Bob Dylan....What are you singing?

SETH MACFARLANE'S CAVALCADE OF CARTOON COMEDY - Bob Dylan - Amazing videos are here

Last night Zach and Darrell went to see Bob Dylan,John Mellencamp and Willie Nelson. One of our friends was able to get them seats in his company box. I had seen Bob Dylan about 15 yrs ago and love to make fun of him singing. He was obviously stoned the night we saw him and you couldn't understand him half the time. This video is so funny and so true!

"The Devastating Justice of Jesus"

These are my notes from Apex. Rob is back! Yeah! Worship was awesome. We sang Majesty,The Time Has Come,How He Loves (David Crowder lyrics :), and Lead Me To the Cross.
We had a baptism which always is a celebration.
My friend Kendall is goint to Southeast Asia this week with a group of high school girls so we had a prayer for them. Got a little teary on that one.

Jude 1:5-7

If we really love each other, there will be times when we have to say hard things we aren't comfortable with. This is what Jude deals with.
These are raw words of scripture. It's not your "Max Lucado inspirational verses"

Two bad but similar terms:

Heresy..systome of beliefs. It looks biblical but there are other components that are wrong. These are your religious cults that call themselves Christians ie Mormons,Jehovah Witness.

Apostasy..biblical beliefs are there but they have turned their back on the Christian faith. They want nothing to do with the Christian faith anymore. This happens more often than we realize.

Big Idea:
It is horribly dangerous to turn away from what you once believed to be true.

In these verses look at :

1. The pattern
The Israelites..the angels (Ezekiel 28) and Sodom and Gomorrah

2. The process

You get to places you don't want to be..and you don't trust or believe

1st ....Unbelief..the Israelites are destroyed in the desert except for Joshua and Caleb
2nd.....Go outside the lines..the angels go outside what God wants for them
We do this in our lives...we make decisions that are ungodly..in business...in computer use...in friends. We don't stay in God's safety
3rd..Indulge..self idolatry "I" Many times sinfulness and sexuality are tied..sexuality is one of the main ways to self idolatry. Genesis 6
Our hearts are hardened. We no longer hear God..and it leads to our destruction

3. Punishment
Israelites are destroyed in the desert.
Angels are put in chains in gloomy darkness
Sodom and Gomorrah...eternal fire. Today..Sodom and Gomorrah is located at the bottom of the Dead Sea geographically. Nothing can live.
Hell is God's justified response to people who don't see H
im as infinitely valuable.
Jesus is love but God has entrusted him with judgment.
We all have our own "lists" to get around justice and holiness of God.
Hearts should break and have mercy for those who have turned their backs on their faith.

Derek Webb's new song

Gotta love Derek Webb...he just says what needs to be said.

This makes me laugh

The Fray

Last night my family and I went to PNC in Cincinnati to see "The Fray". I've been a fan for quite awhile. I'm a Grey's Anatomy fan so when they sang the song "How to Save A Life" I fell in love with their music. The rest of my family was slow to follow. In fact they would make fun of me when I would get excited about their songs coming on the radio. My husband listened to their second album which came out this year and became addicted to their songs :) You always know if Darrell likes someone because you will here it over and over every morning. Then, the week before you go to a concert he will play their music constantly. The day of the concert he will make a CD so we can listen all the way to the concert :) We got there a little early so we walked through Coney Island and ate at LaRosa's pizza. I had to get my t-shirt. I love tshirts especially from concerts. These were pretty reasonable in price.
The concert was sold out. There were a lot of fan's for the opening band, Jack's Mannequin. The lead singer was very talented musically.
I will say that it was pretty much a 20's crowd. I was a little surprised.
The Fray played for about 90 minutes. Very talented musicians and vocals.

Personal relationship with the Holy Spirit

Rob has been in N.C. preaching so one of our elder,Rennes Bowers filled in. He has a great heart. He is one of the chaplains for the Dayton Dragons and is getting ready to do a mission trip at the end of July with his wife to India.
Issac Pittman led worship and did an amazing job as always with Phil Wickham and Brooke Fraser songs. He introduced us to a new song which was beautiful. I'll have to find the name of it when we sing it again.

