Month: November 2011

Free Christmas Mp3 Download- GK & Dobro

LOTS of posts this weekend… sorry for all this but I had time and
thought it best to just get it all online.

Here’s a free GK Christmas Mp3 download from Grrr Records. Myself with
a dobro playing Joy to The World. Hope you enjoy 🙂 OK, enough posts
for one weekend!!

Just click on “Great Holiday Bargains from Grrr Records” and the free
download of this song is the first thing you’ll see.

http://www.grrrrecords.com

Love, Hugs, Blessed Advent! -Glenn

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Three Blues Tunes in One YouTube Video Post

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Our friends at The Pig & Weasel houseshow venue (Evanston, IL) posted
another YouTube vid of my recent set there.

It includes “Repurposed” but also includes a short version of “Sweet
Home Chicago” from which I morphed into “Crossroads”, so all three
tunes are in the same clip.

“Repurposed” (from my “Cardboard Box” cd) is played on Rat Daddy’s
gift to me, a 4 string guitar with a piezo pickup and an antique
bedpan serving as the body. Nice! His site is at:

http://www.mojocbg.com

Sweet Home/C-roads is played on the very first “found object” 3 string
guitar I ever built, a little metal cookie tin with piezo pickup I
soldered in under the bridge.

Both guitars are plugged into a (appx.) 1 1/2 watt Trimmed & Burnin’
amp which is named “Spanky”… the little all-tube amp with an 8 in.
Weber speaker rips!

I made a shortened link to the YouTube clip via TinyUrl. Here you go:

http://tinyurl.com/7fec8ss

Enjoy your weekend and Advent 🙂 -Glenn

Blues Benefit Show in Oswego, Illinois

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I’m blessed to bring my blues to a benefit show Saturday December 10 in Oswego, IL @ The Kicker’s Club (1015 Harvey Road Oswego, IL 60543).

Oswego is basically a “suburb” of Aurora, Illinois.

Dean Morrissette recently broke his back in a tragic accident andcannot walk, is confined to a wheelchair and is in deep need offinancial help. He and his wife Diana are longtime Cornerstone Festival goers and it turns out the last set Dean saw there this year was a blues jam I and others did. Whew…

There are a number of bands/artists playing from 5-11pm on the day and I’m not certain when I’ll hit the stage- but don’t let that stop you from coming and helping their family out financially!

For further info.: 630.859.0600 or info@warehousechurch.org

Friendly Towers Senior Housing

FriendlyTowers2011.mp3

The church/intentional community I work with provides a number of needed
services that I am happy to share about from time to time.

Friendly Towers Senior Housing is all about caring for a number of
folks that are sometimes “off the charts”, too often forgotten in
terms of love, family and even basic care. We have an incredible staff
and I’m so blessed by their service to the many residents!

I have enclosed a podcast I did with FT director Dave Baumgartner here
and their website link: http://friendlytowers.com/

Blessings on your holidays (here in the U.S.)! -Glenn

Trust, Give Thanks -AND Please Be Seated!

There is a time for every purpose under heaven.

Years ago we lost track of a black and white photo of me as a very
little boy, sitting in a barber’s chair getting my very first haircut!

My Dad and a close friend of his who happened to be a barber were in
the pic with me. They were smiling. I was crying my eyes out!! But
from early-on I realized things could get far worse if I jerked around
and moved while in the chair.

In the present economy (or lack of one) or perhaps due to your
marriage failing, your kids far from following the Lord, your health
or that of a loved one taking a dive, or perhaps this is your first or
second Thanksgiving without a loved one present… for SO many reasons
you might feel a deep drive to take the all-too-typical “fight or
flight” option.

I understand, been there myself on more than one occasion and I expect
I’ll be there again.

But there’s a third option and it’s one we don’t at times consider.

Let me also preface this with clarity- I don’t mean sitting frozen
like a deer in the headlights, or apathetic to the extent you don’t
move when you really should move due to God calling you to do so.

Anyhow, that third option is where God often does His best work in us:

Sit still.

The psalmist writes (in 46.10) “He says, ???Be still, and know that I am God…”

Further, Jesus asks us “Can all your worries add a single moment to
your life?” (Luke 12.25)

And then what strikes me deeply are two other most important thoughts
from God’s Word:

Isaiah 40.31 “Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength;
They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get
tired, They will walk and not become weary.”

and

Isaiah 30.15 “For thus the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said,
“In repentance and rest you will be saved, In quietness and trust is
your strength.” But you were not willing, 16 And you said, “No, for we
will flee on horses,” Therefore you shall flee! “And we will ride on
swift horses,” Therefore those who pursue you shall be swift.

OUCH!

We are all so like Israel aren’t we?

Rather than sit still, seek God, in faith trust and obey, we play the
fight (sometimes with God, sometimes with one another, on occasion
with both!) or flight game.

Here God is prophesying that Israel needs to repent. Sometimes so do
you and I, so do we. If so, let’s get at it!

But note- “… and REST you will be saved (or “delivered”). Indeed.

