I first came in contact with Jeremy Casella’s music while I was an M.Div. student at Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY. My wife and I went to see Indelible Grace perform. Jeremy was not only touring with them but performing solo acoustic sets. I still remember (3 or 4 years later) some of the songs he performed though it were the first time I’d heard his music. Though he was well within the folk/singer-songwriter vein, he stood out with an individuality that caused me to seek out his albums. Since then I’ve followed the ups and downs of his career, his signing and dropping from a label, and I’ve even had the pleasure of having him as a guest in my home (so this is not an unbiased review).

After wrestling with a major label and recording an unreleased album, Jeremy has independently released his latest album, Recovery. I admit that I’m often hesitant when I read reviews that use phrases such as “groundbreaking” or “artistic leap,” but I’m going to apply those descriptors to Jeremy’s new album. Up to this point, he has worked well in a singer-songwriter mold with folk influences. His unreleased album The Innocence Fires hinted at larger pop influences with the inclusion of the Blind Boys of Alabama, but Recovery takes the artistic leap previously only hinted at.

I’ve lived with this album for a couple of weeks before trying to write anything and the first thing that struck me was an overall feel of hope. The presence of strings and horns adds a warm depth that takes Jeremy well beyond the folk influence. His use of electronics is understated and tasteful rather than distracting. Splashes of static interweave horn melodies and string accompaniments. None of it is simply an add-on, every piece has been lovingly woven together by an artist truly coming into his own. The album occupies the sonic landscape that many people wish Wilco had remained in after Yankee Hotel Foxtrot. Pop influences from the Beach Boys and Beatles to Radiohead coexist with folk and even classical elements, all mixed with nods to Neil Young. Yet it all works as a coherent artistic statement rather than a mish-mash of random experimentation.

Lyrically, the album is Jeremy’s least “explicitly” Christian, though the album begins and ends in the hands of God and His presence is always a constant. Jeremy mines the difficult times of life without being cliché and relationships play heavy in the album’s themes, not only the difficult endings (Well I read the note you left me; Love is stronger than the ways we say goodbye) but hopeful beginnings (I was fine to leave it all undone Until I looked in the eyes of my own son And everything was born again…) and the everyday struggles of love (our love burns brighter than this dark cloud). Through it all runs the thread of hope and redemption carried musically by the soaring strings and horns.

Though some might want more “explicitly Christian” content, Jeremy presents Truth and Beauty as a coherent whole and the hope of Christ certainly remains the constant through all of the album’s explorations of some of life’s dark times. Jeremy applies the Gospel to many of life’s most poignant moments and for that he must be thanked. Biblical allusions abound (I’m lonely like Adam and I’m angry like Cain).

Musically the album has natural hooks and gradually build and never seem forced. The strings and horns function as an organic part of the music, carrying you along rather than feeling tacked on as a gimmick while the electronics add depth and texture. Jeremy’s melodies and lyrics are strong throughout and work together, making this truly an album rather than a mere collection of songs. The album uses many inventive percussion elements that work to enhance the tone rather than distract.

Jeremy has created an album that is immediately familiar. I don’t mean that you’ll feel as if you’ve already heard what he has to say. Instead, the album feels comfortable, warm and inviting, like an old friend. Yet, like many great albums, it reveals more with every listen, whether it be a hidden melody, or a turn of the phrase, this is an album that is rich in detail but not overwhelming; comfortable but not cliché�. Jeremy has taken a great artistic leap and I highly recommend making that jump with him.

• Visit Jeremy official website
• Read the lyrics
• Stream the entire album
• Purchase the album for you and your friends

Though it didn’t last long, I liked the television show Ed. Thomas Cavanagh played a contract lawyer who, after an unexpected divorce and losing his job, returned to Stuckeyville, the small town where he grew up. Ed reconnects with Carol, the girl he adored but never got in high school. Though the show revolved around Ed’s sometimes comical court cases, the bulk of the dramatic tension came from the question of whether or not he would be able to win Carol’s heart.

