SUNRISE, SUNSET!        DO 2341--Take Time to Pay Attention to the Lord's Great Things!--Take Time with the Lord!

       1. How slowly & quietly the Lord does great things such as a sunset! When the Lord puts on a Light Show we ought to stop & look at it! We ought to pay attention!--Such as a sunset or a moonrise or a rainbow or the clouds or any of His great beautiful works of art!--A butterfly or a flower or a tree or a storm or all kinds of things that demonstrate the beauty & power of the Lord!
       2. We should pay attention when He does things! He's usually doing them for our benefit, so we ought to show a little appreciation & thanksgiving & praise; otherwise He's like an actor with no audience!
       3. All that beauty! What a beautiful sky! I wonder how many people are looking at it and enjoying it and appreciating it and thanking God for it? How many do you suppose? I wouldn't be surprised if we're the only ones.
       4. It's so beautiful to be able to see the artwork of the Lord in spite of all the pollution & confusion! People ought to stop & admire God's handiwork while He's putting on such a beautiful show! When the Lord is doing something like that, they ought to stop & admire it! They ought to stop & watch His beautiful sunsets & lovely dawns. They admire the works of art of men, but no man ever created anything that pretty! Isn't that gorgeous? PTL! TYL! You ought to sit down & worship the Lord, Honey. Come & sit over here so you can see what's going on!
       5. Look at that, isn't that pretty? I love to sit here & watch the sunset! How does that song go?

       "Day is dying in the West,
       Heaven is touching Earth with rest.
       Wait & worship while the night
       Sets her evening lamps alight
       Through all the sky.

       "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts!
       Heaven & Earth are full of Thee,
       Heaven & Earth are praising Thee,
       O Lord Most High!"

That wasn't a very popular hymn, but it was a pretty one. I never really learned all the words because we hardly ever sang it. You had to sing it at a particular time, & most church meetings were held either in the morning or after sunset.

