Singing, Music, Pumping gas

Sunday night was supposed to be “Concert under the Stars” at Somerset Bible Baptist Church, but the stars were nowhere to be seen. In fact, we haven’t seen the stars for several nights because of the constant rain. So the concert was moved inside. It was still great. Seventeen specials through the course of the night were sung by a variety of groups and individuals, nothing professional, just us regular folks.


It reminded me of church when I was growing up. Ours was a singing church. I believe that by the time I was ten years old I had at least one hundred hymns and other church songs memorized. When I got saved I knew way more music than scripture. And the hundreds of songs still alive in my memory are as precious to me as the hundreds of scriptures I have memorized.

Many times I will wake with the tune of an old hymn going through my mind. Jesus Saves, Nothing but the Blood, Amazing Grace, etc, as well as many of the forgotten hymns now long purged from the more recent prints of our hymnals. It reminded me once again how powerful an influence music has on all our lives.

We have lost more than one generation of church youth to the empty, rebellious music of the world. And from personal experience with my friends and children, it is difficult to win them away from the distractive beat of the worldly drums. Not all of it is bad, per se, but enough of it is, that it is better to infuse your home with uplifting, encouraging Christian music. How much better to get one of these tunes stuck in your head?

On another note, a co-worker went to Las Vegas on vacation recently. While there he rented a car to drive to the Grand Canyon. The car was a brand new Mustang. He was King of the Road, until the car needed to be filled with gas. When he finally found a gas station – and that can be a chore in that particular area – he realized he had no idea how to fill it up.

Here in New Jersey, state law requires that only an attendant can pump gas, so there really are people who have NEVER filled up their own vehicle, let alone a rental. So my friend approached the clerk at this very out-of-the-way filling station and admitted that he had no idea how to fill the gas tank.

Some local kids overheard the conversation between him and the clerk, who, by the way, was not going to help, and followed him out to the car to see the show. Between the sketchy instructions of the clerk and the helpful encouragement of the kids he got the pump set and ready only to discover he had no idea how to open the gas tank cover.

Everyone available looked in the car for a release, beside the door, in the glove box, in the console, etc. Several minutes later my friend was too frustrated to be embarrassed in front of the crowd of well-meaning helpers and was about to give up when another man, who had been getting quite a laugh out of the whole circus walked over and gentle pushed in against the tank cover. It snapped open immediately! And just as quickly my friend’s embarrassment returned. He filled the car with gas, got in and drove away without looking back.

His wife cheerily told him everybody was waving