The “will they/won’t they” tension is not new. In fact it is overplayed and has been the heart of shows including Cheers, Moonlighting, The Office and others. “Will they or won’t they get together” is actually the plot of nearly every “romantic comedy” made. It works best when characters have been developed enough to allow the audience to care (which is rare) and it is an obvious tool to create emotional involvement with characters that otherwise might not exist and it is a tool to weave together many other story lines. But there’s something interesting to Hollywood’s use of this device: nearly every time (at least in the television series version of the tool. Romantic Comedy movies tend to resolve happily), when the couple gets together, the show ends. Consider the aforementioned Ed and Moonlighting.

This tendency reveals at least a couple of different things. First, that Hollywood, for the most part, lacks any real creativity. The fact that such trite tools have become trite is because Hollywood often uses cheap gimmicks in the place of true character development or plot structure. It’s much easier to take a shortcut. It seems to me that this is somewhat tied to our consumer mentality. Most television shows are not about art or creativity but about making money. An artistic decision will often be squashed in the face of money. Many networks are interested in what will attract the most viewers, which is not necessarily the same thing as real creativity. Hence the tendency to resort to “tried and true” formulas rather than plow new ground.

But another, more important thing that I think the tendency of “will they/won’t they” resulting in cancelled shows when they do is just how boring our culture things healthy relationships truly are. Some might want to call our infatuation with the “will they/won’t they” plotline an infatuation with romance. However, if this is the case, then it is an elevation of romance over commitment and feelings over true love. The fact that most of the shows built around this premise fade away once the characters do get together is proof that healthy relationships simply aren’t all that interesting to much of our culture.

As a pastor, one of the privileges I have been given is performing weddings. This includes premarital counseling. It’s interesting to watch as some couples’ conceptions about and experience of love actually change. There’s nothing wrong with romance or the “warm fuzzy” feelings we get at the beginning of a relationship. In fact, those are great things, but our world’s conception of love is about what we can get and we expect the other person to continue creating those warm fuzzy feelings in us. When they don’t, we’re taught to look for the next relationship that will. However, biblical love is not about what we can get but about what we can give (Philippians 2:3, 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, etc.).

Biblical love is a choice to push through the difficult times. Biblical love goes beyond emotions to the how and why of everday living, when the person has morning breath or when you feel slighted because they got up from the breakfast table without asking how you slept (these are not illustrations from my own life!). But Hollywood is not interested in these things and therefore, is not interested in “healthy” relationships.

While tension makes for entertaining television, biblical love forces us to push through those tensions without letting the sun go down on our anger (Ephesians 4:26). One of the worrisome things is that many Christians have never been truly challenged to think about the difference between the worldly and biblical conceptions of love. The result is that the divorce rate for professing Christians is no different, and in fact (see here among other sources), may be higher than the surrounding culture (certainly there are other factors here but this is at least part of the problem). Why should the world understand the excitement of a healthy, biblical marriage when many professing Christians still don’t?

It’s interesting that our culture would find one of God’s most gracious gifts “boring.” Marriage is God’s idea, not man’s. It was God, not man who delcared that it was not good for the man to be alone and it was God, not man who remedied the situation (Genesis 2:18-25). Anyone who thinks Song of Solomon is boring clearly hasn’t read the book! The problem, as I’ve alluded to, does not seem to be that the world doesn’t understand, we shouldn’t expect them to. Rather, the problem is that far too many professing Christians don’t understand marriage (truth be told, on a much more troubling level, many probably don’t understand salvation).

The answer, it seems to me, is not to petition Congress or create a public awareness campaign against Hollywood, or even to boycott, but rather, to first convince Christians to live like Christians and then convince them of the truly glorious realities of God’s gift of marriage. Instead of thinking how exciting the Hollywood relationships appear, more Christians need to feel how far these portrayals seriously miss the mark. This begins with local churches taking marriage seriously. We need to be serious not just about teaching the Bible but about living the Bible. I worry that our infatuation with failed romance is actually the sign of a failed conscience.

• Read Sacred Marriage by Gary L. Thomas
• Read Reforming Marriage by Douglas Wilson
• Read The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience: Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World? by Ronald J. Sider

As I wrote yesterday, I’ve been meditating some on the Christian life in America. I’ve wondered for some time, and it seems to me, that the life of ease that most American Christians have is actually one of the greatest enemies to the Christian faith that we face.

