____

March 16, 2016

Rick Rubin c/o Def Jam Recordings

New York, NY 10019

Dear Rick,

Thank you for encouraging Johnny Cash to do his last few albums. They have been such a blessing.

I understand that you are Jewish. If Johnny Cash was here today, I bet he would share something like this below from the scriptures. Johnny was a student of the whole Bible. He wrote the book THE MAN IN WHITE about the apostle Paul and it took him 10 years to write and in that book you can tell that he spent much time in research asking Jewish leaders what life was like for the Jews in the 1st century in Palestine while being occupied by the Romans.

I know that you will spending lots of time in the scriptures and I wanted to share with you some key scriptures that talk about the Messiah. Rusty Wright of Probe Ministries wrote the article below:

Many crime victims feel forsaken by God. So do many divorced people, war prisoners, and starving refugees. But this young man’s cry of desperation carried added significance because of its historical allusion.

The words had appeared about a thousand years earlier in a song written by a king. The details of the song are remarkably similar to the suffering the young man endured. It said, “All who see me mock me; they hurl insults, shaking their heads …. They have pierced my hands and my feet…. They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.”{2}

Historians record precisely this behavior during the young man’s execution.{3} It was as if a divine drama were unfolding as the man slipped into death.

Researchers have uncovered more than 300 predictions or prophesies literally fulfilled in the life and death of this unique individual. Many of these statements written hundreds of years before his birth-were beyond his human control. One correctly foretold the place of his birth. {4} Another said he would be born of a virgin. {5} He would be preceded by a messenger who would prepare the way for his work, {6} He would enter the capital city as a king but riding on a donkeys back {7} He would be betrayed for thirty pieces of Silver, {8} pierced, {9} executed among thieves, {10} and yet, though wounded, {11} he would suffer no broken bones.{12}

Peter Stoner, a California mathematics professor, calculated the chance probability of just eight of these 300 prophecies coming true in one person. Using conservative estimates, Stoner concluded that the probability is 1 in 10 to the 17th power that those eight could be fulfilled by a fluke.

He says 10¹⁷silver dollars would cover the state of Texas two feet deep. Mark one coin with red fingernail polish. Stir the whole batch thoroughly. What chance would a blindfolded person have of picking the marked coin on the first try? One in 10¹⁷, the same chance that just eight of the 300 prophecies “just happened” to come true in this man, Jesus. {13}

In his dying cry from the cross Jesus reminded His hearers that His life and death precisely fulfilled God’s previously stated plan. According to the biblical perspective, at the moment of death Jesus experienced the equivalent of eternal separation from God in our place so that we might be forgiven and find new life.

He took the penalty due for all the crime, injustice, evil, sin, and shortcomings of the world-including yours and mine.

Though sinless Himself, He likely felt guilty and abandoned. Then-again in fulfillment of prophecy {14} and contrary to natural law-He came back to life. As somewhat of a skeptic I investigated the evidence for Christ’s resurrection and found it to be one of the best-attested facts in history. {15} To the seeker Jesus Christ offers true inner peace, forgiveness, purpose, and strength for contented living.

SO WHAT?

“OK, great,” you might say, “but what hope does this give the crime or divorce victim, the hungry and bleeding refugee, the citizen paralyzed by a world gone bad?” Will Jesus prevent every crime, reconcile every troubled marriage, restore every refugee, stop every war? No. God has given us free will. Suffering–even unjust suffering–is a necessary consequence of sin.

Sometimes God does intervene to change circumstances. (I’m glad my assailant became nervous and left.) Other times God gives those who believe in Him strength to endure and confidence that He will see them through. In the process, believers mature.

