Roll it up, light it up, smoke it up. Inhale. Exhale.

This is the second time I've quoted Cypress Hill on my blog. I must've hung out with some stoners in high school! Anyway, the link I think is an institution that's existence can only be explained by stoners.

Enjoy

THE WEEKLY INAPPROPRIATE CHURCH SIGN

This one takes a minute. Imagine if the sign were tie dyed. Huh? Mom you may need to call me. Who am I kidding, ya hippie?

That's right...Joint Worship!

Puff, Puff? GIVE!

I'm just a singer of songs.

This is a lyric from a song Johnny Cash recorded called A Singer of Songs which recounts a man looking back on his life, about to meet his maker, coming to the conclusion that he was simply and profoundly just a singer of songs. You can find it on Cash's Unearthed box set. This link is really cool as well. It's NPR's Remembrance of Johnny on the morning he died.

I have been trying to find the time to write this blog all day. I'll have to admit I cheated quite a bit; I cut and pasted a big chunk of commentary off the wiki site. I'm proud to say I knew all of this already, I just found it all already written for me. This is a history lesson on Johnny Cash's final work as an artist on American Recordings. I hope I don't bore you all, but it's the 12th and that's when we pay honor to my prophet, The Man In Black.

In the Eighties Johnny Cash had drifted into musical obscurity. He was dropped from his longtime label Columbia after years of hits and after attaining the status of "living legend." Most of his songs from this period are schmaltzy, overproduced, and devoid of that stark depth contained in Cash's simple and powerful delivery of songs. He had gotten lost in the punk and emerging grunge scenes in a wilderness of corny music that sounded like everything else on the radio-which Johnny Cash had never done. The first pathway out was his collaboration with Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson in the "supergroup" The Highwaymen. Then, in 1993, he sang the vocal on U2's "The Wanderer" for their album Zooropa. Although he was no longer sought after by major labels, Cash was approached by producer Rick Rubin and offered a contract with Rubin's American Recordings label, better known for rap and hard rock than for country music.

Under Rubin's supervision, he recorded the album American Recordings (1994) in his living room, accompanied only by his guitar. The video for the first single, the traditional song "Delia's Gone," was put into rotation on MTV, including a spot on Beavis and Butt-head. The album was hailed by critics and many declared it to be Cash's finest album since the late 1960s, while his versions of songs by more modern artists such as heavy metal band Danzig and Tom Waits helped to bring him a new audience. American Recordings received a Grammy for Contemporary Folk Album of the Year at the 1994 Grammy Awards. Cash wrote that his reception at the 1994 Glastonbury Festival was one of the highlights of his career. This was the beginning of a decade of music industry accolades and surprising commercial success.

For his second album with Rubin, 1996's Unchained, Cash enlisted the accompaniment of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. In addition to many of Cash's own compositions, Unchained contained songs by Soundgarden ("Rusty Cage") and Beck ("Rowboat"), as well as a guest appearance from Flea, bassist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The album also included a cover of a classic 1962 Hank Snow song called "I've Been Everywhere." Despite being virtually ignored by country music radio and the Nashville establishment, Unchained received a Grammy for Best Country Album.

The album American III: Solitary Man (2000) contained Cash's response to his illness, typified by a version of Tom Petty's "I Won't Back Down," as well as a powerful reading of U2's "One." American III: Solitary Man, just like Cash's two previous albums produced by Rick Rubin, was a Grammy winner, taking home the award for the Best Country Male Vocal Performance for Cash's version of the Neil Diamond classic "Solitary Man."


Cash released American IV: The Man Comes Around (2002), consisting partly of original material and partly of covers. The video for "Hurt", a song written by Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails in the early-1990s, was nominated in seven categories at the 2003 MTV Video Music Awards and won the award for Best Cinematography. In February 2003, mere days before his 71st birthday, Cash won another Grammy for Best Country Male Vocal Performance for "Give My Love To Rose," a song Cash had originally recorded in the late 1950s. The music video for "Hurt," hailed by critics and fans alike as the most personal and moving music video in history, also won a Grammy for Best Short Form Video at the 2004 Grammy Awards.

