Whistling in the Light

Art for God's Sake

2006-08-29T09:57:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted here in a while. In part, because it seems that contemporary events are unremittingly negative. And so it goes. Yesterday, a friend who was my pianist at my last gig "doing art" full time in a church died in a car accident. The quoted material below came today from Chip Stam's "Worship Quote of the Week" and seemed not at all tangentially fitting, since Patricia did her artful best to glorify God in her piano work.

There are many reasons why some churches have a negative view of the arts. Art trades in images, and images easily lend themselves to idolatry. Artists know this from their own experience. In their work they encounter the glory at the foundation of things, and they feel its power over the heart. . . .

Yet even Christians who are dismissive of art continue to use it. Doing so is inescapable. Every time we build a sanctuary, arrange furniture in a room, or produce a brochure, we are making artistic decisions. Even if we are not artists in our primary vocation, there is an inescapable artistic aspect to our daily experience. The question becomes, therefore, whether as Christians we will aspire to high aesthetic standards. All too often we settle for something that is functional, but not beautiful. We gravitate toward what is familiar, popular, or commercial, with little regard for the enduring values of artistic excellence. Sometimes what we produce can be describe only as KITSCH—tacky artwork of poor quality that appeals to low tastes. The average Christian bookstore is full of the stuff, as the real artist will tell us, if only we will listen.

Ultimately this kind of art dishonors God because it is not in keeping with the truth and beauty of his character. It also undermines the church's gospel message of salvation in Christ. Art has tremendous power to shape culture and touch the human heart. Its artifacts embody the ideas and desires of the coming generation. This means that what is happening in the arts today is prophetic of what will happen in our culture tomorrow. It also means that when Christians abandon the artistic community, we lose a significant opportunity to communicate Christ to our culture. Furthermore, when we settle for trivial expressions of the truth in worship and art, we ourselves are diminished, as we suffer a loss of transcendence. What we need to recover (or possibly discover for the first time) is a full biblical understanding of the arts—not for art's sake, but for God's sake. Then we will be able to produce better art that more effectively testifies to the truth about God and his grace. This goal is important and not just for artists, but for everyone else made in God's image and in need of redemption.

—Philip Graham Ryken, ART FOR GOD'S SAKE: A CALL TO RECOVER THE ARTS. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2006, p. 11, 13-14. ISBN10: 1-59638-007-1. The author looks at a biblical view of art by examining Exodus 31 where God calls Bezalel and Oholiab as artists to work on the tabernacle.

Of course, any work that truly reflects the Creator, whether specifically designed and intended to honor Him or not, is at the very least a reflection of the Creator's nature. Even Beethoven's use of Schiller's pagan "Ode to Joy" as the foundation of his Ninth Symphony reflects the glory of God in its creative power and beauty—as does even Schiller's blatantly pagan work. No real artist can fail to glorify God, however unintentionally, because all creation stems from Him.

Still, it is the duty, the calling of those who intentionally serve God via the arts to render the best art they are capable of... and in offering their best, trust Him to make it excellent. That's a lesson I think Patricia had at least a hand on.

The impact of faithlessness

2006-06-30T07:11:00.001-07:00

In part 1 of "Mending Walls: Faith" I very, very briefly discussed the faith (fides) covenant meme so lacking in today's society. In part 2, I even more briefly outlined how this lack has affected the three realms of legitimate governance in society, civil government, marriage & family and, for Christians at least, the church.

In this last installment, I'll once again very briefly mention some examples that illustrate how the current culture of faithlessness affects everyday life and how the moribund state of the faith covenant in civil government, marriage & family and in churches affects everyday life.

Keep in mind: I will NOT explore this topic in depth, although this will still be a tad long as compared to most blogposts. It'd take a full length book for each of these three parts to cover the topic seriously. That being said, and knowing it'll be a tad longer than the majority of blogposts you may read today, either page on off or CLICk to read more at the link.

Still with me? OK, here goes. (Be sure to review the two earlier Mending Walls: Faith, Part 1 & Part 2 if what follows is at all confusing.)

As with Part 2, I'm simply going to list three examples with a very brief commentary and then leave it to your abilities to generalize to other effects in society at large.

First consider the faith meme in the business world. Remember, faith, properly understood, is upchain/downchain loyalty. At its best it is a bilateral contract of trusting obedience on the one hand and providence and protection on the other. The faith covenant is in this sense something like a walled city in ancient days. Those who were citizens of the city frequently went out to work outside its walls during the day, retiring behind its walls at night in the safety and protection from banditry, war, etc. that the city offered... in exchange for fullfilling the duties and responsibilities of the city governor/ruler. There's a lot more to be drawn from this analogy, especially since it was no analogy in ancient times; it was a reality. But we still may draw from this analogy to see where some walls are broken and in need of mending or replacing in today's society.

For one thing, employment. In the past—even here in America—a person could take a job when entering the workforce and expect to hold it throughout his entire working life, followed by a modest pension (which he was expected to plan for and manage in his retiurement). Now, this wasn't across the board, of course, but at least in middlin' to large companies, this seemed at one time to be expected.

Nowadays? There is neither upchain loyalty from employers to their employers nor downchain loyalty to employees . sure, it's easy to point out that massive layoffs by large corporations are an easy example of the latter, but in how many cases has a lack of upchain loyalty been the first poison in the well? Does anyone doubt that the severe financial pinch GM is in now is not largely a result of the top-heaviness of employee "gimmes" exacted by greedy unions, or that the whirlwind American automotice workers are reaping only in part now is a result of such union greed? Only the blind (or union blind) would argue otherwise.

But what of the petty disloyalties that go on day in and day out on both sides of the street in the business world? "Stretching" one's break time, as but one very small example, is theft from one's employer, plain and simple, just as much as taking office supplies home is. And those are simple, everyday, "harmless" disloyalties, often perpetrated by people who feel their employer is has no loyalty to them, either.

And all too often they are right. But whiuch really came first? (OK: a different answer for each situation, most likely. Sometimes the chicken, sometimes the egg.)

But apart from general workplace disloyalties, how about a specific profession or two?

Doctors who perform abortions certainly have no regard for faithfullness to the Hippocratic Oath—even modern variants that proclaim the value of human life. Ask Gianna Jessen, a survivor of an abortion doctor's attempt to abort her when she was about 1.5 months from delivery.

I swear by Apollo the physician, by Æsculapius, Hygeia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgement, the following Oath.

To consider dear to me as my parents him who taught me this art; to live in common with him and if necessary to share my goods with him; To look upon his children as my own brothers, to teach them this art if they so desire without fee or written promise; to impart to my sons and the sons of the master who taught me and the disciples who have enrolled themselves and have agreed to the rules of the profession, but to these alone the precepts and the instruction.

I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.

To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death.

Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure abortion.

But I will preserve the purity of my life and my art.

I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art.

In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves.

All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal.

If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot."

No thanks to a doctor's twisted lack of faith to any principle of real value to human life, Gianna Jessen is now 29 years old, running marathons and maintaining a career in the recording industry... in spite of the cerebral palsy caused by a doctor's faithless behavior.

And what of that other bastion of civilization, the practice of law? Well, in civil government, there vertainly is no lack of bureaucratic adherence to Pournelle's Iron Law:

…in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions.

Whenever it is a case of survival (or expansion) of the bureaucracy winning out against achieving the bureaucracy's purpose, then that's certainly a breech of faith. Placing the importance of their own power and gain above the social contract to fullfill the buraeucracy's goals is certainly a breech of faith, both with society at large and with the bureaucracy itself.

And how many of us have discovered the truth of Pournelle's Iron Law at the whim of some petty bureaucrat?

His vows are lightly spoken,
His faith is hard to bind,
His trust is easy broken,
He fears his fellow-kind.
The nearest mob will move him
To break the pledge he gave —
Oh, a Servant when he Reigneth
Is more than ever slave!

But more than that, what of the legions of lawyers in private practice as well as government bureaucracies who treat the rule of law as a game whose rules are there simply for manipulation for the benefit of those who can buy the most lawyers, swing the biggest stick? Sadly, there's a good foundation for many lawyer jokes.

Yes, I know there are employers/employees who still show honest downchain/upchain loyalty to each other. Yes I know there are good, honest, caring and faithful doctors and lawyers. There may even be a government bureaucrat somewhere (yeh, you, Paul :-)) hiding as a sheep in a pack of wolves.

But the memes we live with today are largely those of uncaring, greedy businessmen, more and more doctors who are more concerned with their investment portfolios than with their patients and with staying faithful to the ethical principles that lay the foundation of Western medicine, and lawyers—both government lawyers and those in private practice—who are themselves the very model of the powerful preying upon the weak.

But it does not have to be so. We can insist, first, that we remain faithful and trustworthy in all our dealings--with our civil government, in our homes and churches and in our workplace. And we can insist that those who do not behave so pay the price of their faithlessness.

Vote the bastards out of office; make divorce harder and shame parents who needlessly (though I'm sure most of them can find excuses) neglect their children by handing them over first to socialist creches then to socialist "day prisons"; call imperial pastors and those who twist and lie about scriptures to account; boycott businesses that treat their employees shamefully while striving to be a faithful employee, if that's our lot; keep our oaths, and keep the faith with the highest standards mof our professions.

No matter what it seems to cost us.

Because the cost to our society, and to our children and grandchildren and progeny yet unknown, is far too great if we do not.

Crossposted at third world county

The impact of faithlessness

2006-06-30T07:11:00.000-07:00

I swear by Apollo the physician, by Æsculapius, Hygeia, and Panacea, and I take to witness all the gods, all the goddesses, to keep according to my ability and my judgement, the following Oath.

