Dr Paul Allen

I suspect most of us have heard the 1981 song by the band Journey, “Don’t Stop Believin’.” It came into a second life around 2007, and for the last fifteen years, it has reached a level of popularity it didn’t first have. The song has a memorable tune that makes the main line, “Don’t stop believin’” (which doesn’t come till the last minute), seem so powerful. Yet if you analyze the words — as a pastor who likes classic rock might be prone to do — you find out how disappointing and thin the lyrics are. For one, “Don’t stop believing” in what? What’s the object of belief? The story behind the song is that one band member “went to the band with the iconic line ‘Don’t stop believin’; hold on to that feeling’ with the vague idea that Steve Perry [the voice] would want to sing it. Perry loved it,” reports one site, “and the band went on to improvise and jam until they had dialled in a workable version of the song.” A side note about the line “Just a city boy, born and raised in South Detroit...

English: Icon of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine ; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." ( John 15:4-5 ) As recorded in John 14 -16, many of Christ 's last words to His disciples as He was about to leave them regarded abiding. The word meno occurs 18 times in this discourse and is translated not only "abide," but also "remain," "dwell," "continue," and "be present." Let us look at what He told them about abiding while He was "yet present" ( 14:25 ) with them. First, "the Father . . . dwelleth in me" ( 14:10 ), "I am in the Father, and the Father in me" ( v. 11 ). That is, they are one and the same, inseparably abiding together, giving gre...