Month: June 2012

Heavy… errr -Not Heavy But ALL Metal :)

Had a Travis Bean “Jerry Garcia Model” with aluminum neck years ago.
Nice. But a bit too bright for REZ band so swapped it for something
else over time.

Now THIS is the first All-Metal-All-The-Time found-object guitar I’ve
built. Been thinking about this for awhile and finally built it.

I work approx. one day each week when scheduling allows, at Lakefront
Roofing Supply, at our sheet Metal Shop. Great staff, nice work and I
try to do it well. The proceeds produce a ton of varied ministry to
many, many people in Chicago’s inner city.

On my lunch break and sometimes at the end of a day I have some time,
and so in 30 minutes cut a bit of conduit for a neck and two basic
“pans” from scrap sheet metal, one slightly smaller so they’d fit
together and cut the edges on both (and on both ends) so the neck
would fit through.

Today in another 30 minutes I drilled 4 holes, screwed the pieces all
together and put a .052 and .024 string on it. You can see the
simplicity of attaching ’em. I added 2 1/4 inch eye bolts with wing
nuts on each and then found a nice bolt and nut combo, slightly
flattened a bit of the round head of the bolt on a grinder and after
getting a few burrs out of the drilled spots string ‘er up. Nice.
Sounds amazing, holds tune very well. Oh- there’s no “nut” on it.

I decided to set the eye bolts up with the thicker bridge which took

away the need for a nut.

Next comes an idea for a “portable” piezo pickup. Once I get it
designed, built and tested on this and few other of my homebrew slide
guitars I’ll post pics and an explanation.

So I got a 2 string ersatz dobro sorta thingee at the expense of about 2 bucks!

Yep. Next the pickup, very soon the “snare” and “kick drum” combo and
we’re off to a new era of blues…

Thanks for stopping by, -Glenn

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Glenn & Wendi’s Complete Cornerstone Festival 2012 Schedule

If you’re coming to the Fest, check the brochure and signs and Grrr
Records booth as to WHERE each of these appearances are please! Those
kind folks saying “I never saw you at the Fest… where WERE you”
shall be shown no mercy 🙂 Love y’all, here it is:

-Glenn & Wendi’s Cstone 2012 Schedule-

Wendi’s Schedule at Cstone 2012:

Seminars: Sex, Dating and Love WED 1-1:50 THU 11-11:50 FRI 11-11:50
Wendi with Glenn at Press Tent- REZ DVD WED 3pm
===========================================================
Glenn’s Schedule at Cstone 2012:

SUN
special pre-fest gathering for INVITED GUESTS ONLY (sorry… this is a
note for me!) 6pm or so…

MON
11:15pm-12:30am GKB Set,
1-2am GKB w. Larry Howard
(Glenn is going to watch The Unfortunate show @ 8:15pm!!!)

TUE
2-3pm GK @ Grrr Booth doing some cigarbox guitar playing

WED
Noon-2pm GK’s Cigarbox/found-object Guitar Building Workshop,
3pm with Wendi at Press Tent: REZ DVD,
4:15 REZ Band 40th Anniversary Party,
9:35-10:35pm GK and Joe Filisko Blues Set

THU
Noon-2pm GK’s Cigarbox/found-object Guitar Building Workshop,
3pm GK solo at Press Tent: Cigarbox/found-object guitars

FRI
Noon-2pm GK’s Cigarbox/found-object Guitar Building Workshop,
7pm leading worship at beach (not in program… but it’s in mine!)

SAT
GK buzz around here and there day 🙂

The Least of “The Least”

How much less can we do for the least of the least?

It has often seemed to me the very last people Jesus mentioned in
Matthew chapter 25 are in fact the very last ones thought about by
many of us in the churches. Truth is, for most Christians they may
even be forgotten on purpose due to the personal sacrifice, fear or
plain difficulty of making any sort of positive difference in their
lives.

Who are these people? Prisoners or ex-offenders.

But what a good night I experienced tonight- sitting at a table with
friends from various ministries who all care deeply about prisoners
and the many-sided issues that promote repeat visits to jail or prison
OR conversely, that help remove the “repeat offender” from the same
old cycle of crime/sin, jail/prison over and over again.

