40

Hello fellow travellers, how's your journey?

The first picture is from the Irish band, U2's WAR album. U2...was a band that sang of political, social, spiritual issues. In their early days three of the band members were in a Bible Study...that is reflected in their albums with Biblical references. As a matter of fact...Bono almost left the band for his faith. Depending on who you are... these guys are either druknen Irishmen...or Saints.


U2 used to close out their concerts in the early days with a song off of their 3rd album...which was WAR. The song was 40...based on Psalm 40. I was reading this morning how at the end of the concert they would walk off the stage...one by one... leaving the audience still singing..."How long to sing this song." The "this song" that they were talking about wa the one found mentioned by King David in Psalm 40...
"And He put a NEW SONG in my mouth...a song of praise to our God; Many will see and fear...and will trust in the Lord." Other songs that have a Biblical thread includes songs like I STILL HAVEN'T FOUND WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR...and WITH OR WITHOUT YOU....or WHEN LOVE CAME TO TOWN (duet with B.B. King)...and especially on their VERTIGO project.

Of course 40 is a number that comes up throughout Scripture often. In Genesis we see the Noah Connection with 40 as there was rains and floods for 40 days and 40 nights. When Isaac was 40 years old he took Rebekah as his wife. The children of Israel were provided for...for 40 years in the middle of a 40 day Interstate Journey (that should have taken 12 days...and that was the long route)...from BONDAGE to PROMISE LAND. They were getting there kicks on Route 40.

Jesus was tempted in the wilderness after 40 days of fasting...by the devil. It goes on and on with the 40 Connection.

The lubricant WD-40 is designed to take care of multiple needs around the house or workplace. Some of the qualities of WD-40 includes: (1) Stops squeaks
(2) Cleans and Protects
(3) Loosens rusted parts
(4) Frees Sticky Mechanisms
(5) Dries our Moisture

Hmmm...that sounds like my spiritual life sometimes. I also like to apply another spiritual oil called 3-IN ONE. Why is it spiritual? It reflects the trinity...the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost...and these three are one.

On this upcoming LENT JOURNEY...there will be 40 DAYS of reflection...40 days of rumination...40 days of repentance (as God speaks), all culminating with restoration, repristiantion, and reconciliation. Many places will be located to apply the WD-40 and 3 IN ONE OIL to my spiritual life.

PSALM 40 is some good advice for the pilgrams on their journey....


"I...WAITED PATIENTLY...for the LORD." (Psalm 40:1)

This is a season to pull back...and not get ahead of the Lord like I usually do. He walks a different pace that I normally walk.

WAIT PATIENTLY: To bind together (perhaps by twisting), that is collect, to expect, wait for/on/upon.

"And He INCLINED to me..." (Psalm 40:1")

I am down...He comes down to my level.

INCLINED: To stretch or spread out, to bend away, extend, go down, outstreched.

"And He heard my cry." (Psalm 40:1)

I am crying out...he is hearing.

HEARD: To hear intelligibility, listen, perceive, regard, understand.

MY CRY: Hallooing= to be free, to halloo for help, freedom, from some trouble, cry, shout. NOTE: I wonder if this is part of Hallel...lu..jahing?

This is a song of deliverance...a song of provision...a song in the face of mockers who look at you in your trouble and say..."Aha, Aha". It is a Psalm...a NEW SONG...that many will see and fear and trust in the Lord. They seek your life to destroy it...and delight in your hurt...but God will help and deliver you...because He is mindful of you. (Read Psalm 40 for full details)

This season......get ready to come out the other side...with a song on your lips...and really a song that you have already been singing in the VALLEY on your journey. NOTE: Remember...if you are going through a valley of the shadow of death...or you're going through hell...DON'T STOP...keep on going until you come out the other side. There is a death...there is a burial. This is not pleasant...but we have been called to be mindful of His suffering...as we lay hold of his joy. There is a resurrection.

"Thys statutes are my songs, in the house of my PILGRIMAGE. O Lord, I remember Thy name IN THE NIGHT...and keep Thy law. This has become mine, that I observe Thy precepts." (Psalm 119:55-56)

"Restore our captivity, O Lord, as the streams in the South. Those who SOW IN TEARS...shall REAP WITH JOYFUL SHOUTING. He who goes to and fro weeping, carrying his bag of seed, shall indeed come again with a SHOUT OF JOY, bringing his sheaves with him." (Psalm 126:4-6)

"Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on PILGRIMAGE (in whose hearts are the highways to Zion)...As they pass through they VALLEY OF TEARS/BACA...they make it A PLACE OF SPRINGS (they go from strength to strength)...the autumn rains also cover it with POOLS." (Psalm 84:5-7)

NOTE: For the next 40 days...I will be taking a sabbatical from writing the Ruminator Ramblings. I will be writing and reflecting. I will meet you on the other side of the journey on the glorious RESURRECTION SUNDAY. Jesus is Lord.

