or visit. The times they are short, so you better get with it!!!
Welcome to Tuesday's Musical Notes, where a rhyme just in time might be the medicine you need. We realize that relationships with fathers aren't always idyllic, and we pray that if you have a good one, you'll praise God for him. I was fortunate to have a father who taught me many things about many things. But the most important thing he did for me was to point me toward a Father that would do things for me that he never could. I hope you have a father like that, and I hope you have engaged THE Father. Happy Father's Day!!!
Tuesday's Musical Notes is making an effort to retell the great stories of the Bible. We live in a generation where folks don't learn and study the Bible as much or as effectively as they once did. The result of this can be seen across the world's landscape. The stories of the Bible resonate with life principles and provide examples of good and evil. We learn about good and evil from Adam and Eve, we learn about God's love for right living from Noah, we learn about sacrifice and faith through the life of Abraham, and on and on it goes.
It seems that we live in an era where the differences between right and wrong/good and evil can be blurred significantly. We need less ambiguousness and more precision in our life. The stories in the Bible can provide answers to every question of our lives with exacting precision. Without repeating and regaling in these great stories, we are left to the advice from what fools believe...
Tuesday's Musical Notes have visited with the brother's Doobie on a couple of previous occasions. Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Minute by Minute" (The Doobie Brothers) and Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Listen to the Music" (The Doobie Brothers) to be precise. What we find is a rock-n-roll band featuring founding members Tom Johnston and Patrick Simmons with a variety of musicians (most notably Michael McDonald), who continue to tour and as of 2014 are still recording albums. The Doobie's latest, 2014s Southbound includes backing vocals from some of Nashville's biggest names like Vince Gill and Brad Paisley. 2020 finds The Doobie Brothers being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and attempting a 50th Anniversary tour. But due to circumstances beyond their control, both events were rescheduled. (November 7th, 2020 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, 2021 for the 50th Anniversary tour)
The Doobie Brothers first single from the album Minute by Minute, "What a Fool Believes", was a welcome rock-n-roll song in an era, the spring of 1979, where disco beats were dominating the charts. "What a Fool Believes" went all the way to #1 in April of that year. It received Grammys in the Song of the Year and Record of the Year categories for 1980 and launched The Doobie Brothers into the next decade.
The song was co-written by Michael McDonald and Kenny Loggins (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "I'm Alright" (Kenny Loggins)). To make the best of both worlds, a disco version was released by Warner Brothers in 1978 as a 12" single. It was also featured on Loggins' '78 album Nightwatch, making The Doobie Brothers single, technically, a cover. Loggins made 2 live recordings of "What a Fool Believes" in 1980 (Kenny Loggins Alive) and with McDonald in 1993 (Outside: From The Redwoods).
The song recounts the woes of former love interests. One party attempts to rekindle the romance only to find that there was no romantic interest in the first place. Just goes to show you what can happen when you have preconceived notions about things...
One of the Old Testament's biggest characters is Moses. We've visited about him the last few weeks here at The Notes. He spent a little time cruising the Nile River. He was educated by the finest teachers around, and then he found himself on the wrong end of the law. He then finds himself low man on the totem pole, taking care of sheep out in what we would call nowhere land. A brief stint as an advocate for Smokey the Bear, we now find Moses hanging out with God and developing a pattern of behavior that only a fool would believe.
Rollback the curtain and let's see what this great Bible story has to reveal.
God has instructed Moses in what was to be the next phase of his life. Moses goes somewhere back in his long ago and begins making excuses, "what if they don't believe what I'm saying?" God provides a miraculous object lesson. Moses makes a point about his having a speech impediment. God, becoming angry (yup, it says that! Exodus 4:14) relents and provides a speaker who just happens to be Moses' brother. It seemed that every excuse or claim against obedience that Moses had, God kept providing a resolution for the excuse. What excuses are you making about doing what God has called you to do? How has God provided a resolution? (...no wise man has the power, to reason away...)
Moses finally relinquishes his own will to God's. (I wonder if we ever should do that, perhaps without wasting as much time as what Moses did...I sure don't want God to be "angry" with me!!!) He gathers up his father-in-law's sheep and takes them back to the base camp. He gathers up the wife and kids and sets his sites on Egypt. Oh yeah, Moses took that stick that God turned into a snake with him as well. (I believe I would too!!!)
Remember, Moses had left Egypt 40 years prior as a fugitive. Now, God was sending him back to demand that the king of the land release his slave labor. I can't imagine that caused any stress...(dripping with sarcasm)
God also had been working in the life of Aaron, Moses' brother. God instructs Aaron to meet Moses in the wilderness. They meet, they embrace as brothers, and then Moses tells Aaron what is about to go down. Having been a slave his entire life, one would imagine that this was welcome news to Aaron. So he gathers up the leadership of Israel and tells them what is about to happen with Moses as their liaison/captain. Moses does the first mic drop and the other wonders that God had shown to him. The result? The Bible says that even with the terrifying prospects of going up against their rulers, the bowed and worshipped God.
Has God asked you to do something that terrifies you? Perhaps Holy Spirit is right now, showing Himself to you and drawing you to restore your relationship with God. Perhaps, the story of Jesus is resonating with you so much that you want to make Him the boss of your life? Perhaps God has called you to lead in a capacity that only a fool would believe. Perhaps in the last few months, you have experienced anxiety with the situations taking place around us. Look around. God has planted wonderful and miraculous things all around you to show you that He has the power to reason away every excuse you would make to serve and worship Him. He is waiting to bring you to a place where you too can bow and worship...
Do what only a fool would believe...it is now time for you to pick up that snake...
'Til Tuesday,
Serving HIM by serving You,
randy
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