To consider dear to me as my parents him who taught me this art; to live in common with him and if necessary to share my goods with him; To look upon his children as my own brothers, to teach them this art if they so desire without fee or written promise; to impart to my sons and the sons of the master who taught me and the disciples who have enrolled themselves and have agreed to the rules of the profession, but to these alone the precepts and the instruction.

I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.

To please no one will I prescribe a deadly drug nor give advice which may cause his death.

Nor will I give a woman a pessary to procure abortion.

But I will preserve the purity of my life and my art.

I will not cut for stone, even for patients in whom the disease is manifest; I will leave this operation to be performed by practitioners, specialists in this art.

In every house where I come I will enter only for the good of my patients, keeping myself far from all intentional ill-doing and all seduction and especially from the pleasures of love with women or with men, be they free or slaves.

All that may come to my knowledge in the exercise of my profession or in daily commerce with men, which ought not to be spread abroad, I will keep secret and will never reveal.

If I keep this oath faithfully, may I enjoy my life and practice my art, respected by all men and in all times; but if I swerve from it or violate it, may the reverse be my lot."

…in any bureaucratic organization there will be two kinds of people: those who work to further the actual goals of the organization, and those who work for the organization itself. Examples in education would be teachers who work and sacrifice to teach children, vs. union representative who work to protect any teacher including the most incompetent. The Iron Law states that in all cases, the second type of person will always gain control of the organization, and will always write the rules under which the organization functions.

His vows are lightly spoken,
His faith is hard to bind,
His trust is easy broken,
He fears his fellow-kind.
The nearest mob will move him
To break the pledge he gave —
Oh, a Servant when he Reigneth
Is more than ever slave!

"When Christmas Gets Messy"

2005-12-24T12:00:00.000-08:00

(Reproduced and cut/expanded from a sermon outline sent to me by a friend. His outline was redacted/adapted from another outline... and so it continues... :-)
"When Christmas Gets Messy"

26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. 28 And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!” 29 But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. 30 Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. 31 And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name JESUS. 32 He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. 33 And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.” 34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” 35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing will be impossible.”  Luke 1: 26-37 (NJKV)
1)   Give God your Undivided Attention. "The angel went to her and said, 'Greetings, you who are highly favored! The Lord is with you.' Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God." (Luke 1:28-30)"How I wish my people would listen to me; how I wish they would obey me!" (Psalm 81:13, TEV)
2)   Discover God's Different and Better Plans for Your Life. "'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" (Jer. 29:11)
a)   God's Plans Are Always Bigger than Our Plans. "You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David." (Luke 1:31-32)
b)   God's Plans Are Always More Challenging than Our Plans. "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awake him out of sleep." The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus is dead; and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him." Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him." (John 11:11-16) "My thoughts are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways," (Isaiah 55:8)
c)    God's Plans Are Always More Rewarding than Our Plans. "No one has ever seen, heard, or even imagined what wonderful things that God has ready for those who love the Lord." (1 Cor. 2:9, LB)
3)   Trust God Even When You Don't Fully Understand. "'I am the Lord's servant,' Mary answered. 'May it be to me as you have said.'" (Luke 1:38) "Without faith it is impossible to please God..." (Heb. 11:6)"And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them." (Rom. 8:28, NLT)
_________________________________
"The true gift of Christmas is not found in a present under the tree; it is found in His presence in our lives."

Kicked outa the manger...

2005-12-10T11:27:00.000-08:00

OK, R'Cat's got my crank turnin' with her Daily Advent Meditations over at Cathouse Chat. Another good'un today riffing off the Mark Lowry song, "Mary Did You Know?" (A song that, by now, has been recorded by nearly everyone and his dog, but well worth a listen, IMO. I happen to like the Kenny Rogers/Wynonna Judd version.) I recieved a rather lengthy email yesterday, one of those multi-forwarded things with an article supposedly (probably true, just haven't bothered to check) reproduced from a newspaper article going slightly "mad dog" all over the hyper-secularization of Christmas. This comment set me back on my heels:

"We've allowed the Baby Jesus to be kicked out of His lowly manger, and those offended by Christmas are still not happy."

Well, d'oh. What did The Man Himself have to say about such things?

18 "If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. 19 If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20 Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me. 22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. 25 But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without a cause.'(_a_) John 15:18-27 NJKV

And some of the foundational teachings of the Christian church include multiple reminders of Christ's humility and of Christians' call to emulate it.

For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake... Phil. 1:29 NKJV

And

5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Phil. 2:5-8 NKJV

So, an ACLU mentality wants to "kick the baby Jesus out of his lowly manger"? If Philippians 2:5-8 is a true witness, then He'd just sleep on the floor.

Consider the old Christmas song:

1. Thou didst leave Thy throne and Thy kingly crown when Thou camest to earth for me,
But in Bethlehem's home there was found no room for Thy holy nativity.
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus, There is room in my heart for Thee!

2. Heaven's arches rang when the angels sang, proclaiming Thy royal degree;
But in lowly birth didst Thou come to earth, and in great humility,
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus, There is room in my heart for Thee!

3. The foxes found rest and birds their nest in the shade of the forest tree;
But Thy couch was the sod, O Thou Son of God, in the desert of Galilee,
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus, There is room in my heart for Thee!

4. Thou camest, O Lord, with the living word that should set Thy people free;
But with mocking scorn, and with crown of thorn, they bore Thee to Calvary.
O come to my heart, Lord Jesus, There is room in my heart for Thee!

5. When the heavens shall ring, and her choirs shall sing at Thy coming to victory,
Let Thy voice call me on, saying, "Yet there is room, there is room at My side for thee."
And my heart shall rejoice, Lord Jesus, when Thou comest and callest for me.

So, the secular world finds less and less room for Christ in Christmas, in public displays, in store greetings and product labels, etc.? There's always room to keep Christ in Christmas where it counts.

A Christmas Lullaby

2005-12-02T13:44:00.000-08:00

The Gift

2005-12-01T19:13:00.000-08:00

The Gift

Trees and lights and bells and carols;
Bright-wrapped packages, piled high;
Winter's sharp blow joins the heralds:
"Christmas-time is nigh!"

Mailmen hurry; shoppers scurry;
Time is fleeing - Oh! So fast!
Parties gather, loud and merry,
Grander than in Christmas' past.

Pause a moment to remember
That a Savior's simple birth
Still stirs angel wings in susur' -
"Peace to men; good will on earth!"

Now the Father's hands that molded
The first Adam in the clay,
Gently 'round a manger folded,
Cradle a Baby in the hay.

So the Greatest Gift extended,
Gift of love and peace to all,
"God's great love to man descended"
Calls us to a manger stall.

Job was a piker

2005-11-19T18:18:00.000-08:00

[NOTE: I am posting this "Thanksgiving" post in advance of Thanksgiving Day in hopes that it might help even just one person redirect their thinking as we approach a day set apart especially for giving thanks.]

The biblical story of Job is a story of faith in the face of extreme adversity.

You probably know the story well. Satan makes his appearance in the court of The Most High and suggests that he can turn even the most faithful of men, Job, away from faith in God. God gives Job over to Satan to afflict reserving only Job's life for Himself.

In the trials that ensue, Job loses his wealth, [almost all of] his family and his health. His friends counsel him to forsake his faith, and in one of the most famous lines of the Old Testament, his wife tells him to "Curse God and die."

Pretty darned bad, eh?

But Job's just a myth, right?

How about an historical example, well-known and verified?

It was the worst of times; it was the worst of times. (Not so Dickensian, but oh, so true.) War had ravaged the land for 30 years. During that time, Martin had served as one of the pastors of a once-prosperous town that had suffered greatly in the war. Sacked three times. Saved from sacking once only by courageous negotiations with a conquering general/king by one simple pastor... but still ruined again economically at the end of the negotiations.

This simple pastor had also seen his family, friends, colleagues and thousands of townspeople and refugees killed by plague and hunger, and at times during the war years, when he was the sole remaining pastor of the town, he was called upon not only to conduct the funerals of his own wife and children, but also to conduct 40-50 funerals a day for families of friends and neighbors-the townspeople he served so long and knew so well-and of those from the crowded masses of refugees from the war-torn countryside. All-in-all, he performed nearly 5,000 funerals during these years.

The war was the Thirty Years War (1618-1648). The town was Eilenburg, in Saxony. The man was Martin Rinkart. In response to all those years of affliction, he penned these words:

Now thank we all our God, with heart and hands and voices,
Who wondrous things has done, in Whom this world rejoices;
Who from our mothers' arms has blessed us on our way
With countless gifts of love, and still is ours today.

O may this bounteous God through all our life be near us,
With ever joyful hearts and blessèd peace to cheer us;
And keep us in His grace, and guide us when perplexed;
And free us from all ills, in this world and the next!

All praise and thanks to God the Father now be given;
The Son and Him Who reigns with Them in highest Heaven;
The one eternal God, Whom earth and Heaven adore;
For thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore.

Be thankful for your blessings? Yes. But even when you cannot see any "blessings" be thankful still.

Crossposted to third world county and Cathouse Chat.

Evensong

2005-11-15T17:36:00.000-08:00

You know, sometimes when things around me are moving at a pace that challenges my sanity; when I'm just too darned tired for words; when the tintinabulation of the bells (the bells, the bells... ) in my ears beckons to the Edgar Allen Poe part of me, it's time to take a break and listen to the voice of Robert Louis Stephenson...