Love
Rodney

AMAZING...PREVENIENT...PAST...PRESENT...FUTURE...GRACE

Good morning...afternoon...
evening, whenever you happen to reading this Rambling in the stream of the time-space continuum.

We have a few things in common as human beings. We all have the same amount of TIME in a 24 hour day. We may clutter up the time frame with different stuff...but it is 24 hours a day...6o minutes in an hour....60 seconds in a minute. Another thing that we all have in common is the fact that we all have a PAST...we all have a PRESENT/NOW...and we all have a FUTURE. Those who had an encounter with Jesus Christ...our future is changed....our now has purpose...and our PAST has passed away.

"Therefore IF any man/woman is IN CHRIST...he/she is a NEW creation...the OLD things PASSED AWAY...behold...NEW THINGS have come." (II Corinthians 5:17)

The Apostle Paul had some insight into what happened around 2000 years ago on an old rugged cross...that affected his HAS BEEN STATUS...and set into motion his NOW.

"I HAVE BEEN (it's good to be a has been)...crucified (D.B.R.)...WITH CHRIST...and it is NO LONGER I who lives...BUT Christ LIVES IN ME...and the life which I NOW live....IN THE FLESH...I live BY FAITH in the Son of God (Jesus)...who loved me and delivered Himself up for me." (Galatians 2:20)


The first picture shows two men who had an encounter with Jesus on the ROAD TO EMMAUS. Jesus had died...He had been crucified, buried, and risen from the dead. There were rumours of Him being risen from the dead...so as they were walking down the road to Emmaus...they had a lot to talk about. It was at this point that they encountered the Risen Saviour. He walked with them...talked with them...taught them...broke bread with them...he stayed with them...all the while they had NO CLUE who they were talking to...until the breaking of the bread...and their eyes were OPENED...and they RECOGNIZED Him. At that point He disappeared from their sight (now they were walking by faith not by sight). They asked each other..."Were not our HEARTS BURNING WITHIN US...while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?" They then got up and returned to Jerusalem at once...and found the eleven apostles and report to them that IT IS TRUE! The Lord HAS RISEN and has appeared to Simon." They then told what had happened on the way...and how Jesus WAS RECOGNIZED by them when He broke the BREAD. (Luke 24:13-35)

I said all that to say this...In this crazy road that we call life...we may be walking along...in our PRESENT...discussing and effected by things of the PAST...that will AFFECT the EFFECT of our FUTURE. The boys on the road to Emmaus...were headed in one direction (Emmaus)...but their course was altered (Jerusalem) by the encounter of their NOW.

A man named Saul had the same type of encounter...going in one direction (Damascus) for the purpose of killing Christians...but an encounter with a blinding light and Jesus...changed his course.
(Read Acts 7-9 for full details)

I was born on August 15th, 1951 in Allen Clinic on East Main Street in Murfreesboro Tennessee. From that point until the Fall of 1970...I experienced many different things in my life...some good...some bad... some ugly. Some things that I expereinced were a result of just living with Lonnie and Elizabeth Boyd...my Mom and Dad. Again...some good, some bad...some ugly. Other things I experienced were of my own choices...some good...some bad...some downright ugly. Other things I experienced were just my general life experiences by the people and situations and world events that I encountered. All of these things SHAPED who I was...and how I reacted/responded to people with who (or is that whom) I came into contact.

Many moons ago...I attended a 3 day weekend retreat called THE EMMAUS WALK. It was put on by the Methodist Church...and I was sponsered by Bruce Coble. It was three days of withdrawing from the world to encounter Jesus on a personal, intimate level as we met Him in the breaking of the bread (the Word and communion). It was a life-changing moment...and my heart ignited and has not been put out yet. WOW....talk about a hunka a hunk of buring love. One of the table lectures...where we would be sitting in a room at individual tables...while someone would come in an give a lecture on various topics. One of the topics that stuck out was PREVENIENT GRACE. I had heard of Amazing Grace...I had heard of saying grace before a meal...I new a girl named Grace...but had never heard of PREVENIENT GRACE.

