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Music Review Tuesday – Matchbox Twenty

Much like the song title to their new single “How Far We’ve Come”, Matchbox Twenty has been through it’s share of changes and highs and lows. From the release of it’s debut album that sold more than 12 million copies in the U.S. alone to losing friendships and band mates to creative differences. The band has been resilient over the 12 years they have been recording. They have amassed many dedicated fans and wooed many musical critics with their musical diversity. Only the band members themselves know if the band will continue. Two of it’s original members Rob Thomas and Paul Doucette are basically responsible for the making of the first CD and six new original songs on the two CD release that I am reviewing today. Thomas and Doucette got together in New York to iron out how to fix their friendship and not so much worry about the band. About this same time their record label Atlantic Records asked for a greatest hits record. The combination of the friendship reunion and the greatest hits birthed the newest album from Matchbox Twenty.

“Exile On Mainstream” is the name of their new album. It was released on October 7th, 2007. The album is a two CD set with CD one containing six new original songs and CD two containing 11 of their greatest hits. The six new songs kind of vacillate between rock and folk as you progress through them. The band has sort of reinvented themselves with this new release. The first song “How Far We’ve Come” has been getting quite a lot of air play on college and modern hit radio stations. It is definitely a recognizable Matchbox Twenty song. The lyrics to the song are quite reflective:

I think it turned ten o’clock but I don’t really know
And I can’t remember caring for an hour or so
Started crying and I couldn’t stop myself
I started running but there’s no where to run to
I sat down on the street took a look at myself
Said where you going man you know the world is headed for hell
Say your goodbyes if you’ve got someone you can say goodbye to

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The Ancient Battle Plan for Sexual Purity

14 Feb

Here is an appropriate posting for Valentine’s Day. This is taken from my notes and the article I wrote from the OBC Winter 2008 Men’s Breakfast.

Saturday February 9th Paul Felix from The Master’s Seminary spoke to the Men’s Breakfast at Omaha Bible Church. The topic of his message was “The Ancient Battle Plan for Sexual Purity” and he used 1 Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 3 thru 8 as the biblical text to support the message. The message is a much needed one for believing men, and a message that should be heeded indeed. I have provided an outline from the message. The reason for the message is out of a concern for the roles men have in our society, and those roles include: Father, husband, teacher, minister…and so on. He referenced a book “Disciplines of a Godly Man. by R. Kent Hughes. Hughes provides three concerns for his focus on purity – and it requires sweat, hard work, and effort for the believer.

1. Our culture sweats sensuality from its pores.
2. The evangelical church is like the world.
3. Sensuality is the biggest challenge in our spiritual life.

Many well respected spiritual leaders have fallen to sexual sin. Our hope rests in “Thus saith the Lord.” In Thessalonica sexual impurity was rampant. There was no stemming of the tide with the churches of truth. So we cannot use the excuse that our culture is worse than it was then. The call to be sexually pure is the same. We have a battle plan. Paul Felix also mentioned I Cor. 6:12-20 as another truth for the battle plan. He challenged the men to memorize and meditate on I Thes. 4:3-8 and presented three hard points in the “Ancient Battle Plan for Sexual Purity”.

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Posted by barrydean on February 14, 2008 in 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8, Men's Breakfast, Omaha Bible Church, Paul Felix, sanctification, sexual purity

Boys to Men

07 Feb

Lately I have been busy and haven’t had the time to listen to the Albert Mohler radio show. This is a show I would recommend to anyone interested in growing spiritually and how our Christian life interacts with our culture. Today as I looked up some of his previous shows I found one that was broadcast over a week ago called “Raising Boys To Be Men“. This one attracted me because my wife and I are parents to now, four adult men. We have struggled over the years to raise them to become godly men. So needless to say these topics often attract me. Especially if they have strong credibility such Dr. Mohler.

The program was broadcast on January 24th, and Dr. Mohler’s guest was Col. Shane Blanton, President of Chamberlain-Hunt Academy. Chamberlain-Hunt Academy is a Christian based military academy for boys in grades 7 through 12. On the show they discuss the transition of boy to manhood and how to teach and train them to be mature and godly. The program is very beneficial to anyone who is trying to raise boys. Especially since we live in a culture that is luring them in the opposite direction. I have included the link above and below.

