Greetings to our radio friends. This is a special gospel program in which you will hear Lester Wilson and Ronnie Avalon. We trust you'll be able to listen to the entire program. First of all, the Gospel Center Choir singing down where the living waters flow. Where is love, and may he rest in his? Somewhere the living water's flow. Praise, praise the good and good, the filled the heart of his head. Somewhere the living water's flow. Down where the living voice has given me to the soul.Down where the free of life has fallen. I am living in the life. For Jesus has the life. Down where the living voice For thee, my soul, for thee, these lifeless joys were whole. And where they be part with love? Thine is the mercy free that Christ on earth has grown. And where shall they be part with love? The Lord is saying, The great is right above, Down where the living water flows. Down where the living water flows. Down where the living water flows. Down where the living water flows. Down where the living water flows. Down where the living water flows. Down where the tree of life is gone. I am living in the light, for he has done the right. Down where the living part is gone. Down where the living part is gone. Hello everyone, this is Lester Wilson speaking and introducing Ronnie Avalon, whom you will hear in about one minute. Born to sing would be an apt description of Ronnie. He has been at one thing ever since he can remember, singing. Broadway shows in children's parts from his earliest years, soprano soloist with the famed Paulist father's choir at eleven. led parks and light opera at fourteen, concert tours both here and abroad in his late teens, and finally the Metropolitan Opera. This fast-moving career also included a tour of duty in some of the most grueling campaigns on the Western European front. While at the height of his career on Broadway and the Metropolitan, Ronnie made the astonishing discovery that fame, wealth, and worldly success did not bring peace of mind. It took a head-on encounter with a burly member of the New York City Police to show him the only way to real peace and lasting happiness. In that policeman's home, Ronnie Nelson received Christ as his Savior. The miracle of Second Corinthians five, seventeen became a thrilling reality in his life. Old things passed away and all things became new. New life, new power, new purpose, new relationships, and a new career resulted. Ronnie Avalon became a force for God. Now Ronnie sings, his eye is on the sparrow. Why should I feel discouraged? Why should the shadows come? Why should my heart and long for heaven and home. When Jesus is my culture, my constant strength is He. His eyes are the Pharaoh. His eyes on the watches me. I sing because I'm happy. I sing because I'm free. Shut his eyes on the sparrow. And I know Oh, oh, oh. Whenever I am tempted, whenever clouds arise, when song displays to shine, when hope within I drew the closure to him. From there he set me free. His eyes are the best. is on the sparrow, and I know he cares for me. I sing because I'm happy, pray for his eyes and the sorrow. And I know Ronnie had just sung, I sing because I'm happy, I sing because I'm free. What a difference there is between the songs of Zion that flow from a redeemed heart and other songs that do not have Christ as their theme and have little true meaning and are often sung by a heavy heart. Why, in nineteen fifteen, a British actor named George Powell wrote a ditty that made him famous. And his brother Felix composed the music that made the song popular in World War I. Smile, smile, smile. Twenty-seven years later, in February, nineteen forty-two, Felix Powell went to a recreation center, sat down at the piano, and strummed the words of that song. Watch the use of worrying. Smile, smile, smile. And shortly afterwards, he went to another room where he could be alone and shot himself dead. Our sympathy goes out to anyone so overcome with sorrow, even while singing to himself. Pack up your troubles in your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile. Whether it was the strain of war, poor health, or other losses that overwhelmed him, we do not know. One thing we do know, music may bring temporary charms and transient happiness, but you cannot so easily pack the troubles of life into a kit bag. Christ alone is the answer to all the hunger and heaviness of the human heart, and the answer to all your troubles as well. For he says, casting all your care upon him for he cared for you. Now Ronnie is going to sing again, and this time Mrs. Avalon joins him in singing, I discovered the way of gladness. Mankind is learning every day and who has done something new. But I have found the living way, the path of pleasure true. I've discovered the way. I've discovered the way of joy I've discovered beliefs of sadness I believe the living word of your head in the world is the glory when I come to Jesus I've discovered the way of grandeur. I've discovered the way of grandeur and life. You are happy every one of you. I can suffer the bountiful blessings. I can recover the living wine. I can recover the living wine. That was Ronnie and Mrs. Avalon. After my message, Ronnie will sing the Holy City. In Isaiah sixty-one three, we read these words, To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. In this verse the prophet, in poetic words, gives us a foregleam of the Lord Jesus, the man of sorrows, presenting himself as the transformer of sorrow into joy, for those plunged into deep grief and defeat. He not only banishes the dark things of life but produces opposite blessings. Notice those words to give unto them beauty for ashes. Ashes in Old Testament days were a symbol of repentance and mourning. Am I speaking to someone who is experiencing the ashes of guilt and condemnation? Your conscience is disturbed by words and deeds of the past. You feel your guilt and know that the seeds you have sown must yield their unpleasant harvest. The Lord Jesus offers you the beauty of grace for the ashes of guilt. His blood was shed to cleanse away your sin, to purge your guilt. May the beauty of his pardon be your happy possession right now. Christ also offers to you the beauty of victory for the ashes of defeat. Often in olden times, kings return from defeat in battle with ashes upon their head, who among us has not sat upon the ash heap of shameful defeat. We have made hasty decisions, plunging ourselves into perplexity, confusion, sorrow and despair. We have yielded to besetting infirmities, causing us to fall before God in deep condition of soul. We have fought hard and struggled desperately to conquer sin, only to reach the place of shameful