Music in the Service of God

"I wish to see all arts, principally music, in the service of Him who gave and created them. I would not for all the world forego my humble share of music. Singers are never sorrowful, but are merry, and smile through their troubles in song. Music makes people kinder, gentler, more staid and reasonable. I am strongly persuaded that after theology there is no art that can be placed on a level with music; for besides theology music is the only art capable of affording peace and joy of the heart." ...

"The devil flees before the sound of music almost as much as before the Word of God.”

~ Martin Luther - foreword to the Wittenberg Gesangbuch, 1524

Quotes from Eleanor Roosevelt

Do what you feel in your heart to be right- for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry is own weight, this is a frightening prospect.

Friendship with ones self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.

Happiness is not a goal; it is a by-product.

I think, at a child's birth, if a mother could ask a fairy godmother to endow it with the most useful gift, that gift should be curiosity.

It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness.

It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.

Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn't have the power to say yes.

Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness that you are able to give.

The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

The giving of love is an education in itself.

Too often the great decisions are originated and given form in bodies made up wholly of men, or so completely dominated by them that whatever of special value women have to offer is shunted aside without expression.

We are afraid to care too much, for fear that the other person does not care at all.

We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face... we must do that which we think we cannot.

We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk.

What is to give light must endure the burning.

When you cease to make a contribution, you begin to die.

Women are like teabags. We don't know our true strength until we are in hot water!

You can't move so fast that you try to change the mores faster than people can accept it. That doesn't mean you do nothing, but it means that you do the things that need to be done according to priority.

You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.'

You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.

You must do the things you think you cannot do.

~ Eleanor Roosevelt

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Brezhnev’s Widow

As Vice President, George Bush represented the U.S. at the funeral of former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev. Bush was deeply moved by a silent protest carried out by Brezhnev’s widow.
She stood motionless by the coffin until seconds before it was closed. Then, just as the soldiers touched the lid, Brezhnev’s wife performed an act of great courage and hope, a gesture that must surely rank as one of the most profound acts of civil disobedience ever committed: She reached down and made the sign of the cross on her husband’s chest.
There in the citadel of secular, atheistic power, the wife of the man who had run it all hoped that her husband was wrong. She hoped that there was another life, and that that life was best represented by Jesus who died on the cross, and that the same Jesus might yet have mercy on her husband.

~ Gary Thomas, in Christianity Today, October 3, 1994, p. 26

Reaction of Dawson Trotman’s Widow

The bitter news of Dawson Trotman’s drowning swept like cold wind across Schroon Lake to the shoreline. Eyewitnesses tell of the profound anxiety, the tears, the helpless disbelief in the faces of those who now looked out across the deep blue water. Everyone’s face except one—Lila Trotman, Dawson’s widow.
As she suddenly walked upon the scene a close friend shouted, "Oh, Lila ... He’s gone. Dawson’s gone!"
To that she replied in calm assurance the words of Psalm 115:3: "But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases."
All of the anguish, the sudden loneliness that normally consumes and cripples those who survive did not invade that woman’s heart. Instead, she leaned hard upon her sovereign Lord, who had once again done what He pleased.

~ Starting Over by Charles R. Swindoll, Multnomah Press, 1977, p. 67

Death of a Family

A friend of mine, Dave Johnson, is a policeman in San Jose, California. One morning, he was called to the scene of a family disturbance. When he arrived, he found another family that would soon be added to the casualty list.
“The woman was crying and yelling at her husband who was standing with his hands in the pockets of greasy overalls. I noticed homemade tattoos on his arm, usually a sign that someone had been in prison. I was glad that my “fill unit” had arrived.
I stepped from my patrol car. As I walked towards the two I could hear the woman yelling at her husband to fix whatever he had done to the car so she could leave. He made no reply, but only laughed at her with a contemptuous laugh.
She turned to me and asked me to make him fix the car. My fill unit broke in and we “split” the two up so that we could find a solution to the problem. I began talking to the husband who said that his wife was having an affair and she was leaving. I asked him if they had gone for counseling and he said that he was not interested. He went on to say that he was interested in only getting his “things” back. He said that his wife had hidden them from him.
I asked his wife about his things and she said she wouldn’t give them to him until she got one of the three VCRs they owned. I found out later that his “things” consisted of the narcotics he dealt in.
The other officer went to the wife’s car and began looking under the hood to see if he could spot the trouble. The husband walked over, took the coil from his pocket, and handed it to the officer. He then told his wife that she could have one of the VCRs if he could have his things. She finally agreed and went into the house.
As she entered the house, I noticed two little girls standing in the doorway, watching the drama unfold. They were about eight and ten years old. Both wore dresses and clung to a Cabbage Patch doll. At their feet were two small suitcases. My eyes couldn’t leave their faces as they watched the two people they loved tear each other apart.
The woman emerged with the VCR in her arms and went to the car where she put in into the crowded back seat. She turned and told her husband where he could find his things. They both agreed that they had equal shares of the things they had accumulated in 10 years of marriage.
Then as I stood in unbelief, I watched the husband point to the two little girls and say to the wife, “Well, which one do you want?”
Without any apparent emotion, the mother chose the older one. The girls looked at each other as the older one picked up her suitcase and then climbed into her mother’s car.
I had to stand and watch as the littlest girl, still clutching her Cabbage Patch doll in one hand and her suitcase in the other, watched her big sister and her mother drive off. I watched as tears streamed down her face in total bewilderment. The only “comfort” she received was an order from her father to go into the house as he turned to talk with some friends.
There I stood, the unwilling witness to the death of a family.

