Welcome to another fabulous Tuesday! You've clicked into Tuesday's Musical Notes! We're a blog about music and the deeper meaning of life. Don't worry, even though we dabble into some pretty heady topics, philosophy isn't our strong suit so it's mostly a blog about music. We're glad you're here as we encounter the nuances of notes and the paradigm of paradiddles, with a few things that make you go hmmm just to make you go, well, hmmm. So welcome to the blog that is read in every country of the world...well most of the country's of the world...well we've tracked at least 36 different countries and even one that can't be named...Anyway, we're Tuesday's Musical Notes and wherever you may be reading us from, we're starting...right...now...
We have a confession to make. There is an affinity and fondness we have for the band from the Windy City, unlike any other musical group we showcase. That's right! Chicago is our favorite band ever!!! Tuesday's Musical Notes has featured songs by the "Rock Band with Horns" more times than any other musical act. Oh yeah, that's a dare to go search "Chicago" in the archives and see what you get...go ahead...we'll wait till you get back. No seriously...we just pushed "pause"...
Great!!! You're back!!!
With 3 of its original members (Robert Lamm (keyboards/vocals), Lee Loughnane (trumpet/vocals), and James Pankow (trombone/vocals) still recording and touring, Chicago continues to be in the ranks of the few bands that can say they have been around for more than 50 years. The 2016 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees and 2020 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners continue to thrill fans with their Grammy-winning favorites and collaborative tour arrangements as evidenced by their recent announcement of their summer 2022 touring schedule with The Beach Boys (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Be True To Your School" (The Beach Boys) and Tuesday's Musical Notes - "I Get Around" (The Beach Boys))
Soaring into transistor radios (the mp3 player of the time...it had ads and it was JUST a radio...ah the good 'ol days...) in 1974 is the #6 smash "Call On Me". It was the first song ever written by founding member and trumpet player of Chicago, Lee Loughnane, marking his debut as a songwriter for the band. "Call On Me" also solidified Loughnane as a songwriting contributor to the band as he was the last of the band's founding members to receive a songwriting credit. The song featured vocals by Peter Cetera who also assisted with the songwriting of "Call On Me" but was not credited. (Peter Cetera is not a favored son of Tuesday's Musical Notes, but I digress...)
Part of the charm of "Call On Me" is the simplicity of the Loughnane penned lyric. It tells the story of found love and finding that same love transitioning into friendship after the romance has faded. Simply, "Let's just be friends, but if you need something? Call on me, because I love you, you know I do..." Strong relationships are all people crave, whether they are willing to admit to it or not. For a relationship to be strong even after the romantic entanglements diminish is even something more. Hopefully, the platonic love we have for others is strong enough that our friends have the assurance that we are ones on whom they can depend. I hope that I have such deep love for my friends, that if they call on me, I'll drop everything to assist them because of my love for them.
What about you? Have you ever had a relationship so tight that you could be ready in an instant to be at the side of a friend in need? Have you ever heard a call like that? We'd like to tell you about someone who answered a very unique "call on me" moment...
Ezekiel 2-3 New American Standard Bible/The Amplified Bible/King James Version of the Bible parallel
As we encountered the prophet, Ezekiel, last week, we failed to mention that we will probably be exploring his life and prophecies for, to use the new colloquialism, "a minute". Ezekiel joins Isaiah and Jeremiah from the Old Testament as writers who were considered the "major" prophets. That is not to say the other men who penned smaller books of the OT were less significant, it just seems that the brevity of their prophecy lacks the literary and sometimes poetic flair of some of their contemporaries with longer books. Similar message, shorter delivery.
Last week's Tuesday's Musical Note (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Wheel In The Sky" (Journey)) immediately propelled us into the realm of dreams and visions that were reminiscent of the past, yet portended events of the future at the same time. In our focal passage today we settle in and find Ezekiel telling God...you guessed it..."Call On Me".
Up to this point, Ezekiel had been a bystander as he watched the vision of chapter 1 unfold. Now, as God speaks directly to him, we see the perspective change and the rationale behind Ezekiel's seeing the vision explained.
In verse 2 of chapter 2, God calls Ezekiel "Son of man" for the first of 93 times. The significance of this comes to fruition in Jesus as His favorite term for referring to Himself as the "Son of Man". When Jesus said this to the Hebrews, who would have studied Ezekiel as children, an instantaneous message was sent. (Ex. - The Gospel of Jesus according to the tax collector Matthew, chapter 12, verse 32 NASB/AMP/KJV; 13:37, The Gospel of Jesus according to the physician Luke, chapter 12, verse 8 NASB/AMP/KJV, The Gospel of Jesus according to the fisherman John, chapter 1, verse 51 NASB/AMP/KJV)
Ezekiel goes on in chapter 3 to explain how God would give him a message to tell the people. Ezekiel describes the message as something as sweet as honey to the taste, yet God told him that the message itself would fall on the ears of rebellious and sinful people. There is a great lesson for believers today in this. The Gospel is the greatest message we can tell. We can tell it with words and actions as we go about showing folks God's love in tangible ways. "...Because no one made me feel, the way I felt with You, oh-woah..."
It is interesting to note, that God also tells Ezekiel that he is being sent to folks who will understand the message from God but will still not react in a positive way to that message. So the telling won't be difficult, but the hearing will. Paul also has a similar message for Timothy as he mentors the young pastor. 2 Timothy 4:1-5 NASB/AMP/KJV
In Ezekiel 3:11 NASB/AMP/KJV God tells Ezekiel to go and tell what God says, whether the people will listen or they will not. It doesn't change God's message if people won't listen to it. God is preparing Ezekiel for his friends and perhaps even his family members to reject the fact that Holy Spirit had come into Ezekiel. In other words, Ezekiel affirmed that his feeling was clear, clear as a blue sky on a sunny day and he was ready for the task.
Also of note, Ezekiel, though he was a captive, was exactly where God needed him to be to tell the message God had for the other captives. Ezekiel was also in a place of spiritual maturity so he was eager to receive the message and go about being obedient. I need to be more like Ezekiel...how about you?
So what? What does a prophet to a captive people hearing a message from God have to do with us today?
Remember friend, God never changes. He is the same God who created the Garden of Eden in Genesis, created your next breath, and will be the same God who establishes His eternal Kingdom at the end of what we understand is time. Because of that consistency, His message is also never changing. What He told to Ezekiel, He tells to believers today. "Fill your body with my Word. Taste that it is sweet and understand that it can sustain you as you tell people the never-changing message about Me. Understand this sustenance will be sufficient for the rejection you will receive. Don't take it personally. They are not rejecting you, they are rejecting Me and My love for them. You keep being in the place spiritually and physically that I need you to be." As we read Ezekiel, we must be able as believers to echo this paraphrase of Ezekiel's words back to God with a resounding "...call on me 'cause I Love You, You know I do, You love me too, oh woh, woh, woh..."
'Til Tuesday,
Loving Him by Loving You,
randy
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