I am not going into details at present, but anticipate being able to update you with an interesting development in the next few weeks. For the time being, consider this as being classified information that I’ll let out of the box below when I am ready.
As the saying goes, watch this (Blog)Spot!
With its rhythmic beat and stirring melody line, the hymn had great appeal for me when I was in elementary school. I considered it a favorite, even though I knew nothing, then, of the Captain of our salvation (Hebrews 2:10).
But there are other Christian soldiers–quite literally, soldiers (whether in the army, navy or air force)–who face the challenges of being deployed, often to regions of the globe that are remote, hostile, and fraught with challenges.
I expressed some sentiments on this matter in an earlier post, which you can review here. We should be grateful for all our military are doing!
What is it like to be a soldier far away from home? Just because you are in the military does not mean you don’t feel challenged by the rigors of travel, relocation, and living in hostile and dangerous conditions. What are the implications for the spiritual life of someone who is in the military?
When my friend, Dr. Paul Tautges, consulting editor of the Lifeline Minibook series, an imprint of Shepherd Press, floated the idea of a small publication that could minister to the military, I was immediately excited. As he worked on the idea, Barrett Craig, a deployed navy chaplain, came on the radar as the right person to write it.
Barrett, a former marine and now serving as a deployed navy chaplain, has done a remarkable job in writing the mini-book. His enthusiasm is infectious. You’ll love observing his passion as he speaks in the two-minute YouTube video here.
Because of the remarkable nature of this opportunity to reach military folks and their families, Shepherd Press is inviting churches and individuals to become partners in the publishing program. You can read all about it here. You may also view and print a PDF sheet outlining the project and providing further details of how ordinary churches can become partners in this initiative, and supply high-quality mini-books for just one dollar each!
A good friend recently forwarded me an email with the images and captions to be seen in the slides below. We do not know where this originated from, but love the sentiments.
Enjoy the show, and let your friends see it, too!
Copyright notice on acknowledgment of source: It is understood that this material is in the public domain; acknowledgment of the source will be made whenever this is established.
I’ve used the LinkedIn network for a while (you can see my profile here), and it offers some interesting features. At heart, I am a trawler, always on the lookout for new ideas and thoughts, so when an article that came my way on the LinkedIn network by Micha Kaufman caught my attention, I thought I would share some of the quotations he offers.
In the original there were fifty quotes, and they were focused on reinventing one’s career, but I have whittled them down to twenty-six and added a few headings to break up the text a little. Some are thought provoking; others are humorous; I believe you will enjoy them!
Postscript: There are a few other quotations on my website here.
You jump off a cliff and you assemble an airplane on the way down.–Reid Hoffman, Co-founder of LinkedIn
You don’t learn to walk by following rules. You learn by doing and falling over.–Sir Richard Branson, Founder & Chairman of Virgin Group
It’s never too late to be what you might have been.–George Elliot, Author
One of the huge mistakes people make is that they try to force an interest on themselves. You don’t choose your passions; your passions choose you. –Jeff Bezos, Founder & CEO of Amazon
Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life. –Confucius, Philosopher
You don’t need to have a 100-person company to develop that idea. –Larry Page, Co-founder & CEO of Google
A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work. –Colin Powell, American Statesman, Retired Four-Star General
Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it. –Michael Jordan, Five-time NBA MVP, Six-time NBA Champion
Chase the vision, not the money; the money will end up following you. –Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos
A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.–Albert Einstein, Theoretical Physicist
Would you do your job and not be paid for it? I would do this job, and take on a second job just to make ends meet if nobody paid me. That’s how you know you are doing the right thing. –Oprah, Media Proprietor, Talk Show Host, Actress
I suffer from the delusion that every product of my imagination is not only possible, but always on the cusp of becoming real. –Sean Parker, American Entrepreneur, Co-founder of Napster, First President of Facebook
Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. –Aristotle, Philosopher
You can get what you want or you can just get old.–Billy Joel, Singer-Songwriter
The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.–Chinese Proverb
I would rather die of passion than of boredom.–Vincent Van Gogh, Painter
So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable.–Christopher Reeve, Actor, Activist
In a moment of decision, the best thing you can do is the right thing. The worst thing you can do is nothing.–Theodore Roosevelt, 26th President of the United States
Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.–John Wooden, NCAA Basketball Coach
Many of life’s failures are experienced by people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.–Thomas Edison, Inventor
The only thing worse than starting something and failing… is not starting something.–Seth Godin, Entrepreneur, Author, Public Speaker
Whether you think you can, or think you can’t, you’re right.–Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Company
Everything started as nothing.–Ben Weissenstein, Entrepreneur
Winners never quit and quitters never win.–Vince Lombardi, Super Bowl-Winning Coach
The one thing that you have that nobody else has is you. Your voice, your mind, your story, your vision. So write and draw and build and play and dance and live as only you can.–Neil Gaiman, Novelist, Graphic Novelist, Screenwriter
Develop your own compass, and trust it. Take risks, dare to fail, remember the first person through the wall always gets hurt.–Aaron Sorkin, Screenwriter, Playwright
Men, for the sake of getting a living, forget to live.–Margaret Fuller, Women’s Rights Advocate, Journalist
Source of original list of fifty quotations here
Yesterday evening, as a family we attended a special presentation, Selections from Messiah on the campus of Bob Jones University. The orchestration was first class, the choir spectacular, the music full, wholesome, and wonderfully uplifting, and the audience spirited and appreciative.
