Extemporaneous musings, occasionally poetic, about life in its richly varied dimensions, especially as relates to history, theology, law, literature, science, by one who is an attorney, ordained minister, historian, writer, and African American.
Sunday, April 14, 2019
PALM SUNDAY
PALM SUNDAY 1993 AND ME
No heavy burden can be borne alone. Help is needed to bear heavy burdens. Help must come from someone, help must come from something . Burdens are burdensome. They hurt, strain, threaten life, health and strength.
I yielded my burdens to the Lord Jesus Christ on Palm Sunday 1993 at Allen Chapel AME Church in Kansas City, Missouri. Pastor Alvin L. Smith was reading the invitation from the 139th. "Oh Lord! Thou has searched me and known me." I felt something twitching. He carried on. "Thou knowest my down sitting and my uprising. Thou understand my thoughts far off. ...thou art acquainted with all of my ways."
Lord have mercy! The next thing that I knew I was walking--no I was floating--down the aisle towards the altar, scarcely hearing anything but my heart beat; breathing bated breaths. I accepted the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as my personal savior! And what a relief it was to share my burdens with the Lord!
It was good that I did it when I did it and where I did it , for that act of attrition, defined my life ambition. It also rescued me from the perdition of ambiguity in my philosophical bearing and theological orientation.
Thank God for Jesus Christ! Thank God for the Holy Spirit! Thank God for the Holy Bible and Psalm 139!


Edit
0. O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.
0. Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off.
0. Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
0. For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O Lord, thou knowest it altogether.
0. Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
0. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.
0. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
0. If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.
0. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;
0. Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
0. If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me.
0. Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.
0. For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.
0. I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
0. My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
0. Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
0. How precious also are thy thoughts unto me, O God! how great is the sum of them!
0. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake, I am still with thee.
0. Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men.
0. For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain.
0. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee?
0. I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.
0. Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:
0. And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.