A Royal Witness?

To link to the article from "the Telegraph" referred to below go to...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/royal-wedding/8481434/Paul-Mealor-The-royal-wedding-composer.html

You can read what's below in the link made above.

Little-known 35 year old Welsh composer Paul Mealor was chosen to provide a sizeable portion of the royal wedding music at the behest of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Why they chose him remains open to debate; it’s believed that Mealor’s most famous work, Ubi caritas, which premiered last Autumn at St Andrew’s University (where the young royal couple met) held some sway and, in a further twist, the composer also hails from Anglesey where the couple currently reside.
The entire wedding ceremony, including Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est (Where charity and love are, God is there), will be recorded and made available digitally the same day, with physical copies going on sale from 4 May.

I heard Mealor's Ubi caritas live very early this morning, while sipping my coffee, in awe of the overtly Christian teachings, prayers, hymns, music, and message peppering the Royal Wedding. I think a lot of us were caught off guard by this. For me, a composer of no note, to hear Paul Mealor's incredible piece along with two billion other people, was overwhelming. Beautiful things can still happen in this world. Listen to it. Listen to the little interview found at the link above.

Simply amazing...

Distinguishing People Pressure from God's Will

I'm involved in many things as a leader that put me in the crosshairs of people who have influence and an agenda. I make the mistake more often than I would like of misjudging both. I'm not the only one. Many of us both over-estimate the power of other people and over-accommodate their agendas. Undiscerning Christian spirituality mixes with this to leave many of us further confused. Is this powerful person's agenda really God's will? The answer is always "no!" Get that straight. Being pushed by a person -- and some people have an amazing, subtle ability to push -- is never the same as being drawn by God. You seek God's will by seeking God, not by seeking to please a person whose pleasure you believe will be to your advantage. If you're being pushed by a human being, it may be a sign that your walk with Christ has taken on a limp. Whenever I'm not praying, not in the Word, not "living with" other believers regularly, I'm vulnerable to lesser gods. Yes, that's where this points. If we're not with God, then someone lesser will take His place in our conscience. This is so dangerous. In the end, it's never the bully's fault. We can't be bullied without our cooperation.

God puts it clearly to begin His Ten Commandments:

"You shall have no other Gods before Me." Exodus 20:3

Amen.

PS - Thanks for the feedback on the blog. We'll see. I think I'll at least blog more; this may evolve into a daily or close to daily blog. It's worth doing if it makes a difference for someone, like anything else.

To blog or not to blog (on a daily basis)

OK, I'm back here. I hope you followed my Lenten blog. Either way, though, thanks for reading here. I have a question. Should I blog on a daily basis? And should I consolidate all my blogs? This would mean using one, this one I guess, even for the seasonal devotions. It would mean focusing and plowing through. Maybe I would take weekends off.

If you think I should, why?

One congregation member with some IT savvy thinks I and the church are too spread out and unfocused in terms of the internet. Maybe he's right. What do you think?

It's Easter Monday. What was that Monday like? When they woke up this morning after having had some interesting conversations with the formerly dead Jesus, do you think it took them a moment to update their files? Did they stare straight ahead after being awake long enough to recount the events of the day before? Did they still make their coffee and go for a 5 mile run? (Isn't that what everyone does every morning?) What did they eat, wear, or do today? Do you just go back to work? When people ask you how your weekend was, what do you say? Uplifting? Eye-opening? Do you tell people, or do you wait? They'll think you're crazy, right?

Easter Monday is the authentic Christian life. We do the things we do, but those of us who believe never shake off the astonishment. All Christians are a little dreamy. Many who are not might find us irritating. We don't dance to the same music anymore. Anger, fear, despair, and the flesh are all popped balloons now. He is risen indeed!

Seriously, let me know if you think I should do this on a daily basis. Thanks!

Trying

In Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Yoda is famous for teaching Luke, after he complained that he was trying his best, "Do or do not...there is no try." I got his point, but these days I think he's wrong. There is a try. Trying is sometimes the exact best thing to do. I've been trying new things for the last few weeks, and it has paid off dramatically. Here are several "try" verses in Scripture (NIV) from the apostle Paul that argue with Yoda as well as with much that we teach each other in churches these days.

1st Corinthians 10:13 "...I TRY to please everybody in every way. For I am not seeking my own good but the good of many, so that they may be saved."

1st Corinthians 14:12 "Since you are eager to have spiritual gifts, TRY to excel in gifts that build up the church."

2nd Corinthians 5:11 "Since, then, we know what it is to fear the Lord, we TRY to persuade men. What we are is plain to God, and I hope it is also plain to your conscience."

1st Thessalonians 5:15 "Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always TRY to be kind to each other and to everyone else."

Titus 2:9 "Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to TRY to please them, not to talk back to them..."

Two verses on trying to please people seem to be especially out of sync with modern teachings. With God's help, I will TRY to understand them.

