Coffee, the Bible & Paige

Maddie knows stuff. The Circle of Fifths lies at the center of the skillset needed to be a successful musician. It tells us about key signatures, identifies the three primary chords in each key  – i.e., the 1,4, and 5 chords – and helps us quickly figure out what notes are in every key.   […]

Maddie knows stuff. The Pentatonic (Penta=5; Tonic=tone therefore the 5-tone scale) is the backbone of popular Western music, especially when it comes to soloing. Take the 7-note major scale, throw away the troublesome 4th and 7th note…. and voila! The Pentatonic Scale. Yup…. Maddie knows stuff.

Maddie Knows Stuff! Professor Maddie tells us that there are almost unlimited note combinations from a single Major Scale. One scale, seven notes…. we will never finish exploring the musical possibilities of those seven notes. There are enough scale and chord possibilities contained in that mothership called the Major Scale to occupy us for the […]

 My justification is not temporary, as though I were living under a kind of spiritual parole—constantly at risk that one failure would cancel it and send me back to prison. No, it is a permanent thing. Forever forgiven, forever pardoned, forever justified. That is the Gospel – the “Good News”. I am not on parole. […]

Chapters 1 – 4 focus on right standing with God (“righteousness,” “justification”), and chapters  5 – 8 describe the benefits that those who have attained this right standing enjoy. Paul’s argument in chs. 5–8 follows a general chiastic pattern (a-b-c / c´-b´-a´). “Chiastic pattern” is a new term for me. Here is what it means: […]

He believed the God who promised life where there was barrenness. He trusted the One who said an old man and an old woman would have a son, even though every biological possibility said otherwise. And when Abraham believed, God credited him with righteousness. That moment becomes the template. Think about it this way: when […]