Regarding Heart-Stirring Noble Themes

 

Greetings Sisters and Brothers, faithful doers of the Word as well as hearers…

Psalm 45: 1 My heart is stirred by a noble theme
    as I recite my verses for the king;
    my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.

I fancy myself a creative wordsmith and so this verse caught my eye.

“my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer”.

Part of the sermon for Sunday deals with restraining our speech…

James 1: 1:26 If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless.

But today I encourage you to unleash your tongue in response to noble themes, good things, praise for Christ. Unleash your tongue not only in the sanctuary where it is expected and is the normal thing to do. Also speak about these wonderful things in the sanctuary of the marketplace, the mechanic’s garage, Facebook and beyond!

Let’s be as much, if not more, about preparing our hearts and tongues to speak well of others, finding some good thing to report.

In looking on the bright side and finding good things to speak about, I do not advocate ignorance of the problems we have around us, prayer is the rightful place for such things; loving and respectful action (as James will preach) can right many wrongs.

But as for our speech, it comes from what is in our hearts.

Just as the Psalmist invites God to search his heart (Psalm 139: 23-24) perhaps we too should spend some time searching our own hearts.

What noble theme has God used to stir your heart?

Give that noble theme some words today.

Prayer with Humility for the World

 

Yes, let us be in prayer for Afghanistan.

But let’s not think that Afghanistan is the only troubled place on the planet.

World Population Review provides a list of the ten most dangerous countries on the planet.

You can read about them here: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/most-dangerous-countries

Hong Kong is suffering: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/15/world/asia/hong-kong-china-politics.html

Haiti has suffered an earthquake: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/hopes-quake-survivors-dwindle-storm-lashes-haiti-2021-08-17/

 

I am sure all of these people in these countries and more cry out from their suffering…

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
    Why are you so far from saving me,
    so far from my cries of anguish?
² My God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer,
    by night, but I find no rest.”

Psalm 22

Let us pray for all of these souls.

Let us pray for the end of violence, hunger, oppression, disaster.

Let us be humble in our prayers.

Reflections on Proverbs 9: 1-6, Wisdom, and those Seven Pillars

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Greetings Sisters and Brothers of the Gathered Community of Christ…

Proverbs 9:1-6

9:1 Wisdom has built her house, she has hewn her seven pillars.

9:2 She has slaughtered her animals, she has mixed her wine, she has also set her table.

9:3 She has sent out her servant girls, she calls from the highest places in the town,

9:4 "You that are simple, turn in here!" To those without sense she says,

9:5 "Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed.

9:6 Lay aside immaturity, and live, and walk in the way of insight."

First, as Mike cannot help but do, “what are the seven pillars?” Bible scholars will always wonder! Some have suggested the term refers to the “seven classic arts” of grammar, rhetoric, logic, geometry, arithmetic, music, and astronomy. Perhaps the means by which God gifted us all with the ability to “have dominion over all the Earth”. I am drawn to this understanding!

Other Bible scholars think the term refers to the seven original days created by God.

Likely, it is one of those terms that the people of the day would have understood, but because we are thousands of years removed, we just don’t get it.

Another interesting thing is that Wisdom is female! Yep! Just look at how many times “she” or “her” is written here.

But I suppose the point of the Proverb is that all are invited! They are invited to the table of bread and wine. All are invited to be the guests of Wisdom. All are invited to walk in the way of insight.

Those that feel they are lacking in anything, Wisdom wishes to entertain us!

Let’s be open to how God, through Wisdom, offers to teach us today!

Have a peaceful, blessed, and insightful day!

"This is the Shortest Song in the World" a Memoir

 

 

 

Very often a novelty, or incidental moment we think is insignificant, can result in much effect.

Such is the case with the 1970 eighteen- second recording by Kenny Price entitled “The Shortest Song In The World”.

I was in Detroit, age 15, riding with my uncle in a well- worn pick-up truck to a job site either to build a boiler or repair a chimney when I heard on the radio a DJ introducing this song.

While in Detroit I, of my own choice, would have been listening to CKLW the Windsor-based rock station. Never would I have heard this song if not for my uncle’s preference for country. "Her Majesty" on Abbey Road? Did they have a line of melody and arrangement but no where to go with it? Somebody knows!

But hearing the song, I became intrigued as to who this Kenny Price was and was this sense of humor a customary attribute or merely an ephemeral joke.

I, “rock and roll only Mike”, became a fan of Kenny Price as I, back home in Elkhart, visited Jack’s Records on Mainstreet and asked the store personnel if they had any “demo” albums of Kenny Price to which I could listen.

Kenny carried a signature country vocal along with a very Nashville kind of production that tickled my musical fancy.

I would later watch him on HeeHaw. His presence there confirmed his sense of humor!

So, to my poets, authors, musicians, artists, and idea entrepreneurs, I say, if you have some brief, short, or otherwise anomalous creation that seems not worthy of sharing, put it to the public anyway.

I bet there’s a Mike-like audience in the right place at the right time to become a fan. And you never know when that fan might be a “positive change agent” in your life!

You can hear the song on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X30l7A8-BRM

Mikie, Just Who Do You Think You Are!

 

1974 AMC Gremlin

“Mikie…just who do you think you are!” That was the response of my frustrated grandmother when I, at age fifteen, would talk about my plans to go to college.

I can still hear her utilitarian Tennessee accent as she pronounced “Mikie” with a long, tall, and lingering “”I”.

She meant no discouragement or insult.

She believed that college was the path of the children of wealthy folk.

She was not aware of the Federally Guaranteed Student Loan program of which I made use and eventually completed a bachelor’s degree, and then later graduate work.

My grandmother, having survived through the Great Depression, was convinced that I was walking around with my head in the clouds and would amount to nothing if I did not get my occupational thoughts closer to the ground.

She would often quote, in King James propriety, Proverbs 11: 2 “ When pride cometh, then cometh shame: but with the lowly is wisdom.”

Risk-taking also was thought of as poor stewardship of time and financial resources if you were not wealthy. Investments in securities, like college, was the realm of the well-to-do. Dumping all of your savings into a business was just that “dumping”.

Again, it was her experience during the Depression that caused her to have that assessment of who got to do certain things in life.

 

Though my grandmother was not fully informed of the ways and means of gaining a college education, investing in securities and business ventures, still, her advice to “know your proper place” and live humbly rather than pridefully has helped me often in life.

As my grandmother was fond of Biblical Proverbs, so am I.

Proverbs 29: 11 A fool gives full vent to his spirit, but a wise man quietly holds it back.

I am careful to restrain the impulse to react and “speak my mind” in situations because I have discovered that an immediate emotional reaction probably is not my truest thought on the matter. I prefer to gather information, research and then formulate a response that is useful rather than merely argumentative.

I am careful about making financial investments and will not do so motivated by the greed of easy money.

I am careful to make financial investment that is practical rather than flashy.

The photo of the 1974 AMC Gremlin has a story…

As I went looking for an automobile after high- school I was considering a 1974 Dodge Challenger. Sharp car, pretty color. It was a great attention-getting car…for $4200( a lot of cash at the time).

But then that “Just who do you think you are” message clicked in.

I purchased the practical AMC Gremlin for $2000 without even needing a car loan to do so.

To this day I am influenced in my daily decision-making and relating to others in the world by that advice offered by my grandmother.

I begin each day with the humbling personal, social, and financial anchor…

“Mikie, just who do you think you are!?”