Monday Morning Music Ministry

3-31-25

Please note, for readers who do not read well or carefully – the title of these thoughts does not refer to the Democrat party. Rather, I want us for a moment to think about small-d democracy as the theoretical system of “majority rules.”

I can summarize my intention as parsing the difference between theory and theology.

So I am not sniping at Democrats, not essentially anyway; because I expect many readers will be ready to assign a partisan aspect, from Socialist to Fascist, to the Almighty. That has never been effective, and never should be, but folks are determined to be persuaded and persuasive. I admire, however, Abraham Lincoln’s dictum that it is not so important that we pray that God is on our side, than that we be on God’s side.

Wearing one of my other hats, a political columnist, I recently have been studying polls and surveys. During the recent campaign, writing articles for outlets like Real Clear Politics, and since then researching for a major book on public and private polling and mistaken assumptions in the disciplines. The deeper I dig, the more I am tempted to trademark a meme that says “A poll has determined that 87.3 per cent of surveys are ridiculous!”

Ridiculous or mistaken or naive, the news cycles and the world often seem to rely on polls. Stats are the first references of many talking heads on news broadcasts… if a poll agreeing with their predetermined points of view (always low-hanging, ripe fruit) can be found. But let us remember Marschall’s dictum: “Statistics don’t lie… but statisticians do.”

How is theology – how does Almighty God – become part of this discussion? Very simply, in fact emphatically, God is not a democrat. We remember that there are occasions in the Bible where God has been moved by prayers, and even instances where He tests (not tempts) His people and responds. And, of course, He never moves in ways contrary to His nature or covenants.

However, throughout history and today; “His” people and secularists alike; in both minor and consequential ways; people attempt to graft their versions of the “will of God” onto their own plans. Sometimes things are done arrogantly in the name of God. Sometimes such “covers” are innocent. Frequently, people act upon the belief that God can be not only invoked but the guarantor of their own designs – a belief that inevitably proves to be advanced by dopes, imposed by malignants, and accepted by the gullible.

Nevertheless, it happens over and over, even by people who ought to know better, if not from logic or history’s examples, but are willfully ignorant. They have “itching ears,” as the Bible calls the situation. “Lie to me,” as a country-music song calls the tendency.

The next step is to believe Vox Populi, Vox Dei – that the voice of the people is the voice of God. It is one of the seductions of democracy posing as a perfect system. Meanwhile the perfect system, on earth as it is in Heaven, is God’s voice; God’s will. In campaigns and elections? Occasionally. More of it applies (but seldom is applied) to cultural attitudes and society’s standards. Name an issue, and we can discern God’s will, but we often yield to pressure groups or partisan demands. And when we cannot easily discern God’s will, we still are better off after honest debates are engaged.

Crimes big and little… jealousy bitter or soft… Sins or indiscretions. We operate according to our own changing rules, not God’s immutable laws. Taboos have lost their censure. Prejudices are looked down upon, but have been replaced by other “correct” criticism. We have moved beyond the blood-lust of wanton animal slaughter, but are inured to killing babies. We tolerate the self-destructive widespread use of drugs; we regard marriage as a temporary “commitment”; we debate the possibilities of supernatural phenomena, but dismiss the evidences of the Holy Spirit’s active ministry in people’s lives.

And we are so smart about our present stage of development that we think that we are smarter than God. Or that He is a figment of obsolete imagination. Or that His commands and counsels were OK once upon a time, but surely not now…

But God has never put His commands up for a vote among His children; certainly not these days. What God calls sin does not depend on our opinion of it. The Ten Commandments never were the Ten Suggestions, and the Sermon On the Mount was for our consumption as much as for the hearers two thousand years ago. If Jesus is “the same yesterday, today, and forever”… then so are we humans.

It is in fact a most wonderful thing that our God is constant, never-changing. We can trust that He is our ever-present – not ever-changing – help in times of trouble. The Creator of the universe and Savior of our souls does not require our opinions, or votes, or approvals when it comes to living our lives. He does welcome the praise that is due Him, but all He requires is obedience.

About the positions we commit to take and courses we choose to follow in society, we can discern, reject, or obey. When honest debates on consequential, life-altering issues point in one direction, too many people say, “Yes, but…” when they ought to be saying, “Yes, Lord…” The polls are closed; actually they never were open. The King of Kings and Lord of Lords has decided all matters important to us. And the victor is… you, if you trust and obey.

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Click: Trust & Obey

3-24-25

I invite you to go back in time and remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. No… not that far back; they lived in ancient Babylon. I mean, rather, the familiar story of three faithful servants of the Lord who refused to bow down to King Nebuchadnezzar and his idol, the solid gold image of a god he invented.

You might remember the vivid story from Sunday School lessons or sermons. Their trials have been the stuff of songs, spirituals, and Gospel music. The three men were examples of faith and integrity, examples to us all in our daily walk.