EVENSONG
THE embers of the day are red
Beyond the murky hill.
The kitchen smokes: the bed
In the darkling house is spread:
The great sky darkens overhead,
And the great woods are shrill.
So far have I been led,
Lord, by Thy will:
So far I have followed, Lord, and wondered still.
The breeze from the enbalmed land
Blows sudden toward the shore,
And claps my cottage door.
I hear the signal, Lord - I understand.
The night at Thy command
Comes. I will eat and sleep and will not question more.

I love the story of Stevenson's life; it is the story behind his poetry.

"Stevenson had a very uncomplicated view of art; he would have rewritten Horace to assert that it was better to entertain than to instruct...."

And yet. His words often do more than either entertain or instruct. I wonder if folks bound up in power games, "success at any cost" climbs up corporate or or bureaucratic or political ladders ever stop to consider The End. No, really think about it. How many congresscritters or ladder-climbing backstabbers (a partial redundancy? :-) will be able to look at the end of their lives and say,

Under the wide and starry sky
Dig the grave and let me lie:
Glad did I live and gladly die,
And I laid me down with a will.

This be the verse you 'grave for me:
Here he lies where he long'd to be;
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.

Linked at third world county, Choose Life! Crossposted at CatHouse Chat

Plus Ça Change...

2005-11-09T08:56:00.000-08:00

Plus C'est La Même Chose...

Paris, July 14, 1789:

Paris November 4, 2005

That's right. five days ago was the tenth day of rioting in France.

Pray for the French people, their leaders and even the damned fool* rioters.

"... I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to themthat hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you..." -Matthew 5:44

(Yes, that was NOT profanity; it was a theological assessment.)
Linked at third world county and at Diane's Stuff.

Fo Gigure

2005-09-18T13:29:00.000-07:00

THIS POST LEFT INTENTIONALLY BLANK

Be Steadfast, Unmovable...

2005-09-03T11:46:00.000-07:00

Lotsa thoughts on Katrina and the aftermath. Most of them can wait, but this one is a Labor Day Weekend/Katrina thought, a kinda blast from the past slamming head-on into the mess in the Katrna footprint.

I remember my pastor’s Labor Day Weekend Sermon in 1993 vividly. While he was preaching, I was writing a song from his sermon that’s been the single “most performed by people I respect” piece I’ve written.

Here’s his text:

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. I Corinthians 15:58

Think about that. Then go here and think about it some more.

Think on this and get back with me...

2005-08-17T23:47:00.000-07:00

From The Princess and Curdie by George MacDonald:

'But if you want me to know you again, ma'am, for certain sure,' said Curdie, 'could you not give me some sign, or tell me something about you that never changes - or some other way to know you, or thing to know you by?'

'No, Curdie; that would be to keep you from knowing me. You must know me in quite another way from that. It would not be the least use to you or me either if I were to make you know me in that way. It would be but to know the sign of Me - not to know me myself. it would be no better than if I were to take this emerald out of my crown and give it to you to take home with you, and you were to call it me, and talk to it as if it heard and saw and loved you. Much good that would do you, Curdie! No; you must do what you can to know me, and if you do, you will. You shall see me again in very different circumstances from these, and, I will tell you so much, it may be in a very different shape. But come now, I will lead you out of this cavern; my good Joan will be getting too anxious about you. One word more: you will allow that the men knew little what they were talking about this morning, when they told all those tales of Old Mother Wotherwop; but did it occur to you to think how it was they fell to talking about me at all? It was because I came to them; I was beside them all the time they were talking about me, though they were far enough from knowing it, and had very little besides foolishness to say.'

It was precisely this kind of allegory that led Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and others to draw inspiration from George MacDonald's works.

Posted also at third world county

How do you know?

2005-08-14T07:15:00.000-07:00

Napster asked—and answered—this question in her own inimitable way over at Pull My Finger.

"How do you know when you are truly, madly, and deeply in love?"

Well, after 27 years of being "truly, madly, and deeply in love" with Wonder Woman, I guess it's when I see all her imperfections—scars, wrinkles, whatever—and she looks more beautiful than when we wed.

What can I say? I'm besotted with the woman.

How about you? What's your first (as in ordinal, not necessarily temporal) clue?

:-)

imbibo capulus ergo sum

2005-07-31T02:52:00.000-07:00

It shouldn't take a Latin scholar to translate "imbibo capulus ergo sum"

This is another one of those days when "I drink coffee, therefore I am" is my byword du jour.

Need. More. Coffee.

Wonder Woman knew this instinctively and brewed a pot immediately upon rising. Bless her!

Love is caffeinated bliss.

2005-06-15T18:09:00.000-07:00

Haloscan commenting and trackback have been added to this blog.

The Water's Wide

2005-06-12T01:47:00.000-07:00

Stroll on over to Keep the Coffee Coming and start your day out with a good song...

"The Water is Wide" is a longtime fav of mine. The tune was strong in me Oct 4-6, 1998, and glad I was for it... CLICK the link and listen to a fine singing of it by John Gorka over at Kat's place.

"Woke up this mornin'... "

2005-06-10T00:50:00.000-07:00

You write your own blues song for today. Go ahead. use the standard, all-purpose "Woke up this mornin'" opener.

Not me. Woke up this morning to a cool, overcast day here in America's Third World County™. Out and about early. The greens really poppin'. Small town tree-lined-and-shaded (almost "tree-wrapped") streets. Oaks and elms and maples and willows and pecans and walnuts and magnolias and... green, green grasses of every imaginable variety. My front yard, which is mostly suited to growing rocks and moles, nevertheless green and in need of mowing.

I tell myself it's too wet.

Look at all the marigolds! And all the other purty flars I cain't put a name to right now. (Sadly, my dandelion crop was a bit disappointing this year. *sigh*) In our front flar bed. Purty. And that hosta I transplanted from the neighbor's yard (hey! He asked me to dig it up and take it. Really!) last week is lookin' real good, too. Even those bulbs of some indeterminate flar from my neighbor's back yard are shooting out fast. And that lil cypress I planted for Arbor Day I thought was dead? Shoots comin' up at the base.

Heck, it's too purty today to work myself to death, even though I have no client work scheduled and yard work beackons.

"It's too wet to mow," I repeat...

OTOH, I did pledge to Wonder Woman that I'd finish up Step 1 on the south wall of the living room. My son asked me why I was doing a complicated faux plaster/paint/glaze treatment since I plan to cover the whole wall with a bookcase/entertainment center. The answer, of course, is that I will know what's behind all that.

You know, maybe that's another issue to address in pop culture. Few seem to care what's behind all the flash and sizzle... If it's purty on the outside, on the part that's seen then that's all that seems to count for many.

Another day, maybe. Today's just too beautiful.

OK, maybe later today...

:-)

Posted: Precision Guided Humor Roundup: Fantasy Headlines!

2005-06-09T05:31:00.000-07:00

The Alliance of Free Blogs has its weekly PGHA list up. Worth some surfing...

Check out the Fantasy Headlines for 2006 here. Oh, and be sure and catch this guy's fantasy headlines while you're at it. (Yeh. Shameless plug.)

Crosses aCross America

2005-06-08T06:17:00.000-07:00

Cao did me the very good turn of linking to Crosses aCross America—Thanks, Cao!

Take up the torch. Hold high the flame of your faith. Clearly and unapologetically proclaim your religious beliefs, regardless of pressures from LLMB and MMPA to remove all such expressions from public view. Put crosses on your lawn or home. Stars of David. Whatever symbol proclaims your true faith.

OK, for some of you that will be a picture of Franklin on a $100 bill. That's fine, as long as it is honest. (We'll talk later. :-) It's your right to do so.

Oh, and while you are at it—putting up symbols—better make darn sure your lifestyle affirms what those symbols stand for...

Crossposted at third world county.

Five are up!

2005-06-08T02:48:00.000-07:00

Get 'em while they're hot!

The Beeb has Beethoven's symphonies #1—#5 up and available for download right now. High quality mp3s. Large downloads, so I hope you have a fat pipe or a lot of patience (and a good download manager) if you are on dialup. Very credible performances, so far.

See what's happening at Random Rambling

2005-06-04T10:26:00.000-07:00

Some interesting viewpoints and some growth as a writer going on over there at Random Rambling.

Drop on over and comment on one of his posts—particularly the one where he's asking for reading suggestions in sci-fi. It's kinda fun for me to see someone's writing and thinking visibly tighten up as they write more (unlike mine, which remains as prolix and obscurantist as ever, no matter what I try to do to be brief and simple and stay on topic. See what I mean? *LOL*).

Oh, and while you're at it, why not send other folks by to make sci-fi reading suggestions or just (constructively) comment on one of his posts?

BTW, for those of you who care, he's one of the good guys. yep. That's what I said. A devoted coffee drinker. Don't get me wrong; he's got his own set of problems. Yep. He likes rap "music". *shudder*

:-)

Take note(s)

2005-06-03T15:25:00.000-07:00

NOTE CHANGE: Beginning next ~~Monday~~, [ed--first performance broadcast Monday, downloads begin to be available Tuesday] the BBC will be offering all 9 of Beethoven's symphonies for download...

Info at the site:

Download all nine of Beethoven's symphonies here the day after they are broadcast. All the symphonies are performed by BBC Philharmonic, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda.

Symphonies 1 & 3 will be broadcast on Monday 6th June, and available to download from Tuesday 7th June to Monday 13th June.
Symphonies 2, 4 & 5 will be broadcast on Tuesday 7th June, and available to download from Wednesday 8th June to Tuesday 14th June.
Symphony 6 will be broadcast on Monday 27th June, and available to download from Tuesday 28th June to Monday 4th July.
Symphony 7 will be broadcast on Tuesday 28th June, and available to download from Wednesday 29th June to Tuesday 5th July.
Symphony 8 will be broadcast on Wednesday 29th June, and available to download from Thursday 30th June to Wednesday 6th July.
Symphony 9 will be broadcast on Thursday 30th June, and available to download from Friday 1st July to Thursday 7th July

Always a good idea to hear other interpretations of these works. I have my favs, but I can be surprised by a fresh performance, just like anyone else.

The BBC is still stuck in the 20th Century and requires Real Player for (a rather limited) live listening, rather than adopting a better, more cross-platform streaming solution, so downloading the mp3s after they are made available may be the best option for you. OTOH, here's a Real Player alternative that works. Transparent and (completely unlike Real Player) non-intrusive, non-invasive, Real Alternative is a decent software solution to Real Player's stinkiness.

Good eats; great treats. What's not to like?

2005-06-03T03:34:00.000-07:00

Carnival of the Recipes #42 is up at Conservative Friends

Oh man! I already had Christine's Pancake Soufflé on the schedule for this weekend, and now I'm working through about a month's worth of new recipes in this Carnival alone!

Go check out the foods of the blogoshere, drool, wipe your face (and change your clothes) and then get out your grocery list, cos it's gonna be a great ride with the grocery cart after this one!

Of course, don't neglect my quick n easy quiche recipe. And browse around third world county while you're at it. There's bound to be something here that'll annoy the devil outa you.

:-)

Meme-ory Lane

2005-06-03T01:17:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: Romeocat loves this "meme-ory" tag. I can see why. Her list reminds me of many other childhood memories of my own.
UPDATE #2: Spurs chimes in with... another list I can resonate strongly with. Oh, and Spurs just HAD to add another meme-ory—and it's one that'll crack you up... Spurs really got ahead on his blogroll entry rent. :-)
UPDATE #3: Christine outdoes herself! She posted a collection not only at Morning Coffee and Afternoon Tea, but a different collection at By the Way.
UPDATE #4:

BTW, if you're not a regular reader of any of the blogs above, browse around their blogs for some good reads. I blogrolled each of these because I read them daily.

Detestable Dan does it again,
(I don't know what's up with this guy)
He tags me once more, detestable man,
Just winds one up and lets fly!

Dan Riehl, of Riehl World View, decided the way to end the week was by misspelling the name of my blog (he obviously has no idea how hard it is to get my fingers to type "Riehl"), insulting me and then asking me to participate in what he calls "this Detestable Meme."

"...Third World Country [SIC] - I know, I didn't take up some of the memes you sent me. One was even the music meme mentioned in VC's double whammy post. For saddling me with such tremendous guilt, what better pay back than to return the favor. No need to thank me. Bwahahaha!"

Ever one to fold in the face of such saccharine sweetness and smarmy blandishments (no thanks to Dan, indeed :-) I hereby take up the torch he passes on! Anyone singed by the flame can take responsibility for their own burns. That'll teach you a lesson.

The rules (quoting Dan, with minor edits):

Remove the #1 item from the following list, bump everyone up one place and add your blog's name in the #5 spot. You need to... actually link to each of the blogs for the link-whorage aspect of this fiendish meme-age to kick in.

Next, select four unsuspecting victims, list and link to them.

Fine

Boudicca's Voice – With boys like yours, Bou, you just HAVE to do this... for perspective, if nothing else. :-)
Cathouse Chat's Romeocat – What with the move and all, you have all that extra time on your hands for this, right?
Morning Coffee & Afternoon Tea – Christine has to have some interesting answers for this.
Pull My Finger – to paraphrase Dan Riehl, rent's due on the blogroll, Spurs. :-)

Now - the subject of "this Detestable Meme" is Five Things I Miss From My Childhood:

1. The Green Rocking Chair: Sitting in that chair in a day when being five didn't mean being bundled off to Prison For Kids, Heidi (our Dachsund) in my lap hanging her head over the side to catch some warmth from the floor heater, watching black and white TV. In the evening, the five of us kids would swarm Mother's lap as she sat in that chair and read us Bible stories.

2. Granddaddy's Whistling: the guy was a credible bass singer, a competent all-around handyman (was a farmer with foresight: missed the Depression and the Dustbowl by that much by getting abd keeping a job in the post office shortly before both whomped the small OK town he lived in), great company—stories, poetry, fishing, teaching a boy how to hold a paintbrush, use a saw, make a magnet, swing a hammer and much, much more. And boy, could he whistle a tune. Add in Grandmother's cooking and what more could a boy want in the summer? Oh, yeh. Climbing the redbud tree in his back yard with a matching cousin.

3. My Schwinn: Easily modified from Dan's listing of a much newer ten-speed bike (Dan must still be in his first childhood for him to remember one of those new-fangled ten-speeds as a fav childhood memory -CORRECTION: Dan's first was an older model :-). Second hand. Heavy clunker with those old fat tires. Red. One speed, stomp-on-'em brakes. Coasting down the looooong hills to the public library (and slogging that one-speed back up 'em on the way home) riding over squashed frogs there and back in the spring and enjoying the bite of the air and sting of snow in the winter. Hit twice from behind by cars when the drivers just weren't looking, the second time retired that old bike forever.

4. Dad-Dad's preaching: Add Granddaddy's ability to quote page upon page of Sir Walter Scott to Dad-Dad's sermons and it's little wonder I grew up with an ear tuned to detect subliterate speech. heh. For a guy from a hardscrabble tobacco farm in the Ozarks whose high school and college education came late, after some years in the Oklahoma boomtown oilfields, Dad-Dad was one of the two most literate men I have ever met (due in large part to one of the most literate women I have ever met: his wife, Me-Ma, who was also his teacher). I still re-read his sermons from time to time when I want to hear clear, honest, good speaking.

5. The Little Red Wagon: Yep. That Little Red Wagon. It wasn't so much mine as it belonged to all of us—me and my four sibs. We'd load the thing up and off we'd go down the street—wherever. It was a great dump truck for hauling dirt around the back yard when building yet another fort. A handy piece of equipment for my first business venture: gathering (with my older and very grown up and responsible seven-year-old sister to watch our for me) discarded pop bottles from alleys and empty lots in the vicinity of our neighborhood, taking them down to the corner grocery and redeeming them for warm, fuzzy cash. Of course, my sister—and later other sibs—had their share of the loot. And, truth be told, the venture was her idea, anyway, as I recall.

There, now. That wasn't as hard as I had supposed it might be. Of course, if may have something to do with the way my memories age as I get older. From a distance, they all seem to be surrounded by a slight golden haze... eh? What's that you say sonny? I cain't hear ya boy! Speak up... (aehhhh kids these days...)

NOTE: the "five things" above are in no particular order and draw from a deep well. I could easily have listed any of many other five things. Dan even points to one of them in another post on his blog when he mentions Michelle Malkin's recent spelling bee post. but that's another tale all its own and belongs in one of my public school rants.

Posted also at third world county.

Good news for folks stuck with bad internet experience

2005-05-18T18:34:00.000-07:00

Every now and then, I'll simply post a helpful hint or two for folks

Just go here for info on using a better web browser than you probably have right now.

Back to regular programming.

The Cows

2005-05-18T04:29:00.000-07:00

This isn't new, but it's... cropping up again. heh

For those of y'all who've experienced the so-called "worship wars" in your local churches, this lil cautionary tale:

"The Cows Are in the Corn"

("First Verse")

What is a chorus?

An old farmer went to the city one weekend and attended the big city church. He came home and his wife asked him how it was.

"Well," said the farmer, "It was good. They did something different, however. They sang praise choruses instead of hymns."

"Praise choruses," said his wife, "What are those?"

"Oh, they're okay. They're sort of like hymns, only different," said the farmer.

"Well, what's the difference?" asked his wife.

The farmer said, "Well it's like this: If I were to say to you: 'Martha, the cows are in the corn,' well, that would be a hymn. If, on the other hand, I were to say to you:

'Martha, Martha, Martha,

Oh, Martha, MARTHA, MARTHA,

the cows, the big cows, the brown cows, the black cows, the white cows, the black and white cows,

the COWS, COWS, COWS are in the corn,

are in the corn, are in the corn, are in the corn, the CORN, CORN, CORN.'

Then, if I were to repeat the whole thing two or three times, well that would be a praise chorus."

("Second Verse")

What is a Hymn?

A young, new Christian went to his local church usually, but one weekend attended a church in the city. He came home and his wife asked him how it was.

"Well," said the young man, "It was good. They did something different, however. They sang hymns instead of regular songs."

"Hymns," said his wife, "What are those?"

"Oh, they're okay. They're sort of like regular songs, only different," said the young man.

"Well, what's the difference?" asked his wife.

The young man said, "Well it's like this: If I were to say to you, 'Martha, the cows are in the corn,' well that would be a regular song.

If, on the other hand, I were to say to you:

'Oh Martha, dear Martha, hear thou my cry.
Inclinest thine ear to the words of my mouth.
Turn thou thy whole wondrous ear by and by
to the righteous, inimitable, glorious truth.

For the way of the animals who can explain;
There in their heads is no shadow of sense.
Hearkenest they in God's sun or his rain
unless from the mild, tempting corn they are fenced.

Yea those cows in glad bovine, rebellious delight,
Have broke free their shackles, their warm pens eschewed.
Then goaded by minions of darkness and night,
they all my mild Chilliwack sweet corn have chewed.

So look to that bright shining day by and by,
where all foul corruptions of earth are reborn,
where no vicious animal makes my soul cry
And I no longer see those foul cows in the corn.'

"Then, if I were to do only verses 1, 3, and 4, and do a key change on the last verse, well, that would be a hymn."

(For the next few days, expect some of these canned posts, written up, saved and ready for posting. Probably not much over next few days'll be current events related. Time. Other things.)

Dandelions

2005-05-16T04:52:00.000-07:00

A brief exposition on Matthew 6: 28-29

"Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

Weeds are all in the eye (and heart) of the beholder. Let me submit for your consideration the lowly dandelion. Was there ever a more beautiful yellow, a more deliciously luscious green? What a feast for the eyes!

And yet, our culture considers the dandelion to be a pest plant; not merely useless, but something to be eradicated. *sigh* Useless? Every part (excepting the seed puffball) of the dandelion is edible. The greens cleaned and steamed or boiled are not only tasty but highly nutritious. The root, after cleaning, peeling and then blanching, boiling or roasting is also highly nutritious and useful in many ways. And even the yellow bloom is nutritious and a treat for both the eye and the tastebuds in salads.

And what can I say of dandelion wine?

:-)

And, as much as our society spends to eradicate this nutritious food and lovely flowering plant, it thrives in spite of all the poisons thown its way. And have you ever attempted to pull a dandelion to get rid of the "weed"? Unless you get every last piece of the root, it's more than likely to simply grow back.

Lilies of the field? Nah.

"Consider the dandelions how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these."

Consider these parallels to the Christian life that penetrate a tad deeper than we might think of lilies' simple dependence on God's provision for the glory of their raiment. The perseverance of the dandelion is a quality much to be admired... and emulated. ("Weary not in well-doing... " Gal: 6:6 ff.) Their very real beauty is despised by the world. ("For we are a sweet aroma of Christ to God, in those who are saved, and in those who perish; to the one a stench from death to death; to the other a sweet aroma from life to life." 2Cor 2:15-16) And on, and on--the dandelion's usefulness: despised; the dandelion's persistance: persecuted *s*; and yet they raise their puffball heads above the fields to be cut down... and in dying, spread themselves even further afield.

See this post in a slightly different light at third world county

This reader sings!

2005-05-10T10:37:00.000-07:00

Christine, of Morning Coffee and Afternoon Tea, honors my humble ode to the Holy Bean with a recording...

...and made the recording available here as an mp3 download. Very nice voices, genuinely interesting voicing variations, well-sung. All musical mistakes are mine in the manuscript. All else in the recording is perfectly in character for the piece. A fun interpretation.

Thanks, Christine! You'd have been welcome in any choir I ever directed!

BTW, if you want a visual tutorial in lucious blog design, trip on over to Christine's place for that reason alone. Easy on the eyes design. Information-dense. Nice.

Another note: since starting out as an Insignificant Microbe in the TTLB Ecosystem last weekend, Morning Coffee and Afternoon Tea has evolved to Crawly Amphibian. Be sure to wave as she passes you going up the evolutionary ladder! *VBG*

A Honey of a Mom

2005-05-05T00:06:00.000-07:00

I think that I shall never see
My mom when she ain't like a bee.
A bee with honey and a sting
Cos both make bees a wondrous thing.

Aww.. Grow Up: Kipling Tuesday

2005-05-02T23:39:00.000-07:00

A portion of what is missing from the generations of perpetual adolescents we are producing via "public education" and pop culture: the desire to take a responsible place in adult society:

The Children's Song
Puck of Pook's Hills

Land of our Birth, we pledge to thee
Our love and toil in the years to be;
When we are grown and take our place
As men and women with our race.

Father in Heaven who lovest all,
Oh, help Thy children when they call;
That they may build from age to age
An undefiled heritage.

Teach us to bear the yoke in youth,
With steadfastness and careful truth;
That, in our time, Thy Grace may give
The Truth whereby the Nations live.

Teach us to rule ourselves alway,
Controlled and cleanly night and day;
That we may bring, if need arise,
No maimed or worthless sacrifice.

Teach us to look in all our ends
On Thee for judge, and not our friends;
That we, with Thee, may walk uncowed
By fear or favour of the crowd.

Teach us the Strength that cannot seek,
By deed or thought, to hurt the weak;
That, under Thee, we may possess
Man's strength to comfort man's distress.

Teach us Delight in simple things,
And Mirth that has no bitter springs;
Forgiveness free of evil done,
And Love to all men 'neath the sun!

Land of our Birth, our faith, our pride,
For whose dear sake our fathers died;
Oh, Motherland, we pledge to thee
Head, heart and hand through the years to be!

Musical teleology

2005-04-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

There is just no other art so strong as a piece of music that knows where it's going...

Every now and then I hear a piece that simply captures me. The piece can be a longer work, even symphonic, or a short song. The magical part is that it's designed to travel to a specific meaning and it effectively works to arrive where it's designed to go.

It's easy to see why Sibelius' Finlandia was the first piece that strongly struck me so. Mahler's #1 was another such. More recently, such choral pieces as Marta Keen's Homeward Bound and Nick Glennie-Smith and Randall Wallace's Mansions of the Lord . In particular, I have felt a yen to listen to Mansions a lot today/tonight.

The link above leads to a portion of the performance at Ronald Reagan's funeral. Here are the lyrics. You tell me: is it as effective a piece as it seems to me?

"The Mansions of the Lord"
Music: Nick Glennie-Smith
Lyrics: Randall Wallace

To fallen soldiers let us sing
where no rockets fly nor bullets wing
Our broken brothers let us bring
to the mansions of the Lord

No more bleeding no more fight
No prayers pleading through the night
just divine embrace, eternal light
in the mansions of the Lord

Where no mothers cry and no children weep
We will stand and guard to the angels' sleep
All through the ages safely keep
the mansions of the Lord

On Contentment

2005-03-28T15:33:00.000-08:00

Not Kipling...

This, from the pen of Robert Louis Stevenson, is my fav from any poet not Shakespeare or Kipling :-)

EVENSONG

THE embers of the day are red
Beyond the murky hill.
The kitchen smokes: the bed
In the darkling house is spread:
The great sky darkens overhead,
And the great woods are shrill.
So far have I been led,
Lord, by Thy will:
So far I have followed, Lord, and wondered still.

The breeze from the enbalmed land
Blows sudden toward the shore,
And claps my cottage door.
I hear the signal, Lord - I understand.
The night at Thy command
Comes. I will eat and sleep and will not question more.

Stephenson wrote that heartfelt piece (as he wrote Requiem) after long years of ill health, financial and critical setbacks and during his struggles for justice for the Samoan peoples. Now, that's contentment. A well-crafted film of Stephenson's life is one I'd gladly pay theater prices to see. (Operative words: well-crafted.)

Aside: I had lost track of this for almost 30 years, after gifting a book with my one copy to someone just discovering a love of poetry, and had only my memory of the poem. I regularly (I now see) misquoted it to the tune of two wrong word choices *sigh*. Now, thanks to the good folks at Gutenberg.org and elsewhere, it's at my fingertips day or night.

Cruci-fix

2005-03-27T08:44:00.000-08:00

Hard Medicine for a Hopeless Case

Now edited to include the whole thing and *bumped* to Easter Sunday

Cruci-fix

A springtime day; a windy hill:

A man had come to die.

Torture done, the crowd grew still:

He breathed out one last sigh.

Prince of life; Creator-Son--

Died on Calv’ry’s tree:

Lord of all creation,

Crucified for me!

Then all the shadowed sway of earth

Groaned aloud in pain--

That God, who came in humble birth,

Had died for mankind's gain.

Prince of life; Creator-Son--

Died on Calv’ry’s tree:

Lord of all creation,

Crucified for me!

But as the heav'ns in darkness raged

And oceans foamed and roared,

Christ, the Son, would not be caged,

So, from death's prison soared.

Prince of Life; Creator-Son:

Victorious, the battle's won.

"Save" the Ten Commandments?

2005-03-02T12:51:00.000-08:00

Who says they need "saving"?

Every time someone sends me one of those "Save the Ten Commandments" (or other such) emails, I delete it, often after answering the email with a few reasons why it's the wrong fight.

Cal Thomas, one of the few unabashedly conservative Christian (as opposed to a political conservative who claims some "Christian" values) mainstream columnists has a good column that pretty well sums up my own position:

Read the whole article here.

A small taste:

Christians, who sometimes seem so bellicose about these things, believe Jesus Christ fulfilled every one of the Ten Commandments and thus became the perfect "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29). Christians also believe "a man is not justified by observing the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ" (Galatians 2:16) and "all who rely on observing the law are under a curse" (Galatians 3:10). They believe anyone who wishes to be judged by the law falls short and is condemned.

If Christians believe such things, why would they "settle" for the posting of the Ten Commandments through which they believe no one can be saved? Why not lobby for the display of their favorite verse: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (John 3:16)? The display of that verse on public property would surely be ruled unconstitutional, but at least Christians would be consistent with what they actually believe.

What puzzles me is the extent to which those who want government to endorse their faith seem ready to compromise their true beliefs in order to receive an honorable mention from the state.

Indeed. Of course, most "Christians" in our culture are "cultural Christians" and not believers. (And even many who claim to be believers are Pelagians in word and deed: where's St David when you need him?) Most need the props of the state and society to either directly support them or to rebel against in order to find support for their "faith."

Regardless of ACLU, Congress, local wackadoos or anyone else, we are to obey even illegitimate laws, unless they seek to prevent obedience to God, in such things as worship, witness and daily life of faith (the last two, of course, being really just aspects of "the worship offered by mind and heart." Rom 12:1 NEB). Witness Peter and John when forbidden to heal, eh?

"Save" the Ten Commandments? "Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my word shall not pass away." Luke 21:23 Let those who attack the Word first pull down heaven itself. (In their dreams... )

St David's Day

2005-03-01T14:52:00.000-08:00

DEWI SANT, written March 1, 1994 in honor of St David.
CLICK on the graphic for a full-sized view.

The text, tune and harmonies are as extemporaneously written. I've not done any editing for content or to redact either the text for poetic improvement or the music or text for better prosody. It stands as I first "heard" it. St David's evangelistic efforts, his combat of the Pelagian heresy, etc., are all reflected in the text, and placed in the context that he demonstrated that he considered to be of first importance: Christ and His work. This great 6th century missionary to Wales is a worthy model for us all, IMO, and he and all those who went before and followed after him in similar endeavors deserve our greatest respect.

Food Blogging

2005-02-25T05:18:00.000-08:00

Shedding Light on the Scourge of Dieting...

Methuselah ate what he found on his plate,
And never, as people do now,
Did he note the amount of the calorie count.
He ate it because it was chow.
He wasn’t disturbed as at dinner he sat,
Devouring a roast or a pie,
To think it was lacking in granular fat
Or a couple of vitamins shy.

He cheerfully chewed each species of food,
Unmindful of troubles or fears
Lest his health might be hurt by some fancy dessert,
And he lived over 900 years.

I like food. And food likes me. Unfortunately, over the years, I failed to account for my changing lifestyle, my aging metabolism, etc., and food liked me so much that more and more of it seemed to stick around on my body until my 42" chest became 48" (sometimes more) and my 34" waist became 42".. or more, and 235# stared me in the face whenever I dared torture the bathroom scales.

A couple of years ago, that changed. Someone introduced me to the idea of adding a particular 150 calorie food bar and a mild one-mile walk to my day, and the result has been a blessing. Now:

From clinically obese on a BMI (Body Mass Index) to normal. (All it took was 50# staying off.)
42" chest
36" waist
Baggy Pants Posterior Syndrome™
NO PAIN IN MY KNEES!!!

I still love food (last night was Green Chicken Casserole and "Mexican" beans, leaf lettuce salad, ice cream—not "diet frozen dessert"—and a few "gummis" for an additional sweet kick). But now, food is nicer to me.

Diets are for fat people. Since I didn't want to stay fat, it's kinda good I didn't diet, eh?

Lose the diet. Gain health.

Just walk outside

2005-02-22T05:47:00.000-08:00

Is it an early Spring or is it me?

If this is Global Warming™, then thank God for it. Last summer seemed particularly mild. This winter, the mildest I have seen around here in all the years we've lived in America's Third World County. I happen to like cold weather (on can always layer on more clothing; a certain minumum is required in hot weather... *heh*), but my wife, primarily because of PPS, cannot handle extremes of heat and cold, so the weather of the last year has been really helpful there.

Benefits?

Look at those crocuses peeking out early!

Trees are budding! (OK, that means allergens, but there are non-drug ways to handle that!)

Almost shirtsleeve weather pretty much from mid-January on (apart from a little early light frost before sunrise).

Dogs eating less!! (They are outside dogs and need more food in cold weather; I'm a tightwad. Therefore, less eating, less dogfood purchases, happy tightwad. *heh*)

Winter birds joined by other, more "Spring" birds picking birdfood off the deck rail (giving joy to me, the dogs, and the cats watching through the french doors).

Did I mention trees budding? The hils behind our house are turning green again—in February!

Sure, there's the possibility of a late freeze and some snow as late as March, but it's seeming more and more like this Winter is going down as one of the most (climactically) pleasant in memory.

What's the downside of Global Warming™? Well, the doom and gloom crowd (who only a few years ago were predicting a new ice age) would have us believe that mass starvation and economic depression, etc., are the most likely outcomes. Pull the other one. During the last global warming period, Vikings were farming Greenland. Right. That land of ice and snow was a net exporter of farming goods a thoudand years ago. The warming of that time produced such bumper crops in northern Europe that population boomed in response (and yes, rat population boomed as well and so did the bubonic plague—things we know how to deal with, now).

So, regardless of the doom and gloom crowd, I say if this is global warming, bring it on!

"Oh, what a beautiful mornin',
Oh, what a beautiful day.
I got a beautiful feelin'
Ev'rything's goin' my way..."

Don't miss it this year...

2005-02-21T07:31:00.000-08:00

Dydd Gwyl Ddewi (St David's Day), in honor of the other Celtic saint

For the life of me, I can't understand why Patrick is so honored (though mostly in the breech, as it were) and David so seemingly forgotten—at least outside of Wales. Ah, maybe that's it: the Irish, so unsuccessful in their own land, have huge swarms of folk in this, the most media-stricken land on the globe, and so Patrick just gets too much press.

"...Saint David, or Dewi Sant, as he is known in the Welsh language, is the patron saint of Wales. He was a Celtic monk, abbot and bishop, who lived in the sixth century. During his life, he was the archbishop of Wales, and he was one of many early saints who helped to spread Christianity among the pagan Celtic tribes of western Britain."from Saint David and Saint David's Day

If I can find it, I'll also post a short hymn I wrote considering the likes of Sts David and Patrick, tune name: DEWI SANT.

So grab yourself a leek or a daffodil to wear and be ready.

Saint David's Day is March 1.

Hugs

2005-02-18T14:34:00.000-08:00

God's way of telling you He's there

Well, hugs aren't the only way, of course. And "hugs" don't always mean someone wrapping their arms around you... physically. (Hang on; I know where I'm going with this. Really. *s*)

Remember Psalm 27:10? "Even though your parents forsake you, the Lord will recieve you."

Every friend fails us sometime. Aquaintances and associates—sometimes representing themselves as friends—stab us in the back with malicious gossip and outright slander all the time (you think not? Just wait). Even spouses betray each other and parents and children have fallings out. And at last, those most likely to stand by us "to the bitter end" die and "forsake" us. My wife's parents "left" her more than a decade ago (12yrs/16yrs). Mine are on that cusp of leaving.

Relationships fail.

Except.

"I will never leave you nor forsake you." (Joshua 1:5; Hebrews 13:5)

Now, that's a hug.

Good News for Frustrated, Burned-Out Übermoms (and dads, too)

2005-02-18T04:49:00.000-08:00

Kick back; chill out

This is just a little freaky. In the car with Mrs. Wonderful (she's my claim to the Mr. Wonderful title: I took her title on an honorary basis) yesterday, I channeled James Lileks and Muffy Mead-Ferro. *huh?!?* Yep. Got all soap-boxy on over-scheduled, super-pampered kids and the parents who bring them up to be spoiled brats who think the world and everyone in it owe them happiness.

So, how is this a bright spot? See Lileks' Bleat post, yesterday. (Go ahead, run his bandwidth usage up. *heh*) As a mostly work-from-home dad, Lileks makes some cogent observations, including this one:

"... I live in a world of moms, and their sense of ingenuity and amusement are a constant source of delight. I remember asking one mom how she dealt with all the tiny plastic pieces of Polly Pocket clothing that clutter the play room.

She rolled her eyes and grinned and made a back-and-forth motion with her hand. Hoover them up and move along."

Chill. The perfect is the enemy of the good (or as Lileks put it, "... the perfect is the enemy of the fun.").

And Muffy Mead-Ferro? Here's one Muffy with her head on straight. Author of "Confessions of a Slacker Mom," Muffy has her priporities in order:

“A lot of woman call it selfish unless you’re constantly putting your kids’ needs first. But I think that’s just bogus.”

Relax: kids are healthier if their every whim is NOT catered to, if their life is NOT filled with constant mini-vanning from one special activity after another. C'mon, now. How many of us grew up playing in the back yard after school? Cub Scouts or Brownies (back in the days when those organizations weren't overwhelmed by the ACLU and NOW and were just fun afternoon activities once a week in a neighbor's back yard or house) were OK. Maybe children's choirs at church. Some kids played in community-sponsored or church-sponsored sports or did things ocassionally at a pre-ACLU YMCA.

But all those things were preipheral, way back in the bad old days. More common were things like playing "500" out in the neighborhood street or making (not buying) and flying kites, right in one's own neighborhood. Doing chores around the house and yard. Homework often done before dinner and a relaxing evening.

Chill out. Take it easy. Let kids just be kids, explore their world as kids, have fun (or not) as they use their own creativity and resoueces. help out, but back off and enjoy along with them. Ferrying kids from one frenetic activity to the next isn't a life: it's just another job.

Chill out.

You'll smile, too

2005-02-17T17:49:00.000-08:00

Hey! Homer: lookin' fine!

Check out Manolo, "The Shoe Blogger" —he's really much more...

If you don't smile, I'll eat my shoes. (No, not really. That'd be sick. :-)

"Don't Blink"—A Meditation on Psalm 27:10

2005-02-16T05:25:00.000-08:00

Just what you need, today and every day

Over at "A Likely Story" you'll find this reassuring thought.

"Though my father and mother forsake me, the Lord will take me up." Ps 27:10

"Don't Blink"

Just go read it.

One candle...

2005-02-05T18:20:00.000-08:00

...passing light to another candle, passing light...

On the heels of the triumph of Iraqi voters last Sunday, I came across this "old news" from late January:

Afganistan Deploys Relief Mission to Indonesia

Say again? Yep, that's right. Afganistan. Imagine with me that the Taliban were still in power and sent a relief mission. Can't do it? Neither can I, and it's easy to see why. Such an act by the Taliban would strain credulity to the point of rupturing the very fabric of the universe... But a free and democratic Afganistan? Well, they learned their responsibilities from the most generous of models.

Afganistan Deploys Relief Mission to Indonesia

Let that roll around in your mind for a while. Seems the light from that "city set on a hill" President Bush referred to once is setting a few more candles alight.

Light Comes in Many Colors

2005-01-22T06:48:00.000-08:00

The Joys of Being a Tightwad

I had a wee moment of joy this a.m. when I started a load of clothes.

A little background. I am a tightwad. I enjoy good food, nice clothes, a comfortable life. My standard of living is probably several steps above our income level, though, because I am a tightwad. I want my good food, nice clothes, etc., at a much lower cost than society in general seems to be satisfied paying, and so I make it so by various means.

That's being a tightwad. I am not a miser, I spend freely, just always with an eye to the biggest bang for my buck. That doesn't mean "settling for" lower quality in anything that I deem a "quality of life" purchase.

I recycle. No, not send stuff off for others to recycle. Example: I was watching a DVD of an old Bob Hope/Bing Crosby movie the other day. While doing so, I was sitting on the floor with my grandfather's mini-anvil (made, appropriately enough, from a scrap of railroad steel :-), straightening nails taken from a bunch of lumber scraps discarded from a neighbor's demolition project.

Pure pleasure. Recycling used nails (which I could have purchased for pennies... pennies I now have for other things) while watching an old movie. At the end, a slightly sore wrist from wielding a 2# machinist's hammer (some of the nails were concrete nails), a bag of mixed nails I can use in projects recycling the discarded lumber scraps and a sense of satisfaction that I had not wasted the time enjoying the movie by simply slumping on the couch.

That's being a tightwad.

And then there was the tightwad's joy I experienced this a.m. when I started a load of clothes. Because I use a laundry soap that is rather special, it has a higher price per purchase than equivalent volumes of store brand laundry detergents. Not to worry. It's per use cost at the manufacturer's recommended usage is lower than store brand detergents. But being the tightwad that I am, by experimentation I have discovered that in our machine and with our water, we can get our clothes clean using half the recommended amounts. And its more effective formulation allows us to wash almost all our washloads on the washer's "delicate" setting, which uses less energy, is less wearing on the machine, is less wearing on the clothes themselves, etc.

Now, do you understand my smile when I do laundry? I get to have clean clothes, clothes that will last longer because of less stressful washings, using a less expensive (per use) cleaning agent, all the while lessening wear and tear on an expensive appliance and using less electricity to boot.

A tightwad's joy. All from making the choice to use one product that is more expensive per unit amount, while keeping an eye on the total picture regarding that price. Cost in many ways is less. For an end resut of a higher quality of life. (Now you know why I have virtually taken over doing laundry: it's a pleasure. A lil grin each time I do it. :-)

And so it goes. A bread machine, you say? What an extravagance! Well, consider just the cost of buying pizza versus making your own. In just that one example, one can save enough in a year to buy two bread machines...

Being a tightwad is such a joy.

Spreading the light of tightwaddery...

:-)

Will Wonders Never Cease?

2005-01-17T09:09:00.000-08:00

Well, actually, no.

Wonders will never cease. There's is just too much "out there" (and in "here") to discover, see, explore. Witness this set of pics (link via Instapundit ) of Titan.

Amazing. What a wonder.

O Blessed Holy Caffeine Tree!

2005-01-13T06:00:00.000-08:00

Just the thing for a cold, wet, dreary winter's morn...

The Holy Brew. It's not the taste, although that can be great. It's not the aroma, although that is heavenly. It's that my IQ gets a three-point boost with every cup. OK, some days it takes 10 cups to bring my IQ to its normal level, but for folks like me who are NOT "morning people" the Holy Bean is one of God's most wondrous gifts, and so I celebrate it as a gift of love from the Creator.

So there.

Some see this as an argument for banning webcams

2005-01-03T09:43:00.000-08:00

But I say silliness can be wonderful

This lil gem proves that silliness can be wonderful. Everyone (OK, all both of them [heh]) I have dragged in to watch it on my computer (so I could watch their recations) has reacted exactly the same. Not gonna tell you what their reactions were, but I bet your's will be the same. Check it out. I got such a kick outa it, I downloaded three versions...

(forgot earlier to credit Hog on Ice for pointing me to this day-brightener. Oh, and for cluing me in on Benno Moiseiwitsch WOW! How in the world have I missed hearing a pianist this great before now? He didn't "whistle" in the dark; he made his own light... Not silly, just wonderful!)

Not a Capital Offense—For ONE

2005-01-03T07:38:00.000-08:00

"...sleep, that knits up the raveled sleeve of care..."

This post was almost over at Third World County, but... ...as I was about to go all curmudgeonly over this morning, I realized something. Let me backtrack a bit. I have often said that waking someone unnecessarily isn't a capital offense, the first time. (Not really so much in jest: I once physically threw a college room mate out cos he thought I was kidding... ) This morning, about 30 minutes earlier than necessary (or really, useful) I was wakened. Um, unnecessarily.

Have I mentioned that I'm not a good waker? A couple of cups of coffee and I'm nearly human. Being wakened unnecessarily, in the middle of a dream cycle, is ordinarily a solid way to assure a grumpy morning. And I was certainly ready to be grumpy.

But then... I have someone to wake me. Now, that's a joy. I very nearly missed out on that the last six of our twenty-six years together, since she more than very nearly didn't make it past October 4, 1998. So, if I have to suffer through an occasional loss of sleep, it's a small price to pay in order to have her here to wake me (unnecessarily or not).

So, one of my rules for living has fallen captive to love. [heh] Oh, well.

:-)

Get a Life

2004-12-29T18:19:00.000-08:00

Doing Beats Watching Any Day

Several things met to create this post.

Someone asked me today what sport was "mine". The context lent the meaning, "What sport do you enjoy watching?" The questioner continued trying to discover what I am a "fan" of--Baseball, football, hockey, etc. I had to confess that unless I am actually a participant, I don't care at all about any sport. And watching someone else play a game just seems silly to me.

OTOH, I watched and listened with great pleasure—joy would not be too small a word—to James Galway's Lincoln Center concert, tonight. But then, having played a number of instruments and having a somewhat larger music "vocabulary"—shared understanding from participatory experiences—than most "sports fans" share with "their" game, the listening/watching experience was quite likely at a different level than most sports fans experience when watching a game.

(BTW, the performance highlighted to me the great chasm between "great" artist and merely wonderful artistry. When Lady Jeanne Galway joined her husband, the difference was readily apparent. She played beautifully, wonderfully, artistically. He played at another order of magnitude beyond that. Stunning—both of them—but more so because of the readily discernable difference between beautiful and truly great artistry.)

The third thing that led to this post was something quite out of the blue. Pushing a cart through Walmart—a Walmart we do not often frequent—I was stopped by a Walmart "associate" in the dairy section and asked, "Aren't you the whistler?" It seems that he recalled my visits to a Walmart in a different town, 20 miles away, where he had worked five years ago. Simply because I whistle tunes, often without conscious awareness, frequently when I am out and about, noodling around here at home, working—whenever.

Why do I whistle so much? Partly because my voice isn't what it once was. Partly because I don't play any instruments so often any more. But mostly because music isn't just something to consume; it is something to do, to make, and it's just there ready to be made.

I rarely listen to music on the radio.

I do not listen to tapes, records or CDs like I used to.

I rarely, as tonight, listen to/watch a concert.

Because music is to be done, music is to be made, not consumed as a passive listener with no creative participation.

Try it. Sing a song; whistle a tune; make some music. It beats the heck outa being just another consumer of someone else's creativity.

And a child shall lead them...

2004-12-24T07:40:00.000-08:00

2 Cor 5:17

I was in a curmudgeonly mood. Saw a (lame brained, pinheaded) celebrity quoted as saying that all he wanted was an "authentic life." I commented to my daughter that all he needed for that was a total personality transplant, heck! a pre-frontal lobotomy!

Her comment?

"He just needs to know Christ."

My lil ray of sunshine. (Grown woman: a "lil ray of sunshine"—she'll speak to me about that. :-)

In need of a lobotomy to change your life? Choose Christ instead.

Pass the Torch

2004-12-23T22:41:00.000-08:00

The Brightest and Best Need Not Go Hungry for Knowledge

In "email logging" and on another blog, I have often railed against the absolute stupidity of the so-called "public education system" in this country, but take note: there is hope. Another forum (Jerry Pournelle's website) often has contributions from some very bright people (in addition to Dr. Pournelle's comments) suggesting real world possibilities that offer hope for better education. In a recent discussion about possibilities for bright students who are often bored to tears or suppressed in our curent "prisons for kids" system, one offering suggests a real world way for bright kids to be challenged by some of the best and brightest minds who have walked in their shoes in recent years, a way for them to "pass the torch" as it were to many future generations that has not been available until now.

Here's an excerpt from that discussion:

"...sharp and wise guidance does not have to wait until the kids go away to college at age 18. Take just history as an example: Imagine someone video recorded (with highest HDTV resolution or even higher and with two or three cameras) all the history lectures of Samuel P. Huntington, David Landes, and a few dozen other top notch historians who teach history in the large. Make a list of the best guys and find out which ones will work most cheaply to have their stuff recorded and made generally available.

A similar process could be done in physics, math, and other areas with the brightest minds teaching what they think are important things to know.

This is a project so obviously needs to be done. Then superbright kids too young to live away from home can watch lectures made by superbright CalTech, Harvard, Stanford, and MIT professors. This could be done with math, physics, population genetics, psychometrics, and many other subjects. I bet Luigi Cavalli-Sforza would like to have his lectures live on after he has passed on. I bet some other eminent scientists feel likewise..."

Great idea! Books are great for "dialog" with great thinkers of the past, but there can be a wealth of information passed on in the way some folks speak their ideas that might just fire up the engines of imagination and exploration in young minds.

It's a great idea. A "light-sharing" kind of idea.

Merry Christmas: On the Gripping Hand

2004-12-23T09:34:00.000-08:00

Christmas=Evangelism

On another blog I wrote a very (VERY) brief comment about the kerfuffle surrounding "Merry Christmas" this year. It's become a tussle phrase for "traditionalists" of all stripes vs. the Loony Left Moonbat Brigade.

But that's not the issue in this commentary. Here's a thought/shade of memory that's almost always present whenever I say "Merry Christmas." I can recall vividly the many times that I witnessed my maternal grandfather openly, extravagantly displaying the Christmas spirit—at all times of the year, in all kinds of places. Here's a typical memory that surfaces or floats in the background whenever I say "Merry Christmas" to someone... and why it does.

Whenever I visited my maternal grandparents as a child or youth and the visit encompassed a Sunday, we went out to eat for Sunday "dinner" (lunch to much of the country :-). Invariably, Dad-Dad would be the last to our table and the last out the door because he had to stop and chat briefly with every person he saw. The conversation, if it were with a stranger, would always at some point allow Dad-Dad (allow, nothing—he made it so! :-) to bring up Jesus Christ, his Savior and Lord. Many of those conversations resulted in brief prayers and an exchange of contact information.

You see, Dad-Dad knew that the meaning and message of Christmas wasn't some warm, fuzzy , nebulous "goodwill to men" that we share at a holiday time, or a time of sharing love with family and friends. No, the meaning of Christmas is the Incarnation and all that implies: sinful man, doomed to an eternity in hell; a loving God who became man in the form of a baby boy in order to redeem this sinful world by His life and propitiary death and provide victory and hope through His resurrection.

When I asked him one time why he always stopped to talk to so many people, many of whom he did not—before!—know, on the way to his table (or out the door), he told me that he didn't want to be the one—missed!—opportunity that perhaps one person may have had to hear the gospel.

"Merry Christmas" is a prayer that God will bless the hearer with a saving knowledge of the life and work, the death, burial and resurrection, the daily presence of One who

" ...being in the form of God, did not think being equal with God something to cling to, but made Himself of no reputation, became a servant, coming as a man, And as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross..."

That's the message "Merry Christmas" holds for those who know Him: We celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior. The Light of the World, the Hope of the Nations.

Peace, goodwill toward men.

"Homeward Bound" by Marta Keen

2004-12-22T23:10:00.000-08:00

Until Then

You've probably recieved the link in email. It's all over the web/blogosphere. I blogged it last week, but it more properly belongs on my new blog (this one :-). Powerful. The images and the song as well. On the shockwave presentation "Until Then" the voices are (I think) the BYU Singers on their "Road Home" CD. Words and music by Marta Keen, as noted above.

If you've not yet seen it, just stop and view/listen. It takes a while to load, if you don't have broadband, but be patient. It's worth the wait. In a world of darkness, it's nice to stop and walk, even vicariously, in the light of such beautiful lyrics and music, in the light of courageous, hornorable men and women living, fighting, building, and yes, bleeding and dying for a just cause.

I'll not reproduce all the words of the song here, just a snippet. (I want to show some respect for Keen's copyright and so, a short snippet only, as "fair use" :-)

Homeward Bound

...If you find it’s me you're missing, if you’re hoping I’ll return.
To your thoughts I’ll soon be list’ning, and in the road I’ll stop and turn.
Then the wind will set me racing as my journey nears its end.
And the path I’ll be retracing when I’m homeward bound again.

Bind me not to the pasture, chain me not to the plow.
Set me free to find my calling and I’ll return to you somehow....

-Music and Lyrics by Marta Keen

And thanks again, to Bill at INDCJournal for the link.

If you aren't moved by this, you may need a "heart" implant. :-)

The Stuff of Dreams

2004-12-21T07:36:00.000-08:00

The Substance of things hoped for...

Just a brief pinprick of light, today. I'll not spend a lot of time explaining details, just leave things to readers smarter than I to figure out.

Any literate person, let alone biblically literate person, recognizes the subtitle. Paul (and if it was not Paul, it was his mental and spiritual clone) wrote that "Faith is the (tangible, measurable, sensible) stuff of things hoped for..." probably never thinking that he'd not be able to get through thick 21st century skulls.

The faith that Jesus and Paul and James (and others) knew and spoke about seems to have about as much in common with the religious faith of most Christians I know as Pope Paul has in common with Michael Moore, as Martha Stewart has with NASCAR. The faith of Jesus and His first century followers was substantial, not the eery will-o-the-wisp, insubstantial, wishful thinking that passes as faith among so many persons of religious persuasions today: theirs was stuff.

I'll not go into the theological, historical, cultural and linguistic commentary that this is derived from, but here it is:

The faith of Jesus, Paul, James and others might better be translated for 21st century ears as "trusting obedience" when viewed as human faith. God's faith is the obverse: it is His eternal, unwavering trustworthiness that makes our trusting obedience possible. I'll pause a moment for the culture clash as you consider God's faith.

...

...

(Sidebar: don't chase the rabbit trail of "faith vs. works"--it's a false dichotomy, as James adequately explains.)

Now, trusting obedience to God is substantial. It is evident to our senses, testable in tangible ways. When we walk by trusting obedience to God, not by our own limited vision and understanding, we do so knowing that He is with us, guiding, providing, protecting as He sees and understands for our ultimate good and for His glory. It is the walking in trusting obedience, living our daily lives in the knowledge of and submission to His desires for us, that is the stuff of hope.

That's faith. It's not a feeling or a manner of thought. It is what we do. And what we do is either faith in God or faith in something else. Many have faith in politics, money, prestige. Martin Luther had an image that dealt with the contrast between trusting obedience to God and trusting in and "obeying" the precepts of anything else. He envisioned the cross of Christ as a burning, searing fire shedding darkness and shadows on the path of those who were looking to anything else but Christ for direction, providence, salvation in their lives. To those who looked to Christ for direction, providence and salvation, however, it is a shining light to their path, illuminating pitfalls that once were hidden in shadows.

Faith. It ain't what you were taught in Sunday School. It's better.

Whistling in the light

2004-12-20T13:11:00.000-08:00

A different forum

I have another blog for my gripes, grumbles, complaints and observations about the unbearable darkness of being in this world of woe. The title of this blog, "Whistling in the Light" deals with other things that have occasionally intruded into my "gripes, grumbles, complaints" etc., on the other site.

Of course, "Whistling in the Light" is a play on "whistling in the dark"—as A V van Stekelenburg put it,

"... whistling, seems to be a natural and universal way for humans to cope with a situation of worrying loneliness. Hearing his own sound reassures a person that he is alive and intact (Ostwald 1959:143). “Whistling in the dark” is a well-known phenomenon in the Western world."

Facing our darkest fears—walking alone and frightened in the dark—by whistling a cheery tune in momentary rejection (denial?) of them is a common coping mechanism. And even if not actually whistling, simply pretending that there are no monsters—or even just pretending that we are not afraid of the monsters we know are there—waiting in the dark to leap upon us and rend us to pieces is a form of whistling in the dark.

But I want to talk about whistling in the light. Not denial of our helplessness against the monsters inhabiting our modern world, but a celebration of the fact that we do not face these monsters alone and in the dark—or at least, we do not have to.

"...I will never leave you nor forsake you..." (Heb 13:5).

So, on to "Whistling in the Light."

Whistling in the Light

Art for God's Sake

The impact of faithlessness

The impact of faithlessness

"When Christmas Gets Messy"

Kicked outa the manger...

A Christmas Lullaby

The Gift

Job was a piker

Evensong

Plus Ça Change...

Fo Gigure

Be Steadfast, Unmovable...

Think on this and get back with me...

How do you know?

imbibo capulus ergo sum

The Water's Wide

"Woke up this mornin'... "

Posted: Precision Guided Humor Roundup: Fantasy Headlines!

Crosses aCross America

Five are up!

Recommended read

See what's happening at Random Rambling

Take note(s)

Good eats; great treats. What's not to like?

Meme-ory Lane

Good news for folks stuck with bad internet experience

The Cows

Dandelions

This reader sings!

A Honey of a Mom

Aww.. Grow Up: Kipling Tuesday

Musical teleology

On Contentment

Cruci-fix

"Save" the Ten Commandments?

St David's Day

Food Blogging

Just walk outside

Don't miss it this year...

Hugs

Good News for Frustrated, Burned-Out Übermoms (and dads, too)

You'll smile, too

"Don't Blink"—A Meditation on Psalm 27:10

One candle...

Light Comes in Many Colors

Will Wonders Never Cease?

O Blessed Holy Caffeine Tree!

Some see this as an argument for banning webcams

Not a Capital Offense—For ONE

Get a Life

And a child shall lead them...

Pass the Torch

Merry Christmas: On the Gripping Hand

"Homeward Bound" by Marta Keen

The Stuff of Dreams

Whistling in the light