Handel’s remarkable capability to pack biblical truth into a musical genre that is both elegant and yet robust enough to carry the powerful message of God’s holiness, righteousness, love and grace is both amazing and soul stirring. I was struck again by the majesty and beauty of the form, as well as the sheer weight and power of the words of Scripture.
Below, I’d like to share the program notes from the evening’s performance. Compiled by Heather McNeely, they convey some lesser-known aspects of the background to the writing and form of The Messiah.
Perhaps no other work from the Western classical music tradition enjoys the widespread appeal, influence and instant recognition as the oratorio Messiah by George Frideric Handel. In all, Handel composed a total of 29 oratorios and, Messiah is among the five he wrote to librettos supplied by Charles Jennens. Jennens was a Christian, and scholars believe he fashioned the libretto of Messiah with the intention of curbing the spread of deist philosophy that had become so prevalent during the early decades of the Enlightenment. Of particular concern to Jennens was the deists’ rejection of Christ’s divinity and by extension, the inerrancy of Scripture and man’s need of salvation. Thus, by titling the work Messiah and selecting Scripture from both the Old and the New Testaments of the Bible, Jennens asserts not only the deity of Christ but also the unity and inerrancy of the scriptural text, promoting a singular message the Gospel of salvation through Christ alone.
Jennens divided the libretto into three parts. Part One pairs Old Testament Scriptures prophesying salvation through a Redeemer with those from the New Testament proclaiming Christ’s birth as the fulfillment of that prophecy. The prophet Isaiah’s promise of comfort and hope in a Redeemer who will make the “crooked straight” and “the rough places plain” (Isaiah 40: 1 -5) thus opens the work. Handel scored this portion as a recitative and aria for tenor solo. While not slow, the recitative “Comfort, comfort ye my people,” is stately, declamatory, and confidently reassuring. By contrast, the aria which follows is upbeat and virtuosic, with several instances of delightful word painting such as the intricate, extended melisma on the word “exalted.” Part One concludes with the most narrative portion of the oratorio: the triumphant announcement of Christ’s birth in Luke 2. In setting the text, “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth, good will toward men” from Luke 2:14, Handel masterfully alternated between two choirs, high and low voices, and homophonic and imitative textures.
Scriptures detailing the passion, death and resurrection of Christ occupy Part Two. Handel’s music to open this section is a simple yet weighty and incredibly emotional mezzo-soprano aria on the text from Isaiah 53:3: “He was despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief.” Part Three begins thankfully with a proclamation of the redemption of the world through a living Savior: “I know that my redeemer liveth” (Job 19:25). Handel’s setting of I Corinthians 15:52, “the trumpet shall sound,” further showcases the composer as a master of variety for here he pairs a dignified baritone solo with a glorious and virluosic trumpet solo. The work concludes with Scriptures describing the spread of the Gospel and finally with sections from Revelation 5 detailing the future reign of Christ: “Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.” In the original score, Handel’s grand “Hallelujah Chorus” closes Part Two, ending the section by announcing the resurrection but in contemporary performance practice, it is commonly placed at the end of the entire oratorio. Surely neither Handel nor Jennens would question the appropriateness of underlining the final “Amen” of Revelation 5:14 with an unambiguous “Hallelujah!”