In 2003, shortly after Johnny's death Rick Rubin released a project he and Johnny had been working on for years; the boxed set Unearthed. The set was a collection of music (4 CDs full) that Johnny had recorded in the ten years on American. This boxed set is amazing and the liner notes which include Cash's comments on each song are even more so.

Before his death Johnny recorded dozens more songs with Rubin. These songs will one day be released on Johnny's final album American V. Rubin is in negotiations now for a new deal and this album as much as any other project he has in his vault is greatly anticipated.

Lest we hang him up there twice.

This is a lyric from the song below that I wrote a couple of years ago now that I called Easter Song. I was tapped out creatively when it came time to title it. The link will take you to a very cool video I found at YouTube.

It's Holy Week and things at work are pretty busy. I thought sharing this was a good way to post, but not spend two hours working on it.

Easter Song
By J.D. Rose

All these 40 days I suffer
These 40 days I wonder
Am I worthy of his cross
His life for me
So I try to give my sacrifice
Lest we hang him up there twice
He’s paid all the cost for me

In trying days he’s missing
We sit here empty wishing
For a Savior we can’t see
But always close by
Couldn’t have been just a teacher
Or a wise man or a preacher
The King of Kings was born to die

Easter has come again
All your sins are forgiven
For the Son of Man
Was dead and gone and has risen

All over his world this morning
Another season is dawning
Chanting hallelujah he rose
And we are free
So let us carry his love
Heavenly gift from above
You know he died for you and me

Easter has come again
All your sins are forgiven
For the Son of Man
Was dead and gone and has risen

Let us sing
Let us praise
The maker of our days
Praise him in always
He is God
Let us sing
Let us praise
The maker of our days
Praise him in always
He is God

Easter has come again
All your sins are forgiven
For the Son of Man
Was dead and gone and has risen

Looking forward to Easter, because of worship ofcourse and also because I'm gonna drink a Coke for the first time in 40 some days!!!

Someday, you'll come around to see the other side of things.

The lyric today comes from a song called El Otro Lado, which means The Other Side by an artist I just got into named Josh Rouse. Check him out by clicking on the title. I did, and found out what El Otro Lado meant.

Sometimes we have to look at things from a different perspective. The images in this blog were taken within minutes of eachother as I lay in the same pew in the church I serve shooting up at the chandelier. Their only difference? What light I shone upon it and how closely I focused. I think they visually say all I mean to in this entry.

Everyone smiles when their picture is being taken, well, most everyone. This is the chandelier up close with the flash on. It is beautiful and yet it is sterile. It isn't showing its wear or accurately what it looks like hanging in the middle of the wide open sanctuary. This is the image we'd put in the directory. This is the image we'd hang on our office doors were we so inclined. It is the chandelier devoid of context, spotlighted as its own monument in an unbreathing world. Too often this is how we see eachother, as a well lit snapshot. And the truth is much more complex and dark and interesting and beautiful. We need more information to gain perspective.


This is the chandelier seconds later with no flash, only the natural light shining through the windows on an average sunny day. You can see its age. You can see that it appears dark and green; mysterious and old. This is a truer depiction of this chandelier. It has not been given the benefit of its own light, but rather the light its surroundings supply. This picture gives us a deeper understanding of the chandelier, hanging beside a window, darkened by shadows, tinted green as it hangs above. But there is a deeper, truer picture to see. There is another perspective we can gain, even in this one spot.




Here we can see the chandelier in even more of its context. It is the center of a complicated intersection of light and sound and angles and shadow. The chandelier hangs in the middle of the room, recieving first the words and song pouring from the speakers hung nearby, catching the light some sides near it cannot recieve. This is an even truer image of the chandelier. We see its place in the ceiling. We see how it hangs alone yet anchors the space around it. Yet there are always deeper levels of understanding to attain. I could show you a panorama of the sanctuary. I could show you the chandelier from the balcony view, from the choir loft, from the pulpit. It hangs above us and reflects the sun and displays the shadow differently from each angle. I could show you the church it stands in, then the street the church sits on, the town you'd find the street in, the county, the state, the country, the globe. I could show you satelite footage of the continent and images of Earth from space.

But some moment in the course of my understanding the chandelier from such a far off place, I'm no longer looking at the chandelier anymore. I lose perspective on the light and the dark and I no longer am seeking the truth, but rather trying to allow for the broadest view.