Most significantly we can hope in what He has told us about the future. Seeing how God has fulfilled prophecies in the past gives us confidence to believe those not yet fulfilled. Jesus promises eternal life to all who trust Him for it: “Whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned; he has crossed over from death to life.”{16}

He promised He would return to rescue people from this dying planet.{17}

He will judge all evil.{18}

Finally justice will prevail. Those who have chosen to place their faith in Him will know true joy: “He shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there shall no longer be any death; there shall no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain.”{19}

Does God intend that we ignore temporal evil and mentally float off into unrealistic ethereal bliss? Nor at all. God is in the business of working through people to turn hearts to Him, resolve conflicts, make peace. After my assailant went to prison, I felt motivated to tell him that I forgave him because of Christ. He apologized, saying he, too, has now come to believe in Jesus.

But through every trial, every injustice you suffer, you can know that God is your friend and that one day He will set things right. You can know that He is still on the throne of the universe and that He cares for you. You can know this because His Son was born (Christmas is, of course, a celebration of His birth), lived, died, and came back to life in fulfillment of prophecy. Because of Jesus, if you personally receive His free gift of forgiveness, you can have hope!

Will you trust Him?

Notes

1. Matthew 27:46.

2. Psalm 22.

3. Matthew 27:35-44; John 20:25.

4. Micah 5:2; Matthew 2:1.

5. Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18, 24-25; Luke 1:26-35.

6. Malachi 3:1; Isaiah 40:3; Matthew 3:1-2.

7. Zechariah 9:9; John 12:15; Matthew 21: 1-9.

8. Zechariah 11:12; Matthew 26:15.

9. Zechariah 12:10; John 19:34, 37.

10. Isaiah 53:12.

11. Matthew 27:38; Isaiah 53:5; Zechariah 13:6; Matthew 27:26.

12. Psalm 34:20; John 19:33, 36.

13. Peter Stoner, Science Speaks, pp. 99-112.

14. Psalm 6:10; Acts 2:31-32.

15. Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict, pp. 185-273.

16. John 5:24.

17. 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

18. Revelation 20:10-15.

19. Revelation 21:4 NAS.

©1994 Rusty Wright. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Reprinted with permission from Pursuit magazine (© 1994, Vol. III, No. 3)

About the Author

Rusty Wright, former associate speaker and writer with Probe Ministries, is an international lecturer, award-winning author, and journalist who has spoken on six continents. He holds Bachelor of Science (psychology) and Master of Theology degrees from Duke and Oxford universities, respectively. www.RustyWright.com

You and I have something in common and it is the song GOD’S GONNA CUT YOU DOWN. You were in the video and my post about that video entitled, People in the Johnny Cash video “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” is the most popular post I have done in recent years. It ranked #1 for all of 2015 and I have over 1,000,000 hits on my http://www.thedailyhatch.org blog site. The ironic thing is that I never knew what a big deal Johnny Cash was until he had died. I grew up in Memphis with his nephew Paul Garrett and we even went to the same school and church. Paul’s mother was Johnny Cash’s sister Margaret Louise Garrett.

Stu Carnall, an early tour manager for Johnny Cash, recalled, “Johnny’s an individualist, and he’s a loner….We’d be on the road for weeks at a time, staying at motels and hotels along the way. While the other members of the troupe would sleep in, Johnny would disappear for a few hours. When he returned, if anyone asked where he’d been, he’d answer straight faced, ‘to church.'”

Have you ever taken the time to read the words of the song?

Johnny Cash – God’s Gonna Cut You Down

Johnny Cash’s version of the traditional God’s Gonna Cut You Down, from the album “American V: A Hundred Highways”, was released as a music video on November 9 2006, just over three years after Cash died. Producer Rick Rubin opens the music video, saying, “You know, Johnny always wore black. He wore black because he identified with the poor and the downtrodden…”. What follows is a collection of black and white clips of well known pop artists wearing black, each interacting with the song in their own way. Some use religious imagery. Howard sits in his limo reading from Ezekiel 34, a Biblical passage warning about impending judgment for false shepherd. Bono leaning on a graffiti-filled wall between angel’s wings and a halo, pointing to the words, “Sinners Make The Best Saints. J.C. R.I.P.” A number of artists wear or hold crosses.

