Bridge Over Troubled Waters – A Path from mother to Our Father - Purity 819
Purity 819 08/25/2022 Purity 819 Podcast
Good morning,
Today’s artistic offering comes to us from our
friend in the Manchester, England, Philip Hand, who shared this “bridge over
troubled waters” back in March with a poem of fond remembrance of his departed
mother that I have no other choice but to share. Philip wrote:
“Beautiful
Mother
Beautiful
Mother of the morning
From
loves first breath, life’s dawning
Love
embracing innocence,
Face
to face in perfect unity
the
way mother and child are meant to be.
Thank
You for having me
I’d
be nothing without you
Even
though you are not here,
My
love will reach the stars.
Sweet
memories I cherish
Forever
deep within my heart.”
-Philip
Hand
I just love this process of writing that the Lord
has put me on with this blog because I literally don’t know where the Lord will
take me and what will have to be said from day to day.
It’s Thursday so this morning I was looking for a
photo a pathway on my phone that I could use to represent the “pathway of Christian
Discipleship” to encourage my friends to walk in the Spirit, as I do on the
fourth work day of week because I traditionally would lead or teach on Thursday
nights, that my habit that’s what I do: share pathways on Thursdays to
encourage people seek the Lord and to follow Him with their lives.
But I am on vacation this week, so I didn’t feel
pressed for time and went back a little further in my photo archive to try to
find something when I came a across Philip’s drawing. I liked it and since it had a bridge in it I
decided that was enough of a pathway to satisfy my Thursday criteria. And as I examined his work, I tried to make
sense of it. I knew it was a bridge, and most likely a stream, but shape of the
water resembled a brooding mountainous “Jabba the Hut” like face, and I thought
“Bridge over Troubled Water”, perfect. So I figured I had enough and should go
to Philip’s page to see the origin to discover, his beautiful poem reflecting a
troubled but loving heart paying tribute to his departed mother.
And then I decided to look at the lyrics to Paul Simon’s
song, and discovered that the phrase “Bridge Over Trouble Waters” was inspired
by Simon listening to the southern gospel group Swan Silvertones’ 1959 song “Oh
Mary Don’t You Weep,” in which one particular line rang out to Simon,— I’ll be
your bridge over deep water / If you trust in my name—which helped Simon finish
“Bridge Over Troubled Water,” and its more gospel elements. (https://americansongwriter.com/the-meaning-behind-bridge-over-troubled-water-by-simon-garfunkel/).
Although rather vague, Our heavenly Father’s care
and concern for us and the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, can be easily imagined in
Simon’s lyrics:
“When
you're weary
Feeling
small
When
tears are in your eyes
I'll
dry them all
I'm
on your side
Oh,
when times get rough
And
friends just can't be found
Like
a bridge over troubled water
I
will lay me down
Like
a bridge over troubled water
I
will lay me down
When
you're down and out
When
you're on the street
When
evening falls so hard
I
will comfort you
I'll
take your part
Oh,
when darkness comes
And
pain is all around
Like
a bridge over troubled water
I
will lay me down
Like
a bridge over troubled water
I
will lay me down”
(https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/simongarfunkel/bridgeovertroubledwater.html)
If you didn’t know it Simon’s song was written in
1969 when “America was in a state. Vietnam was in motion, Richard Nixon was
president, and the country was still coping with the loss of Martin Luther King
Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, who were both assassinated in 1968. “Bridge Over
Troubled Water” spoke to the turmoil of the times and continues to adapt to
more recent times, used as an uplifting anthem around more tragic events.” (https://americansongwriter.com/the-meaning-behind-bridge-over-troubled-water-by-simon-garfunkel/).
So what do I do with all of this? I think our times continue
to be pretty troubled. I don’t think the reality of continuous tragedies or the
media’s penchant for highlighting will allow us to imagine our times as anything
but troubled. Whether it’s the perceived trouble in our country or very
personal pain, trials, and tribulations in our present, or in our past, we
could easily admit to some troubled waters in our lives.
So I guess the question is: Will you take that “Bridge”
over the troubled waters?
Will you accept the comfort and presence of the Lord
in your life when “times get rough, when friends can’t be found, when darkness
comes, and pain is all around?”
Will you move on from the apron strings of your
earthly mother and take the path that was laid down for you by Jesus that leads
to your Heavenly Father?
I can only assume that all of this is coming to me
this morning because God wants us to know that He knows our heartaches and He
knows the trouble in our lives and He wants us to know that He will never leave
us or forsake us and He is inviting us to walk with Him and that He will carry
us over the troubled waters in our lives.
So brother and sister, let’s go man. Let’s take that
bridge. And let’s keep walking and talking with God until we discover the
meaning, purpose, and peace that He has for us.
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Today’s Bible verse comes to us from “The NLT Bible
Promise Book for Men”.
