Monday Morning Music Ministry

11-11-24

There is significance that can be gleaned from punctuation and spelling which, as a Word Person, I am happy to assert as often as I can. It is true of missed dates and common misunderstandings, which have led to bloody wars. This message will be a rambling collection of tangents, forgive me; but little things in life are often consequential. We have the aphorism repeated from ancient days by Poor Richard (Benjamin Franklin):

For want of a nail the horseshoe was lost.For want of a shoe the horse was lost.For want of a horse the rider was lost.For want of a rider the message was lost.For want of a message the battle was lost.For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.

November 11 is Veterans Day, and I began these thoughts with notes about grammatical precision because it is important, if we are going to commemorate events and observe holidays, that we remember why we do so.

Veterans Day began as “Armistice Day,” dedicated to those who died in World War I. Strictly speaking, President Woodrow Wilson wanted to hallow the moment when peace was declared, more than honoring the millions who died to secure that peace. It was typical of that self-righteous megalomaniac to build a psychological edifice while – in the opinion of many people at the time – soldiers died on the battlefield while the clock ticked toward Wilson’s “11^th day of the 11^th month, 11^th hour, 11^th minute” irrelevancy.

“Armistice Day” eventually became Veterans Day. Word distinctions: Memorial Day was declared to honor those who died, Veterans Day to honor all who served in wars. And it is not “Veteran’s Day” or “Veterans’ Day,” so we remember all vets. A national holiday pf commemoration – in effect, our day to honor them, not their vacation day.

Do I make too much of these distinctions? Possibly. But I urge us to regard Veterans Day as a day where we all (we who are not military veterans) meditate on what others have done; what our brothers and sisters have sacrificed; and the essence of becoming a veteran. Yes, you can be a veteran of, say, an average golf match… but as we routinely understand the word, Veterans usually have gone through some version of hell. And, often enough, for you and me.

So. I would have us appreciate, in others and in ourselves, what we go though in life ourselves, and should go through as our duty, the choice of work, service, and sacrifice. Such is Christ’s call on us – to reach the world with Gospel, which is not easy. To reach our family and friends too, which might be less easy. To be transformed by that Gospel ourselves; for some of us, that step was, or is, difficult.

God helps us… Jesus is like a buddy in life’s foxholes. And we see how He has helped others: To think, for instance, that He ordained a filthy-minded, adulterous, wealthy man with evil in his heart to preside over a nation… makes us think. Yet God did that… and that man, by God’s grace, eventually did much good, and wrote the Psalms.

Oh, did you think I was talking about Donald Trump or someone else? No, I mean King David. We are all flawed. But we are all veterans too, of some good fight.

The reason I like “Veterans Day” without the apostrophe is that I think we should appreciate, and encourage each other, in that thought: we are all veterans. We have been through a lot, every one of us. Challenges, crises, distress, disaster. Health, finances, relationships. Self-confidence, lack of faith sometimes?

My friend Becky Spencer, active in myriad ministries, is called by those who know her remarkable faith and work, the “Fight Lady.” Are you an “overcomer”? Are you “more than a conqueror”? You can be, and therefore you are a veteran; God sent the Holy Spirit to be your comrade-in-arms. I will repeat a fable I shared here just last week, and which ignited a lot of responses: A man arrives at Heaven’s Gate and is challenged by St Peter to display the scars he acquired during his life on earth. “I have no scars,” the man says. St Peter replies: “Really? There was nothing you ever thought was worth fighting for?”

Believe me, of course I am not urging that we stop honoring military veterans (in fact, we don’t do so enough). And it is a fool’s errand to suggest we establish a holiday to honor ourselves, even if we begin to dedicate ourselves to greater service. Banish that thought.

But if we can begin to ask ourselves what we are veterans of… what we have chosen as our mission(s) in life… what will lead to God telling you in Glory – in reality; not a fable – “Well done, thou good and faithful servant!”… that will be the greatest Veterans Day of all. We are all in this together, this thing called Life, and we need to follow God’s battle plan.

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Click: Will You Look At Me and Say “Well Done”?

6-11-18

This has been a week of tremendous news, emotional and important for everyone on every side of (seemingly) every issue. International diplomatic breakthroughs; daring trade confrontations; history-setting economic news at home.

“Winners” (for instance, those happy with the Supreme Court’s decision) should refrain from hyperactive victory dances. These days, spiking the ball can bounce back in our faces! We should prayerfully be grateful, but respect the debate if well-intentioned.

Of course, these days, well-intentioned discourse seems rare. Jack Phillips, the decorator at the modest mom-and-pop Masterpiece Cakeshop of Lakewood, Colorado, is not a raging bigot who barred homosexuals from entering his shop, as his detractors claim. Very few people can even cite his denomination, if he has such membership, and ascribe anything more than his fidelity to the Bible. (Many people do not know the origin of “Masterpiece” as his shop’s name. It is Ephesians 2:10 – “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.”)

But Jack’s policy at Masterpiece was based on conscience, informed by faith. The modest, flour-splotched baker is actually in the pantheon of Heroes of Conscience alongside martyrs of the early Church and Reformation; Luther; persecuted Christians around the world today, both notable and anonymous.

He is consistent, and willing to sacrifice for his beliefs. If that means closing on Sundays, so be it. If that means declining to decorate cakes with off-color themes or requests for sexy or violent images (his artistic talent could tackle any challenge, if he chose), or Halloween or homosexual messages; if his “bottom line” is decreased, so be it.

Chick-Fil-A and Hobby Lobby close on Sundays too. In fact if Jack’s standards reduced him to selling only a few cupcakes to class reunions, he would proceed. God has given Jack a talent… and a conscience. He does not need to be loved by everybody, but he would like to be respected by everybody. And he does not NEED to be attacked by anybody, yet within hours of politely declining to design a homosexual message on the icing on a cake, the attacks started – organized protests; thousands of robo-computer e-mails; automated phone messages; vandalism; etc. In the name, you understand, of “love.”