It’s not screaming, squirming, trying to escape by bloodying
somebodies nose, it’s not by thinking you can “flee on horses” to
escape the difficulties by your own intelligence or strength. In fact,
God is telling His people worse things will come upon them by doing
so.

Rather, He tells them to repent, and that “in quietness and trust is
your strength”! Not fight, not flight, not your own ability to think,
talk or bargain your way out of the difficult circumstances nor out of
the dealings God either orchestrates or allows so that you (and I) can
grow… but in sitting still, in quietness and trust, THIS is where
true rest comes from, true peace of mind in the middle of the storm.

It’s SO easy to write these words, not at all easy to walk them out in
the middle of the sometimes harsh, blowing winds.

No matter the weather- truth doesn’t change. Yet God’s truth can and
will work gracious, satisfying change in us if we are -willing-.

Those five, sad, horrid words God speaks via Isaiah are what we must
avoid: “but you were not willing”.

God, help us come to you with our needs, burdens, hurts, fears, and a
truly thankful heart this Thanksgiving.

Cause us to be willing… that Your will be done in us. You know our
needs and are faithful for you never change.

Help us to be willing to BE changed more and more into the likeness of
our Lord Jesus!

Remember, there are times to fight, times to run… and absolutely
times to sit still.

Thanks for visiting, Blessed Thanksgiving, -Glenn

Pig and Weasel Show

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Now I know the title of this blog is misleading… there really was no
pig and/or weasel doing a show…. BUT:

Great fun tonight at the Pig & Weasel up in Evanston, a suburb just
north of Chicago.

Packed house, very sweet crowd, great opening dudes (serious guitar
playing and cool song-writing) and the owners and Chris who did the
booking were wonderful. Very cool house show venue and if you’re a
guitarist or more acoustic band you’d be wise to contact them with
your press kit and music.

You can find them in Facebook.

Thanks to Todd and Mona- Pig and Weasel staff (great food too, kudos!)
and the kind folks who showed up and interacted so positively with
me/us tonight!

Thanks for stopping by my blog too. -Glenn

Homeless Vets & Thanksgiving

The following is a link to another of my friend Jeremy’s brilliant
blogs. Our shelter (Cornerstone Community Outreach) just put on an
event to honor (or as my kiwi bro. spells it, “honour”) our many
homeless veteran friends. Two Tuskegee Airmen attended and spoke as
well as interacted with our dinner guests. Please have a read and
check out the extra links at the end of the article.

Love does more than think, read or talk… it walks and reaches out to
those in need.

Thanks for stopping by- and Thanks to all veterans who have walked the walk.

Here’s the link: http://tinyurl.com/76asqpq

Blessed Thanksgiving to those in the U.S.!

-Glenn

The ONLY Reason We Aren’t Destroyed

It’s truly time to give THANKS!

Lamentations is one of the most difficult books of the Bible to read through.

Well, it sure was for me as a brand-new follower of Jesus! This book
was a royal bummer until I read these words:

“It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his
compassions fail not.” Lam. 3.22

Jeremiah “got it”. Do we?

We look for love and comfort in so many places that just don’t serve
us well in serving Him and others, no?

Israel was so often in what we believers call a “backslidden” state of
living (if you call that living!). God continually sent prophets to
His people to call them home to Himself, back to the Rock, the
Provider, to the One True Love and in that He never lied to them about
what would happen, both calamities and blessings came upon them.

I”m not saying all horrid things come upon us specifically because of
sinful choices. That’s not only too simplistic, it’s just not true.
Consider the many martyrs whose lives and faith often make us look
like the spiritual wimps we sometimes are! They suffered BECAUSE they
lived holy lives and did not hide their light…

The Bible tells us God doesn’t do anything that He doesn’t let the
prophets in on. (Amos 3.7) This doesn’t mean there aren’t false
prophets or that they/we don’t get it wrong at times, we most
certainly DO mess up in terms of hearing Him. The point is that He
lets some folks in on some things, and yet it also says (1 Cor. 13) we
each and all have partial knowledge. There remains much mystery in
this life.

Yet at least one thing should not seem so mysterious to us: He is
faithful to Himself, His Own Word and His people.

Jeremiah is called “the weeping prophet” and Lamentations is just
that- a lament, a book of sorrows as it were.

On and on the sad story of the people’s rebellion and callousness in
terms of their relationship to the Lord unfolds. Finally Jeremiah
“comes up for air” in an otherwise painful-to-read book.

Because of God’s continual mercy we are not utterly wiped out, not
completely destroyed.

Not because of our faithfulness, our love for Him and others, not due
to our own obedience or sterling ability to both hear and follow
Him… no, it finally comes down to what it always does, true for both
His people, agnostics and complete atheists. Due to His love and
mercy, His compassion- we are not destroyed. Period. Not good works or
intelligence or any other thing, person or power, only His mercy.

How is it we sometimes find it so difficult to share that mercy with others?

This Thanksgiving let’s truly give Him thanks for His compassion…
and ask Him for fresh ways to share it with those around us.

Thanks for stopping by! -Glenn