Artists appear in this order: Rick Rubin, Iggy Pop, Kanye West, Chris Martin, Kris Kristofferson, Patti Smith, Terence Howard, Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Q-Tip, Adam Levine (Maroon 5), Chris Rock, Justin Timberlake, Kate Moss, Sir Peter Blake (Sgt Peppers Artist), Sheryl Crow, Denis Hopper, Woody Harrelson, Amy Lee of Evanescence, Tommy Lee, Natalie Maines, Emily Robison, Martie Maguire (Dixie Chicks), Mick Jones, Sharon Stone, Bono, Shelby Lynne, Anthony Kiedis, Travis Barker, Lisa Marie Presley, Kid Rock, Jay Z, Keith Richards, Billy Gibbons, Corinne Bailey Rae, Johnny Depp, Graham Nash, Brian Wilson, Rick Rubin and Owen Wilson. The video finishes with Rick Rubin traveling to a seaside cliff with friend Owen Wilson to throw a bouquet of flowers up in the air.

• American singer and civil rights activist Odetta recorded a traditional version of the song. Musician Sean Michel covered the song during his audition on Season 6 of American Idol. Matchbox Twenty also used the song before playing “How Far We’ve Come” on their “Exile in America” tour.

• The New Jersey rock band The Gaslight Anthem have also covered the song.^{[citation needed]} Canadian rock band Three Days Grace has used the song in the opening of their live shows, as well as the rock band Staind . Bobbie Gentry recorded a version as “Sermon” on her album The Delta Sweete. Guitarist Bill Leverty recorded a version for his third solo project Deep South, a tribute album of traditional songs. Tom Jones recorded an up-tempo version which appears on his 2010 album Praise & Blame. Pow woW recorded a version with the Golden Gate Quartet for their 1992 album Regagner les Plaines and performed a live version with the quartet in 2008. A cover of the song by Blues Saraceno was used for the Season 8 trailer of the TV series Dexter. Pedro Costarecorded a neo-blues version for the Discovery channel TV show Weed Country (2013). Virginia based folk rock band Carbon Leaf covered the song many times during their live shows.

• Chart positions[edit]

  Moby version: “Run On”[edit]

  Chart (1999)	Peak position
  UK Singles Chart	33

  Johnny Cash version[edit]

  Chart (2006)	Peak position
  UK Singles Chart	77

• 

• American Idol contestant ministers in Chile

  by Tristan Taylor, posted Wednesday, August 18, 2010 (5 years ago)
• SANTIAGO, Chile (BP)–Sean Michel smiled through his distinctive, foot-long beard as he slid the guitar strap over his shoulder and greeted the crowd at El Huevo nightclub with what little Spanish he knows. The former American Idol contestant and his band then erupted into the sounds of Mississippi Delta blues-rock.But unlike other musicians who played that night, the Sean Michel band sang about every person’s need for God and the salvation that comes only through faith in Jesus Christ.”We came down [to Chile] to open doors that other ministries couldn’t,” said Jay Newman, Michel’s manager. “To get in places that only a rock band could — to create a vision for new church-planting movements among the underground, disenfranchised subcultures of Chile.”The Sean Michel band recently traveled through central Chile playing more than 15 shows in bars, churches, schools and parks. The group consists of Southern Baptists Sean Michel, lead singer; Alvin Rapien, lead guitarist; Seth Atchley, bass guitarist; and Tyler Groves, drummer.”Although we’re a blues rock ‘n’ roll band, we’re an extension of the church,” Michel said. “We’re kind of like ‘musicianaries,’ if you will.”MISSIONS-MINDED MUSICIANSThe band formed after Michel and Newman met as students at Ouachita Baptist University in Arkadelphia, Ark. While there, the two began recording and selling Michel’s music as a way to raise money for mission trips to Africa and Asia.”We were just trying to raise money for a mission trip, but we’d also seen God speaking to people through the music,” Michel said. “So we were like, ‘Well, maybe we need to do something with this,’ and we became a music ministry. But it’s always been rooted in missions and … in the Great Commission.”Michel graduated from Ouachita in 2001, Newman in 2004. In 2007, Newman talked Michel into auditioning for American Idol. The exposure Michel received through the television show gained a wider audience for their ministry.”The whole American Idol thing was so weird,” Michel said. “We just kind of went on a whim. But the Lord used it in a big way.”During his tryout, Michel belted out a soulful rendition of Johnny Cash’s “God’s Gonna Cut You Down.” The video of the audition went viral on the Internet.Soon he was doing radio interviews in which he identified himself as a Christian and directed listeners to the band’s Gospel-laden MySpace page. On their next mission trip to Asia, Michel and Newman found that being recognizable gave them access to venues they couldn’t have entered before.The band is now an official extension of First Southern Baptist Church of Bryant, Ark., where the musicians have long been active members serving in the music and youth ministries. Every mission trip they have taken has involved working with International Mission Board (IMB) missionaries.”We’re Southern Baptist,” Michel said. “That’s who we roll with.”

