Cowboy Church #274

 Hello my friends and welcome back for another service of Cowboy Church. 

 Today's musical selection begins with Roy Rogers and Dale Evans singing In the Sweet By and By. This song came about because of a friendship between composer, Joseph Webster and poet, Dr. Sanford Fillmore Bennett. One day Webster was depressed and Dr. Bennett recognized this. Dr. Bennett asked his friend what was wrong. Webster replied, "Oh nothing. Everything will be alright by and by." These words brought up an idea in Bennett and he wrote down three verses and a chorus to this song as soon as he could. He handed it to his friend saying, “Here is your prescription, Joe.” Webster loved the lyrics and wrote music for them in practically no time at all. Dr. Bennett later said, “It was not over thirty minutes from the time I took my pen to write the words before two friends with Webster and myself were singing the hymn.” The hymn was first published in 1868 and went on to great fame since. This version of the song comes from Roy and Dale's 1973 gospel album, In the Sweet By and By.

This is followed by Roy Drusky with Farther Along.

Afterwards is The Masters Family with their 1951 recording of I'll Be Going to Heaven Sometime. 

Then comes The Sons of the Pioneers with their 1937 recording of Lord You Made the Cowboy Happy. This song should remind us of how blessed we truly are. It is the things we take for granted each day that are our greatest blessings. Sometimes we need to stop and simply thank God for these blessings. The narrator of this song is not thankful for any big event in his life, but rather for all the little blessing he receives every day.

Afterwards is Johnny Cash with his version of the old Carter family song, Troublesome Waters. This recording comes from John's 1964 album, I Walk the Line. John certainly went through troublesome waters in his life. At one time they simply became too much for him to handle on his own. John spoke about this time stating, "It just felt like I was at the end of my line. I was down there by myself and I got to feelin' that I'd taken so many pills that I'd done it, that I was gonna blow up or something. I hadn't eaten in days, I hadn't slept in days, and my mind wasn't working too good anyway. I couldn't stand myself anymore. I wanted to get away from me. And if that meant dyin', then okay, I'm ready. I just had to get away from myself. I couldn't stand it anymore and I didn't think there was any other way. I took a flashlight with me and I said, I'm goin' to walk and crawl and climb into this cave until the light goes out, and then I'm gonna lie down. So I crawled in there with a flashlight until it burned out and I lay down to die. I was a mile in that cave. At least a mile. But I felt this great comforting presence sayin', 'No you're not dyin'.' I got things for you to do. So I got up, found my way out. Cliffs, ledges, drop-offs. I don't know how I got out, 'cept God got me out." After this experience, he knew that he had to repent from his many sins and rededicate his life to the Lord. (quote from The Man Called Cash by Steve Turner). 

Now for Charlie Rich with Just a Closer Walk with Thee. This old hymn's origin remains a mystery with no one knowing exactly how old it is. However it is believed that this song must date back before the Civil War, because some personal histories have stated that there were “slaves singing as they worked in the fields a song about walking by the Lord’s side.” If this is true it shows the power of God and music as they could sing praise to the Lord even when being oppressed as part of one of the greatest injustices of American history. There is however a song published in 1885 called Closer Walk With Thee which had a very similar chorus. Just a Closer Walk's popularity grew in the 1930's with it being sung at several churches. The arrangement we know today was done by Kenneth Morris in 1940. The following is from Horace Clarence Boyer's book, How Sweet the Sound, “While traveling between Kansas City and Chicago in 1940, songwriter Kenneth Morris got off the train to stretch his legs. While standing on the platform, he overheard a porter singing some of the words to 'Just a Closer Walk with Thee'. Not thinking much about it, Morris boarded the train and went on his way. The words and melody of the song kept repeating in his head and he knew he had to learn the rest of it. At the next stop, Morris got off the train and took the next train back to the previous stop. There he managed to find the porter and Morris persuaded him to sing the song while he copied down the words. Morris soon added to the lyrics and published it in 1940.”  (Quotes from https://dianaleaghmatthews.com/just-a-little-talk-with-jesus/#.Yu_SUPjMK3A)

Today's musical selection ends with Gene Autry with The Bible on the Table and the Flag Upon the Wall. This version of the song comes from an episode of Gene Autry's Melody Ranch radio show that aired March 5, 1949. After Walter Winchell showed his support for Gene's radio show, Gene wrote a note of thanks to Winchell. "I want you to know I appreciate everything you give me. Of course the radio show, I'm doing is not a sophisticated program and probably a lot of the kids in the city won't enjoy it, but the thing I am trying to do more than anything else is to keep the program down to earth, and especially so the kids will like it. I want to concentrate on trying to point out the value of Americanism and what America should mean to everyone these days when there is so much communism and other isms going so strong in this country. I feel we cannot go to strong on preaching this to the people and I think the best way to do this is playing particularly to the kids and teaching them Americanism while they are young." (Quote from Public Cowboy no.1: The Life and Times of Gene Autry by Holly George-Warren)

Now for the 18th episode of the Lone Ranger TV show. 

Now for a sermon from the Reverand Martin Luther King Jr.

Psalm 78

A maskil of Asaph.

1 My people, hear my teaching;

    listen to the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth with a parable;

    I will utter hidden things, things from of old—

3 things we have heard and known,

    things our ancestors have told us.

4 We will not hide them from their descendants;

    we will tell the next generation

the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord,

    his power, and the wonders he has done.

