Neil Diamond: "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show"

This man had a string of hits through the sixties and into the eighties. The song I'm featuring is about tent revival meetings which were once popular in America and Canada. Check it out here.

In the first century, synagogues were the places where Christ's disciples preached the gospel of the resurrection. As we read in Acts 5:1-5 (Bible in Basic English), "And while they were talking to the people, the priests and the captain of the Temple and the Sadducees came up to them, Being greatly troubled because they were teaching the people and preaching Jesus as an example of the coming back from the dead. And they took them and put them in prison till the morning, for it was now evening. But a number of those who gave hearing to the word had faith; and they were now about five thousand."

Jesus' first sermon in a synagogue angered the locals but it was his announcement that he was the Messiah. Luke 4:21 and 22 (BBE) records, "Then he said to them, 'Today this word has come true in your hearing.' And they were all giving witness, with wonder, to the words of grace which came from his mouth: and they said, 'Is not this the son of Joseph?'"
 
They later tried to throw Christ off a cliff but he walked through the crowd and escaped.

Jesus often taught in synagogues. Even some of the religious establishment believed him, as John 12:42 (BBE) tells us, "However, a number even of the rulers had belief in him, but because of the Pharisees they did not say so openly for fear that they might be shut out from the Synagogue:"

Of course we know that the location of meetings doesn't matter. It's the Holy Spirit who works in people to save them. Neither do we need to say a formula or act out a certain ritual. The gospel is the message and its own message.

And if Christ hasn't returned by Monday, I hope to post regarding what people call the golden rule.

Neil Diamond: "Brooklyn Roads"

I identify with this autobiographical song. Like Neil, I was a daydreamer. My fantasies kept away the misery of being in a residential school five hundred miles from home.

Check the song out here:

I also identified with the Israelites when they were slaves in Egypt, though I wasn't overworked and beaten. I was far from the land I loved.

And just as God heard my tearful prayers, he heard the agonized cries of Jacob's descendents. As Exodus 3:9 (Bible in Basic English) reads, "For now, truly, the cry of the children of Israel has come to me, and I have seen the cruel behaviour of the Egyptians to them."

The Israelites also were deported to Babylon for seventy years. As they sang in Psalms 137:1 and 2 (BBE), "By the rivers of Babylon we were seated, weeping at the memory of Zion, Hanging our instruments of music on the trees by the waterside."

And as I finally left that residential school six years later, the Israelites returned home. Daniel 9:1 and 2 (BBE) explains, "In the first year of Darius, the son of Ahasuerus, of the seed of the Medes, who was made king over the kingdom of the Chaldaeans; In the first year of his rule, I, Daniel, saw clearly from the books the number of years given by the word of the Lord to the prophet Jeremiah, in which the making waste of Jerusalem was to be complete, that is, seventy years."

Even so, we Christians await our inheritance of the good things God promised to his people. That's why Ephesians 2:19-21 (BBE) is such good news for us. "So then you are no longer as those who have no part or place in the kingdom of God, but you are numbered among the saints, and of the family of God, Resting on the base of the Apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the chief keystone, In whom all the building, rightly joined together, comes to be a holy house of God in the Lord;"

If our hoped-for saviour hasn't returned by Thursday, I expect to post about precious wisdom.

Saturday Song: Neil Diamond, "The Pot Smoker's Song"

With Cannabis being legalized in Canada and some American states, this song is germane to the issue. If you listen carefully, you'll find that all the people speaking between the choruses tell the story of their broken lives and pot's failure to satisfy them.

Hear Neil Diamond's thoughtful song here.

Though marijuana wasn't known to people in the Middle East when the scriptures were being penned, we can easily use strong drink as an analogy. Both are mood-altering drugs and both dull a person's awareness.

According to the New Testament writers, we err whenever we let our senses become misled by alcohol. The Apostle Paul warned in Ephesians 5:18 (KJV), "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;"

Booze also makes people act stupidly. Proverbs 20:1 (KJV) warns, "Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging: and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise."

I notice that in many passages of the Bible, drunkenness is used as a metaphor for God's judgement upon nations. Look at what Isaiah 63:6 (KJV) says. "And I will tread down the people in mine anger, and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring down their strength to the earth."

But some will argue that Jesus turned water into wine. Isn't that hypocritical? Christ's first miracle was an act of kindness and generosity to the wedding guests and their host. John 2:11 (BBE) gives another reason. "This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and let his glory be seen openly; and his disciples put their faith in him."

So we can see that a little wine isn't bad for us. It's when we become totally out of control that God frowns upon our behaviour. It ruins our testimony too. And since both marijuana and cigarette smoke cause lung cancer, it's best to abstain from both.

What do you think of the song and what I've written? Please feel free to comment.

By the way, I'll be posting about the sinfulness of sin on Monday. The Bible portrays it as a horrendous affront to God but the Qu'ran says it's no big deal.

MEMORIES OF DESIREE

Have you ever noticed the way interrelated things tend to cluster together at times in your life? It certainly happens to me quite often. I'll hear of the same Bible verse being discussed by two or more unrelated pastors or radio preachers. Sometimes I'll be thinking of a song and then I hear it on the radio. Usually these coincidences are unremarkable. I forget them after a while because they didn't make much of an impression on me.

Not so with one of those coincidences back in June of 1970. Neil Diamond released a great tune called "Desiree." It received quite a lot of airplay on the Vancouver radio stations which I tuned in. If I remember correctly, KJR in Seattle also played it often. What struck me most about the song is that I heard it on the third of June. The coincidence of Neil writing about that date and me hearing the song that day stuck in my mind.

At the same time, Strawberry Alarm Clock released a song called "Desiree." I didn't recognize the band as they sounded so different from there "Incense And Peppermints" hit back in 1967. Even so, the fact that two unrelated songs should have the same title also made an impression on me.

Furthermore, I'd never heard of anybody named Desiree. The name sounded exotic. It also sounded like a nice name. That too helped impress the songs and the time of year on my mind.

Rock music has played a big part in my life. Ever since the arrival of The Beatles on the North American scene in 1964, I've loved that style of music.

But there were people in charge of me at the school for the blind who hated it. I was told that it was bad music and I ought to be listening to classical compositions.

I was rebuked by Christian elders as well once I was mainstreamed into the public school system. The leaders of the house church I attended called it satanic and even warned that I might be possessed by a demon if I listened to it. Nothing of the sort happened. In fact, the music I loved from the sixties and seventies is now considered classic rock. You can even hear it played over the public address systems in malls and grocery stores. Perhaps we'll even hear both Desiree songs played someday.

I wrote about the static I received regarding my love of Rock music in my second and third memoirs. Please check them out at my Bruce Atchison's books page as well as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Powell's Books.