Review of Chicago XXXVI: Now

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a pretty die-hard fan of the band Chicago. However, we have not seen much new music from the celebrated “rock band with horns” since 1991 – just two albums of new material entering this year (not including compilations, Christmas albums and a big-band themed project in the mid-1990s).

Needless to say, Chicago XXXVI: Now (also known as “NOW” Chicago XXXVI) has been much anticipated by fans of the veteran rock band. And the 36th album in the band's official catalog does not disappoint.

Fans who have wanted to hear more of the band's legendary horn section will be very happy with XXXVI. The album kicks off with the title cut – co-written by vocalist and bassist Jason Scheff, it features a sound and a horn chart that are throwbacks to the band's popular mid-70s sound. From there, the album segues into “More Will Be Revealed,” a Robert Lamm track that blends a contemporary sound and the band's signature horns into an enjoyable sound.

Indeed, those two songs give a nice preview of what Chicago XXXVI: Now is like. Songs like “America,” Love Lives On” and “Free At Last” could have fit on any of Chicago's albums in the mid-1970s, while other songs like “Nice Girl” and “Crazy Happy” lean in a more contemporary directions. Other songs like “America” and “Naked In the Garden of Allah” hearken back to the band's political songs from its early days. And the horns play a big part in all of them.

Indeed, Chicago XXXVI: Now is a great blend of the band's trademark sound combined with a nice side of 2014. The end result is one of the band's best albums since since the mid-1980s.

Buhler's rating: ***** stars out of five.

Wise as snakes?

I feel like a lack of wisdom is killing the church today. Jesus commands us to be as wise as snakes but as harmless doves (Matthew 10:16), yet we seldom do so.

We are called to be ambassadors for Christ, yet we spend much of our time acting like we are His enforcers. Instead of showing the love of Christ to an unsaved world, we often try to force church teachings on the world.

I believe the book of Genesis, but I also believe that we spend too much time fighting with the Darwinists – the way I understand the Bible, where we end up in the next world is much more important than debating how this world came into being.

We have devoted too much energy to fighting gay rights and gay marriage. Instead of showing gays and lesbians God's love, we often treat them as “sinners with 'special circumstances.'”

We worry more about prayer in school and prayer before high school football games than we do about showing the love of Christ in church – or anywhere else, for that matter.

Jesus Christ is the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6), but are we doing things His way??

God is still God -- end of story

I got this from a friend of mine named John Tiner. This is written by a pastor friend of his named William Miller, and I was so impressed when I read it. I hope you will be too. It goes something like this:

Who says God was taken out of schools?

I have heard my whole life how God was taken out of schools. How the Christians allowed it to happen. Well this is what I say to that!

• My God is the King of Kings
• He is the great redeemer
• He is the great healer
• He is the great warrior
• He is the great creator
• He is all powerful
• He is all knowing
• He is omnipotent
• He is omnipresent
• He is the God of the universe!

And you think Man has the power to take him of of government? You think man has power to take Him out of the military? You think man has the power to take my God out of the schools? 

Think again! My God has always been and will always be! Ain't no man powerful enough to take my God out of anything not even the local bar or brothel! The problem this country has is not where God is because God is everywhere! The problem is people have not allowed Him into their hearts, and Christians are not spreading the gospel of Jesus. I believe that people saying things like taking God out of school is a lazy way for Christians to pass the buck for us not doing our part by spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ! The only thing that will bring true change is a change of heart! That is only done by the Blood of Jesus!

Priorities

A preacher named T.F. Tenney once said, “The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” And what I've seen around me in recent times (especially in 2012) has done a pretty good job of convincing me that many of my fellow Christians and followers of Christ are not doing a very good job of following Bishop Tenney's idea. And I think I've finally gotten fed up enough to blog, so hold on to your hats.

I think the short version of what Bishop Tenney said is one word: priorities. And I think we need to examine ours.

• Playing the blame game does not help. Sitting around moaning about how everything has gone downhill since the Supreme Court banned prayer and Bible-reading in schools in the early 1960s is a cop-out. For one thing, all it banned was state-sponsored prayer and Bible-reading. If students want to pray silently, they can (and many probably do, come test time). And it did not ban prayer and Bible-reading in the home. Most work places do not open with prayer. Most college classes don't. And yet we hear no one complain about that. We need to take a much deeper look at what's wrong in the world instead of just fussing because we don't have teachers leading their first-hour classes in prayer.
• Quit fussing about little stuff, folks. Quit looking at people who say “Merry Xmas” and “Happy Holidays” like they're a bunch of God-haters and heathens. For one thing, I say it. Xmas is just a short way of saying Christmas, and as for saying Happy Holidays, not everybody celebrates Christmas. And where in the Bible does it command us to disrespect those who disagree with us?
• Quit making big things out of smaller things. People are dying lost without Christ in their lives every day in this country, and too many in the church are worried about whether the liberals are going to ban assault weapons. If the government does ban assault weapons, the world isn't going to end and Big Brother isn't going to drag you into Room 101. Worry about what's important, not what isn't.
• America is not New Israel. Don't get me wrong – I'm thankful for the freedom we have, especially the freedom to worship God. But I feel like the church has made a mistake by diving as hard into politics as it has. Max Lucado once said, “Love is only love if (it is) chosen.” But today, Christians are worried more about making people choose what's right than they are about letting them do it voluntarily. I think one of the biggest reasons that people, and especially younger people, are turning off to Christianity is that we're spending too much time trying to legislate morality than we are shining the light of Jesus Christ. It's like I told one of my best friends just a bit ago, “I think too many Christians are more worried about guns and gay marriage than they are (about) spreading the Gospel.”