5 He decreed statutes for Jacob

    and established the law in Israel,

which he commanded our ancestors

    to teach their children,

6 so the next generation would know them,

    even the children yet to be born,

    and they in turn would tell their children.

7 Then they would put their trust in God

    and would not forget his deeds

    but would keep his commands.

8 They would not be like their ancestors—

    a stubborn and rebellious generation,

whose hearts were not loyal to God,

    whose spirits were not faithful to him.

9 The men of Ephraim, though armed with bows,

    turned back on the day of battle;

10 they did not keep God’s covenant

    and refused to live by his law.

11 They forgot what he had done,

    the wonders he had shown them.

12 He did miracles in the sight of their ancestors

    in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.

13 He divided the sea and led them through;

    he made the water stand up like a wall.

14 He guided them with the cloud by day

    and with light from the fire all night.

15 He split the rocks in the wilderness

    and gave them water as abundant as the seas;

16 he brought streams out of a rocky crag

    and made water flow down like rivers.

17 But they continued to sin against him,

    rebelling in the wilderness against the Most High.

18 They willfully put God to the test

    by demanding the food they craved.

19 They spoke against God;

    they said, “Can God really

    spread a table in the wilderness?

20 True, he struck the rock,

    and water gushed out,

    streams flowed abundantly,

but can he also give us bread?

    Can he supply meat for his people?”

21 When the Lord heard them, he was furious;

    his fire broke out against Jacob,

    and his wrath rose against Israel,

22 for they did not believe in God

    or trust in his deliverance.

23 Yet he gave a command to the skies above

    and opened the doors of the heavens;

24 he rained down manna for the people to eat,

    he gave them the grain of heaven.

25 Human beings ate the bread of angels;

    he sent them all the food they could eat.

26 He let loose the east wind from the heavens

    and by his power made the south wind blow.

27 He rained meat down on them like dust,

    birds like sand on the seashore.

28 He made them come down inside their camp,

    all around their tents.

29 They ate till they were gorged—

    he had given them what they craved.

30 But before they turned from what they craved,

    even while the food was still in their mouths,

31 God’s anger rose against them;

    he put to death the sturdiest among them,

    cutting down the young men of Israel.

32 In spite of all this, they kept on sinning;

    in spite of his wonders, they did not believe.

33 So he ended their days in futility

    and their years in terror.

34 Whenever God slew them, they would seek him;

    they eagerly turned to him again.

35 They remembered that God was their Rock,

    that God Most High was their Redeemer.

36 But then they would flatter him with their mouths,

    lying to him with their tongues;

37 their hearts were not loyal to him,

    they were not faithful to his covenant.

38 Yet he was merciful;

    he forgave their iniquities

    and did not destroy them.

Time after time he restrained his anger

    and did not stir up his full wrath.

39 He remembered that they were but flesh,

    a passing breeze that does not return.

40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness

    and grieved him in the wasteland!

41 Again and again they put God to the test;

    they vexed the Holy One of Israel.

42 They did not remember his power—

    the day he redeemed them from the oppressor,

43 the day he displayed his signs in Egypt,

    his wonders in the region of Zoan.

44 He turned their river into blood;

    they could not drink from their streams.

45 He sent swarms of flies that devoured them,

    and frogs that devastated them.

46 He gave their crops to the grasshopper,

    their produce to the locust.

47 He destroyed their vines with hail

    and their sycamore-figs with sleet.

48 He gave over their cattle to the hail,

    their livestock to bolts of lightning.

49 He unleashed against them his hot anger,

    his wrath, indignation and hostility—

    a band of destroying angels.

50 He prepared a path for his anger;

    he did not spare them from death

    but gave them over to the plague.

51 He struck down all the firstborn of Egypt,

    the firstfruits of manhood in the tents of Ham.

52 But he brought his people out like a flock;

    he led them like sheep through the wilderness.

53 He guided them safely, so they were unafraid;

    but the sea engulfed their enemies.

54 And so he brought them to the border of his holy land,

    to the hill country his right hand had taken.

55 He drove out nations before them

    and allotted their lands to them as an inheritance;

    he settled the tribes of Israel in their homes.

56 But they put God to the test

    and rebelled against the Most High;

    they did not keep his statutes.

57 Like their ancestors they were disloyal and faithless,

    as unreliable as a faulty bow.

58 They angered him with their high places;

    they aroused his jealousy with their idols.

59 When God heard them, he was furious;

    he rejected Israel completely.

60 He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,

    the tent he had set up among humans.

61 He sent the ark of his might into captivity,

    his splendor into the hands of the enemy.

62 He gave his people over to the sword;

    he was furious with his inheritance.

63 Fire consumed their young men,

    and their young women had no wedding songs;

64 their priests were put to the sword,

    and their widows could not weep.

65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,

    as a warrior wakes from the stupor of wine.

66 He beat back his enemies;

    he put them to everlasting shame.

67 Then he rejected the tents of Joseph,

    he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim;

68 but he chose the tribe of Judah,

    Mount Zion, which he loved.

69 He built his sanctuary like the heights,

    like the earth that he established forever.

70 He chose David his servant

    and took him from the sheep pens;

71 from tending the sheep he brought him

    to be the shepherd of his people Jacob,

    of Israel his inheritance.

72 And David shepherded them with integrity of heart;

    with skillful hands he led them.

Thank you for joining me. Come back next week for another service of Cowboy Church. Happy trails to you until we meet again.