Patti Lynn Clark Barnett

I previously posted about the fact that President Bush is a Born Again Christian. This has always constituted my basis for believing in the ultimate authenticity, honesty, and integrity of our president. No one is perfect and Even Born Again Christains will often fall from grace, but will always return to the fold and never fail to get back on track with the Lord.  However, all will be determined some day in a personal Judgment.
 
I would like to take this opportunity to share an experience my father had shortly before his death in 1985. It is similar to a song found on one of my newly purchased CDs by the, "Sons of Song".
 
One night, in a vision, Daddy said he saw Jesus. He could hardly speak for crying in trying to describe the loving warmth he felt encountering Jesus and His indescribable beauty. There was not a dry eye in that hospital room as he related this experience.

In Daddy's vision, he was walking down, "A wide road crowded with people running, rushing and crushing like cattle, headed for destruction". There was a division in the road up ahead with Some One sitting with a large Book in His hand. Daddy had no doubt the person sitting where the road split was Jesus. He was there judging the human race, looking for the names of those approaching. Scripture tells us that the instant a person accepts Christ as Savior their name is recorded in, "The Book of Life".
 
When trying to describe Jesus' personage, Daddy could only burst into tears, saying there was no possible way to describe Him or His brightness and beauty. My father, always the most stoic person I'd ever known, was never given to tears. As Daddy came closer to the fork in the road and approached Him, he said Jesus looked upon him with compassion, put His arm around his shoulder and placed him on the narrow road.
 
Robert L Clark, was a man of few words and not one given to much emotion. But his life was a sermon in so many ways. He honored truth and justice and had absolutely no tolerance for hypocrisy. I never once knew him to tell a falsehood or even garnish the truth. His employees and fellow workers in the earth moving business loved him dearly for his justice and good nature.
 
I am relating this now because, as I mentioned earlier, I received a Sons of Song music collection. One particular song in the collection, "Sorry, I Never Knew You" is also about a dream about the final Judgment. However, the dream in this song involves a more frightening element than in my Daddy's experience.
 
The Sons of Song, a trio of voices, like you will never hear again, have touched the world with their music.

Sorry I Never Knew You  CLICK HERE --> DIGITAL MUSIC FILE

WIN $100 !!!

David And The Ark

This song is taken straight out of 1 Chronicles (13-15, KJV) about the transferring of the Ark of the Covenant (The Ten Commandments) by King David and the Israelites.

There will be $100 to the first child or teenager that will learn this song then e-mail their recording or video to me.  The trick is to get all the names pronounced correctly. The winner's rendition will be posted on this website.

Now, there is something worth doing with part of your summer vacation…that is if you are sharp enough to nail it. Warning: it won't be easy. So be prepared for a real challenge. Now, get going!

August 16th update:

As of now, there has been no one sufficiently interested or up to the challenge of learning and presenting  this song to me. So, I am lowering the bar and raising the prize $$. Any one of any age may now enter. And the winner will recieve $150.00. It is a lot of fun to do--- once you learn it!


David And The Ark
DIGITAL MUSIC FILE

David was a man who loved the Lord
And followed after him with all his heart
And after Israel made David King,
He said "We're going to bring back the ark"

So he gathered all Israel together
He assembled the children of Aaron and Levi
Of the sons of Kohath, Merari and Gershom
 Elizaphan, Uzziel and Hebron

Then he called for Zadok and Abiathar the priests
For Joel and Eliel the Levi fathers' chiefs
For Uriel, Shemaiah, Amminadab and Asaiah
"Go sanctify yourselves so we can bring the Ark"

So David said,
"Appoint your brethren to be the singers
With instruments of music like the harp
I've prepared a place and a brand new wagon
Today we're bringing home the ark
We'll bring it on a brand new cart"

Chorus:

There was the sound of the cymbal
The trumpet and the timbrel*
The psaltery and the harp
It was a day of rejoicing
They were lifting up their voices
King David was dancing.
They were bringing back the ark

So the Levites appointed Heman the son of Joel
And of his brethren, Asaph the son of Berachiah
And Ethan the son of Kushaiah
Of the sons of their brethren, Merari

And with them their brethren of the second degree
Zechariah Ben and Jaaziel,
Shemiramoth, Jehiel, Unni, Eliab Benaiah
Maaseiah, Matathiah, Elipheleh, Mikneiah
Obededom and Jeiel

So the singers Heman, Asaph and Ethan
Were appointed to the sound of the cymbals of brass
And Zechariah, Benaiah, Maaseiah and Eliab
Aziel, Jeiel, Shemiramoth
With their brethren Unni
They were skilful and cunning
With their psalteries on Alamoth

