Song for a Small Circle of Friends

We've made it to the penultimate song on Larry Norman's album, In Another Land, and we get a musical love letter that not only declares Norman's love for a short list of special friends, but also Jesus' love for everyone's friends.

Well my life is filled with songs

But I just could not get along without my friends

And I'm happy now, but when this good life ends

I know a better life begins

And love to you, Sir Stonehill

Armed with your axe full gallop on your amp

Ah, you're so crazy but you know it

And I love you as we both crawl toward the Lamp

With Clapton on guitar, and Charlie on the drums

McCartney on the Hofner bass with blisters on his thumbs

Dear Bobby, watch your fears all hide

And disappear while love inside starts growing

You're older but less colder

Than the jokes and folks you spent your childhood snowing

And Someone died for all your friends

But even better yet, He lives again

And if this song does not make sense to you

I hope His Spirit slips on through

He loves you

He loves you

He loves you

And if these words do not appeal to

I hope His Spirit slips on through

He loves you

He loves you

He loves you

And if this song does not make sense to you

I hope His Spirit slips on through

You know He loves you

©1973 Glenwood Music Corp.

Strawbed Music

https://youtu.be/SydKm0BwUY8

Truth is...I couldn't have a better hope for this blog. Maybe these words that get published every week don't make a lot of sense to you, but even so, I hope the Spirit of God slips through and makes His love for you real in your life.

Who's Gonna Clean This Up?!!?

Without a doubt, there are some pretty gross things written about within the pages of the Bible. And some of those get conveniently left out of the children's book versions of the stories.

For instance, you probably don't remember this particular detail in the story about Moses and the ten plagues of Egypt:

Exodus 8:12-14
After Moses and Aaron left Pharaoh, Moses cried out to the Lord about the frogs he had brought on Pharaoh. And the Lord did what Moses asked. The frogs died in the houses, in the courtyards, and in the fields. They were piled into heaps, and the land reeked of them.

Journal, March 25, 2002
Ooh...gross. The frogs didn't "go away;" they just died. So people had to clean them up  -  and their rotting made a Turrible Stench.

Truth is...There is no evidence that should lead us to believe we can escape consequences...even unpleasant ones.

God: "I've Got That Covered"

This was almost going to be titled "Yeah, But..." because that's basically what Moses keeps sputtering in Exodus 4 as he tries to convince Yahweh that he's not the guy that should be sent back to Egypt to free the enslaved Israelites.

And for every objection Moses comes up with, Yahweh has an answer.

vss 1-9
"They won't believe You sent me."
Do these miraculous signs.

vss 10-12
"I can't speak very well."
Who do you think created speech? I'll open your mouth and teach you what to say.

vss 13-17
"Send someone else."
Okay, I will. Take your brother Aaron with you!

Truth is...the reason I bring this up at all is so I can share with you a phrase from a footnote in the Amplified Bible, which the editors gleaned from John Henry Jowett's My Daily Meditation: "He who gives the command will also give the equipment."

One Way

Larry Norman has been credited (mostly, by himself) as the originator of the "One Way" symbol: pointing a single finger skyward as an indication of wanting Jesus to receive any and all honor and praise.

In the song "One Way", Norman uses the phrase to emphasize a truth spoken by Peter in Acts 4:12. "There is salvation in no one else! God has given no other name under heaven by which we must be saved."

And he does it while quoting/paraphrasing Robert Frost.

One way, one way to Heaven

Hold up high your hands

One way, free and forgiven

Children of the Lamb

Two roads diverged in the middle of my life

I heard a wise man say

And I took the one less traveled by

And that's made the difference, every night and every day

So I say one way, one way to Heaven

Hold your heads up high

Follow, free and forgiven

Children of the sky

Children of the sky, halelu

Children of the sky

©1973 Glenwood Music Corp. Strawbed Music

Truth is...It's not a popular thought, this idea of there being only one way to be saved. It's not popular...but it's biblical.

How Long Does It Take To Live A Life?

When you're reading the Bible, it seems like miracles and world-changing events were happening to Abraham and Moses and Jesus every day. What we sometimes forget is how much time elapsed between certain happenings.