  TOUR DE FAITH

  “With short-term mission trips, you can plan, but you just got to be willing for your plans to change,” said Michel. When the band arrived in Chile, they were surprised to find that their schedule wasn’t nearly as full as expected. Almost no public venues had booked shows, and many rock-wary churches had declined to host the band.

  “The biggest barrier we had was the pastors,” said Cliff Case, an IMB missionary in Santiago, Chile, and a 1984 graduate of Ouachita Baptist. “The older pastors on two or three different occasions gave excuses for not doing it. It was a real frustration in that sense.”

  Disappointed by the lack of interest, the band prayed for God’s help. They met Jose Campos — or Pépe, as the band came to know him. Campos works with music and youth for the Ministry of the Down and Out, an independent Christian ministry that seeks to reach the often-overlooked demographics of Santiago.

  Campos was able to use his connections to book shows for the band in venues they wouldn’t have known about otherwise.

  “Had we met Pépe (Campos) two or three weeks before the group came, there’s no telling how many shows we might have done,” said Case, who met Newman at Ouachita when Case and his wife, Cinthy, were missionaries-in-residence there.

  Campos booked the show at El Huevo, possibly Chile’s most popular club. Playing there has given the band musical credibility among Chilean rockers. And, one Chilean church reported that a youth accepted Christ after hearing Newman talk before a show. The band already is contemplating a return tour next year.

  OPENING NEW DOORS

  Sharing the Gospel through their songs is only the beginning for the Sean Michel band. Their vision is to be a catalyst to help churches — and missionaries — connect with the lost people of their communities.

  “God is not saving the world through rock bands,” Michel said. “He’s saving the world through the church. And it will always be through the local body.”

  The band wants to see churches take ministry beyond the church doors.

  “If you’re going to want to legitimately reach lost people, you’re going to have to get out,” Michel said. “Go out into the dark places. Those are the places we need to be to reach out.”

  The band’s ministry in Chile opened new doors for IMB missionaries to reach the young, musical subculture of Chilean society.

  “They laid the groundwork for more opportunities,” Case said. “Now we have a network of who to talk to and how to get organized. We can focus on how to use the work they’re doing so we can win people to the Lord and plant some churches.”

  ---

  Tristan Taylor is an International Mission Board writer living in the Americas.

• Featured artist is Daniel Gordon

  __

  For all general inquiries, please contact
  daniel [at] danielgordonstudio [dot] com

  Designed and developed by The Work We Do.

  __

  MATTE: Daniel Gordon

  by MATTHEW LEIFHEIT on MARCH 6, 2014 MATTE

  

  Daniel Gordon, portrait by Matthew Lefiheit.

  This interview series is produced in partnership with MATTE Magazine, a publication produced by writer and curator Matthew Leifheit that focuses on the work of a single photographer per issue.