Steve Farrar, Point Man, pp. 21-23

The Dark Side of the Human Heart

His Own Heart was Lecherous

One of the most powerful stories I have ever heard on the nature of the human heart is told by Malcolm Muggeridge. Working as a journalist in India, he left his residence one evening to go to a nearby river for a swim. As he entered the water, across the river he saw an Indian woman from the nearby village who had come to have her bath.
Muggeridge impulsively felt the allurement of the moment, and temptation stormed into his mind. He had lived with this kind of struggle for years but had somehow fought it off in honor of his commitment to his wife, Kitty. On this occasion, however, he wondered if he could cross the line of marital fidelity.
He struggled just for a moment and then swam furiously toward the woman, literally trying to outdistance his conscience. His mind fed him the fantasy that stolen waters would be sweet, and he swam the harder for it. Now he was just two or three feet away from her, and as he emerged from the water, any emotion that may have gripped him paled into insignificance when compared with the devastation that shattered him as he looked at her.
“She was old and hideous...and her skin was wrinkled and, worst of all, she was a leper....This creature grinned at me, showing a toothless mask.”
The experience left Muggeridge trembling and muttering under his breath, “What a dirty lecherous woman!”
But then the rude shock of it dawned upon him—it was not the woman who was lecherous; it was his own heart.

Ravi Zacharias, Can Man Live Without God, (Word Publ, Dallas: 1994), pp. 136-137

A Safe Environment to Grow

People need a safe environment to grow. When you try to hide your flaws, you also hide your gifts.

~ Truthful Grace

Moses and Job

I taught them everything they know, but not everything I know.

I used to think like Moses. That knocked me down for a couple years and put me in prison. Then I start thinking like Job. Job waited and became the wealthiest and richest man ever 'cause he believed in God.

When God took it, he accepted it; when he brought it back, he accepted it. That's what's happening with me.

I want to say to the young people, Honor thy father and thy mother. Your days will be longer and more fruitful.

I want to say to you, Help yourself, so you can help someone else.

I've been held responsible for taxes I know nothing about.

I've been knocked down a lot of times.

Like Christ said, love thee one another. I learned to do that, and I learned to respect and be appreciative and thankful for what I had.

My expectations of other people, I double them on myself.

Sometimes you struggle so hard to feed your family one way, you forget to feed them the other way, with spiritual nourishment. Everybody needs that.

Thank God for the journey.

When I'm on stage, I'm trying to do one thing: bring people joy. Just like church does. People don't go to church to find trouble, they go there to lose it.

~ James Brown, American Musician

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Two Kinds of Light

There are two kinds of light--the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.

All human beings should try to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.

Nowadays men lead lives of noisy desperation.

The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself, but in so doing, he identifies himself with people--that is, people everywhere, not for the purpose of taking them apart, but simply revealing their true nature.
~ in Edward R. Murrow television interview

Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?

I do not have a psychiatrist and I do not want one, for the simple reason that if he listened to me long enough, he might become disturbed.
~ "Carpe Noctem, If You Can", in "Credos and Curios" (1962)

~ James Thurber
US author, cartoonist, humorist, & satirist (1894 - 1961)
www.quotationspage.com

On Relationships, Exceeding Your Limits, and Making Decisions

On Exceeding Your Limits

I'm fortunate now that I coach at Duke University and we've won a lot. I have some kids who haven't failed that much. But when they get to college, they're going to fail some time. That's a thing that I can help them the most with.