Case in point...take a look at Exodus 2:9-11.

(9) Pharaoh’s daughter said to her, [FYI: The "her" here is Moses' mother.] “Take this baby and nurse him for me, and I will pay you.” So the woman took the baby and nursed him. (10) When the child grew older, she took him to Pharaoh’s daughter and he became her son. She named him Moses, saying, “I drew him out of the water.” (11) One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people.

First of all, according to my journal entry of May 5, 2002, I had never realized before that Pharoah's daughter sent Moses away to be nursed. I always kind of thought that Moses' mother came into the palace to take care of Moses.

Secondly, look at how much time passes in these three verses:

vs 9  -  Moses is a 3-month-old baby.
vs 10  -  He's weaned, and in that culture, that means he's probably two or three years old.
vs 11  -  Because of what we can read elsewhere, we know that Moses is 40 years old.

Truth is...It takes so little time to tell a story. It takes so long to live through one.

God is NOT in Control

Sorry to break the news to you, but contrary to several songs and a lot of bumper-sticker theology, everything does NOT happen for a reason, and God is NOT in control of everything.

I could be justified in coming to this conclusion just from the empirical evidence of the daily news. If God actually controlled everything that happened, would there be school shootings? Would rape ever happen? Would the Kardashians ever have become pop culture royalty? (Sorry, my humor DNA just kicked in.)

But I didn't want to depend just on human logic for something like this, so I went to BibleGateway.com and did some scriptural research.

The word "control" appears 39 times in the New International Version of the Bible. (That includes instances of "self-control" and other words that contain those seven letters in that order.) Of those 39 occurrences, only four have any connection to a non-human entity. 

Job 37:15 "Do you know how God controls the clouds and makes his lightning flash?"
     -  This is part of an epic poem. There is no reason to take these words literally and imagine God in some kind of cosmic control booth pushing buttons and operating levers to determine when lightning strikes or where clouds travel.

Philippians 3:20-21 "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body."
     -  Seems like this is talking about the end of life as we know it...that part of the grand opening of heaven and eternal life will be God finally bringing everything under His control, including even what kind of bodies we have.

Revelation 16:8-9 "The fourth angel poured out his bowl on the sun, and the sun was allowed to scorch people with fire. They were seared by the intense heat and they cursed the name of God, who had control over these plagues, but they refused to repent and glorify him."
     -  Again, more end-times language, and definitely not implying that God is currently in control of everything that happens on the planet.

And I've saved what is, no doubt, the most surprising verse for last:

1 John 5:19 "We know that we are children of God and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one."
     -  Here it is: the one verse that says anything definitive about Earth being under the control of a spiritual being, and it gives that title to The Evil One / Lucifer / Sataaaaan. The good news is, the commentaries I've read say this verse is more about emphasizing the distinctiveness of Christians compared to those who don't follow Christ than it is making a firm statement about who/what controls everything that happens. In fact, in several other English translations, the word "control" isn't even used.

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Truth is...none of this is meant to imply that God isn't in charge. He still causes all things to work out for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28), and Jesus still has all authority in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18). But Yahweh is not some big puppetmaster in the sky. Bad things happen because humans have chosen to do their own thing instead of God's thing.

Bonus Truth...It seems that those who choose to either disbelieve in God or be mad at Him for not stopping things like mass shootings are the same people who would never want their actions being controlled by Him.

Diamonds

Why are diamonds so valuable? Because people say they are.

Sure, sure...you can discuss the difficulty of acquiring diamonds compared to copper or quartz, but the only reason anyone goes to the trouble (beyond industrial uses like drill bits) is because someone somewhere decided that this particular mineral was more beautiful-desirable-valuable than another.

What we deem valuable makes a difference.

Larry Norman's song Diamonds touches on the difference between intrinsic value and conferred value. It's all of 98 seconds long (and really, is more of an introduction to the next song on the album than an actual song of its own), but still packs a wallop.

You can take your diamonds and lock them in your room

and you will lose everything you save

You can take your flowers and lay them on His tomb

but I know He rose up from the grave

https://youtu.be/OOuR8HQzt9I

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Truth is...What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul? (Mark 8:36-37 NIV)