I know my kids won't believe this and my grand kids won't fathom this, but when I was a little guy, living in Fort Thomas Kentucky, the sky was so clear, I could see the Cincinnati skyline from the picture window in my living room.
I didn't have to carry a cellphone so Mom could find me. 'didn't need to. At supper she would open up the back door and yell, "Markie! Supper's Ready!!!" I could hear her 4 blocks away.
One of the greatest smells in the world was pumping leaded gas into the tank of your car. It was worth the 25 cents a gallon price just to enjoy that lovely smell.
Let's talk Mercury. We used to have this wonder drug that Mom would paint on all your scrapes and cuts. It was called Mercurochrome. It was also called Merthiolate in it's generic version. Back then we didn't know what generic meant. Mercurochrome was not nearly as dangerous as Iodine. That was what Grandma put on my Mom's scrapes and cuts.
It was highly poisonous when ingested. However Mom knew not to drink it. Mercurochrome contained a key ingredient called Merbromin which contained traces of Mercury. This was the same Mercury that is found in silver dental fillings of that era. Leaded gas, no pollution control devices on cars and poisonous medicine and paint.........Ah! Life in the 1950's was good.
Larry Norman was a Jesus Freak long before there were Jesus Freaks. When most of us were listening to rock music in the late 1960's and 1970's, Larry was writing music about The Rock. He became a standard bearer for a whole generation and gave us tunes to go with the words.
He stumbled along the way. But don't we all? It's a journey. Larry held true to his God and to his art. He was the real deal. He was the good seed that grew and flourished.
Larry went home to be with The Lord this past Sunday morning.
Here is Larry's own last words.
I feel like a prize in a box of cracker jacks with God's hand reaching down to pick me up. I have been under medical care for months. My wounds are getting bigger. I have trouble breathing. I am ready to fly home.
My brother Charles is right, I won't be here much longer. I can't do anything about it. My heart is too weak. I want to say goodbye to everyone. In the past you have generously supported me with prayer and finance and we will probably still need financial help.
My plan is to be buried in a simple pine box with some flowers inside. But still it will be costly because of funeral arrangement, transportation to the gravesite, entombment, coordination, legal papers etc. However money is not really what I need, I want to say I love you.
I'd like to push back the darkness with my bravest effort. There will be a funeral posted here on the website, in case some of you want to attend. We are not sure of the date when I will die.
Goodbye, farewell, we will meet again.
Goodbye, farewell, we'll meet again
Somewhere beyond the sky.
I pray that you will stay with God
Goodbye, my friends, goodbye.
My good friend Randy Moody recently sent me a package that contained some recording made by people who played at the Jesus House.
The Jesus House was located in the Mt. Healthy neighborhood of Cincinnati Ohio. In the early 1970's when the Jesus Movement was very much a part of this nation's culture, the Jesus House was a wonderful place to go, listen to live music, hear about God's love for His people and study the Bible.
As a young man I loved to go there on a Saturday night, sit on the floor and listen to whoever was playing music that evening. Quite a few times I happened to be the musician, either doing a solo or with my friend Doug Abbott playing upright bass. Later on I played along with Kent Odor and a few other friends.
Those were great times and Randy tape recorded several different folks and this brought back a flood of good memories. It was so nice to hear Mike Wilshire's voice accompianied by his old 1940's Martin 00-17 mahogany guitar. Mike was joined by Mike Haviland and Paul Niehaus, who I almost forgot about. I recall bumping into Mike Haviland at Lammar's Music Store on Walnut Street in Cincinnati and discussing soprano saxaphones. Also on the CD's were some songs by Prodigal from back in the day.
Covenant was another group that frequented the Jesus House. My buddy Kent Odor lived at the house and Kent, Bob Clarke and Wayne Burns performed for a while as a trio and they were included. A very young Rich Mullins played the big old out-of-tune green Jesus House upright piano and made it sing and his songs gave you goose-bumps.
I made a couple of observations from listening to this music. First of all was just how young we were and how we were filled with so much energy and devotion. A lot of the songs were so moving and showed our young faith. Mike Wilshire had such a beautiful voice and was an excellent fingerstyle guitarist. However some of the tunes were slow and moody. But that actually reflected the warmth of the Jesus House.
Anyway, I have gone through my box-a-old tape cassettes and reel to reel tapes and discovered a pretty good old collection of my songs. I'm going to duplicate that tape and send it to Randy.
