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Saturday ! The day that Our Lord Jesus and the disciples when to the synagogue/church. It was Pope Constantine and the Catholic Church who changed it to Sunday, the day of the Sun god, in 321AD, without God’s authorization. Shabbat Shalom.
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Ballads and the Bible
“Ballads have been an important form of folk music for centuries. Many were originally written as poems and were later set to music.
Some are laments of love lost. Some are reflections on the twists and turns of life and human nature. Some are written with an intent to teach a moral lesson. And some are poetic and musical descriptions of actual historical events.
Through music and poetry, a story can be kept alive in the cultural memory of people. As the lyrics and music are repeatedly sung and heard, they are embedded in the minds of the listeners.
For example, if you are familiar with the five Great Lakes of the United States, you might know that on their bottoms lie the remains of hundreds of old shipwrecks. But how many of them could you name?
If you can name one, it will likely be the 1975 wreck of the iron ore cargo ship the Edmund Fitzgerald, in which 29 sailors lost their lives.
Why might we remember this shipwreck? Likely it is because of the folk ballad by Gordon Lightfoot, called “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.” The song was played widely in the U.S. and Canada, reaching #2 on the Billboard charts in 1976. You may still occasionally hear it on radio stations that play “golden oldies.”
When I was growing up, my family had an old vinyl LP with songs of the railroad that I used to love to listen to. Two of the songs from all those years ago that still are in my mind are “The Wreck of the Old 97” and “The Ballad of Casey Jones.”
Both are folk ballads that describe actual events. Many of you may never have heard of the events or the songs, but there was a time when the songs were quite popular. (Both were recorded by numerous artists, including Johnny Cash.)
Casey Jones died in 1900 trying to avoid a collision with a stalled freight train and save the passengers on his train. He was successful in that no passengers were killed or seriously injured, and he was the only fatality. He was touted as a hero for his sacrifice.
Southern Railway’s Train 97 accident occurred in September of 1903 as the engineer, pulling a load of U.S. mail that was behind schedule, tried to make up lost time. When the train hit the Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia, it was going much too fast. The entire train derailed and plunged into the ravine, killing or injuring those onboard.
These songs, and the events they attempted to immortalize, are quickly fading into the mists of history. So why would I bother to bring them up now? What could they have to do with anything of value to us today?
We may not often think about it, but God has used ballads to embed in the minds of His people events they experienced, as well as His power and might in providing for and saving them.
Music is a powerful communicator. Once a tune is in my mind, I can recall most of the words, even if I haven’t heard the songs for years. Something about music implants the message in our minds.
In the Bible, most of Exodus 15 is devoted to songs about the deliverance God gave Israel when they crossed the Red Sea. We have the words of both the Song of Moses and the shorter Song of Miriam, although the music itself was lost long ago.
The same can be said for the Psalms.
David was a skilled musician, and it seems most, if not all, of the Psalms were set to music. Once again, the original scores are long lost.
However, today the words of many Psalms have been once again set to music. The music may not sound like the original, but the message carries through.
In fact, each week we sing hymns as part of our worship of God. It is significant that we are singing, and it is also significant what we are singing.
When we sing hymns with words drawn from the Psalms, we are singing the Bible! If it is a familiar hymn, once the tune comes to mind, we can probably remember most, if not all, of the words. Music is powerful!
The ballads I mentioned at the beginning were written about real events and were intended to embed those events into the cultural memory of people—and they did that for many years.
Large parts of the Bible were set to music for the same reason, and we can still sing them to our Creator as part of our worship, often directly from the words of Scripture.
Over the years, some people have told me they “can’t sing” or “don’t have a good voice.” If that is how you feel, consider what we read in Psalm 100:1: “Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!” The King James Version says, “a joyful noise.” Verse 2 makes it clear the psalmist is talking about singing.
God nowhere tells us to sing only if we think we have a pleasing voice, but rather to sing joyfully to God with our hearts as part of our worship of Him.
As we do, we ought to consider the words we are singing, because, just like those of a folk ballad, they convey meaning. Reciting events of history or the works of God set to music will embed those truths into our collective consciousness as His people.
Read more in our online articles “Songs of Praise” and “What Does the Bible Say About Music?”
