Hello my friends and welcome back for another service of Cowboy Church.
Today’s musical selection begins with the King of the Cowboys and The Queen of the West, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans with Jesus in the Morning. This song reminds us that we are not only to leave a small part of the day with Jesus as our focus but all day long as well as every day. We should wake up each morning with Jesus on our mind and go to bed each night the same way. While few of us will succeed with this every day, we will find that each day we do it will be an enriching day that will makes us grow as a person. This song comes from Roy and Dale’s 1973 gospel album, In the Sweet By and By.
This is followed by Johnny Cash with Jesus in My Soul. This lively song comes from John's 1979 album, A Believer Sings the Truth. This was a double length gospel album and Columbia Records felt that such an album from John could never be successful. However, Columbia allowed John to release the album on its own and it was successful earning a spot in the Country Top 50. A shorter version of the album called I Believe would be released in 1984, which would feature a select few songs from the double album, including this one. Strangely A Believer Sings the Truth would not find its way to CD until 2012.
Afterwards is Adelyne Hood and Vernon Dalhart with their 1928 recording of The Ninety and Nine.
Then comes Sons of the Pioneers with their 1937 recording of Leaning on the Everlasting Arms. This hymn began with a man named Anthony Showalter. As a fan of gospel music and an elder in a Presbyterian church, he held many "singing schools" at various churches in the south. One day he received two letters from former students who were struggling after their wives had passed. To respond to these letters, Showalter consulted scripture. He came across Deuteronomy 33:27, "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms." After reading this verse lyrics for a song chorus went through his head and he wrote down, "“Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms; Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms.” After using this in the letters to his former students he sent this chorus to his friend hymnist, Elisha Hoffman. In the letter he also wrote, “Here is the chorus for a good hymn from Deuteronomy 33:27, but I can’t come up with the verses.” Hoffman then wrote the rest of the lyrics to which Showalter put to music. The hymn was published in 1887.
Next is Chris Tomlin and Florida Georgia Line with Forever Home. This comes from Chris Tomlin's 2020 album, Chris Tomlin and Friends. This album featured the Christian singer performing various songs with popular country singers.
This is followed Cody Johnson with By Your Grace. This comes from his 2021 album, Human: The Double Album.
Next comes Kris Kristofferson and Larry Gatlin with Help Me. In 1971 Connie Smith had invited Kris Kristofferson to the Evangel Temple. Jimmie Snow (the pastor of the church) had asked Larry Gatlin, who was a member of this church and currently worker as a janitor, to come up and sing a song he wrote. That song was Help Me and it had a major effect on Kris. Kris would later say, "It was what I guess you call a religious experience. I've never had one before or since. To this day I don't know why I did it. I think Jimmy sensed I didn't know what I was doing because he asked me if I was ready to be saved and I told him I didn't know. He put his hand on my shoulder and asked me to get down on my knees. There were a number of us kneeling and I don't remember what he was saying. It was something about freedom from guilt. All I can remember is that I broke into tears. I was weeping and when it was over I felt like I had been purged. I was carrying a lot of guilt at that time. I felt I had disappointed my family, my friends, my ancestors and everybody that knew me. So, I wrote that song [Why Me Lord]." Because of the effect this song had on Kris, Kris recorded the song as a duet with Larry Gatlin on his 1972 album, Jesus Was a Capricorn. Kris later talked about this saying, "I did it because I loved the song and was so grateful for the effect it had on me. To further demonstrate my gratitude, I put it on the B-side of my single Why Me instead of one of my own, giving Larry mechanical royalties on the biggest single I ever had. Payback!" The source for these quotes is The Man Called Cash by Steve Turner.
Today's musical selection ends with Rex Allen with Prayer of a Frontier Doctor.
Now for a sermon from the reverend Martin Luther King Jr.
Now for a silent short film starring Broncho Billy Anderson, Broncho Billy's Last Hold Up (1912).
Who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. 2 Corinthians 1:4-7
Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. Colossians 3:12-14
The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. Nahum 1:7
A greedy man stirs up strife, but the one who trusts in the Lord will be enriched. Proverbs 28:25
Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for another service of Cowboy Church. Happy trails to you until we meet again.
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