Skip to main content

Name that Tune

  It was written by a native Ohioan song-and-dance man named Dan D. Emmett while setting in his New York hotel room.  It was first performed on April 4th, 1859 in New York Mechanic’s Hall. It was one of Abraham Lincoln’s favorite tunes. He even asked for it to be played as he left the White House stage his after his announced Lee had surrendered to Grant.  What was the famous tune? Dixie.

  It’s ironic that the tune that became the anthem of the states below the Mason Dixon line was born from a staunch Union sympathizer. He late remarked, “If I’d know to what use they were going to put my song, I’d never written it”!

  It funny how things can be attached to causes, ideologies or movement even when they don’t necessarily belong there.  Words become toxic even when their true meaning is benign.  People that should be disdained are made to be heroes because of a side they stand on.  Principles once exhorted are manipulated into vices to be condemned.

  We see that today in matters of faith.  Words like grace, love, and baptism are twisted till they are forced to say something they don’t really mean.  Religion has become a negative word to many.  Church is viewed more as a political organization that a spiritual one. Words of eternal Truth are made to be suggestions of limited time.

Therefore do not let what is for you a good thing be spoken of as evil
Romans 14:16
  The world may at times appropriate our good things for its own selfish purposes. We, however, don’t have to bow to the action. You don’t half to color in the lines the world draws. Let God hold our standards and follow as he has set forth. Don’t be ashamed of the Lord or the things for which he stands.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Until Midnight

    In Acts 20, there is the tragicomic event surrounding a young man by the name of Eutychus. He did what a lot of folks before and after him did, he fell asleep during a sermon. Unfortunately, he was setting in in the third story window at the time. So instead of nodding off and hitting the pew in front of him, he fell to his death. The good news was the apostle Paul was delivering the sermon and had the ability to bring him back.       I don’t know, however, if we can judge Eutychus too harshly. The sermon had gone on till midnight. Paul wouldn’t finish it up till daybreak. That’s a long lesson. I know some folks that might want to jump out of a window if I had a lesson that long, yet these Christians wanted to be there to hear Paul.   Don’t get me wrong, I’m not pushing for all night sermons but I think we might need to adopt these folks' dedication. They knew that Paul was only in town for a limited time only and they were determined to ...

The Gift You Give Yourself

    I always hated buying gifts for my Mom. If I got her something like a new set of pans, it was like saying “Here’s something you can use to go make me something to eat”. A gift for her was seemingly a gift for me.   There are however gifts you give that benefit you more than the receiver. For example, forgiveness. When you give it, you are giving it to yourself as much as you are giving it to them. Jesus said that when we forgive others it means God is forgiving us our wrongs (Matthew 6:14-15).  I once read: “ Heaven is where everyone's forgiven. Hell is where nobody's forgiven.  So, when we forgive we pull heaven down into our lives.  When we withhold forgiveness, we pull hell up into our lives ” Give yourself something nice today, Forgive.

Why Does A Lion Tamer Use a Chair?

  Ok, I know you have seen the image. A lion tamer enters in the cage of the beast and forces it to obey his commands using a whip, a gun and a chair. Now you can see how the whip and gun could come in handy but you might be wondering why a chair would intimidate an animal as powerful as a lion? Clyde Beatty taming a lion with a chair   It's not that the lion is afraid of the chair -- it's that the lion is confused by the chair. Cats are single-minded, and the points of the chair's four legs bobbing around confuse the lion enough that it loses its train of thought. Casually put, the chair distracts the lion from wanting to claw the lion tamer's face off. The powerful creature could destroy the chair in moment’s notice but instead it is distracted into submission.  It’s not too much different than how Satan controls us today. By the power of God we could overcome anything that he would use to subdue us. We can overcome the evil one (1 st John 2:13-14). ...