Protestantism

» pink101 - Some Lyrtics As Sung By Nina Simone

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I remember a hot summer's day more than sixty years ago. I was a boy of ten and on that day and I can now seem myself looking at a Rose of Sharon bush my grandfather had planted for my grandmother. Those memories are precious to me.
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I lived in our little cottage with my grand parents. It was at a lake resort adjacent to the camp-grounds of an affiliation of Nazarene churches in Michigan at Indian Lake just outside Kalamazoo. My grandfather was quite an enterprizing person. He drummed up business taking care of properties and running his vegetable and chicken farm. He supplied the campers with veggies, chickens, and eggs. My grandmother, bless her soul, was nearly one hundred percent blind and suffered from crippled legs. She only got around on a crutch. Her life had many deep and sad valleys. But, now she was well cared for and had a lot of happiness.
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Even so, she reminisced often and I saw tears on her wrinkled old face often. On this particular day in my memories, I heard her breaking voice as she sang sitting in her chair by the radio. These are the words of the song I was hearing for the first time in my life. They are from an African Spiritual:
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There is a balm in Gilead
to make the wounded whole
There is a balm in Gilead
to heal the sin-sick soul
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I'd like to tell you about that.

-- posted by pink101

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» pink101 - A Balm

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Balm.
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The dictionary tells us a balm is an oil or a lotion that soothes a soreness of some type.
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But, this particular balm gives a soothing that goes deep into the wounds of the human soul. It heals the person who has been broken by the sin that has made them sick.
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So often, we hear the words of some teacher telling us the story that it is our sin that has made us sick. That may be in some cases; but, I don't think that is what this song is about at all. It goes far beyond the supposed sins of the individual.
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Instead, we live in a world sick from sin and that sickness is spread around to many people. I take strong exception to the idea that the sins of the individual are what causes despair in their life.
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-- posted by pink101

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