The images that come to our minds are that the three not only were saved – no burn marks nor smell of smoke – but that they emerged unharmed, even as some of the King’s men died from the scorching heat just near the furnace, not in it as the three men were. And we might remember that King Nebuchadnezzar was so astonished, or himself afraid, that he ordered all of his subjects to worship the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and not his Golden statue.

This story is not a fairytale with a moral. Nebuchadnezzar was a real figure in history, recognized as a warrior and a builder. He conquered the Levant, including Jerusalem, And built one of the “wonders of the ancient world,” the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. He was the father of Belshazzar. It is recorded that he indeed converted to belief in the God of the Bible, influenced by his advisers Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and their superior, Daniel.

Some Christians miss the fact that a fourth man was seen in Fiery Furnace, or that man’s presumed identity. Biblical scholars call him the pre-incarnate Jesus. This was one of the times that Jesus, by whom the universe was created, had an earthly appearance before His birth in Bethlehem.

But I believe the biggest “miss” in this iconic story is the over-arching lesson. Yes, God worked miracles. Yes, He protects His faithful servants. Yes, He rewards those who assert their spiritual bravery in the face of persecution. I believe that the great spiritual lesson is not only that God saved Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego… but how He did it.

God, who had miracles up His sleeve, and all the power in the universe, could have extinguished the flames in the fiery furnace. He could have sent ten thousand angels down to swoop up the prisoners. He could have struck the king’s men – indeed, the king himself – dead or helpless. God did none of these things. He chose not to. Yet… He delivered Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

I think the lesson for us today, as always, is that God delivers. Yes, sometimes He prevents things; but it is His way to deliver us from disaster, to deliver us from evil, to deliver us from hell itself. His desire is that we rely on Him, to seek Him, and to trust Him. It seldom is God’s way to wave a magic wand and make challenges disappear. Note that even as we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, He does not promise to pluck us up to walk on the parallel mountaintops. He promises instead to be with us.

He has always kept that promise.

“With us.” What better companion can we have? Who better at keeping promises than the God of creation? And how best to know Him… to trust Him in times of peril? Let us dare to believe God’s promises. When we doubt, and do not believe Him, or do not learn from the lessons of many Biblical figures and uncountable saints since Biblical times, then we trust ourselves. Compared to trusting God… well, we can join those who laughed at Noah; and Lot’s wife; and all the notable “heroes of faith” reviewed in Hebrews Chapter 11. They were favored of God, yet their lapses in faith prevented them all from achieving their spiritual goals.

“Let that be a lesson to us” – trust in God, and not to our own understanding. We never hear of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego again; but Heaven did. And too often, well-meaning believers think that they are showing faith by following God up to a point… and then assuring Him, “Thanks, God, I’ll take it from here!”

That is not faith, but presumption. The best exercise of faith – and true wisdom – is when we are ready to admit that He is our refuge and strength, and fall back into His arms. Perhaps being delivered from the fiery furnace is a picture of being delivered from hell. Such obedience is a sure-fire way to please God.

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Click: Charles Laughton Reads From The Book Of Daniel: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego

3-17-25

I have observed a strange thing about Heaven through the years. Rather, a strange thing about how people think about Heaven; even how Christians regard Heaven.

This world is not our home, we’re just passing through. Salvation – being accepted as a child of God – should be the object of our faith; trusting Jesus, His sacrificial gift and His resurrection from the dead. He died and rose so that we might, indeed, spend eternity with Him in Heaven.

And yet many believers think of Heaven first as a place where we might have reunions with friends and family, even pets. Catholics prepare to be welcomed by various saints. Generations have depicted Heaven as a place with all sorts of props and costumes.

The Bible, on the other hand – being a Book that ought to have some authority on the subject – never mentions pets or family reunions. No offense to Spot or Aunt Mabel. Rather, it is a place of “joy unspeakable and full of glory.” It seems ironic that with the promise of spending eternity in paradise, we nevertheless think in limited, everyday human contexts. Partly because the Bible tells me so, I await a Heaven where all we will want to do is praise the Lord God around the Throne forever.

If indeed we will recognize people in Heaven (and you might have guessed by now that my bigger concern is that Jesus recognizes me), of course I wonder. Martyrs, “heroes of faith,” the Apostles… I will want to see – as my earthly curiosity prompts my imagination now. “Loved ones,” sure. We love them! Will we be aware of those we prayed for… those who yearned for salvation here on earth; who fought the appeals of the Gospel; who sincerely wrestled with their faith. We can hope so.

We surely do not know these things now. In fact we cannot know now: we can be assured of our own salvation – if we believe in our hearts that Jesus is the Son of God; that he died for our sins; and that the Lord raised Him from the dead; Scripture says that’s all! – but we can not be sure of anyone else’s position regarding Heaven.