       6. Beautiful! A cathedral in Heaven! Halls in Heaven glow with light! It looks like the streets of the Golden City! Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! Thank You Lord! Praise You Lord! Thank You Lord for Your wonderful sky shows!
       7. That glowing is almost like a glimpse of Heaven! My Mother used to love that old hymn, I can't remember the words. "Oh, the friends to me are calling...the lights of Home they are calling, sweetly calling, they are calling me to come, & I see them through the shadows...the lights of Home. They are calling, sweetly calling, they are calling me to come, & I see them through the shadows & I see the lights of Home!"
       8. It's gone now, swallowed up by the darkness, but thank the Lord, it's sure to rise again!--And sometimes the dawns are more beautiful than the sunsets! I remember when I was young there were a lot of girls named Dawn, but I guess people don't get up that early any more so they don't know how pretty the dawn is. I never heard of a girl called Sunset, though. Sundown would be a nice name!
       9. Even after the sun is gone the light hasn't left the sky. See how pretty it is! Praise the Lord! Thank You Jesus! It's kind of like the way it is with the Lord: He left this Earth, He left the Light of His Word behind to show that He still exists. But it is dying, it seems like it's getting less & less all the time, & soon comes the darkness. "Gross darkness shall cover the Earth" (Isa. 60:2), but then comes the sunrise, thank the Lord! The Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings & set everything straight!--Mal.4:2. PTL! Thank You Lord!
       10. The dawn reminds me of the way you can't always see the Lord, because I can't see the actual sun itself when it's rising, but I can sure see its effects upon the whole World, the way everything lights up with the sunshine!--Just like everything lights up with the Sunshine of God's Word & drives away the dark! Praise the Lord!
       11. Remember that old hymn, "Holy Ghost with light divine, shine into this heart of mine! Chase the shades of night away, turn my darkness into day!" Praise the Lord! Hallelujah! Thank You Lord! The Ray Conniff Singers used to sing, "There's gotta be another morning, there's gotta be another day!" I used to listen & listen to that, it's such a beautiful song! It's so beautiful it used to make me cry.
       12. It's funny how sometimes you cry just because things are so wonderful & so beautiful, you're just moved to tears! That song was touching, you could tell that the writer was going through some kind of a trial. Remember, we heard him testify that he had agoraphobia or something where he was afraid to go outdoors & he was even afraid to leave his room, a terrible exaggerated fear. They had to bring his meals to his room because he was afraid to see people or anything. It was an absolute phobia of the Devil, almost like a demonic oppression, until the Lord finally delivered him.
       13. "There's gotta be another morning," thank the Lord! After the sunset & the darkness, there's still always the promise of another day. There was another song, "Wait for the sunrise, wait for the dawn!"--Something like that.
       14. Often when I'm watching the dawn in the morning, when I'm there all alone I remember an old song my Mother used to sing. Did I ever sing it for you? I don't even know the name of it. (Sings:) "When the dawn breaks in the sky, I love you! When the birdlings wake & cry, I love you! When the swaying blades of corn whisper soft at early morn, love to me anew is born, I love you! I love you!" Of course, such a beautiful song had to be written by somebody who lived on a farm, talking about swaying blades of corn & birdlings at early morn, from getting up at the dawn. Nobody does that any more except the farmers!--And me!
       15. I wonder why old people sleep so little & wake up so early? I guess we're beginning to appreciate time & we don't want to waste any. It's no sacrifice for us to get up early in the morning, we can't sleep, ha! We old folks don't have much to do, we don't work very hard, so we sleep very little.
       16. I think maybe the Lord wants us to spend more time alone preparing to leave this Earth & go to Heaven!--More time & communion with Him thinking about our lives & taking account of what we accomplished, thinking & praying a good deal about if we are doing our best for the Lord, & praying about what we could do more.
       17. We watch the sunset & we think of the sunset of our life, & we watch the dawn & we think of the sunrise of tomorrow! Sometimes we wonder which will be our last one. Sometimes we wonder if this is the last one & wonder if we have done all we can do, & if He'll say, "Well done, dear son!"
       18. When you see the sunset you wonder if you've done what you could today. And as you see the sun rise, you wonder if you're going to do all you can tomorrow. (Sings:) "Sunrise tomorrow! Sunrise tomorrow! Sunrise in glory is waiting for me! Sunrise tomorrow! Sunrise tomorrow! Sunrise with Jesus for Eternity!" Praise the Lord! TYL! There will be no more sorrow then, thank You Lord! No more sickness or sorrow, pain or death!
       19. No more sunsets, only sunrise!--For us in Heaven! Only when we come to Earth, down to Earth. Every now & then we've got to come down to Earth. There's an old song about that. "Sunrise, Sunset!" (From "Fiddler on the Roof") I don't even remember what it was about except that day after day your children grow. I remember it was sort of a sad song.
       20. Music used to be such a part of my life, my first love besides the Lord! Now I hardly ever sing any more, I hardly even ever have time to listen to music. It's amazing these people who have time to just sit down & listen to music! There's hardly ever any good music on, so it's pretty hard to sit down & listen to good music unless you've got a tape. I never even have time.
       21. The only music I get to listen to is the Lord's music, the music of His raindrops of the Water of the Word! There used to be a little song, "I love to listen to the rhythm of the raindrops, the pretty rhythm of the raindrops!" They don't have pretty songs any more, everything is so horrible! The Devil has completely gotten control of the music world. Even new symphonic music is all crash, bang, dissonant, discord, scary! It seems like the Devil has gotten control of both music worlds, even romantic music.--In fact, there is no more romantic music, really, just crash, bang, hard rock, screaming meemies & devils! You can't even understand the words--thank God! Even modern classical music is horrible. Modern dance & ballet is all jiggity jig-jig! The music is ugly, the dance is ugly, the art is ugly, Man is ugly & life is ugly for most people that live in the horrible ugly cities.
       22. It's so wonderful to view God's beautiful Creation! It gives you such a wonderful feeling of serenity & peace & calm & power of the Lord & harmony & beauty of His Creation, to know that God still lives & still controls things!
