Friday, February 22, 2013

Alison Krauss & Vince Gill - The Lucky One (live_CMT Cross Country)

Chet Atkins & Mark Knopfler - I'll See You In My Dreams - Walk Of Life

Stevie Ray Vaughan - The Sky is Cryin'

Elmore James - The Sky is Crying

Monsters University - New UK Trailer - Disney Pixar Official HD

Jordan Turns 50 - You never Had Peace

Matt Smethurst in an excellent piece at TGC, on all the hoopla surrounding Michael Jordan turning 50:

"How can I find peace away from the game of basketball?" the aging legend asks.

Michael, you never had peace. Triumph and fame, yes, but not peace. James Naismith invented a game that brought you a sense of purpose, of value, of calm. But it was only that—a sense, a counterfeit of the real thing. You will never find life outside the game for the same reason you never found life in it. It's not there.

The peace you seek isn't available on a basketball court or a golf course but on a little hill outside Jerusalem. There, Yahweh incarnate hung in the place of sinners—wannabe Yahwehs like you and like me.

You've gained the world and found it lacking, Mike. Don't lose your soul.
Read the article at TGC and follow the link to read the entire article  by Wright Thompson.  In anticipation of Jordan's 50th birthday, ESPN senior writer Wright Thompson spent some time with Number 23. The product is an Outside the Lines article titled "Michael Jordan Has Not Left the Building," a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse into the mind of the man who revolutionized the world of sports. This is well worth reading and sharing with your son.

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Daily Bread

Luther in his Small Catechism said, “Daily bread includes everything that has to do with the support and needs of the body, such as food, drink, clothing, shoes, house, home, land, animals, money, goods, a devout husband or wife, devout children, devout workers, devout and faithful rulers, good government, good weather, peace, health, self-control, good reputation, good friends, faithful neighbors and the like”.
Is that what you pray for when you pray to your heavenly Father and ask for your daily bread? Augustine said, “Whatever serves for our well-being’ is daily bread." Thank you Lord.

River Runs Deep Eric Clapton with JJ Cale 2010

Eric Clapton & B.B. King- Riding With The King

BB King & Eric Clapton - The Thril is Gone - Private Concert at White House. 1999

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Little Walter - Everybody Needs Somebody

Joe Cocker - FEELIN ALRIGHT - Ultimate Collection

Al Green - Get Back ( Beatles Cover)

Dead In The Water - No This Is Not About the Carnival Triumph


What It Means To Be United To Christ

What characterizes the redemption of Christ holds true for the redemption of the believer. As the justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification of the former take place by and at his resurrection, so the justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification of the latter take place in his having been raised with Christ, that is, in his having been united to Christ as resurrected.

This means, then, that despite a surface appearance to the contrary, Paul does not view the justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification of the believer as separate, distinct acts but as different facets or aspects of the one act of incorporation with the resurrected Christ. 
--Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., Resurrection and Redemption: A Study in Paul's Soteriology (P&R, 1987), 130-31

Thursday, February 14, 2013

What Is the Bible?

Most people in churches nowadays have never read through the Bible even once; the older Christian habit of reading it from start to finish as a devotional discipline has virtually vanished. So in describing the Bible we start from scratch, assuming no prior knowledge. 
The Bible consists of 66 separate pieces of writing, composed over something like a millennium and a half. The last 27 of them were written in a single generation: they comprise four narratives about Jesus called Gospels, an account of Christianity’s earliest days called the Acts of the Apostles, 21 pastoral letters from teachers with authority, and a final admonition to churches from the Lord Jesus himself, given partly by dictation and partly by vision. All these books speak of human life being supernaturally renovated through, in, with, under, from and for the once crucified, now glorified Son of God, who fills each writer’s horizon, receives his worship, and determines his mind-set at every point.

Through the books runs the claim that this Jesus fulfills promises, patterns and premonitions of blessings to come that are embodied in the 29 pre-Christian books. These are of three main types: history books, telling how God called and sought to educate the Jewish people, Abraham’s family, to worship, serve and enjoy him, and to be ready to welcome Jesus Christ when he appeared; prophetic books, recording oracular sermons from God conveyed by human messengers expressing threats, hopes and calls to faithfulness; and wisdom books which in response to God’s revelation show how to praise, pray, live, love, and cope with whatever may happen.

