Welcome, all you big shots, crackpots, bent on the rules kind of folks. This is your place! It's Tuesday's Musical Notes comin' atcha from the palatial second-story office space of yours truly Rockin' Religious Randy and we're here to liven your day and enlighten your heart. So let's get started...after all, tonight's the night we'll make history...ready to take any risk? Read and listen on...
"...I know you feel these are the worst of times, I do believe it's true. When people lock their doors and hide inside, rumor has it it's the end of paradise..."
"...The headlines read "these are the worst of times", I do believe it's true. I feel so helpless like a boat against the tide. I wish the summer winds would bring back paradise..."
Yikes! What a way to get started, but let's face it, the last couple of years haven't really emoted the best of times for anyone in the world. The uncertainty of EVERYTHING related to the Covid-19 virus has ratcheted up the fear factor for everyone. As we take a glance at history, we quickly find that while things seem worse, reality dictates that they are just the same kind of bad with a different way of being manifested. A different kind of fear, a different kind of worry, and different kinds of problems. Yet there is a hope of paradise and it still exists today, just like it did in 1981.
"The Best of Times" was the first single from Paradise Theater, the concept album by the band Styx. Both the song and the album were released as I segued from 10th to 11th grade. You know, those truly formative years where anything, especially music, can resonate with a teenager, and this album really resonated. Up to this point, other than "Lady" and "Babe", I had only been a casual consumer of the band Styx, even though Paradise Theater was their 10th album. That all changed in 1981 as I became a stalwart fan of the other Chicago band.
"The Best of Times" has a melody line that is featured in 2 other tracks on Paradise Theater. The piano intro, "A.D. 1928" and the outro "A.D. 1958". "The Best of Times" peaked at #3 in the US on Billboard's Hot 100 and solidified the band as a force in 80's music. The song joined 3 other tracks from the album ("Rockin' the Paradise", "Snowblind", and "Too Much Time On My Hands") in the top 25 of the mainstream rock charts. The strength of these singles and the ensuing concept tour, catapulted Paradise Theater into the top of the charts where it peaked at #1 for three weeks, making it the most commercially successful album by Styx to date.
As happens so many times when success is achieved, a rock and roll band gets strained and relationships begin to fall apart. A short 2 years after Paradise Theater, Styx would disband for the first time. They would regroup with the most successful lineup and last until 1999 when the band split again.
Styx's story with DeYoung is very similar to another Chicago band and a dude named Cetera (yeah we aren't letting that go...but the difference here is that we like DeYoung's post-Styx music!) Interestingly enough after the departure of Dennis DeYoung in 1999, "The Best of Times" joined a list of songs that Styx will not perform in concert. Not sure whether it's that animosity towards DeYoung or they just don't want to pay him royalties.
"The Best of Times celebrated its 40th birthday this year but continues to resonate in our time. Our best times should be when we are with those who mean the most to us. But distractions come along and rob us of the one thing we need to make it through the worst of times.
The world really hasn't changed that much in 2781 years.
So many times as one reads the Bible, our linear minds kick in and we want to place events one after the other. At least that's the way my mind works. But we must remember that as we read Scripture (which you should do on a consistent basis!) after we get past the time of the Judges, much of the great stories, poetry, and prophecy happen on a concurrent basis. A lot of the stories in Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, Isaiah, and Jeremiah happened at the same or close to the same time, most of which were not the best of times...
The books of the prophets occur in a similar fashion. Last week we visited with the quasi-prophet (my moniker) Jonah. While Jonah was off fishing and saying 5 words to the Ninevites, the prophets Amos and Hosea were preaching to Israel and Judah.
Amos' prophecies begin with antipathy towards the nations that surround our divided friends the Israelites. This is to be expected. These nations treated Israel/Judah with much contempt as the Hebrew nation was beginning and ending. God was not pleased with these neighbors of Israel and Judah. His displeasure was about to result in the worst of times for them. Locking their doors and hiding inside would do them no good in the face of God's wrath.
But don't think for a minute that God's chosen people were to be spared their discipline. Amos devotes over 2 times as much prophetical consternation towards Israel and Judah compared to his revealing of God's anger towards Edom, Moab, et. al. God's chosen people were expected to uphold God's Name to these surrounding nations (which they should have destroyed, to begin with, review previous Notes).
God had demonstrated His abundant goodness, grace, and blessing on Israel by delaying their demise by Babylon, yet they did not return to Him. One wonders what might have happened to Israel or Judah if they had chosen to fall on their knees in repentance as a nation and returned to the God who had chosen them as His conduits to the world. Israel/Judah's history is ripe with their disobedience and Amos was telling them their time was up. They had their opportunity and opted for their selfishness, other gods, and a debase lifestyle over the abundance that God had planned for them.
God shows Amos through visions (get ready, there will be a bunch of those coming) the manner by which Israel/Judah will be taken into captivity. The symbolism (locusts, fire, and a plumbline) is rich and exactly what the nation would have understood at their time and in their culture. Yet, they still did not repent.
It is so easy to judge the Hebrew nation 2781 years after the fact. Yet, I wonder if we don't find ourselves individually and collectively as a nation choosing the same path. That's why the prophet Amos is so important to us today. For a unique overview of the book of Amos, check out: Amos Overview - thebibleproject.com
Israel is still God's chosen people. Jesus came through Hebrew folks. No other nation has this status. That's right! Not even the United States. I guess that puts us in the same boat as the "surrounding" nations of the past on which Amos pronounced "woe!" We sure do act like those nations at times. That does not exclude us as individuals or as a nation from crying out to God, seeking His face, and repenting of our selfishness, following after other gods, and debase lifestyle.
Amos tells us that God's judgment is unavoidable to those who don't repent. Much later Paul relates the importance of the Gospel and how repentance should be a daily exercise. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 15 NASB/AMP/KJV Note verse 31 where Paul says that he must "die daily". Wow! If Paul has to repent every day...
These are the best of times when we listen to prophetic words written by a sheepherder and fig farmer turned prophet as he attempted to speak to an ancient middle eastern country on the brink of captivity and then we take action to change things. These are the best of times when believers love folks like Jesus loved folks. These are the best of times when we wake up and repent and refocus our hearts, minds, and spirits on God through Holy Spirit's power and because of Jesus' perfect sacrifice. These are the best of times when we take time to be alone with the God of the universe and allow Him, through Holy Spirit, to encourage, instruct, and guide our day, that day. Then repent and repeat.
So what will your memories of yesterday be? Will there be a best? Can you forget the rest? Today really can be...the best of times.
'Til Tuesday,
Serving HIM by loving You,
randy
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