Monday Morning Music Ministry

7-27-26

There was a time when governments, from kingdoms and principalities to major nations, ran their economies on the gold standard. That meant using gold bullion or, when solid gold became impractical to exchange, gold coinage. And when coins became too onerous to create relative to values, systems were developed to represent deposits in banks or government vaults. Eventually silver entered economic systems, both to elasticize the currency (being more common and less valuable as a commodity) and to facilitate manipulating trade and exchange values, for good or ill.

There is something reassuring when a nation’s currency has real backing – that a dollar in your pocket is worth… well, a dollar. We hope so. But we all know that is not always the case. We hear statistics that (for instance) a 1958 dollar would purchase only 17 cents in today’s marketplace; and so forth. The US, and many countries, have gone on and off the gold standard through the years. Reasons have included artificially countering effects of depressions and wars, which might be forgiven as rationales, to engaging in irresponsible and suicidal spending sprees. The United States, though not alone, is a national poster child for this economic anarchy and legal brigandage.

Not all economists consider a false currency reserve or planned inflation to be a negative practice, to coin a phrase. Some see deficit spending to be a wise policy, the best way to fuel a growing economy. Others of us consider it to be a ticking time-bomb at best – and horribly dishonest at worst. No way to run a household, or a country. (Also: who profits besides the amorphous “future economy”? Bankers, moneylenders, and currency manipulators make huge profits while average citizens invariably tighten their belts.)

So basically (Reductio ad absurdum, almost) we have, at least in the United States, money in our pockets that is intrinsically worth nothing. Not worth the paper it’s printed on? Well, coins are starting to sound like plastic when we toss them; the penny is extinct; we can not exchange dollars for gold or silver at banks as we once could. The government no longer has a ghost of a system where “reserves” in Fort Knox and elsewhere match the “money” in circulation.

We truly have an economy where values – prices, loans, debt repayments, etc – represent a massive system of silent agreements regarding what “money” is “worth.” No true context beyond agreed-upon lies. One major factor that keeps the US economy afloat is our dominance of the world financial system. We impose the dollar as the international unit of exchange. Transactions, exchange, and trade have to be filtered, and often manipulated, by arbitrary decisions by international bankers who at the moment are US pawns (or vice versa, more the case). We inflate our currency value, for instance, in order to repay debts in cheaper dollars. That kind of thing once was against countries’ laws, a form of usury.

This situation lies behind (though seldom discussed in the news) Trump’s foreign policies. There is also the looming threat of BRICS – a new international standard of exchange based on the economies of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Notice that the US, Europe, and Canada are not included in this revolutionary proposal – reflecting our growing impotence. Our economy would “tank” if we lose control of the international monetary (and fiscal) structure.

If it sounds like I know what I am talking about, I scarcely do. But I might know a little more than Federal Reserve board members, which is scary. And I never will understand the Bitcoin world. “Let’s invent coins that don’t really exist but people can be convinced they should shell out their life savings for…” Huh?

However I do understand what gold is. I have held it; I know it has been a primary medium of exchange through history, in virtually all societies; that it is valuable to own, to behold, to use in lavish decorations and fine art; that men and women and groups and nations have fought over it, sometimes to deadly ends.

Gold is real. Gold is precious – increasingly not only rare but likely close to disappearing, even as undiscovered lodes. Gold is poetic – symbolic of wealth, of beauty, of desire. The Bible itself frequently refers to gold as a metaphor: value; purity; able to be refined; beautiful to behold; constituents of temples and tabernacles.

But the Bible also warns against lusting after such material units of value and wealth. It is a “perishable thing” by which we cannot be “redeemed from the empty way of life.” The “gold is mine, declares the Lord of Hosts.” “Their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of Jehovah.” And so forth. There are more than 400 references in the Bible to gold!

One of the last references, and one of the most quoted Bible passages about gold, is in the Book of Revelation’s description (21:21) of Heaven. “The great street of the city was of pure gold, like transparent glass.” The Bible does not cite “as of gold,” or “the color of gold,” but gold itself!

