This has been a very special Christmas season for me.
In the midst of so many troubling world events and culture shifts, the encouragement of Christ's coming has really touched my heart.
I've thought more diligently than most years about the courage and selflessness of Mary and Joseph.
Mary, who could easily have been stoned for her admission of pregnancy and Joseph, who could have condoned it. Beyond the miraculous birth itself, they someone survived a relocation to Egypt with an infant. This, at a time and place where resources were nil for the likes of them. They took personal responsibility in a way that few of us can fathom.
I was particularly moved by a line spoken by Mary's character in the movie, The Nativity, which I highly recommend and watch each year. Sitting next to her cousin Elizabeth, Mary wonders, "Why would God have chosen me? I am nothing."
It's just a movie line, but you can imagine the thought crossing her mind, "I am nothing."
I've wondered the same thing about my own redemption through Jesus' death on the cross.
I am nothing. A speck on the this earth and in the continuum of time. Truly a miserable sinner. And yet God loves me. Amazing.
There is another line spoken by Mary. Not a movie script. This one is documented in the Bible.
Mary says this to a few workers at a wedding in Cana.
"Do whatever he tells you." John 2:5
Perhaps the most insightful bit of advice ever uttered.
"Do whatever Jesus tells you."
Read the four gospels. Read the words of Jesus quoted by the apostle John in Revelation.
And then "Do whatever he tells you."
Mary and Joseph were probably the two most courageous, humble and selfless people in history (after their son). With all that could have been rehashed and aggrandized about inns, stables and wise men, Mary summarized the precursive nature of their roles with stunning simplicity,
"Do whatever he tells you."
Merry Christmas. What do you believe?
Thursday, December 27, 2012
Jesus, Love and Crisis Pregnancy
I don't know what you'd expect to find at a crisis pregnancy center.
We've supported a local pregnancy care ministry for years, and this Christmas we delivered some items they'd requested in an update newsletter.
We parked our car right in front of their street-side doorway, adjacent to the barbershop, just across from the local pharmacy. Its a few blocks south of the state university extension campus, with over 20,000 students. A nearby high school had just let out and their kids noisily jostled by on the sidewalk as we unloaded the car
My wife and I made a few trips carrying items up the staircase and into the cheerfully windowed waiting room. The walls are painted a comforting shade of light blue, and the fresh scent of baby powder reminded me of our own daughter's long ago nursery.
We set up the new card table and chairs next to the play area with its basketful of toddler toys. Some of the women who come already have younger children.
It would have only taken several minutes for Sarah to walk us through the simple suite of rooms. But she also paused to describe a "typical" day in her ministry there. The first small room is lined floor to ceiling with wrapped packets of baby items. Sara noted that she sometimes receives cribs and basinets. She lovingly showed the hand-knitted receiving blankets that are made and donated by women from local churches.
In the next room was a clean, spare office with table and chair. Sarah explained that she meets women or couples to understand their need. Some have already given birth and are seeking items like those stored in the adjacent room. Others need a pregnancy test or are seeking an ultrasound (a licensed volunteer visits the center and uses the donated ultrasound system). Still others just need to talk, and Sarah listens.
Sarah offers to pray with her visitors and also provides bibles to those who are interested. Many are.
Some are "exploring options" and Sarah provides factual counsel on the baby created by conception - ultrasounds help to visualize what could otherwise be dismissed as tissue. Her newsletter is filled with names and photos of babies who her clients have chosen to birth.
I don't know exactly what happens in the other "pregnancy" centers that are funded with hundreds of millions of dollars from public taxes. Recent undercover video stings suggest that instead of wise, Godly counsel, some women at Planned Parenthood are simply enabled to abort on demand. Their ultrasounds aren't linked with open, candid dialog to support evidence of life that begins at conception. Planned Parenthood doesn't have Sarah.
Sarah listens and offers to help. She and the ministry provide reassurance, resources and hand-knitted blankets for the babies they pray to see born. Before we left, I helped Sarah position the sturdy new step stool we brought for the ultrasound table. There in the room of the cheerful second floor office that provides pregnancy care - and much more. I wonder what her ministry could accomplish, and how many lives might be saved, with a million dollars? Ten million dollars?
