Ace on Life, Music and God...................`

It's been a long time since I got into another deeeeeeeeep blog entry on the Cafe. So here goes:

Life is what you make it. Sure it throws curveballs, sliders and brushback pitches at you,and sometimes you get hit in the head, but in most instances, you've been prepared for it some way. Even if what happens, you're unprepared for. What I mean is, at a certain age of maturity you learn how to respond to the unexpected. When you were a kid, your response was to run to your mom and cry in here lap. She would wrap her comforting arms around you and tell you everything is going to be ok. When you got older, you developed other coping tools like drugs and alcohol.

Then hopefully you came to realize that life doesn't stop to put it's arms around you and tell you everything is going to be alright. So you just suck it up and go on with life.

The problem with life is that at some point, man developed an attitude that his self worth was the total sum of all his earthly belongings and possessions. Happiness is defined by your bank balance or your income statement. The search for a higher paying this or that became our focus, not if the job or work was right or wrong for us, just how much it paid. We like this financial paradigm because it allows us to use numbers to critique ourselves. Just like we are all prejudice. It may not be black or white, old or young or gay or straight, but we like having values that we can assign to people so we know how we think they want to be treated. It's much easier than actually getting to know the person, place or thing as an individual.

The bumper sticker said:"He who dies with the most toys wins" The truth is He who dies with the most toys is dead and leaves the toys for his estate to fight over.

Einstein once said that within every human lays a genius. He went on to say "Is it fair to judge a fish on his ability to climb a tree?"

We are what we are. I'm a musician.

After years of thinking I was going to be the next Stevie Ray Vaughan; I reflected on what I thought the best music was that I've recorded so far. I think the best thing I ever did was "SAVE ME" . You can hear it at My Space . I recorded this song with no pretense. Meaning, I didn't set out for it to sound like any particular genre. That's where I discovered what I was best at. METAL. Unfortunately, I have the sound, but I'm not convinced I can run around on stage in a Halloween costume pretending to like all things dark and evil. I don't know how metal got the reputation. It probably had something to do with Ozzy and Bat heads. I would guess I'm somewhere between AC/DC and Van Halen.

But when I wrote SAVE ME, I had just lost my long time friend Max. (my German shepherd dog) And in the two weeks following Max's sudden death, the whole world watched and waited as the state of Florida starved and dehydrated Terri Schaivo to death. That was just wrong. And for you political pundants of mine, what I found wrong was that Florida KILLED HER. It wasn't like she couldn't survive without a respirator, they STARVED her to death. She was no different than a new born. If the mother doesn't feed a new born, it will die. And we prosecute mothers that don't feed their newborns. If you're over 21 the state of Florida will kill them for you. Anyway, this really upset me and I hope you can hear it in the song. In American Infidel, the album starts out with Roadrunner, which is sort of a punk song from the early 80's, then it features 3 originals of mine and one co-written by Page Jackson. These 4 songs have a real metal sound to them. Not Goth, Not thrash, Not speed thrash, but just Metal. I Need a Beer sounds much like KISS. SAVE ME sounds much like Metallica, persuaded has it's own neo-Robert palmer sound and Talk Radio sounds like modern Metal/Punk (sum 41/green day etc.) So that's what I am. I never would have thought it to be so, but sometimes you learn a lot when you step back and reflect.

I just can't understand the Metal/Satanic sub-culture. I love Jesus.

Many of you that have read my BIO know that my mother died when I was 11. She died of cirrhosis of the liver. This is a common death amongst big time alcoholics. My father died while I was in the military when I was 20. So before I was old enough to kill my own liver;I was an orphan. One thing my alcoholic mother did when we were kids was to send us to church every Sunday. She never went, and my dad was a confessed atheist, but I went every Sunday with my brother and sister. Growing up in a first assembly of God is not really a great experience if you want to get to know Jesus. It's sort of a leftist version of Catholicism. At a very young age I saw people talking in tongues and falling over in Isles. But I did learn how to pray to an unknown God. A God I knew very little about and a God that had done very little for me so far.

After my mom died I joined the Navy. I took a year and went to a new church every Sunday in search of the "Truth". And I found it. The Church OF CHRIST". The church of Christ claims that they want to be in accordance with the scriptures. Meaning they don't want to practice what's NOT there, (no musical instruments) and they religiously practice what is there. (communion every Sunday) But that kind of paradigm borders on what is called "legalism". Jesus himself even said that God would look for those who worshipped Him in "Truth" AND in "SPIRIT". Unfortunately, worshipping in spirit has few guidelines in the Bible. Yes in Acts the Apostles receive the gifts of the Holy Spirit but what about today? All I can say is, I've seen the presence of the Holy Spirit in worship, but I couldn't write with words what it is. This poses a huge problematic dilemma for the Church of Christ. Jesus accused the Pharisees of legalism.

But the Gospel or "Good news" is a simple message. God, who I believe created the earth, and is the same God that communicated with Abraham and Moses in the old testament, also created humans. I also believe as Telhard Pierre De Chardin once said,"we are not human beings having a spiritual experience;rather spiritual beings having a human experience. In short, our bodies are temporary shells that house our spirits. WHEN YOU DIE your spirit will stand in judgment before God. Now to get a little bit more accurate, you will kneel before Jesus the son of God. Who is Jesus? He is God. Who is the Holy Spirit? He is God. Well how can that be?

Is not steam, Ice and water all Water? Is not the lake upon a glacier and the clouds above it all the same glacier?

God sent himself to earth in the form of a human. He was born of a virgin birth to the virgin Mary. Before Jesus was born, God instructed his followers to give a "sacrifice" to God. This was usually a lamb and or the first crops of your harvest. Jesus was sacrificed as the ultimate "offering" to God by being executed on a cross. The arrangement was, Who ever believed and trusted that Jesus was truly God in the flesh, and was sacificed for your salvation or everlasting spiritual life in heaven, would be saved. I also believe Jesus called you to show your belief by being baptized or submerged in water after confessing Jesus as your savior. The scriptures also call for you to "repent" or change your direction. It's a nautical term. It means stop sinning and try (with an emphasis on TRY) to live a pure and righteous life according to the teachings of Jesus. Jesus said, "You will know a tree by it's fruits". But the truth is, you are human. If you could live a pure and righteous life, you wouldn't need the blood of Jesus for salvation. That's WHY the arrangement works the way it does. It is a compassionate gesture from God. It's a conditional act of "Grace".

The Egyptians, Greeks and others use to see their gods as symbols to be feared. And it is true that fearing God is the beginning of wisdom, but if you read the stories in the old testament you'll see that God not only is slow to anger, but has a sense of humor as well. He has continually shown compassion on humanity. At the same time, He respects your "Free Will". This is your freedom to accept or reject God. That's also why He allows terror and hurricanes, Floods and Quakes, Murder and accidents etc... It's free will. God does not want robots worshipping Him. You can't have Love without free will, otherwise it's quid pro quo or "this for that".

If you want to know more about being saved, email me. I'll help you.

LIFE is short. Eternity is forever. Get to know JESUS NOW.



Ace out.......................