Eliot was born with an undeveloped lung, a heart with a hole in it and DNA that placed faulty information into each and every cell of his body. However, that could not stop the living God from proclaiming Himself through this boy who never uttered a word.
Warning: make sure you have a box of tissues before you watch this heart rending video.
If you you were not around in the 1960s you may not remember when Jesus Rock formed. Some musicians took their Christian faith and their love of Rock and Roll and combined them. Now of course those of you who know the history of Rock and Roll know that it was influenced by church music originally coming out of black churches, but it was not exactly greeted like a long lost son. Many could not deal with “long haired” types and loud music. This was not their idea of church music.
One of the pioneers in Jesus Rock was Larry Norman who received a lot of criticism for his looks and music. His view question of “Why should the devil have all the good music” probably did not endear him with his critics. But it did endear him with kids like me who’s love of blues licks was greater than our love of Bach.
Larry Norman died this week after decades of health problems. The church service I go to on Sunday has drums and electric guitar (the earlier one has organ but is less attended). So no Larry, the devil does not have to have all the good music. Go with God.
I found this speech by Barak Obama to support my impression that he is an interesting candidate. I continue to see him as someone who sounds reasonable. I wish that were not such a rare quality in a polititian. In this speech he talks somewhat about his personal faith but more about the role of faith in politics. He charts a course in between the left and the right extremes.
I am a swing voter (registered Republican) and generally find politics distasteful… ok, let’s say “slimy”. My podcast about faith (The Bible Study Podcast) is particularly labeled as free of politics. So for me to even take the time to listen to a political speech is rare, let alone one almost 40 minutes long.
In particular I share Obama’s view that the value of the separation of church and state is not just for the state. “Folks tend to forget that during our founding it wasn’t the athiests and the civil libertarians who were the most effective champions of the first ammendment”.
Do I agree with all of Obama’s politics? I doubt it. Do I think having someone who seems intelligent and reasonable in the oval office would be a nice change. I do.
Last week The Bible Study Podcast finished up a series on what the church is vs what it is called to be. This series ended up having 10 different episodes:
Episode 50 - The Church is… (called to be) Prayerful
Episode 51 - The Church is… (called to be) Truthful
The next series starts today and is titled Christianity 101. This series will be a study on the book of Romans which is one of the best books for getting an structured understanding of Christianity.
I recently wrapped up a series on the topic of why bad things happen to good people on The Bible Study Podcast. The series was suggested by a listener who was having a difficult time dealing with a particularly horrific local news story. The series ended up being 8 episodes long:
If you you were not around in the 1960s you may not remember when Jesus Rock formed. Some musicians took their Christian faith and their love of Rock and Roll and combined them. Now of course those of you who know the history of Rock and Roll know that it was influenced by church music originally coming out of black churches, but it was not exactly greeted like a long lost son. Many could not deal with “long haired” types and loud music. This was not their idea of church music. 