In high school, in sport, I had a coach who told me I was much better than I thought I was, and would make me do more in a positive sense. He was the first person who taught me not to be afraid of failure.

Each group and each youngster is different. As a leader or coach, you get to know what they need.

I think some parents now look at a youngster failing as the final thing. It's a process, and failure is part of the process. I would like it if the teacher and the parents would connect more. I think that used to be, but we're losing a little bit of that right now.

There are kids don't want to do something because they're afraid of looking stupid to their peers. There comes a time when they start protecting themselves, instead of extending. I want to make sure that they're always trying to extend themselves.

Imagination has a great deal to do with winning.

The thing I loved the most - and still love the most about teaching - is that you can connect with an individual or a group, and see that individual or group exceed their limits.

I think you're not a human being unless you have doubts and fears.

Therefore, as a player, as a coach, even though we might have lost in a season or not won a championship, it was like a self-fulfilling prophecy that I'm going to win some time. I've never felt myself a loser.

I always won in my imagination. I always hit the game-winning shot, or I hit the free throw. Or if I missed, there was a lane violation, and I was given another one.

That's what I do now: I lead and I teach. If we win basketball games from doing that, then that's great, but I lead and teach. Those are the two things I concentrate on.

On Making Decisions

The truth is that many people set rules to keep from making decisions.

On Relationships

I have a rule on my team: when we talk to one another, we look each other right in the eye, because I think it's tough to lie to somebody. You give respect to somebody.

To me, teamwork is the beauty of our sport, where you have five acting as one. You become selfless.

The person who has inspired me my whole life is my Mom, because she taught me commitment. She sacrificed.

Throughout my life, my mom has been the person that I've always looked up to.

I had a really bad temper, when I was growing up. Sport helped me channel that temper into more positive acts.

The other thing I knew I had was a high level of competitiveness.


~ Mike Krzyzewski, American Basketball Coach, Duke University

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on work, health and relationships

On Work

Dynasty was the opportunity to take charge of my career rather than waiting around like a library book waiting to be loaned out.

I do it because I love acting, I love working, and whether it's radio, television, films, theater, I don't care as long as I can get out there and do it.

I loathe conflict, and I loathe not getting along well with people, so I always try very hard to be on the best terms with the people I work with.

If life throws you a lemon - make lemonade.

Show me a person who has never made a mistake and I'll show you somebody who has never achieved much.

I think it has something to do with being British. We don't take ourselves as seriously as some other countries do. I think a lot of people take themselves far too seriously; I find that a very tedious attitude.

The secret of having a personal life is not answering too many questions about it.

Age is just a number. It's totally irrelevant unless, of course, you happen to be a bottle of wine.

On Health

The problem with beauty is that it's like being born rich and getting poorer.

And I think of that again as I've written in several of my beauty books, a lot of health comes from the proper eating habits, which are something that - you know, I come from a generation that wasn't - didn't have a lot of food.

I mean, I'm a war baby, and we had rationing, and we didn't have sugar and sweets, which is very good for you in actual fact. Because when we had a piece of fruit, we'd gulp it down. It was just great.

Yes, I remember the bombings. Yes, I remember, because - yes, I remember being in air raid shelters. Even though I was evacuated because I was very young, I remember being in air raid shelters and the tremendous feeling of compatibility with everybody.

On Relationships

I've never yet met a man who could look after me. I don't need a husband. What I need is a wife.

No, that's what I think God does to you. He gives you some great gig in which you make a whole heap of money, and you're just on top of the world and on every magazine cover, but your personal life is miserable. And for most of that time, I have to say, my personal life was pretty miserable.

Loneliness is the universal problem of rich people.

The easiest way to convince my kids that they don't really need something is to get it for them.

~ Joan Collins, British actress

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Jonathan Edwards' dying words to his wife

When Jonathan Edwards was dying and his wife was far away in Stockbridge and he was down in Princeton, in the 1750's, he dictated a letter to his wife through his daughter Lucy:

"Give my kindest love to my dear wife and tell her that the uncommon union which has so long subsisted between us has been of such a nature as I trust is spiritual and therefore will continue forever."

quoted in a sermon by Rev. Dr. Tim Russell
Redeemer Presbyterian Church
Seeking to Renew New York City Socially, Spiritually & Culturally

Turning Around Staff Morale

When Elliot L. Shelkrot took over as president and director of the Free Library of Philadelphia, he faced crumbling buildings, leaky roofs, and decreased city funding.
He recalls:

The biggest thing was to turn around the morale of the staff, and I might say even of the board [of library trustees]. To say: "There are things we can do. Let's get on with thinking about things we can do rather than woe is me, how bad things are."

