Pastor Buddy’s Blog

Journal,

As a child of the 1940s, my heart is linked to the music of that era. It was the era of the big bands.? Songs like ‘Sentimental Journey’, ‘Buttons and? Bows’, ‘Cruising Down the River on a Sunday Afternoon’, were songs with simple but clean themes.

One of the songs I especially liked was pubished in 1939, and became the signature song for Judy Garland. It was entitled ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow.’ Miss Garland sang it when she was but 16 years old. (17 at the latest.)

The reason I liked it so much was because for my childish heart, it seemed to have a heavenly theme. Guess you could say that mama had already instilled heaven in my heart with my ‘Now I lay be down to sleep,’ childhood prayer. From that time I’ve always had a heart for heaven. And even when I wandered about in the world, there was always something in my heart that was calling me back to my childhood experience of calling upon the Lord.

Perhaps you would like to hear Judy Garland sing it. Here it is:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=10w_sEcHlGs&mode=related&search=

You may wonder what triggered my ‘Over the Rainbow’ memory. Well, I was astonished today to hear a young girl of only six years sing it. This beautiful young lady literally had my eyes filled with tears. (I was around six when I first heard it.) Anyway, here it is. You can judge for yourself:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=7zBxt_w8_zQ&mode=related&search=

Read the lyrics and you see why this song has a heavenly feel –

“Somewhere Over the Rainbow”
music by Harold Arlen and lyrics by E.Y. Harburg

Somewhere over the rainbow
Way up high,
There’s a land that I heard of
Once in a lullaby.
Somewhere over the rainbow
Skies are blue,
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true.

Someday I’ll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far
Behind me.
Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That’s where you’ll find me.

Somewhere over the rainbow
Bluebirds fly.
Birds fly over the rainbow.
Why then, oh why can’t I?

If happy little bluebirds fly
Beyond the rainbow
Why, oh why can’t I?

Here is where I need to give a plug for our heavenly sponser. Jesus said, “Unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Mt18:3)?

At another time when the disciples tried to keep the little children away from Jesus, the Lord said, “Let the children alone, and do not hinder them from coming to Me; for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” (Mt19:14)

I was blessed in that my mama taught me the little childhood prayer. To this day I believe she placed in my young heart? tender feelings for heaven. It was instilled in me from that prayer. And when our children were little ones, I tried my best to? put in them this same heavenly consciousness. (As did my sweet wife.)

On one occasion I am in my office studying for a service. A small knock comes to my door. There stands Shana; “Daddy, I don’t have anyone to hold me.” I sweep her up in my arms and sit down with her in my lap in front of our french doors. Thats when I began to talk about her about our heavenly Father, about the creatures He had created, and about His love for us.

But it didn’t end there. I tried to make this a constant theme. At another time all three of my children and I are raking pine straw in the back yard, when we sit down under a tree for a break. Our dog Peppy lay there with us. Again I hear this small voice say, “Daddy, everybody needs a hug, even God, huh?” “Yes, darling, even God needs a hug.” And again I began to share with our children the Father’s love.

Then there was the time when Andre was quite small. He stood on the front porch as I walked up. The night was so dark. Andre could barely see me. But when I said, “Jump Andre, daddy will catch you,” he soared off the porch into daddy’s arms. He knew that daddy would catch him.

Yes, there is a point in all this. I remain deeply disturbed as I hear all these earthly, materialistic teachings today. It disturbs me when I know that God’s people are being misled by what I consider as nothing less than charlatans in the pulpits. The gospel being preached in many places is earthly minded and man-centered. It is a gospel of greed.

But my mind goes back to all the Bible warnings concerning these last days. For example Peter spoke of the false teachers that would arise among God’s people. He said, “Many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be maligned; and in their greed they will exploit you with false words; their judgment from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep.” (2Pe2:2,3)

What is it that the pulpits should be instilling in the hearts of God’s people today? Should be not be a consciousness of heaven? And I’m not simply speaking of our future home. I am calling to attention the very atmosphere of heaven that we are called to live in.

Jesus said that if we would seek the kingdom of God first, then everything else in life would be added to us. The kingdom of God speaks of the rule of God in our hearts. We are not to try to lord over our own lives. We are to look to Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We are to learn to live from His words.

This is why the apostle Paul said, “Set your mind [affections] on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” (Col3:2-4)

From ancient time there has been in the hearts of all God’s saints, this feeling for heaven. God’s people have always seen themselves as pilgrims in this life. In the new covenant this takes on a new dimension. When a person receives Jesus Christ as their own Lord, there is a heavenly reality that enters their heart. In this sense we become heavenly creatures in earthly bodies.

Yet the principle of living for the Lord never changes. We are to live as children. So let me ask a question worth pondering — How is your heart today? Is it childlike?

Have you been misled by some of the earthly, materialistic teachings? Do you need to come back to your first love, that is, to your simple childhood faith in Jesus?

Just something to think about.

Blessings,

Buddy