Yikes....

I just looked at the date on the first song I posted ("A Song For Youze....") and realized that I took a very long vacation from updating my ramblings.

I am very happy today, January 1, 2012, because I think that after a year of being unattached from a church. I think I may have found...."the one". Sounds terribly dramatic as if I were talking about the ideal woman, but....I'm referring to a church body and this is more exciting than meeting the "ideal" woman (really). This is a fitting way to start out a new year, especially on day one of January.

This is a small church almost identical to the church group I left in Sarsota. The service is virtually the same, the music is familiar and most importantly they have a giving box just like the church in Sarasota; no collection bags going around....New Testament giving principles in effect here. My kind of giving.

The people were all very,very nice and genuinely eager to say hello, not stiff and (dare I say it?) somewhat forced in their welcoming. In all, I felt very comfortable there and methinks I shall return.

I'll need to get involved enough long enough to see how many and/or how severe the warts are I get to experience. I've had enough of membership in churches that turned-out to be a nightmare. Who knows, I may even get to consider joining this bunch at some point....stay tuned for further developments. Let's see how the warts fit.

Another Song (#2)

Figured I'd share some more f the songs I wrote. If you like them please let me know. If you don't care for them, then skip the part about letting me know. All I ask is for proper copyright credits should you decide to use them.

Old Brown Bible
Original Music & Lyrics © 2005 by A.E. Barri, all rights reserved

These Lyrics ©2012 A.E. Barri, all rights reserved
Slightly "bouncy" 2/4--moderate.

1. I found the old brown Bible on a dusty bookstore rack
Past a handmade sign that said “Religious books down in the back”
There inside the cover a mother’s heart called out to me,
In faded lines, on a yellowed page, back in 1873-

Chorus 1

“I would gladly suffer and die upon the cross-
For any of my children” was the prayer this mother wrote
She wrote it for her family, never knowing I would see,
But her loving cry ‘cross a century showed Jesus love to me.
(instrumental riff—one line)

2. Inside that old Brown Bible was the answer for all sin

How a loving father planned to bring His chidren home again
So He made Himself a sacrifice to set all sinners free,
And He wrote it in a message- for everyone to see-

Chorus 2

“I would gladly suffer and die upon the cross-
For any of my children”- was the prayer Our Father wrote,
He wrote it for all people cause He wanted us to see,
How he loved so much that He gave Himself- to end sin’s misery.
(instrumental riff—one line)

3. Well years have passed and somehow that old Bible it got lost

But the message that it held inside showed just how much it cost
When on Golgotha’s hill the saviour died for you and me
He broke the bonds of sin and death and won the victory

Chorus 3

For He gladly suffered and died upon that cross,
For all the fallen people, just to save them being lost,
Though I read it on a dusty page in a book from yesterday
It was true two-thousand years ago, and it’s still the truth today.
(instrumental riff—one line)

(Reprise, ritardando and out) I would gladly suffer and die upon the cross.

Song #1 for Youze......

The first song I ever posted. All I ask is for proper copyright credits should you decide to use it.
--------------------------
"The Lord is Callin' "
Original Music & Lyrics © 2006-2012 by A.E. Barri, all rights reserved

These Lyrics ©2011-2012 A.E. Barri, all rights reserved
Moderate "bluesy" shuffle

Verse 1
Out on the backside of the desert Moses saw a burning bush one day,
And the Lord was trying to send him out- but he would not obey,
Then the Lord shot down all of Moses' excuses said-
"I'm sendin' you to Egypt son there's no time to lose." -- 'Cause (to chorus)

Chorus
the Lord was callin'.....yes, the Lord was callin',
When He says He's got a job for you you got to get up right away.
Yes the Lord is callin'.....don't you hear Him callin',
When you know the Lord is callin' you you know you got to move along.

Verse 2
God said: "I got to send a message now who will speak for me?"
Isaiah jumped right up and said "HEY LORD--here am I, send me!"
"Isaiah start your preaching tell the people today, that they
got to live right- or I'll send them away."-- because (to chorus)

(Chorus)

Verse 3
Jesus saw some fisher-men up by the Sea of Galilee,
He said, "I'll teach how to fish for men if you will follow me."
James and John jumped the boat and threw down their nets,
Turned their backs on the old life with no regrets,-- 'cause (to chorus)

(Chorus, and.....)
You know you got to move along
You know you got to move along,
You gotta get up right away

1/22/1973 Redux

Not that anybody outside the Christian community remembers or really cares, but yesterday, January 22, was the 27th anniversary of Roe vs. Wade. Today is what is known in some Christian circles as "Sanctity of Human Life Sunday."


This is the day we should remember the tragedy unleashed as the left-leaning Supreme court legislated from the bench instead of getting Congress to make new law as they should. Hey Democrats (and other liberals), here's one for you....you could have had almost half a million new taxpayers so King Hussein the First would have even more money to waste. The less cynical view is to say that those same murdered American citizens could have been paying their share of Social Security and other taxes. If nothing else It sure would have helped with the current fiscal mess we're facing.

Dear Lord, let us always remember that You are the Creator and giver of life and all good things. Help us to be bold and resolute about upholding your desire that none should perish. We know that You will take even these evils of human will and turn them to good for the little ones who were forced to leave too soon. You hold them in Your loving hands for eternity Father.

Help us to fight the evil of abortion in all its forms and revere life as You do. Please help us find a way to overturn the travesty of January 22, 1973.

Amen

A Brief Hiatus If You Please

Of late, I have been focused on moving and all the necessary craziness that goes with it.

With that in mind......I'm intentionally going to avoid writing any posts....even less than I usually do.....like.....zero.....until further notice.

So.....ta ta for now.

Leave my founding documents alone!

