It's just another treasured Tuesday, (woah, woah), no way it is a blues day, (woah, woah), joy is the rule day, (woah, woah), my read "The Notes" fun day, (woah, woah), just another treasured Tuesday...
Welcome to a place where Tuesday is celebrated! Why you may ask? Once upon a time record labels, movie studios, and even some book publishers would release new material on Tuesday. I just so happen at the time to be the manager of a...you guessed it music, video, and book store. So while Tuesdays were super busy days, they were also exciting, as the store took on new products and our guests came in (sometimes they waited outside until we opened) anticipating their favorite bands, actors, or author's newest creations. So, here at Tuesday's Musical Notes, we celebrate our treasured Tuesdays!!!
Another of the ways we celebrate this auspicious day is by coming to you live (well as live as we possibly can via a blog) with Tuesday's Musical Notes. What is Tuesday's Musical Notes you may ask? Filled with inquisitiveness today, aren't we?
Tuesday's Musical Notes is a weekly blog about music and how it can relate to every aspect of our lives. We feature a great song each week and then explore its nuances, its subtleties, and its trivia. We then apply it to our lives with the best resource of which we know. We all need to have an application to our lives from somewhere...Here at Tuesday's Musical Notes, we consider the best reference resource for our lives to be the Bible. We realize that the words from Scripture can calm storms, ease stress, educate by example, provide nourishment in the desert of our lives, and ultimately lead us to the One who sacrificed everything to have a relationship with us.
Let's face it, this life is very much like a desert sometimes. There are times when we need something that will quench our parched thirst after roaming through a wilderness. We Need Water...
Fresh off of the success of their rock opera Tommy, The Who (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Baba O'Riley" (The Who), Tuesday's Musical Notes - "My Generation" (The Who) embarked on another rock opera project called Lifehouse (Lifehouse (rock opera) - wikipedia.org). Pete Townsend (guitar) ( Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Let My Love Open the Door" (Pete Townsend)), Roger Daltrey (vocals), John Entwistle (bass), and Keith Moon (drums) would soon find that following up the success of Tommy with another thematic project would be more difficult than they thought. It was so involved and tedious that just the planning for the project would cause a nervous breakdown for the principal songwriter and visionary behind the Lifehouse project, Pete Townsend.
"Water" was one of the songs intended for the Lifehouse, yet was discarded from final inclusion on the track listing. "Water" found its way to the flip side of Quadrophenia's single, "5:15". Many of the other songs that were to be included in Lifehouse found their way into other of The Who's projects, including Who's Next, which would wind up being the follow-up album to Tommy. It seems that this particular "Water" was not satisfying enough to quench the thirst The Who had for follow-up fame and fortune.
In previous Musical Notes, we have encountered the foundling nation of Israel, the descendants of Jacob. His 12 sons, had gone to Egypt, prospered, then were subjected to slavery under the dynasties of the Egyptians. They finally achieved their freedom through miraculous, "Only God Can Do This" actions. Once obtaining said freedom, they began the painstaking task of creating a new nation while attempting to follow God. Sometimes the times were good, other times, the Israelites proclaimed they would have been better off in Egypt. Mind-boggling right?
God blessed the leader of the Israelites, Moses, with a one-on-one relationship. This was a relationship reserved for only a few of the Biblical patriarchs (Abraham in particular). This served the Israelites well, especially when they were insolent towards God and disobedient to His instructions. Moses would intervene and remind God of the promise He had made to the Israelite patriarch Abraham regarding the land and the nation that would inhabit it.
We come now to another instance where the Israelites were dissatisfied with their situation and they began to get thirsty...they had already ensured that a generation of folks would die in the wilderness because of their reluctance and unfaithfulness, and now they make Moses so mad that they mess it up for him too...cue Numbers 20:9-13:
Miriam, Moses' sister, had just died. There is a pretty good chance that Moses had a great relationship with Miriam as she was the one who followed the "basket case" of a boy down the Nile. Chances are that she also assisted Moses' mom in the care and raising of the child Moses even though he was considered the son of the Pharoah's daughter. Her death more than likely hit Moses pretty hard. In his grief, he now has to deal with..."Why did you bring us out here to die? We would've been better off in Egypt! Why didn't we rebel with Korah and let the earth have us for an appetizer? (Okay, so I embellished that last part, but the thought was there.)" The Bible said they "argued" with Moses and Aaron, Moses' brother (also Miriam's brother who would share in Moses' grief) What did Moses and Aaron do?
Lesson #1: Moses and Aaron sought God. In the midst of sorrow, with the crowd taunting and complaining, Moses and Aaron went to the One on whom they knew they could depend. God had been faithful time and again. Moses and Aaron went to seek God with the confidence that He would come through again. God is waiting for you to seek Him. Have confidence in Him.
Lesson #2: Regardless of where you are, God provides for your needs. God answers Moses and Aaron and He instructed them to go and speak to the rocks. After this action, water would be provided. At this point, Moses and Aaron would have seen enough from God and been around God enough to know that obedience was their part of the solution. It was not incredulous to Moses and Aaron for God to tell them He would provide water, where there could not possibly be any. God also provides for you in this way.
Lesson #3: Even those who have the closest relationship with God, can be disobedient and damage that relationship. Notice that in this instance Moses and Aaron didn't beg God to save the Israelites as they come into His presence. They did not intercede on behalf of the nation this time. They were there for instructional purposes only. And they were given a pathway to obey. However, partial obedience IS disobedience. At first, Moses obeys and takes the staff of God. Moses' emotions then get the best of him as he finally was fed up with the Israelites. Moses also goes so far as to indicate that it would be he and Aaron providing the water out of the rock as he disobeys God and strikes the rock instead of speaking to it. Yet, even in the Israelites AND this time Moses' disobedience, God is faithful. Water comes out of the rock and the Bible says it comes out "abundantly".
Final lesson: God provides for our needs even when we are disobedient, BUT there are circumstances and discipline that are meted out due to our unfaithfulness. Whatever Moses' rationale for striking the rock, he was disobedient to what God had commanded. Later on in the Bible, the wise King Solomon will write: "For whom the Lord loves He disciplines, Just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights." (Proverbs 3:1-12 NASB/AMP/KJV). And in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul will reiterate this fact by writing a portion of a letter regarding obedience and discipline. Hebrews 12:1-17 NASB/AMP/KJV
Dear friend, do not mistake this world for anything more than the wilderness it is. This place is not where we are to spend the eternity of our lives. There will be times when you are so thirsty, you don't know if you can take another step. Remember, the God that made you loves you. He knows what our needs are. Sometimes our idea of "need" doesn't align with the reality of what God knows is the truthful necessity in our lives. He is the God who is faithful in those times of grief, stress, and need. He alone is worthy of our praise AND our obedience. He loves you so much that He provides living water from a well that will never run dry. Jesus (God, the Son) says this water is so refreshing that we will never be thirsty again if we drink it. The Gospel of Jesus according to the disciple John, chapter 4, verses 7-30 NASB/AMP/KJV
So what do we do? As believers, we love folks enough to introduce them to the source of the water. Because there is a world out there crying out..."we need water, good, good, water"
'Til Tuesday,
Serving HIM by serving You,
randy
<><
No comments:
Post a Comment