Listening to a sermon today about how God uses broken people, from Judges 11:29, the words, “Then the SPIRT OF THE LORD came on Jephthah. He crossed Gilead and Manasseh, passed through Mizpah of Gilead, and from there, he advanced against the Ammonites.”
Unrelated, I recalled a song from a long time ago, Spirit in the Sky by Norman Greenbaum. The song has been interpreted in various ways. In line one, Greenbaum says, “I’ve got a friend in Jesus.” So, the thought would naturally be that it’s a song about Christianity. Not really. It was a time of counterculture, and Greenbaum was a Jew.
The beauty of the song is that it can be interpreted in many ways, including Christianity. By the way, Greenbaum once said the song had to do with his own spiritual curiosity and the gospel music he heard. In interviews, he noted that the song explored his idea of faith and the afterlife and chose “Jesus” for universal recognition within the context of American spirituality despite his personal Jewish faith.
“Spirit in the Sky” by Norman Greenbaum can indeed be interpreted as embracing Christ and the Christian faith due to the explicit references to Jesus in the lyrics.
Consider the direct mention of having “a friend in Jesus” and going “on up to the Spirit in the Sky” as an affirmation of Christian beliefs where Jesus is central to salvation and the afterlife.
That’s my view anyway. Listen and draw your own conclusions.