"Tis So Sweet..."

"I believe..." we sang these words as part of a praise song today, and it was impressed upon me to think about them. When we say "I believe in Jesus," what are we saying. There are so many times that that phrase is used in the Bible and I often wonder if there is a more accurate word to use. I think there is so much more to believing than believing. I have often wanted to replace that word with "trust." It seems to fit better. To believe "in" something means to trust it. I remember hearing a speaker at a Billy Graham crusade tell a story..(it may have been Billy Graham himself) about a man who was the worlds best tightrope walker. He could even do tricks like take a wheelbarrow across the wire without having any trouble. He asked a friend, "Do you believe that I could carry a person across the wire in the wheelbarrow?" The friend replied, "Oh, yes. I have no doubt that you could do it.... I believe you can." The tightrope walker found out the extent of the friend's belief when he asked him, "Do you want to go first?"
Believing in Jesus means believing "in" Him to the point that you will place your life in His hands. You will do what He asks and trust Him for the outcome. You will sacrifice your ability to control your destiny and "trust" him to take control of the "wheelbarrow" of your life. Are you a believer..... Are you a "truster?" Faith is the action of trusting Jesus... Faith is "getting into the wheelbarrow" not out of blindness or stupidity, but because you trust the one in control.



....To trust in Jesus.

From the Ashes

I have recently changed from being a full-time music teacher and bi-vocational music minister to being a full time music and education minister. Music has always been one of the main driving forces of my life, but I must admit that I noticed after 14 years of 7-8 hours a day of teaching music, I began to "not listen" to music for fun. Maybe my ears were full! I enjoyed music that I knew from years ago, but as far a enjoying new music, I just seemed to be "burned out." I have always enjoyed making music and songwriting music of my own, but grew less and less able to appreciate the music of others. One blessing that I am seeing grow from my new opportunities and schedule is the gradual return of the enjoyment of listening to the music of others. I heard the Pleasant Valley Baptist Church Christmas program and the choir sang an arrangement of Mary Did You Know that grabbed my heart like it hadn't been grabbed in a long time. A friend of mine turned me on to www.pandora.com which plays music according to the style of artist you type in. I am enjoying it as I type now. I still don't totally understand why I developed a "burned out" deadness to new music, but the flame is returning. They say fire needs three elements: fuel, heat, and air in order to burn. I would have to say that with all of my classes in the past, my passion for music had plenty of fuel, and heat of the love of music was there, but I was under too much pressure to let my passion breathe. Now that a little air is in my schedule, there are puffs of smoke and little flames that are rising up in my fire for enjoying music again. Thank you God for letting a little breathing room into my life to stoke the fire from the ashes.

Sparks

I agreed to give lessons to a couple of teens on guitars that they got for Christmas. They are great kids and I know they will use the opportunity well and study hard. It is amazing that if you are looking for chances to share with others, more opportunities will come. After our lessons last night, the kids told me about other kids who might be able to add to our musical endeavor and create a band. Immediately, though, the focus of the teens was not so much to create a band, but to get their friends involved in their church. These kids really kept the main idea in focus as we talked about the possibility of adding a drummer and bass player to our group. Music ministry is first and foremost a ministry of the gospel. Music is just the means to begin the communication. I can't wait to see how the sparks that these kids start can be used by God to fan into flames of revival in a few or many lives in our town. A heart that burns for Christ will give off a lot of sparks! Keep the fire burning.

B-I-B-L-E

I received several Bibles over the past few months. None one of them new, in fact they are pretty old and written in and nearly falling apart. They are some of the neatest things I have received in a long time. The first one was from my grandmother's house. One of the places that I loved to be because it helped define my family background and the loving way we interact with each other. Every Sunday we were there, playing, hearing the grownups laugh, sometime sleeping over to extend our visit if school was not in session the next day. So many stories that I share with my brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles who were a consistent, regular part of my growing up. The Bible contains a few scraps of paper from weddings, funerals, pictures, etc. It hold some of the tradition of Grandma Lee's family, although most of the traditions were lived out regularly among the lot of us. The last few holidays she shared with us included anywhere from 50-75 guests including several great-great-grandchildren. The Bible is a reminder of the legacy of love and joyful living that flows through my family to this day.
Another Bible is one of the many Bibles owned by my aunt Elsie who also passed away this past year. Aunt Elsie was my dad's sister whom I didn't really know a lot about growing up, except that she had been overseas as a missionary. The past 15 years or so I got to know her and a lot more about her amazing life of service to God in Bangledesh and in the US. Her Bible is written in from front to back. It has been studied tirelessly. There are also a few scraps of paper in this Bible, but some have been left there in the midst of its use and do not necessarily relate to our family at all, but to whomever she was talking to with her Bible open. It is marked with the "Roman Road" plan of salvation so that she could lead others to an understanding of God's eternal love and had things jotted in the margins and in the front and back cover. I look forward to reading it and discovering her thoughts on many subjects. I also received one of her Bibles written in the language of the people of Bangledesh. Although I will never be able to read it, it was no doubt ready for her to give away to someone during her missionary years. This Bible is a testimony to the focus of God that was always evident in the lives of my father and his family and one that I am striving to continue today.
I have two girls and therefore will most likely not have a son to carry on the "family name," but I have realized that more importantly, I would like to pass along the "family tradition and the family faith" that was entrusted to me by the owners of these Bibles. My wife got me a Bible for a wedding present 17 years ago. I hope when someone looks at it long after I am gone, there will be to them a reminder that I kept the tradition and faith alive and passed it on as a legacy to the generations to come.

Penny in the Hedges

When I was about 9 or 10 years old. I remember walking to the store to buy some candy with some money I had and I knew I had just enough to buy one piece of gum. As I was walking, one of the pennies in my hand fell out just as I was walking next to a large row of hedges in front of one of the houses on my street. I stopped, knowing my trip was in vain without the penny. I looked for several minutes without results and started back home.
After a few steps, a thought entered my head that I should pray to find the penny so I did. Then I went back to the hedges and within seconds spotted it. I realized even then that this could have been just a coincidence, but I also knew immediately that it wasn't. That's probably the reason I still remember this minor incident very vividly even today. I knew that it was God working in my life. I don't know exactly why I knew it. I think it had to do with the fact I recognized that the "thought" that came to me about prayer, was not a thought at all, but was somehow different. I understood it as a clear direction given to me.
Maybe I was too young to analyze it away as a psychological abnormality, or a crazy trick of the mind and instead of forgetting about it, I decided to follow it. It's a good thing, because now I realized that it was one of the first times that the God encouraged me to trust Him and I did it. I took action based on the leading of the Holy Spirit. God did it on level that I could understand. I was blessed by my obedience to God. I am still learning that lesson today. Yes, I can recognized that still, small voice. And yes, I have a lot more of an ability to explain it away now than I did when I was 9. But if I am true to my understanding, and true to the real leading of the Holy Spirit, I am blessed in the tiniest of things in my life as well as in the major events. The more I listen to and follow that voice, the more I recognize it. Like the sheep that recognized the shepherd's voice, I am forever trying to follow and trust Him through my actions.

New Beginning

It is a new year and a lot of changes have taken place over the past 12 months. I know the next year will be just as exciting. As I have begun a new chapter in my life as music and education minister at our church, I have wanted to start a blog where I can share some of the things that God is doing in my life as well as some of the thoughts He is giving me. I hope these may help others to be inspired or encouraged to seek God in every minute aspect of their daily lives. Here comes 2009. Let's jump right in!