“Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my rigtheousness.” (Isaiah 41: 10 KJV) “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.” (Psalm 23: 4 KJV) I have written about fear…..
I have taught some very fine, committed music students over the years, fifty years as of next year for me. Teenagers today are involved in so many activities; it makes my head spin. I’m glad I do not have to keep the schedules most parents have to know where their children are at any given moment. That point came full circle for me as I tried to get three students in one place at the same time to practice, “Believe”…..
Do you hear the bells at Christmas? Do their promises of hope, love, peace, and grace fill your soul with a yearning for better times? When you go to a tree lot or cut your own tree down in a forest, do you want a straight tree or a tree with slight imperfections? Four authors have taught me a lot about the bells and trees at Christmas: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, and Max Lucado. If we do…..
Who was John the Baptist? Of all the people in the Bible, I must admit that I really find him strangely weird. He dressed in clothes that were never washed, ate all kinds of bugs and plants, many people called him a “wild man, even crazy,” and was the man chosen by God to proclaim the coming of a Savior to the world. At his extremely violent death, decapitation, he said that he could not begin to fill Christ’s shoes,…..
Very few of us who are poetry fans do not recognize the name of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, America’s poet of the 19th century, but many people do not realize where his inspiration came from for his poem, “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” I have often wandered why I am so inspired by the tolling of bells at any time of the year but particularly on Christmas Eve. Their sweet tones welcome in the birth of Christ on Christmas…..
Every morning before I leave my home to do errands or go to doctor’s appointments, I stand in the foyer putting my coat on, and I read a poem that hung in my father’s study that now hangs in my foyer. Four words stand out: faith, love, peace, and God. Where there is faith, there is love. Where there is love, there is peace. Where there is peace, there is God. Where there is God, there is no need. Every…..
As I have often written about my faith, one of my many favorite hymns is Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory, written by abolitionist, Julia Ward Howe, during the Civil War. Using the tune from John Brown’s Body, Julia’s words joined the Union’s cause to God’s vengeance on Judgment Day. This hymn was first published in The Atlantic Monthly in February, 1862. Although professional soloists and choirs have sung the hymn through the years, the most recent performance was done…..
I believe we are all students; we are all teachers, if we only would take the time to listen to one another. We all want to feel peace, love, and hope. We all need a place to call home, either with a special person or an actual physical place that we warmly return to every night. I also believe that the paths we take lead us to our next choices. Without our ears, we are nothing more than clanging cymbals,…..
Today is Reformation Sunday in honor of Martin Luther, founder of the German Lutheran Church. I wonder if he really understood what his 95 Theses would mean for the world and every new-born religious denomination. He was strongly against the Catholic Church’s policy that parishioners could pay indulgences to the Church to have their sins forgiven. In my upbringing, only God can forgive your sins, and no payment is necessary because that debt for my sins was paid for by…..
Being able to understand what America has done in the past, what it is doing now, and what her future will be has been an on-going discovery for me. Since there are no real endings in this world, this discovery is precious to my heart, mind, and soul. Until we are able to tell the truth about what America has done, is doing, and will do, we will not honor anyone who sacrificed for us and paid the supreme price……