DECEMBER 8 2021
PREPARE YE…
The church needs new songs, songs preparing its members for the new creation, the future of God’s people. That singing is crucial is plain from 2 Chronicles 20, where Israel was threatened by a powerful hostile army and the then king, Jehoshaphat, consulted with the people how to handle this grave situation. The outcome was truly amazing: this courageous and democratic king appointed a large choir to sing and while singing with their hearts in their throats, they advanced upon the enemy and with the help of the Lord, the enemy fled.
The words of that song were simple: “Give thanks to the Lord for his love endures forever.” Then, and only then in the history of God’s people, the song, “Like a mighty army moves the church of God,” was authentic: a singing army!
Twice in Isaiah, Chapter 35: 10 and 51: 11, identical words prophesy that “The Redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with ‘singing’, and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads.”
However, singing is not a spontaneous action: it takes rehearsing and learning, a procedure that must start now, because the ‘world-ending’ situation is approaching with a speed seldom experienced in the history of the world.
Here is a headline of ARCTIC NEWS
MONDAY, DECEMBER 6, 2021
Planetary Extinction due to Arctic Atmospheric Methane Veil
by Malcolm Light
Dr. Light, an Arctic specialist, calculates that, based on the unprecedented heating of the Arctic, untold gigatons of methane will be released within a few years, heating the earth beyond human capacity to endure.
Last week, I was walking on the Canada trail, as I do most days of the week, and a woman, on a pedal two-wheeler, stopped. She works in the Tweed Food Bank and I told her that I had just brought a donation there, and her response was, “You might as well: money won’t do any good when the Lord comes back.” Was she right? I think so.
But first we must prepare ourselves for being able to enter the New Creation knowing how to live NOW. That too needs preparation, because I believe that only those who today struggle trying to fit in the coming new world, will be granted entry. The book of Revelation calls these people, “those whose robes are clean” (Revelation 22: 14). Clothes in the Bible are a symbol of one’s personality.
Barry Commoner, a modern-day prophet, coined the laws of ecology. I made these laws into song so that we can more easily memorize them by singing them daily? These laws are:
(1) Everything is connected to everything else;
(2) Creation knows best;
(3) Nothing ever disappears;
(4) There is no free lunch.
Here’s my feeble efforts, based on the familiar Melody of, “All people that on earth do dwell”.
(Everything is connected)
All people that on earth do dwell,
sing to the Lord, his ways foretell.
Remember earth, air, sea and tree
Are all a part of you and me.
(Creation knows best)
Creation knows the ways to go
God bred it in its natural know
We therefore must inquire of her
To see where we go right or err.
(Nothing disappears)
Nothing will ever disappear
It lingers on, it is now clear
The oil we burn creates much ill
And causes universal kill.
(No free lunch)
There is no free lunch to be had
The bills are due, they will be bad
Our children must pay this great debt
We robbed them of their safety net.
We robbed them, left them in the lurch
No wonder they have left the church
We wasted, stole, their future need
Please Lord, forgive us our great greed.
That is more a song for today, reminding us how to live now. The song to sing when we enter eternity might well be,
“Praise God from whom all blessing flow”, or a version thereof.
That we are entering the last phase of mortal humanity, is becoming clearer every day. The eternal question uttered by Pilate at Jesus’ trial, “What is Truth?” can no longer be answered. Both the world and the church have lost direction, and both ramble aimlessly in an ever more confused society. Amos 8: 11 comes to mind, ”Not a famine of food, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord”.
That also means that we are deaf to the cries of creation.
New songs, new everything.
New songs are needed and new mindsets. Fortunately, Jesus promised that he will make everything new, but we must make a start, must be open-minded, must look everywhere for worn-out habits, customs, ingrained patterns, that need re-new-al. That takes courage.