Tuesday, April 27, 2021

Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Games People Play" (The Spinners)

Welcome to a Chess kind of Tuesday!  We want to invite you to join us on our journey as we explore the musical landscape from the perspective of The Message literature.  This is an interesting combination at times and we hope you enjoy the flashbacks, future promises, and occasional fantastic leaps of the imagination.  We really do appreciate your patronage and hope you will return each week!

Welcome to a Checkers kind of Tuesday!

Over the years you have joined us by going to your favorite search engine and searching "Tuesday's Musical Notes".  Thank you SOO MUCH!!!  This works out really well and provides great feedback for me.  However, if I may be so polite as to ask, when perusing your favorite blog, would you click on the actual title of the "Note of the Week"?  This gives me an accurate accounting of styles, bands, Scripture, etc you find the most engaging.  For example; today you would go to tuesdaysmusicalnotes.blogspot.com and click on the "Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Games People Play" (The Spinners)" title located just under the blog date to ensure that your reading of today's Musical Note is tabulated by title. Thanks!  

Welcome to a Backgammon kind of Tuesday!  

We launch today with a band that we didn't realize was one of our favorites. We recently acquired a "Best of The Spinners" album and while we didn't recognize all of the titles (we know, we know...we should recognize ALL the titles...) with each successive track we immediately began to realize that part of my soundtrack of the '70s included many of their songs.  

From 1961 to 1995, The Spinners (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Rubberband Man" (The Spinners)) had 30 singles chart in Billboard's Hot 100, with 7 of those songs making it into the top 10.  So today, we welcome you to a Monopoly kind of Tuesday with the #5 hit from 1975, here are The Spinners with "Games People Play".  Is it our turn yet?


It really is a Scrabble kind of Tuesday!!!

With Philly house band MFSB (Mother, Father, Sister, Brother (TSOP, T.S.O.P. (The Sound of Philadelphia) Extended Version (From Love Train: The Sound of Philadephia)) providing instrumental backup, The Spinners took today's featured song all the way to #1 on Billboards R&B Singles Chart and peaked at #5 on Billboard's Hot 100.   "Games People Play" was one of 2 singles released from the band's 6th studio album, the 4th (and last) produced by keys player, Thom Bell and recorded at Sigma Sound Studios in Philidelphia. 

"Games People Play" is a song about a relationship that is a little off-kilter. It seems this couple really doesn't have a Clue.  They arrange time together and then one of them doesn't show.  Through a series of Trivial Pursuits, they "play" around trying to make the relationship work.  It's like one of them lives on a Battleship, while the other lives in Candy Land.  "That's how it goes sometimes", winds up being the conclusion of The Spinners.  And while it is not the ultimate way to have a relationship, it is in this playing of The Game of Life that makes it all work out.  ("The 20 Highest Selling Board Games of All Time" by Allen Lee, moneyinc.com)

This couple's struggles are similar to many folks.  They "play around" the perimeters of truthfulness and honesty, while in reality find themselves in lies and disillusion.  Examples from the Bible of this very "art" abound in the Bible.  For today, our focus will be visiting a man named Achan.


Everything is groovy for the new nation of Israel.  They have defeated their first town (Jericho) and are on their way to taking the Promised Land as their own.  But we know these folks.  They are just like us.  Somehow amidst the blessings of God, they will mess it up.  (Recurring theme?  I think SO!!!)

Prior to going into the Promised Land, the Israelites were given specific instructions about what they could and could not do.  After Jericho's walls fell, somebody couldn't obey that 1 instruction.  A man from the tribe of Judah named Achan decided he would play games with what God had instructed.  He took some of the "could not take" spoils from Jericho for himself causing God's anger to be incurred on the whole nation.

🎶"Can't get no rest.  Don't know how I work all day.  When will I learn?  Memories get in the way..."🎶

Achan's selfishness was not known to Joshua or the leadership of Israel so they go on to city #2 expecting a similar result to what had happened at Jericho.  In reading the Scripture we find that Israel's battleship got sunk.  All because of one man's games, Israel's confidence in taking the Promised Land was shattered, they were seen as weak by the other nations they were supposed to defeat, and more importantly, they had lost God's blessing.  

