“So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”*
by chuckofish
Yesterday was Bob Dylan’s 76th birthday. I hope you celebrated appropriately.
Come gather ’round people
Wherever you roam
And admit that the waters
Around you have grown
And accept it that soon
You’ll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth savin’
Then you better start swimmin’ or you’ll sink like a stone
For the times they are a-changin’Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won’t come again
And don’t speak too soon
For the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’
For the loser now will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin’Come senators, congressmen
Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside and it is ragin’
It’ll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’The line it is drawn
The curse it is cast
The slow one now
Will later be fast
As the present now
Will later be past
The order is rapidly fadin’
And the first one now will later be last
For the times they are a-changin’© 1963, 1964 by Warner Bros. Inc.; renewed 1991, 1992 by Special Rider Music
Yesterday was also Aldersgate Day which is a commemorative day celebrated by Methodists. It recalls the day in 1738 when Anglican priest John Wesley attended a group meeting in Aldersgate, London, where he received an experience of assurance of his salvation.
This was the pivotal event in Wesley’s life that ultimately led to the development of the Methodist movement in Britain and America. According to his journal, Wesley found that his enthusiastic gospel message had been rejected by his Anglican brothers. Heavy-hearted, he reluctantly attended a group meeting that evening in a Moravian chapel. It was there, while someone was reading from Martin Luther’s Preface to the Epistle to the Romans, that he felt that his heart was “strangely warmed”.
I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone, for salvation; and an assurance was given me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.
The following hymn was written by Shirley Murray to commemorate the event on the 250th anniversary in 1988.
How small a spark has lit a living fire!
how small a flame has warmed a bitter world!
how great a heart was moved to hope, to dare
and bring the faith out in the open air!
No boundary sign will stand against this faith,
no wall restrain this preaching of the Word:
the Good News travels on, it rides the road
and draws to unity the realm of God.
The single note becomes a song of praise,
the single voice grows to a swelling choir
and born in song, new stories now are sung
of freedom, chains unbound and loosened tongue.
Thank God for all who listened and believed,
who still are by the Spirit set on fire --
our hearts be warmed again, for Christ will wait
on beach, in upper room, or Aldersgate.
The Good News travels on…
*Matthew 20:16
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