Rennes talked about the personal relationship with the Holy Spirit. This is how Jesus comes to us.
In the western church, we are lacking in power. We don't have that relationship that the early church had. We don't have that same trust in the power that heals. In India they are experiencing that power through healing and through baptism in faith. In the 10/40 window they are experiencing that power of the Holy Spirit. They are in a time of harvest.
Many times we don't see the seeds we sow for years...we don't see that area of harvest.
You need to listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to you. Every day ask him to show you those opportunities to sow the seeds.
The Christian life is relational.
The power of the spirit of God is unleashed through love relationships.

"I hope he is in a better place or will be"

The death of Michael Jackson affected many people in different ways.
I wasn't what you would call a fan but I did like his earlier music.
I grew up with The Jackson 5 and I own the album "Thriller" in vinyl from the 1980's. My son found it today in our record collection.
When I read the following letter from Lisa Marie Presley it really touched me.
I hope she's right. I hope he is free from his pain.

Friday, June 26, 2009

He Knew.

Years ago Michael and I were having a deep conversation about life in general.

I can't recall the exact subject matter but he may have been questioning me about the circumstances of my Fathers Death.

At some point he paused, he stared at me very intensely and he stated with an almost calm certainty, "I am afraid that I am going to end up like him, the way he did."

I promptly tried to deter him from the idea, at which point he just shrugged his shoulders and nodded almost matter of fact as if to let me know, he knew what he knew and that was kind of that.

14 years later I am sitting here watching on the news an ambulance leaves the driveway of his home, the big gates, the crowds outside the gates, the coverage, the crowds outside the hospital, the Cause of death and what may have led up to it and the memory of this conversation hit me, as did the unstoppable tears.

A predicted ending by him, by loved ones and by me, but what I didn't predict was how much it was going to hurt when it finally happened.

The person I failed to help is being transferred right now to the LA County Coroners office for his Autopsy.

All of my indifference and detachment that I worked so hard to achieve over the years has just gone into the bowels of hell and right now I am gutted.

I am going to say now what I have never said before because I want the truth out there for once.

Our relationship was not "a sham" as is being reported in the press. It was an unusual relationship yes, where two unusual people who did not live or know a "Normal life" found a connection, perhaps with some suspect timing on his part. Nonetheless, I do believe he loved me as much as he could love anyone and I loved him very much.

I wanted to "save him" I wanted to save him from the inevitable which is what has just happened.

His family and his loved ones also wanted to save him from this as well but didn't know how and this was 14 years ago. We all worried that this would be the outcome then.

At that time, In trying to save him, I almost lost myself.

He was an incredibly dynamic force and power that was not to be underestimated.

When he used it for something good, It was the best and when he used it for something bad, It was really, REALLY bad.

Mediocrity was not a concept that would even for a second enter Michael Jackson's being or actions.

I became very ill and emotionally/ spiritually exhausted in my quest to save him from certain self-destructive behavior and from the awful vampires and leeches he would always manage to magnetize around him.

I was in over my head while trying.

I had my children to care for, I had to make a decision.

The hardest decision I have ever had to make, which was to walk away and let his fate have him, even though I desperately loved him and tried to stop or reverse it somehow.

After the Divorce, I spent a few years obsessing about him and what I could have done different, in regret.

Then I spent some angry years at the whole situation.

At some point, I truly became Indifferent, until now.

As I sit here overwhelmed with sadness, reflection and confusion at what was my biggest failure to date, watching on the news almost play by play The exact Scenario I saw happen on August 16th, 1977 happening again right now with Michael (A sight I never wanted to see again) just as he predicted, I am truly, truly gutted.

Any ill experience or words I have felt towards him in the past has just died inside of me along with him.

He was an amazing person and I am lucky to have gotten as close to him as I did and to have had the many experiences and years that we had together.

I desperately hope that he can be relieved from his pain, pressure and turmoil now.

He deserves to be free from all of that and I hope he is in a better place or will be.

I also hope that anyone else who feels they have failed to help him can be set free because he hopefully finally is.

The World is in shock but somehow he knew exactly how his fate would be played out some day more than anyone else knew, and he was right.





I really needed to say this right now, thanks for listening.


~LMP