"Shelkrot has since weathered the city's fiscal meltdown and several annual budget crises--and has quietly stabilized library operations, in the eyes of many."

"Phila. library's president resigns"
The Philadelphia Inquirer, p. 1
Monday April 23, 2007

Frigid or Solid

CALVIN AS BIBLICAL COMMENTATOR

Characteristically, his worst term of condemnation for any interpretation is "frigid," by which he means not so much "remote" or "lifeless" as lacking in the power to give living faith to the church; on the other hand, his favorite word of praise is "solid," a sound and sure foundation for the church's faith.

from the General Introduction, "CALVIN AS BIBLICAL COMMENTATOR"
THE LIBRARY OF CHRISTIAN CLASSICS Volume XXIII
Newly translated and edited by JOSEPH HAROUTUNIAN, Ph.D., D.D.
Cyrus H. McCormick Professor of Systematic Theology, McCormick Theological Seminary, Chicago, Illinois
In collaboration with LOUISE PETTIBONE SMITH, A.M., Ph.D. Professor of Biblical History, Emeritus, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts
PHILADELPHIA THE WESTMINSTER PRESS
First published MCMLVIII
http://www.ccel.org/ccel/calvin/calcom.txt

Atheist Beliefs

"Intelligent people are good at rationalizing how they arrived at their beliefs through unintelligent means."

~ Michael Shermer, atheist, editor of Skeptic Magazine

Words of Anger

There was a little boy with a bad temper. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, to hammer a nail in the back fence.
The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Then it gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.
The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone.
The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence.
"You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out, it won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there. A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one."

~ Author Unknown

The Seed

An emperor in the Far East was growing old and knew it was time to choose his successor. Instead of choosing one of his assistants or his children, he decided to do something different. He called young people in the kingdom together one day.
He said, "It is time for me to step down and choose the next emperor. I have decided to choose one of you."
The children were shocked, but the emperor continued.
"I am going to give each one of you a seed today - one very special seed. I want you to plant the seed, water it, and come back here one year from today with what you have grown from this one seed. I will then judge the plants that you bring, and the one I choose will be the next emperor."
One boy, named Ling, was there that day and he, like the others, received a seed. He went home and excitedly, told his mother the story. She helped him get a pot and planting soil, and he planted the seed and watered it, carefully. Everyday, he would water it and watch to see if it had grown.
After about three weeks, some of the other youths began to talk about their seeds and the plants that were beginning to grow. Ling kept checking his seed, but nothing ever grew. Three weeks, four weeks, five weeks went by, still nothing. By now, others were talking about their plants, but Ling didn't have a plant and he felt like a failure.
Six months went by--still nothing in Ling's pot. He just knew he had killed his seed. Everyone else had trees and tall plants, but he had nothing. Ling didn't say anything to his friends, however. He just kept waiting for his seed to grow.
A year finally went by and all the youths of the kingdom brought their plants to the emperor for inspection. Ling told his mother that he wasn't going to take an empty pot. But his mother asked him to be honest about what happened. Ling felt sick at his stomach, but he knew his mother was right.
He took his empty pot to the palace. When Ling arrived, he was amazed at the variety of plants grown by the other youths. They were beautiful--in all shapes and sizes. Ling put his empty pot on the floor and many of the other children laughed at him. A few felt sorry for him and just said, "Hey, nice try."
When the emperor arrived, he surveyed the room and greeted the young people. Ling just tried to hide in the back.
"My, what great plants, trees, and flowers you have grown," said the emperor. "Today one of you will be appointed the next emperor!"
All of a sudden, the emperor spotted Ling at the back of the room with his empty pot. He ordered his guards to bring him to the front.
Ling was terrified. He thought, "The emperor knows I'm a failure! Maybe he will have me killed!"
When Ling got to the front, the Emperor asked his name. "My name is Ling," he replied.
All the kids were laughing and making fun of him.
The emperor asked everyone to quiet down. He looked at Ling, and then announced to the crowd, "Behold your new emperor! His name is Ling!"
Ling couldn't believe it. Ling couldn't even grow his seed. How could he be the new emperor?
Then the emperor said, "One year ago today, I gave everyone here a seed. I told you to take the seed, plant it, water it, and bring it back to me today. But I gave you all boiled seeds that would not grow. All of you, except Ling, have brought me trees and plants and flowers.
When you found that the seed would not grow, you substituted another seed for the one I gave you. Ling was the only one with the courage and honesty to bring me a pot with my seed in it. Therefore, he is the one who will be the new emperor!"