We believe in Sarah and the local pregnancy care ministry. What do you believe?
We've supported a local pregnancy care ministry for years, and this Christmas we delivered some items they'd requested in an update newsletter.
We parked our car right in front of their street-side doorway, adjacent to the barbershop, just across from the local pharmacy. Its a few blocks south of the state university extension campus, with over 20,000 students. A nearby high school had just let out and their kids noisily jostled by on the sidewalk as we unloaded the car
My wife and I made a few trips carrying items up the staircase and into the cheerfully windowed waiting room. The walls are painted a comforting shade of light blue, and the fresh scent of baby powder reminded me of our own daughter's long ago nursery.
We set up the new card table and chairs next to the play area with its basketful of toddler toys. Some of the women who come already have younger children.
It would have only taken several minutes for Sarah to walk us through the simple suite of rooms. But she also paused to describe a "typical" day in her ministry there. The first small room is lined floor to ceiling with wrapped packets of baby items. Sara noted that she sometimes receives cribs and basinets. She lovingly showed the hand-knitted receiving blankets that are made and donated by women from local churches.
In the next room was a clean, spare office with table and chair. Sarah explained that she meets women or couples to understand their need. Some have already given birth and are seeking items like those stored in the adjacent room. Others need a pregnancy test or are seeking an ultrasound (a licensed volunteer visits the center and uses the donated ultrasound system). Still others just need to talk, and Sarah listens.
Sarah offers to pray with her visitors and also provides bibles to those who are interested. Many are.
Some are "exploring options" and Sarah provides factual counsel on the baby created by conception - ultrasounds help to visualize what could otherwise be dismissed as tissue. Her newsletter is filled with names and photos of babies who her clients have chosen to birth.
I don't know exactly what happens in the other "pregnancy" centers that are funded with hundreds of millions of dollars from public taxes. Recent undercover video stings suggest that instead of wise, Godly counsel, some women at Planned Parenthood are simply enabled to abort on demand. Their ultrasounds aren't linked with open, candid dialog to support evidence of life that begins at conception. Planned Parenthood doesn't have Sarah.
Sarah listens and offers to help. She and the ministry provide reassurance, resources and hand-knitted blankets for the babies they pray to see born. Before we left, I helped Sarah position the sturdy new step stool we brought for the ultrasound table. There in the room of the cheerful second floor office that provides pregnancy care - and much more. I wonder what her ministry could accomplish, and how many lives might be saved, with a million dollars? Ten million dollars?
We believe in Sarah and the local pregnancy care ministry. What do you believe?
Monday, December 24, 2012
Can You Re-Tune That Piano ?
I'm converting some old cassette music tapes to .mp3 format.
One cassette is an album of original gospel songs I recorded with friends back in 1985.
This was a dream team of local artists who teamed up with me for the studio project.
Pat played flute, sax and clarinet. Jimmy on drums. Joe and Ed on keyboards. Jack on lead guitar and Larry on bass. Our combined expertise spanned jazz, fusion, rock, folk and sacred music. Their unique perspectives and talents pushed my simple acoustic guitar arrangements to an entirely new (and improved!) level.
Lesson number one for studio recording is to tune your instruments to a standard tone.
You may have heard orchestra's play that "A" tone as the violins tune before a concert.
Back then I just had a pitch pipe for one guitar string, and then I'd tune my other strings from there. But that wasn't efficient with all the other instrumentalists having to tune as well.
Larry the bass player had a new-fangled electronic "tuner" so we could play a note and a light came on to say you were in tune. Simple.
So before recording the ten basic song tracks we all tuned to Larry's box.
Eight hours of studio time later we were ready to begin the much longer process of adding solo instrument and vocal harmony tracks. About this time, the keyboard players convinced me that we needed a full "acoustic" sounding piano...not just the synthesized keyboard we'd planned to add on separate tracks. The studio's piano needed repair - but no problem, one of the guys had a 77 key upright that we could "carry in." We all had day-jobs of course, so it was another Saturday before we could haul in the upright and set up to record again.
One problem. The piano sounded "out of tune" as they started playing it with our recorded tracks.
