Sunrise, Sunset!

How slowly and quietly the Lord does great things such as a sunset! When the Lord puts on a Light Show we ought to stop and 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 and power of the Lord!

We should pay attention when He does things! He's usually doing them for our benefit, so we ought to show a little appreciation and thanksgiving and praise; otherwise He's like an actor with no audience!

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.

It's so beautiful to be able to see the artwork of the Lord in spite of all the pollution and confusion! People ought to stop and 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 and admire it! They ought to stop and watch His beautiful sunsets and 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 and worship the Lord, Honey. Come and sit over here so you can see what's going on!

Look at that, isn't that pretty? I love to sit here and watch the sunset! How does that song go?

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, and most church meetings were held either in the morning or after sunset.

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!

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, and I see them through the shadows...the lights of Home. They are calling, sweetly calling, they are calling me to come, and I see them through the shadows and I see the lights of Home!"

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!

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 and less all the time, and 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 and set everything straight!--Mal.4:2. PTL! Thank You Lord!

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 and drives away the dark! Praise the Lord!

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 and listen to that, it's such a beautiful song! It's so beautiful it used to make me cry.

It's funny how sometimes you cry just because things are so wonderful and 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 and 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.

"There's gotta be another morning," thank the Lord! After the sunset and 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.

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 and 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 and birdlings at early morn, from getting up at the dawn. Nobody does that any more except the farmers!--And me!

I wonder why old people sleep so little and wake up so early? I guess we're beginning to appreciate time and 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.

I think maybe the Lord wants us to spend more time alone preparing to leave this Earth and go to Heaven!--More time and communion with Him thinking about our lives and taking account of what we accomplished, thinking and praying a good deal about if we are doing our best for the Lord, and praying about what we could do more.

We watch the sunset and we think of the sunset of our life, and we watch the dawn and 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 and wonder if we have done all we can do, and if He'll say, "Well done, dear son!"

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!

No more sunsets, only sunrise!--For us in Heaven! Only when we come to Earth, down to Earth. Every now and 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.

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 and listen to music! There's hardly ever any good music on, so it's pretty hard to sit down and listen to good music unless you've got a tape. I never even have time.

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 and devils! You can't even understand the words--thank God! Even modern classical music is horrible. Modern dance and ballet is all jiggity jig-jig! The music is ugly, the dance is ugly, the art is ugly, Man is ugly and life is ugly for most people that live in the horrible ugly cities.

It's so wonderful to view God's beautiful Creation! It gives you such a wonderful feeling of serenity and peace and calm and power of the Lord and harmony and beauty of His Creation, to know that God still lives and still controls things!

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 and his tall towers for his own glory and 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 and butterflies!--Very little at least.

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 and they pretend and they imitate, they really are cute. Nearly all God's animals are cute and funny, but none of them seem to play and have as much fun as kittens. Look at the variety of different trees and animals and things the Lord made, and yet they don't give Him credit for even one! How absolutely sick God must be of Man who lives and enjoys all His marvellous Creation and doesn't give Him credit for one single blade of grass!

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?

Most cities are horrible, terrible, foul, smokey and polluted, but we have to live in the cities in order to go into the garbage cans to find a few pearls and 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 and into their souls!

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 and 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 and we want to rush things up and 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.

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 and think and 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 and things and 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.

In some ways it's kind of a sad time because you're alone and everybody else is asleep. You're all by yourself and you have to face the day and face the Lord alone. But it really helps get your priorities straight and realise what's important and 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:

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 and family, and my second wife and family. So I've been doubly blessed! Praise the Lord! TTL!

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 and low." Do you remember the rest of it?

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 and I sure notice that. It gives you more time to think and pray.

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 and quiet of the sunsets and sunrises, even the sounds of the night creatures. At least you know that's something God made and not some horrible Man-created sound of the city.

My goodness, we've lain here a whole hour mooning about the sunset and 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, and the quietness where you can hear the Voice of the Lord so clearly.

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 and these beautiful sunrises and 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 and as gracefully and 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.

"Their line has gone out into all of the Earth, and 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 and the Sun, stars and Moon. His creations, praise the Lord! "The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth His handiwork! Day unto day uttereth speech, and 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.

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 and sunsets!

My name is James Arendt. I was raised in the Hegewisch neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, served in the USAF from 1970 to 1974, and became a full-time missionary for Christ living 40 years in Japan, 3.5 years in Russia, and a few months in other countries such as Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, South Korea, Taiwan and mainland China where I also served the King of Kings, Jesus, as an Ambassador for His Kingdom. My full bio.

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