Just the w-o-r-d-s He wanted

Earlier this evening I saw that singer Gary Wright, 80, died today. His song "Dream Weaver" is one I played over and over and over as a kid:

"I've just closed my eyes again

Climbed aboard the dream weaver train
Driver take away my worries of today
And leave tomorrow behind

Ooh, ooh, dream weaver
I believe you can get me through the night
Ooh, ooh, dream weaver
I believe we can reach the morning light

Fly me high through the starry skies
Maybe to an astral plane
Cross the highways of fantasy
Help me to forget today's pain"

*****

When I interviewed evangelist Oscar Woodall for a life profile (just before his death in 2004) that represents my first entry on this blog site, I asked him, "What do you think is the biggest issue facing the Body of Christ today?"

I honestly didn't expect his answer and went for several years wondering if he was really correct. I came to see he definitely was! He answered me, and I paraphrase, "Recognizing where their final authority is." Of course, for him, that meant the King James Bible.

*****

Also tonight, in a quick scan of today's Drudge Report, there was a link to a new article by Atlantic Monthly on what is to be expected as more and more Believers stop attending church. Here is an outtake:

"But according to Davis and Graham’s research, something else seems to be happening. When people leave church, they don’t typically become atheists or agnostics. They don’t even necessarily join the growing ranks of the religious 'nones'--that is, those who no longer identify with any religion. Instead, millions of Americans who leave church continue to identify as Christians, and many retain theologically orthodox beliefs. They continue to view Jesus as their savior and retain a high respect for the Bible.

"But without a church community, in many cases, the nation’s political system becomes their church—and the results are polarizing. They bring whatever moral and social values they acquired from their church experience and then apply those values in the political sphere with an evangelical zeal. For many of those leaving church traditions that place a strong emphasis on concern for the poor and marginalized, the values they retain from church translate into socially liberal political positions. Davis and Graham found that dechurched Christians who came from liberal mainline Protestant or Catholic traditions were likely to be political progressives."

*****

"Our minds are constantly bombarded day in and day out with regard to what is the authority today in our lives," says Richard Jordan. "Who's going to run us, what's going to run us, what's going to control us, where are we going to get our viewpoints from and what are they going to be?

"Jesus Christ gives what I believe is the premier definition of inspiration. In Matthew 4:4 the Lord's talking. He answered Satan and said, 'It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.'

"People, where did the words in the Book come from?! They didn't come out of the mouth of the preacher. They didn't simply come from the pen of the writer. They came out of the mouth of God.

"What does it mean to be 'God-breathed'? That means God spoke the w-o-r-d-s. God chose the words. God reached down into the library and the vocabulary of some men and He selected w-o-r-d-s out of this vast library of their understanding.

"He picked out just the words He wanted and He caused them to be written down in a Book. He caused them to be collected together in a book and that book, we call the Bible.

"You know what the word 'Bible' means? It means 'book.' Chrysostam was the first one to call the Book 'ta biblia'; the Book, the Bible.

"They're the words God desired to be written down. Therefore, in Hebrews 4: [12] For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

[13] Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

"It's living and powerful; dynamic and energetic. And sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even . . .'

"To divide a thing asunder is to take it and filet it. You ever fileted a catfish? You lay the thing open. The Word of God is able to lay the subject open. That's the reason it says it's a 'discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.'

"You notice how he's talking about how the Word of God is powerful; that the Word of God does this? In verse 13 he then says, 'All things are open before the eyes of HIM with whom we have to do.'

"You notice how he's talking about the Word of God and then all of a sudden it's HIM? He takes it and personifies it, like instead of talking about the Book, he's talking about SOMEBODY?! He's talking about God.

"God sees everything. In one breath, the writer's talking about the Word of God being able to open up any issue and in the next breath he's talking about everything being open before God. You know why that is? God's design when He wrote that Word, people, is that when you face that Book, you're facing God Himself!

John 1 begins: [1] In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

[2] The same was in the beginning with God.

"What was that? Jesus Christ. John 1:14: [14] And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

"In Revelation 19 He comes back and He has a name written on His vesture and the name is what? The Word of God.

"I mean, folks, when you face the Word of God you're facing, literally, the Lord Jesus Christ. You're facing Almighty God. His design, His purpose in having the Word of God is to take the Word of God and vest in it the authority of His speaking; of what He had to say, and when you approach that Book you're not just reading a daily devotional book to make you feel better.

"You're not just listening to sermonettes out of it to live sweet little nice lives that make everybody happy and get everybody's bills paid and keep the economy going. That isn't what this is all about. This is the God of heaven, the Creator of the universe, talking. You know, in my house, when daddy talks, you know what the kids do? They know when dad sits down and talks they better sit down and shut up." 

(new article tomorrow)