CAMPONTHIS: The Prophetic Cry of a Love-Starved Generation...radio nowhere - bruce springsteen

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

The Prophetic Cry of a Love-Starved Generation
...radio nowhere - bruce springsteen

15 comments:

donsands said...: Springsteen is a talented artist. He says things in his music from the heart so much better than some CCM artists.

The human heart surely does need love: God's love. Rom. 5:5

As liberal as Bruce is, I'd love to to be able to discuss the things of the Lord Jesus with him.

I'll have to pray for him.

Thanks for this video, it was very good. Thought provoking.; 09:02
Michele Rayburn said...: I remember talking with my friend, Brian (bhedr), not too long ago on this blog about ol' Bruce.

The "love-starved generation" didn't begin with this present generation. The 70's were pretty awful, too.

I grew up without Christ in a virtually loveless home, so that by the time I was 13 years old, I had become severely depressed, and didn’t want to live anymore.

When I went to college, I got in with a bad crowd that I met through a Bible Study of all things. I got into so many bad situations that if it wasn’t for the grace of God, I might not be here today.

I remember playing Bruce Springsteen on my record player (remember those?) over and over and over again all through the night and into the next morning, trying to fill the emptiness, and trying to numb the pain, wishing there was something more to life.

I can't tell you all the things that happened to me back then. But I will tell you that it led me to the Lord. I remember at one point finally crying out to the Lord to help me. And it was shortly after that, that He did.

Two months after injuring my back, and being in terrible pain, I heard that Jesus died to pay for my sins and I finally came to trust in Him and it changed my life.

Listening to Bruce is difficult for me. I'm sorry to hear him still singing songs like "Radio Nowhere". I was hoping he'd be singing a "new song" by now. I had prayed for him to know the Lord, and hope someday he will.

He used to be my "favorite" singer when I was lost because his songs sounded as hopeless as I felt. And even he could only scratch the surface of the depth of pain that I was in.

The cry for love will never change, but the good news is that Jesus never changes either. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And when you trust in Him, He keeps His promise to forgive you, save you, and love you forever.

How I would love for the teenagers (and everyone) listening to Bruce's music to hear about Jesus, and the hope that they have in Him.; 14:15
Bhedr said...: Yeah I remember Michelle. I remember posting a few times on him as well. Chad Bresson did too. His Pete Seeger Tribute album was pretty powerful. I like how he sings some of those old spirituals. Maybe some of that will seep into his hungry heart one day.

I can remember replaying The River over and over in my mind drowning over my bad choices in life and wondering how I ever could have drifted so far from the Lord. I remember that old E Street Album just before I left for boot camp in 1986 and I was working construction that summer while they would often play from that collection where he gave his own testimony of not making it into the military during Veitnam and his Dad all over his case about his hair. Memories and it was always all to easy to drown out the emptiness with the rythmn, but all of that sorrow is gone and it was settled at the cross. We do have a new life and a new song. Its funny. I kinda started listening to Keith Green and he was the opposite of Bruce as he opened his hungry heart to God and called us out of the swamp of sorrow with his joy and new song and Steve Continues that tradition of keeping the truth firm and avoiding the swamp of drowing in a sea of noise and depression.

Still I like hymns the best now and call me a square as I am just consumed with prayer and worship in my truch while listening to the Bible Broadcasting Network. Still we have a lot of youth out there like we were yearning for something other then what always leaves them high and dry. So we must be careful to sow truth into the songs and be diligent about as the Anti-Christ desires to deceive these youth as well.

Nevertheless in the end we need solid preaching and that alone with prayer and the Holy Spirit to work in men and womens hearts.; 20:34
Bhedr said...: Is this what we are both sorta conveying Michelle? Here

It has a sort of Arminian flavor but it still paints the picture and we are all hungering for God and being called out from differant places and angles to the same truth and to love and Glorify and enjoy forever the God who brought us back home to Himself and saved us from the death we embraced.; 17:42
Bhedr said...: Then there is this Here

What irony that Bruce can be singing about such things and yet not be quickened and all the dead and damned around him be cheering to such a precious song about a slave girl finding her freedom in Christ..the Rock for Moses who by the power of God split the Red Sea and drown Pharoah who seeks to enslave...what precious truths that only a slave longing to be freed can understand. How hard it is for the rich all around singing and dancing wanting to be seen on TV to see. Truly only the quickening power of God can awake the dead to see this precious truth that "Mary" has named on the links of her chain. FREEDOM in the name of JESUS! and yet the world continues in its trance and dancing all the while to a song where if they would listen and "Hear" they would awaken. How tragic, but perhaps one day the Holy Spirit will take a phrase and stir the conscience of these people.; 18:24
dean said...: bruce was a hero to me in high school and as a young adult. a fellow new jerseyan, i could relate to the things, the places and the types of people he wrote and sang about. i got away from his stuff as a matter of musical taste at first... he got all twangy and countrified, but after i became a follower of Christ, i couldnt relate to the gloom and hopelessness any longer either.

you have to remember though, that bruce (like myself) was raised catholic, and so its easy for him to have one foot in and one foot out. and when you're raised with a works-based salvation such as what the RCC promotes, all it takes is to do just a little bit more good than bad in your life, and after a pit stop in purgatory and a lot of prayers prayed, masses said, and votive candles lit, you're in.

it's sad.; 20:54
Michele Rayburn said...: Brian,

That "Lifehouse" skit was really moving, and beautifully done. How good it is to go back to our first love after being soiled by the world. It seemed more like a skit about backsliding, than about salvation (regarding your concern that it seemed Arminian).

Regarding Bruce's video, "Oh, Mary..", it is always sad to see people singing and swaying to a Christianized song that is sung by an unsaved artist, and all the while none of them knowing what the meaning of the song is, but they're enjoying it. I'd like to think that a seed is being planted there in their hearts by God that will someday lead to their salvation.

I haven't followed Bruce's career since I got saved, but sometimes it looks like he is searching when he does songs like these.

Listening to Bruce is still difficult for me...even painful. My eyes were tearing up as I listened to him sing some of the other songs on YouTube. The more I listened, the emptier I felt.

After so many years as a Christian, it's not enjoyable anymore to go back to the things I used to enjoy before I knew the Lord. It makes me think of the verse in 1 Corinthians 13:11, "When I was a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things."

Those things just don't satisfy me anymore. As I said last time we talked about secular music, it is of a different spirit. I can't expect to be filled with the Spirit listening to secular music. And it certainly isn't edifying insofar as building me up in the faith.; 23:51
Bhedr said...: Your right Michelle. It fits in with the picture of backsliding well, but I also took it as being the creation of Man with the picture of the bride and I just put that in there barring any discussion on federalhead talk or the Sovereignty of God. It pictures Jesus in a way that is sort of wooing in a surprised way at first. Its a good little word picture though.; 16:27
Bhedr said...: Amen what you said about Bruce and secular music. I feel the same way. Psalm 45:10-11. He is calling us away from that world and our former people to one that gazes eternally at him for he desires our beauty of worship. Bruce can only prophecy of the noise that we must leave behind.Perhaps one day he will stop arguing about his only hope and receive Him too, but we must move along, we cannot look back and gaze at the misery he embraces or be swayed by his sirens. We must be on our way and not looking back. YOu and Terry are a blessing sister. Jesus said, "All those who hate me love death"; 16:35
Michele Rayburn said...: Brian,

It was actually a confusing little video! Because it starts out with Eve in the Garden with God, and then she sins, and then she wants to get back to God and can't, and then we see Jesus taking the beating for her, and then she is reunited with Jesus. As we know, the New Testament doesn't show Eve reunited with Jesus.

So, what we really have is Eve sinning against God and can't get back with Him. Then Jesus dies on the cross (hence, the beating). And then, the girl in the video could represent all sinners reconciled to God. Doctrinally, the video is a mess. Isn't it?!!

BTW, don't ask me how I know that was Eve in the video. That would just open up another "can of worms"!

Regarding Bruce, Terry was saying that the reason Bruce is so popular is that he resonates with the spiritual emptiness of the masses.

That is true for so many secular musicians today, though. And it is a sad commentary on the spiritual state of our youth today.

You are a blessing to me and Terry, too, Brian. We affectionately refer to you around here as "Brian, the beheader"! :)

Michele; 21:29
Bhedr said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 18:25
Bhedr said...: True thoughts as well as the insight by Terry. God Bless you sis. I would like to meet you guys some day. Maybe Steve will give a concert in western edge of Virginia sometime and we can both meet halfway or something.

Who knows. Maybe sometime, someday or perhaps in heaven one day soon.; 18:27
Kirby L. Wallace said...: Angst is the common battlecry of the existentialist. What, if anything does this have to do with the Gospel?; 02:32
Kirby L. Wallace said...: Angst is the common battlecry of the existentialist. What, if anything, does this have to do with the gospel?

What's his name from "nirvana" had much the same to offer.; 02:34
Anonymous said...: mannnn incredible song,nearly 40 years later and still class song's stunning..

Who can't see God in his music???; 08:03

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