A Bow in the Clouds...

Last night, I went outside to walk my dog. I looked up and saw one of the strangest, and most beautiful things I have ever seen. It was a rainbow around the moon!

Scientifically defined, a halo around the moon is simply "caused by the refraction of moonlight (which of course is reflected sunlight) from ice crystals in the upper atmosphere,"* but it means so much more...

Because, you see, God has promised that the rainbow "shall be for a token of a covanent between Me and the earth." (Genesis 9:13) Every rainbow represents a promise....

It would seem that the promises are only for when life is going well, since the rainbow is usually seen during the day. But in reality, like the rainbow, God's words are more stunning in the darkness, when life is not going well...

...That's the beauty of a promise.

*Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_does_it_mean_when_there's_a_ring_around_the_moon#ixzz160snipLP

Northeast Youth Retreat 2011

We are sooo excited! Registration for NEYR 2011 is open! This year in addition to paper registration forms we have an secure online form as well. It's all at neyouthretreat.info

We hope to see all of you there!

Apotheosis (v. 2.0)

You probably wouldn't guess, but I am about as shy as it gets. Up until I was about 14 or 15, I literally hid behind Mama whenever we met new people. Even now, at 19, it still physically hurts to talk to strangers.

But God has been teaching me things about my shyness, especially in the past two years.

The first thing He showed me is that "a man that hath friends must show himself friendly..." (Proverbs 18:24) When I learned this, I could count all my friends, family included, on two hands, and I desperatley wanted more. So, for purely selfish reasons, I let go of a tiny bit of my shyness, and started being sort-of friendly.

Another thing I learned is that I can't minister to others if I'm busy nursing my fear of them. I mean, if I notice a girl sitting alone in a corner, that is a perfect opportunity to reach out to her and show her the love of God. If I'm busy being shy right then, I completly miss that chance to do good for my Father's cause.

The last thing I learned is that my shyness could keep me out of Heaven. Shyness if you get down to it, is selfishness. It is thinking about what "self" wants, and what makes "self" happy, before thinking about others and what makes them happy. Shyness also prohibits a person from fulfiling the Great Comission, because if he/she is shy, they can't teach all nations, since they are frightened of other people.

As I was contemplating the things God taught me about being shy, I realized that shyness is really apotheosis. It is elevating my comfort level above God and His plans for me. It is placing my fear of people above His love of them. It is putting myself in a position where I can't fulfill His will...in a position where the only will I can fulfill is my own.

I still have a hard time talking to strangers. I still don't like being by myself in a new situation. And even though I have the most friends of everyone in my family, I still have to choke down my shyness every time I meet someone new. I know that God wants me to leave behind my fear of people, and put Him first...not myself.

Apotheosis

Apotheosis. 

It's a somewhat intimidating word. It refers to the exaltation of a subject to a divine level. Some examples:

I am naturally an obsessive person, and the first thing that I remember obsessing about were Legos. Don't get me wrong, Legos are probability the greatest toy ever invented, but I took it to excess. All I did every spare minute was build with Legos, think about Legos, talk about Legos, read the Lego magazine, etc. My parents (who as I said before are very smart people) decided to make me stop playing, reading, thinking, and living in my Lego world. It hurt for awhile, but as I got over it I moved on to other things, like music.

Music was not my first choice for a hobby, but even so I grew to adore it more than Legos. It got so bad at one point that in the middle of Sabbath School I would pull out a piece of paper and write down a chord progression! My life was fully possessed by music. Once again, my parents intervened and several times removed music and then reinstated it into my life.

Apotheosis is something that we are all prone to. Everyone has had something that takes the place that only God should hold. The only prescription for apotheosis is loving God. If we are willing to let go of the things that hold us, love for Him will give us freedom.

Short Quotes

I've been collecting a bunch of short quotes in my readings, and I'd like to share some of them with you. (I've been reading a lot of Spurgeon lately :)

A Christian sluggard? Is there such a being?

~Charles Spurgeon

If you truly belong to Christ, you will have opportunities for witnessing for Him.

~E. G. White

The man who might do most for God, if he were renewed, will bring forth the most for Satan if he be left alone.

