Happy Halloween!!! Welcome to this year's spooky edition of Tuesday's Musical Notes!!! In the decade we've been writing The Notes (oh yeah, check out the archives to the left!), this is only the second time that Halloween has fallen on a Tuesday. For a fun flashback, click on the other time from the 2017 Halloween link here: Tuesday's Musical Notes - Theme from "The Munsters" (Jack Marshall). We usually do a Halloween theme this time of the year and all of those can be viewed in the archives as well. Check them out in between candy bites.
We hope this launch to the holiday season finds you with a sack full of candy and a safe get-together with family and friends planned! If you happen to need a playlist for your party, check out the suggestions we make at our sister site, the YouTube channel, Cross & Kin: Cross & Kin Presents: 13 Spooky Songs And, thanks to you, Cross & Kin just celebrated its 1st anniversary on YouTube and as part of Cross & Kin Entertainment!!! Thanks for checking out the channel and giving us an exciting first year!!! Cross & Kin: Happy First Anniversary!!!
Now that the shameless self-promotion part of the blog is over, let's get going with the original content you've come to know and love! Welcome To Tuesday's Musical Notes!!!
When it comes to Halloween, there are as many ways folks celebrate as there are many diverse interpretations of where the holiday originated and was first celebrated. At the Cross home, we are not in general huge fans of the season. OK, it's me, I'm a real Scrooge when it comes to Halloween (sorry about the mixed holiday analogies, but you get the drift). We certainly enjoy living somewhat vicariously through those who do, but for us, the scary aspects and some of the evil associated with this particular seasonal celebration are off-putting. Now please don't get me wrong, our light will be on and we will welcome those who decide to trick or treat at our house. Tammy will also accompany the grandchildren to specific places that we know would want to see them in their resplendent Halloween attire. No, really, they are that cute!!! But for me, I look forward to enjoying the evening with a good meal, perhaps even a few bites of leftover goodies (are we the only ones who buy too much candy on purpose?), and a warm place to sit and watch my favorites of the season It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and Arsenic And Old Lace. Yup, that's about as spooky as it gets around our parts on Halloween as this ghost never leaves his haunted house...
While it didn't set the box-office world on fire, Ghostbusters: Afterlife was one of our favorite films of 2021. Maybe you binge-watch Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters II, and Ghostbusters: Afterlife as a part of your evening plans. I can't recommend the Ghostbusters reboot, AKA Ghostbusters: Answer The Call, because I haven't seen it, it lost money at the box office, and it became so embroiled in controversy over its casting that it has been panned by critics. But we love Ghostbusters: Afterlife as it featured just the right balance between its new storyline and the nostalgia of its predecessors. The entire film served as a great salute to OG Ghostbuster, Harold Ramis. Yes, tears were shed from this old softy...
The Ghostbusters reboot featured rising star and Emmy award nominee, Mckenna Grace (A Handmaid's Tale, Young Sheldon, et al.) who embraced the role of the geeky granddaughter to Egon Spengler (Ramis' role in the 1984 film) with nerdy abandon. The movie also gave the opportunity to promote and showcase the star's single, "Haunted House".
"Haunted House" was Grace's debut single and was co-written by her and Lily Kincade. It showcases her songwriting ability and her vocal chops. It was produced by Nathaniel Motte. It was written amid the Covid-19 pandemic and asserts a sense of foreboding about the end of a relationship. Grace has stated that the song could very easily translate to any relationship, as she didn't want the single to be seen as just a "break-up" song. While not originally written for the Ghostbusters: Afterlife, "Haunted House" was later included as the end credits music. We were actually very surprised when we saw her credited with the song as the credits rolled and it became an instant favorite new song. It did not however appear on any of the soundtrack offerings from the movie. Nor has it appeared as of the date of this writing on any of McKenna Grace's EPs.
The song uses its spooky backdrop as a metaphor for the relationship that is ending. Basically, it tells the listener that even though a relationship may have ended, getting that person out of your heart and mind may be much more difficult than getting them physically out of your life. Hence the ghost of their memory continues to haunt you in your "house".
For many, the specter of their past is that ghost that never leaves their haunted house. The writer of the above Proverb, probably Solomon, shows that there is a means of escape and a way to exorcise that phantom from your life. But there are a couple of things we must do to make sure that the ghost never returns to our house...
First of all, we have to recognize what it is that separates us from God
The Bible says that we all have sinned. Romans 3:21-26 NASB/AMP/ESV/KJV Did you see that in verse 23? We've said it before and will probably say it many more times, when the Bible says "all" it means ALL. In this case, "all" means all of mankind from "Adam" to the time of Jesus' return. This verse says that we have stuff in our lives that has broken the relationship that we need to have with God. We have those "ghosts" in our lives that don't want to leave and they are keeping us from having a restored relationship with God.
After acknowledging that this disconnect is in our lives, we have to confess that we've blown it, that we've done something wrong, that we've, to use the above Scriptures verbiage, sinned. This can be difficult to do. It takes a Hebrews 11 NASB/AMP/ESV/KJV
In 1 John 1:5-10 NASB/AMP/ESV/KJV notice ve
And that's where God takes over. If you do a search on the phrase, "But God," you find that in the NASB it appears 41 times. One of those instances is found in Ephesians 2:1-10 NASB/AMP/ESV/KJV. We want you to pay particular attention to verses 4-7. "But God...made us alive together with Christ...and raised us up with Him and seated us in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus." How did God achieve this? By providing the ultimate sacrifice or payment for our sins to be wiped away in the person of Jesus.
Here's where the back half of Proverbs 28:13 kicks in and demands action from us. We must ABANDON our sins. Far too many times we ask for forgiveness in vain because we honestly don't want to let go of that sin. It's called habitual sin for a reason and its effects can be devastating, calling our salvation experience into question. "You walk out the door, then you want back in..." If we truly believed in Jesus' salvific work, wouldn't we want to embrace Him and the life He provides rather than continuing the "pleasure that only lasts for a season"?
We must confess, abandon, and then truly believe and embrace Jesus. Embrace his leadership and Lordship over our lives. Try every day to emulate Him. How can we achieve that? By finding out who He is. You do that by consistently reading about Him in His Word (the Bible) and asking the Holy Spirit (who comes into your life as a result of your belief) to hone you into Jesus' likeness and character.
We can't do any of this in our own power. Only through God's sacrifice of Jesus' human life and the Holy Spirit's drawing us can we get over those habitual sins that honestly, we may not want to let go of. But we must rely on Jesus' sufficient power, because in our own power, well, our ghosts never leave our haunted house...
'Til Tuesday,
Loving HIM by Loving You,
randy
Interesting Factoid: One set of McKenna Grace’s grandparents hail from Magnolia, AR.
ReplyDelete