I've also got the urge to put together a definitive collection of songs that I have written through the years. So I have repaired my ancient Ensoniq synthesizer and made all the apropriate MIDI connections to my Yamaha DX100 and RX something-or-other drum synth. It took about a week to remember how to work the sequencer and another week to remember how to play keyboard. Well...I'm not really a keyboard player, but I know enough from music theory to play chord inversions, passing notes etc. So far I've pieced together five songs that have taken up all the sequencer memory. Now I have to dump those and dig out my old 4 track recorder and play the guitar and vocal parts. Then I'll put together some more songs in similar fashion and get them on tape. It's an enjoyable work.
My area of the world at one time was a large settling place for citizens of the Deutshland that immigrated to the New World to start their live's anew. Jews, Protestants and Catholic all arrived for various reasons and settled in Cincinnati and the surrounding suburbs.
I still am familiar with folks that return to Germany once a year to visit their kin. Here is a view from an older German regarding the current state of the world. The fellow whose family was German aristocracy prior to World War II owned a number of large industries and estates. When asked how many German people were true Nazis, the answer he gave can guide our attitude toward fanaticism. "Very few people were true Nazis" he said, "but many enjoyed the return of German pride, and many more were too busy to care. I was one of those who just thought the Nazis were a bunch of fools. So, the majority just sat back and let it all happen. Then, before we knew it, they owned us, and we had lost control, and the end of the world had come. My family lost everything. I ended up in a concentration camp and the Allies destroyed my factories." We are told again and again by "experts and 'talking heads' that Islam is the religion of peace, and that the vast majority of Muslims just want to live in peace. Although this unqualified assertion may be true, it is entirely irrelevant. It is meaningless fluff, meant to make us feel better, and meant to somehow diminish the specter of fanatics rampaging across the globe in the name of Islam. The fact is that the fanatics rule Islam at this moment in history.
It is the fanatics who march.
It is the fanatics who wage any one of 50 shooting wars worldwide.
It is the fanatics who systematically slaughter Christian or tribal groups throughout Africa and are gradually taking over the entire continent in an Islamic wave.
It is the fanatics who bomb, behead, murder, or honor kill. It is the fanatics who take over mosque after mosque.
It is the fanatics who zealously spread the stoning and hanging of rape victims and homosexuals. The hard quantifiable fact is that the "peaceful majority", "the 'silent majority," is cowed and extraneous.
Communist Russia was comprised of Russians who just wanted to live in peace, yet the Russian Communists (Karl Marx and assoc.) were responsible for the murder of about 20 million people. The peaceful majority were irrelevant.
China's huge population was peaceful as well, but Chinese Communists managed to kill a staggering 70 million people. The average Japanese individual prior to World War II was not a warmongering sadist. Yet, Japan murdered and slaughtered its way across South East Asia in an orgy of killing that included the systematic murder of 12 million Chinese civilians; most killed by sword, shovel, and bayonet.
And, who can forget Rwanda, which collapsed into butchery. Could it not be said that the majority of Rwandans were "peace loving?" History lessons are often incredibly simple and blunt, yet for all our powers of reason we often miss the most basic and uncomplicated of points: Peace-loving Muslims have been made irrelevant by their silence. Peace-loving Muslims will become our enemy if they don't speak up, because like my friend from Germany, they will awaken one day and find that the fanatics own them, and the end of their world will have begun.
Peace-loving Germans, Japanese, Chinese, Russians, Rwandans, Serbs, Afghanis, Iraqis, Palestinians, Somalis, Nigerians, Algerians, and many others have died because the peaceful majority did not speak up until it was too late.
The Hollywood Left would lead us to believe the Islamic revolt in Iraq and Afghanistan is another Viet Nam. That we are only fighting for control of oil. They are hoping that President Bush is Nixon. They are longing for those old days of protests and civil disobediance. They are clueless. The current war, the current situation has everything to do with religious fanaticism, the oppresion of all who do not follow Islam and the forcing of Islamic rule on the world.
As for us who watch it all unfold; we must pay attention to the only group that counts; the fanatics who threaten our way of life.
Lastly, at the risk of offending, anyone who doubts that the issue is serious is contributing to the passiveness that allows the problems to expand. This is really why our troops are overseas protecting our shores.
It's Thanksgiving Day 2007. For the past week we have articles in the news about Black Friday. We have been immersed in radio, TV and print media advertisements that let us know we no longer have to wait until Friday to save 30 to 50% on our shopping for Christmas. We can hurry through eating our Turkey and candied yams and get off our candy butts to hurry off to Wal-Marts and shop today. They are opened. So is K-Mart, Meiers, Kohls, Sears and all the grocery stores and fast food joints. J. C. Pennys is opening up at 4 am on Friday with door-buster savings!
When I was 17, my father purchased a convenience store. This was in 1970. During this historical era all businesses were closed on Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. This was out of respect for God and for employee's families.
