Behind the Music Stand

     Today in church (as usual) we had a wonderful sermon.   The topic was we are blessed to be a blessing, and Pastor Gillin illuminated how the promise given to Abram in Genesis is fulfilled in Christ and extended to us.      As is typical for me, this spun my brain off into thoughts of love, for how can we better bless others than by showing them God’ love?   (The choir sang “Fill Us with Your Love,” too!)   But then I looked back at some of my previous posts and saw that I have written about love before, (See “Le Mot du Jour est ‘L’Amour’,” dated 2/17/14) and I felt like I should write this time on the topic of Truth.      Someone wiser than I am has said the Gospel stands on the two feet of Grace and Truth.   Now Grace and Love, while not the same thing, are inextricably linked, and I’ll save that discussion for another time.   Today, I am more interested in exploring the “Other side o...

      We all have favorite things, and this Zimbabwean proverb is one of my favorites.  It bears repeating: "If you can walk, you can dance-- If you can talk, you can sing!"        Pastor Albert preached a wonderful sermon today about service.  Of course, I was too dim to bring my sermon notes back home with me today, but I believe he gave us 10 reasons why we must serve, and he explained we must serve first God, then His family, then the world.       One of the things he also included in his sermon was the general statistic that nation-wide, 10% of Christians do 90% of the ministry work.  He compared them to social club members, who pay their monthly dues and soak up the benefits of club membership, but never put in any actual work to maintain the organization.       So here are some questions for you--I hope they make you think, and more imp...

     Often when we walk through valleys we become angry with God.   We ask—no, we angrily demand, “WHY?!”   Hopefully, if you are emotionally in this place, this will encourage you to use that anger constructively.   Just know that the anger and sadness you are feeling are temporary!   We walk through the valley of the shadow of death (Ps 23).   We do not “Stop and rest” there!   The hard times in our lives are roads we must travel.   They are NOT places where our traveling breaks down!      There are many, MANY verses in the Bible full of encouragement.   Bearing in mind that God is big enough to handle anything we throw at Him—any question, and all our anger at Him—let me take a wild liberty and paraphrase some Bible verses for you.   Words that are all capitals are ones I have substituted in for similar phrases—I pray this will fire up your tenacity!   (Pardon my grammatical/editorial erro...

       Reading some updates on Facebook made me think of several sweet friends of mine who have lost loved-ones recently.   Having a cross-referencing brain, and thinking of how special these friends of mine are, I was reminded of the Bible verse that says, “Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.” (Rom 12:10)        Now I know many of us, as Christians, have been taught to believe we should love everyone , and while I won’t disagree with that nor digress (too much!) about exactly how that universal love should be practiced, I will point out, as wiser folk than I have done previously, that we are called to add an extra-heaping measure of love on to our fellow Christians. 1        Remember the old song, “And they’ll know we are Christians by our love—by our love…?”   Perhaps the composer thought about it, but we can extrapolate that the love sung about...

One of my friends re-posted this picture on Facebook.  He found it at Facebook page "Americans against the Tea Party," which in turn got it from "I Acknowledge Class Warfare Exists," neither of which, in my opinion, imply discussions about God from the name of their Facebook pages... regardless, in my limited understanding, I felt complied to "Vent" about this picture, so this blog isn't particularly "Music and Worship Arts" related, but it was spawned by a "Picture" on Facebook!  I have edited my reply on Facebook for ease of reading and to omit personal references.  It went, in part: First, intelligent Tea-Partiers will say you can believe (or not!) whatever religious belief you want--just allow us to believe what *we* want! Next, "Could God have created a universe with free-will but without evil?" is a misleading question.   It presumes that this world exists as God created it.   God DID create a universe with...

Anyone remember this Oldy-But-Goody by Brian Howard? I Just Wanna Be a Sheep Don't wanna be a goat…nope Don't wanna be a goat…nope Haven't got any hope…nope Don't wanna be a goat…nope (Chorus) I just wanna be a sheep Baa, baa, baa, baa I just wanna be a sheep Baa, baa, baa, baa I pray the Lord my soul to keep I just wanna be a sheep Baa, baa, baa, baa, Don't wanna be a Pharisee Don't wanna be a Pharisee 'Cause they're not fair you see Don't wanna be a Pharisee (Chorus) Don't wanna be a Sadducee Don't wanna be a Sadducee 'Cause they're so sad you see Don't wanna be a Sadducee (Chorus)* (And, of course, there are as many variations as there are Sunday School teachers!)      Today the text for Pastor Albert’s sermon was Matthew 22:23-33, in which the Sadducees try to catch Jesus in a logic riddle.   Of course, they fail miserably since (1) they don’t believe the premise on which their riddle is based...

     Please see my post, “C’est la jour de la Noël” or "Why on Earth Did He Pick THAT Song?" for an explanation as to why I chose this song for the choir to sing this month (except for communion Sunday).  For now, here is the Latin text and English translation. Non Nobis, Domine  William Byrd, 1543 - 1623   Non nobis, Domine, non nobis,        Do not give to us, not to us,   sed nomini tuo da gloriam.                but to Your Name give glory.          It is interesting to note that with this same sentiment, Johann Sebastian Bach signed his compositions "SDG," his abbreviation for "Soli Deo Gloria," which means "Only to God glory!"  It is my prayer that all the music we present at FPC would bring "SDG," and I pray, too, that we will ever strive to make this more our goal in all we do! ...