Let all that has been Concealed
Be Revealed.
Father, We Pray For The Peace Of Jerusalem,
According To Your Will and Promise.
We Pray That You Will Forgive The Sins
of Our Own Nation,
and Lead us all to Godly Repentance.
Create in Us Clean Hearts, Oh LORD,
and Renew a Right Spirit Within Us.
This we Pray Together,
As We Await Your Messiah,
Blessed Be He,
To Set Up His Kingdom,
And Make All Things Right.
God Bless America.
ML/LTOS
The following is not really a Christmas Story, but it does start out that way:
In 1963, when I was 11, I asked "Santa" for a guitar. Well my Dad only wanted the best for his little girl, so he went to a pawn shop in Downtown Boston (presumably where starving musicians went to pawn their instruments in order to pay the rent) and bought me a Harmony Arch-Top Acoustic guitar (STEEL-REINFORCED NECK!). Since it was not set-up, the action was really high, but I taught myself using a Mel Bay instruction book, and was soon playing Dylan songs which only had three chords at the most. I loved the Beatles, but their songs had more chords so I stuck to the folkie stuff for a long time.
In the early 70's I bought a used Gibson SG Custom with three gold-plated humbuckers at "Mr. Music" in Boston. So my first electric was already top of the line and I didn't even realize it. It never stayed in tune, and I am partially deaf, so the guys in my band used to tune it for me. This was YEARS before digital tuners were invented. I was in a Blues Band, and I did a lot of "string bending" in those days.
I had a real stupid Samoyed Dawg, who was even stupider after eating a bottle of Valium and spending three days in a coma at the old Angell Memorial Animal Hospital (I'm NOT making this up!) There is more to the Valium story about the Dawg, named Preston, but I will continue on about the SG. (LOL)
Preston was afraid of thunder and firecrackers, and one particular stormy day I came home to a trembling, guilty dawg and the SG lying on the floor in pieces. I brought it to a Luthier, who offered me $300.00 to buy it as is, but I said it was my axe, and could he just fix it. The headstock was totally broken off, mind you.
After paying the Luthier, I got the guitar back with a barely visible scar where he had reattached the headstock. But now...HUZZAH!...It stayed in tune from gig to gig instead of from song-to-song.
Unfortunately, I had to sell the SG to pay the rent. I got $650.00 for it.
I have since seen a similar model in a Vintage Guitar Book for $15,000.00.
That would have paid my rent for two years!
The old arch-top Harmony was tossed around for years and got lost in the shuffle somewhere.
Just last month I saw the EXACT SAME Harmony Arch-top guitar in a music store for over $300.00. I played it in the store for nostalgia's sake. It had much better action than my old guitar, and I played a LOT better than I did 59 YEARS ago!
Paul has a secret weapon that saves him from being beaten by the Roman soldiers. ""I am a Roman Citizen" he proudly announces. The Guard is totally flummoxed by this, as he had to pay a great deal to achieve this, while Paul was BORN a Citizen. The beating immediately stopped, and the Guard was now in fear of himself being punished! It was like the $15,000 Vintage Gibson SG Custom Guitar hiding under a broken headstock and flopping strings, or the Vintage Harmony Arch-top with the STEEL-REINFORCED NECK masquerading as beat-up hippie girl guitar.
There was a time when one could be confident that, wherever one was in the world, one could get out of a jam by proudly saying, "I AM AN AMERICAN CITIZEN!" That is not as true today as it once was.
Paul speaks of even a more powerful "secret weapon" in his Second Letter To The Corinthians. He speaks of the Spirit of God within us as a Treasure in a Clay Jar:
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; ( 2 Cor 4:7 NASB)
This is worth more than any Gibson Guitar, or even citizenship.
Amen
Amen to your Beautiful, Anointed Prayer, Dear Servant of the King of kings.
Hugs and Prayers for a Quick Recovery from the illness.