THE SOLID ROCK

It's almost Christmas......and the melodies and lyrics of all the wonderful old, and new, Christmas hymns and songs are filling the air. Along with all the Christmas decorations and dispays everywhere. I have always loved Christmas!!! It is such a special time.....and it's also my Birthday which makes it double precious to me.

Amidst all of the above the melody and lyrics of this beautiful old hymn, lyrics by Edward Mote and music by William B Bradbury written in 1834, keep ringing through my mind and in my Spirit. Just think....a hundred and seventy three years ago!! This is one of the many old hymns I grew up on and my early Christian walk were formed by.

THE SOLID ROCK

vs 1: My hope is built on nothing less

Than Jesus blood and righteousness;

I dare not trust the sweetest frame,

But wholly lean on Jesus' name.

vs 2: When darkness seems to hide his face,

I rest on his unchanging grace;

In every high and stormy gale,

My anchor holds within the vale.

vs3: His oath, His covenant, His blood,

Support me in the whelming flood;

When all around my soul gives way,

He then is all my hope and stay.

vs 4: When he shall come with trumpet sound,

Oh, may I then in him be found;

Dressed in His righteousness alone,

Faultless to stand before the throne.

Chorus: On Christ, the solid rock I stand;

All other ground is sinking sand,

All other ground is sinking sand.

Christian Entertainment

"Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the
days of my life: and
I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever."

Psalms 23:6

Two couples of our friends had bought tickets several months ago to attend the Bill Gaither Concert last night. About noon, one of the men called us and asked if we had any plans for the evening. When we said "no" he said someone else they knew had bought tickets and was not going to be able to attend and would we like to join them. Well yeah, who wouldn't? Free Bill Gaither Concert tickets. Thank you Lord. I am constantly amazed at how the Lord blesses Mickey & I above and beyond what we can hope or expect. We see it so often in our life.

The performance was a really good show (as Ed Sullivan use to say) and very entertaining. The harmony was outstanding, some of the individual performers were very good and the kind of slapstick comedy back and forth between Billand some of his band members was fun. Just a real enjoyable evening.

As much as we enjoyed the performance I've been thinking about it a lot today. I realized it was just that. A performance. It certainly was not any kind of spiritual or worship occasion. It was paid entertainers entertaining. Certainly nothing wrong with good clean entertainment. We had just enjoyed that a few weeks ago at the Debby Boone performance. But Debby's performance did not carry the Christian tag, even though the song she is knownfor was a Christian song, "You Light Up My Life".

It struck me with full force how much of Christian Worship Programs have become just that...... paid entertainers. What has happened to the worship and service to our Lord. Very different from the truly worshipful two evenings we had spent earlier in the month when we went to hear The Singing ChurchWomen of Oklahoma and The Singing ChurchMen of Oklahoma. Now those were worship services that moved not only the soul but the Spirit.I might add there was only a free-will offering taken, which was to be used to spread the Gospel and not pay the performers. An invitation to accept Jesus as Lord and Savior was also given at the conclusion of the evening.

Now again I'm not saying there is anything wrong with good paid Christian Entertainers. I just think we need to give credit wherecredit is due to those who give of their time and talent with no monetary gain in mind.

I also have to ponder what

Jesus would have to say about all the Christian Entertainment of

today and how literally thousands of us flock to see and hear it.

You might say I, who live in a glass house, am throwing rocks.

I have to admit I am because we certainly accepted the gift of free tickets with enthusiasm. We flocked with the other thousands fighting the bumper-to-bumper traffic 3 miles from the by-pass to the ORU Mabee Center, finding a place to park in the overflowing parking lot and then walking quite a way to get into the auditorium to find our seats and watch professional Christian entertainers entertain us.

Just something that has been heavy on my mind today as we celebrated Psalm Sunday and get ready to celebrate Passion Week and the Crucifixion of our Lord and Savior then His glorious Resurrection next Sunday.

Thank God for Jesus!

I Can Only Imagine

We sang this song in church a couple of weeks ago and I so relate. Wanted to share it here. Probably a lot of you are familiar with the words but they are certainly worth of our pondering:)

i can only imagine!

i CAN ONLY IMAGINE

wHAT IT WOULD BE LIKE

wHEN i WALK BY yOUR SIDE.

I CAN ONLY IMAGINE1

WHAT MY EYES WOULD SEE

WHEN YOUR FACE IS BEFORE ME.

I CAN ONLY IMAGINE!

Surrounded by Your glory

What will my heart feel?

Will I dance for You, Jesus?

Or in awe of You be still?

Will I stand in Your presence

To my knees will I fall?

Will I sing Halleluiah?

Will I be able to speak at all?

I can only imagine!

I CAN ONLY IMAGINE

WHEN THAT DAY COMES

AND I FIND MYSELF

STANDING IN THE SON.

I CAN ONLY IMAGINE1

WHEN ALL I WILL DO

IS FOREVER, FOREVER WORSHIP YOU.

I CAN ONLY IMAGINE!

I've been thinking about this on this Sabbath day. I can ONLY imagine!!! but Oh what a glorious day that will be!