On Saturday, our kids were playing outside with the neighborhood kids, ages 7 to 11, and they heard horrible music with perverse lyrics on the neighbors' tablets. This stuff wasn't allowed to exist when New Daddy and I were growing up. When the kids came home and told us what they had heard, New Daddy hit the roof. He printed out the lyrics with the worst parts highlighted and was going to go back across the street and let the stepdad over there know what his stepchildren were exposing our children to. Our house was in complete chaos, and I was nervous and snapping at the kids. It was an awful afternoon.
After supper, we went to the park, and we had some time to clear the air. New Daddy changed his mind and decided instead to mail the neighbor a letter to include with the lyrics. He wrote the letter and put it in an envelope. After the park, we chatted with New Daddy's parents, and Poppy suggested broadcasting a tape from the porch! That gave New Daddy the idea to rewrite the letter and include a flash drive with a Bro. Branham message on it and ask the man to listen to it so maybe he could understand why we feel the way we do. Then, he had to decide which sermon to send.
We looked at the play history on our tablet, and "A Paradox" was one message that caught our eye. We pushed play and heard Bro. Branham quote a line from a song:
"Mel Johnson, for one, that I know is setting here. I've asked him to sing, for us, that song that I just can't get off of my mind. Constantly I'm humming it, about, "the tears come running down." I—I like that. And I think he is going to sing at the Business Men's breakfast, or somewhere, for us."
63-0801 - A Paradox
We had been looking for a song to sing on Sunday, and we like finding perhaps lesser-known songs in the Message and learning them. Bro. Branham only quoted that one line there, so I searched the Message for "Mel Johnson" and found another sermon where he quoted the complete chorus. We found a Hank Snow recording on the internet and set out to learn it.
When we found the chorus, we glanced and saw that the sermon was "Desperations", but we were concentrating on learning the song. We printed the words and the next morning, we got up, drove 2+ hours to church and sang the special "Dear Lord, Remember Me." The tape was written on the board, but we didn't notice that it was the same tape that we'd gotten the chorus from. You can imagine our shock when we heard Bro. Branham quote the verse in the message after we'd sung the whole song! What a surprise to realize that something like that could come from such a trial! That was definitely a personal paradox.
55 Those people had seen the hand of God. And that night of the communion, they took it with… in desperation, because they knowed that something was fixing to happen. And we know something is fixing to happen. And remember, the Coming of the Lord will be a sudden, secret going away. He'll come and take Her like a thief in the night. And to think that if somebody, all of a sudden, there is members of our family gone, and you're left behind! It should throw us into desperation, that, by the grace of God, we'll not be left back behind. "If there's anything I don't want… Don't, don't leave me, Lord."
56 A few days ago I was hearing Mel Johnson sing that song:
Remember me when tears are falling down, yes,
Remember me when friends are not around;
And when I cross over this river of Jordan,
When You're calling the roll, remember me.
57 And on the Lamb's Book of Life, I want my name wrote. I want Him to remember me when the roll call. And it throws me into desperation, that is, like Paul said, "After I have preached the Gospel shall I be a—a stowaway, shall I be a—a castoff?" It could happen. So it throws me into a desperate stage, desperation, to think of, after all these years of preaching, would I—could I… a place come where I could fail Him? What's the next move? What must I do next? And it throws me into a nervous stage. And what can I do? It throws me to the mountains and to the valleys. And it's hard, because, when I'm with the people, I've got to be all things to all men, that I might win some to Christ, yet with that Token always before me. See?
63-0901E Desperations
We ended up temporarily resolving the neighbor problem on Monday. The neighbors had devices out again, so I texted the children's mom that night and nicely let her know that we had a policy of our children not being around other children's devices (which we had forgotten, but are definitely reminding the kids of now!). She said she'd tell them.
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