This is antithetical to the way many of us think about our faith. We often think about how hard it would be to face persecution or trials of various kinds. But James actually says that we are to “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds.” Then he tells us why: “for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4). Instead of warning us against persecution, Scripture actually warns us against a life of ease (Dueteronomy 6:10-12):

And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you–with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant–and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

Yesterday I just briefly gave an overview thought about the life of ease on Christianity but today I want to think through at least one specific reason why a life of ease can be so dangerous for Christians. The admonitions to be alert and ready are everywhere in Scripture. Jesus, in Luke 12:35-40 asserts that “You must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” In the context, he is encouraging the disciples to live disciplined lives ever at the ready. Later in Luke 12:41-48, Jesus goes on to warn that the servant who is not continually ready for the master’s return might actually fall into sin. Elsewhere, Paul says in Ephesians 6:18 that we must “keep alert with all perseverance.”

It’s interesting that the life of ease often erodes self-discipline, particularly in the exercise of the mind. This was the warning at the core of Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, wasn’t it? While George Orwell feared external oppression, Huxley feared that technology and the ease they brought would undo people’s capacity to think. As Neil Postman notes: “What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book.”

The Scriptures continually warn that we must be “sober minded” (2 Timothy 4:5; Titus 2:2; 1 Peter 1:13, 4:7, 5:8, etc.). The writers obviously have more in mind than just the effects of alcohol, they are warning against having a dull mind and lulled senses. Christians must be alert thinkers. Paul in Ephesians 4:11-15 warns us that we must not be blown about by every wind of doctrine. 1 John 4:1 warns us to “test the spirits,” while the Bereans were commended for checking even the words of Paul agains the Scriptures (Acts 17:10-15).

A life of ease neglects preventive maintenance and it rejects discipline, not only physical discipline but mental discipline. Many Americans reject anything that makes too many and too high demands on them. After all, we should only have to do what we want to do, right? This, coupled with the dumbing down of our culture has created many well-intened professing Christians who simply lack discernment. Discernment for a great many professing Christians is nothing more than a point of purchase consideration. In other words, it’s about where they bought it rather than close examination of the content. The result is that the “Christian media” industry has become the conscience of many people, but they’re not always as concerned with biblical fidelity as they are with money so we have front-row Christian books that deny the Trinity and more.

The “life of ease” mentality has steadily made its way into the American church. We’re told that the sermons need to be shorter, the words need to be shorter, there needs to be more variety, we shouldn’t require much of members. All of this is the world talking rather than God. It is the culture’s tendencies trying to saturate the ways of the people of God. Many professing Christians would simply rather not think about difficult theological issues because they don’t think about any difficult issues.

We must understand that the life of ease erodes the Christian at a great many levels. One of the most important is at the level of the mind. When we neglect difficult thinking, we find difficult problems because we’re not alert to error and we’re prone to wander (how I feel it). We must encourage one another to exercise our minds, to be alert and sober-minded, to test the spirits through the filter of the Word lest we all amuse ourselves to death.

• Read The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Read The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind by Mark Noll
• Read The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience: Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World? by Ronald J. Sider
• Read Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business by Neil Postman

As I recently mentioned, I made the leap to the Mac-based Bible program Accordance. Prior to this I had been running Bibleworks 5, PC Study Bible 4 and Bible Navigator via Virtual PC. This worked, but it was never ideal. Virtual PC is not an ideal solution though it worked sufficiently. In going to a Mac-based program, I no longer have need for the three Windows-based programs. These have been trusted friends, but it’s time to let them go. I’ve put the three of them together as a single bundle and offered them on eBay, so please, bid, make us both happy and make the world a better place.

• Bid on my software

I’d normally save a link like this for Friday’s Town Crier post, but I wanted to go ahead and share this one for those of you who may not have yet seen it. Steve McCoy is hosting the Gospel Coalition’s foundational documents as downloadable PDF files. These include: (1) a confessional statement and (2) a theology of ministry. Note the inclusion of a theology of ministry, which is something that I believe will set the Coalition apart from similar ventures.