Believe it or not, this is my metaphor for Biblical interpretation...



Often, Christians focus on specific little moments of Bible teaching and snapshot them. When they do it is easier to come to terms and settle on right and wrong. We can even hang these simple 'yes'es and 'no's on the walls of our offices and courthouses and on the backs of our cars. But the Truth is so much bigger than the snapshot and so much more beautiful. The snapshot, while neat and simple, is out of its context and sterile.

There are also those, Christians and otherwise, who have a very broad view of what Truth is. I am kindred with these people. I often wonder if there is anything on Earth that can't be learned from and thus useful and thus truthful and thus a tiny bit of Truth. But viewing Truth, especially Biblical teaching from this broadest place also misses the beauty contained in the individual teaching and the amazing connections we may find to context and how the light shines on certain places and leaves others in shadowy mystery.

I am striving to have an idea of what I think my perspective needs to be. I can tell you it is broader than most of my contemporaries and all of my church. I can tell you that I find less light shining and less truth revealed on certain passages than others and that alone is a broader view. But yet I think the words matter and the context matters and there is no such thing as 'truth is relative.'

Love should always be good. Death should always be bad. Life should always be valued. Moving my focus toward the moment; who we love should never be questioned, who we would kill should always be, and lives should always be worth uncomforatble and painstaking concessions. I reject those who tell me that understadning The Bible, Truth, and God is simple and black and white. I also reject those who say God is just the sum of all creation and every perspective and truth is point of view.

What does this mean? I suppose the lesson for me is that I have more to discover. I suppose that should be the lesson for all of us. I want to see God from close up and far away. I believe he can be found in the focused moments out of context and the bigger picture beyond all contexts. I think for me the moment I can see the intersection of light and sound and angles and shadow will be when I declare Truth present; in my Bible reading, in my ministering, in my living.

Here comes Peter Cottontale, hopping down the bunny trail!

Forget this lyric. Take this link!

I found this article online tonight on Yahoo news. I'm saving the image that was with it for later in the blog. That will be the reward waiting at the end of your 'quest'. Wait till you see it!

-------------------Beware the 'big pointy teeth!'-------------------

For some reason this story is funnier when you read it in a ridiculous British accent.

Bigs bunny: monster rabbit devours English veggie plots

LONDON (AFP) - In a tale reminiscent of the last Wallace and Gromit movie, furious villagers in northeast England have hired armed guards to protect their beloved communal vegetable gardens from a suspected monster rabbit.

Leeks, Japanese onions, parsnips and spring carrots have all been ripped up and devoured by the mystery were-rabbit -- prompting the 12 allotment holders in Felton, north of Newcastle, to hire two marksmen with air rifles and orders to shoot to kill.

"It is a massive thing. It is a monster. The first time I saw it, I said: 'What the hell is that?'" the Northumberland Gazette newspaper quoted local resident Jeff Smith, 63, as saying on its website (www.northumberlandtoday.co.uk).

He claims to have seen the black and brown rabbit -- with one ear bigger than the other -- about two months ago, and at least three fellow allotment holders say they have seen it as well.

"I have seen it and it is bigger than a normal rabbit. It's eating all our crops and we grow the best stuff here," said retired miner George Brown, 76, quoted by the domestic Press Association news agency.

Smith could not be reached for comment Friday, but his mother told AFP that the hare-raising story is true -- and no less an authority than the British Rabbit Council said it was credible.

"Certain breeds do grow very big, like the Continental Giant" which can be 66 centimetres (26 inches) in length or more, a spokesman for the Nottinghamshire-based council, which represent rabbit breeders, told AFP.

In the last hit movie featuring Wallace and his dog Gromit, the two cartoon characters battled a monster rabbit that was cutting a swathe of destruction through locals' prize vegetable plots.





Okay, so this story is kind of a waste of time, but the image that Yahoo had with it was truly terrifying.

Brace yourself...



My dear Lord!!!
I truly never believed in the Easter Bunny. It never seemed plausible, a walking talking rabbit coming into the house and hiding all the eggs. Always seemd like the grownups stealing Santa's idea. Boy was I wrong.

I now freely submit to the possibility of walking talking bunnies!

Have a blessed Holy Week.