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“You ain’t goin’
nowhere ... son. You ought to go back to drivin’ a truck.” These were
the “wise” words of Jim Denny, manager of the “Grand Ole Opry,” as he
fired Elvis Presley after his first performance on September 25, 1954.
How could Denny have been more wrong? The amazing popularity of Elvis
Presley, even after his death, is mind boggling. Has there ever been an
entertainer who has had such enduring popularity? Elvis has his fans
among grandmothers and teenagers, and everyone in between. He is the
“King of Rock & Roll.”
I was living in
Memphis, his hometown, at the time Elvis “died.” (Surveys show that a
sizable minority of people believe that Elvis is still around. I don’t
believe he is.) When Elvis was living, people often went to his
Graceland estate, to try to catch a glimpse of him. They also wrote
messages on the walls outside, in the hope that he would read them.
Showing my brother some of the sights around Memphis one afternoon, we
stopped at Graceland. We amused ourselves by reading the messages
written on the walls. Most professed undying love and devotion to Elvis,
or some such sentiment. There was one message that really caught my eye
however, because it was decidedly different from the others.
This unusual
message was perhaps more caring, and indicative of more real love than
the other messages. The message was short and simple. It merely said,
“Elvis, obey Acts 2:38.” I don’t know that he ever read the message. But
the universal gospel of deliverance preached by Peter and the other
apostles on Pentecost almost 2,000 years ago is a gospel message that
has no less urgency and applicability today than it did when first
given. When Peter said, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the
name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the
gift of the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:38), he really did mean it. “Every one
of you” meant every one of them, and every one of us (including Elvis).
For those who obey Acts 2:38, "Henceforth there is laid up
for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge,
shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also
that love his appearing" (2 Timothy 4:8).
I Remember Elvis
By Bob Prichard
www.oxfordchurchofchrist.com |
