Today, at church, we had a delightful 20 minute set by Randy Stonehill. He still has the wry sense of humor and commanding presence. “King of Hearts” brought tears to my eyes.

This afternoon, I watched “Fallen Angel,” the documentary on the life of Larry Norman. Larry was a revolutionary and a prophet and a musical genius. The movie will have its premier this week in Nashville. Here’s a preview:

More info on the film’s web site, here: http://www.fallenangeldoc.com/

In 1978, and 1979, I was part of the Inter-Varsity graduate group at Stanford. We arranged for a public lecture by Larry Norman (he brought his guitar and played a few songs as well), and then a full-bore concert by Randy Stonehill in the auditorium on campus. Randy brought the full band and played LOUD! But we loved it. Good times.

Here’s a clip of Larry singing one of his best-known songs, The Outlaw:

Here’s Randy singing King of Hearts:

I’m afraid James Ward and Pat Terry haven’t made it to YouTube, though I suppose there might be videos out there which will eventually be uploaded. They both have their own web sites though!

http://www.patterryonline.com/

http://www.jameswardmusic.com/

Today’s lesson was from the book of Genesis. During the next 8 week segment, the kids will be going over both the Tower of Babel and the Flood sections, but today was the introductory material. You might not think there would be much for kids in the passages from Genesis 4 & 5 that cover the genealogy of the Patriarchs – but there is! There are ten figures named starting with Adam and ending with Noah. For each one the text gives their age when their son was born and how long they lived. From these figures, it is possible to construct a timeline showing how much time elapsed from Adam to Noah and the Flood.

If we take the year of Adam’s birth as 0 and then add the ages of each Patriarch to the age of their father in the year of their birth we come up with a total of 1,656 years from Adam’s birth to the Flood. But there’s more to think about here than just how much time passed. It’s also intriguing to look at how much the lives of the Patriarch’s overlapped each other. There’s also the fascinating story of Enoch, who did not die, but was taken by God directly into heaven.

To help kids see these relationships, Cyndy planned and laid out a “living timeline” for the kids on the floor of our fellowship hall.

At the start of the lesson, ten children sat in ten chairs and picked up the name of a randomly assigned Patriarch. The teacher called the first name, “Adam.” The student started walking the taped timeline at Adam’s birth, paused when Seth was born, and then continued to walk the rest of the years of their life. Then Seth was called, and so on.

There were two lines drawn across the lifelines of the Patriarchs. A blue ribbon marked the year of Adam’s death. At the conclusion of the class the students were asked, “How many of the other nine Patriarchs could have talked to Adam?” The answer is eight. The tenth Patriarch, Noah, is the first one born after Adam’s death.

When we got to Enoch, by the way, rather than walking to the end of their lifeline, we had one of the teachers wheel the student out in a chair to show that the end of Enoch’s life was different.

The second line drawn across the lifelines was red crepe paper marking the year of the flood. A very concrete illustration of the meaning of Methuselah’s name which is “after me it comes.”

The kids had a good time and the visuals really drove the point home. I was in the sanctuary doing communion at the end of our morning worship service, so I challenged the adults to go find a child from Sunday School and find out how many of the Patriarchs could have talked to Adam.

Here’s what Cyndy wrote the teachers in the teachers’ guide to the lesson:

What we want the kids to take away from all this:

An appreciation for the historicity of Scripture.

Understanding that ALL Scripture, even the “begats” are profitable.

That the genealogies show us that there an eyewitness to Eden was alive for 900 years.  This means that Noah could not have talked to Adam about what it was like before the fall, but Noah’s father could have.

The worship leader, Don Poythress, is the most gifted worship leader I have ever met. He’s an accomplished songwriter and musician, but best of all, he’s a thoughtful worshiper. It’s important to him that the lyrics be theologically correct in both tone and content. I don’t wish to be provocative, but I dislike that certain strain of contemporary worship songs which (consciously or unconsciously) takes a “Jesus is my boyfriend” approach.

You won’t find any of that on Don’s new CD, Wash Away. Officially released yesterday, it includes twelve new worship songs, written by Don and several of his songwriting partners. I highly recommend it to you.

Here’s a 3 minute video interview of Don, with excerpts from the CD:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYbCGjO4EWw

The final song on the CD, Joseph, took my breath away the first time I heard it. It still does.

Joseph I hope to sit with you one day
Hear you tell me about the choices you were called to make
‘Cause Joseph it was you and no one else
That God trusted to take care of Mary and Himself.

On The Faithful Love of Jesus, Don is joined by the incomparable Ricky Skaggs on mandolin & vocals. The lyrics and the quiet, reflective melody are moving:

There are arms that we can lean into
That always will receive us
A living well of endless truth
The faithful love of Jesus

I pray you’ll know the love of God
The love that never leaves us
The height the depth the width the breadth
The faithful love of Jesus

Cyndy and I had the great pleasure of being in the audience at Christ Church, Nashville when this was recorded. It was a very special evening.

You can order the CD, or an .mp3, or individual songs direct from Amazon.com

Buy one for yourself, and give one to the worship leader at your church, or your pastor, or both.

*Don is way too modest about his accomplishments. He has had songs recorded by Willie Nelson (“You Remain”), Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, Tim McGraw (“Comfort Me”), Darryl Worley (“Shiloh”), Brian Littrell, the Marie Sisters, the Wikinsons, Leslie Satcher, Andrea Zonn, the Nashville Bluegrass Band, Niall Toner and Kieran Goss (both from Ireland), as well as the European artist Sir Cliff Richard. He co-wrote “The Promise” which was recorded by The Martins and won a Dove award in 2004.