~Charles Spurgeon

You can't minister to others while nursing your fear of them.

~NDW

God expects those who bear the name of Christ to represent Him.

~E. G. White

To look into the face of man without first having seen the face of God is very dangerous...

~Charles Spurgeon

Talents

Matthew 25:14 For the kingdom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far country, who called his own servants, and delivered unto them his goods.

You are His servant

Matthew 25:15 And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to every man according to his several ability; and straightway took his journey.

He gave you talents…use them wisely.

Matthew 25:21 Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy Lord.

Is there a better reward?

The Greatest Talent

As you can see, our theme this month is talents. I am going to talk about one specific talent: the talent of influence. Everyone has it to a degree, whether it is in their home, church, or elsewhere. It is the most powerful gift, but also the most deadly.

We can read in the Bible about influence and it's effects. Through the influence of his wife, Adam ate the fruit. Through the influence of the ten spy's, an entire nation had to walk away from the promised land. Through the influence of their neighbors, the chosen people turned from God and went to idols. Through the influence of bad counselors Rehoboam lost his kingdom. Through the influence of one Man, eleven went to turn the world upside down.

Yes, our influence has more power than we realize. But youth have more power to help other youth than anyone else.

"The youth, if right, could sway a mighty influence. Preachers, or laymen advanced in years, cannot have one-half the influence upon the young that the youth, devoted to God, can have upon their associates." (MYP 204)

Let us devote our lives to Him, and use our influence for the coming Kingdom.

The AMP

"I have a dream..." I want to change the American people for the better. I want to bring them into a new standing of integrity, morality and spirituality. Of course, this is almost impossible for me to do. There may be a way though. It is through music.  Plato said "In order to take the spiritual temperature of an individual or society, one must mark the music." If I change the music... I change the people!

Therefore, this is the beginning of the American Music Project (AMP). The goal of AMP is to bring American music to a higher level, and in turn bring the American people to a higher level. If you Google "American composers" and listen to the things that are currently being written you will find that they are most often atonal, nonsensical, and just plain ugly. AMP is going to change all that. It is going to bring back the "American Sound" that is found in Aaron Copland's Appalachian Spring, Conni Ellisor's Blackberry Winter, and Dvorak's 9th Symphony. It will recreate the simple beauty of American folk tunes such as I Come With Joy as well as The Old Folks at Home by Stephen Foster. Lastly it will encourage American composers to redefine the "American Sound" broadening its scope while remaining true to the spirit of the Declaration of Independence and the principles of freedom in God's Word.

So here is an invitation. If you compose music, will you join me in this project? There will be a landing pad for all this music sometime within the next 12 months. Take the time between now and then to rediscover American music as it truly was...and invite your composing friends to join our project.

Here is one of my compositions: Violin Concerto No. 1 in G (sounds prestiges, does it not?). It doesn't exactly have that "American Sound", but it's a step in the right direction. In the folder are the MIDI files for all three movements and a PDF of the score. It started as a one movement essay, but it expanded into a concerto. It is intended to be played in a church, so as I composed I tried to bring across the message of the titles. Hope you enjoy it!

Christian Recreation

Nikki: Christian recreation...a time to draw together without drawing away from God. Why is it that so often, when people get together, there is so much jesting, foolishness, and un-Christlike behavior, but it doesn't have to be that way. We can have wholesome, uplifting recreation.

One of the characteristics of Christian recreation is that it re-creates. In the words of one of my favorite authors, "We can and should conduct our recreations in such a manner that we shall be fitted for the more successful discharge of the duties devolving upon us...We can return to our homes improved in mind and refreshed in body, and prepared to engage in the work anew, with better hope and better courage." (AH 496)

The morning after recreation are we ready for the tasks of the day...or are we hitting the snooze button five or six times? That is a good barometer for deciding whether a gathering is good or not.

Daniel, what is another characteristic of Christian recreation?

Daniel: Christian recreation is cross-generational. People of all ages can work and play together and enjoy it. Often when people get together, the adults sit and talk while the kids go play. Christian recreation includes both the parents and the children. Like peanut butter, separation is natural, but when God takes part, it has the same effect as stirring.