• Visit Steve’s post
• Download the documents directly
• Read my thoughts from day one of the Coalition
• Read my thoughts from day two
• Read my notes from D.A. Carson’s explanation of the Coalition itself
• Read my personal reflections from the Coalition

I’ve been thinking some lately about America. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful to have been born and raised in a country that takes freedom seriously. But when people take freedom seriously, especially once that battle has been fought, they often take “self” seriously. After all, on a very practical level, freedom is about ourselves more than it is about anyone else (while I realize this is a straw-man, I do think that for most Americans this is the case). The practical living of “Freedom” for many Americans is simply about our own personal rights, pursuing the “American Dream” which is, for many, simply the pursuit of a life of ease.

Most Americans have a life of luxury unrivaled in the rest of the world. I’m no world traveler, but I’ve visited Mexico, Venezuela, China and Tanzania. One of the things that immediately strikes you during foreign travel is truly how easy most Americans have life. This is one of the misgivings that the larger world culture has about Americans: they love the idea of freedom, but when American influence comes to many countries, so does the erosion of many long-held values and traditions accompanied by the elevation of self-pursuits. Americans, for the most part, have a life of ease. Though we have the stresses of work, they are largely self-induced rather than a true pursuit of our next meal. I’ve been thinking of this in light of God’s warning to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 6:10-12:

And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you–with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant–and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

It’s interesting that God warns the Israelites against living in “great and good cities that you did not build” and “houses full of good things that you did not fill” along with “cisterns you did not dig.” You get the picture, and I hope that you see that it describes a great many Americans. God warns the Israelites against the influence of ease because it promotes the elevation of self. Notice the connection God draws: He warns them against ease because “when you eat and are full.” In other words, because they don’t have to worry about basic needs, what’s left to pursue but self-satisfaction?

God says that this is exactly when they will be likely to “forget the LORD.” Think about the severity of that statement and how it goes against so many commonly held notions. Many Americans worry that they might not hold on to their faith in times of trial and persecution. However, what they dont’ realize is that a life of ease is actually a greater enemy to the Christian faith than persecution has ever been. There are more Christians in China, a closed, antagonistic, atheistic country, than there are in America and it’s not just because there’s more people.

Christianity actually flourishes more in times of persecution (not that we ought to seek out persectution, but it will come: Matthew 5:10-12, Romans 12:14, etc.). The testing of our faith strengthens our faith (James 1:2-4, etc.), producing steadfastness. God often tries His people in the furnace of affliction (Isaiah 48:10), burning away the dross of self-reliance and confidence. Those suffering persecution know the true cost of discipleship and they must count that cost (Luke 14:27-29, etc.) everyday of their lives. The idea of claiming to be Christian without be convinced of its truth is simply unthinkable for most parts of the world, but that’s exactly what often seems to happen here in America.

There is no such thing as “cultural Christianity” in many countries. In America, it means very little to say that you’re a “Christian,” after all, isn’t this a “Christian” country? No one will bother you if you do or don’t go to church, after all, that’s your “personal right.” In many places on the earth, however, professing Christ truly means that you realize you will be made last in the eyes of your peers (Matthew 19:30) and, in finding your life, you may very well lose it (Matthew 10:39). Americans don’t have these problems and the result, in many cases is that it means absolutely nothing to proclaim Christ and because it means nothing, it results in nothing.

I wonder if a life of ease is not actually one of the greatest possible enemies to real Christianity. When things go well, we’re much more likely to look to ourselves with a pat on the back than we are to thank God for His provisions. When the sailing is smooth, we tend to praise our sailing rather than the weather. American Christians must be aware that some of the things they perhaps appreciate the most about living in America are actually the most detrimental to a true life of faith.

• Read The Cost of Discipleship by Dietrich Bonhoeffer
• Read The Scandal of the Evangelical Conscience: Why Are Christians Living Just Like the Rest of the World? by Ronald J. Sider

You may call it a link dump, I call it a treasure hunt. What’s the saying, “one man’s trash is another man’s blog fodder?” It think that’s right isn’t it? It ought to be. Here are some of the links that caught my eye this week as I wandered (sometimes aimlessly) through this big trash heap we know as the blogosphere.