A lot of interaction will likely come of this. New friends, new prayer
partners, the sense that there may be fresh or more fruitful ways to
help people come to personal salvation, actual biblical discipleship
and indeed, maybe even a few churches who are willing to risk ministry
to felons and otherwise “undesirables”.

Who knows, perhaps there are Christian businesspeople willing to offer
someone a job, a place to stay, a chance to truly heal, change, find
friendship with sane and loving Christ-followers instead of the same
con/gang/street culture situation they’ve been trapped in with little
opportunity for anything else.

Who knows?

Well I think we know Who knows.

So… what can… what must we do?

Each of us can only answer that question as individuals.

What seems quite clear is this:

“I was in prison and you came to me… as you did it to the least of
these, you did it to Me”.

It seems prisoners and ex-offenders are “the least of the least”.

I realized long ago the only real difference between they and myself
is that they got caught.

And thankfully, I got saved- and there were people who risked taking
me in regardless of the “return on investment”.

They simply loved me as Jesus commanded them to and what a difference
it has made in my life!

Thanks for stopping by, -Glenn

ROCKINGly True Quote!

A ROCKING quote from Brad Good… BIG Amen!!

“When criticized unjustly,think of the legitmate things they COULD criticize if known,then rejoice u are a Trophy of Grace! May God give us the strength th show the same Grace we receive. Blessings everyone!”

Imag0523

The FIX?

From my recent post here ("Faith, Hope, Even Love?") someone might get the impression that I'm saying we should or can ignore perpetual sin, abuse or perhaps even get into a position where we are truly enabling someone to continue in their self-(and others) destructive state. Not at all.

In my continuing studies, life experience and relationships with all sorts of people who carry all kinds of burdens I have never found any one formula nor one-size-fits-all fix for what ails them (and others around them)… but repentance, faith and loving obedience to Jesus Christ.

If a person will not of their own free will embrace Him and these, there is truly nothing anyone can do to assure closure to a rebelling-against-God life. It really IS between the individual and the Holy Spirit -or it isn't going to happen.

What I mean is not that we totally give up on them but rather you, I, our particular church or ministry or skill set, etc., are not always THE answer nor at times, even a small part of the solution for their train-wreck life.

Often a person isn't ready to obey the Lord until they've been swallowed by a great fish for a while. Jonah?

Many reading this had to "hit the wall" and even hit it nearly to the point of death before they finally surrendered to God.

I was one of those.

God is FULL of mercy and compassion and the church is often nearly out of it… I get that… but the reality is that for many, only deep and painful tragedy brings any sort of lesson they finally grasp which moves them enough to make the difficult, personal choice to follow Jesus rather than chase their own tail.

Love isn't rape. It does not FORCE. I cannot in that sense cause positive, God-honoring, Bible-applied change for the better in a person who isn't willing to surrender to Him. God IS love, but love isn't about beating someone into submission. Free will means we pray, model, teach and encourage Godward change… but it does not guarantee it.

In the end a person stands before God in the day of judgment with their own story, their own choices, their own decisions. There IS personal responsibility.

There is no person, group of persons, local ministry or church of any kind who can "fix" a person not willing to be helped! There is a time God tells Israel- the love, the chosen of His own heart… to take another lap around the mountain. Remember this- Israel was exiled by Him for perhaps most of the Old Testament!!

There is a time that tough love and distance is the very- and truly painful thing- the Holy Spirit calls us to- out of love for a person.

I don't write these things lightly but from long years of experience and with plenty of tears, begging God for my own loved ones as well as others we've brought before Him in prayer.

I can't fix anyone, not even myself. This is God's work. We must do our faith, hope and loving best to cooperate with Him in it, but we cannot ourselves save anyone anymore than we can or should be lord of anyone!

There is only One sufficient for those tasks.