I have been reading lately about Oscar Wilde, the Irish playwright, author, and aphorist. He has come down to us in history as a brilliant wit and clever parodist, notable for works like The Portrait of Dorian Gray and The Importance of Being Earnest. He famously also is known as an outrageous iconoclast who flaunted his homosexuality in the midst of Victorian London; who was a pedophile; and who was sentenced to two years at hard labor for his morals offenses.

What is rather less known or discussed in these secular days of ours is that Wilde accepted his guilt and sought not to excuse it, but grew to understand Christ as Someone who likewise shared suffering. Jesus became real to Wilde as a Savior whose endurance of persecution and rejection enabled himself to deal with his sins and yet find hope. He never railed against his treatment – beyond bad food in jail and ugly wallpaper in his last flat – and realized that worldly punishment was his lot.

Wilde’s last two books, The Ballad of Reading Gaol and de Profundis, are deeply spiritual books of introspection and discussions of faith. Remarkable, provocative books with no trademark sarcasms or epigrams. Before he died Wilde requested and received Baptism in his lonely hotel room in Paris. (The one with the ugly wallpaper.)

This man, who for a while was so reviled that, reportedly, no male child was born in England for decades who was given the name “Oscar,” so gross were his sins and moral offenses… could he have “gained” Heaven? Would we see him, if seeing our Heavenly brethren will be possible, among the throng around the Throne? Well, we have the “travel guide” and roadmaps, so to speak, in the Bible; the assurances of Jesus Himself and testimonies in Scripture – yes. Yes.

Call them “deathbed confessions,” or “battlefield conversions,” but… Yes. Think of the worst person who comes to mind. Hitler, you say? If he had given his heart to Christ in his last days – he did marry in his last hours; he had tithed to the church until his last month – yes, he would be accepted, even welcomed, into Heaven. Think of the “best” person who comes to mind. Mother Teresa, you say? If she had done all the thousands of charitable acts for which she was celebrated all her life, yet if even in her last moments she rejected Christ as her Savior – no, she would not be welcomed into Heaven.

Are such things fair? Again… our human values eclipse the Godly truths, the lessons of the Gospel, the priorities of Christianity. Rather than argue against what we might consider “unfairness” – “I have spent my whole life believing Christ, and a dirty sinner can sweep into heaven just like I can?” – we should rejoice that a soul has come to Christ. That is the real priority: our hands might not be as bloody, nor our robes quite as unclean, as the next guy, but we all need the Grace of God. And – if we think good deeds, whether a handful or thousands, will punch our tickets to Heaven… we are sadly deceived.

“All of Heaven [yes, there is the Heavenly host] rejoices when one sinner is saved.” We are being watched; we are encouraged by the Holy Spirit; and one day in the mysterious way God operates Heaven, we too will rejoice and welcome sinners as they join the happy throng praising Christ forever. This is what Heaven means to me.

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Click: This Is Just What Heaven Means to Me

3-10-25

“Some people are not happy unless they are unhappy.” Have you heard that saying? Do you know a grouch or nit-picker or a chronic complainer who fits that description? We all do.

This has become a sound-bite society in terms of communication. I don’t think Twitter started it; it rather responded and codified the mode. “Brevity is the soul of wit”? – it is more the domain of nit-wits, it seems to me. Popular songs, TV commercials, slogans, “headline” news… all conspire to cram us into short messages and shorter attention-spans.

We have also devolved from acronyms and crazy abbreviations, lol, to emojis. There are enough of these symbols to inspire entire dictionaries. It ought to – at least – promise new forms of communication and clarity… but the opposite is happening. This week two different websites in another corner of my activities, the political world, have censured and censored me for responding to posts with a smiley-face. (Yes, I fall prey. And by the way, Adobe by itself offers more than half a million variants of the dumb symbol!)

What had I meant to “say”? In a couple cases, I was trying to agree with what I thought were absurd posts; a couple times I wanted to register my opinion that the posts were laughable. I was rebuked, in traditional English, once by someone I thought was an old friend, for everything from violating the post’s rules (despite others’ employment of the stupid little yellow faces); to insulting me; to rudely “wasting the time” of my former friend.

In each case, obviously, I was being “canceled” for voicing an opposing opinion. Ah. Marx and Mao could have been less murderous and bloody if they had thought of smiley-faces as their dictatorships’ brands. But… some people are never happy unless they are unhappy.

Happy. I have thought of it this past week, as “good” a week as I have experienced in some time. I have a new professional connection and a major book to write. I married a wonderful Christian woman. Our ceremony and reception (in Mickey’s wonderful house) warmly was joined by old friends and new family. Am I happy? No – that is, not only happy.

