142. Rock Goes The Gospel - Queen "One Vision"

"One Vision" was written by Roger Taylor and first released as a single in November 1985 and then included on their 1986 album A Kind of Magic. Taylor's inspiration for the song came from Martin Luther King's "I had a dream" speech. It is also said that Queen was inspired to write this by their Live Aid appearance in 1985 - millions of people sharing one vision of a better world. this is exactly what Martin Luther King believed in.

One man, one goal,
One mission.
One heart, one soul,
Just one solution.
One flash of light, yeah,
One god, one vision.

One flesh, one bone,
One true religion.
One voice, one hope,
One real decision.
Wowowowo, gimme one vision, yeah.

No wrong, no right.
I'm gonna tell you there's no black and no white.
No blood, no stain.
All we need is one worldwide vision.

One flesh, one bone,
One true religion.
One voice, one hope,
One real decision.
Wowowowowo, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, oh, yeah!

I had a dream when I was young,
A dream of sweet illusion,
A glimpse of hope and unity,
And visions of one sweet union.

But a cold wind blows,
And a dark rain falls,
And in my heart it shows.
Look what they've done to my dream, yeah.

One vision!

So give me your hands,
Give me your hearts.
I'm ready.
There's only one direction.
One world, one nation,
Yeah, one vision.

No hate, no fight,
Just excitation,
All through the night,
It's a celebration, wowowowo, yeah.

One [echo]

(One vision)

One flesh, one bone,
One true religion.
One voice, one hope,
One real decision.

Gimme one night, yeah.
Gimme one hope, hey.
Just gimme, ah.
One man, one man,
One bar, one night,
One day, hey, hey.
Just gimme gimme, gimme, gimme
Fried chicken.
Vision [fading]

In the Bruce Willis movie The Sixth Sense. There is a startling ending that forces you to go back and re-interpret everything you have seen before. (The shock is that Bruce Willis, the therapist, is really dead - a ghost - and does not know it. Sorry to give it away)

The second time you watch the movie you cannot help but interpret every statement and every encounter in terms of the ending. You can't Not think of the ending any more when you watch the beginning or the middle of the movie. the ending sheds light on everything that went before. the same is true of the scriptures. Once you know that all the lines of every story, that all the climaxes of all the Old Testament and New Testament themes converge on Christ, you simply cannot fail to see that every text is ultimately about Jesus. This is what Jesus is doing in Luke 24:36-49.

There is three part outline in Luke 24:36-49 that will help us as we read it. 1. The God of all Scripture. (Vs 44-45) 2. The Focus of all Scripture. (Vs 44) 3. The Promise of all Scripture.(Vs 46-47)

Luke reveals to us such an important fact: that knowing God's plan and gift of salvation is deeply rooted in knowing the entire story. The good news does not just reside in part two of the Bible - The New Testament. The entire story from one end to the other is about one person, one plan, one goal.

One Vision. That person is Jesus, that plan is redemption, the goal is the glory of God, the vision is restoration of all that God has created. It's a pretty simple storyline. But the truth of it transforms lives.

You can know a little of the bible and not know the story. You can know your doctrines and tick them off on the list and not know the story. You can cherry pick bible passages and miss the story completely. Jesus in Luke 24 tells the disciples "The Story of God" and it's the story of God that is important.  We get the story of God by doing what Jesus did with his disciples. To know the bible that well that we peice together the story by being familiar with what is written. A bit like a jigsaw of the whole story of God.

No use saying we believe in the bible and not reading it, not reflecting on it, not giving time to it. In my experience there is no better way to know the story of God than to read and re read the scriptures until they become a daily companion to you, They reveal Jesus. This is not wishful or fancy thinking but exactly how Jesus handles the scriptures in Luke 24. "He opens their minds so they could understand the scriptures". The scriptures that speak about him. This is the Story of God. This is the "One Vision" The big story of all time, the big story of God's redemption in Jesus.

140. Rock Goes The Gospel - The Hollies "The Air That I Breathe"

"The Air That I Breathe" is a ballad written by Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood, initially recorded by Albert Hammond on his 1972 album It Never Rains in Southern California. the song is essentially about the kind of inspiration that comes through a relationship with someone.In a 1992 interview on BBC radio, Hammond said: "When you listen to the song, you'd think this is a show stopper, and lyrically, you'd think I wrote it probably for the most beautiful woman that ever existed in the world. And in fact, The air that I breathe was written for quite an ugly person actually, I mean ugly outside, physically outside. She wasn't a great looking girl, but she was a terrific person inside. She was warm and kind and...

People never change,
They seem to stay the same.
They wear different clothes,
But play the same games.

Many different ways
To say the same thing.
Searchin for the right words,
The ones that would make you stay.

