Hey there! Welcome to Tuesday and another edition of Tuesday's Musical Notes!!! We hope you enjoy these weekly excursions in which we embark. There is always something new to learn and we except the challenge to explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life and new civilizations. To boldly...wait that's not our opening monologue!!! I apologize for the momentary lapse of reasoning. Let's try that again, shall we?
Welcome to Tuesday! Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip...stop!!! No tropics or tiny ships in today's Notes. One last attempt...
It's time for Tuesday's Musical Notes and we're here to tell you all a story 'bout a man named Jed... I give up...
It's Tuesday. Here are the Notes. Don't pay any attention to The Stranger who must have taken over the opening...
Peaking at #17 on Billboard's Hot 100, "She's Always a Woman" would follow 2 other singles (the #3 hit, Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Just the Way You Are" and the #17 "Movin' Out (Anthony's Song)" from Joel's breakout album, The Stranger which peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200 chart.
And now for a Tuesday's Musical Note extra:
A 35-second clip on YouTube from September 11, 2001, shows the arrangement of today's song by the Frank Chacksfield Orchestra being played on the Muzak that was piping through the World Trade Center prior to its collapse. World Trade Center - September 11, 2001 - Muzak Hard to believe that this fall we will observe the 18th year since the terrorist attack.
We now return you back to your normally scheduled Notes.
Influenced by Gordon Lightfoot (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "If You Could Read My Mind"), "She's Always a Woman" was inspired by Billy Joel's then-wife/manager Elizabeth. She had taken over Joel's management after several years of poor decision making by Joel and his previous management officials. Elizabeth put his career in a steady financial order and was a part of Joel's team during some of his largest album successes. Unfortunately, the same could not be said of their marriage. It ended in 1982 after 9 years.
Marriages ending was never a part of the original plan. From the beginning, the creation narrative involved the provision of a forever companion for Adam.
Adam had been given dominion over all of creation. He provided the names for all the organisms in which God created. As Adam was giving out those names, it became quickly apparent that there was no suitable companion/helper for Adam.
God saw Adam as a "very good" creation, God realized that it was not good for Adam to be the only one of his kind. So after creating the first anesthesia and surgery, God created Eve by taking one of Adam's ribs. After what one would imagine was appropriate recovery time, God revealed his newest creation to Adam by showing her off to him. The Message paraphrase says that God "presented" her to Adam. Adam knew full well what had happened and proclaimed her "Woman". "Flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone". What a statement of excitement and equality!!
Since this time, men and women have been presenting themselves to each other for the possibilities of a lifelong relationship through the marriage covenant. Fathers have been presenting young women to their future husbands just as God presented Eve to Adam. Young men have been leaving the homes in which they were raised to begin a new home with the woman in which they desire to spend the remaining years of their lives. It is a partnership that is never to be dissolved except by the physical separation of death. At least that was the plan in Genesis.
We don't know how long Eve lived. It is reasonable to expect that she lived for most of Adam's 930 years. That is a pretty long time to be with the same person. The original plan was for them to be together forever in Eden. But other factors eliminated that possibility. More to come...
In our day and age, it seems difficult for a commitment to be made that would last 930 years. We live in a generation where the physical "giving" of yourself to someone has been minimized to a 1-time occurrence. This was not the plan of creation and is one of the ways sexual sin of all kinds becomes the most pervasive weapon the enemy uses in battle.
The Tuesday's Musical Notes perception on this is: Marriage is to be forever. Once a physical relationship has been established between 1 man and 1 woman, their individual lives become their collective life. ANY sexual sin, (including pornography and affairs of the heart) destroys the commitment that is made at the time of consummation of wedding vows. The Bible calls ANY sexual act outside of the boundaries of 1 man and 1 woman for the remainder of their lives, adultery and fornication.
Unfortunately, the church is as guilty in this area as the world. It is past time for us to have a higher standard. Want to stop divorce? Make sure both party's relationship with God is restored before entering into a relationship with each other. Once you are one in marriage, support one another, encourage one another, have a Song of Solomon type experience with each other (Song of Solomon - NASB/The Message/KJV), and most of all pray. Pray for protection against the enemy's temptations, because they will come. We are only able to withstand those temptations as our relationship is solid and founded on Jesus' example.
Men, before you leave your home to begin a new home with a woman, be sure that she is the only one in which your spiritual and physical desires will abide. "...She'll bring out the best and the worst you can be..."
Women, before you are presented to a man, be sure that he is the only one in which your spiritual and physical desires will abide. "...she's always a woman to me..."
'Til Tuesday,
Serving HIM by serving You,
randy
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