defeat. Am I speaking to one now who is defeated and discouraged? Then listen, dear soul, Christ will give you the beauty of triumph for the ashes of defeat. Paul said what many have said since, O wretched man that I am. But he also said, Thanks be unto God who giveth us the victory. Victory can be yours through our Lord Jesus Christ. You may be more than a conqueror through him who loved you. Ashes were a symbol of grief and sorrow. You remember when Job sat on the ash heap, he could cry no more, so sat in silent sorrow. Women in old days... who had lost their treasures or all that was dear to them on earth, used to sprinkle ashes on their doorsteps, indicating that emptiness and desolation reigned within. Am I speaking to any such lonely and sorrowing ones? Then remember the Lord Jesus will give you the beauty of comfort for ashes of sorrow, not by taking away the sorrow necessarily, but by being with you in it. He gives us a source of joy, independent of external circumstances, the secret of deep unchanging joy is the consciousness of Christ's presence and the assurance of his unchanging love and strong hand and the infinite wisdom of a God who cares. The Christian may have sorrow, but he can rejoice in it, for he learns the heart of his Savior and knows also that although weeping may endure for a night, joy cometh in the morning, a morning without a cloud of grief in his sky. seeing our sorrows in the light of all things working together for our good, takes the sting out of the stab, wipes the poison from the arrow, and removes the bitterness from the cup, as one has well said, a grief accepted as the will of God is a conquered grief. Then again ashes have to do with death. They speak of human frailty. how frail man is. In a few years all that will be left of our bodies is a handful of dust and ashes. That's if the Lord does not come for those of us who are saved. When he comes the ashes of the redeemed will take on the beauty of his glory, the ashes of death replaced by resurrection and life. Is yours a desolate home? Have you been robbed of a lovely child, a strong-hearted husband, a beloved wife, a companion of a lifetime? Have those bodies you loved, embraced, and cared for gone to ashes? Do the words you heard of the graveside still linger in your memory, dust to dust, ashes to ashes? May you in your loneliness take courage and comfort, for some glad day the ashes of your loved one, if That loved one fell asleep in Christ will be touched by his mighty power and that body that once lived on earth shall be changed into the beauty and glory of his own glorious body. All who are saved, washed in the blood of Christ, will one day exchange the ashes of earth for the beauty of heaven. Mourning for melody, sadness exchange for eternal happiness. Instead of the spirit of heaviness, there will be the garment of praise. Praise unto him who made all blessings possible by his death, burial, and resurrection. Even our Lord Jesus Christ, Let me ask you, dear listener, do you know him? If not, I present him to you, O unsaved friend, as the only savior of your lost but never dying soul. I present him to you, dear babe in Christ, as the altogether lovely one who is standing ready to walk beside you through life's journey. I present him to you, O Toiler in the vineyard, as the sweet hope for your discouraged heart. I present him to you, O aged pilgrim, as the eternal springtime of incarnate love, glorious in freshness and beauty, as unchanging as eternal. I present him to you, sad and stumbling child of God, as that almighty power of God that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you, faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. I present him to you, O groping man of many thoughts. as the one in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, which can only feed your hungry soul and satisfy with fullness, with richness, with power, with beauty, your unrest. I present to all who will hear this message, Jesus Christ, the effulgence of God's glory, the fullness of the Godhead by whom the worlds were made. Only Savior, only intercessor, light of heaven, joy of earth, conqueror of death and the grave. Believe in him, receive him, love him, abide in him, learn of him, reign with him, in the holy city that Ronnie will sing about right now. Last night I lay asleep, there came a dream so fair. I stood in awe of Jerusalem, beside the temple there. I heard the children singing, and ever as I sang. We sought the voice of angels from heaven and from land. We sought the voice of angels from The blood of the blood of the blood of the blood of the blood And then he thought my dream was changed, The streets no longer rang. Wash to other glad Havana, The little children sang. The song stood out with mystery, The mourn was cold and chill, And the shadow of Hill, as the general of Prabhupada would prop up a lonely hill. Thank you, I will sing. And once again to the scene that seems in the earth there seemed to be, I saw the holy city beside the tideless sea. The light of God was on its way, against the open world. Oh, I'm the moon. that would not pass away. She was a new Jew. Deuteronomy, death would not pass away. Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy, sing for thine is all. Thank you. You have heard of little Moses and the bull rush. You have heard of fearless David and his sling. You have heard the story told of dreaming Joseph and of Jonah and the well you often sing. There are many, many others through the Bible. I should like to meet them, all I do declare. By and by the Lord will surely let us meet them, at the meeting in the end. There is going to be a meeting in the air in the sweet, sweet by and by. I am going to meet you, meet you there in that home beyond the sky. Such singing you will hear, never heard by mortal ear, It will be glorious I will declare. And God's own Son will be the leading one, At the meeting is Many saints will there be missing in that meeting. For the mourners' cry will have no place at all. There will never be a sermon preached to sinners, for the sinner had refused to heed the call. There will be no morning overrayed with loved ones. There will be no lonely nights of meeting prayer. All our burdens and our anguish will be lifted at the meeting in the end. There is going to be a meeting in the air in the sweet, sweet by and by. I am going to meet you, meet you there in that home beyond the sky. The singing you will hear, never heard by mortal ear. T'will be glory of my good declare. And God's own song will be the leading one. that the meeting in the air. And God's own son will be the leader. at the meeting in the end.