In 1970 God and families were of paramount importance. However one of the bylaws of my Dad's new business was it needed to be opened 7 days a week, 365 days a year, no matter what. Christmas and Thanksgiving Day sales were sometimes four or five times more than average daily sales. It made sense as there was no competition. I hated it. My family hated it. My Dad hated it. The employees at the store hated it. But the customers loved being able to buy last minute items they had forgotten.
As the years rolled on, other businesses discovered this secret. Ah' yes, Scrooge be praised!
Money was to be made. Let us forget about family. Heck today most families are dysfunctional. Tradition was thrown out years ago along with school prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. God! Well in today's world, God is multi-cultural, so why waste a day celebrating and giving thanks to Him. Get to work!
Which brings us to Thanksgiving 2008. May you spend time with those that you love and give thanks to Him in all things. May the future return to the past.
Bad things happen to good people. This question has perplexed humanity and perhaps has been a stumbling stone for some of God's people. I turned my attention to the Book of Job for answers. Job was a wonderful man, with a wonderful life. He was a great family man. A man of God. A man of principal and the spiritual covering for his family. However he suffered unspeakable personal losses, calamities and devasting illness.
During my younger years as a Christian, I purposefully avoided the Book of Job when reading through the Bible. I was poor. I worked much too hard. My wife has been stricken by several horrendous illnesses and I just did not want to read about another man's problems. I had enough of my own. What I had forgotten was the Bible is one of God's ways to speak to us and teach us.
With the recent deaths of some people that were important in my upbringing, I decided to take a look at The Book and draw some comfort from it.
Aside from the valuable lessons in Job, this book is perhaps one of the best written of all the books of the Bible. I am sure that the Book of Job was passed on and on by oral tradition before scribes set it to parchment. It's words and thoughts expressed are so eloquently set forth.
In the first verses we learn of Job's wealth and learn about Job's family. Job is the family patriarch and he is also the spiritual patriarch of his family. Job is depicted as a man of simple faith, integrity and dedication to God. He loves and trusts God in all things and he loves his family.
Ironically, Job's sons and daughters were not concerned about their spiritual life or relationship with God as much as they were concerned with living the good life. At least as much of the good life that Ur had to offer in 1000 B.C. Job's sons were party animals and they invited their 3 sisters with them. Job was concerned about their carnality and their souls. So "after the feast had run it's course..." Job would offer burnt sacrifices to God because he was concerned that his children may have sinned and cursed God within their hearts.
In the next verse we then get a glimpse of the high places in Heaven as the sons of God come to present themselves before Him. Satan answers God's question. "Where have you been?" Satan states that he has been going to and fro across the earth. God then asks him if he has considered His servant Job? Job is blameless and upright. Job fears God and turns away from evil. Satan rebuts God and accuses Him of putting a hedge around Job, his house and all that he owns. He then tells God "to touch him with Your hand and he will curse your face." God will not be told what to do. But says to Satan, take away all the he has, but do not touch him.
Are we pawns in a cosmic game of chess? No. God is simply showing that his servant Job had authentic faith. Job trusted God, his savior, in all things and all circumstances. Satan then causes the deaths of all of Job's servants by using evil men to kill them. Jobs animals were slaughtered by a fire and those beasts that escaped the fire were stolen by two different tribes of maurading invaders. Finally a natural disaster comes along and destroys the home where his children were feasting. They were all killed.
When Job learns of these awful maladies, he shaves his beard and head, tears his clothing and morns. He falls to the ground in his grief and prays to the Lord and blesses God saying "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return; the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD."
Satan's boast is disproven. Though Job is grief stricken and desolate, he accepts his plight as coming from the world and blesses God's name.
Once again we glimpse the realm of God. The sons of God come before Him and once again God says, "Have you considered my servant Job. There is none like him." God is proud of Job. In the face of all disaster Job is steadfast in his faith and integrity, even though "you have moved against me to destroy him without cause." Satan is very upset at this point and yells "Skin for skin. All that a man has, he will give his life for. But touch his bone and face (cause illness) and he will curse Your Face." God gives Satan power of Job with the condition he spare his life.
Job is stricken with sores from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. He is in pain and tries to scrape off the scabs with potsherd and put ashes on his body for relief.
The words of Job's wife reflect the thoughts of the world. "Do you still hold fast to your faith, to your integrity? Why don't you just curse God and die?" In other words face the facts God is to blame for our poverty, God is to blame because our children are gone, God is to blame for your illness so you might as well take matters into your own hands. Curse God, kill yourself and end the misery.
