Thought for the day-Ships in the wind

My father, Merle Wolf, used to put a smooth bit in most of our horse’s mouths.  However, the very stubborn ones required a rougher surfaced bit to control their direction.

Is your ship driven by the wind?

                                               Is your ship driven by the wind? 

       James 3:4 states, “Behold also the ships, which though they be great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.”

       When I visited my son-in-law Mark Mander and his wife Deanna, my oldest daughter, I walked by the sea shore in Northern Ireland in the early morning.  The waves were crashing against the sea wall as they sent the sea spray high into the air.  Although it was an awesome sight, I was very glad that I was on dry land rather than in a boat that morning.

       James 3:4 reminds us that ships, although driven in one direction by the wind, are easily turned around by a very small rudder.  A horse may also be turned to the left or right by a tug on the bit in his mouth.  It is odd that you can turn a ship or a powerful horse completely around at the will of the one in control, but sometimes Christian musicians override the gentle checks of the Holy Spirit when he nudges the musician to keep him or her out of trouble.

       If we can easily turn a ship around in fierce winds and huge waves, the Christian musician should be able, with the ‘tugs” of the Holy Spirit, to control what he or she says.  This Scripture clearly teaches that the musician needs the Lord’s help in governing his or her life.

       Verse seventeen states, “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.”  Wow! Ouch!  Verse five warns, “Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth.”

       Every time in my life that I have had the good sense to keep my mouth shut, I have been glad later.  There are four words that I have learned over the years that have helped me.  They are, “It just doesn’t matter.”  In the light of what words do to relationships, most things really do not matter as much as we think they do when the waves of adversity and disagreement are blowing. What we need to do in these times is let the blessed Holy Spirit be our rudder to help us stay out of “foot in mouth disease”.

Prayer for the day-Called to music

                                             Prayer for the day-Called to Music

Lord, will you please pour out Your Blessings on all those in your kingdom who are leading others in musicing unto you.  Father, please give them the ability to ABIDE in your musical calling.  Lift them up in the most holy faith just now as we pray together.  Lord. I am asking You to pour out a blessing on their lives, their churches, their schools, and where ever they may music unto you.  Please bless their families and keep them from Satan’s harm. Bless these music ministers financially and spiritually.  Fill their hearts with the dunamis (1411-miraculous power) of the Spirit.  These things I pray in your strong and holy name.  Amen.

Called to music unto God

                                                     Called to Music unto God

I Corinthians 7:20 states,”Let every man abide in the calling wherin he is called.”  We are all called to be servants of Christ.   God has a place in his kingdom for all of us to do service unto him.  In this scripture verse the apostle Paul warns the Corinthian Christians not to be servants of man but rather servants of God. 

       I am writing these few devotional thoughts today to musicians who are called to music unto God.  Probably no one has come to you today to encourage you to keep ministering unto the Lord by musicing unto him.  Probably no one will come by today to pat you on the back for your faithfulness to god in leading others in music worship.  It is my prayer that the very God of Peace will use this little devotional to encourage you to keep on musicing unto Him and to keep leading others in musical worship.

       King Davis, the sweet psalmist of Israel, had it figured out.  He encouraged himself in the Lord (I Samuel 30:6).  That is exactly what you may have to do if you are out there in “Smirgly Junction” where there is absolutely no one to encourage you to keep going! 

       Get down on your knees and thank God that He has made it possible for you to be HIS musical servant.  Remember, the Corinthian writer reminded all Christians to abide (meno-3306-to stay in a given place) in their calling.  So, what this word means is you need to stick it out right where God has placed you to music unto him.

       Thank God for the giving you the opportunity to lead others in musical worship.  Thank Him for giving you the musical gifts and graces to be a musical leader.  You must do whatever it takes for you to keep encouraged and to stay at your musical post.  I know what I am talking about.  I stayed at one musical ministry position for thirty four years.  I experienced many times of burnout but somehow God Gave me the strength to keep going.  Believe me when I tell you that sometimes I had to take King David’s example to heart and encourage my self in the Lord—you will too if you remain at your musical post very long!

Prayer for the day-Precious seed

                                                Prayer for the day—precious musical seed

      I Thank you lord that you provided opportunities for me to develop my musical talents.  You have made it possible for my musical grainery to be filled with precious musical seed.  Lord I am asking you to help me to plant this precious in the fertile soil of the lives of young Christian musicians in order that they may also bear precious seed for your kingdom.  I am also asking you Lord to help ms, in my retirement years, to mentor other Christians around the world to bear precious musical seed for you and to plant it in the fertile soil of the lives of those to whom they minister.  These things I pray in your Strong Name.  Amen

Is your musical seed still in the barn?

                                                      Is your musical seed still in the barn?

Haggai 2:19a states, “Is the seed yet in the barn?”  This verse from the Book of Haggai may seem to be a strange portion of scripture to use for a philosophical thought for today.  How could seed in a barn possibly have ant relevance to a Christian musician? 