I think James said it best more than 1,900 years ago. He simply said, “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one's religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:22-27, NKJV)

Pharisee Christianity

This is a sermon I preached to Lighthouse at the Clubhouse recently. Some strong medicine, have a read!

II Timothy 3:5 – Having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away!

Mark 7:6-9 – He answered and said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’ For laying aside the commandment of God, you hold the tradition of men – the washing of pitchers and cups, and many other such things you do.” He said to them, “All too well you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition.”

“Pharisee Christianity”

Back when Jesus Christ was walking the earth, there were a lot of different religious groups in the world of that time. One of them was a group called the Pharisees. By the time of the Gospels, they had become somewhat part of the religious establishment. And as such, they resisted the teachings of Jesus Christ. They were more worried about keeping the letter of the law than the spirit of it. They were more concerned with putting on a good front than being righteous. They were almost like Billy Crystal’s Fernando on Saturday Night Live, who said, “It’s better to look good than to feel good.” In Matthew 23:24, Jesus accused them of gagging on a gnat but swallowing a camel. In verse 28, He added, “Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”

A real sorry bunch. But how different are we today? How are most Christians different from the world? When you look at divorce rates, premarital sex rates, attitudes, etc., where is the difference? And are we getting ourselves all worked up about little things and neglecting what is important?

So many Christians get fired up as to whether there should be prayer in the classroom and before football games (by the way, why is it so important to pray before football games but not before other sporting events?) But will prayer in the classroom help if there is no prayer at home?

People often go to church on Sunday, but how do they live Monday through Saturday? And on that subject, grace is not a license to sin. Just because you’ve been saved doesn’t mean you can live like a devil and still expect to spend eternity with the Lord (Matthew 7:21-23, Romans 11:20-22)

We hear so much about how America has such a great Christian heritage, but we have had many dark chapters in our history too. Slavery, robber barons, oppression of labor – pre-1900 especially, racism (call it what you may, Jim Crow was nothing less than American Apartheid), Japanese internment camps in World War II, prejudice toward immigrants, civil war, etc. Going to church and saying you’re a Christian does not make it okay to sin.

Politics won’t save us. Becoming an arch-conservative and legislating morality won’t get it. Revival will get it. A move of the Holy Spirit will get it. Jesus Christ will get it.

All verses are NKJV

Baseball, love and dating

In baseball, if you go up to the dish and you strike out, there’s a pretty good chance that you may have ran up against a tough pitcher. But if you strike out 20 times in a row, then it’s time to take a long hard look at your swing and your batting stance and see what you’re doing wrong – instead of accusing all the hurlers of scuffing the baseball.

What applies in baseball also applies in this case with life and love.

I see so many bad relationships that it’s almost turned the whole concept of dating and love into one bad reality show. And it doesn’t have to be that way.

While bad taste in dating and romance is an equal-opportunity problem (anyone who knows me well enough knows I’ve crushed on some quarky women, to say the least), it seems that it’s the girls who have almost made chasing jerks an art form. Not all of you ladies are guilty, but it’s still way too common.

So here a few random thoughts:

• Quit blaming the opposite sex for your bad taste. We males are not all jerks. Women are not all jerks. As a male, I know that it’s NOT cool to treat women as objects and engage in other forms of disrespect towards them. Cheating on a woman and treating her as a sex toy is not kosher. And I know other guys who feel the same way. So ladies, quit branding all of us as bad. All males are not jerks – just the ones you chase. And that goes for us guys who have chased bad women.
• Don’t underestimate yourself. It’s good to be humble. In fact, if you’re a follower of Jesus Christ you’re supposed to be. But don’t underestimate yourself, if nothing else because other people don’t underestimate you. Too many times, women are very critical of their looks – their boobs aren’t big enough, their butt is too big, their abs aren’t flat enough, etc. – and they’re blind to the fact that they’re quite attractive. But let me tell you, us guys aren’t blind to it. And the bad guys for sure aren’t. So remember that.

Anyway, that’s my $0.02…

Italian Sausage Soup recipe

I made this for Lighthouse at the Clubhouse (our midweek church service we hold at Three Rivers College). Hope you enjoy it! :)

1 pound of Italian sausage, browned and drained

2 bell peppers, chopped and seeded

2 medium-sized potatoes, chopped or diced or sliced

1 can (10-3/4 ounces) of cream of mushroom soup with roasted garlic

2/3 cup water

2 cups parmesan cheese, shredded

Cook time: approximately 2-1/2 hours. Serves: 8. Calories per serving: approximately 240

Combine Italian sausage, bell peppers, potatoes, cream of mushroom and water in a crock pot and stir occasionally. About two hours in, stir in cheese and cook for 30 more minutes. Serve with corn chips or bread.