Kind regards, and have a great rest of your week,”
Tom Clark, for Life, Hope & Truth
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We just got power back from losing it during Hurricane Beryl!!
Lessons from A Hurricane
The most powerful and destructive storms on earth are called hurricanes, typhoons or cyclones, depending on where they occur.
On Sept. 8, 1900, a very powerful hurricane struck Galveston, Texas, on the Gulf Coast of the United States.
The storm and the storm surge that followed destroyed more than 3,500 homes. The death toll from that storm was around 8,000, making it the worst and deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history—2.5 times deadlier than the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Twenty-eight years later, on Sept. 12 and 13, the Okeechobee hurricane of 1928 plowed through the Caribbean before slamming into Florida, killing a total of 4,000 people, 2,500 of them in the U.S. In Puerto Rico alone, the storm left half a million people homeless.
In 2005, the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history hit the Mississippi and Louisiana coasts. Hurricane Katrina’s storm surge in places was 28 feet above the normal tide. In the end, Katrina was responsible for about 1,400 deaths, and caused $125 billion in damages.
To survive a hurricane or other natural disaster, it’s vital to be prepared. What should one do to be prepared? And, even more important, what spiritual lessons can you and I draw from this process?
Watch the news: Unlike a century ago, today weather satellites and radar can give warnings days in advance of the approach of a hurricane, typhoon or cyclone. Warnings go out several days before, encouraging people to prepare their properties and even evacuate if that is deemed necessary.
Over a century ago, when the Galveston hurricane struck, it is probable that so many deaths occurred because they had so little warning. By the time they knew how big the storm was, it was too late.
How many times in Scripture are we given the admonition to watch and pray (Luke 21:36) or “take heed; see, I have told you all things beforehand” (Mark 13:23) or “I have told you before it comes” (John 14:29)?
I’ve heard prophecy described as news written in advance. One of the primary purposes of prophecy is to show in advance what will happen, so God’s people can be prepared (Amos 3:7).
Just as we have news stations showing satellite images and tracking storms, so we have prophecies providing written “storm warnings” about the events that are soon to smash through the lives of people in the end time.
Are we watching the “news” of the Bible? Or will we be like the majority of mankind, who will be surprised by the storms at the end of this age (Luke 21:34)?
Stock up on emergency supplies: Emergency preparedness includes having a supply of food that doesn’t need refrigeration, as well as drinking water, protective clothing, flashlights and batteries and, if possible, fuel.
These are all items a family might need to survive until clean-up crews make it to them and normal utilities and services resume.
Jesus Christ made a similar spiritual point through the parable of the 10 virgins in Matthew 25. In this parable, righteousness and God’s Holy Spirit are likened to the oil needed as fuel for lamps in that time.
When I was a boy on the farm, we always had kerosene lamps and kept extra kerosene on hand for those times when a storm would knock out power. I did homework by kerosene lamp more than once—and we were glad to have them!
My wife and I still have some of those same old lamps—and we have spare kerosene also! Because, without oil or kerosene, your lamps are of no help in a crisis.
We are told this is the condition of the Christian who is not diligently working to repent, grow and build righteous character. A Christian must work daily to make sure his or her life is filled with and guided by God’s Spirit.
When a crisis of faith or a heavy trial comes—and we know it will—we cannot just instantly obtain righteous character out of thin air any more than a man stranded after a storm can just instantly obtain kerosene (or flashlight batteries or food or water) out of thin air.
Take action—NOW: With the benefit of advanced warning, government officials will begin urging residents to prepare for a storm, board up windows and gather needed supplies.
If a storm is expected to be severe enough, evacuation warnings and orders will go out. People living in the most vulnerable areas will be urged to get out.
Sadly, with every powerful storm, there are many people who refuse to leave their homes. With Katrina, some refused to leave until it was too late.
They thought they were strong enough or prepared enough that they could survive what was coming. In many sad cases, they were wrong.
Over the years I’ve heard brethren state they will start praying and studying more “after I retire” or “when the kids start school” or “after my business takes off and I don’t have to put so much time into it” or so forth.
Others feel they are already spiritually mature and strong enough to endure whatever life may throw at them, and they don’t need anything more. Revelation 3:17 indicates this will be a problem Christians must beware of at the end of this age.
