Monday Morning Music Ministry

10-6-25

Readers of this weekly message know that I married about six months ago; and perhaps wondered why I have not posted photos or stories of our honeymoon. I had been gifted with an important book to write; Mickey’s workload exploded; and her son announced he wanted to get married himself, and at our house which often serves as a beautiful wedding venue.

So we decided to postpone the European wedding tour (Ireland, Germany, France, and Italy) till the Fall; now the Spring. It didn’t seem fair, and I might not live till then, so last week we had a half-honeymoon on Mackinac Island in northern Michigan.

Reviewers have called Mackinac Island one of the most stunning getaway spots in America. (What a great job – visiting and reviewing America’s stunning getaway spots!) Anyway, we planned to see Fall colors on the island where no cars are allowed, only horse carriages and bicycles. The Grand Hotel is a magnificent Victorian manse where you are required to dress for dinner, and rocking chairs line the veranda that faces the sunset.

“Mackinac,” I learned, is pronounced “mackinaw”; it has no peaches; and evidently is some Indian tribe’s word for “expensive.” But… besides romantic, it was peaceful.

Peaceful.

I have realized that peace is one of the rarest of commodities in our world; these days, anyway. I mean real peace, not, in our private and home lives, “time out” or “rest” or “vacation.” Somehow peace seems an odd thing to plan and schedule and stop-and-start. Peaceful, that?

The same with nations: Peace is not only the absence of war; unrighteousness often fills the vacuum, and such a fraught situation merely postpones conflict. And in any event, many uneasy Peaces produce more tension and angst than do armies confronting each other.

The Bible frequently addresses peace. They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ we read in Jeremiah 6:14… when there is no peace. There are dozens of references to conflicts, friction between nations, and continual plans and reports of hostility; the most famous is You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed. Such things must happen, but the end is still to come (Matthew 24:6).

It is not battlefield carnage that exclusively troubles us. We operate at a fast pace that excludes the Calm which ought to be a component of our lives. “Action movies” are most popular around the world. I try to avoid them, but I see trailers – presumably the best moments to lure us in – and they are three minutes of carnage, chases, explosions, gunshots, and killing. Kids’ video games matter-of-factly traffic in pursuits, attacks, and deaths. I have noted to my old friends in the comic-book field that every cover, story, and sketch features villains, and heroes too, with clenched teeth and angry brows – good guys and bad guys ready to run, fly, punch, and maim. Speed, threats, violence, noise, and…

Can’t we just turn down the volume on life; slow the pace?

In the Christian context, there is not much armed conflict these days between factions. Serious schisms have plagued the church since the Apostolic Days, and when heresy is blatant, it ought to be addressed. Not by burning people at the stakes, as Catholics practiced on Reformers hundreds of years ago, but by all believers’ solid familiarity with Scripture. There are bitter divisions in the church today, however, and we see opponents calling each other Evil and Spawns of the devil. Too many cheeks to turn.

This situation grieves me, not because it is undignified nor theologically unsound – we are all idiots as well as sinners in need of God’s grace – but because many of these “wars” distract from the message of salvation. Not one person more, or fewer, will gain Heaven over their view of the Rapture, or when the Tribulation will occur, or whether they speak in tongues. These wars are more futile than any of humankind’s many senseless battlefield wars throughout history.

These “issues” have little to do with whether the “lost” can be led to embrace Jesus. Believing He is the Son of God who died for their sins, and was raised to Heaven so that they may be, too, is all that matters.

What a peaceful Gospel.

Yes, Jesus said He came with a sword; that we will have to defend the faith even against family and friends (and a culture) that may oppose Him and hate us. But His overall message was Love. Our job should be to “make Heaven crowded,” the stated goal of Charlie Kirk. People might be beaten, but seldom persuaded, by a Gospel message presented in confrontational frenzy. Speaking of Charlie (as many, many will for many, many years to come), his style was brilliantly non-confrontational. At events it was characterized by laying his microphone down when he finished speaking, and listening to others.