Exchanging the way things were
For the way that they should be,
Yeah.
And choosing these words
Is saying to her,
The things that she never heard
But always deserved.

I figured out what it is all about.
It's you that I could never live without.
Your everything,
The air that I breathe.
Stupid not to know it all along,
And everything I ever did was wrong.
Sadly it's too late for sorry.

Oh I'm not even really sure
Who made this mess,
And who threw what punch,
But I could not care less.
All I know is that I'm here
And you are not, Ohhh.
Once I put this wasted pride aside,
Nothin's all I got, Ohhh.

Exchanging the way things were
For the way that they should be,
Yeah.
And choosing these words
Is saying to her,
The things that she never heard
But always deserved.

I figured out what it is all about.
It's you that I could never live without.
Your everything,
The air that I breathe.
Stupid not to know it all along,
And everything I ever did was wrong.
Sadly it's too late for sorry.

Ohh,
Somebody make it stop.
Yeahh.
And pick me up,
And just dust me off, Ohh.
The rainy day flood,
Will drowned all this love.
Trapped at the bottom now,
Please dig me up.

I figured out what it is all about.
It's you that I could never live without.
Your everything,
The air that I breathe.
Stupid not to know it all along,
And everything I ever did was wrong.
Sadly it's too late for sorry.

I figured out what it is all about.
It's you that I could never live without.
Your everything,
The air that I breathe.
Stupid not to know it all along,
And everything I ever did was wrong.
Sadly it's too late for sorry.

This person was the person who gave me shelter in Los Angeles, when I didn't have any place to stay. I had no money, I had no Green Card, I couldn't work, I could have been a homeless. I sat down with Mike Hazlewood, and I said "Mike, this is what's happened to me, and this is the person." And I think Mike came up with [the line] "the air that I breathe." More than my story, it was because we lived in LA, and for the first time in our lives, we were introduced by smog. And every time we woke up, we'd look at the Hollywood Hills, and there was like a yellow monster up there. And I think that was his reason for coming up with [the line] "the air that I breathe". My reason was a love story, his was ecology or whatever you want to call it, you know. But it worked."

Essentially this song is about inspiration. So is the passage in 2 Timothy. That which is inspired is breathed out by God into being. It's God breath that is the true meaning of being inspired and the content of this mornings devotion.

When you woke up this morning, I would be willing to bet that it never occurred to you to thank God for the breath in your body. Truthfully, we take for granted the fact that our body is still functioning and jump ahead to begin worrying about the busyness of the day entertaining our problems and stressing before our feet hit the floor. Some will pull the covers over the head and hit the snooze button two, three or four more times to avoid the inevitable moment when our feet hit the floor for another day of running out of time, money and energy.

Dry bones will rattle as we try to serve God and fail miserably in human weakness. Bored with the monotony of life and bound by the false concepts of religion we live as Children of God void of the Power of God.

Where is the Holy Spirit that Jesus promised? Did He remain in the New Testament never moving into the reality of today? Or have we as believers become so puffed up with self-worth and self-importance guided by self-control that there is no dwelling place for God’s Living Spirit within the mind, soul and body of mankind? If God causes EVERYTHING to work together for the good of His People and according to His Purpose – then what’s my problem? If He knew me in advance, then why am I not living as a firstborn child? It is simple.

You are forgetting to breathe but rather holding your breath waiting for God to move. It doesn’t work that way. God’s Breath is the beginning of all natural life. It renews the blood cells that flow through your body with every intake demonstrating the restorative power of God possible in His People. It is the beginning of God’s Glorious work in your body. It represents God’s plan and purpose for your life or quite frankly you would be dead. There is more to life than your current existence but until you know and recognise the power and potential in your natural life – you will never experience the supernatural life God has promised.

God delights in you. He takes pleasure in you. God’s breath is powerful. In the greatness of your majesty, you overthrow those who rise against you. You unleash your blazing fury; it consumes them like straw. At the blast of your breath, the waters piled up! The surging waters stood straight like a wall; in the heart of the sea the deep waters became hard. (Exodus 15:7-8) Just because we cannot “see” God in everyday life does not exempt His Presence in this world and authority over the earth. His breath blows through life creating opportunities to express His Majesty so we can identify His person and live in His power. Without God – there is no life. (Job 34:14-15)

The first step to knowing the Lord and utilising His Power is to become aware of His Inhabitation of our life if even from a distance evidenced in every breath we take. Your life is not over but only beginning if you woke up this morning breathing in and out. This is what is meant by inspiration - Breathing. God breathes on his word and it comes alive. this principle is not just true for scripture but true for the whole of God's creation. Because he breaths he brings life. In the same way God invites us to inspire things. What things will you breath life on today?