I Got A Hymn Buzz

I have a hymn (or spiritual song) in my mind tonight, called "He Keeps Me Singing."

This is an oldie but a goody, and just singing it for less than 10 minutes gave me a buzz in my head. It must be exactly the song I need.

If you have some issues, lines like this can help ... "Fear not, I am with thee, peace be still, in all of life's ebb and flow." That gives me a mental shifting of sorts. Too much fear, not enough peace, but it's a promise, written by whoever the hymn writer was. I shift it to the divine, of course, since that's the context.

OK, I Googled it. The song was written by Luther B. Bridgers, and according to this website, he wrote the song after a tragic fire killed his wife and three sons. So that's worse of a problem than I have.

Here's the words:

There’s within my heart a melody
Jesus whispers sweet and low,
Fear not, I am with thee, peace, be still,
In all of life’s ebb and flow.

Refrain

Jesus, Jesus, Jesus,
Sweetest Name I know,
Fills my every longing,
Keeps me singing as I go.

All my life was wrecked by sin and strife,
Discord filled my heart with pain,
Jesus swept across the broken strings,
Stirred the slumbering chords again.

Refrain

Feasting on the riches of His grace,
Resting ’neath His sheltering wing,
Always looking on His smiling face,
That is why I shout and sing.

Refrain

Though sometimes He leads through waters deep,
Trials fall across the way,
Though sometimes the path seems rough and steep,
See His footprints all the way.

Refrain

Soon He’s coming back to welcome me,
Far beyond the starry sky;
I shall wing my flight to worlds unknown,
I shall reign with Him on high.

Pray As You Go

I've been listening to some of the meditations at a website called Pray As You Go.

It's pretty good. They're very low key. They don't say much, but if you're really paying attention they're saying a lot.

It's from an organization in England, I believe, and they're some kind of Jesuit fellowship. That's Catholic, and they quote the Pope pretty often. Who, really, I can take or leave. But that's neither here nor there. He's their leader, so they quote him once in a while. His quotes are all pretty normal sounding. He's not excommunicating anyone over political differences in the quotes.

The format is the same for the five or six meditations I've heard. They have a theme song for the day. It plays for a while. A guy with a breathy, intimate voice comes on and makes a few comments about their theme, getting you ready to hear some verses from the Bible. Then maybe a little more of the song. Then a woman, whose voice is like the women on History channel documentaries about the Bible, in the way she reads, comes on and reads a passage of Scripture. The man comes in and says a few more things, sometimes with big gaps between his sentence, allowing the listener time to meditate on it. Then toward the end they replay the woman reading the verses. Then he, another woman, another guy, and some other people say, "Glory be to the Father," etc.

I like hearing it. I didn't like hearing Friday's meditation quite as much, since it was some African group doing a chant, the same thing over and over for the whole time. With the volume down for when the man was talking. But the message is pretty good. It makes me think.

The neat thing is they take some of these verses that go in one ear and out the other when you're reading them from the Bible -- like God chastising Israel for something in Isaiah -- and they have a good spin on them that makes you feel like you're being addressed. I'm always interested in compelling applications for such things, and they do a good jog. And like I said, it's all very low key. They're not beating the thing to death but seem to trust you're going to catch their drift the first or second time you hear it.

Personally, I would prefer hearing a little more of the man talking and a little less of the music. Also a little less of the big huge pauses. But that's just me. Maybe geared a little more toward hearing the application and explanations than having to fill in the gaps myself.

Check it out.

Breast Implants And The Bible

Carrie Prejean -- what was she, Miss America, Miss California, Miss Fox News? -- defends getting breast implants, saying it's not against her Christian faith.

That's an interesting topic to think about!

Here's a great quote she gave:

No, I don't think there's anything wrong with getting breast implants as a Christian. I think it's a personal decision. I don't see anywhere in the Bible where it says you shouldn't get breast implants.

That's true. There are lots of things the Bible doesn't specifically address. Meaning, of course, anything it doesn't specifically forbid is allowed.

There are verses, though, that she could consider, like Hebrews 13:5:

Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.

It definitely says "be content with such things as ye have." But I guess that could mean if you're not content with what ye have, make your things different till ye are content.

Old Controversies

Where do old controversies go when their day is past? Just to the memory hole somewhere, forever replaced with new controversies.