And on the harps Mikneiah, Obededom Matathiah
Elipheleh Azaziah, Jeiel
And for the song Cheneniah But Elipheleh Berachiah
Obededom and Jeiah were door keepers for the ark

Chorus:

Then the priests, Zechariah, Netheneel and Shebaniah
Jehoshaphat, Benaiah, Amasai
And Eliezer were the priests that blew the trumpet
Before the ark of God

So David and the elders and the captains over thousands
Went to bring up the ark of the covenant of God
Out of the house of Obededom where they'd left it
'Cause they feared when God struck Uzza
'Cause he took hold of the ark

For some inexplicable reason, I had been thinking about Cindy Bates Quayle lately, the subject of this song. Coincidentally and unexpectedly, just last week I got an e-mail from her sister, Theresa Bates Connolly, who now lives in Norwood, Missouri. It must be time to share this song. 

While living and substitute teaching in Phoenix, I became acquainted and close friends with the Bates family that had relocated to Phoenix from Jonesborough, Tennessee, my home town. (Small world after all!) I didn't really know them well in Tenn., but Theresa and I became quick and close friends and I was made to feel like part of her family. Cindy, the second of three children was such a demure, modest and beautiful girl. She was later happily married to Mike Quayle, Vice President, Dan Quayle's brother. Not long after, she was diagnosed with leukemia. As devastating as this was, no one could have been more positive and courageous than Cindy. The same strong spirit/faith she exhibited on that plane out of Atlanta to Phoenix was the same calm spirit she had when I last saw her in Children's Hospital in Philadelphia.
 
Thankfully, this song was written for Cindy before her death at forty three….and she loved it! I just hope it will be an encouraging example for anyone who may be, ' Walking through the shadows' and fighting their own battle.
 
Cindy
DIGITAL MUSIC FILE
 
I remember that first shaky flight to Phoenix
You sat beside me and assured me everything would be OK
I know that same spirit now is guiding you
And helping you to make it through each day
 
Chorus:
 
And you are teaching us to walk on through the shadows
Never fearing and in weakness staying strong
Never giving up or in to pain and sadness
That's the reason we are singing Cindy's song
 
Long ago I did a portrait for your wedding
I wonder if its still hanging there to tell
You were always called the quiet one of the family
Just a sweet shy and lovely blue eyed girl
 
Chorus
 
Not too long ago I saw you here in Philly
Your doctors said they'd never seen one quite like you
So determined and unwilling to be broken
In your spirit that will always see you through
 
Chorus

The USA military has to be the best on earth! And it is no mystery why the MSM is all but silent concerning the likelihood of victory in Iraq. It is a disturbing state of affairs when a soldier isn't supported by so many of his/her own fellow citizens. The Italians consider ingratitude a mortal sin and I tend to agree.
 
To say you support the troops, but not the war, is simply disingenuous jibberish. It's like saying you support a minister, musician, doctor or artist but you despise their work. Most often, individuals are defined by their work. And if that was ever the case, it is with the soldier who is willing to put himself in harm's way, sacrificing self and even life for the cause he believes to be so much greater than himself.

From what I have gathered, this song sums up the way they feel about the critics and nay sayers here at home and abroad.
 
Big Picture 
DIGITAL MUSIC FILE

We're safely here while they're over there fighting for our freedom
Here at home some don't realize just how much we need them
To make the world a safer place they give up their own freedom
I wondered if they wonder if we know how much we need them
 
Chorus:
Then I talked to them and I got first hand just how the soldier's feeling
About the spin from the pinheads here denying we are winning
Proud and bold the truth they told with undiluted conviction
They don't give a squat 'cause the pinhead's just a dot in the big picture
 
 
They fly above it all and call the shots the way they see them
They know the press has done its best to damage and condemn them
Now that the war is being won they just choose to ignore it
But not one dark and bloody day did they fail to exploit
 
As the voices of dissent grew loud the troops were growing stronger
As victory nears all we can hear is, "Leave them there no longer
Bring them back from old Iraq- to hell with liberty!
Drop your gun leave the job undone- to hell with victory!!"
 
In almost seven years we've seen no terror on this nation
If we don't learn from history there'll be another lesson
"Appease the enemy and he'll forsake his evil schemes"
What will it take to shake these dreamers from their foolish dreams?!
 
Chorus
 
Then I talked with them and I got first hand just how the soldier's dealing
With all the spin from the pinheads here denying we are winning
Proud and bold the truth they told with undiluted conviction
They don't give a squat 'cause the pinhead's just a dot in the big picture
Like a blue dot in a Suerat picture, they're just a dot in the big picture