I am afraid to say that many sincere Christians want to share Jesus with others… and act aggressively like they alone have to “close the deal.” Sometimes that leads to a fervid delivery that offends. Also… it can offend the Holy Spirit. Drawing people to repentance and salvation is the reason the Spirit was sent to us. Our job is to plant seeds, not stage-manage the harvest.

As Christians, we can multi-task: be earnest and rational and loving.

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (John 14:27).

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Click: Softly and Tenderly

5-5-25

Is there anything more embarrassing than running into somebody, or being introduced, and… it is someone who knows you already? Who picks up a previous conversation? But you don’t recognize the person? Before you know it, it’s too late to ask, “Excuse me, but who are you???” And nobody comes to your rescue…!

We have all been there.

One of my own solutions is quickly to ask if the person ever returned the hundred dollars I loaned. Of course I am informed that I have him or her confused with someone else; and I am told, emphatically, who this person is, after all. A good idea, and some day it even might earn me a C-note.

Seriously, we do go through life occasionally forgetting names, faces, mutual friends, and so forth. We are all busy, and, after all, there are more than 7-billion people in this world. Among the nuances in memory-functions, there is the “photographic memory,” a long-term phenomenon where facts and visual details are recalled to a great degree. It can be a blessing or curse; my father’s cousin had this ability, and was able, despite herself, to recite pages of books she had not seen, nor cared about, since years earlier. An “eidetic memory” is similar but involves the ability to recall penumbrances – not only a face and a person’s name, but when and where the parties met; what aromas were in the air; what music was played in the distance; what someone wore; and so forth to other irrelevancies. Theodore Roosevelt was graced with both gifts, enabling him to read and successfully be quizzed on a book he rapidly scanned; and to recall minute details about folks he met in a crowd decades previous.

So who can expect us to recall everybody, every name, every event, every detail…? Is there anyone who can remember, and know, everything about you, down to the last detail? Things you don’t even know about yourself?

Well, God can.

Don’t dismiss that with a “Oh, sure. God can do anything.” There are implications we ought to… remember. The Bible provides prompts and memory-jogs, in case you forgot:

He knows us so well that He counts the hairs on our heads. Is that even useful? God thinks so; but anyway it is something that God does because He can.

He knows our innermost thoughts. No, you don’t have to talk in your sleep. It is something that God does because He can.

He knew us from the moment we were conceived; He knew us in our mothers’ wombs; He loved us, loves us, and will love us all the days He has called us to, going forward. It is something that God does because He can. (And something to remember when abortions are discussed…)

I invite you to reverse the course of such things in your mind. No, we are not God so we cannot exercise such miraculous powers of recollection. But how often do you remember God… how well do you know Him?… how close is He to you?

“A constant Friend is He” – is that the God you know? Continuously at your side?

Is He an ever-present help in times of trouble… or do you tend to turn to Him only when you have troubles?

Do you have communication with God throughout the day? Do you remember that He yearns to know not only the burdens of our hearts, but He delights in our joys too? You can have earnest, formal prayers… but you also can just-plain chat with Him!

When you see someone who is hurting or alone or suffering or needs spiritual sympathy, aid, and nurture… do you remember that you should see God in that person – or a “God hole” that needs to be filled?

Is God someone you only occasionally remember? Do you recall that Jesus wants to be your Savior… but also your Friend? Have you remembered that the job description of the Holy Spirit is not only to empower you, but to… comfort you, as only a true Friend can do?

This God we are discussing loves you so much He sacrificed His Son to cover the debt of your sins. Yet… we are told that if we treat Him like a stranger, He will say, “Away! I never knew you!”

What a Friend we have in Jesus. “He stands at the door and knocks” – we don’t even have to beg at His door to enter into communion. Let Him in… and don’t let Him out!

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Click: What a Friend We Have in Jesus

3-17-25

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Click: This Is Just What Heaven Means to Me

3-10-25

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Click: Ode To Joy