Many people read that promise and marvel at how glorious Heaven will be. Properly so. But let us think about a larger truth. Lampstands and gates and towers and thrones may be made of gold, but this passage refers to streets. And here is my thought: we walk on streets; they often are dusty and literally looked down upon, certainly taken for granted; common.

I read Revelation 21:21 and I wonder whether Christ wants us to consider that life with Him for eternity will be so wonderful that Heaven’s golden streets are not special in themselves, but that Heaven itself will be so special that even the streets will be of pure gold!

Now there is a Gold Standard we all can embrace and look forward to!

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Click: City of Gold sung by Yvonne St Germaine

7-20-26

“American Exceptionalism” is one of those concepts that is viewed by many citizens with a perception somewhere between ignorance and disdain. I am referring to American citizens themselves, which makes my assessment especially damning.

Otherwise it should be something for which we should thank God and our civic ancestors for; yet so recent a celebrity as Barak Obbama displayed abysmal ignorance of it. American Exceptionalism does not mean that if you wake up as an American citizen with a pulse, you are superior – relatively “exceptional,” that is – compared to other humans across the globe. It does mean that American citizens have an exceptional patrimony; that our rights are better defined, more broadly asserted, and holding greater promise for advancement than are available to many other people of the world.

“Inalienable,” the Founding Fathers called those rights. The “Framers” of our Declaration and Constitution defined the set of rights that they were willing to assert, protect, and die for. Letters, proclamations, petitions – basically lists of complaints – had been sent by Colonial leaders and legislators to the king and parliament and were received with varying degrees of sympathy. However, the Mother Country ignored colonists’ more substantial grievances and answered those with half-hearted assent or annoyed dismissals. Some British officials, for instance Edmund Burke, were eloquent in defense of colonists’ complaints, but little changed.

Leaders in the New World sensed there was something different about the American Experiment: Something New in the New World. We (yes, we can all say “we,” despite in my own case my family’s arrival here only around 1900 – which is an exceptional aspect of being an American) we inherited English Common Law and the Teutonic Germ Theory of democracy, but on American soil, more things took root: a democratic ethos; a sense of justice; Christian principles actually put into practice.

Exceptionalism. An exceptional people, aware of their exceptional inheritance and limitless possibilities. Exceptional opportunities to correct institutional mistakes, seize the moments, and forge a new future. Exceptional men – truly, a blessed group of responsible thinkers and actors – who did exceptional things. And these men knew the risks! Previously, they had sent suggestions to England, but with the Declaration of Independence, they committed treason. They pledged their “lives, their fortunes, their sacred honor,”

Pay attention to the order of those words. Their priorities!

Words matter. Exceptionalism, despite being misunderstood or misapplied. Sacred honor. And, to the point of my thoughts here, words so important to the Framers: Freedom and Liberty. It struck me, during 250’s inevitable but empty parades and fireworks, that those words have become empty and abstract; misapplied and misunderstood.

Without running to a dictionary, I ask you: what is the difference between Freedom and Liberty?

We, most of us, use the words interchangeably these days. To the extent that is so, it is more than a crime against grammar; it is a crime against self-respecting principles once regarded as nearly sacred. Basically – that is to say, precisely – freedom is the ability to do what one desires to do, or think or speak. Liberty is exercising those freedoms while respecting restrictions, rules, and consequences. To violate either “right” is to invite anarchy, license, and repression. They are the type of standards, especially respecting their distinctions, that Americans should embrace and not ignore.

What does this have to do with America’s “birthday”? The same thing that finds its relevance in God’s word – as with all matters of action and integrity. The Founders and Framers, for all of today’s prattle about their “Deism” and such, knew the Bible well; they relied upon it as a blueprint for inventing a nation; and they frequently beseeched God for wisdom and guidance.

Therefore we can ask the same question in 2026 as they asked in 1776: What is the difference between Freedom and Liberty? The Founders and Framers knew the difference, and would confuse the principles to their peril. And citizens were informed too.