There is a difference between happiness and joy, and the difference is not just a matter of grammar or philology, but of theology – that is, the nuances can hold lessons for our lives. The real distinction can, “unhappily,” be a bit frustrating to ascertain, as dictionaries these days tend to be sloppy. Too many dictionaries help us this way: “Happiness, n. The state of being happy.” And “Joy, n. The emotional result of being joyful or cheerful.” These should be moved in such dictionaries to the “D” section… for “Duh.”

Thesauruses I consulted helped when synonyms for Happiness included Satisfaction, Bliss, and Blessedness. For Joy there was the explanation, “Extreme happiness,” which holds average (?) happiness as relatively subordinate. So… the general consensus is that Joy is the superior state of emotion.

Years ago my daughter Emily had the insight that Joy (her middle name, by the way) corresponds to spiritual matters; and Happiness – no matter how extreme or elevated – is a human emotion related to our worldly, temporal, and indeed temporary, pleasure. No matter how valuable: contentment, satisfaction, gratification.

To further validate the primacy of Joy, we recall some Bible verses:

I tell you that in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance (Luke 15:7). Not mere “happiness” in Heaven; it falls short of Joy.

James 1:2-4 says, Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Here is an example of Joy being more mature, more efficacious, than mere Happiness.

And finally the most familiar Bible verse about Joy: The joy of the Lord is your strength (Nehemiah 8:10). We recall, as well, the admonition to make a joyful noise unto the Lord; “happy noise” would sound very superficial!

In America’s civic life we recall that the Founders proclaimed “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” as a right. Later politicians elevated “happiness” as a right, not the freedom to “pursue” happiness. A tremendous difference, since governments have taken to themselves to define the meaning of happiness. And, now, proscribing many things we ought not to be happy about.

So Happiness has become the secularists’ Holy Word. Whittaker Chambers once wrote about this attitude adjustment: “The rub is that the pursuit of happiness, as an end in itself, tends automatically, and widely, to be replaced by the pursuit of pleasure with a consequent general softening of the fibers of will, intelligence, spirit.”

The phrase “pursuit of happiness” has become a part of everyday discourse. In the same manner, many recognize the strains of Beethoven’s great “Ode to Joy” without knowing its meaning – or understanding the words, as it is Friedrich Schiller’s German poem set to music. But the words remind us that Beethoven was a profound Christian.

Here, some of “Ode to Joy” that Beethoven chose for the chorus to sing in his revolutionary Ninth Symphony (I believe Henry van Dyke’s translation). Take joy from the words, including —

All Thy works of Joy surround Thee, Flowery meadows, flashing sea; Singing birds and flowing fountains Call us to rejoice in Thee!

Thou our Father, Christ our Brother, All who live in love are Thine; Teach us how to love each other – Lift us to the Joy Divine!

I pray that you have experienced happiness. And we must all gives thanks that we live in a land where its pursuit is allowed. But… also pursue joy. Remember that the Joy of the Lord is your strength. And we need strength for the times ahead! 😇

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Click: Ode To Joy

3-3-25

This will be a short message this week. I am to be married, or will be when this is published. Since time immemorial, crazy preparations have accompanied marriage ceremonies, so I plead History. And I also want to extend mercy to my good friend and faithful Webmaster Norm Carlevato, who with his lovely wife Penelope will be attending the nuptials, all the way from eastern Tennessee to mid-Michigan. Fewer words for Norm to program…

Holy Matrimony is a “type” or picture of Christ and the Church – love, fidelity, and honor. We believe it to be an Ordinance, not a Sacrament; not affecting Salvation; but about as close to Heaven as we can be on this earth. We love our spouses as Christ loved the Church, and we submit to our spouses as we submit to Christ.

Well, enough theology, and we know the multitude of Biblical endorsements of marriage… and we know that, in the world, when societies disintegrate, it is the decline and dissolution of marriage and family life that always precedes the destruction. No truer barometer, and no exceptions to the relation.

So, the opposite is true. Healthy marriages represent a healthy culture. Happy homes make happy citizens. And heavenly love can be extended toward our spouses just as earnestly as toward the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

In my case, Michelle (“Mickey”) is a special lady to whom I was first attracted by her faith. I honor (and have here, frequently) my precious wife Nancy, mother of my children, who endured many illnesses and went to be with the Lord 12 years ago. It is not inevitable, I think, that a threescore-and-10 guy like me would find another helpmeet for life. But God has ordained it.

A wife of noble character, who can find? She is far more precious than rubies (Proverbs 31:10).

So I ask for your prayers. When we sing and pray that Gospel song, “I Know Who Holds My Hand,” we might quickly think of our lover or spouse, romantically holding our hand. Certainly. But when we remember that God holds our hands, leading us on, protecting and guiding, it is a picture of clinging also to those who love us… and those we love.

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Click: I Know Who Holds Tomorrow