Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
Published by: ACTS International
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Vol. 17 – No. 1615 April 18, 2015
Thought for the week: "Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it." – Mark Twain
There was a very gracious lady who was mailing an old family Bible to her brother in another part of the country. "Is there anything breakable in here?" asked the postal clerk. "Only the Ten Commandments," answered the lady.
Even though I am a certified non-musician, I reign as the number one consumer of music in the family. My daily diet begins with early morning P.B.S. radio, continues with the same or "golden oldies" in the car, and then classical music again in my office. Music nourishes my soul, soothes my spirit.
Honestly, I know nothing about music. But decades of sitting in church, listening to records, tapes, and radio has saturated me with good stuff. At night as I plop my head on the pillow, I always sing my last thoughts: "Oh Jesus, joy of loving hearts, I turn unfilled to Thee again." I don't know why it floats into my consciousness, but it does. Just that much. No more. A prayer. A sigh. And I'm asleep.
Teaching our children
Filling the hearts and minds of our children with good music works best when planned and intentional like regular meals. Children should be bathed in music from early infancy, maybe even pre-natally. Mozart, Bach, Schubert, Beethoven, Stravinsky, as well as Christian hymns and Psalms, are as vital to health as orange juice and oatmeal.
Adult people, too, are mellowed, or charged up, by music. Music may touch us most in that part of the human anatomy now called the right brain. The left brain deals with reasoning, order, and logical thinking. Ordinary classroom teaching aims at the skills of the left brain. The right brain has to do with creativity, emotion, spontaneity, feelings. I suppose joy and excitement spring from right brain stimulation while left brain reasonableness responds in its own way to the orderliness of rhythms and harmonies. Music massages the whole person, bypassing brain cells, tickling, electrifying, quieting, healing deep inside where little else can reach.
Regular church attendance remains as one way young people get fed music. Souls are being caressed there with right brain melodies and left brain inspirations and information simultaneously. But more is needed. Homes should consciously create a musical ambiance by thoughtful use of radio and recordings, beginning when children are in very early infancy. Christian music should be mixed well with the classics for sure. Jazz, rock and other popular sounds, selectively, have a place, too.
Someone has said "God gave us music so we can pray without words." That's part of it. Creatures of God have a soul hunger only satisfied by music. When Jesus said, "Man cannot live by bread alone," He was claiming for us our essential spirituality, which must be fed. Living without music is spiritual malnutrition. Good music stimulates the mind, improves circulation, eases pain, relaxes muscles, raises immunity, heals broken hearts, quiets fears, and brings people together.
As another has said, "Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness. It is generally the result of other activities."
Among other things, happiness is having a noble and worthwhile purpose for which to live; a purpose that will help and enrich the life of others.
It is resolving all past negative relationships. As another has said, "Failing to forgive [all who have ever hurt us] is like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die."
It is having healthy and meaningful relationships—loving and being loved.
It is living a moral and upright life so one is free from guilt.
It is resolving all past super-charged, repressed negative emotions ... such as hurt, anger, hatred, envy, jealousy and pride. As God's Word says, "So get rid of your feelings of hatred. Don't just pretend to be good. Be done with dishonesty, deception, envy and fraud. Long to grow up into the fullness of your salvation" (Romans 12:9-10, TLB).
A teacher assigned her 12th graders to pick a leader and write an essay. Most kids wrote about famous people, but a student named Julius titled his paper "Benny: The Man on the Bus."
Julius wrote that he'd been taking a public bus to school for years. Since most passengers were going to work, almost no one ever talked to anyone else.
About a year ago, an elderly man got on the bus and said loudly to the driver, "Good morning!" Most people looked up annoyed and the bus driver just grunted. The next day the man got on at the same stop and again he said loudly, "Good morning!" to the driver. By the fifth day, the driver greeted the man with a cheerful "Good morning!"
Soon, the man added, "My name is Benny. What's yours?" The driver said, "Good morning, Benny. I'm Ralph."
That was the first time the riders knew the driver's name and now people began to talk to each other and say hello to Ralph and Benny. Soon Benny extended his cheerful "Good morning!" to the whole bus. After a week, his "Good morning" was returned by a whole bunch of "Good mornings" and the entire bus seemed to be friendlier.
"A leader is someone who makes something happen," Julius said. "Benny was a leader in friendliness."
But last month Benny stopped getting on the bus. Everyone thought, "Maybe he died," and no one knew what to do. The bus got awful quiet again and Julius didn't like that.
"So," he wrote, "I started to say 'Good morning' to everyone and they cheered up again. I guess I'm now the leader."
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
It's fascinating how God introduced himself to the human race. He is totally non-defensive and non-explanatory. He simply opens his Word, the Bible, with the simple but profound statement saying, "In the beginning God...." That is, "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth."
God didn't tell us how he did it. Thousands of years later scientists are still trying to work out exactly how it all began and how it happened. My guess is that they will never fully unfold this mystery—not this side of eternity anyhow.
Believing in God and his creation boils down to faith and choice. We basically choose what we want to believe. Many of us believe in God because that was what we were taught as children but at some point we made the choice whether to continue believing in him or not.
For some people choosing to believe in God has more to do with morality than it has to do with intellectual issues. Many don't want to believe in God (or in some parts of the Bible) so they can live and behave as they choose. However, if we believe in God, we know that we are morally responsible and accountable to him.
Another tragedy when we don't believe in God is as the Russian author, Dostoyevsky, said: "When people stop believing in God, the danger is not that they will believe in nothing. It's that they will believe in anything."
Or as another has said, "If we don't stand for something we may fall for anything."
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, I choose to believe in you. I choose to trust my life to you and, with your help, I choose to love and serve you all the days of my life. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
1. Genesis 1:1.
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