Heather McNeely
(Heather is a member of the Department of Instrumental Studies, Division of Music, at Bob Jones University)
Image header from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/George_Frideric_Handel_by_Balthasar_Denner.jpg
Counting back from late November 2014, a little short of 1,500 days ago from the time of writing, a small family set foot on US soil in Wayne County Airport, Detroit, Michigan. This was not for the first time, but it marked a major new chapter in their lives. As they boarded their connecting flight to GSP—Greenville Spartanburg Airport, South Carolina—their minds were filled with what had been, and what was yet to be.
What had been: A settled life in the United Kingdom… What was yet to be? The challenge of relocating to a new way of life in the USA. New living and working conditions; new school; new friends; new church; new currency; and new ways of driving an automobile—on the wrong side of the road, to start with.
That family? The Holmeses—that’s us. And the first major event in the USA? Thanksgiving 2010!
We have much for which to give thanks, and the season of Thanksgiving is always a time to stimulate these thoughts. On a previous Thanksgiving, I was asked to share some truths from the Bible at a family gathering of friends, and my mind turned to the account of ten lepers who encountered Jesus. In a remarkable display of His power, Jesus healed them completely—yet only one of them acknowledged it. See Luke 17:11-19.
Here are some of the things I shared along the lines of giving thanks and glory to God:
Living in the twenty-first century here in the sophisticated United States, we may find it hard to imagine what it was like to have an incurable and defacing disease. We will easily go to the doctor’s office or the pharmacy and get a cream or lotion to help with a skin infection or irritation (or plastic surgery if needs be). But here were ten men with a horrible leprous condition, one which was (humanly speaking) incurable.
Imagine your fingers rotting away; the presence of a bacterium that won’t go away until it has feasted on your body, flesh and bones.
Smell the stench of flesh as it pulls away from bone; you would fear to see yourself in a mirror.
Perhaps your nose eroded so that you only see a cavity into your skull; your larynx affected so your voice is weak and reedy
Your nerve endings have been destroyed so you have no feeling of hot, cold or pain; you can burn yourself picking up a hot item from the fire and yet feel no pain!
You are visibly deformed; you are ritually defiled; you have no place in company with the people of God.
It is, as it were, the end of the line for you. You are destined to die, separated from friends and family, excluded from pleasures and enjoyments, and would have people run away from you. Perhaps you would carry a bell, and you would call out, “Unclean, Unclean!” to warn others of your approach. No sports; no social life; no close friendships, no embraces from loved ones. You are an outcast, the lowest of the low.
In the Bible, sin is sometimes described in metaphorical terms as leprosy. So I think it is easy for you, in your mind’s eye, see the picture of how sin is like leprosy, defiling us, separating us from a Holy God, marring our image, causing us to be unclean, unacceptable in His sight and presence. Sin has taken us away from God. “For all of us have become like one who is unclean, And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment; And all of us wither like a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” (Isaiah 64:6).
But God, in His wonderful purpose, had so worked the situation that Jesus was going to meet them. It was on His calendar for these ten men to meet the Savior.
Jesus was the only hope for these ten men. Jesus is the only hope for sinners today!
I believe it is on God’s calendar for you to meet the Savior of sinners. He is still calling sinners to Himself today, even though they are at a distance from Him (v 12). What will you do when He calls you? He calls you to cleanse you, not to leave you festering in your sinful condition. He calls you to repentance; He calls you to saving faith; He calls you to more than just an acknowledgement of His existence in general terms. He calls you to a personal relationship. He calls you to be a disciple, one who follows Him and learns from Him.
When the ten are healed, only one is serious in his response. People are happy to enjoy the kind providence of God, but do not want Him too near to them. They prefer a God-at-arm’s-length.
But let’s see what the one leprous man—this ex-leper—did:
He came personally to Jesus (v 15: He turned back)
He glorified God with a loud voice (v 15)
He fell on his face at Jesus’ feet and gave thanks (v 16)
He, a foreigner, gave glory to God (v 18)
Let’s now try and connect this matter of glorifying God and giving thanks to God to our lives today. What are we taught in the Westminster Larger Catechism?
Question 1: What is the chief and highest end of man?
Answer: Man’s chief and highest end is to glorify God, and fully to enjoy him forever.
What is the connection between glorifying and thanking God? I believe the answer is in Romans 1. Romans 1 (Romans is the manual that shows how people and God have become separated and how they can be reconciled, brought back into a right relationship) makes its starting point as follows:
For even though they knew God, they did not honor (Lit glorify) Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. Romans 1:21
But if we know the gospel, and if we are trusting in Jesus alone for our salvation, how will we intend to thank and glorify God? I believe there are three areas in which we may specifically cultivate glorifying and thanking God—words that theologians like to use, and words which we should ourselves love:
For His work of creation, for this reveals to us the wonderful, wise and powerful person that God is who could speak worlds and universes into being! Romans 1:20 makes it abundantly clear to us that “… since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made , so that they are without excuse.”