In my spring cleaning and getting my documents in order, I came across some stuff about "The Last Temptation of Christ," from the late '80s sometime. It was the big thing of that day that was going to destroy everyone's faith. There's the information, still as big as life, but you don't hear much about it anymore.

I guess everyone's faith, to the extent that they had it, somehow survived.

Mind Race

My mind has been running at all speeds today. Really racing early on, as I thought on numerous issues, religion and society issues mostly. It was like one of those duck shooting games at the carnival. I had many arguments, good arguments, in my mind on various dimensions of these issues, and it was bang bang bang, hitting them all.

I knew better than to try to write them down, because it'd be a crazy mess of stuff. Then like a wearing down machine -- plus due to the fact that I've had other tasks, some very mindless -- everything slowed down. Till now, I'm getting tired, and everything is at a trickle, except for my clear memories of the whole thing.

It's been a week, really, that's run the gamut with ups and downs. Today a lot of it came in to focus, especially early on. But I don't think I've got it right now. When you've got it -- those rare occasions -- you know.

Elvis Presley -- The Complete Gospel Recordings

I'm wondering if I have the complete gospel recordings by Elvis Presley by now. I did it a couple months ago, bought the three volumes of gospel CDs. His Hand In Mine, How Great Thou Art, and He Touched Me.

I heard there was a track, "Miracle of the Rosary," which wasn't on those CDs. So I was at a thrift store the other day and saw another CD, "Ultimate Gospel." I was pretty sure all the songs on it were taken from the other three CDs, but it had the "Rosary" song, so I bought it. Cheap, so no big deal.

But if that's all ... then that's all. I haven't looked it up to see, but I'm wondering what I would discover were I to do so.

The "Miracle of the Rosary" isn't even a very good song, in my opinion, and it's short. Like a minute and a half or so. Elvis, not being Catholic, I wonder what prompted him to record this song.

John McCain is Bad

What a day it's been in the world of religion! The Republican candidate for president -- Senator John McCain -- has denounced, renounced, and rejected two of our most highly respected pastors. This from a supposedly conservative Republican. He just totally dumped on them!

I've heard of having religious doubts -- but I've never heard of this kind of wholesale rejection in such a sudden way. You know, it usually goes like this: fervency in the faith, then cooling off, then quietly picking at doctrine, then shopping around the different faiths, then dropping out of sight, then final rejection. The whole process can take up to a week. But John McCain got the job done in one day!

You're a well-respected pastor -- in this case, you are two separate men -- and John McCain is among your flock, milling around, asking polite questions about angels dancing on the heads of pins, and perhaps you're delving together into the end-of-days, when suddenly it's Apocalypse Now, not for the world, but for a very precious relationship, one you've treasured, the relationship of brothers in the faith. Finished.

Yes, this has been quite a day. Pastor John Hagee and Pastor Rod Parsley, both what I would call fairly moderate voices in the church (a bit liberal for my taste, if truth be told), were simply rejected, disposed-of, thrown under the bus by John McCain. You've heard of the kiss of Judas? John "Judas" McCain went all the way on the first date! This is a fickle, fickle man, even an apostate. A flaming apostate!

We've all heard some of the supposedly "radical" things that Pastor Hagee preaches. He called the Catholic Church the Great Whore. But really, who hasn't read Revelation and made that connection? Do you reject a guy for stating the obvious? And all that business about New Orleans destroyed because of a parade. I would have destroyed it simply for those Zatarain commercials, but, hey, that's just me. But the topper, the real biggie appears to be Pastor Hagee's assertion that God raised up Hitler to hunt the Jews so they would go back to the Promised Land. So what's the big deal? That six million were killed? OK, point taken, but it's easy to misspeak...

So one pastor down. Rejecting one pastor was a terrible thing for McCain to do. But then there was another. And I've seen this scenario play out time and time again: If a man sins once, it takes away his determination to resist, and subsequent sins are easier. Common sense. John McCain fell into that trap. He proceeded recklessly on the very same day to renounce and reject Pastor Parsley. For what? For saying that God established America in order to destroy Islam? Now, I am not going to say much about that; I'm not Salmon Rushdie here; I don't want to die.

All that aside, let me conclude. My point is that John McCain, if he truly respected these men in the first place and considered them brothers, would have sat down with them and resolved their theological differences, then extended forgiveness, and parted as friends. But he didn't.

Bottom line: John McCain is bad.