Here we are in the first full week of Spring. Sometimes it can be a tumultuous season with the weather adjusting to warmer temperatures. At other times however it is ripe with the explosion of colors accompanying its annual entrance. Trees are budding a parade of colors as they sprout new growth and leaves. Flowers burst from the ground and provide a palette that aligns well with their more extensive wooden parallels. Even the sky during this time of the year, especially at sunrise and sunset, seems to take on a new hue and intensity of magnificence that isn't quite the same as they are during the Summer and Winter months. It is all quite beautiful.
My favorite season is still Autumn with its harvests and everything pumpkiny, however, Spring is a close 2nd. Everything comes back to life in the Spring. All imaginable shades of the color green are visible and vibrant if only for a brief moment. If you farm, there is nothing like the smell of fresh dirt turned over as you get ready to plant. It is all quite beautiful.
So welcome to Spring! You're all we've hoped for as we faced Winter, and you're everything we need to be prepared for Summer. In short, Spring, You Are So Beautiful...well, you know the rest...
Most popular musicians have that one song that propels them into the annals of icon status. For Joe Cocker, today's featured song, "You Are So Beautiful" is such a song. It was written by Billy Preston ("Nothing From Nothing") with frequent collaborator Bruce Fisher. The song was included on Preston's ninth studio album, The Kids & Me, and included as the B-side to the single "Struttin'".
Covered by Joe Cocker in November of that year, it soared up the charts to #5 on Billboard's Hot 100 becoming Cocker's highest-charting solo single. Many remembered Joe Cocker from his outstanding performance at Woodstock of The Beatle's "With A Little Help From My Friends" (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "With A Little Help From My Friends" (The Beatles/Joe Cocker)). "You Are So Beautiful" served as an opportunity to renew his fan's fervor for his music as well as introduce him to a softer side of popular music for which he was not known.
Other covers include performances by Kenny Rogers (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In) (Kenny Rogers and The First Edition)), Bonnie Tyler (Tuesday's Musical Notes - "Holding Out For A Hero" (Bonnie Tyler)), and Ray Stevens. Rumors persist that The Beach Boys' Dennis Wilson may have had a hand in writing the song as well. Wilson put the song in The Beach Boys setlist as an encore beginning in 1975 and using it until he died in 1983.
But it remains Joe Cocker who has the best-known version of the song. Delivered with his trademark passion, the song resonates as a romantic love song (even though Preston wrote it as an ode to his mother). As such, it serves as an entryway that demonstrates the ability of music to paint vivid pictures around constructs such as joy, happiness, love, and those things we deem beautiful.
Beginning April 9, 2019, Tuesday's Musical Notes began a journey to tell the great stories of the Bible in chronological order. Before this time we had a topic or a song that seemed to work well with The Notes format and that would dictate the subject matter for your favorite blog, Tuesday's Musical Notes. This seemed a bit out of priority order given the nature of The Notes and on that fateful day in April, we began traveling through the Bible to discover the great lessons Scripture contains. We hope you have found this method as appealing and full of discovery as we have and think that you will continue enjoying Tuesday's Musical Notes as we begin descending the apex of the mountain.
We find ourselves today at a Beautiful Gate. No, literally, it's called The Beautiful Gate. The Jewish historian Josephus indicates that this gate was given its name due to its Corinthian bronze plating, which made it more resplendent than gold or silver. Today's passage tells us that Peter and John were passing this gate when they came across a man who could not walk.
This man was placed at the Beautiful Gate every day so that he could beg for resources to support himself. He had been unable to walk since his birth and he cried out to the apostles as they passed by. He hoped that they would give him some gift that he could use for his welfare. What he got was something more beautiful than even the gate to which he was close.
Peter and John called out for him to look at them. His expectation was heightened as he felt he was about to receive something from them beneficial. Can you imagine how he felt when Peter told him, "I do not have silver or gold..."? Their initial response was not at all everything he had hoped for. But before the crushing emotions of disappointment and despair began to fall on him, Peter continued, "...but what I have I give to you, " "Everything you need..." Elation returns, what does this mean? Didn't he just say he didn't have anything? "...in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, walk!" The beauty of what happens next envelopes the entire area. The Beautiful Gate loses some of its splendor as the miraculous takes place and the man who had never walked a day in his life felt strength in his legs that he had never experienced.
I'm told that those who have had debilitating things happen to their legs, have to relearn how to walk. The rehab that they go through involves their mind and their body as each step is a new experience that they have to remember and relearn. The Bible says this man didn't need rehab, he didn't need a walker or crutches, but he immediately began walking, leaping, and praising God as he, Peter, and John entered the Beautiful gate of the temple with a different idea of what the word beautiful means.
As one would imagine, the sight of a man who had never walked expressing himself in such a manner in the temple drew the attention of the folks in the area. Never missing an opportunity to speak about Jesus in front of folks, Peter delivers another message about the most beautiful story. What is this beautiful message?
Why are you astonished at this man walking? It's not by our power but by the power of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The power of God glorified Jesus and it is His name that this man can be leaping about.
Peter gets a bit snarky at this point.
You know Jesus? The one you crucified? Right, the ones your rulers said was a blasphemer, but in reality, He was the Messiah we've been searching for. Yup, that's the guy. He was the Son of God and it is by His power that you see this crippled man restored. Jesus is the One the prophets had been telling us about for years and now this man stands here praising God because of the healing he has received through Jesus. How you may ask, can you receive this restoration? Repent. Turn from your rebellion against God and believe that Jesus was the once and for all sacrifice that restores the broken relationship you have with God.
Peter assures them that if they believe what he has said about Jesus that they will experience a "...time of refreshing that comes from the Lord." Peter then unpacks for this very Jewish audience the beauty of what occurs in the future as their lives will continually be refreshed by serving the Lord and His ultimate return to finalize the restoration process back to God.
Friend, let me reassure you of something. No matter who you are, what you look like, or what you have done in your life, God says of you, "You are so beautiful to me" He sent Jesus to affirm this affection and desire for relationship. Our part? Turn away from the bad things we do and embrace the beautiful love that awaits us. If we do that, we can boldly say, "...You're everything I hoped for, You're everything I need, You are so beautiful to me..." as we go about walking, leaping, and praising God.
'Til Tuesday,
Loving HIM by loving You,
randy
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