Thanks for stopping by, -Glenn

Home From Canada, Next Up: Michigan City, Indiana

What a wonderful week Wendi and I had at Hope Mission in Edmonton! Our Canadian friends were as usual, a treat to work with,

We brought music, teaching and worship and their huge staff brought plenty of encouraging interaction with us. They serve a great many people in need- the poor, homeless, people dealing with substance abuse and also do kids camps and much more.

GKB brings blues/rock to Michigan CIty, Indiana Saturday and I help lead a bit of blues and worship at two services there on Sunday. All details are in the Shows section at http://www.grrrrecords.com

Thanks for stopping by! -Glenn

Faith, Hope… Even Love?

I think I read somewhere that the most long-lasting and at least somewhat important things were (are) "faith, hope and love" 🙂

So… in just one yet hugely important area of life- human relationships -what if we lose faith in a person? What if they have seemed to habitually break our trust?

Mind you, I don't mean to say they occasionally mess up- all of us do that. I don't mean that they merely make mistakes. We all do!

I mean that 10 out of 10 honest people with no "axes" to grind all come to the same conclusion: this individual is a constant in terms of faith: we can't trust her/him to be faithful.

Might it come to the place you not only lose faith in them- but also no longer hope in them?

Could it be that you and I might eventually consider them hopeless, a person we don't really think we can either trust (faith) or even hope (our assessment becomes "they are not likely to ever change in the positive sense, grow, mature") in or hope for them?

And if this happens what happens to God's command to US to love them?

I have seen a good many people make such judgments. We can not only fall into it with regard to other people but even in our judgment of God Himself.

Granted, some folks may truly "never change". Whether actual sin nature, mental illness, substance abuse, lack of teaching, lack of patient family members or positive
friends or any number of elements enter in, for whatever reason some folks truly may never change from the hurting-and-hurting-others sorts of people they are today.

Now God, on the other hand, is perfect in all His ways. He is literally unchanging, Jesus Christ is "the same yesterday, today and forever".

So we have imperfect, sinful and/etc. humans who may bring us to lose faith, hope and as at least a partial consequence we begin to go "down a quart" in love for them. I'm not saying we should allow ourselves to slide like this, only that it happens and we need to face it, be aware of it and take measures to repent, pray, read and apply the Word of God (Bible) and genuine forgiveness, grow in the fruit of patience, etc., and deal with -our own hearts- rightly when we interact with such people.

How do I know any of this? I have been there and may be there in the future. We work with many broken people. I/we ARE broken in various areas…

I'm also saying that sometimes our own judgment and summing up of where people are at and likely to stay at is often quite warped and wrong.

Jesus literally commands us to love one another… regardless. No matter.

I'm not saying we should trust just anyone at any time with all our money, or the keys to our car, house or church office! Not at all. What I -am- saying is that when we don't trust them we may eventually lose hope for them and begin to consider them unworthy of our love or somehow beyond God's love. I think that is a massive mistake. At such a spiritual/attitude juncture we may allow our own hearts to harden -and sin to enter our life.

"Love one another" means exactly that. Further, I don't believe anyone could make a solid argument that Jesus loved Judas any less even after he betrayed Him. God's heart of love isn't somehow "changed" but our own hearts can be quite fickle and Proverbs reminds us- "guard your heart for out of it flow the issues of life".

One more huge point in all this.

At times we judge God. Plenty of people are angry or hurt due to God not doing whatever it is they want Him to do, or not doing it when they wish it done.

They are then tempted (and I have seen many fall this way and myself been tempted to do likewise) to essentially "curse God and die", to just backslide and run off doing their own will because that's really what they wanted God to help them do in the first place!

It's sort of like "I can't have faith in Him because He didn't rubber-stamp and finance my personal desire(s)… therefore I don't hope in Him anymore… therefore this 'love' thing is a joke and I'm outta here. In fact I don't believe in God!"

So many individuals, so many marriages, so many bands, so many local churches and ministries, so many businesses and all sorts of relationships have blown apart in an epic way right at these crossroads.

"And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love".

They indeed remain in God and in the Church and in the world where the people of God walk.

How are they "remaining" in your life and mine, in terms of our human relationships and in our heart attitude towards God and others today?

MAJOR questions, no?!

Thanks for stopping by, -Glenn