This morning’s meditation verse is:
Psalm 93:4 (NLT2)
4 But mightier than the
violent raging of the seas, mightier than the breakers on the shore— the LORD above is mightier than these!
Today’s verse tells us that the Lord above is mightier than the
violent raging seas and the breakers on the shore.
Okay, I can’t make this stuff up.
Is it any wonder why I continually encourage others to “walk in the Spirit”?
So I just happen to write about “troubled waters” and this is the
verse of the day?
“Violent raging of the seas”, I’d say that qualifies as troubled
waters!
But what does this verse tell us? It’s tells us “the Lord above is
mightier than these”!
We should never forget that when we put our faith in Christ, our
lives are saved and we have a the mightiest ally imaginable to help us move
through this life and to overcome or to endure whatever waves or storms that
this world broken by sin has to offer.
So be encouraged. The Lord is WITH US and He is more than mighty
enough to see us through.
______________________________________________________________________
As always, I invite all to go to mt4christ.org where I
always share insights from prominent Christian theologians and counselors to
assist my brothers and sisters in Christ with their walk.
Today we continue sharing from Clinton E. Arnold’s
“Powers of Darkness”
As always, I share this information for educational
purposes and encourage all to purchase Clinton Arnold’s books for your own
private study and to support his work. This resource is available on
many websites for less than $20.00.
The Issue of Responsibility
If
we are duped, exploited or driven to do something by a powerful supernatural
opponent—“the devil made me do it”—does that not lessen the level of our
personal responsibility? Some theologians fear that this is the case. They are
concerned that the belief in a literal devil and evil spirits may lead people
to remove responsibility from themselves and locate it somewhere outside of themselves.
When three
high-school boys in Carl Junction, Missouri, claimed that the voice of the
devil prompted them to kill one of their companions as a sacrifice to Satan in
1987, the courts held the boys responsible and sentenced them to life in prison
without the possibility of parole. Is there a possibility that such a ruling
was unjust? If a power much greater than themselves compelled them to bludgeon
the victim, how could they be held responsible?
It is important to
reaffirm that Paul, and the entire testimony of Scripture for that matter,
always held people accountable for their decisions and actions. Although Satan
can tempt and deceive, God will judge people on the basis of their actions: At
“the revelation of the righteous judgment of God,” he “will render to every man
according to his deeds” (Rom 2:5–6 NASB; see also Ps 62:12 and Prov 24:12).
Nevertheless, there
is another sense in which the powers determine the lives of people, indeed all
people. Paul envisioned humanity as being enslaved by the evil one and in need
of redemption. Held in tension with this concept is that every person has the
opportunity to respond to the liberating message of the gospel. When a person
believes in Christ, he or she is divinely rescued from the captivity of Satan and
made a child of God. In a sense, Paul presented life as a choice between
lordships. One can serve Satan and the powers, or one can serve God. This
fundamental choice is all-important at the final judgment. Paul explained that
Christ will “punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our
Lord Jesus. They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out
from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power” (2 Thess
1:8–9).
Christians have the
ability to resist Satan’s temptations to do evil. The ability to resist is
mediated to them through their dependence on an all-powerful Lord who
strengthens their innermost beings through the presence of his Spirit. For this
reason Paul can enjoin his Christian readers to resist the devil (“do not be
deceived”) and to desist from all kinds of evil practices.
In Paul’s view
non-Christians do not have the ability to withstand the appeals of the devil.
This does not mean that every person consistently engages in the grossest forms
of moral evil; each individual still bears God’s image (albeit ever so
tarnished) and is capable of high standards of morality. Nevertheless, Paul
ardently believed every person has violated the ultimate standard of morality,
God’s law as revealed in the Old Testament.
Furthermore, in spite
of Satan’s compelling solicitations, Paul argued that each person is
accountable to God on the basis of their behavior (Rom 2:1–11). He warned of
God’s impending judgment: “There will be trouble and distress for every human being
who does evil” (Rom 2:9). There is a sense then in which a person can
legitimately appeal to the argument “the devil made me do it.” God, however,
still holds people responsible for their actions. And people have a choice to
obey God’s law based on their nature as people created in his image; or better,
they can respond to Christ’s offer of redemption and then base their lives on
Christ’s ethical demands and appropriate his power to fulfill them.[1]
---------------------------more
tomorrow------------------------
Join our “Victory over the Darkness”, “The Bondage
Breaker”, "Freedom in Christ" series of Discipleship Classes via the
mt4christ247 podcast!
at https://mt4christ247.podbean.com, You can also find it on Apple podcasts
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My wife, TammyLyn, also offers Christian
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Podbean (https://feed.podbean.com/tammalyn78/feed.xml)
Encouragement for the Path of Christian Discipleship
[1]
Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness:
Principalities & Powers in Paul’s Letters (Downers Grove,
IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 1992), 189–191.