Perhaps it sometimes needs to be said that just because I link something here does not mean I like everything here. Above all, these are simply things I found interesting or perhaps just mildly amusing. Taken together, I hope they make you think. Enjoy:

Read about the fight over Tommy Tutone’s famous telephone number: 867-5309

Read The Huffington Post’s thoughts about Amazon’s new music download store.

Read about Rothko’s “White Center” selling for $73 million.

Watch video of John Cage on I’ve Got a Secret in 1960 performing a piece including 5 radios, a water pitcher, an iron pipe, a goose call, and many other things. They call Cage the most controversial figure in the music world at the time.

Read as Al Mohler discusses several different major articles on abortion and the “culture of death.”

Read this piece which encourages people to submit “The Way I See It” comments from a Christian worldview to Starbucks.

Read as the Christian Century asks questions about Rick Warren’s relationship with media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Though Murdoch does not attend Warren’s church, Warren has claimed to be his pastor which leads to the question of why there has not been “church discipline” over Murdoch’s pornography businesses.

Read about New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson officially launching his bid for the Democrat Presidential nomination (he’s only “unofficially” been running so far).

Read about the 7,000 people who have volunteered to donate their remains to be “plastinated.”

Read Doug’s thoughts on the “Praise Me” generation.

Read Gunny’s thoughts that “mega” is not always better, especially when it comes to student/teacher ratios in Sunday School classes. The only exception seems to be when you’re chasing or being chased by sharks.

Read some of John Piper’s thoughts on Christ’s obedience.

Read about the wireless internet plans of several cities going bust.

Browse as Wikipedia compares different iPod software.

Read about the Creation-Evidence museum causing a lot of controversy.

Read Christianity Today’s interview with Derek Webb.

Read Esquire’s tips for making a perfect mix tape.

Read the Washington Times piece about “Europe’s Culture War.”

Read this piece which argues that the new immigration legislation is actually unfair to the poor.

See what I hear (my “mainstream” music).

Sign up for eMusic, find lots of DRM-free downloads and help me earn free downloads in the process. Everyone wins!

Read Matthew Hall’s thoughts on the passing of Jerry Falwell.

Read this article which notes that it’s almost cool now to be an “angry atheist.”

Read Timmy Brister’s thoughts about recent trends in Christianity.

Read about a lot of spray paint on walls. You call it graffiti, they call it art.

Read about the garbage crisis in Naples.

Visit Jeremy Casella’s new and improved website and newly relocated blog.

Read some of Richard Mouw’s thoughts on “Talking Past Each Other” when it comes to Evangelicals, Catholics and praying to the saints.

Read Tall Skinny Kiwi’s thoughts on the new “Emergent Manifesto of Hope.”

Read Sean’s open letter to Lou Dobbs.

Read Denny Burk’s thoughts about it being the end of the run for Guliani’s presidential bid.

Read about Jimmy Carter’s recent meeting with some SBC bloggers. No, I wasn’t included. I’m sure it was just an oversight (ht: Overstreet).

Read Joe Thorn’s thoughts about his church’s use of a “hacked” version of the Abstract of Prinicples.

Read Kevin Larson’s thoughts about the “new breed of evangelical.”

Browse Matt’s list of favorite blogs (even though mine’s not included).

Watch the incredible New York bucket drummer, Larry Wright and watch more here.

Read about the new venture “The Finest in Jazz,” a partnership between Ropeadope and Blue Note Records to create clothing from the vast Blue Note image catalog. I’m waiting for the Thelonious Monk shirts! In fact, I’m wearing my favorite shirt (which my wife gets tired of seeing), Blue Note Essentials, right now.

Read Pitchfork’s report that Sly Stone has begun touring again.

Browse as Slate celebrated Bob Dylan’s recent birthday with a photo tribute.

Browse the winners for Christianity Today’s 2007 book awards which include The Mission of God: Unlocking the Bible’s Grand Narrative by Christopher J.H. Wright and Promises Made: The Message of the Old Testament by Mark Dever.