Prayer

I've said on many occasions, as bad and evil as this world has become and as far as our Nation has drifted from its founding principles, it is little ole grannies on their knees before God Almighty that has prevented complete destruction.

But SOME, not all church goers who identify themselves as Christians unfortunately use prayer time as an occasion to GOSSIP. I believe God despises gossip. Its destructiveness cannot be measured. I myself have been described in the midst of such a group as having been "in and out of church." My friends have suffered the same. In my case the Lord told me not to bother offering a defense and I did not. I do not care what people think of me in or out of the church. They will have to answer for their spirit of gossip.

But it is things like this that people outside the flock see and satan uses it to keep them out. With the mega-church so prevalent, it's easy to assume that someone is not in church just because they haven't been there when YOU have. And here's a surprise. I don't think God gives out "browny points" for frequency of attendance. Lord forgive those and deliver them from the spirit of the Pharasee!

MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET

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Million Dollar Quartet

by Johnny Roebuck on Thursday, May 10, 2012 at 6:27pm ·

Some musicals are coming to local venues. There is Jersey Boys, a musical about the Four Seasons, Frankie Valli's group and another is called the Million Dollar Quartet. This, of course is about Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash and Carl (Lee) Perkins who all got their start at Sun Records, Memphis, Tennessee.

There was a motion picture about Cash "I Walk the Line" that had to minimize Elvis in order to keep the focus on Johnny, so the character who played EP was "cooled down." The same is true of "Great Balls of Fire" which was biographical about Jerry Lee Lewis. Standing next to ANYONE Elvis reigned supreme during his lifetime and ever since. The Beatles visited Elvis because they were fans. Elvis was invited to visit them, but declined...not so he's LOOK too cool, but because he was and IS too cool.

There have been a lot of biographical movies about Elvis...some accurate, some not, some flattering and some with a axe to grind against him. I have never felt the need to see an Elvis "tribute artist" as they are now called. There are some real good ones, granted, but I can still hear and see the real thing. I love SOME of the things they've done with the archive of his music, but I've already complained heavily about unworthy "duet" partners. When Elvis' legacy is left to the hands of those who brought us American Idol, you can expect what you get...using the Elvis name and image to boost some ho hum "artists." Not that Idol hasn't had a few decent ones.

They haven't yet done a biographical piece on Carl Perkins. There are different versions about how he came up with the idea of "Blue Suede Shoes" but the fact remains that that was Carl's tribute to the style of his friend Elvis, and designed especially for him. By the way, the very first album rock song, was Elvis' version of "Blue Suede Shoes" because Elvis wouldn't let RCA release it as a single for the longest time, but after singing it on national TV, audiences demanded to hear it. So, it was played and history was made. They really should do a film about Carl, me thinks.

Million Dollar Quartet is also an album, very rough. As Carl was recording the session with "Matchbox" at Sun, Elvis, who had signed with RCA popped in and the world's most famous jam session occurred. It was mostly gospel music. Johnny Cash, who reportedly was there, was not heard on what went on the album. All that was heard was Elvis and Jerry Lee's vocals, Elvis and Jerry Lee's piano playing and Carl's guitar playing. I'm not sure that there EVER was a time where all four lads played the same show. Perhaps so. But the musical is based on this concept and from what I've heard neither the Elvis or the Lewis character is really believable. So, unless someone gives me a free ticket, I don't plan to go to the show.

There is a good, unofficial biography of Johnny Cash on DVD I found at of all places, the Dollar Store. I enjoyed it. The perspective is from his brother Tommy and band members.

Susan Atkins

Name sound familiar? It should. Susan was a member of the Charles Manson "family." (cult)
In the days shortly after the Tate-LaBianca murders, on a visit to family in Eastern North Carolina I felt as though I was on trial. My hair was long, because that's the way I wanted to wear it and because I sang rock'n'roll.  Today, bald rockers are cool, at least I am...I think. Dunno, being cool is not like my top priority any more.
I had some cousins who didn't want to try to understand all of this as if I represented Charlie Manson and the antics of John Lennon and his new wife that most everyone thought of as a bit strange.

Years later, I read a book called "Child of Satan-Child of God" authored by Susan Atkins who admitted to being the one who killed Sharon Tate in her partly drug-induced fog partly being under the control of Charlie and largely being deceived by the Evil One. Susan  did horrible things unforgivable to the natural born, but not out of the reach of the One Who forgives and casts sins into a sea of forgetfulness, the One Who purchased Susan two thousand years before she was born.

Susan's story is one of an "all American girl" who ran away and got up with the wrong crowd, to say the least. Charlie had signs and wonders in his bag of tricks, including actually walking through her. Yeah, scary. But Susan's story doesn't end with committing murder and going to prison for life. Her story is one of redemption and of ministry in her final days right there in prison.

I, as a young Christian, was impacted greatly by Susan's book and wrote her. I got a hand-written answer from her mentioning that she was married (ha ha) and that she'd be glad to help me in any way with my spiritual walk. Susan passed away from brain cancer, I believe in 2009. Her letter and even more her book inspired me to keep on keeping on.

There are some pretty horrible people in this world that in my SELF, I would be tempted to give up on, but the Word of God says that "His mercy endures forever." If you haven't read Susan's book, I gurarantee it.

(Didn't think about it until after just now looking at her picture, but Susan resembled the first girl who ever really kissed me, Jan (Charli)Schmidt)