Good morning on this cold, still and very dark early morning. I awoke about 3:30 am and, as usual, songs began to come falling out of my mind and as the lyrics ran through my head, that special touch of God's Hand on the meaning of the songs rustled me fully awake. The title of today's blog is a lyric from a song, Land of the Living. A great singer and an even greater man, Gerald Wolfe, wrote this song and introduced it now almost thirty years ago. I had never heard it until about three months ago on a YouTube link. There are few days, now, I will go through and not find the desire or need to watch that link once more. Never the first time have I watched the trio sing that song that my heart is warmed and my eyes wet from tears of that great message of the song. Please watch this link at the top of this page and the music begins about 4 minutes into the video.
Many things about that video caress my heart with the first being Roger Bennett's introduction of the song as he plays the piano. See, Roger left this world not very long after these video shot actually shot here in my hometown now in Canton, OH at the Palace Theater. Roger was dying of cancer when this was shot. In his comments he comically states a reality; ten out of ten of us will die! I listened to a great sermon Monday night in a jail chapel service when the preacher said he had preached many funerals and likewise I have sung at many. He said never the first time as the casket stands open and people pass by did he hear any comments about that person's boats, houses, possessions, etc. What you hear are comments of about friendship and family and, if a Christian, about the deceased's love for Christ; so very true.
As my sixty-sixth birthday comes next week, it still humbles me to think that God has given me nearly seven decades on this earth. To sit here typing this and feel no pain, have my mental faculties, a wide range of friends throughout this world, to get to do what I am so blessed to do in so many areas, have a family that is close in every way, five grandchildren that are amazing, in a church home that is an extended family, have a pastor that continues to amaze me Sunday after Sunday as such powerful preaching ... yes, I am blessed and I DO know that.
In the last two days two people in my life have found their lives turned completely upside down in a moment and now, this moment, there is fear, worry about tomorrow, disappointment, anguish, hope and more importantly, God is center of the issues in each life. There will be those that will read these words and scoff or criticize or simply laugh or ignore. Let me be very frank from my heart as I share this in jail services every time I speak or sing or in concerts ... There is a Heaven and there is a Hell and where each of you reading this will spend eternity is a choice each of us must make. That choice has eternal ramification. Eternity is a long time to have made a bad choice, isn't it?
My heart is beating heavily this moment thinking about the immeasurable number of people I know and do not know that will likely spend eternity in Hell. I quake the older I get at missed opportunities I have experienced through poor example, lack of guts to speak, too busy to invest in others lives with an eternal view. I believe reading the lyrics of Gerald's great song is worthy so I will paste in below.
It is my greatest hope that each word of that song will bathe your heart as it has never been bathed before. In the midst of chaos, God reigns! I think this morning my age and lifespan seem more measured than usual. Perhaps it is the sleepy eyes or the tears that are washing my burning eyes but I want you to know, it is my greatest hope on this earth in my remaining days to be the best God can make me to be and that every word, every song, every thought will be a means to lift someone in my world to a new level of belief in a God that wants us with Him in Heaven. And yes, IT IS A VERY PERSONAL CHOICE!
THE
LAND OF THE LIVING
There’s a place of dazzling beauty
No human eye has ever seen
With gates of pearl and streets paved with gold
It’s a land of milk and honey
Oh it’s more than just a dream
It’s a land of life beyond the crystal sea
CHORUS
It’s land of life where living is forever
And where the sting of death will claim no victory
And we are nothing more than just a passing shadow
Till we reach the land of living
Beyond the crystal sea
The sun is nothing but a legend
In this paradise of dreams
The Lamb will be the only Light we’ll need
Its soothing walls of jasper
Built by God’s own Hand
It’s a land of life beyond the crystal sea
CHORUS
Till we reach the land of living
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