Job does feel devastated about his condition. But he does not curse God. Instead he curses himself for ever being born. How many of us have said the same thing? Job is miserable. His health is wrecked, his family killed and all his pocessions are gone. If you have ever suffered from any form of skin malady you may relate to the torment that you go through. You skin is surrounded in nerve endings. The itching and pain can not be relieved. It is no small wonder Job tried to cut off the sores with sharp pieces of broken pottery. However Job does not place blame on God.
At this point his three friends come to console him by offering words of wisdom. This is where my ears perked up. I have heard some of these same words before. Job's friend Eliphiz speaks. To summarize, Eliphiz says to Job, God is angry at you. God gets angry from time to time. Beg for His wisdom. Ask Him. God is testing you and you will come out the wiser from these tests.
Bildad, Job's other friend offers advice. He critizes Job's words of faith as being full of wind. He states the cause of Job's plight to be due to his lack of knowledge and transgressions against God. Job needs to repent, beg forgiveness and seek wisdom. He compares Job to papyrus that cannot grow without marsh water.
Job's next friend Zophar then speaks and accuses him of hidden sin and lack of understanding of God.
The conversation goes on and Job is accused of not having enough faith. His lack of faith is the cause of his woes. His friends go on and on pointing out Job's faults and explaining their oppinion of God's ways. After all, they are experts. After all, they have come to comfort their friend.
Then in chapter 32 when all finally stop speaking, the voice of youth speaks out in the form of Eli-hu, hu rambles on and on giving us his knowledge of the mind of God.
To summarize Job's friends accuse him of: 1. Not having enough faith 2. Having hidden sin 3. Not having sufficient wisdom 4. Not praying fervantly enough 5. You are being tested and have failed
There are plenty of great studies on this book. Bottom line is that all Job's friends are speaking the same words I hear today. Sadly some of these words come from the pulpit. I have heard them from Evangelists and read them in Christian books. 3008 years later nothing has changed. We still argue about how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Men are still expounding their great knowledge of the Almighty. Christians are still preaching the words of "Yoda". "Try? There is no try. You do or do not" Or Yoda's respons to the words of Luke (and by Luke I do not mean the 4th Gospel), Luke "I can't believe it." Yoda, "That is why you fail". The Word of God is not Star Wars.
What made God proud of Job was Job's fear of God and his respect of God. Job was blameless and upright. He trusted and accepted God in all things and turned away from evil.
Finally God appears in a whirlwind and the whole group become quiet.
God rebukes all the men for their lack of knowledge and feeble attempt at explaining God Way. God asks where they were when He created the earth and created all the beasts. It is here that God has a wonderul soliloquy about the creation of the earth and the animals that inhabit the earth. This is worth reading.
Throughout the book Job speaks his mind as to what he would say if he had an audience with God. He would like to defend himself before the Lord. Now God gives him the chance and Job can only say "Behold, I am of small account. I hold my hand over my mouth (a sign of respect for nobility) I have spoken once but can say no more."
God asks him if he would condemn God that you may be justified?
When God finishes speaking. Job understands and says, ""I know that thou canst do all things, and that no purpose of thine can be thwarted. 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 'Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.' I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes."
In other words, yes I said those things, but now that I behold you I know that I am nothing please forgive me.
After God finishes speaking with Job, He accuses Job's 3 friends of speaking falsely about the things of God. He then gives Job the responsibility of making a sacrifice for the sin of his friends. His friends were required to provide the animals for the sacrifice. Remember, Job does not have any animals as his pocessions were destroyed. I find it very interesting the God does not accuse the youth of his indiscretions or ask for a sacrifice for his sin.
We see in the last part of the bookd the LORD restores the fortunes of Job after he obeyed God, prayed and sacrificed for his friends. The LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house; and they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the LORD had brought upon him; and each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. To me this is wonderful that his own family recognized Job and loved their brother. I am certain that before these tragic events occurred Job had shared with them. They now were returning Job's example.
And the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen, and a thousand she-asses. He had also seven sons and three daughters.
God doubles the amount of pocession that Job had originally had after Job had performed God's Will. He gave him seven more sons and three more daughters. He did not double the children that he lost, because children are not pocessions and souls cannot be replaced. There is no mention of the party life for his new sons and daughters. Perhaps because Job is a changed man, he has become a new role model for his new family.
It is also very interesting that Job's daughter's names are mentioned, but not the names of his sons. Job also gives his daughter's equal share in his inheritance, which is unheard of. We learn that God allowed Job to live 140 years and see four generations of his children.
Job is a man of simple faith, integrity and trust in God. What I have learned from this book is to hold on to that simple trust. Believe that God is in control. Shy away from the teachings du jour. Put your hope in God, I will praise Him yet, my Savior, My God.