Argh. A quick call to a piano tuner and some negotiations with the recording studio owner (since I was paying by the hour...).
Good news and bad news once the piano tuner arrive. Good news, the piano was in tune.
Bad news, our recording was slightly out of tune...enough to clash with the piano.
Why? Larry the bass player's tuner had not been properly calibrated to the music standard of "440 Hz for middle C."
We all tuned to Larry's box - we were in tune with each other - and we were all wrong. Since that day, for the last 25 years, I've been in the habit of asking fellow musicians, "are you tuned to 440?" And I carry my own tuner - set to the standard "440" of course.
The Bible is our spiritual calibration to "440." Sometimes we can start running with spiritual ideas that "sound right" amongst a small group of friends, family or even fellowships. But if these ideas clash with the bible...if you're not in tune with what Jesus said...then something is "off."
In our case, we had to either re-tune the piano to be "wrong" and in tune with our recording....or we could start over with the "right" tuning. We had drifted off the mark and impacted everyone involved.
You can't re-tune the Bible. God's Word is the standard. If our beliefs shift out of tune, we need to somehow come back - or start anew. The Holy Spirit within you will often sense the "dis-chord."
Malachi 3:6 "For I am the LORD, I do not change"
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
What do you believe?
One cassette is an album of original gospel songs I recorded with friends back in 1985.
This was a dream team of local artists who teamed up with me for the studio project.
Pat played flute, sax and clarinet. Jimmy on drums. Joe and Ed on keyboards. Jack on lead guitar and Larry on bass. Our combined expertise spanned jazz, fusion, rock, folk and sacred music. Their unique perspectives and talents pushed my simple acoustic guitar arrangements to an entirely new (and improved!) level.
Lesson number one for studio recording is to tune your instruments to a standard tone.
You may have heard orchestra's play that "A" tone as the violins tune before a concert.
Back then I just had a pitch pipe for one guitar string, and then I'd tune my other strings from there. But that wasn't efficient with all the other instrumentalists having to tune as well.
Larry the bass player had a new-fangled electronic "tuner" so we could play a note and a light came on to say you were in tune. Simple.
So before recording the ten basic song tracks we all tuned to Larry's box.
Eight hours of studio time later we were ready to begin the much longer process of adding solo instrument and vocal harmony tracks. About this time, the keyboard players convinced me that we needed a full "acoustic" sounding piano...not just the synthesized keyboard we'd planned to add on separate tracks. The studio's piano needed repair - but no problem, one of the guys had a 77 key upright that we could "carry in." We all had day-jobs of course, so it was another Saturday before we could haul in the upright and set up to record again.
One problem. The piano sounded "out of tune" as they started playing it with our recorded tracks.
Argh. A quick call to a piano tuner and some negotiations with the recording studio owner (since I was paying by the hour...).
Good news and bad news once the piano tuner arrive. Good news, the piano was in tune.
Bad news, our recording was slightly out of tune...enough to clash with the piano.
Why? Larry the bass player's tuner had not been properly calibrated to the music standard of "440 Hz for middle C."
We all tuned to Larry's box - we were in tune with each other - and we were all wrong. Since that day, for the last 25 years, I've been in the habit of asking fellow musicians, "are you tuned to 440?" And I carry my own tuner - set to the standard "440" of course.
The Bible is our spiritual calibration to "440." Sometimes we can start running with spiritual ideas that "sound right" amongst a small group of friends, family or even fellowships. But if these ideas clash with the bible...if you're not in tune with what Jesus said...then something is "off."
In our case, we had to either re-tune the piano to be "wrong" and in tune with our recording....or we could start over with the "right" tuning. We had drifted off the mark and impacted everyone involved.
You can't re-tune the Bible. God's Word is the standard. If our beliefs shift out of tune, we need to somehow come back - or start anew. The Holy Spirit within you will often sense the "dis-chord."
Malachi 3:6 "For I am the LORD, I do not change"
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
What do you believe?
Sunday, December 23, 2012
Xmas Hymn #416
I was so happy to be back playing guitar at church this week!
Work and travel had kept me away the previous two weeks.
Sometimes I just breathe an "ahhhhhh...." to be back sharing music, especially with our stellar music director/keyboardist.