My friend Penny Carlevato, also of Lakewood and in whose home we recently shared thoughts and lasagna with Jack, made a clever observation, that America was built on religious liberty, and has succeeded in large measure because of it; but ironically those who hate religion and our cultural heritage now use that freedom to attack the traditional foundations.

Jack and his family endured emotional distress, a down-sizing of his business, and other privations during the years of these trials (approximately six years). The Colorado Civil Rights Commission would have forced him to express messages contrary to his values; to accept a set of rules written by some external moral arbiters; to force his workers to undergo training sessions in “sensitivity”; regularly to report compliance to a state agency.

Some of his friends were slightly downcast as the nature of the Court’s “narrow” decision became clear – that the conflict between conscience and public accommodation was not solved. News flash – at the current stage of democracy’s evolution, it never will be solved; get ready.

No, the “narrow” aspect is that the Commission, on the first rung of this long ladder, exposed the virulent anti-Christian bias of two commissioners. Religion led to slavery, Jack was lectured before he could open his mouth; and Christianity was responsible for the holocaust.

The gist of the Court’s “narrow” ruling is that the government in this instance was NOT impartial; exposed a very uneven playing field; displayed prejudice against people of faith.

THAT, friends, is actually a silver lining of the Masterpiece Cakeshop decision. Because of it, every local board of self-righteous commissioners, every tyrannical town council, every petty school board, every legislative committee, every gaggle of unelected bureaucrats high and low, have been put on notice that they cannot act arbitrarily and imperiously. They cannot display bias against religious traditions, against people of conscience, against Christians exercising their faith.

In the future, at least for awhile, these little Big Brothers will think twice before imposing their secular agendas – their revolutionary stink-bombs, their Rules for Radicals – on the rest of us.

The martyrs’ hall of fame, those who died and those who fought for individual conscience, and the essential importance of one’s faith, has a new figure, as noted above.

If the media try to ask – “Such a big deal over WEDDING CAKES?” and “Is this really a Constitutional crisis, led by a neighborhood baker?” Let us recall what James Abram Garfield said when he was elected president. He left his position as an elder in his local church in Ohio to move to Washington, and he said: “I resign the highest office in the land to become president of the United States.”
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Click: I Shall Not Be Moved

3-5-18

I recently returned from the wonderful Writers On the Rock conference in Colorado. I was one of several speakers, conducting a couple of classes, and meeting a lot of great new friends. I also was reacquainted with some old friends.

I managed to squeeze in some private time. My friend and I visited Breckenridge and Vail and thanked God frequently for His amazing handiwork. We visited historic sites in Denver with our hosts Penny and Norm Carlevato – you can thank Norm for the faithful appearance of this blog; he has been the web-master for years.

The Christian writers’ conference was attended by almost 200 people, a majority of whom were aspiring writers, and many who had published one book or some blogs, still looking for tips to advance further.

There were many writers, even the aspirants, who had something or other in print. When you want to write, you write. And write. And read and write. It’s what you do because you are wired that way. Which is a good thing! God has inspired us; planted seeds of creativity; and God bless (He will) anyone who exercises those gifts.

I told the organizer, Dave Rupert, how often I heard people before and after classes, in the auditorium and lunch room, in hallways: “Did you read what I wrote since last year?” or “Have you read my book?”

Never boasting, these questions were asked by people from justifiable pride, and every writer’s sub-textual intention – hoping that people notice and understand your message; affected by what you have to say.

It struck me afterwards, especially since this was a Christian-focus conference, that the frequent question – “Have you read my book?” – might indeed have been the de facto theme. “Up above our heads”; all around us; and a part of everything we did, everything to which we dedicated our careers… in a very real sense, God Himself also asked “Have you read My Book?”

Of course He asks that every day.

He asks us, not to read the Bible every moment of every day, but sometime during every day, as many of us do. A passage, a chapter, a book. It is not an unreasonable request – but a request is inherent in the question – as God’s admonitions never are unreasonable.

The Bible is what we know of God. Yes, there is nature – I know well enough from our mountaintop experiences in Colorado. Agnostics who pose, and Christians who are lazy, can say that they can know God from communing with nature.

Wrong. That is one of the ways we can see God, even feel Him. But to know Him, we must read His book.

He meant it to be so. We have the Ten Commandments… written. We have Jesus’s teachings… recorded and written and published. I recommend visiting the new Museum of the Bible in Washington DC. I saw its substantial portions when it was on tour (in Colorado a few years ago!), and a lesson for believers and skeptics alike is that, for the hundreds and hundreds of texts from different countries, different scribes, different languages, different centuries, the texts of the Holy Scriptures vary hardly at all. The Holy Spirit “dictated” to the hearts of many writers, and oversaw the consistency of God’s Words.

Words.

Jesus communicated God’s love for us. And words, books, scripture, communicate Jesus to us.

The Bible says we are to “hide His word in our hearts.” How better than through study of those words? They are precious. I shared with an attendee at the conference that, even when I read a Bible passage for maybe the hundredth time, some new revelation dawns on my heart.

How much Bible reading is proper? Are some passages obsolete? II Timothy 3:16 tells us, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.”

Have you read His book lately?

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Stephen Hill (1956-2012) Was a Baptist preacher and session singer before he launched his own gospel-music career. This is a song he sang when he and Woody Wright were invited to perform in the Netherlands. A moving song; you will be impacted in spite of the overlapping Dutch and Norwegian (he was very popular in Europe) subtitles. Words!

Click: Will He Look At Me and Say ‘Well Done’?