Today we ask ourselves the same question and, I am afraid, do not answer correctly. In our day, Americans – and Christian especially – have confused the two principles. Even the churches have come to regard Freedom as meaning the ability to do as one pleases, rather than be free from mistakes, sin, guilt. And that is a license to be corrupt. Freedom to self-destruct. American Christianity is trending toward defining freedom as liberty, and defining liberty precisely as ignoring consequences of sin, resisting God’s commands, and disobeying Christ’s teachings.

We are free to disobey God, of course. I believe He has given us free will. But defying the rules and responsibilities that are implied by Liberty, and His manifold commands, has led every time and in every land and dispensation in history, to God’s inevitable Justice.

We are to welcome God’s just treatment of our actions. “Covered in the Blood of Jesus,” we trust His provision and promises. Once upon a time we Americans respected the liberty embedded in the phrase Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. But contemporary American Christianity has opted for a very loose re-interpretation of the word. Not respecting the distinctions and traditional meanings of these once inviolate words threatens the loss of life, of liberty itself, and happiness. That is happening now in America’s 250th.

And we are losing our freedoms too, as we see all around us. It is an exceptional tragedy.

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Click: O Freedom

7-13-26

“Paying It Forward” is not a new concept, despite its newish-sounding nickname. Have you seen acts of charity when someone pays for another’s groceries at the check-out counter? Have you heard of a driver covering the next car’s toll at the highway booth? Did you ever see a customer pay for a stranger’s tab at a restaurant? Perhaps you have done these things… or been a recipient. Paying forward.

Charity it is, in one of its purest forms. Paying forward, as it has come to be called, is – or should be – a basic human impulse. In fact it has been a staple of works of fiction (more than fact?), movies, and drama in many forms as far back as the ancient Greeks. Benjamin Franklin, the wisest of our wise Founding Fathers, described his motivation for the practice: I do not pretend to give such a deed [responding to a request for money]; I only lend it to you. When you meet with another honest man in similar distress, you must pay me by lending this sum to him; enjoining him to discharge the debt by a like operation, when he shall be able, and shall meet with another opportunity. I hope it may thus go through many hands…. This is a trick of mine for doing a deal of good with a little money.

In attempts to institutionalize if not codify the concept of Paying Forward, there are several foundations that encourage and assist the practice. Some charities publish instructions for enabling donors to pay forward in various ways. We can assume that donations – for instance, contributing food and clothing at “pantries” – are motivated in part by a feeling that such acts will be multiplied in ways down the chain… or a subconscious possibility that such “bread cast upon the water” will return in kind or increase. Truly, a major purpose of tithing and church offerings, in addition to supporting the local church, is to “pay forward” the work of the church in ways we can only trust. St Augustine dwelt upon the necessity of cultivating charitable impulses.

Great contemporary examples of Paying Forward are Christian health-related alternatives to insurance, or relief from crushing medical bills – organizations like Medi-Share, Christian Healthcare Ministries, and WeShare Health.

That famous phrase from Ecclesiastes, Cast your bread upon the waters, for you will find it after many days, is – let us parse and let us pray – not only a kindly admonition, but a promise of God. The Lord is good at such things, is He not? Kindly admonitions and powerful promises. Which means that we can have our hearts “right,” and at the same time – with our motivations in proper, godly priorities – we may rely on God’s providence in “return.”

As I say, God is good at such things. In fact He is the author, among so many other blessings, of “Pay It Forward.” How has He done that? Let us visit life’s greatest example of the principle: For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly…. God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. (Romans 5: 6, 8-9)

In these ways we know the love of God. We can know the love of God. Yes, we can pay for a stranger’s cup of coffee, and wave to another driver after paying a toll on the highway as a favor. But the Lord of the universe is willing to withhold judgment on rebels and sinners as we are, and “pay forward” forgiveness and salvation to those who believe in Jesus, His sacrificial death and resurrection.

Paying it forward… for eternity. How He must trust us. How He must love us!

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Click: Jesus Paid It All – Kim Walker-Smith | Worship Circle Hymns

7-6-26

We are coming through a spate of celebrations surrounding the 250th “birthday” of America. Literally, the signing of the Declaration of Independence – not independence from the British monarchy itself, nor of the country known as the United States (1787), but the Fourth of July is a traditional and useful date. So we celebrate.