Raising Boys To Be Men

Photo credit

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Posted by barrydean on February 7, 2008 in Chamberlain-Hunt Academy, Col. Shane Blanton, Dr. Albert Mohler, raising boys

Music Review Tuesday – Airbourne

05 Feb

It is once again Tuesday and time for another music review. Today I will be reviewing an album from a band who is “down under”. That’s right, they are from Melbourne, Australia but originally moved from Warrnambool, Victoria, Australia. The band is Airbourne. They are a fairly new band. They released an eight track (visions of square plastic cartridges) EP in 2004 but, the album I am reviewing is their first full length album. The genre of Airbourne is categorized as pub-rock. I can summarize them down to one word, “attitude”, rock n’ roll attitude. They epitomize the attitude of the early to mid 1980’s arena rock bands. It has been said that Australia is a few years behind in pop-culture. But with this band, it’s almost as if they ignored the grunge rock phase America went through in the 1990’s. That grunge phase has effected many hard rock bands of today. The effect has made the lyrics and music darker and more moody. With Airborne, the classic “in your face” rock n’ roll attitude is back, alive and well.

The album title is “Runnin’ Wild” and was released to the U.S. on January 29th, 2008. “Alright people! Welcome to the show!” These are the first words heard as album starts with a guitar explosion in “Stand Up For Rock N’ Roll”. The music and sound are reminiscent of early AC/DC, as it is with many of the tracks on the album. “Runnin’ Wild” is the next track and is the also the album title. The song is definitely about young man angst about breaking up. The following song is the epitome of the “attitude” I spoke of earlier. It is called “Too Much, Too Young, Too Fast”. The chorus lyrics say it all:

Too much, Too young, Too fast
I’m gonna drink it up while it lasts
Too much, Too young, Too fast
I’m gonna tear it up so fill my glass

The next track “Diamond In the Rough” is such a simple rock song with some real good old rock n’ roll guitar. This is followed by “Fat City” which is “juiced up and ready” for a night of rock n’ roll.

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6 Comments

Posted by barrydean on February 5, 2008 in Airbourne, Music Review, Runnin' Wild

Best play from Superbowl 42

03 Feb

David Tyree catch

NY Giants 17 – New England Patriots 14

Check out an impressive play from the Giants game winning drive to win Superbowl 42.

Eli Manning to David Tyree

I will post the embedded video as it becomes available.

7 Comments

Posted by barrydean on February 3, 2008 in David Tyree, Eli Manning, NY Giants, Patriots, Superbowl 42

I dreamed of a city called Glory

02 Feb

Last night a precious person to me went to be with God in Glory. Her name was Ruth West. She was my grandmother, but everyone in our family called her Ninnie (by me) or Mimmie (by some of our kids). It was a name I gave her when I was just a toddler. My family had tried to get me to call her “Grannie”, but all I could muster was “Ninnie”. So the name stuck. Ninnie had some pretty twisted theology but there was no doubting that she loved the Lord. She served the Lord through her local church, and worked most of her life in one of the local textile mills. Her biggest theological error was that God punished people when they did wrong. It was a fear that she lived with all of her life. Early on her spiritual life someone told that her “God is gonna get you for that”, and she made it her own. Today she knows better and is no doubt sitting at the feet of Jesus, a spot that she dearly loved to talk about. Ninnie had some funny ways about her, but most everyone that knew her, loved her. I will miss her, but hope to see her again one day when I sit at the feet of Jesus as well. There is a favorite song of hers that spoke of where she is now and I would like to paste it in here:

I Bowed My Knees

I dreamed of a city called Glory,
So bright and so fair.
When I entered that gate I cried, “Holy”
The angels all met me there:
They carried me from mansion to mansion,
And oh what sights I saw.
But I said, “I want to see Jesus,
He’s the One who died for all.”

Chorus
Then I bowed on my knees and cried,
“Holy, Holy, Holy.”
Then I clapped my hands and sang, “Glory,
Glory to the Son of God.”
Then I bowed on my knees and cried,
“Holy, Holy, Holy.”
Then I clapped my hands and sang, “Glory,
Glory to the Son of God.”

I thought as I entered that city,
My friends all knew me well.
They showed me the streets of Heaven;
Such scenes too numerous to tell;
I saw Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,
Mark, Luke and Timothy.
But I said, “I want to see Jesus,
He’s the One who died for me.”

Chorus
Then I bowed on my knees and cried,
“Holy, Holy, Holy.”
Then I clapped my hands and sang, “Glory,
Glory to the Son of God.”
Then I bowed on my knees and cried,
“Holy, Holy, Holy.”
Then I clapped my hands and sang, “Glory,
Glory to the Son of God.”

Amen

Soli Deo Gloria

Update: The following is a video of Charles Billingsley, who, in my humble opinion, performs this song the way it was written to be sung.

