THE MASTER'S CALL - A COWBOY/ST. PAUL STORY

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Both St. Paul and the cowboy in this song
get knocked off their horse, experience visions
involving "blinding light" or lightning,
hear their name called, and
see a vision of Christ their Savior. 
And both, of course, change their lives.
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The rest of it varies in the details.  In the song the guy had
been an "outlaw."  In Paul's storyline, he had been
guilty of running around persecuting Christians.
But they are both conversion/redemption stories.
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 It's easy to believe the cowboy ballad was inspired
 by the tale of  Paul's experience on the
road to Damascus. 
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When I was but a young man I was wild and full of fire
A youth within my teens, but full of challenge and desire
I ran away from home and left my mother and my dad
I know it grieved them so to think their only boy was bad

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I fell in with an outlaw band, their names were known quite well
How many times we robbed and plundered, I could never tell
This kind of sinful living leads only to a fall
I learned that much and more the night I heard my Master call

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One night we rustled cattle, a thousand head or so
And started them out on the trail that leads to Mexico
But a norther started blowing and lightning flashed about
I thought someone was calling me - thought I heard a shout

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Then at that moment lightning struck not twenty yards from me
And left there was a giant cross where once there was a tree
And this time I knew I heard a voice, a voice so sweet and strange
A voice that came from everywhere, a voice that called my name

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So frightened I was thinkin' of the sinful deeds I'd done
I failed to see the thousand head of cattle start to run
The cattle they stampeded and were running all around
My pony ran but stumbled and it threw me to the ground
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I felt the end was near, that death would be the price
When a mighty bolt of lightning showed the face of Jesus Christ
Then I cried oh Lord forgive me, don't let it happen now
I want to live for you alone, oh God these words I vow

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My wicked life unfolded and I thought of wasted years
When another bolt of lightning killed a hundred head of steers
And the others rushed on by me and I was left to live
The Master had a reason, life was His to take or give

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A miracle performed that night, I wasn't meant to die
The dead ones formed a barricade least six or seven high
And right behind it there was I, afraid but safe and sound
I cried and begged for mercy kneelin'  there upon the ground

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A pardon I was granted, and my sinful soul set free
No more to fear the angry waves upon life's stormy sea
Forgiven by the love of God, a love that will remain
I gave my life and soul the night the Savior called my name

I gave my life and soul the night the Savior called my name

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SPIRITUAL COMMUNION

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From THE URANTIA BOOK

Part III, 103, 4 

 

Spiritual Communion

 

 The characteristic difference between a social occasion and a

 religious gathering is that in contrast with the secular the

 religious is pervaded by the atmosphere of communion. In this

 way human association generates a feeling of fellowship with

 the divine, and this is the beginning of group worship.

 Partaking of a common meal was the earliest type of social

 communion, and so did early religions provide that some

 portion of the ceremonial sacrifice should be eaten by the

 worshipers. Even in Christianity the Lord’s Supper retains

 this mode of communion. The atmosphere of the communion

 provides a refreshing and comforting period of truce in the

 conflict of the self-seeking ego with the altruistic urge of the

 indwelling spirit Monitor. And this is the prelude to true

 worship — the practice of the presence of God which

 eventuates in the emergence of the brotherhood of man.

 

 When primitive man felt that his communion with God had

 been interrupted, he resorted to sacrifice of some kind in an

 effort to make atonement, to restore friendly relationship. The

 hunger and thirst for righteousness leads to the discovery of

 truth, and truth augments ideals, and this creates new

 problems for the individual religionists, for our ideals tend to

 grow by geometrical progression, while our ability to live up to

 them is enhanced only by arithmetical progression.

 

 The sense of guilt (not the consciousness of sin) comes either

 from interrupted spiritual communion or from the lowering of

 one’s moral ideals. Deliverance from such a predicament can

 only come through the realization that one’s highest moral 

ideals are not necessarily synonymous with the will of God.

 Man cannot hope to live up to his highest ideals, but he can be

 true to his purpose of finding God and becoming more and

 more like him.

 

 Jesus swept away all of the ceremonials of sacrifice and

 atonement. He destroyed the basis of all this fictitious guilt and

 sense of isolation in the universe by declaring that man is a

 child of God; the creature-Creator relationship was placed on

 a child-parent basis. God becomes a loving Father to his

 mortal sons and daughters. All ceremonials not a legitimate

 part of such an intimate family relationship are forever

 abrogated.

 

 God the Father deals with man his child on the basis, not of

 actual virtue or worthiness, but in recognition of the child’s

 motivation — the creature purpose and intent. The

 relationship is one of parent-child association and is actuated

 by divine love.
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