Whenever I hear this song, I think of it like someone
singing to God, maybe at home or in a church when it's empty, or maybe the
White House and Congress... and a song that's God singing, wondering why people
don't talk to Him anymore, and why they don't listen.
Michael McDonald - Soul Speak - 08 -
Hallelujah
I wonder sometimes how many Christians who actually
really do believe in God and the teachings of Jesus, and attempt to know
the ways of God, I wonder if they have more hope than faith in the
Second Advent of Christ, in these "end of times", and what would
they believe would identify him. I laugh at this song, and wonder how many
people would understand why Christ would understand the under-privileged
and the street people so easily. And what they think the End of times
means....
BJ Thomas - The Best of BJ Thomas - Gospel Live - 03 - Would They Love Him Down In
Shreveport?
If there's anything I've been concerned with the
last 10 years or so is the generation of fear and hatred toward groups and
races and religions of people, all of which lead to a world of unrest and
war. And I think of Sunday School, singing "red and yellow
black and white, they are precious in His sight". I read the Bible to
understand what Christians believed in. The Bible says everyone but those
of the 12 tribes of Israel, of Judah, were heathens.
I read the Koran to find out what it was that Muslims
were required to memorize, given how it' s depicted as nearly a
declaration of war against Christians, only to find out it actually was
more of wisdom for Muslims on how to be patient and vigilant
while Christians matured and woke up to the deceptions that have overtaken
them, especially in these end times, as well as an objective view of the
amicable relationships between "Jews and Muslims" over the
years, including in the times of Abraham and Jesus, as well as offering wisdom
to Christ in the Second Advent regarding how people would treat Him and
how to respond without losing faith or feeling diminished. By reading it,
you'd discover that Muslims are anxiously awaiting the Second Coming as
much as Christians.
There are lots of things we think we know that we only
know because of information given by people who want you to know what they
want you to know. For their own reasons. Some people seek truth and
understand, and thus understand the way of the world, and God's ways.
Nassiri, an immigrant from Iran, understands.
Nassiri - Love Sees No Color - 101 - Love Sees No
Color
People should ask people over 60 what they knew of the
Viet Nam War era, and what their parents talked about regarding the times
when they fought and worked to support the efforts in World War II and
Korea. We think of it as defeating those who would harm us, and we fail to
be told that just before war, the leaders o f both governments publicly
speak to each other through the media, both claiming they have no argument
with the people of their "enemy" nations, it's the government
that's the problem.
War is not glamorous.
Jesus said, I come speaking peace, and for that you
speak of war. After World War II, we became familiar with a phrase
"Never forget"...what was forgotten was the rest of the
sentence.. Never forget what hate can do. And it wasn't just about Jews.
Paul Simon - The Essential Paul Simon D2 - 17 - Wartime Prayers - Paul
Simon
It's been since the early 1980's that this nation began
to believe that people who fell on hard times or made some mistakes
when they were young were somehow worthless or lazy or
unintelligent. It was left up to the churches for along time
to help people, of course with certain expectations, then, of being
"rice Christians', maybe attending church and adopting certain ways
to be able to eat. Sort of a national as well as international phenomenon.
It's a very difficult time as the New World Order
attempts to seize control through force as well as the illusion of control
that cannot actually be enforced if challenged... a time when economic
control is forcing everyone to tighten their belts, while millions
of people end up homeless or their lives disrupted or their dreams
suddenly made unavailable to them by people who seek power at the
expense of those who mostly want only to live a pleasant life.
By 2003, this nation was in an economic depression worse
than the depression of 1929, and you weren't aware, because the
government didn't want you to know the truth. The truth of how economic
slavery, corporate socialism harms the people it pretends to serve as we
turn our backs on things we no longer see a way to end. And blame
misfortune on the intended victims.
Pink Floyd - Delicate Sound of Thunder
(Disc - 07) - On the Turning Away
Am I my brother's keeper? There's a rippling effect to
the way we care for each other. It's not about a world where everyone is
entitled to wealth or fame. It 's a world that God gave us, each of us
having the right to human dignity. I laugh a little when people ask,
"Who said the world was fair?" I said, "God did, only
people want you to believe it's normal that it isn't."
Staple Singers - Respect Yourself
When I was young, my parents would take me to the house
of some people they said were "special people", Baha'i. And I
looked, and it appeared they had numbers on their arms. This was 1958-60
or so... Over the years, I had heard that people of Baha'i were some sort
of radical Jewish sect that wanted to take over the world. Then I heard
this song by one of my favorite groups from the 70's, of the Baha'i Faith.