       23. It looks like Man has gotten control of the cities, they're completely Man's horrible artificial creation! Everywhere you look in the city it's all Man, the exaltation of Man & his tall towers for his own glory & his towers of Babel. It's Babylon, confusion, noise, evil, wickedness! Man's city imitations of Heaven are actually more like Hell! My God, no wonder people in the city can hardly think about God! The city doesn't remind you of God or His Creation, His beautiful works of country art, His beautiful creatures, animals, birds & butterflies!--Very little at least.
       24. Think of all the creatures that the Lord made that the city people hardly ever get to see or hear, it's a totally foreign alien environment. I always thought kittens were the cutest animals that the Lord ever made! They're so funny! They play & they pretend & they imitate, they really are cute. Nearly all God's animals are cute & funny, but none of them seem to play & have as much fun as kittens. Look at the variety of different trees & animals & things the Lord made, & yet they don't give Him credit for even one! How absolutely sick God must be of Man who lives & enjoys all His marvellous Creation & doesn't give Him credit for one single blade of grass!
       25. I must admit that London is a beautiful city because it has so many parks, but there's very little of the beautiful Creation left in most cities. But they have just insisted on leaving greenery there in London, and they have bigger parks than I think any other city in the World! Remember? There was hardly anywhere you could go but you'd find a big park with a lot of green. Remember that big park we used to walk through every day from our little house in Downham?
       26. Most cities are horrible, terrible, foul, smokey & polluted, but we have to live in the cities in order to go into the garbage cans to find a few pearls & jewels--souls--to save them! We might not be able to get out of the city right now, but at least we'll get out when Jesus comes! We can bring His Sunshine into the city & into their souls!
       27. Look how long the sunset is, isn't that beautiful? The Lord never seems to be in a hurry about anything. How patient the Lord is! I just don't have the patience of God. I want to see it happen now & do it now! But He's willing to wait for centuries for some things! He's been waiting 6,000 years for Man! We get in a hurry & we want to rush things up & get things the way we think they ought to be in a hurry, but the Lord just lopes along, floats along, days dying in the West slowly, easily, softly, quietly. We can hardly even see any of His Creation move, everything goes so slowly.--The same way the sun comes up in the morning.
       28. I guess that's one reason the Lord lets old folks wake up so early in the morning, so they can be alone with Him & think & pray, face Him alone without all the distractions of the day, without anybody else to lean on. You just have to face God's inquiry alone, take account of yourself & things & listen to the Lord, only the Lord. Of course, the Devil tries to get his two cents in too, but thank the Lord, it seems like the Lord speaks louder when you're alone, particularly in the early morning.
       29. In some ways it's kind of a sad time because you're alone & everybody else is asleep. You're all by yourself & you have to face the day & face the Lord alone. But it really helps get your priorities straight & realise what's important & what isn't. I think it's partly the Lord preparing old folks to die, because that's something that everybody has to face, in a sense, alone with the Lord or one of His emissaries. Thank the Lord we don't really face it alone. They used to sing an old song:
       "I don't have to cross Jordan alone.
       Jesus died for my sins to atone.
       When the darkness I see,
       He'll be waiting for me.
       I don't have to cross Jordan alone!"
       30. See, you remember all those old songs for me! I'm glad you're not old, Honey. (Maria: I'm glad you're so young.) I had to have a young woman to help make my life. I feel like I lived two lives! My first wife & family, & my second wife & family. So I've been doubly blessed! Praise the Lord! TTL!
       31. Look, the day is still lingering on even as we talk! They used to sing that old song, "In the gloaming, oh my darling, when the lights are soft & low." Do you remember the rest of it?
       "Just a song at twilight when the lights are low,
       And the evening shadows softly come & go.
       Though the heart be weary, sad the day & long,
       Still to us at twilight, comes Love's old song,
       Comes Love's old sweet song!"
       32. It must have been written by some old person like me, ha!--Old sad songs. (Maria: You're not a typical old person, Honey, you're not old at all!) Well, nevertheless I am, I feel it sometimes. (Maria: Your body gets you down sometimes, but even in that respect you usually seem younger than the rest of us!) Thank the Lord I'm as well as I am, as strong as I am! I can't go up the steps quite as fast as I used to; in fact, I think that's when I notice it the most. I can't sleep as long as I used to & I sure notice that. It gives you more time to think & pray.
       33. Some of those old songs were rather sad, but they were sweetly sad. Like Shelley said, "Some of our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thought." A lot of today's music is sad, in fact all of it's sad, but it's not sweet, ha! It's horrible, like the ravings of a madman, a lunatic, the dancing of devils! I'll tell you, if you want to see Hell, just look at some of those modern Hard Rock music videos. They are Hell on Earth! Thank the Lord for the peace & quiet of the sunsets & sunrises, even the sounds of the night creatures. At least you know that's something God made & not some horrible Man-created sound of the city.
       34. My goodness, we've lain here a whole hour mooning about the sunset & sunrises! That would be a good title for this, "Sunrise, Sunset!" Well, praise the Lord, thank the Lord for the beauties of God's Creation, & the quietness where you can hear the Voice of the Lord so clearly.
       35. I think it must be a life-long habit, sunset always reminds me of supper! Praise the Lord! Amen! Thank You Lord for all of Your wonderful Creation & these beautiful sunrises & sunsets. It's good if the sunset of a life can be as beautiful as the sunsets of God's Creation! It would be wonderful if we could die as beautifully as the day.--As beautifully & as gracefully & as quietly. If I should go before the Lord comes, I hope to go like that.--Not too slowly, but slowly, quietly, gracefully, peacefully, with a few fond farewells, a few final words.
       36. "Their line has gone out into all of the Earth, & their words to the end of the World! There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard." (Psa.19:3,4)--The voice of God's Creation & the Sun, stars & Moon. His creations, praise the Lord! "The heavens declare the glory of God & the firmament sheweth His handiwork! Day unto day uttereth speech, & night unto night showeth knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard."--Psa.19:1-3. Praise the Lord for God's Creation! It all speaks to us of the Lord, amen.
       37. Just think, it takes a whole hour for the Sun to set! God never seems to be in a hurry.--And it takes another hour for it to rise. PTL! Thank You Jesus for sunrises & sunsets!

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