Recently, I found a copy of a concert I’d been searching for diligently for quite a while. Honestly, all I needed to do was to go to amazon.com in the first place. How hard was that?

The concert is from 1974 at a venue in North London called the Rainbow. Apparently in their early days, Queen were all about the rock, as the sound showcased in this video was probably their hardest and heaviest as a band.

This was in the pre-synthesizer days long before they went and got all pop music on us (not that any of the later music is bad, either).

It blows my mind to see all the band members looking so young. I suppose that in 1974, they had been in existence for probably 2-3 years at the most. They had yet to record their most famous song, Bohemian Rhapsody.

Freddie Mercury’s showmanship is fully evident here, as is the top-notch musicianship of all four members of the band.

Those who are familiar only with the Queen songs played on the radio will probably recognize Killer Queen out of the 24 songs here, but the more devoted fans will find plenty to smile about.

I’ve provided a link to the CDs of the concert, as the blu ray is no longer available directly from amazon.

https://www.amazon.com/Live-at-Rainbow-74-Queen/dp/B00LVRZ9E8/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3BZSPTWF5W4RF&keywords=queen+live+at+the+rainbow&qid=1552877799&s=gateway&sprefix=queen+live+a%2Caps%2C203&sr=8-1

“After the last tear falls, after the last secret’s told
After the last bullet tears through flesh and bone
After the last child starves and the last girl walks the boulevard
After the last year that’s just too hard

There is love
Love, love, love
There is love
Love, love, love
There is love

After the last disgrace, after the last lie to save some face
After the last brutal jab from a poison tongue
After the last dirty politician, after the last meal down at the mission
After the last lonely night in prison

There is love
Love, love, love
There is love
Love, love, love
There is love

And in the end, the end is oceans and oceans of love and love again
We’ll see how the tears that have fallen
Were caught in the palms of the Giver of love and the Lover of all
And we’ll look back on these tears as old tales

‘Cause after the last plan fails, after the last siren wails
After the last young husband sails off to join the war
After the last, this marriage is over
After the last young girl’s innocence is stolen
After the last years of silence that won’t let a heart open

There is love
Love, love, love
There is love

And in the end, the end is oceans and oceans of love and love again
We’ll see how the tears that have fallen
Were caught in the palms of the Giver of love and the Lover of all
And we’ll look back on these tears as old tales

‘Cause after the last tear falls there is love” (Andrew Peterson, Andrew Osenga)

I’ve been up since 5 am, which according to the clock and my suspect math skills means that I’ve been up for over 17 hours straight. I have a 6 am wakeup call to look forward to on a Saturday for one more go-round of the YEC.

But it’s been way more than worth it.

To me, the best part is always the invitation at the end of the first night. It never gets old for me to see hundreds of students giving their lives to Christ for the first time.

Who knows? Maybe out of this group could arise the next Billy Graham or Elisabeth Elliott? Or maybe God has a special plan for someone few people have ever heard of that will revolutionize the world.

I’m tired, my feet stink, but how do I love Jesus.

My musical tastes are eclectic (or possibly eccentric), to say the least. I have everything from The Andrew Sisters to Metallica and everything in between.

Today in my car I was listening to some pre-recorded radio broadcasts that Hank Williams did at WSM for a Mother’s Best Flour program that ran from 7:15-7:30 every morning.

He was apparently a troubled and complex individual who met a tragic end at the way too young age of 29. Still, there’s no denying that he had as much of an impact on country music (and music in general) as anyone else before or since.

It’s interesting to me that in every program he always included hymn time where he sang inspirational or gospel songs, some of which he himself wrote and some of which were favorites of his by other people. I don’t know his personal story very well and I can’t vouch for whether he was a man of faith or not, but I’d like to think based on his love for sacred music that he turned to Jesus at some point but couldn’t overcome his own personal demons.

Tonight, I was inspired by a friend who’s in town to pull out my Tom Petty stash and listened to some of his older material. Nothing sounds dated. His music has and will always have a classic appeal that crosses genres and reaches people from every background.

It still saddens me that he’s no longer around to make more good music, but he left behind quite a legacy, including quite a bit of unreleased material that will one day (I hope) see the light of day.

There’s nothing quite like good music.

A couple of friends of mine lost their baby this afternoon. He had been born with severe birth defects and the odds were stacked against him from the very first day, but he was a little fighter and survived as long as his frail little body would allow.

My heart hurts for my friends. My heart aches for all the loss and suffering in my family and friends lately and for all the devastation from natural disasters around the world.

I honestly don’t understand why little babies die. I don’t know why some are stillborn. It’s beyond my ability to comprehend why there is so much suffering in the world, especially in the lives of those people of faith.

I do know that God is good. I’ve chosen to stake my life upon the notion that God is great and God is good. This world may be a fallen, broken place, but I believe with all my being that the story never ends with brokenness and ashes and grief.

I know that little baby is home. I know he is whole and perfect in a way that he could never be in this life — or anyone else could ever hope to be. He is more alive right now than you or I could possibly imagine. He’s seeing Jesus face to face.

I know that the last page of God’s story is good because I’ve read it. I know that in the end the redeemed will sing of how God overcame and made all things good and right once and for all. I know that Heaven will not be the end of the story but its real beginning. As C. S. Lewis put it, all of centuries of history will have only been the preface and the title page, after which follows the Great Story where each proceeding chapter is better and more fulfilling than the last.