If you plant honesty, you will reap trust.
If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.
If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.
If you plant perseverance, you will reap victory.
If you plant consideration, you will reap harmony.
If you plant hard work, you will reap success.
If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.
If you plant faith, you will reap miracles.

So be careful what you plant, now; it will determine what you will reap tomorrow. The seeds you now scatter will make life worse or better for you or for the ones who will come after you. Someday you will enjoy the fruits or you will pay for the choices you make.

~ Author Unknown

Lord's visit

Ruth went to her mailbox and there was only one letter. She picked it up and looked at it before opening, but then she looked at the envelopeagain. There was no stamp, no postmark, only her name and address. She read the letter:

Dear Ruth,
I'm going to be in your neighborhood Saturday afternoon and I'd like to stop by for a visit.
Love Always,
Jesus

Her hands were shaking as she placed the letter on the table. "Why would the Lord want to visit me? I'm nobody special. I don't have anything to offer." With that thought, Ruth remembered her empty kitchen cabinets."Oh my goodness, I really don't have anything to offer. I'll have to run down to the store and buy something for dinner."
She reached for her purse and counted out its contents. Five dollars and forty cents. "Well, I can get some bread and cold cuts, at least." She threw on her coat and hurried out the door. A loaf of French bread, a half-pound of sliced turkey, and a carton of milk...leaving Ruth with a grand total of twelve cents to last her until Monday.
Nonetheless, she felt good as she headed home, her meager offerings tuckedunder her arm. "Hey lady, can you help us, lady?" Ruth had been so absorbed in her dinner plans, she hadn't even noticed two figures huddled in the alleyway. A man and a woman, both of them dressed in little more than rags.
"Look lady, I ain't got a job, ya know, and my wife and I have been living out here on the street, and, well, now it's getting cold and we're getting kinda hungry and, well, if you could help us, lady, we'd really appreciate it."
Ruth looked at them both.
They were dirty, they smelled bad and, frankly, she was certain that they could get some kind of work if they really wanted to. "Sir, I'd like to help you, but I'm a poor woman myself. All I have is a few cold cuts and some bread, and I'm having an important guest for dinner tonight and I was planning on serving that to Him."
"Yeah, well, OK lady, I understand. Thanks anyway." The man put his arm around the woman's shoulders, turned and headed back into the alley. As she watched them leave, Ruth felt a familiar twinge in her heart.
"Sir, wait!" The couple stopped and turned as she ran down the alley after them.
"Look, why don't you take this food. I'll figure out something else to serve my guest." She handed the man her grocery bag.
"Thank you lady. Thank you very much!" "Yes, thank you!" It was the man's wife, and Ruth could see now that she was shivering.
"You know, I've got another coat at home. Here, why don't you take this one."
Ruth unbuttoned her jacket and slipped it over the woman's shoulders. Then smiling, she turned and walked back to the street...without her coat and with nothing to serve her guest.
"Thank you lady! Thank you very much!"
Ruth was chilled by the time she reached her front door, and worried too. The Lord was coming to visit and she didn't have anything to offer Him. She fumbled through her purse for the door key. But as she did, she noticed another envelope in her mailbox.
"That's odd. The mailman doesn't usually come twice in one day." She took the envelope out of the box and opened it.

Dear Ruth,
It was so good to see you again. Thank you for the lovely meal. And thank you, too, for the beautiful coat.
Love Always,
Jesus

The air was still cold, but even without her coat, Ruth no longer noticed.

~ Author Unknown

Precious Stone

There was once a wise woman traveling in the mountains who found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry, and she opened her bag to share her food.
The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked if she might give it to him. She did so without hesitation.
The traveler left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But only a few days later he came back to return the stone to the woman who had given it to him.
"I've been thinking," he said, "I know how valuable the stone is,but I'm giving it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious. I want you to give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone."

~ Author Unknown

The Power of Your Words

A careless word may kindle strife.
A cruel word may wreck a life.
A timely word may level stress.
A loving word may heal and bless.

~ Author Unknown