'Tis The Glory Hallelujah Jubilee

Last week I woke with one phrase – and the accompanying music, but only to that one phrase – running through my mind – “…. glory hallelujah jubilee!” No, the exclamation point isn’t in the lyrics, which I finally found, When They Ring the Golden Bells by Daniel de Marbelle.

The copyright for the CD is dated 1972. While I know I’ve had it – original cover copied for the graphic above – for decades, I’m not certain when. Only when I was gifted an iPod in 2001 and put a lot of gospel music on it did I listen to music regularly as I drove to and from work – an hour each way for the next five years.

So it’s been over ten years since I’ve played this CD – and that one line surfaced. I couldn’t even hum the whole song, couldn’t remember the rest of the lyrics, but it wouldn’t leave me until I found the CD. Of course, those words weren’t in the title, but as soon as I read that title the music came back and I could search for the full lyrics.

A very good example of what goes into our mind stays there.

Much is written about nothing being erased from the internet – but it is even more truth that nothing is erased from our memory, unless it is through traumatic brain injury. With a brain tumor, I’m well aware of that! What does go into our brain will resurface, thus the Bible has specific verses about the subject.

I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me. (Psalms 101:3 KJV)

There are wicked things we may choose to read or watch. There are wicked things we may bring into our minds, that become part of our memory, that may come out when we least expect it.

The Bible has suggestions for what we should be taking in, and returning to others:

Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. (Philippians 4:8 KJV)

It’s not necessary to ask “What would Jesus do” in any given situation when we know what He did – and we learn that from reading the Bible. We are able to choose what we do, think, or say by measuring by the verse above.

Why am I thinking about this today? Because I stopped reading a book that was not written with the above in mind. It was so vile in the first chapters that I skipped to the end to see if virtue was shown, and it was not. In what I read was no violence, no cursing, but there were several actions of the following highlighted words, including a death that was the mystery to be solved:

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21 KJV)

If I take all that in, and the book does not include justice achieved, virtue exampled, or God is not praised, what have I gained? And if I speak it aloud, what is the value? Why should I have it in my memory:

Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. (Matthew 15:11 KJV)

The Bible has stories about all the works of the flesh as well as the fruits of the Spirit. From King David we know about adultery, strife, and even murder – but we also have stories of truth, faith, and repentance in one man’s life story. Saul/Paul gives us hatred, strife, and murder – balanced with lots of love and good report following his meeting with the resurrected Christ. These are in my memory, and every time I read biblical stories I learn more, and am able to apply them in my own life.

All of these thoughts as a result of one remembered line that I recalled in my sleep. What are you putting in your memory  banks?