Dates are useful tools when they assist people who are losing touch with important aspects of their heritage; and aspects of our heritage are useful indeed when we need, as I believe, to appreciate their current situations. We cannot know where we are, in an important sense, unless we know how we “arrived” here. Who founded our nation – and are we a nation or a country? – and what was rejected, not just established, in that founding? What gifts did leaders bestow on their people and design with us in mind? What lessons did they learn and impart? What dreams did they have… and do we appreciate them?

More essentially, do contemporary Americans know the difference between a democracy and a republic? How many students – how many adults – understand the details of sacrifices made by uncountable American patriots since 1776? Why (according to many statistics) are most Americans either indifferent or hostile to principles of earlier American leaders – individual responsibility; personal probity; marital fidelity; the nuclear family; the sincere practice of Christian religion; not being, as a nation, subservient to a foreign country.

Old-fashioned standards? Yes. Principles that carried expiration dates? God forbid. Yet we have let that happen.

History has eras and chapters. Recognition of this viewpoint helps us understand our society, and ourselves, for good or ill; but conveniently for instruction. If we pay attention. For humankind, the life and Resurrection of Jesus is the dividing line of our “story”: one life, one covenant, one relationship with God and man before; a new life, a new covenant, new relationships with God and humankind after.

Regarding America and its current state, readers will note that I am a student of Theodore Roosevelt. Many are the reasons that I admire him and in major ways have devoted my life to his career, his example. He possibly was the most observant Chrsitian of all our presidents, certainly no less so than others. He titled three of his 40-odd books from Bible verses. After the presidency he shunned lucrative job offers to become Editor of a small weekly Christian magazine. He wrote an article for a popular family journal, “Nine Reasons Why Men Must Go to Church.” On a West Coast trip he altered his schedule to deliver, totally impromptu, five 90-minute speeches about the duties of a Christian in American society…

TR did not explicitly wear his faith on his sleeve, as it were, despite his vaunted exuberance and these forms of witness. But he practiced it.

This is one reason that Theodore Roosevelt stands as a human fulcrum in American history. Presidents since him have seldom referred to Christian faith as frequently, or with such zeal, as he did. Exceptions would include, at least at times, Calvin Coolidge and Ronald Reagan. Before TR the list is long: George Washington, John Adams, James Garfield, William McKinley, and especially Abraham Lincoln, the speeches and proclamations of whom, during the last year of his life, are like sermons.

There are many other before-and-after aspects to the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. With rare exceptions, the office was weak until TR, who invented the Imperial Presidency, a strong chief executive. For good or ill, America itself became an empire under TR, and has not looked back. He developed the Regulatory State, with the national government playing a positive role in many aspects of life from the national parks to public safety. (As the author of three books on TR, I am convinced that the current Bureaucratic State he would view as a Frankenstein monster; it was Wilson who perverted progressivism).

Theodore Roosevelt’s role is more significant, especially this year, than all these reasons. Coincidentally, he became president exactly 125 years after the Declaration of Independence. And this year is exactly 125 years after he became president.

We can see this, mathematically, as a trivia fact… or we can pause to consider What Now? What’s Next? What can we learn, what should we regret, what can we restore? I maintain that we have nearly squandered the riches and blessings of Almighty God; that we have in many ways sinned against Him and frankly are deserving of punishment, individually and as a country. Our churches are frequently apostate, our popular culture is shallow and filthy, our society often is immoral, abusive, and indulgent. We are an aggressive, far-flung, corrupt empire… a bankrupt, rude, resented city on a hill.

Is there a civilization that has ever sustain itself, having made such choices? Should we assume that America can long endure thus?

Rather than seeing America’s “birthday” as of the “first 250 years,” let us see Today as the starting-point of a Revival… maybe the commencement of a third, bright, shining, course-correction for the next 125 years. Pray to God – the god of Our Fathers – that this may be so.

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Click: Faith of Our Fathers | The Great Controversy