17 Comments

Posted by barrydean on February 2, 2008 in Charles Billingsley, heaven, I Bowed My Knees, Ninnie, Ruth West

Another Puritan quote

31 Jan

“Will you trust your five senses above the four Gospels?” – Thomas Adams

This is such a great quote. There are so many folks in the evangelical world who place a high value on experiences. Now the problem arises when those experiences are given a higher priority than scripture or the gospel of Christ. We will all agree that we experience God’s grace and mercy. We experience the joy that can only be provided by God. But these experiences are should never be valued above the gospel or pursued above the gospel. In my opinion, and the opinion among many serious theologians that this is what is wrong with the charismatic movement. The experience is placed in a higher spiritual plane than the basic Gospel of Christ. For we know that our human hearts are wicked and can deceive us. We must weigh everything our senses encounter with the truth of the Gospels. If we trust in the Gospels, and live the answer to the above question with an emphatic no, our path will remain straight, and our theology will remain true.

1 Comment

Posted by barrydean on January 31, 2008 in Puritan, quotes, Thomas Adams

Music Review Tuesday – Foo Fighters

29 Jan

This week I going to review another album by a band I had only heard about but have not actually listened to. Now I love to listen to new bands and new music so why would I not listen to a rock band as popular as the Foo Fighters? Frankly I couldn’t get past their name. I mean what is a Foo and why would you want to fight it? So, again, after hearing one of their new songs on the local college radio station I had to research the origination of their name. The second sentence in Wikipedia for Foo Fighters states that the group is named after the World War II term used to refer to mysterious aerial phenomena. Ok, that sounds pretty cool. I like WWII stuff and phenomena is even better. The genre of their music is listed as alternative, post-grunge, hard rock. The Foo Fighters were formed by Dave Grohl who was the drummer for the Seattle grunge band Nirvana. Now that is not something I knew. Now onto the album.

The new album by the Foo Fighters is called “Echoes, Silence, Patience, and Grace” is their sixth studio album. It was released September 25th, 2007. The album entered the Billboard 200 album chart at #3, selling over 168,000 copies in it’s first week of release. Dave Grohl noted in an interview that the band was eager to expand on their signature sound:

So the album we’re making sounds like a Foo Fighters album, but it’s definitely moving in a few different directions. It’s cool man, I love it.

The first single released from the new album is called “The Pretender” and starts things off with a very cool song with many different guitar sounds and an exciting rhythm and chorus.

What if I say I’m not like the others?
What if I say I’m not just another one of your plays
You’re the pretender
What if I say I will never surrender?

What if I say I’m not like the others?
What if I say I’m not just another one of your plays
You’re the pretender
What if I say that I’ll never surrender?

The next track “Let It Die” about love lost starts out slow and mellow and builds to a crushing crescendo. Like Grohl said, “cool man”. The next song on the album is called “Erase Replace” it has a very cool drum beat and rhythm. It makes the song sound a little heavier than the previous songs on the album. But in the middle of the song it gets downright pensive and dreamlike. The next track is “Long Road To Ruin” and is the second single released for the album. It is definitely a different song from anything else I have heard from this band. The sound is very familiar but I can’t put my finger on it. The vocals are excellent.

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Olivia’s night out

27 Jan

Let me just be a bragging grandpa for a bit here. Tonight we had the privilege of keeping our granddaughter Olivia while her parents had a night out together. It was our first time keeping her without them. The first couple of hours were touch and go, meaning, one moment she would be crawling around, playing and laughing and then bawling the next. After quite some time she had become a very sleepy girl and was not about to give it up. We fed her a bottle and some cereal. That seemed to do the trick but after we laid her down she’d be right back up again. I’m sure it was pretty exciting for her. New environment without mom and dad, lots of puppy dogs to play with and all. But after some tender care by her Aunt Crysta, and the loving touch of grandma, she finally took the gentle voyage to Dreamland. At the time of this writing she is sound asleep under a pink quilt and on a soft fleece pillow. Please observe the picture for the proof. Sleeping like a real angel.

Photo credit goes to Aunt Crysta.

1 Comment

Posted by barrydean on January 27, 2008 in grandparents, Olivia, Personal

From this week in pictures

26 Jan

Microsoft CEO Bill Gates explains the differences
between conditional and unconditional election to
students at Liberty University. Gates told the
students, “Arminianism is by far the best system
of theology out there. It works just as well and as
smoothly as Vista.”

HT – TBNN

3 Comments

Posted by barrydean on January 26, 2008 in Arminianism, Microsoft Vista, TBNN