Food For The Soul

This past Sunday, Caroline and I performed in our last concert of the season with the Georgia Wind Symphony.  GWS is made up of music educators from around the state with some regular old people like us thrown in to keep the group humble.  I have talked about our relationship to the conductor in past posts.  David Gregory was our high school band director in Columbus.  We have remained friends and are now playing under his direction again.  The whole idea of a bunch of  people getting together to make music is very special.  First of all, each member has a skill.  Some more than others, but we wouldn’t be there if we couldn’t make a sound with our instruments.  Second there is desire.  People have to want to volunteer their time to get to rehearsal and prepare their parts.  And then you need a leader – someone to instruct, create and inspire.  Next, there is the audience.  In this case mostly family and friends who have some stake in the people on stage, but their attendance and reaction is immediate feedback to the work of the members.  While you can always go back and listen to a recording of the concert, there is nothing like being there during the creation.   For after the note is sounded, it is then gone.  But the anticipation of what might come next is the magic of music – and music is a good mirror of other good things worth working for.

Buried: a life

I read with horror the story about Ding Cuimei, a pastor’s wife, who was buried alive by a bulldozer that was demolishing their church in Beijing.  She and her husband had been attempting to prevent the demolition by staying on the property.  Her husband managed to crawl away, but she was killed.  While about 5% of China’s population are Christian, the government continues to do everything it can to slow the growth and ensure that people’s religious beliefs are subservient to the political system.  I am thankful that my family and I live in a place that allows us to worship freely, and I pray that other countries will somehow come to know and love the one true God.

Guns and Roses

I have a close friend whose son is a gun advocate.  He has been vocal in trying to get guns to be allowed on college campus’s with the appropriate license.   He is 21 years old, licensed and can carry his almost anywhere except for at school.  He maintains that good people with guns can help stop bad people with guns or other weapons.   Others say that more guns on campus’s will just result in more violence.  What do you think?  Feel free to email me at tommiller@kw.com if you prefer not to post publically.

Promises kept

There are few things in live more powerful than a promise kept.  A groom’s promise to his bride.  A parent’s promise to their child.  A child’s promise to their parent.  A friend’s promise to another friend.  Few things hurt more than a broken promise.  In Genesis, the God of our universe and beyond promised Abram: “Do not be afraid; I am your shield,  your very great reward.”   God then performed miracles in Abram’s life allowing him to be the father of the Jewish people which led to the birth of Jesus.    God has made the same promise to me and continues to show me that He is my shield and my very great reward.  I hope you know His promise, too.

The Color Yellow

We finished up chapter 9 of The Divine Conspiracy this week in our Connect Group.  Dallas Willard tells us that the two most important parts of becoming a disciple are enthralling the mind with Jesus and removing any of the barriers (bad habits) that are keeping us from him.  He hit me right in the gut when he said that the most important way that we will enthrall our minds with Jesus is through silence and solitude.  This is something most people are not too good at these days, and I am one of the worst offenders.  I feel like my life is full of a lot of good things:  family, church, friends, work and leisure – but it is not full of the best thing, Him.  Dallas encourages us to look for God in His creation.  I couldn’t help but be reminded of this as I was driving through Hart County today (63 MPH in a 55).  These fields of flowers go on for miles.  I am assuming someone planted them, but these seeds and the dirt that nourished them are purely God’s doing.  I love that the God I want to know more is so full of beauty, and was happy to take a couple of minutes to soak it in.

Stairway to Heaven

I am reading through the gospel of John this week.  While I am sure I have read it and heard excerpts dozens of  times, I could not have recounted the first interaction between Jesus and Nathanael before this week.   After Jesus calls out to Nathanael before being introduced to him, Nathanael immediately recognizes Jesus as the Son of God.  Jesus then makes a promise to Nathanael, “Very truly I tell you, you will see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”  Some say that Jesus is referencing Jacob’s dream in Genesis 28:12 when he sees “a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.”  This is a beautiful picture to me of God opening the heavens, sending angels down to earth – only made possible by Jesus – the stairway connecting the heavens with the earth.  And He also represents the only access that we have to heaven as our time on earth ends.  (After some minor research to satisfy my curiosity, I don’t believe this stairway to heaven is connected in any way to Led Zeppelin’s.)

God’s Not Dead II

God’s Not Dead, the 2014 movie, grossed over $60 million dollars  in the US.  The movie was about a college professor who wouldn’t allow students to move forward in his class until they announced that “God is dead”.   God’s Not Dead II opened last week, and the strong following from the first movie should give it a good jumpstart.  This story is centered on the court trial of a teacher (Melissa Joan Hart) who is accused of talking about Jesus  in her history class.  The producer, David A. R. White founded Pure Flix Entertainment which focuses on faith based movies.   Kudo’s to David, Melissa and the rest of the team for having the guts to speak out for what they believe in and have the creativity to get others interested as well.  Click here for a preview.  Let me know if you have seen it.