{"id":940,"date":"2011-10-07T15:59:36","date_gmt":"2011-10-07T19:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/?p=940"},"modified":"2011-11-11T15:30:55","modified_gmt":"2011-11-11T20:30:55","slug":"memories-of-bobby-goldsboro-and-come-back-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/2011\/10\/memories-of-bobby-goldsboro-and-come-back-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Memories of Bobby Goldsboro and “Come Back Home”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I graduated from Butler High School in Huntsville, Alabama\u00a0in 1971.\u00a0 It was that year that a song came out\u00a0in an album with the same name — “Come Back Home” (shown here–released by United Artists).\u00a0 It was by Bobby Goldsboro who had already become my favorite songwriter and singer.\u00a0 He crossed over from country to soft rock to pop and all around.\u00a0 I enjoyed his style.\u00a0 But this song more than all the others got my attention.\u00a0 “Come Back Home” is a song that is a prayer asking for the Lord Jesus to return to earth– “if only for the children, come back home” says the last line of the chorus.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What is especially intriguing is that I did not become a Christian until 1974.\u00a0 Why would I listen to this kind of a song?\u00a0 I played it over and over and over.\u00a0 I think the reason was that the Spirit of God was speaking to my heart.\u00a0 I was listening to Billy Graham whenever he came on television.\u00a0 I had picked up a Bible to try to understand it.\u00a0 I was in search mode for my life.\u00a0 This was one aspect of my search.\u00a0 The song captivated me and made me think about the fact that the Bible said Jesus was still alive and that he was coming back.\u00a0 The song told me we would not make it on our own if He did not come back.<\/p>\n

I may never get to meet Bobby Goldsboro and I don’t know what he really believes about the Lord.\u00a0 But I do know I still appreciate\u00a0his music and I remember this song from time to time having downloaded it on my computer.\u00a0 Mr. Goldsboro will probably never know the influence his song had in my life.\u00a0 It is interesting that eschatology became one of my major academic interests and my Ph.D. dissertation was partly in this area.\u00a0 Goldsboro’s song may then be seen as a harbinger of things to come in more ways than one.\u00a0 Below are the words to the song:<\/p>\n

There’s a man I’ve read about
\nAnd they say he lives forever
\nWhen the world was filled with sin
\nHe came and brought the world together
\nThen he left us on our own
\nNow it’s time again for him to come back home<\/p>\n

‘Cause this world is full of hate
\nHe’s got to come before it’s too late
\n‘Cause we can’t make it on our own
\nAnd it’s time again for him to come back home<\/p>\n

Come back home
\nMake the streams flow to the valleys
\nAnd take away the clouds that hide the sun
\nCome back home
\nTeach each man to love his neighbor
\nAnd give us one more chance to right the wrong we’ve done
\nIf only for the children come back home<\/p>\n

You gave us trees
\nWe cut them down
\nYour sky of blue
\nWe’ve make it hazy
\nYour lakes and streams
\nThey’re dark and cold
\nAnd it’s time again for you to come back home<\/p>\n

‘Cause our time is running out
\nAnd the world is slowly dying
\nThe things we done have all gone wrong
\nAnd it’s time again for you to come back home<\/p>\n

Yes, it’s time again for you to come back home<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I graduated from Butler High School in Huntsville, Alabama\u00a0in 1971.\u00a0 It was that year that a song came out\u00a0in an album with the same name — “Come Back Home” (shown here–released by United Artists).\u00a0 It was by Bobby Goldsboro who had already become my favorite songwriter and singer.\u00a0 He crossed over from country to soft […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[32,25],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":969,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940\/revisions\/969"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/our-hope.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}