On some Sunday's she leaves the offertory song listed as "instrumental" and simply plays a piano or organ piece, which I really enjoy listening (or praying) to. We also team up and play piano-guitar duets if a particular song has elements that favor our instruments (i.e., not too many sharps or flats for the guitar player). On this Sunday we didn't have a song picked, so she would play a piano piece.
But as I listened to the sermon, I really felt moved to add some worship music. I picked up my hymn book, still opened to #412, the previous song.
Now realize, that immediately following the 10 - 15 minute sermon is our offertory....not a lot of time to choose new music and run it by my co-laborer and keyboardist in Christ!
A quick, silent prayer...."Lord, would you have anything in mind for us to play?"
The very quietest of Holy Spirit-nudges moved me to flip the pages forward (and not backward, though I can't explain how that was clear to me).
Somewhere in the background, as I began studying key signatures and chord structure, I heard some of the pastor's sermon. :-) He was speaking of God's ability to surprise us. We can't put God in a box of our own expectations, limiting what we believe He can accomplish. He is God after all.
Or something along those lines, I only had a few minutes left to look at music!
When I got to Hymn #416, it looked like it had good possibilities...chords and melody that I could sight-read (our music director can play anything!), and enough variety in the verse and chorus to give us something interesting to work with as an instrumental.
But now there were literally only minutes to spare. I had to stand up and walk out the side door to get back to the choir room and ask her. I waffled there in my chair for a few moments - was this really a good idea? But yes, I really sensed a Godly inspiration to do this.
At that very moment, our music director walked back in and handed me a note on her way back to the piano. Without reading it, I lifted up the hymnal and started pointing....I mouthed a few words...."I think I found a song" and she just pointed back to her note in my hand...all this as the pastor's post-sermon prayers were in progress before the offertory.
The handwritten note from our music director simply said..... "Hymn #416."
And we offered up some beautiful music to God.
"With man this is not possible, but with God, all things are possible." Matthew 19:26
What do you believe?
Work and travel had kept me away the previous two weeks.
Sometimes I just breathe an "ahhhhhh...." to be back sharing music, especially with our stellar music director/keyboardist.
On some Sunday's she leaves the offertory song listed as "instrumental" and simply plays a piano or organ piece, which I really enjoy listening (or praying) to. We also team up and play piano-guitar duets if a particular song has elements that favor our instruments (i.e., not too many sharps or flats for the guitar player). On this Sunday we didn't have a song picked, so she would play a piano piece.
But as I listened to the sermon, I really felt moved to add some worship music. I picked up my hymn book, still opened to #412, the previous song.
Now realize, that immediately following the 10 - 15 minute sermon is our offertory....not a lot of time to choose new music and run it by my co-laborer and keyboardist in Christ!
A quick, silent prayer...."Lord, would you have anything in mind for us to play?"
The very quietest of Holy Spirit-nudges moved me to flip the pages forward (and not backward, though I can't explain how that was clear to me).
Somewhere in the background, as I began studying key signatures and chord structure, I heard some of the pastor's sermon. :-) He was speaking of God's ability to surprise us. We can't put God in a box of our own expectations, limiting what we believe He can accomplish. He is God after all.
Or something along those lines, I only had a few minutes left to look at music!
When I got to Hymn #416, it looked like it had good possibilities...chords and melody that I could sight-read (our music director can play anything!), and enough variety in the verse and chorus to give us something interesting to work with as an instrumental.
But now there were literally only minutes to spare. I had to stand up and walk out the side door to get back to the choir room and ask her. I waffled there in my chair for a few moments - was this really a good idea? But yes, I really sensed a Godly inspiration to do this.
At that very moment, our music director walked back in and handed me a note on her way back to the piano. Without reading it, I lifted up the hymnal and started pointing....I mouthed a few words...."I think I found a song" and she just pointed back to her note in my hand...all this as the pastor's post-sermon prayers were in progress before the offertory.
The handwritten note from our music director simply said..... "Hymn #416."
And we offered up some beautiful music to God.
"With man this is not possible, but with God, all things are possible." Matthew 19:26
What do you believe?
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