Good sound ..Thanks for sharing

Hi Tim,

I really enjoyed your new one, "Problems" The horn section really sounds huge! Your collaborations with Jim sound great. You guys blend well together.

Peace, Tony

Your voice keeps sounding better and better

Good to see you Tim ... how are you?

Thanks Tim, very kind of you to pay a visit. That track is one of my favourites too - I originally made it for my mum just before she died.

Sorry about posting and than removing it. I was doing
some editing to it and lost the original post. I will do it again but it
won`t be exactly as the original. Sorry about that.

I
too learned what I knew about God from my family. My Mother is Italian
and as most Italians was Catholic. Since my early teens however and to
my early thirties I would not go inside a church. It seemed dark inside
there to me. I didn`t feel God was there. Some other presence was there
but not God. 

A brother used to come by
and talk with me about the Bible. When he came by my wife would tell me
she didn`t want him here. She hated when Jehovah`s Witnesses would come
to see me. Her beliefs come from the Church of Christ. We moved away
and some years later a sister came by to our new home and my wife
decided to confront her. The subject was hell. She said to the sister
"you don`t believe in hell do you?" The sister replied "maybe not in
the same way you do? As the sister explained from the Bible my wife
completely changed at that moment and started a study and became one of
Jehovah`s Witnesses. My wife explains it as a light came on and she for
the first time could see that what she learned all her life was wrong.

I
knew there was something out there. A truth. I knew it before I knew
the truth. I was searching for it. No other religion could satisfy what
I challenged them to do. I challeneged every minister, The Mormons, no
one could teach me the truth from the Bible. I would say to them you
have the truth teach it to me from the Bible. They could not do it. My
wife was studying and I would listen in on their study and liked what I
heard. It made sense and it was coming from the Bible. Once I knew I
was learning the truth I humbled myself to that.

I
learned God`s name was Jehovah. I learned that Sheol and Hades was not
a place of fire and torment but mankinds grave. I learned that everyone
does not go to heaven as I was told but that only those that will rule
with Jesus go to heaven and that the earth was where everyone else
would be. That the earth would be transformed into a paradise for
humans to live and that death, and pain and suffereing would be done
away with. I learned this all from the Bible and I made them prove it
and I proved it to myself by research and study. Learning the truth
exposed the lies I had been taught all my life. How could this be? How
could the religions that claim to represent God teach lies. All my
questions were answered to my satisfaction and always from the Bible.
Why did he pick me from all others to reveal it to. I was overwhelmed
and after all these years have never not been overwhelmed by the truth.
Its so simple yet so complex on so many levels.

Not
realizing fully I did what this scripture states to do at Zephania 2:3
"seek Jehovah, all you meek ones of the earth, who have practiced His
own judicial decision. Seek righteousness, seek meekness. Probably you
may be concealed in the day of his anger"

A scripture I appreciate more after learning Bible truth is at John 4:23, 24 where Jesus was speaking to a Samaritan woman but it has just as important application today,

"Nevertheless, the hour is coming, and it is now, when the true worshipers will worship the Father with spirit and truth, for, indeed, the Father is looking for suchlike ones to worship him. God is a spirit, and those worshiping him must worship with spirit and truth."

Christendom`s
churches teach doctrine in conflict with Bible truth. They do not
provide the food at the proper time as the Bible says would happen in
the time of the end. Matthew 24:45-47 "Who really is the faithful and
discreet slave whom his master appointed over his domestics, to give
them their food at the proper time? Happy is that slave if the master
on arriving finds him doing so. Truley I say to YOU, He will appoint
him over all his belongings"

The truth
not only reveals the lies but reveals who God has appointed here on
earth to distribute true worship to his belongings. This is you and I
and who seek truth. Thats the food. I hear alot of people having a bad
taste for organized religion. I can`t blame them. But merely telling
people there is an organization on earth that God has appointed a
"faithful and discreet slave" to give this food at the proper time to
his people worshiping him in spirit and truth doesn`t work. The veil is
over the faces of people. they either don`t care or don`t want to know.
The truth has no value to them. 2 Corithians 3:16, 17 "But when there
is a turning to Jehovah, the veil is taken away. Now Jehovah is the
Spirit, and where the spirit of Jehovah is, there is freedom"