The first amendment, when read literally and understood properly says, among other things, that the government shall not establish a state religion. It says nothing about all the other so-called "rights" that 'The Supremes' and other federal judges have managed to magically discern from what is a very simple document. The "Bill of Rights" is a simple document. It is meant to be taken literally. What's so bloody hard about that? What need then of "interpretation"?

The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States and the first ten amendments to the Constitution, commonly called The Bill of Rights comprise our founding documents. All three of them are NOT organic, alive, nor do they possess any other human qualities we care to attribute to them. They are very profound and well-considered words on paper. It is the job of RESPONSIBLE, GOD-FEARING men and women to prayerfully ask for guidance in trying to determine the best action to be taken when being guided by those pieces of parchment over two-hundred years old which we have deemed relevant to our modern age, or not. The men who wrote them were guided by faith in the living God and the Holy Trinity of conventional Christianity.

Even those men in that group who were not true believers, who may have been deists or agnostics....whatever, allowed for the existence of God and the Trinity. Furthermore, they were willing to subvert their own prejudices about religion in the interest of forging the best principles possible for our fledgling country. In short, those who didn't believe in the Trinity, made sure that the preparation of these documents was allowed to be be a God-driven process for the good of the nation. If they failed to codify our freedoms and "rights" in any way it was from an assumption that the people in our time would be as devout and God-driven as they were when they wrote these magnificent documents.

Those documents are as relevant today as they were 200 years ago. What is different is our post-modern society where everything is open to interpretation and there are no moral absolutes. Consequently, our poor Constitution has undergone some of the most severe and skewed interpretation in the past 30-40 years that the founding fathers never could have anticipated. In other words, they wrote the documents for people as people used to be, never dreaming that God-fearing people would end up in the minority, leaving the inmates to run the asylum. God help us in a Godless society.

We who do believe and have the guts to stand up for our faith have a responsibility not only to spread the Gospel message as much as we can through responsible evangelism, we must also speak out whenever and wherever we see lies, hypocrisy, deceit, greed, and all manner of social ills being perpetrated, especially when it comes from our governing "leaders", both in the secular arena or even worse, in the church body itself.

We elected our current crop of government leaders out of ignorance. We can no longer afford to remain ignorant. We must study, be informed, then get out there and vote for the right people, the ones we need to lead us out of the socialistic mess our self-exalted king, Mr. Hussein, is trying to lead us into.

"If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land." —2 Chronicles 7:14 (ESV)

Preachers, heal yourselves.

It's not how long you preach, it's how you present the gospel to people who need to hear it. Observe what Billy Graham accomplished in 15 minutes, if that, at each of his crusades......and all he did was simply preach the message that God loves you and Jesus died to redeem you.

He used no church programs, no building funds, no long-winded explanations of Bible books dragging on for months as a "teaching series". There was and is nothing special in those crusades except some good music to set the mood and the gospel of Jesus Christ presented in all its simplicity. People came forward by the hundreds after being convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit of God.

Pastors, preachers and church leaders, please take note.

A bed of thorns?

Recently, something in my pastor's sermon suddenly made a thought flash in my mind. As I toyed with it and tried to make it more clear, give it shape and color, I came to the conclusion that I had just managed to come up with one of those "Thorny Theological Problems". Now to try to unravel it.


Now, I don't profess to be a Biblical scholar, but I do believe I know far more about scripture than the average person. I knew it well enough to teach Sunday school for two years. I had a special interest in what we call the "Old Testament" which is really, mostly, the original Hebrew scriptures. You could call it my area of specialty, but I love and study the New Testament as well.


The thorny issue is this:

• Given: Jesus was wholly Human, and was and is wholly God. He was as human as any other human, but possessed, and evinced on earth, in totality, the full, pure Spirit of His Father, God.
• Given: God appears to have one limitation, He is not capable of looking at sin. If sin comes near to His being He must turn His face away. But this is not a limitation; God simply does not possess in His being the capacity for sin to be presented directly before or to Him.
• Given: Jesus allowed His physical body to be abused and tortured, and ultimately nailed to a cross to become the redeeming sacrifice for everyones' sins—past, present, and future. His death would provide the payment to satisfy God's requirements for us to be allowed to be His children again.
• Given: Jesus' great suffering in the garden of Gethsemane was not about facing the physical agony of the crucifixion, but of knowing that for the only time in eternity would He and the Father be separated in their Spirit.
• The Question: At that moment when Jesus cried "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?", the moment when Jesus literally became sin, the moment when His Father turned His face away from His spotless, unblemished Son who was now the epitome of all sin in the world for all eternity, where was the Holy Spirit?
• If the Holy Spirit is God's spirit and God cannot look at sin, then it follows that the Spirit must have left Jesus, even if only momentarily. He couldn't have "become sin" if the Spirit of God was in Him.
• Conclusion: I believe that at the critical moment when Jesus was at the brink of being made sin, God withdrew His Spirit from Jesus so that the unbelievable burden of all humanity's sins could be allowed to infest Him. In that moment God's wrath was poured out on Christ and then the Spirit was restored to Him. It was at that time when Jesus could say "tetelestai", voluntarily surrender His human life, and die.

"Tetelestai" is the Greek word that means "it is finished". What was finished? By accepting God's full measure of wrath that rightfully belonged to the human race, Jesus "conquered sin and death" forever. Do people still die? Of course, but that's physical death and comes to all people. But those who refuse to accept Christ's completed work on the cross will also choose the certainty of spiritual "death", which is eternal separation from God and the chance to live in Hell for eternity. Those who accept Christ will enter into life and the chance to spend eternity with God and Jesus, sharing with them, forever, in the complete filling of the Holy Spirit.

I chose eternal life. How about you?