I did some research, and found out they weren't at all radical, but in
many ways represented the future of humanity as God would want
governance and liberty to be, not the New World Order empire.
Seals and Crofts - The Longest Road - A05 - One Planet, One People
Please
Christians make a promise for the end times, a promise
they may to be aware of, to stand up against evil and do it in the ways of
God as taught by Jesus, always watching for the return of Christ for true
leadership. I think of the multiple entendres that can be thought of the
phrase "the meek shall inherit the earth". Evil people would
have you believe that it means Christians would be passive and they could
easily win as Christians are taught to endure persecution by turning the
other cheek. But not in the end times. And there are ways - because God's
ways work.
Truth is my religion, and non-cooperation with evil is
my practice. - Gandhi
Billy Preston - That's the Way God Planned It
Before the Iraq war, people around the world asked people
of the United States to turn their backs on the government, and look for
themselves, and stop their government from committing what the world has
officially judged as illegal wars of aggression since 2002. The
information proving our grounds for attacking Iraq AND Afghanistan were
fraudulent, and specifically for the purpose of using military force to
control oil supplies to China in lieu of failed contract negotiations
between those countries and U.S. oil and pipeline corporations.
Children are given unsafe vaccinations made with
preservatives that attack the central nervous, companies are making seed
that causes organ damage and allergies, but expects the world to accept it
as their only source of food seed. Politicians who tell us what moral
issues are important, and laws that restrict people of faith from speaking
out on moral and political issues, forcing us to accept the issues the politicians
choose to divide us with.
Bob Dylan - Slow Train Coming - 07 - When You Gonna Wake
Up
God told us that in the end times, we'd all be asked to
choose, and to decide whether to return to His ways as Holy Saints in this
world or know the reasons for self-condemnation, unwilling to reconcile
and atone for their actions and their world. If you don't fully judge
yourself, you will be judged by God, and He will judge you according to
who you say you are.
Bob Dylan - Slow Train Coming - 01 - Gotta Serve
Somebody
Part of the promise of being a Christian or a
person of faith is to accept your responsibilities as someone who works
toward good ends using honest, respectful ways as God would have you do.
This is the way to refuse to participate with evil. And though others may
try to make you feel foolish and easy to take to take advantage, remember
the Bible says that the person who tricks or deceives another is the fool.
And their foolishness, their deceptions and belief that hey have gained by
their crimes and manipulations will work against them n the long run. My
father always used to say, lead, follow or get out of the way. Do one of
those, do it honestly, do it God's way, and be proud and honored by
keeping that promise.
Pat Humphries - Same Rain - 12 - Never Turning
Back
It seems that every religion and every culture would like
to believe it's the right one, it knows the right way, it serves the right
god, and it knows how to tell the difference.
Daniel Nahmod - One Power - 01 - One Power
The saints, those who are faithful to God, who may have
strayed but know what's in their hearts and spirits, are asked once again
to understand that God wants them to speak to him and to listen to Him
directly. When Jesus gave us the Lord's Prayer, he specifically stated it
was an example of what we might speak to God about, how we might show our
appreciation, and how we may reconcile our world by reconciling ourselves
with God first. He said it was to bean example, not to be recited or
repeated like a chant of Dogma, nut that He wanted us to really talk to
Him like a friend.
For these times, for what's at stake in the world and
for heaven, I would suggest a prayer like this.
Annie Lennox - Bare - 11 - Oh God
(Prayer)
Judge not lest ye be judged
Prince - Controversy - 01 - Controversy
-The Lord's Prayer
Being Christian, being moral and ethical isn't just
about going to church and acting certain ways, it's about understanding
what God said, that if you follow the Golden Rule, you've obeyed His law
and satisfied Him that you know the ways of God. Of course, with the
rippling effects, it isn't always easy, it's a lot to consider especially
now with so many deceptions going on. But it's a way to start again.
Beth
Lodge-Rigal - Dreamtable - 09 - Start Again
When I think of God's world, the New World He had in
mind when the reign of the anti-Christ was overcome, I think of this song,
of what I think everyone in the world would love as the way their life
is.
Seals & Crofts - Diamond Girl - A02 - Ruby Jean & Billie
Lee
What there is to do.. the future..
Various artists - Hold Your Ground - Vol. 1 - 06 - Bill Bourne - The
House 
Global Peace & Abundance For All. It's real,
it exists, it's possible.