Love Sets Leaders Apart

I've spent the day with leaders. Anyone who cares about the church should want to see their pastors write such a sentence. I'm inspired. How could it be otherwise? These people are the beating heart of the God's church. When God grows people and grants them an opportunity to serve Him like I've seen Him do in the lives of these people, it's clear to me that He is on the move. He is doing what only He can do; He is lighting up hearts with love. It is love that sets leaders apart. This is the end of the issue. Christ defines love. Once we place our faith in His work on the cross, then comes love. We impute our sin to Him; He imputes His righteous to us. By faith in Him, Jesus Christ, we are declared righteous, not wicked, at the final judgment. Every day before is a day of love. How can it be otherwise? Leaders get this. Leaders give this. God is good. I've spent the day with leaders.

A Future Provocative Protagonist

Provocative means to provoke. If you look at "pro" and then "vocative," it sounds like voicing forth. Someone who is provocative causes strong irritation. A protagonist is a lead character in a drama. In studying the leadership styles of the Psalms, Ronald Reagan before he was president, Theodore Roosevelt, the apostle Paul, and Jesus Christ, I see a consistent trend. They were all provocative protagonists. They did not hold back. I am always holding back. It is almost an unwritten job requirement for a pastor: do not say what you mean. Instead, I listen and nod. Here are eleven things I have thought at least once, but not said...

1) No.
2) Stop talking about God's role in this. You did it to yourself.
3) Stop blaming him/her. Blame yourself.
4) The devil did not lift a finger here. You did this to yourself.
5) The truth hurts because you do not want it.
6) The image you project of God is ugly.
7) Your viewpoint is only that.
8) People are not your personal vending machines.
9) You do not want help. Stop asking for it.
10) Your whacked behavior defies your Christian explanation for it.
11) Telling people you love them does not make it okay for you to hurt them.

So, there you go. Someday...

Egypt!

It is exciting to watch the news tonight. It has been an education for me to witness, via the media, the last 18 days of unrest in Egypt. For instance, I didn't know the details of how Mubarak came into power. He was present at Sadat's assassination, and, as the head of Egypt's Air Force then, he took temporary control of the government of Egypt. This temporary control is what he kept for 30 years. Amazing, eh? There is much I don't know, but I do know that the world is changing before our eyes. I also know that these are days to pray for Egypt.

2-Hour Delay

As a kid, I remember well the 2-Hour Delay. We have one today. Preschool, therefore, is cancelled. I can still recall the wash of blessing and relief I felt as a 13-year old when I - awake like Christmas morning - heard it on the radio. Now I could sleep in! It wasn't a snow day, but it was the next best thing. Sleeping in was unabated joy, even if it consisted of two hours of unbroken wide-eyed staring over the pillow at the clock.

Now having everyone else in the house sleep in is my preference. Alone I sit in a rightly quiet house. Coffee, there will be coffee in heaven. The hazardous snow on the ground measures roughly the thickness of two slices of American cheese, wrappers removed. The sun will do my shoveling for me. It feels like the best way to start a day sometimes, is to delay it.

It's funny, however, that almost everyone I know loves to be told, at the beginning of a day, "your day is delayed or cancelled." Days are all we have, yet the way many of us live makes us love to shorten or skip them.

Cheesehead Nation

I don't think I've enjoyed a Super Bowl more. As a Vikings fan, I find it easy to like Green Bay today, for some reason. Congratulations Cheeseheads!

What's the spiritual application? The good guys win, eventually.

LATER NOTE:
I was kidding with the "good guys" thought, but now that I've heard and seen some of "the good" in the Packers' stories, I'm amazed. I've written it here before: sports, whether you like them or not, are a testing ground for character. Many players on every NFL team are giving men of faith. So, it turns out, all kidding aside, that the most watched TV program in all of history can, in fact, be mined for lessons and insight about life. Go figure. :)

The poor musical performances (anthem and halftime) also made the news. Those of us who are musicians can feel for them. Remember, it was the most watched TV program in history.

Snow Day

It's been a while since I've written here. This blog has floated away from my day-to-day awareness like driftwood. Returning to it stirs the sentimental in me. I remember the first several entries made one summer from my covered back deck every morning. Coffee, a bible and books, and this laptop combined to produce sentences and paragraphs. I had readers right away. Now I'm not sure anyone will read this. Snow on top of snow with the potential for ice knocking out our power is the reality today. I write this blog from my basement with a thick robe and ski hat. Still I see coffee, bibles and books, and this laptop. The passing of time is more certain than change. Some change is cosmetic. Snow teaches this. I built an igloo for Kelsie yesterday. It has a door. She fits in there nicely, but protests any Eskimo's opinion of the warmth of such a shelter. Schools are closed from here to Texas. Travel and commerce for over a third of the United States shows little potential for occurring today, tomorrow, or the next day. Snow seems in every way a transformation of reality, yet it is only snow. It is only a covering. All that was before it arrived still is. Earth (and life in the eastern half of America) is only covered and paused temporarily.

Stray thoughts:

- Yes, He (Jesus) makes our sins as white as snow (Isaiah 1:18). Remember that the whiteness of the snow is an illustration. The prophet calls his hearers to reason with God, to think. The snowy picture is a jump-start to thinking about God's forgiveness. The work of Jesus Christ is never cosmetic, personally or historically. What He covers changes status forever, unlike snow.

- Potential power outages are our problem this week. Power outages are always a problem. Welcome to the 19th century. Be careful with fire. Sometimes physical power outages cause a renewal of spiritual, emotional, and relational power. If we have to have one, let's pray to have the other.