For His work in providence; consider how He preserves us in life, giving us life and breath and all things—health, strength, power to gain wealth, to labor and see results, to sow and to reap; to become well after we have been sick; to learn; to grow in experience. Consider the bounty and the beauty of what we enjoy. The lines have fallen for us in pleasant places. Who would not want to live in a place such as the upstate of South Carolina?
For His work, most especially, in redemption. He has appointed Jesus, a Prince and Savior, to save His people from their sins. Read about it in the Gospels, in Romans, in the New Testament, in the whole Bible. It’s all about Jesus. The apostle Paul said that there should be the giving of thanks (Ephesians 5:4); let us be giving thanks for Him who is God’s most wonderful gift (John 3:16)
2 Corinthians 9:15 urges us in these words “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!” His indescribable gift is the person of Jesus.
Are you in a right relationship with the One of whom the Bible speaks? Is your heart drawn out in thankfulness to the Son of God who planted His feet on this planet? Consider how He became a real man—but without sin—and lived an ordinary life for over thirty years in order that by His living a life of active obedience to God’s law and requirements, and then by dying a death as if being punished as a sinner—for the sins of His people were imputed to Him in His sacrificial death—sinners like you and I can be brought back to a right relationship with God by turning from sin and unrighteousness, and by trusting in Him alone!
Image Credit: Luke Kapustka www.flickr.com/photos/lukekapustka/6688446127
Jonathan Edwards (1703-58), described as one of America’s greatest thinkers ever, was gifted with a significant sense of what God would do in in future generations. I was reminded earlier in perusing the Preface to Iain H Murray’s Jonathan Edwards: A New Biography (page xiii) of these words:
[Edwards] would not have been surprised had he known of the great advances of the kingdom of Christ in the two centuries which have followed his death. Few Christians have looked to the future with brighter hope than Edwards. He believed, for example, that the age of scientific discovery was only in its beginnings and that there would come new and ‘better contrivances for assisting one another through the whole earth by more expedite, easy, and safe communication between distant regions than now’. The vast distances separating the nations of the eighteenth century would disappear, ‘the distant extremes of the world shall shake hands together’, and this progress would be God-given towards the day when ‘the whole earth may be as one community, one body in Christ’.
Edwards did not speak directly of the specifics of what he imagined people would achieve. Yet I love to think that the things we enjoy today–ease of international travel, rapid communication by electronic means whether in text or VOIP, capability of making speedy financial transactions, and the transportation of items expeditiously around the globe–are in measure the fruit of his sanctified imagination.
• Do you utilize the power of the Internet for good?
• Do you use your resources efficiently and strategically for the advance of Christ’s kingdom?
• Are you on the lookout for new and effective means of harnessing the power of technology to live life more efficiently in the service of Him who lived and died and rose again for sinners?
• Suggest three ways in which your life has been significantly transformed by technology in the last two years.
Header image credit: Courtesy http://www.publicdomainpictures.net/22088
I shared these sentiments with a close veteran friend via email earlier today:
I deeply appreciate and esteem you. This being Vets Day made me think of people like you, and the debt that I (and others) owe you for your faithfulness in rendering military service, your involvement in the hot spots and other far-flung regions, whether in the direct defense of our interests as a nation, or in the maintenance of a military presence rendering good will to other countries.
The phrase, “The land of the free, because of the brave” comes to mind. I like to remind my eleven-year-old son of this.
My dad served in the army in Kenya and the regions of southern Africa, as well as a little more to the north of Kenya during WW2. He never saw active service (as in fighting), but I believe his involvement helped bring stability to the regions and perhaps kept potential German and Italian aggression at bay. And I am sure that our US presence in the regions where there is no direct conflict also represents a force to maintain peace, as well as being a more remote strategy in the defense of our local borders.
I treasure our Judeo-Christian heritage and the freedoms that we enjoy because of it. It must be defended! And so I like to think of the military and its role in parallel terms of application with the injunction of Paul to Timothy in 1 Tim. 2:1-2: “First of all, then, I urge that entreaties and prayers, petitions and thanksgivings, be made on behalf of all men, for kings and all who are in authority, so that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity.”
www.blogspot52.com, November 11th, 2014
If you agree with these sentiments, and you have a friend or family member in the military, hit the share button!
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