  You’ve probably seen Daniel Gordon’s photography before. He’s shown at MoMA, MoMA PS1, and Wallspace to name just a few venues, and the work’s hard to miss; the faces, plants, and fruit that occupy his pictures look like they’ve been constructed out of Photoshop and a glue gun (you can even see the drips). MATTE publisher Matthew Leifheit sat down with Gordon to talk about his work in relationship to painting, surgery, portraiture, and pretty much everything else.

  

  Stepping back in time, before you made photographs of constructed tableau or constructed portraits, you were making pictures of your own body. Your “Flying Pictures.”

  Right. I made that work in college, starting in 2000. At the same time I made the flying pictures I was making photographs in the same way that I do now, by constructing a tableau, but using my own photographs as the constructed material instead of using found images. I think both of these approaches are essentially investigating the veracity of a photograph.

  When I was in graduate school at Yale I made a forest that was probably about 500 square feet in the studio out of photographs I had taken, and I photographed the tableau with an 8 x 10 inch camera. It took like six months to do this thing, because I was printing everything out on an 8.5 x 11 inch printer, and I was making everything in a really strict way where I didn’t want the seams to be visible.

  

  Daniel Gordon, “Deprong Moridpi,” referred to above.

  I almost killed myself making it, you know? It resolved as a giant print. And I looked at it and thought, “I might as well have made this whole thing on the computer.” It didn’t read as a physical object that had been photographed. So, I decided to make a picture every day as a way to loosen things up. This also allowed me to find a subject matter. Pictures of the body started creeping in among the still lifes and landscape pictures that I was making. It shocked me and reminded me of the first images that I saw growing up, which were photographs of operations.

  Your parents are surgeons.

  Yeah, I’ve watched a lot of operations, and I’ve never had any issues with getting squeamish or feeling sick to my stomach. I am really fascinated by bodies and that lead to making portraits. I became interested in the problems with a male photographer making a portrait of a woman. There’s been a history of exploitation, and the fact that I’m searching for images online means there is a lot of pornography.

  Especially if your search term is “skin.”

  Exactly. You do a search for “skin,” and all this stuff [porn] comes up. I think some people have misread some of my early portraits of women as misogynist, but they were a critique; they were difficult pictures.

  Are you a feminist?

  Yes.

  

  Daniel Gordon, “Red Eyed Woman,” 2011. Courtesy the artist.

  It’s important for men to be talking about problems with the way women are depicted.

  As a man, a lot of the time you just feel like a beast, you know?  I think in a lot of ways those pictures were about that feeling, as well as the history of the artist and exploited muse relationship.

  It seems like you reference painting often. Your newest series is called “The Green Line,” after the Matisse painting by that name.

  Lately my work has been talked about in relationship to painting, which is funny when I feel so connected to photography—to the essence of what the act of making a picture can do. That is, transform what is in front of the lense, so that the photograph is something different than what originally existed. I think of what I’m doing as extremely photographic, though I am inspired by many different types of art—including painting.

  You’re kind of a street photographer, in the weirdest way. Garry Winogrand is going out into the street to photograph people and you’re going into Google images.

  Yes, I don’t manipulate anything once I shoot the film (other than standard color correction). My ideal form of appropriation would kind of take the form that I imagine a street photographer possesses: pulling seemingly unconnected parts together to create one frenetic whole.

  You graduated with an MFA in 2006, and you were in the New Photography show at MoMA in 2009.

  I’m so grateful that I was included in that show; it was incredible to have my work in the Museum of Modern Art. I had a show with Zach Feuer one year after I finished school, in 2007. Then I had a few studio visits with Eva Respini, a curator at MoMA, and the next year I was invited to be in that show.

  

  Eva wrote the forward to your new book Still Lifes, Portraits, and Parts.

  I asked her to write whatever she wanted to write. She decided to recycle old essays that she had written about other artists, splicing it all together to make it about me.

