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.

**********************************************************

 

 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

*********************************************************

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.