So Nikki, do you have an example of good recreation?

Nikki: Well, I actually have lots of examples, but there's only room for a few. One of them is the garden clean-up at church. About six families got together and weeded the flower beds there, which was quite a job let me tell you. They hadn't been weeded since the previous summer, so there was quite a congestion!

We weeded for three hours, took a break for a haystack lunch, and weeded for another hour. After we finished weeding, we went down to the river...but that's Daniel's story.

During the clean-up, it wasn't the children working in one area and the parents in another- everyone worked together. It was also a time to socialize while helping the church be a more beautiful place, not just getting together for fun (but it was a lot of fun!).

Daniel: The river was very cold. That was probability the thing that struck me the most when I fell in by accident! Other than that it was very fun time to spend time with friends. We splashed each other and played "Hat Swap" (It was invented by my 11 year-old friend). All in all, it was a good example of Christian recreation.

Nikki: Even though this post is probably too long already, I just had to add this one story. At the New Jersey Family Campmeeting (if you weren't there, you really missed one of the best campmeetings ever), we were able to get together a bunch of friends and play a special music on chimes. Some dear friends let us borrow their hand chimes for the weekend, and in the afternoon we got some other friends and played through the chime choir folders, just for fun. It was a great Sabbath afternoon activity, and provided some "good, wholesome comedy" in Daniel's words. All in all everyone enjoyed the Christian recreation.

We don't just want to give you good stories to read...we want to inspire you to invest some time in recreation- God's way. It is time well spent.

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 Kaija, Nikki, and Ani- coming up from the lilly bed

Walking though the culvert

Christian and his stick (one of the many)

Daniel refusing to get wet (he later got soaked)

Wading...those rocks HURT!

Chime Jam @ NJFCM

Another Chime Jam pic

Last Chime Jam pic

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What Do You Think...

I do a lot of thinking during the day. I think about my family, friends, music, work, even how poor a violinist Itzhak Perlman is. I have also started to think about what I think about.
You see, I have learned that the way we think makes us who we are. For example, when I was about 5, I thought that running away from home would be fun. I would daydream about how I would pack my backpack with potatoes and go live on the hill next to my house. I didn't worry about how to cook the potatoes, I had planned to eat them raw. I also didn't think of the fact that my parents are very smart people and would have known where I had gone. But that didn't matter. I was going to go live by myself.
When I was 14 I browed a book from the library called My Side of the Moutan. It talks about a boy running away from home and living in a tree. Reading it brought back all of my old desires to run away. I had thought about it so much when I was young that it became part of my character and the desire was still there even though years had passed. The point of this story is that what we think becomes what we are. If we think on this world, we will become like it. But, if we train our minds to dwell on Jesus and His character then we will become like Him.
"We want the transforming grace of God to take right hold of our thinking powers. We may think evil, we may continue to keep our minds upon objectionable things, but what does this do for us? It conforms our entire experience to that which we are looking upon. But by beholding Jesus we become changed into His likeness. The servant of the living God sees to some purpose. The eyes are sanctified, and the ears are sanctified, and those who will close their eyes and ears to evil will become changed." (2MCP 670)

Heavenly Thoughts

"We should be training our minds to...contemplate heavenly things..."
Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 2, Page 187

We read this quote at family worship a few days ago, and Mama challenged us to think about Heaven more often. God has been reminding me throughout the day, and I thought I'd share a few of my musings with you.

In Heaven...God's planting a patch of grass just for me. It's shoulder high, and has lots of flowers to attract butterflies. There is a constant breeze there, so the grass is always waving. No one will say, "Nikki, don't go in there barefoot! There are ticks!"

In Heaven...There will be no poison ivy.

In Heaven...The strawberries will be big and red and juicy, and I won't have to wash them.

In Heaven...We'll play freeze tag with angels at the speed of thought.

In Heaven...I won't need Adobe CS5, because I'll have Celestial CSI (Creative Suite Infinite)

In Heaven...God will personally wipe everyone's tears away.

In Heaven...God will dwell with us.

Let's think about Heaven today.