  That’s pretty smart.

  Yes, I think it’s great. It was the perfect thing for my book.

  You were featured in Art21. What was that like? In art school, teachers show Art21 in classes.

  When they’re hungover.

  Still, I regard that series as important.

  They took their time making the video, so we got to know each other and I felt comfortable having them around. I was working in my studio while they filmed. I felt like I didn’t have to be guarded. Now they’re doing 10 minute segments for the web instead of 30 minute documentaries, like three short stories. Hopefully we’re going to do a couple more. The first one was about process. We’ll see what the next one is.

  Why are you making photographs, not sculptures?

  Well, everything is made good enough for the camera. I’m a photographer; I’m interested in that transformation the camera performs. When the light hits the film, something changes and when you can harness that transformation that’s incredibly exciting

  Art 21 take us around Brooklyn-based artist Daniel Gordon’s studio

• Related posts:

• Johnny Cash (Part 4)

  December 26, 2011 – 12:59 am

  I got to hear Johnny Cash sing in person back in 1978.  Here is a portion of an article about his Christian Testimony. The Man Came Around   “Being a Christian isn’t for sissies,” Cash said once. “It takes a real man to live for God—a lot more man than to live for the devil, […]

  By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events | Tagged american iii solitary man, autonomic neuropathy, christian testimony, fellow rebel, nerve endings | Edit | Comments (0)

• Johnny Cash a Christian?

  May 23, 2012 – 10:32 am

  I got to see Johnny Cash perform in Memphis in 1978 and I actually knew his nephew very well. He was an outspoken Christian and evangelical. Here is an article that discusses this. Johnny Cash’s Complicated Faith Dave Urbanski <!– var fbShare = { google_analytics: ‘true’, } tweetmeme_source = ‘RELEVANTMag’; –> Unwrapping the enigma of […]

  By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events | Edit | Comments (0)

  Johnny Cash (Part 3)

  December 23, 2011 – 12:57 am

  I got to hear Johnny Cash sing in person back in 1978.  Here is a portion of an article about his Christian Testimony. The Man Came Around   A Walking Contradiction Cash’s daughter, singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash, once pointed out that “my father was raised a Baptist, but he has the soul of a mystic. He’s […]

  By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events | Tagged christian testimony, prayer of thanksgiving, seven deadly sins, spiritual element, walking contradiction | Edit | Comments (0)

  Johnny Cash (Part 2)

  December 22, 2011 – 12:55 am

  I got to hear Johnny Cash sing in person back in 1978 at a Billy Graham Crusade in Memphis. Here is a portion of an article about his Christian Testimony. The Man Came Around Cash also made major headlines when he shared his faith on The Johnny Cash Show, a popular variety program on ABC […]

  By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events | Tagged billy graham crusade, christian testimony, evangelist billy graham, folsom prison blues, kris kristofferson | Edit | Comments (0)

  Johnny Cash (Part 1)

  December 21, 2011 – 12:51 am

  I got to hear Johnny Cash sing in person back in 1978. Here is a portion of an article about his Christian Testimony. The Man Came Around Johnny Cash was not ashamed of his Christian faith—though it was sometimes a messy faith—and even got some encouragement from Billy Graham along the way. Dave Urbanski | […]

  By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events | Tagged conservative bible, dave urbanski, jesus of nazareth, nickel and dime, true vine | Edit | Comments (0)

• People in the Johnny Cash video “God’s Gonna Cut You Down”

  May 11, 2012 – 12:10 pm

  Wikipedia noted: Johnny Cash recorded a version of “God’s Gonna Cut You Down” on American V: A Hundred Highways in 2003, with an arrangement quite different from most known gospel versions of the song. A music video, directed by Tony Kaye,[1] was made for this version in late 2006. It featured a number of celebrities, […]

  By Everette Hatcher III | Posted in Current Events | Tagged Amy Lee, chris martin | Edit | Comments (0)