Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Our Father in Heaven,
We Come before You in Prayer
For we know That You Are the Potter,
And We Are the Clay
We pray that we will always be supple
and yielding to Your touch
So That You will form us into Your Image.

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.

For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. (Mark 4:22)

God Bless America.

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.

Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Isaiah 40:5

5 And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.

Holy Bible, King James Version

_________________________________________ 

Years ago, one of the Friends of this Thread observed that, in the Time of Handel, it was tricky portraying Jesus in Music. This difficulty is based upon the First and Second of the Ten Commandments, not to have "Strange gods" or try to portray God in Art. It can very easily morph into Idolatry, which is a BIG SIN. I even cringe at bit at some Hollywood portrayals, no matter how reverently done. Here's a true story about Idolatry and Rock Stars:

I was working in a little music store in Florida, and a very nice-looking customer was testing out the drums. He was an exceptionally AWESOME drummer, and purchased a few cymbal stands during his visit. I soon became engaged in conversation with this very nice man, who wanted to teach his son drums, just as his own late Dad had taught him, many years ago. The son, however, was kind of a smart-alec, and didn't want to take drum lessons from "his old man", so in spite of the dad's awesome skill on drums, the boy really needed a structured, educational environment for his lessons.

As the conversation progressed, we began to speak about vocal lessons (my FAVORITE) and the man said that his band was planning a reunion, but his lead vocalist had lost some of his vocal prowess due to age (and probably other things), so I taught the man some breathing exercises and suggested he share them with "Robert" the lead singer. After further conversation, I realized that the person I was chatting with was the son of the deceased drummer for Led Zeppelin, and "Robert" was Robert Plant. And I DID NOT reveal my conclusions! I just smiled and kept talking! :-)

Now, you may wonder, what does that have to do with today's Bible Study? An old SNL Skit shows "Wayne and Garth" meeting a member of Aerosmith in a chance encounter. When they realize who they are talking to, they both assume an attitude of "worship" and chant "WE'RE NOT WORTHY!" over and over. It was funny at the time, but shows a very dangerous tendency of us humans to worship idols.

The idols do not have to be made of stone, gold, or even "nature". They can be movie stars, rock musicians, politicians, or even family members. But these people are just humans like ourselves, with family issues, sins, and perhaps some talent. But that is all they are.

We Worship a Holy God. His Glory is Not Shared with anything else. He Alone deserves our worship. And, yes, to quote Wayne and Garth, we are NOT "worthy". But The Holy One reaches to Us, just as we are, and draws us to HIM, the Holy One of Israel.

Looking Back at Yesterday's Post, I realize that the Overture was interpreted with a slower tempo than indicated. I apologize for that. Handel did not compose the Messiah as a dirge, in fact, most of the songs and choruses in the Oratorio are in dance tempi. Yes, you read that right. Remember, this was not composed for Church. Come to think of it, Church Music shouldn't be "dirgy" either, but that is a whole other debate.

So now, after the too-slow Overture and the plaintive Voice Crying in the Wilderness, we are treated to THIS ! You can almost stomp your feet to it. It makes me want to dance even with a sore knee.

This is not a musical analysis of Handel's "Messiah". We have members on this site who can do a MUCH better job of that than I can. Rather, we are reading the Scriptures in the sequence that was laid out by Charles Jennens, to be set to music by George Frederick Handel.

Mr. Jennens was not particularly pleased with the result. As a matter of fact, he penned this note to a friend of his:

"I shall show you a collection I gave to Handel, call'd "Messiah", which I value highly, & he has made a fine entertainment of it, tho' not near so good as he might & ought to have done."

(YIKES! Now I don't feel so bad when folks criticize my religious music!)

Of course, nearly EVERYBODY remembers at least SOMETHING from Handel's "Messiah", but how many people have heard of Charles Jennens? And the strength of the Libretto is NOT from Mr. Jennens himself, but from the Holy Scriptures. Perhaps that is why Mr. Jennens was a wee bit disgruntled by Handel's use of popular dance beats for his settings of Scripture.

The "Messiah's" use of Isaiah 40 Continues with a Magnificent Choral Work based on ONE LINE of Scripture. The Voices of the Choir weave in and out of each other and hammer home the verse. This is a favorite of (well-trained) church choirs around Christmas Time. It is remarkable how much music can be launched by this one statement!

Come and Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.

For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. (Mark 4:22)

God Bless America.

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.

Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS

Adding my prayers. God bless.

(Is it my computer or FR is very very slow to open or post?)

It’s FR.

What a struggle it was posting the thread this morning!

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Thank You, Etabeta, For Your Prayers For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.

For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. (Mark 4:22)

God Bless America.

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.

Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS

Fonts, Headlines, embedded links, images, and my own antiquated HTML coding.

Then the S-L-O-W Response when posting!

EEK

Amen

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Thank You, redryder_90, For Your Prayers For the Peace of Jerusalem, For Our FRiends in Need, For Persecuted Believers, and For Our Beloved Nation.

For whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open. (Mark 4:22)

God Bless America.

Blessings To All Who Visit This Garden of Prayer.

Hallelujah and Amen

ML/LTOS

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem🇮🇱 (11/5/26)[Prayer]

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem

Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem