Monday Morning Music Ministry

3-30-26

When we consider the vastness of Space, the anomalies of Time that had no beginning, and a Universe with no boundaries – besides these things making our heads hurt – we cannot help but confront the utter greatness of our Creator God. Secularists and skeptics, and the foolish, can scoff and say that insane theories like Big Bangs and Intelligent Design explain it all. But frankly these are all ways to grasp at straws.

Many people are senseless, or deluded, or a form of suicidal, convinced either that if they don’t believe in God there must be no God; or that they can gamble their mortality – and immortality – away.

I mentioned the enormity of the universe, and ask us to consider the utter greatness of God. Not only the physical realms to consider… but ourselves. The earth – as we learn what a tiny speck it is in the vast universe – we are reminded that the Bible teaches against the possibility that there are “other” earths out there. No other people, no other creatures, no other civilizations. Those secularists and skeptics claim that it is absurd that a God would create only one world with beings out of millions of planets, ignoring that God can do what He pleases. They also argue that we should feel insignificant, inhabiting one tiny speck in a galaxy among billions of others.

Well, God says, and we say, that such a fact makes us not insignificant, but special.

More than that, we are so special to this God that He sacrificed His incarnate Son to die in order to redeem our transgressions. He holds you and me so special that His care is almost incalculable.

• Job addressed our special status with God (7:17,18): What is man, that You should exalt him, that You should set Your heart on him, that You should visit him every morning, and test him every moment? Have you asked such elemental questions?
• In the Garden, Jesus sweated drops of blood in His prayerful agony over our sins. And indeed God’s love for us was so special that His plan for us, His children, to be reconciled to Him requires only that we acknowledge Jesus as Savior.
• The Psalmist earlier acknowledged God’s special love (Psalm 139:13-14): For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
• Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved (Psalm 55:22).
• We cannot avoid John 3:16 – For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
• Regarding whether we are “special” to God, or not; or how special, remember these words from Jesus: Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

These things we know, as believers – or should know. The world hears these words, and routinely ignores them, neither inspired nor in fearful awe. I want to challenge ourselves, however. Do we believers really know these things? Do we take them to heart? If they are life-affirming, life-changing, do our lives reflect our acknowledgement?

For instance, “God can count the hairs on our head.” Now that is likely metaphorical as well as literal, and without going to secularists’ image of God with a great white beard… But do you endeavor to know God as well as He knows us? He has shared His ways, His laws, His precepts, His commandments, His promises… do you work to make “understanding” a two-way street?

He blesses us in uncountable ways. How often and how sincerely do we praise, honor, and bless Him in “harp, song, and voice” – everywhere, every way?

Do we actually realize what a miracle life is… and that we are the apple of God’s eye: special above specially created things?

When we fail to recognize how special we are to the Almighty Creator, we not only demean ourselves but display gross ignorance and ingratitude to Him. He numbers the hairs on our head? – that is, He knows everything about us, more than we know ourselves. Conversely, we can not know everything about Him… or we would be Gods.

But we can try. We can pray, acknowledging and in gratitude. We can accept Jesus as Lord, Son of God, Savior of our souls. We can praise Him. We can share the Good News of the Gospel.

And we can remind ourselves that, no matter how vast the sparkly universe seems, that little speck, our home, is very special to its Creator. And that He is very special to us.

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The great Mosie Lister song, performed by the Old Friends Quartet. Around the fireplace: Ruth Graham, George Beverly Shea, Cliff Barrows, and legendary singers. Taped at Billy Graham’s retreat center The Cove.

Click: How Long Has It Been?

3-23-26

This week is seeing multiple turnings of Nature’s pages, so to speak. The mid-Lenten season, looking toward Easter. Nowruz (the ancient Spring rite rooted in Zoroastrianism, celebrated from Kurdistan to Persia). Eid al-Fitr, the end of Ramadan. Even Daylight Savings. Not to mention the official beginning of Spring.

One can extrapolate. In many ways this is a season of newness, renewal, fresh starts. Nature is coming alive (I avoid the pagan anthropomorphic title of Mother Nature, except as I did as a kid, thinking of “her” as Mrs God by His design). Much of America experienced bizarre weather this past winter: severe cold snaps, blizzards, even tornados and thunder and lightning during snowstorms. Yet – to borrow the dispositive argument against global warming – the climate operates in normal cycles: cold and warm come and go; wet and dry.

“Everybody talks about the weather,” wrote Charles Dudley Warner, a collaborator of Mark Twain, “but nobody does anything about it.”

But Spring is about more than celebrations and adjustments to clocks and calendars. Anybody with eyes, and sensitivity to the smells and colors of outdoors, and thinner jackets and sweaters in their closets, appreciates the unique glories of Spring. It touches deeper than our sensory reactions, and lifts our hearts.

Spring is translated to elemental and visceral sensations. It is difficult not to be aware of apparently dead things coming to life, of revivals, of essential optimism. Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony is the theme song of the season. We see; we hear; we are aware of life in a new way.

But, with no offense meant against Spring, every part of the year, every cycle of Nature, has a theme (think of Vivaldi’s evocative Four Seasons). And the themes are wonderful. Special. God’s glory is manifested in myriad ways. My favorite season, frankly, is always the one that is about to happen. Turn, turn, turn.

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance; A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing; A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away; A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak; A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).

So in God’s power and wisdom, He created time and other wonders of the physical worlds. Nature, and seasons, therefore are spun off, so to speak. We enjoy good weather and endure bad weather; both are aspects of the infinite beauties of Creation. Do we give thanks enough for each glorious season, as we should? Do we accept “natural” disasters being termed “acts of God”?

These thoughts about Nature and the change of seasons can remind us that dark storms have sunshine on the other side of the clouds. That a tiny flower can push through cement and stone, and flourish. That rainbows follow the most violent thunderstorms.

Back to Spring, our current season. It is an affirmation that life is an essential component of… life. That is, death occurs and often seems certain; decay and corruption surround us. But so do rebirth and regeneration, just as surely. It is a cycle, of course, but whether you think that everything eventually dies or everything is capable of its own form of resurrection actually defines your outlook in uncountable ways about uncountable things.

Myself, I am a member of the life-affirming team. Dormant seeds sprout; skeletal plants burst forth in brilliant colors; bare fields and forests cloak themselves in all shades of green once again. And not only in Springtime, in fact for all time, we too can be born again. It is nature’s greatest possible gift, and God’s most wondrous miracle, of all.

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Click: Spring is Coming Lyric Video

3-16-26

The Bible foretells of the End Times and signs of its imminence. We have discussed that here, as everyone should be discussing the matter – continually, not just during violent flare-ups as we find ourselves consumed these days.

I have my own views on this current war. God does too. Whether I am in agreement or not ultimately is His to judge, and my opinions are irrelevant in that regard. I remember Abraham Lincoln’s brilliant maxim that we dare not pray that God is on our side, but we should pray that we are on God’s side.

How do we know? Pray; study the Word; pray.

But in this time of frequent holocausts all over the world, on the nightly news, God keeps us on our toes. We know that wars, like the poor, we always have with us. Has there ever been a good war or a bad peace, as many have asked through the ages? I say yes; there might be just wars, and the willingness to do battle is irretrievably part of a nation’s soul.

“If I must choose between peace and righteousness,” Theodore Roosevelt famously said, “I choose righteousness.”

Nevertheless, lately I am persuaded to settle for a long wait if people want to find a war to be joined. And it is a bizarre time in the history of our nation and the world that some people, some nations, itch for war instead of striving for peace.

Humankind seems not to have “advanced” much through the centuries; and this is true of children on playgrounds and adults on battlefields that once were playgrounds; or in faraway, sterile command centers. We congratulate each other – that is, we fool ourselves – that “progress” is the hallmark of our times. Yet the bloodiest death toll from wars, in any century of the earth’s existence, was in the Twentieth Century: more than in all previous centuries combined.

We brag that we – “civilizations” – have finally ended the scourge of slavery; yet there are greater numbers of slaves today than ever in human history. The numbers now are not the faces that flash in our minds: bondservants in chains. But instead, all manner of children, women, minorities, homeless, voiceless, migrants, the anonymous.

As long as there are power elites; as long as greed outpaces love; as long as hypocrisy can always find a nicer name, humankind will be (in the Bible’s phrase, Proverbs 26:11; and II Peter 2:22) like dogs returning to their vomit.

I was in Europe during the “First Gulf War” and encountered passionate street protests demanding “No blood for oil.” Yet that war – those wars – continued. And oil seems to be the ignition-switch time and time again. But some day it will be water that is the reason. Or rare-earth minerals. Just as were fertile soil, or silk, or spices, or superstitious beliefs, in the past. Maybe it is all superstition; maybe it is all mere greed and bellicosity in our souls.

But… humankind is progressing, we are told. Congratulations. We are advancing.

Think about what changes have occurred, however, when science develops new ways to save lives… as it also invents new ways to end lives. At near-birth, at old age, and in between. What a spectacle, when people march to save baby seals and whales, and simultaneously march for the right to kill babies.

Today we watch children being shot by soldiers; churches being bombed indiscriminately, perhaps intentionally; cities being levelled; medicine, food, and electricity withheld. Toys like drones are weaponized to obliterate homes and hospitals. In the name of peace.

Technology relentlessly “advances.” The world’s cultural heritage is at our fingertips, but approximately one-third of internet traffic is on pornography sites. Progress? Food – history’s routinely treasured commodity – is no longer scarce in much of the world, and the result in America, at least, is epidemic-level morbid obesity. Progress?

Whether this current war ends suddenly by surrender or negotiation or more slaughter, we cannot tell, we cannot know. It might end in the twinkling of an eye, or drag on for years like a vortex drawing into itself countries and peoples from farther and farther places around the globe. Leaders and states justify their policies by citing their gods. Many states cloak their blood lust not only by misquoting their scriptures, but by daring their gods – trying to force their gods’ hands and write their own apocalyptic scripts for End Times.

From the least to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; prophets and priests alike, all practice deceit. They dress the wound of my people as though it were not serious. “Peace, peace,” they say, when there is no peace (Jeremiah 8:10-11).

They have misled my people, saying, “Peace,” when there is no peace, and… when the people build a wall, these prophets smear it with whitewash (Ezekiel 13:10).

Again: Peace vs righteousness. Remember that Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers.” Where does that leave the war-mongers?

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Grandpa Elliott of New Orleans, by the “miracle” of video fellowship, is joined by musicians and singers around the world:

Click: Down By the Riverside

3-9-26

Jesus taught about “wars and rumors of wars.” In Matthew 24 we find His warnings not only of events to expect, but the contexts we should anticipate.

At no time in recent memory have we confronted such real wars, virtual wars, threats of war, proxy wars, excuses for war, and euphemisms for war. Oh, and deadly, bloody, wars that are sanitized and marketed as righteous.

In all these regards I will invite the words of Jesus Himself into this message. He referred to the End Times, speaking to His disciples but also, of course, to believers today:

… The disciples came to Him privately, asking… “What will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?” And Jesus said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the End is not yet.

“For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name’s sake.

“And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come….

“See, I have told you beforehand…. Watch therefore, for you do not know what hour your Lord is coming.”

There is much to learn here! Jesus foretells – He promises, not hints – of many, many things; signs of the End Times, of believers being deceived, of natural calamities and man-made disasters, and of… wars and rumors of wars. That situation seems to confront us today.

“Rumors” do not only mean gossip and speculation. The rumors today consist of wars we know only from TV and from marketing campaigns; that is, propaganda. Wars begun under false pretenses. Wars supported by populations who cannot correctly identify the issues at play.

Today – to address the Iran War – I assert that many Americans cannot intelligently defend their support of Israel in this conflict, nor acknowledge that America’s foreign policy has been hostage to Israel’s for years. That Israel has maintained false claims to “God’s promises” for years, despite the Bible’s definition of “Abraham’s seed” and Christ being the fulfillment of that inheritance (please see my three essays here from Dec 6-13 of 2025). That American Evangelicals have been complicit in Gazan genocide, the holocaust of our day.

Western Civilization has lived through such periods as the Thirty Years’ War, the Hundred Years’ War, even the “Phony War” at the commencement of World War II. A “rumor” certainly can mean a theory or an interpretation too. German, Soviet, and Chinese governments provoked local populations to justify military interventions. The United States clearly has done this in hemispheric situations, and to topple governments in Central Europe. History might record the past 75 years as the Era of False Flags.

Countries that have staged attacks on allies, or even themselves, have filled history books. Today, analysts and podcasts are rife with commentaries about Israeli terrorism against the British in the 1940s; about the 1953 Lavon Affair, where Israel recruited Egyptian Jews to bomb American targets and blame Muslims; about Israel’s lethal bombing of the USS Liberty by air and torpedoes; hundreds of deaths of the American Marines in Lebanon; since-debunked rationales behind American attacks on Libya and Iraq; countless reports that Iran has been “moments away” from developing nuclear weapons. All possible False Flags committed by Israel and/or the United States. Some analysts even suspect that Israel was behind the 9-11 attack.

Most recently, the “October 7” attack was a possible False-Flag pretext for Israel to ethnic-cleanse and occupy Gaza as part of its oft-stated goal of a Greater Israel that would stretch from the Mediterranean to the Nile and Euphrates rivers and into Turkey. It sounds absurd except for its endorsement by Netanyahu and Israeli leaders. Some analysts give credence to the suggestion of False Flags, pointing out that Israel can pinpoint missiles over 1200 miles to individual homes and a specific floor of a high-rise office building, but it “never noticed” the construction of hundreds of miles of tunnels, the removal of tons of dirt, etc., on its border with Gaza over the course of years.

What further possibilities are ahead? That is, what should we discern about plausible events – Israel and the US encouraging Kurds to attempt (again) independence by joining the war, which would draw their host countries Turkey (a NATO ally that Israel recently has threatened), Iraq, and Syria into the Iran War. It would push the current conflict towards a world war. Plausible too would be the “accidental” destruction of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, the second holiest Moslem site which Israel recently has closed and where Zionists seek to build the “Third Temple” in its place. Conspiracies, rumors – or prophecy?

False Flags… real deaths… false history vs current reality… these are among the things Jesus warned of. Even false assertions have real consequences. Deadly. For innocent people (the guilty often insulate themselves) and for policies. We are still a democracy, but have trouble learning the truth because of distortions and manipulations of corrupt media and suborned politicians. Are Jesus’s words about today? Tomorrow? The distant future…?

Thank God (literally) through the “fog of war” we have the Words of Jesus. When believers read about the Tribulation, we are chillingly reminded that things in this world might get much worse before the actual End of Days arrives. He tells us to be very wary of false prophets – those who twist Scripture in pursuit of political ends. He stated that we can be tempted to think the Rapture, or some Divine intervention, might be at hand.

… or not. Jesus’s prophecies mix warnings and reassurances. We must watch, and wait; to be ready. In the twinkling of an eye peace, or war, might come… and — always — rumors of war. Whether we be wary or nervous, optimistic or pessimistic about End Times, our best position as informed Christians is to stand on His Word… and be on our knees in prayer.

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Click: The Great Judgment Morning