Welcome to Tuesday! It is a very regal and elegant occasion in which we welcome you today! You may be very aware that in this blog's opinion, Tuesday is the most fantastic day of the week! We graciously welcome you to it! You may also be aware that for the past several weeks, Tuesday's Musical Notes has been regaling you with the most splendid music that has ever come from the realms of the cinema. Today you are in for a treat as we are serenaded by one of the most powerful of these songs, the ballad featuring the voice of Loren Allred, a top 20 performer from season 3 of The Voice. Allred is the voice of Rebecca Ferguson who fills the role of the "Swedish Nightingale". Ladies and Gentlemen, without further adieu, it is our exquisite pleasure to present to you, Miss Jenny Lind.
"Never Enough" by Loren Allred from the 2017 soundtrack to the 20th Century Fox motion picture The Greatest Showman
She was a contemporary of Robert Schuman and Hector Berlioz. She even scorned the advances of Hans Christian Anderson and was incredibly close to Felix Mendelssohn who wrote musical pieces specifically for her. Jenny Lind was a certified superstar in Europe by the age of 20, the year she announced her retirement from Opera. Her career as an entertainer however, was far from over.
Beginning in 1850, she toured the United States under the promotion of The Greatest Showman, P.T. Barnum. Her arrival in the United States was met by a throng of adoring fans and much fanfare as she ascended the walkway from her ship, as well as at the first venue. Barnum had pulled out all the stops to insure she was afforded superstar status even before she set foot on the shores of America. What followed was a 93 stop excursion into the finest performance sites in the Eastern and Southern portions of the United States, Cuba, and Canada. The tour was so successful that Barnum allowed tickets to be auctioned to the highest bidder, a practice to which, upon Lind's request, he would later rescind.
The pianist, arranger, and conductor for the tour, Julius Benedict, left half way through the endeavor and was replaced by Otto Goldschmitdt who would marry Lind at the end of the tour in Boston. A known philanthropist, Lind's portions of the profits from her tour with Barnum were given to charities that she supported in Sweden and some in the United States. She would return to Europe with Goldschmidt at this time and officially retire from performing, only granting a few selected performances to benefit her beloved charities for the reminder of her lifetime. It seemed that she had achieved all that she could possibly.
Have you ever had a goal that you didn't achieve? In retrospect, several agendas in my life have been left incomplete. It seemed no matter what I did, how hard I tried, or the people I attempted to influence, it was never enough to achieve the objective. I confess that while this was disappointing, I have no regret about falling short as I learned a great deal about my limits, my ambition, and in some cases who were really my closest friends.
Many in our world have Heaven as a goal. They try to be extremely good. They obey the Ten Commandments. (Take a glance, have YOU broken any of them...lately at least? (Exodus 20 New King James Version of the Bible/The Message paraphrase of the Bible/New International Version of the Bible parallel) They have the highest of moral standards. They do all of this in an attempt to achieve going to a literal Heaven as opposed to going to a literal hell. Yet in Romans 3:8 the Bible says, "there is no one righteous, no not one"... in short, "Towers of gold are still too little These hands could hold the world but it'll Never be enough Never be enough" So it is with the pathway to Heaven.
Jesus had something to say about this very thing: The Gospel of Jesus according to the disciple Matthew 19:16-22 NKJV/The Message/NIV
You see, this young man had done it all. That was the problem. HE had attempted to do something for which it was never intended for him to do. He did all of these things and never experienced a change of heart. He never allowed the works that he was doing to change who he was. His motivation for doing all of these thing was not out of love for those who were his beneficiaries, but out of a desire to go to Heaven, or perhaps to escape hell. The Gospel of Jesus according to Mark 8:34-38 NKJV/The Message/NIV
You see friend, all the work and our greatest efforts, the things we do to make us better, will never be enough, never be enough. Only through the blood of Jesus, only through His love that frees us, can it ever be enough, ever be enough.
Acts of the Apostles 4:8-12 NKJV/The Message/NIV
Our downfall and our salvation began in the Garden. Salvation was manifested all throughout the Old Testament. Salvation came into a physical existence in the New Testament. The only thing that can ever be enough for us to go to Heaven and restore the broken relationship with God, the Father is the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world. Jesus.
Today is the day of salvation. Repent or turn away from the wrong in your life. Allow Jesus to become the boss of your life. Realize that only through Jesus can you be restored to God, only through Jesus can you go to Heaven and escape hell, only through Jesus can you be saved. You see dear friends even our greatest efforts, even our best actions, even our most moral attributes, will it never be enough, never be enough...
The Gospel of Jesus according to the Disciple John 14:1-6 NKJV/The Message/NIV
'Til Tuesday,
Serving HIM by serving You,
randy
No comments:
Post a Comment