“All the way my Savior leads me
Who have I to ask beside
How could I doubt His tender mercy
Who through life has been my guide

All the way my Savior leads me
Cheers each winding path I tread
Gives me grace for every trial
Feeds me with the living Bread

You lead me and keep me from falling
You carry me close to Your heart
And surely Your goodness and mercy will follow me

All the way my Savior leads me
Oh, the fullness of His love
Oh, the sureness of His promise
In the triumph of His blood
And when my spirit clothed immortal
Wings its flight to realms of day
This my song through endless ages
Jesus led me all the way
Jesus led me all the way

All the way my Savior leads me
All the way my Savior leads me” (Fanny J. Crosby, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redmon).

All the way my Savior leads me
All the way my Savior leads me” (Fanny Jane Crosby, Chris Tomlin, Matt Redmon)

It may be old hat. It may be yesterday’s news. You may have heard it before. Lots of times.

But here it is again. Every. Day. Matters.

Every single day of your life counts.

As I’m being reminded a lot lately, no one is guaranteed tomorrow. No one is promised to die in their sleep at the ripe old age of 90.

Every day is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present.

Every moment you’re alive is only because of the grace and mercy of God.

I believe that the ones who do the most with their lives will be precisely the ones who never take it for granted or presume on their futures. They live each and every day as if it could be their last and are grateful for the opportunity to wake up the next day with another 24 hours full of potential and promise.

Every day matters. You matter. So live it well. Make it less about possessions and more about people, less about tasks and more about relationships.

May you live not out of a frantic need to somehow earn God’s favor and love but out of the overflow of His love that comes unearned and undeserved.

“At times God puts us through the discipline of darkness to teach us to heed Him. Song birds are taught to sing in the dark, and we are put into the shadow of God’s hand until we learn to hear Him. ‘What I tell you in darkness’ – watch where God puts you into darkness, and when you are there keep your mouth shut. Are you in the dark just now in your circumstances, or in your life with God? Then remain quiet. If you open your mouth in the dark, you will talk in the wrong mood: darkness is the time to listen. Don’t talk to other people about it; don’t read books to find out the reason of the darkness, but listen and heed. If you talk to other people, you cannot hear what God is saying. When you are in the dark, listen, and God will give you a very precious message for someone else when you get into the light.

After every time of darkness there comes a mixture of delight and humiliation (if there is delight only, I question whether we have heard God at all), delight in hearing God speak, but chiefly humiliation – ‘What a long time I was in hearing that! How slow I have been in understanding that! And yet God has been saying it all these days and weeks.’ Now He gives you the gift of humiliation which brings the softness of heart that will always listen to God now” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest).

Some of you are going through dark places. Some even are walking through the valley of the shadow of death.

Believe that God is there with you, every step of the way from beginning to end. Believe that God has a special and precious message for you that you can only hear in this dark place. Believe that this is a message that someone else will need from you once you are back into the light.

Trust in God’s good heart when you can’t see His hand of guidance. Trust that He is good, no matter what and no matter where. God is good, all the time.

“We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters,about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us” (2 Corinthians 2:8-10, NLT).

I’ve always heard the adage that God will never give us more than we can handle. It seems like that statement is almost universally accepted as gospel truth. But is it true?

I do believe that God will never allow us to be tempted beyond our ability to endure. Scripture is explicit about that one.

Here’s what I believe. It’s not that God won’t give us anything we can’t handle, but that He won’t give us anything that HE can’t handle. He will on occasion allow us to go through circumstances that press our endurance to the point that we have no choice but to rely on God. We learn that we can’t bear these trials alone but instead learn to lean on each other in community.

After all, that’s what faith is. Christianity isn’t a glorified self-help program designed to make us independent and self-sufficient. It’s about how we learn to lean into and cling to and rely on Jesus until we get transformed by the renewing of our minds into His image.

If God never gave me anything I couldn’t tackle on my own, why would I even need God? What would be the point of God?

I think immediately of friends going through unbearable struggles at the moment. If you asked, they’d tell you that they know what it means to come to the end of self-reliance and to a place where all they can do is fall on the mercies and grace of God.

The good news is that God always comes through. God always saves and delivers His people. One day, those who endure will be able to comfort others going through the same ordeals.

God will never allow me or you to stay stagnant. He will accomplish all that designed for us in Christ.

For those of you who keep up with my TV binging, I’ve started a new series. Well, more of a spinoff series.

My original plan was to watch the latest season of Doctor Who, but after discovering I had to pay per episode, I decided to take a hiatus for a bit.

I’m onto The Sarah Jane Adventures, following the shenanigans of one Miss Sarah Jane Smith, former companion to the Doctor, and company.

So far, it’s fun. It can tend toward the cheesy, but it can also be riveting and suspenseful.

Unfortunately, there were only 4 seasons due to the untimely passing of Elisabeth Sladen who played the lead character. Yet another reason to hate cancer.

Still, she was fantastic.

“Lent is a time for discipline, for confession, for honesty, not because God is mean or fault- finding or finger-pointing but because he wants us to know the joy of being cleaned out, ready for all the good things he now has in store” (N. T. Wright).

“…a guilty suffering spirit is more open to grace than an apathetic or smug soul. Therefore, an age without a sense of sin, in which people are not even sorry for not being sorry for their sins, is in a serious predicament. Likewise an age with a Christianity so eager to forgive that it denies the need for forgiveness. For such an age, therefore, Lent can scarcely be too long!” (Edna Hatlestad Hong, The Downward Ascent).

Again whatever you choose to give up or fast from for Lent, make sure to put something positive in its place. For all the social media you give up, try reading a book or two. For all the television you give up, try going on a long walk.

Above all, make room for God. Not that He needs the room, but you do. You need the space to allow yourself to hear God’s voice and see Him at work around you. You need the margin in your schedule to sit at the feet of the Master.

Speak, Lord Jesus. Your servants are listening.