       How does seed get into a barn?  As you well know seed never comes with a barn when it is constructed.  Someone has to place it in the grainery.  Someone has to till the soil, plant the seed, cultivate or spray the plants and fertilize the soil.  After the grain is mature someone has to harvest the seed and store it in the barn.

       How did you get a start musically?  Many Christian musicians are the product of a lot of spiritual and musical cultivation.  It was my home church that gave me a start musically.  It was also my mother and father who provided the money and took me to my music lessons.

       Very few Christian musicians are self-made musicians.   Someone cared, prayed, encouraged, and provided ministry opportunities.  As a result, many of us are loaded with training and practical music ministry experiences and music education.  We owe others a great debt.  Furthermore we owe God an eternal debt of gratitude and responsibility to train others for His Kingdom.  We need to make sure that our musical seed is not sitting idly in our barn.  God does not provide for us so that we can, musically speaking, get all we can so that we are able to can all we get.  God gives to us so that we can get all we can and give Him all we get.  So, we as Christian musicians need to be sure that our life is about taking the precious musical seed and planting it in the fertile soil of young people’s lives.

       I do not want to face my Savior, who gave his all for me, with a barn full of musical seed that I was too lazy to plant in the fertile soil of young Christian musicians.

Prayer for the day--Song of Prtaise

                                         Prayer for the day—Song of praise

Thank you Lord.  You are worthy to receive praise and honor and glory.  Thank you for including me, a Kansas farmer who is a nobody, in your redemptive plan.  Thank you Lord that you were not willing that anyone should perish. Thank you, thank you thank you, for saving my soul.  Praise God. I thank you Lord for saving a Kansas farmer on July 21, 1967.  Amen.

A Song of Praise

                                       A song of Praise (Jan 23)

       Revelation 5:9 states, “And they sung a new song saying, thou art worthy to take the book, and open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation.”  Where do I begin to discuss such a wonderful Scripture?  One could write a dissertation on this great truth.  It is no wonder they sang “new song” which was praise unto God on this occasion. When I read this passage my heart cries out “worthy is the Lamb of God”.  Only the Lamb of God is worthy to open the Book of Life and break its seals!  He is worthy because he redeemed every Christian musician by His blood.

       No one else was or is or will be worthy to open the book because no one else suffered, shed his blood and died for every musician’s sins.  Jesus is worthy to receive our loudest praise because of what He has done for us.  Every person out of every kindred, tongue and nation who have confessed their sins and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ has the right to praise and extol the blessed trinity for the reality of salvation.

       No wonder we are commanded to praise our Savior by singing unto Him.  Since He is worthy of our highest praise, we should not take our musicing unto Him lightly.  As a matter of fact why don’t you make your boast in the Lord throughout this entire day?  It is fitting and proper for you to lavish praise on your Savior every day.  You have probably been told that a musician should never boast.  I am telling you that it is a wonderful thing for you to boast if you’re boasting is about our wonderful Savior Jesus Christ.

       I am sitting in the Atlanta airport at gate thirty one in Terminal A.  People are staring at my open Bible on my lap as I muse and write on this wonderful Bible verse.  Let them stare at me as though I am a freak.  I am about to get happy right here in the airport because my God is worthy to be praised.  He is my savior and my soon coming king. 

Thought for the day-Music's understanding part 9

Understanding the music part of music is to music what  intake, compression, power and exhaust is to understanding a four-stroke engine.

Can we understand music's meaning?-part 9

       I Corinthians 14:7 states, "And even things without life giving sound, whether pipe (aulos 836- a flute) or harp (kithara 2788-a hand held lyre), except they give a distinction in the sounds (phthoggos 5353-i.e. melodies, notes or sounds) how shall it be known  what is piped or harped." This verse is another reference to musical understanding. Again ,this verse is in the middle of a discussion of  known or unknown language. However, this verse can not be about glossolalia  since aspsuchos (895) i.e. "things without life" refers to inanimate musical instruments.
       This reference to musical instruments is used by the Corinthian author by similitude (the quality of being similar) .  He refers to the commonly known fact that the act of playing melodies in such a manner that the auditor could perceive their distinction  (diastole 1293-significance) would impart understanding to the listener. 
       This verse is not esoteric Jewish reference to the blowing of the shofar since the words aulos (pipe not horn) and kithara (lyre not horn) were used.  If the writer had wanted to indicate a horn , he would have used the Greek word keras (2768).  So, the musical import of this instrumental music reference is that proper instrumental performance somehow imparts musical understanding to the hearer.
        This verse gives us a Bible principal of musicing; albeit a rather veiled reference to musical understanding since we are not given particulars as to what "distinctive instrumental playing" entails  Nevertheless we are instructed that we can have understanding concerning the message of instrumental performance.  What we do not know for sure is whether this understanding comes from the formal properties of  the music i.e. the phthoggos (melodies, sounds) or from outside knowledge outside of the music which  the listener brings to the musical performance. At this point, I would tend to believe that this understanding comes from the phthoggos.