At this point, even Joshua reverted to the "why did you bring us across the Jordan to be captured by our enemies" mantra.  God tells Joshua; "Get yourself up, wipe your clothes off and get ready for redemption..." (Randy paraphrase).  Joshua is obedient and based on God's instructions, calls for a lineup of all the tribes of Israel...then from the tribe selected, all the families will be in the lineup...then all of the households...then man by man.  

God singles out Achan as the loser in the game that Achan was attempting to play.  God cannot allow sin in His people's lives.  The punishment for sin is death (where have I heard that before...Romans 6:23 NASB/AMP/KJV).  Joshua is instructed to mete out the punishment on Achan and his family.  This seems harsh to our modern-day sensibilities, yet, we must remember that the fledgling nation was struggling to find its identity.  There had to be a very high standard demanded of its peoples for their success in taking the Promised Land as God had instructed.  HE was that standard and they were to attempt to live up to that.  

We are blessed in the fact that Jesus came to be the "death" punishment for our sin if we believe that Jesus was who He said He was and did the things the Bible says He did.  

But for those who don't believe in the free pardon that Jesus provides, there is a punishment equal to that of Achan's awaiting.  Now is the day of redemption.  Time is short.   Either through physical death, or Jesus' return believers will one day join God in eternity.  Those who do not will receive Achan's punishment in eternity...and worse.  

 ðŸŽ¶"...I walk around, I can't hear a sound, folks talkin' loud, but I don't see at all, I gotta get away, gotta get away, I don't know where to go, It's hopeless, so I guess I'll leave it alone..."🎶

So what is it going to be friend?  Will you continue to play the "waiting game" with God.  Will you be in a Chess match where after 1 move, God has you at checkmate?  Will you get to the end of your life to find that your battleship has already been sunk?  Or will you cry out to God, as Joshua did, and beg Him to show you where the sin is in your life?  Will you beg God to forgive you for that sin and ask Jesus' death to be the payment for you?   Will you be reconciled to God through Jesus for eternity?

Let's get one thing straight.  Believers play games with God too.  Yet, Holy Spirit is dwelling in the life of the believer to assist in the attainment of God's standard for living.  We fall short, but because of Jesus' sacrifice, we are free.  Because of Jesus' sacrifice, we find ourselves not wanting to be in an "Achan" pattern, but we find ourselves loving God, loving others, and desiring to be more like Jesus every day. We no longer want to be a part of the games people play...


'Til Tuesday,


Loving HIM by Loving You,
randy
<><

 

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Tuesday, April 20, 2021

Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Crumblin' Down" (John Cougar Mellencamp)

Hey.  What's Up?  It's Tuesday and we're tryin' to play it really, really cool.  You see today we get to hang out together and rap about music and other stuff.  No need to get overly excited or hyped up.  We'll just be settlin' in on some smooth grooves and easy readin'.  It's gonna be a relaxin' day.  That's right...take it easy.  Have a cold glass of lemonade or sweet tea on the front porch and wait for the cool breezes to come blowin' past the bangs hangin' down in our face.  It's time to take a break from all of the pent-up troubles of the day.  Gotta have a few days like these. Otherwise, we might find ourselves feelin' like a really thick wall that's bein' surrounded by some Israelites...did I just hear a crack???  Ok...NOW it's time to get excited...


Today's featured song is the first single from the 1983 album Uh-Huh by John Cougar Mellencamp (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Pink Houses" (John Cougar Mellencamp)).  As are many of the songs on Uh-Huh, today's #9 hit features Mellencamp writing songs with other folks, which he doesn't do very often on his other records.  "Crumblin' Down" finds Mellencamp writing with his "Hurts So Good" collaborator, George Green.  Along with Green, others with co-writing credit on the album include John Prine and Will Cary.  

