Tuesday, March 21, 2023

Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Understanding" (Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band)

Welcome to Tuesday and the world of Tuesday's Musical Notes!!!  Your March Madness bracket has been wiped out if you're like me.  But there are still a couple more weeks to pick a team and cheer for them.  That is of course if you're interested in Men's and Women's College Basketball.  

If you're not, please politely skip on down to the customary music video where Bob and his friends await to entertain you.  

If you do love college basketball and your team either isn't playing or isn't advancing, Tuesday's Musical Notes unashamedly suggest that you support the 8th seed in the West, Arkansas Razorbacks!  Our Hogs beat the #1 team Kansas (hmmm....where have I heard that before...something to do with Liberty and another very close game that involved a football...) to advance to the Sweet Sixteen.  Woo Pig Soouie as we say!!!  We will see what happens this Thursday as our Razorbacks take on the Huskies of UConn in Las Vegas.  Can you tell I am excited?  

Not to be outdone, our Lady Razorbacks also advanced to the round of 16 in the WNIT by beating the ladies of Stephen F. Austin.    They will take on Texas Tech this Friday.  Oh, yeah...spring happened this week.  Isn't March great?

For those of you who are not as amused by spring, daylight savings time, March Madness, or the Razorbacks winning their 49th National Championship in Indoor Track & Field, we hope to provide you today with something that you may desperately, need...just a little understanding...


Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band join with a host of 80s favorites on the soundtrack to 1984's ode to public schools, the movie Teachers.  John F. Kennedy High School in Columbus, Ohio is the setting of this satirical look at the joys and heartaches associated with public school teachers and the students of an inner-city school.  With an all-star cast, the movie navigates an impending lawsuit against the school, a teacher dying in his classroom unnoticed, and Richard Mulligan (Soap, Empty Nest), in one of his best roles, playing a mental institution outpatient who gets mistaken for a substitute history teacher to effective and hilarious results.


Three singles were released from the soundtrack.  "Teacher, Teacher" by 38 Special (peaked at #25 on Billboard's Hot 100 singles chart), "Edge Of A Dream" by Joe Cocker (peaked at #69), and today's feature song which was the highest charting song from the soundtrack, "Understanding" by Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band (peaking at #17). 

The song is about coming of age and maturing as you reach a point of understanding the things that you go through in life.  It opens with a familiar Seger line, "It seems like only yesterday..." and reminisces its way into your heart as a love song that completes a segment of a journey.  While the journey is not ended, this understanding completes the lessons needed to go forward and sustains the urgency of wanting to see the travels to their end.  


To say that Peter and the other apostles had come to a complete understanding of all they had experienced in the previous 3 years would be a misnomer.  They didn't have a clue.  They stood alone not knowing where to turn... But they were obedient to what Jesus had told them to do.  Their escapades were just beginning and in today's passage, we see God sending the promised Helper for them in the form of Holy Spirit.  Jesus had told them that they should be together and wait for this to happen and in Acts 2 we see the culmination of His prophecy. What happens next?  

The apostles were imbued with power as they had never experienced before.  One I personally think that modern Christians take for granted far too often.  They were so overcome that they began speaking in foreign tongues.  Folks who were in Jerusalem from all over the world celebrating Pentecost were understanding what the apostles were saying in their language.  Not since the tower of Babel had a message been so universal, and oh what a message, the Gospel of Jesus was being proclaimed for the very first time to many tribes and tongues.  The efforts of the Jewish Religious leaders to silence the message about Jesus were being thwarted in front of their very eyes.  

"...Now, suddenly I look around Everything looks new I don't know why, but I think I'm startin' to learn. They call it understanding. A willingness to grow. I'm finally understanding. There's so much I can know... "

Peter, the apostle who had denied knowing Jesus three times, then stands up and uses Scripture to detail to the crowd the ultimate understanding that they needed for their lives.  What happens next is far too important for me to paraphrase.  Let's let Dr. Luke's writings from Acts 2:37-47 declare the understanding...

"Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what are we to do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far away, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” And with many other words, he solemnly testified and kept on urging them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!”  So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and that day there were added about three thousand souls.  They were continually devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and prayer. Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe, and many wonders and signs were taking place through the apostles.  And all the believers were together and had all things in common;  and they would sell their property and possessions and share them with all, to the extent that anyone had need. Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart,  praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved."

You see friend, the understanding of your life awaits you in the person of Jesus.  He is the perfect sacrifice for the wrong things you have done in your life that keep you from having a relationship with God.  Today, right now, you can have a comprehension of your life as you have never had before, and on top of that God's Word says that Holy Spirit will dwell with you.  Won't you join with those 3000 that repented and were saved after they heard the Gospel and achieved understanding?

"...You've got me understanding
You've really helped me see
I'm finally understanding
It's meant so much to me
You've got me understanding
You're givin' me surprise
You've got me understanding
You're really on my side..."

Loving HIM by Loving You,
randy
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