Yes
its deep and profound. Would you expect anything less. The Bible talks
about a physical man and a spiritual man. Some speak of spirtuality as
they perceive it to be but a spiritual man is one that Jehovah has
taught. 1 Corithians 2:10 "For it is to us God has revealed them
through his spirit, for the spirit searches all things, even the deep
things of God" This is directed to "the faithful and discreet slave"
the ones who go to heaven and will rule with Jesus in the heavenly
Kingdom but it applies to us too because we receieve this food at the
proper time.

Spirtuality comes from
Jehovah and the place to get it is his earthly organziation where his
appointed "faithful and discreet slave" dispense the food at the proper
time. Some look in other places. They become members of other
organizations. Be careful because if it conflicts with God your
spirituality can be affected. Jesus says at Matthew 12:30 " He that is
not on my side is against me, and he that does not gather with me
scatters" Jehovah and Jesus are still doing the gathering work. God is
love but he says "I Jehovah your God am a God exacting exclusive
devotion" Exodus 20:5

True worship means
we learn 2 Corithians 6:17 "Therefore get out from among them, and
seperate yourselves, says Jehovah, and quit touching the unclean thing,
and I will take you in"  Again this is to the anointed ones who go to
heaven to rule with Jesus but has application to those seeking Jehovah
and the truth. We can benefit from Jehovah`s Kingdom arrangement right
now.

Soon that Kingdom will take complete
charge over earth`s affairs. As Daniel 2:44 says what God`s Kingdom
will do to the Kingdoms of the earth "And in the days of those Kings
the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be brought to
ruin. And the kingdom itself will not be passed on to any other people.
It will crush and put an end to all these other kingdoms, and it itself
will stand to times indefinite"

Christendom
does not teach this about the Kingdom. They did not prove to be doing
so when the master arrived and thus was not appointed to proclaim the
kingdom. The "faithful and discreet slave" will not be found in the
churches of Christendom. Christendom has been rejected by God and have
none of his spirit. As the Bible warns about Babylon the Great, the
empire of false religion including Christendom, it says at Revalation
18:4, 5 "Get out of her, my people, if You do not want to share with
her in her sins, and if You do not want to receive part of her plagues.
For her sins have massed together clear up to heaven, and God has
called her acts of injustice to mind" Pretty heavy and profound words. 

Wow, that is one heavy conversation between you and Chris. I don’t think I stumbled onto it by accident as tonight, at 55 years old I will be initiated into the Brotherhood of Freemasons. They asked that I spend as much of the day as possible reflecting on my own spirituality. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>

When I was younger I was taught by religious as well as my family that God was vengeful and was going to get me. He was going to get me for the faces I made at my mother, talking back or the fights I had with my sister or my lack of interest in their self-serving rules, I would be going straight to the torments of Hell. As I got older he, God, changed. He became a loving forgiving God. <o:p></o:p>

I believe in God. I believe in Jesus Christ. I believe that the Kingdom of Heaven IS within us all. I believe we could glimpse his Kingdom within us if we could clear away our Greed, jealousies, fears, lust, self-centeredness, prejudice and autonomy that clouds our judgment and ability to truly love one another as Christ loved us. <o:p></o:p>

As stated by both of you we fail to realize, Love is what it is all about!<o:p></o:p>

To quote Nick Lowe, “What’s so funny bout Peace, Love and Understanding”<o:p></o:p>

I do hope you don’t mind that I added my 2 cents.<o:p></o:p>

Peace, Tony<o:p></o:p>

Thanks Tim for your kind commments on Jesus Called Me Collect!

I've also noticed the very interesting conversation between you and Chris and I'm going back through your pages to read them all.

Peace, Tony

 Thanks Tim!

Your feeling is correct....