It is the first album to use John Cougar's given last name, Mellencamp, and the seventh studio album by the artist who co-founded the Farm-Aid music festival/events with Willie Nelson (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "On the Road Again" (Willie Nelson)) and Neil Young. Since they began in 1985, these music festivals have raised over 60 million to assist those who struggle to stay on family land due to mortgage debt.  "Farm Aid" - wikipedia.org  The benefit concerts, as well as other efforts by the artists involved, have done much to keep those who supply us with food from literally seeing their walls come crumblin' down.  


If it seems we have camped here for a couple of weeks, there's a reason for the feelin'...we have.  Ok, we confess the story of Jericho is one of our all-time favorite accounts from Scripture.  (and yeah... part of the reason is the VeggieTales video... "...keep walking, but you won't knock down our wall..."  "Josh and the Big Wall" - VeggieTales (full movie)).   

In The Notes opinion, the most interesting part of the book of Joshua is the first 8 chapters (Joshua 1-8 NASB/AMP/KJV)  especially chapter 6.  This passage of Scripture is so prolific that it has found its way into countless children's programming (see above),  award-winning movies  ("Walls of Jericho" - It Happened One Night - Columbia Pictures, produced and directed by Frank Capra) (the first film to ever win all 5 major Academy Awards, highly recommended by Tuesday's Musical Notes), music ("Jericho" - Carman), and scientific debate ( "Walls of Jericho" by Bryant Wood, answersingenesis.org, March 1, 1999, "The Walls of Jericho Came Tumbling Down" by Marshall Chasin, hearinghealthmatters.org, June 7, 2016).

A couple of things to remember about this story.  The priests and the army were the ones God instructed to march around the wall.  (7 priests, 7 rams horns, and the army (according to Joshua 4:13 NASB, AMP, KJV, this would have been about 40,000 men), 1 time a day for 6 days and 7 times around Jericho on the 7th day).  On the 7th day, everybody got to play.  The Bible says that all of the Israelites were to give a great shout after hearing the priests blow the ram's horn (I've blown on a ram's horn (shofar)...don't inhale).  God then tells them after their shout, the walls will fall and they can take the city, with the exception of Rahab and her family (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Bad Girls" (Donna Summer)).  God said it, they did it, and the walls came tumblin' down resulting in the first Promised Land victory for the Israelites, and God's punishment on a wicked city that did not repent.

So what?  

The walls of Jericho were fortified.  They were wide enough for chariots to ride on top.  They were also doubled (two walls) with enough space that folks could live in between them (probably Rahab and her family).    Everyone has walls that they have built up around themselves.  Those walls can manifest themselves in a myriad of ways, from physical boundaries to walls around the heart.  Those walls are placed to keep things that we feel might cause harm out of our lives or keep change from our lives from happening if we allow them to fall.  That is the difference between the walls of Jericho and our walls, for now.  Just like Jericho, we build up a wall around our hearts and lives every time we say "NO" to Holy Spirit's drawing of us.


Today, God would like to see the walls you have made come crumblin' down as you seek Him and His salvation.  Today, God doesn't need priests, ram's horns, or an army to cause your walls to come tumblin' down.
Today, He just needs your willingness to accept His salvation.
Today, God is waitin' outside to claim your tumblin' walls...

'Cause when the walls, come tumblin' down
When the walls come crumblin', crumblin'
When the walls come tumblin', tumblin' down...
salvation, love, freedom, joy, and an eternity with Him await...Hey yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...

'Til Tuesday,

Loving HIM by loving You,
randy
<><



 

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Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Bad Girls" (Donna Summer)

Welcome to Tuesday and today's entry into the Tuesday's Musical Notes blog family!!!  Tuesday's Musical Notes always strives to keep the highest standards and make our time with each other one that is fun for the whole family.  However, on occasion, as you can probably discern from our featured song, we deal with less family-friendly topics than our normal fare. We trust that you will determine appropriateness for your family as today, we are talkin' 'bout a bad girl...