Don’t put off prayer, Bible study and working hard to strengthen your spiritual life. Take action NOW! When the most severe crisis ever to hit mankind comes, we don’t want to be unprepared and without the spiritual resources we need to weather the storm with our faith intact!
Study this further in our online article “How to Prepare for the End Times.”
Kind regards, and have a great rest of your week,
Tom Clark, for Life, Hope & Truth
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Transcript of the video at: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-role-of-taxpayer-subsidies-in-the-obesity-epidemic/
Below is an approximation of this video’s audio content. To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video.
“Why are U.S. taxpayers giving billions to support the likes of the sugar and livestock industries?
The rise in calorie surplus sufficient to explain the obesity epidemic was less a change in food quantity than in food quality, with an explosion in cheap, high-calorie, low-quality convenience foods. And the federal government very much played a role in making this happen. U.S. taxpayers give billions in subsidies to prop up the likes of the sugar industry; the corn industry and their high-fructose syrup, (HFCS); and soybean production, about half of which is processed into vegetable oil, and the other half used as cheap feed to help make dollar-menu meat. Why do taxpayers give nearly a quarter billion dollars a year to the sorghum industry? When was the last time you sat down to some sorghum? It’s almost all fed to livestock. We’ve created a pricing structure that favors the production of sugars, oil, and animal products.
The farm bill started out as an emergency measure during the Great Depression of the 1930s to protect small farmers, but was weaponized by Big Ag into a cash cow with pork barrel politics—including said producers of cows and pork. From 1970 to 1994, global beef prices dropped more than 60 percent. If it weren’t for taxpayers sweetening the pot with billions of dollars a year, high-fructose corn syrup would cost the soda industry about 12 percent more. (And then we hand them more billions through the “food stamp” program to give sugary drinks to the poor.)
Why is chicken so cheap? After one of the farm bills, corn and soy were subsidized below the cost of production for cheap animal fodder, effectively handing the poultry and pork industry about $10 billion each. That’s not chicken feed—or rather, it is!
This is changing what we eat. Thanks in part to subsidies, dairy, meats, sweets, eggs, oils, and soda were all getting relatively cheaper compared to the overall consumer food price index as the obesity epidemic took off, whereas the relative cost of fresh fruits and vegetables doubled. This may help explain why during about the same period, the percentage of Americans getting even five servings of fruits and vegetables a day dropped from 42 percent to 26 percent. Why not just subsidize produce instead? Because that’s not where the money is.
To understand what is shaping our foodscape today, it is important to understand the significance of differential profit. Whole foods, or minimally processed foods, such as canned beans or tomato paste, are what’s referred to in the food business as “commodities.” They have such slim profit margins. Sometimes they’re even sold at or below cost as “loss leaders” to attract customers in hopes they’ll also buy the “value-added” products. Some of the most profitable for producers and vendors alike are the ultra-processed fatty/sugary/salty concoctions of artificially flavored, artificially colored, and artificially cheap ingredients thanks to taxpayer subsidies.
Different foods reap different returns. Measured in profit per square foot of supermarket selling space, confectionaries like candy bars consistently rank among the most lucrative. The markups are the only healthy thing about them. Fried snacks like potato and corn chips are also highly profitable. PepsiCo’s subsidiary Frito-Lay brags that while their products represented only about 1 percent of total supermarket sales, they may account for more than 10 percent of operating profits for supermarkets, and 40 percent of profit growth.
It’s no surprise, then, that the entire system is geared towards garbage. The rise in the calorie supply wasn’t just more food, but a different kind of food. There’s a dumb dichotomy about the drivers of the obesity epidemic: is it the sugar or is it the fat? They’re both highly subsidized, and they both took off. Along with a significant rise in refined grain products that’s difficult to quantify, the rise in obesity was accompanied by about a 20 percent increase in per capita pounds of added sugars, and a 38 percent increase in added fats.
More than half of all calories consumed by most adults in the United States were found to originate from these subsidized foods, and they appear to be worse off for it. Those eating the most had significantly higher levels of chronic disease risk factors, including elevated cholesterol, inflammation, and body weight.”
From: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-role-of-taxpayer-subsidies-in-the-obesity-epidemic/
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