Jesus Revolution

Gary Ware

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May 17, 2023

Apropos of yesterday’s post, there was still time, and then there wasn’t going to be.
Jesus Revolution had it’s final showing in Mount Gambier this afternoon, so I went along.
I’d heard generally good reports about the movie. It deals with a window of time, and in doing so has the luxury of telling the story it wants to tell without needing to blur the clarity of its message with much that happens in the (nearly 50) years since that time.

Clearly the other seven or eight viewers at the session, who I think were all in the target age-range as far as memories go, were all appreciative, so that was a vote for authenticity.

It’s not a movie that needs a cinema screen; I’m glad I saw it there though.

And, of course, it has a far more uplifting takeaway than yesterday’s movie.

There Is Still Time.. Until There Isn’t

Gary Ware

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May 16, 2023

Got my own copy of On The Beach to watch.
I don’t know why a melodrama about an isolated community waiting for inevitable oblivion to overwhelm them would be appealing to me.
No idea at all.

As the movie moves toward its conclusion there are related scenes set in front of the Melbourne Library.
(And if you don’t know, it is set in Melbourne)

I’ve reflected on the final image before, but the progression really stood out to me this time.
They don’t involve the central characters, but clearly present the broad experience they all go through.

And while the final implied message of the filmmaker is plain, the meaning of the message as it is displayed in the film is never really explored.
So many characters faced with finality, so little expression of spirituality. And this in a movie that is over sixty years old.

The message of the film seems clearly to avoid human created destruction of humanity, because that is humanity’s only hope.
Humanity is its own saviour.

And while we should care for creation and life, the message of that banner is that we are not our own Saviours.
And even if we feel like we’re in situations of being an isolated community waiting for inevitable oblivion, we’re not. There is a power that can bring life to circumstances that have no visible prospect of hope.
There Is Still Time.. And there is a hope beyond this fading world.



Wonderful Peace – Sunday Songs

Gary Ware

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May 15, 2023

Wonderful Peace, (first line: ‘Far away in the depths of my spirit tonight’) is a bit of deep dive.
It’s one of those hymns I don’t really know, but get introduced to when it’s included on a hymns album recorded by someone I like.
So among the many familiars, there’s something new.
In this case it was Don Moen’s Hymnbook album, which featured 16 selections of which I think I knew 14 and was introduced to this and He Giveth More Grace.
A number of tracks on this release have representative renditions with verses omitted here and there. This recording features one and five.

The lyrics:
1.
Far away in the depths of my spirit tonight
Rolls a melody sweeter than psalm;
In celestial-like strains it unceasingly falls
O’er my soul like an infinite calm.
Refrain.
Peace! Peace! wonderful peace,
Coming down from the Father above;
Sweep over my spirit forever, I pray,
In fathomless billows of love.
2.
What a treasure I have in this wonderful peace,
Buried deep in the heart of my soul;
So secure that no power can mine it away,
While the years of eternity roll.
Refrain.
3.
I am resting tonight in this wonderful peace,
Resting sweetly in Jesus’ control;
For I’m kept from all danger by night and by day,
And His glory is flooding my soul.
Refrain.
4.
And methinks when I rise to that City of peace,
Where the Author of peace I shall see,
That one strain of the song which the ransomed will sing,
In that heavenly kingdom shall be:
Refrain.
5.
Ah! soul, are you here without comfort or rest,
Marching down the rough pathway of time?
Make Jesus your friend ere the shadows grow dark;
Oh, accept this sweet peace so sublime.
Refrain.

Words: Warren Donald Cornell
Tune: FAR AWAY IN THE DEPTHS OF MY SPIRIT TONIGHT William Gustin Cooper

Heidelberg Catechism – Lord’s Day 20

Gary Ware

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May 14, 2023

Heidelberg Catechism – Lord’s Day 20

53.
Q. What do you believe concerning the “Holy Spirit”?
A. First, that, with the Father and the Son, he is equally eternal God; second, that God’s Spirit is also given to me, preparing me through a true faith to share in Christ and all his benefits, that he comforts me and will abide with me forever.

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