Spending five weeks, from July 14, 1979, to August 11, 1979, at the #1 spot on Billboard's Hot 100, "Bad Girls" would go on record as the biggest song of 1979 and would also serve as the title track from Donna Summer's seventh studio album. Released at the height of Disco, it was written by Donna Summer et. al. in response to one of her assistants becoming quite offended after being accused of street prostitution by a police officer.   The single would sell over two million copies and was one of four #1 hits ("MacArthur Park", "Hot Stuff", and "No More Tears (Enough is Enough)" with Barbara Streisand ) in 1978-1979 for Summer cementing her Disco queen status and making her a certifiable musical star of the decade.  

You may find the opening riff, "toot, toot, hey, beep, beep" a bit familiar.  It was from "Bang, Bang" - 1966 single released by The Joe Cuba Sextet and featured on the soundtrack to the motion picture The Wolf of Wall Street (2013). 

Upon her passing in 2012 from lung cancer, Donna Summer had sold over 100 million records, and won five Grammy awards.  She was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2013 and in December 2016, she was listed at #6 on Billboard's Greatest of All Time Top Dance Club Artists.   

What many folks don't know is that Donna Summer left behind a legacy that was separate from her music career. She was one of the founding members of a Bible Study in Los Angeles that would become the 3000 member Oasis church.  This church sponsored a star only a few minutes away from the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Jesus Christ which was unveiled in 1998 and located in front of one of the church's previous locations. This star obviously caused a bit of controversy but remains to this day.  It would seem that despite the musical success and the nature of some of her songs, at some point Donna Summer found the redemption that other bad girls before her had discovered.



Who doesn't love a good redemption story after all?  

The new leader of Israel, Joshua, was preparing the fledgling nation to go to battle for lands that God had promised Abraham over 500 years earlier.  As a part of this preparation, Joshua sends spies into Jericho, the first city to be taken.  It is interesting to note that Joshua only sends 2 spies and he doesn't tell the whole nation about it.  Perhaps as a member of the original raconteurs some 40 years earlier, Joshua had learned a couple of lessons from the previous soiree into the land.  (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Spies Like Us" (Paul McCartney))  The spies find themselves wanting to be super stealth, so they go into the "seedy" part of Jericho.  

Based on historical context, Jericho was a Canaanite town that was so bad that God had decided to destroy them due to their idolatry.  They even went as far as child sacrifice to their gods.  So imagine how bad a "seedy" part of this place had to be.  

The spies encounter the "harlot" Rahab, who had heard about the impending invasion. "Harlot" is how the Bible describes a prostitute and is used throughout the Bible with a negative connotation from Genesis to Revelation (48 times in the NASB, "Harlot" - Easton's Bible Dictionary - biblestudytools.com.). Sexual promiscuity had been around shortly after Adam and Eve were expelled from the Garden.  ("sons of God", "Daughters of men", Genesis 6:1-4 NASB/AMP/KJV, "In Genesis 6:1-4, what were the identities of the sons of God and daughters of men?" compellingtruth.org.) By this time, there would have been nothing shocking about finding a prostitute in a town like Jericho.  Plus the two spies needed a place where there were not a lot of questions asked about why they were there.   Plus...God wanted it that way.

Rahab hides the spies and then lies about their existence in her establishment to the guards who came to inquire of their presence.  She diverts the guards and continues to hide the spies overnight on her rooftop.  She confesses to the spies that she knows the God of Israel is up to something in Jericho and she wants out.  She goes as far as to acknowledge that the God of Israel is the "God in heaven above and earth below".  This is quite the statement coming from a prostitute in a pagan, child sacrificing city.  But it just shows how loving and merciful God truly is.  His redemptive process is there for EVERYONE.  No matter the ugly past that may exist in their history.  God is waiting to redeem, even up to the moment of destruction.  

Rahab's kindness was rewarded not only in the redemption and salvation of her family from the destruction of Jericho.  We hear about her a few more times in the Bible.

In fact, Rahab can be found in the ancestry of Jesus, through both the lines of Mary and Joseph.