A definition is taken from two Latin words meaning to come before. It means (1) going before, preceding (2) anticipating; expectant (3) the antecedant to human action. To me it means....God did not just start having an interest in me when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Saviour in 1970. His touch in my life was pre-birth as He knew me in my mothers womb...and as I grew chronologically and physically...He had a great interest in me...and would be able to utilize my expereinces (the good, bad and ugly) for my future. When I LOOK BACK at events in my life...I can see God's hand there for me...waiting for me...to make a decision and choose to follow Him. Now that is AMAZING, PREVENIENT, PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE GRACE. That does not mean that God orchestraed the bad and ugly in my life...but it does mean that as in Joseph's life...what his brothers meant for harm...GOD MEANT FOR GOOD....and that no matter what had happened....HE WAS IN GOD'S PLACE. (Read Genesis 37-50 for full details)

One prime example...at least to me...that really encourages me...is a man named WAYNE BERRY. Wayne is one of my pastors, friends, brothers (it is neat for an only child like me to have brothers and sisters)... who while he is a NEW CREATION IN CHRIST... definitely has a PAST laced with the GRACE of God. This picture is a picture of an album that Wayne recorded on RCA back in 1974...called HOME AT LAST. I was listening to it as I was driving down the road the other day...and I was reminded (not the first time I thought about it)...about the amazing, prevenient grace in Wayne's life. This was not a Christian album...it was not a Contempory Christian album...it was not even one of those albums recorded by a Christian with dual references to a girl friend and the Lord...depending on who was listening.
It was your basic 1974...folk/rock/southern/country rock tinged album...HOWEVER...as I'm listening...I could see it as a precursor to the NEW MAN.

It was a well produced album by Norbert Putnam...with all songs written by Wayne Berry...with the cream of the crop of musicians involved including Jim Gordon on drums...Jesse Ed Davis on guitar...
Jeff "Skunk" Baxter...Jackson Brown...Charley McCoy...Shane Keister and others.

One song...called ALL I NEEDED ...speaks to me of the longing for LOVE (a woman in the song...but I think one of those prevenient moments).

Lovers hurt each other they tell lies
They wind up LONELY then they wonder WHY
Friends forever is a dream
A token promise of a fairytale scened
And I've seen it all before
You don't have to show me the door
I know where I came in
I know you COULD HAVE BEEN....

To me...this kind of is like King David stating the problem...followed up by the solution. In this songs case it is a lament what coulda...shoulda been...

All that I ever NEEDED
All that I ever KNEW
All that I evere DREAMED of or HOPED for
ALL I NEEDED WAS YOU.

Sure...a song bemoaning lost love...but in my prevenient mind set...I see the cry of Wayne for intimacy with God.

There were many other songs that spoke to me like this one...like Black Magic Gun (the devil made that deadly thing...and you know I do not lie...I don't beleive in fortune...but I DO BELIEVE IN SIN)...Another Lifetime (There is more to life than dreamin'...there is moe to love than makin' it...there is more to you than meets the eye)...Welcome Home...(Welcome home, body and sould...welcome home, we all gotta go...welcome home, father and son...welcome home YOU CAN HEAR THE RIVER RUN)

How did that PREVENIENT GRACE...play out from 1974 to 2007. Well...Wayne may had a foundation like a lot of us had...with early, childhood church experiences...that call out to us from our sin enclosed souls...but whenever he met Jesus on a personal level... the impact of his PAST experiences...solidify and gives him a tenacity and passion of faith that is evident today. When I listen to his songs of yesteryear with a vaugness...is now upfront and vertical (towards the Father) and pours out to us on the horizontal plane (as a source of encouragement...prodding...teaching). Thank you Wayne...for letting the Amazing Grace be evident in your life.

Pre-1970...I was a mess. But in 1970...I became a NEW CREATION IN CHRIST...the OLD things past away behold NEW THINGS HAVE COME...and are still coming.

What the devil meant for harm pre-1970...God meant for GOOD. Am I not in GOD'S PLACE?

What about you? What has the devil been using in your life as a point of condemnation? What past event...good, bad or ugly...has the devil accused you with to the point of throwing up your hands and crying NO MAS. Use those things as a stepping stone instead of a mill stone to reveal the mercy and grace of God to the world...and throw your hands up in PRAISE TO HIM...after all...ALL I EVER NEEDED WAS YOU (Lord).

Love and BRAND NEW KISSES
Rodney "Decoloros" Boyd