The 10 Saddest Songs EVER.

Everybody likes a good sad song right? Here's 10 of my favorite sad songs:

1. The Dance by Garth Brooks
2. Nothing Compares to You by Sinead O'Connor
3. He Stopped Loving Her Today by George Jones
4. Carrickfergus (old Irish folk song)
5. Everybody Hurts by REM
6. Neon Moon by Brooks and Dunn
7. I'm Just A Ghost in This House by Shenandoah (also a compelling version by Alison Krauss)
8. Crying by K.D. Lang (Roy Orbison first, but Lang's is more compelling)
9. Blue Bayou by Linda Rondstat
10. Blue by LeAnn Rimes

But here's one more really sad song. It's from Isaiah 5, and it's a lament by God about his broken relationship with Israel and Judah. He uses the symbol of a vineyard and sour grapes to convey his sorrow.

The Song of the Vineyard

¹ I will sing for the one I love
a song about his vineyard:
My loved one had a vineyard
on a fertile hillside.

² He dug it up and cleared it of stones
and planted it with the choicest vines.
He built a watchtower in it
and cut out a winepress as well.
Then he looked for a crop of good grapes,
but it yielded only bad fruit.

³ "Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah,
judge between me and my vineyard.

⁴ What more could have been done for my vineyard
than I have done for it?
When I looked for good grapes,
why did it yield only bad?

⁵ Now I will tell you
what I am going to do to my vineyard:
I will take away its hedge,
and it will be destroyed;
I will break down its wall,
and it will be trampled.

⁶ I will make it a wasteland,
neither pruned nor cultivated,
and briers and thorns will grow there.
I will command the clouds
not to rain on it."

⁷ The vineyard of the LORD Almighty
is the house of Israel,
and the men of Judah
are the garden of his delight.
And he looked for justice, but saw bloodshed;
for righteousness, but heard cries of distress.

A Couple quick thoughts:

1. God owns the vineyard, it's his to do with as he wishes. "The earth is the LORD's and everything therein." We also are his, to do with as he pleases.

2. God made the investment in the vineyard. He prepared it, planted it, protected it, and planned for a great harvest. He did everything necessary for good grapes. He's done the same for us. He's given us everything we need in order to bear good fruit for him.

3. God's expectations are pretty simple. He desires JUSTICE and RIGHTEOUSNESS. Don't overcomplicate things.

The Endless Pursuit of MORE Will One Day End

From Amos 8:

“The end [1] has come upon my people Israel;
I will never again pass by them.
3 The songs of the temple [2] shall become wailings [3] in that day,”
declares the Lord God.
“So many dead bodies!”
“They are thrown everywhere!”
“Silence!”

4 Hear this, you who trample on the needy
and bring the poor of the land to an end,
5 saying, “When will the new moon be over,
that we may sell grain?
And the Sabbath,
that we may offer wheat for sale,
that we may make the ephah small and the shekel [4] great
and deal deceitfully with false balances,
6 that we may buy the poor for silver
and the needy for a pair of sandals
and sell the chaff of the wheat?”

The end came for Israel in part because of their obsession with accumulating wealth. We were created by God to STEWARD his creation. This doesn't eliminate the possibility of ACCUMULATING his creation, but we should be warned that accumulation is NOT OUR PRIMARY DIRECTIVE. As with Israel, I think we have all experienced that the pursuit of wealth can alter our sensibilities and lead us to abuse what God has given to us as a blessing. Notice they abused:

1. Other people -- trampling others in order to gather their own wealth

2. Their faith -- religious gatherings had become a mildly inconvenient interruption to the their week of wealth creation.

3. Justice -- the desire for MORE drove them outside God's law AND man's law as they engaged in nefarious business practices.

Greed can be a nasty monster. The more often you feed it, the more likely it will eventually consume you.

The Powerful Words of a Man Who Recently Gave His Life to Jesus

"It felt like a 100 pond weight lifted off my shoulders."

A List I Wish Would Have Been At My Disposal Not Too Long Ago

*from the archives: November, 2009

Perhaps I am overly optimistic, or have a "pie-in-the-sky" outlook when it comes to the degree of authority the Bible should have in our lives.

However, I do believe the Bible should be the primary authority for all believers in matters of life and faith. Whatever we are doing or not doing, the Bible should be governing us.

I realize this approach makes me appear a bit simple and naive, but in the words of someone, "it is what it is."

So...

Here's five questions I think everyone should answer when attempting to resolve conflict or when discussing concerns they might have about someone or something (family, friends, job, church, etc.).

1. Is this about Christ?
2. Does the Bible speak clearly and specifically about this?
3. Does a clear and specific Biblical principle apply to this?
4. Do any Biblical passages or principles apply here?
5. Do you believe you are acting in clear obedience to God on this issue?

Honestly, if you find yourself in conflict with someone, and you can't answer "yes" (and immediately articulate why) to any of these questions, I would suggest you may be in the wrong for this conflict. The other person may also be wrong, but your inability to answer "yes" to any of these questions probably indicates you are holding on to something you shouldn't be holding on to.

Like Forest Gump, "That's all I have to say about that."

Can You Justify Your Actions?

from the archives: September 2006

thinking a bit about justification...to be proved or acknowledged right, to be acquitted, to be vindicated, to be made right.

sometimes we try to justify ourselves.

"i did not... with that woman, Miss Lewinsky..." (G-rated blog)

it rarely works out. seems like when it comes to defending ourselves, we have very little credibility because we have a vested interest.

sometimes we turn to others to justify ourselves.

"if it does not fit, you must acquit."

this is often slightly more effective, but the level of justification another can give us is directly tied to the credibility of that person. so if the person attempting to justify you has no credibility, tough cookies.

fortunately, our true justification is from God through Christ. fortunately, his credibility is sufficient to ensure that we are truly justified. as i think about this idea (brought on by my on-going study in titus), a few "truths" come to mind:

1) for me to be justified, i must first be accused of something.
2) i am accused of being a sinner. how do i answer? i think those who would argue for the "goodness" of man would struggle with this one. can i plead not-guilty to the charge of being a sinner, just because i occasionally do things with good intentions? even the worst of criminals buys his mother flowers on mother day, does that get him off the hook?
3) as long as i seek to justify myself, i get in the way of God's justification.
4) i really like the idea of being "vindicated" by God. if God chooses to not accuse me, why should i worry when others do?