Good Friday and the Music that Saved My Life! (My Good Friday Playlist)

If you are expecting a profound Good Friday note - move on to someone else, because this ain't it!
Today is Good Friday, and as I was driving to the church this morning, I started listening to some old Christian rock music that influenced my life as a teenager. I absolutely LOVE music - I always have, and as long as God allows me to hear, feel and kind of sing, I believe I always will. In the early 1980s, I got my first taste of "Christian Rock" music, and my world was never the same again - Praise God! I truly believe that God allowed this type of music into my life to penetrate my heart and challenge me to live my life for Him. Music has been instrumental (no pun intended) in my life - a tool that God has used to speak truth into what can sometimes be a very hard head and an equally hard heart. This is not to say that I was a "saintly" teenager - by no means. I was often two-faced and hid my secret sins from everyone around me and put on my "good little Christian kid" face easily and readily. I am also not a "saintly" adult (I KNOW that may come as a shock to many of you...haha!). However, God by His infinite mercy and grace continues to work in my still often very hard head and hard heart to draw me close to Him and remind me of who He is, and who I can be through Him. So...now I'm going to post some links to what has become my "Good Friday Playlist." I listen to this music now, and some of it seems so cheesy...so "garage band kids with a Tascam four track recorder" type music - and that's what I LOVE about it! Enjoy...or not - I'm okay with that. However, if you are going to make fun of it - just remember: Jesus used this tool among many and saved my life through this music - so I might get a little sensitive! :)

1. Undercover, "Three Nails" off their "Boys and Girls Renounce the World" album...1984! So catchy..."Three nails, three days, one way to God!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToqOHfxaW_k

2. Petra, "It is Finished" off the "Beat the System" album...1985!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuFvhjEO0Ao

3. Oh yeah...my absolute FAVORITE 80's Christian band - Altar Boys (Never to be confused with some other wacko band called The Altar Boyz), "The Final Hour" off the best ever Christian album of the 1980s, "Gut Level Music"...1986!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LduKZW7cbBw

4. Altar Boys...again - "Life Begins at the Cross" "GLM"...1986!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYWBvydSxYM

5. Could it be...Altar Boys...again - ripping out "I'm Not Talkin' About Religion" "GLM"...1986! My favorite line..."I'm gonna tell you like it is, Jesus is God! He died for you and He rose from the dead, and that's the way it is!!!"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9gx5vj9KLQ

6. Undercover again..."Pilate" off their "Branded" album...1986!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njjiI6Wx6fM

7. Petra "He Came, He Saw, He Conquered" off their "This Means War" album...1987
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARHhDQ1tKc8

8. Life Savers Underground (LSU)..."Wakin' Up the Dead"...off the "Wakin' Up the Dead" album...1989
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivFSWPOLMiQ

9. Deliverance "Weapons of Our Warfare"...off "Weapons of Our Warfare" album...1990(I think my mom thought I was crazy when she heard me listening to this!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDATFSeF47M&playnext=1&list=PL97BA5203239FAEA3

10. Whitecross "Because of Jesus" ...off the 1988 "The Hammer and the Nail" album.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah5ZhIhwfjc

Good Friday is the day we remember the crucifixion of Jesus Christ! These songs helped me do just that at a critical point in my life. The validity of certain types of music has been hotly debated in the church for decades - the debate misses the point. Music...of any style can be used by God to draw people to Him. I'm thankful for it all! I hope today you take time to reflect on the awesome sacrifice that was made by our Savior.

Thanks David...and Cade

I'm not always sure where the line between being "appropriately vulnerable" with people about my shortcomings and insecurities versus trying to make everyone think "I have it all together," is as a pastor - but this post might cross it. If so, I apologize in advance and you can rebuke me for it later. In the meantime, I'm going to go ahead and write while I still have fresh thoughts in my head.

This morning started off like any other morning: Wake up, shower, greet my wife and kids, help the boys get their teeth brushed, have a bowl of Cinnamon Life, etc. and so forth. Like many other mornings, I had the joy of taking my son to Kindergarten. This is, however, when the morning quickly went from normal to insane. As we were headed through our neighborhood, a driver ran a stop sign - which isn't always a big deal, except that our roads are literally a sheet of ice right now. I hit my brakes and due to my superior driving skills, I successfully swerved to miss him, and ended up semi-stuck on top of a small snowbank. I waited, engine still running, for the other driver to stop and make sure that we were okay, to thank me for not plowing into him and collecting my insurance money, AND APOLOGIZE - but he just kept right on going. Something in my brain snapped.

I realized I was not as stuck as I thought I was when I floored the gas pedal of my V6 Ford and tore off after him like Roscoe P. Coaltrain in "hot pursuit." Recognizing that I was behind him and not happy, the other driver quickly ducked back into our neighborhood on another side street...I was not far behind. He then shot down another road, and I proceeded, rather quickly I might add, on an adjacent street that I knew would cut him off. Upon seeing me, he quickly made a U-turn and tried to dodge down yet another side street. I, however, knew he had made a grave mistake - he was in a cul-de-sac, and I was blocking the way out. Can you say, "BUSTED?"

My son is in the backseat in his booster chair, and yells, "There's the guy, dad!" My response was, "I know, Cade." He then asks, "What are you going to do, dad?" Kids always have the best questions. I think for a second and say, "I don't know." At that point, I decided to just drive off and leave - mostly because I was going to be late getting him to school, and the 'ol Ford was almost out of gas.

I have been wondering all day, what would I have done, if I would have decided to take it any further? Would I have beat him up? Given him a good tongue-lashing? Demand an apology? My son's question, "What are you going to do, dad?" is still ringing in my head.

I came into my office after "the incident" and picked up my Bible to have my morning quiet time. I knew I needed it. I spent part of Christmas week helping a family deal with the trauma of losing a loved one to suicide, then just last night, a close friend from a church family called to tell me his mother had just passed away. My life has been so busy, and I know I have neglected to nurture my own heart spiritually and the poor guy in my neighborhood almost received the brunt of it.

I am proceeding through the One Year Bible again this year, and one of today's passages was Psalm 4. Verse 4 says in the NLT, "Don’t sin by letting anger control you. Think about it overnight and remain silent." David, thanks for your inspired words, and thanks to my son, for asking all the right questions. While I'm a bit sheepish about my "car chase" (although, I must say, I've got skills), I'm glad that the words of my young six-year old stopped me in the nick of time.