Rahab was the mother of Boaz.  Yup, that Boaz from the book of Ruth.  (We'll give that Hallmark Movie Channel moment the Notes treatment soon, but for now, let's stay with Rahab). Upon tracing both Joseph and Mary's ancestry, you find the name Salmon listed.  We're not sure when he came into the picture, but chances are he intermarried with Rahab after the fall of Jericho when her family settled outside of the camp of Israel.  Salmon is listed as the ancestor of King David. David had 19 sons total.  4 of these sons were born to Bathsheba (another journey into the world of sexual indiscretion).  Mary's lineage comes from the line of Bathsheba's son, Nathan, (#3), and Joseph's from Bathsheba's son, Solomon (#4).  So following the ancestry both ways, you come up with Jesus having several women in his lineage with a bit of a sketchy past.  

But you see friend, that is the way God works. Now you and me, we're both the same.  We are redeemable.  No matter what may be in our past.  We're exactly the same as Rahab in the eyes of God.  No one gets left out who doesn't choose to get left out.  Rahab found redemption in the God of heaven and earth and she saved her entire family.  Not only that, she established a familial legacy that reaches all the way to Jesus, who brought about everyone's redemption by His sacrifice on the cross.  

Rahab is such a prolific character of faith that she is listed by name 2 other times in the New Testament (making a total of 3 name drops for Rahab in the NT...there goes that numerology thing again!).  The other two times are testimonies of Rahab's faith.  Let's take a look:


Here we find Rahab mentioned with the likes of Abraham, Moses, and others who had exemplified such faith in God that the writer of Hebrews included them all as examples of what true faith is.  This passage is commonly known as the "Faith Hall of Fame".  Here we find a pagan, Caananite woman found among the patriarchs of Jewish history.  Those are some pretty good props, but the next mention of Rahab is equally mind-blowing.  


In this passage, Rahab's faith is given legs by her taking tangible action to demonstrate the change she had in her life.  She housed the spies, hid them from the guards, and then assisted in their escape from Jericho.  These "works" were an expression of and motivated by the faith that she had in the God of heaven and earth.  She is being written about as a model for faith and works being coequal in their importance in the Christian life.  Rahab is being written about by a man who was late coming to the Jesus party, but once he got there he was completely sold out.  This man had instant credibility to speak about Rahab as she was listed in his ancestry.com account.  Oh, yeah he was also the half-brother of Jesus as well as the writer of one of the most impacting books of the New Testament, James.  And now you know the rest of the story...

Yes, Rahab was a bad girl.  Yes, she had lived a life that was contrary to God in a town that was an anathema to God. Her promiscuity coupled with the fact of her serving pagan gods should have been enough to see her destroyed when the walls of Jericho came tumblin' down.  But her life was changed as she heard the truth about God's love and recognized God as her Redemption.  She saw the coming doom and decided that there had to be a way out.  Rahab found that way out through the God of heaven and earth and this discovery changed her life.  Her faith in God was exhibited by her kindness and help to the spies of Israel.  Because of her faith AND her works, she had an ancestral legacy that resulted in her Redeemer being born from her lineage.  Her faith and works are also why the Bible books of Matthew, Hebrews, and James, as well as Tuesday's Musical Notes, you're favorite blog, are all talkin' bout this bad girl,  she's no longer sad girl...toot, toot, hey, beep, beep...

'Til Tuesday,

Serving HIM by serving You,
randy 
<><

 

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Tuesday, April 6, 2021

Tuesday's Musical Notes - "The Warrior" (Scandal featuring Patty Smyth)

Hello and welcome to Tuesday!  You have arrived at your destination, the blog, Tuesday's Musical Notes. What you are about to discover is a blog experience unlike any on the internet.  The Notes reflects on music from all genres and time periods and relates it to those life moments where we experience something new and fresh as well as to those times that may be a bit disappointing.
Regardless of the moment in which you find yourself, there is a Musical Notes just for you.  So, stop, breathe, relax, kick back, search the archives for your favorite artist or song, or just start at the bottom and work your way to the top of the dated archives to the left.  We think you'll find something useful as you create a new moment.   