Christians name these two collections the Old and New Testament respectively. Testament means covenant commitment, and the Christian idea, learned from Paul, from the writer to the Hebrews, and from Jesus himself, is that God’s covenant commitment to his own people has had two editions. The first edition extended from Abraham to Christ; it was marked throughout by temporary features and many limitations, like a non-permanent shanty built of wood on massive concrete foundations. The second edition extends from Christ’s first coming to his return, and is the grand full-scale edifice for which the foundations were originally laid.
The writer to the Hebrews, following Jeremiah’s prophecy, calls this second superstructure the new covenant, and explains that through Christ, who is truly its heart, it provides a better priesthood, sacrifice, place of worship, range of promises and hope for the future than were known under its predecessor. Christians see Christ as the true center of reference in both Testaments, the Old always looking and pointing forward to him and the New proclaiming his past coming, his present life and ministry in and from heaven, and his future destiny at his return, and they hold that this is the key to true biblical interpretation.
Christians have maintained this since Christianity began. 
--J. I. Packer, Taking God Seriously: Vital Things We Need to Know (Crossway, 2013), 21-22

Billy Cobham - Snoopy's Search/Red Baron (1973)

Jimi Hendrix - Born Under A Bad Sign

Lightnin' Hopkins - Black Cat Blues

Rolling Stones and Howlin Wolf _1965_ How Many More Years

Little Walter's Jump - Little Walter live

Saturday, February 9, 2013

It Doesn't Matter

I walked in the sunshine with a scholar who had effectively forfeited his prospects of academic advancement by clashing with church dignitaries over the gospel of grace. 'But it doesn't matter,' he said at length, 'for I've known God and they haven't.'
--J. I. Packer, Knowing God,
The biggest trials I have gone through in my life have been over the gospel of grace. I have been personally attacked and endured many trials in the ministry, my character has been attacked, and I've lost count of the ways the enemy has tried to discourage me and get me to quit the ministry. I don't know the man Packer is talking but I certainly know exactly what he was talking about. What ever I have lost or forfeited doesn't matter because I know God and have entrusted my life to him and the gospel of grace. There is no other gospel, there is no other way of salvation. I can say with the apostle Paul I am what I am by the grace of God.

LITTLE WALTER - UP THE LINE

Baby What You Want Me To Do - Jimmy Reed

Little Walter - I Hate To See You Go

Thursday, February 7, 2013

Even Our Best Is Not Good Enough

"Sin mingles even with our holy things, and our best repentance, faith, prayer, and thanksgiving could not be received of God were it not for the merit of the atoning sacrifice." Charles Spurgeon
How our hearts struggle's to believe this. If you bring to God your best repentance God would not receive it by itself alone. He can only receive it because of the merit of Christ's atoning sacrifice. Whatever you bring to God is mixed with sin. Your best faith, your best prayer, and your best thanksgiving would not make it past the ceiling of the room you're in unless it was washed in the atoning sacrifice of Christ. Only what Christ has done is acceptable to God. Come to God on the basis of Christ's merit alone and leave all your religious goodness behind.

Eric Clapton - Reconsider Baby - Tsunami Concert

Eric Clapton with Jools Holland at The Tsunami Relief Concert in Cardiff,2005

Eric Clapton - Little Queen of Spades - Tsunami Concert

Eric Clapton - Love Her With A Feeling

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Never Again

"If God has laid your sins upon the Son of His love, you may rest assured that He will never lay them a second time upon you; since, if Christ has borne them and atoned for them to Divine justice, they never again can be found." - Octavius Winslow
You must believe this if you want to enjoy being a Christian. I hear Christians say "yes I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me" but they really don't know what he did or believe what he did for them. What did he do? Not just that he bore your sins, that's all of them, he was punished for them, God poured out his wrath on Christ for your sins. For you to live in doubt about your salvation, for you to worry if you've done enough, for you to live in fear that God is feed up with you and will kick you out of the kingdom is to live in unbelief and fear. God can never put your sins back on you once he put them on Christ.

My Baby Don't Tolerate: Lyle Lovett, John Hiatt and Joe Ely

White Freightliner : VA - Townes Van Zandt Tribute

Charlie Musselwhite - Please Remember Me

Shame Shame Shame by Jimmy Reed

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Say What - Daytona Beach 1987