We all have battles in our lives.  That is part of living in a world where the original man and women rebelled against God (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Don't Know What You've Got ('Til It's Gone) (Cinderella)).  Since that time, we have all been in a struggle to overcome not only the enemy's deceptions and traps, but also the deceptions and traps of our own makings.  In essence, as we look at ourselves and the life we are living, whether we like it or not...we see The Warrior...


The band Scandal featuring Patty Smyth could really be summed up in the phrase, "one-album" wonder.  They only had one full-length album, 1984's Billboard's Hot 200 #17 hit Warrior, which spawned the title track single as the band's only foray into the top 10 of Billboard's Hot 100.  Scandal had 5 singles that broke into the Hot 100, 2 from their debut EP Scandal (1982) and 2 from Warrior, but none of those songs surpassed #41 on the charts. 

Patty Smyth (lead vocals) and Keith Mack (guitars) are the only original members to be with the 4 piece band since its inception.  They continue to tour on the strength of today's featured song and the hints of a new album on the horizon.  Interestingly enough, though not credited on an album, Jon Bon Jovi (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Livin' on a Prayer" (Bon Jovi)) played in the band in 1983 before seeing his own icon status take off.  

"The Warrior" is a song about the pursuit of a relationship.  Yup, that's right.  It's one of THOSE songs... But in reality, the only chart-topping hit by Scandal reveals a deeper truth.  Regardless of the kind of relationship, platonic, romantic, or spiritual, good bonds with others can sometimes have their challenges.  We may find ourselves being warriors as we fight for and with those in which we have a rapport.  Some of those battles can be eerily similar to real military conflict, like the ones we read about in, oh I don't know, say the Book of Joshua in the Bible?


Joshua was one of the only people who left captivity in Egypt to get to enter the Promised Land.  Not even Moses, because of disobedience (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Water" (The Who)) was allowed to complete the journey and enter into the land God had promised Abraham.  

God imbued Joshua with a warrior's spirit which he was about to need.  You see even the promised things from God are not always easy for us to obtain.  The Promised Land was inhabited by folks who had opportunity after opportunity to turn to God, yet refused to do so.  Their sin and separation from God were so severe that God no longer could allow them to exist. God chose to use the new nation of Israel to mete out His justice on these folks.  This is where Joshua comes in.  

Joshua welcomes the task as God's agent to fulfill the promise that God had given and that Joshua had physically visualized some 40 years earlier.   (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Spies Like Us" (Paul McCartney))  Joshua becomes the warrior leader in a myriad of battles (spiritual and physical) that the Israelites were about to face.  The book of Joshua is about the Israelites conquest (?) of the Promised Land. 

You might find this 9-minute video from our friends at The Bible Project helpful as we explore Joshua's life.


So you see friend, as the children of Israel were being obedient as God's implements of justice to the land of the Caananites, they had battles.  They became warriors as they fulfilled the prophecy given to Abraham.  But we also see that the Israelites were warriors on another front.  This is a struggle that we contend with as well.  Will we find in our reflection a valiant warrior in our efforts to be obedient to God, or will we succumb to the enemy of ourselves and our selfishness?  Will we declare victoriously  "I am the warrior" or will we declare as we go down in defeat,  "I want it all" ((1989 Queen) don't worry that Note is coming...) and "I want it MY way!" ("Have it Your Way" (Burger King Commercial 1974),  "Have it Your Way" (Soul Version) Burger King Commercial 1974 ...sorry folks, this life ain't Burger King!)

So what do you do friend?  Do you determine that you are going to be the warrior in the battles you face, or will you heed the words of a teenage, slingshot-wielding, warrior as he faced a giant?  "The Battle is the Lord's and He will hand you over to us!"  I Samuel 17:4-54 NASB/AMP/KJV

You see friend, there's no need for us to be shooting at the walls of heartache or any other manifestation of turmoil the enemy can devise because, as we celebrated this past Sunday if we have chosen His victory, our Warrior has already defeated every conflict imaginable and says with a resounding shout...VICTORY IS MINE!!!

'Til Tuesday,

Loving HIM by Loving you,
randy
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