THE  CALLING

"... praise Him [God] with stringed instruments and organs."  (Ps. 150:4) KJV

[NOTE:  This word [Heb. 'ugab] refers to some sort of cylindrical hand-held instrument blown by the breath, likely something made of bone or wood with hand-carved holes musicians from the earliest civilizations played on occasions of rejoicing, mourning, and in religious exercises.  In various other translations it is rendered "flute(s)" or "pipe(s)."

The question posed in this Psalm is not one of having access to certain historical instruments but using the available resources at hand to the fullest in offering praise to God.

Today that certainly would include "organs."

WE GIVE THANKS ALWAYS AND EVERWHERE FOR

THE ORGANIST,

THE MUSICIAN WHO CAN TURN A MASSIVE MECHANICAL MACHINE INTO SOMETHING THAT'S ALIVE AND DEEPLY EXPRESSIVE,

WHO MAKES BREATHE AND BRINGS FORTH SONG FROM THE MOST STUPENDOUS,

THE MOST WONDERFUL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT

EVER CONCEIVED IN THE MIND OF GOD

AND FABRICATED BY THE HAND OF MAN.

Those who begin digesting their way through the information supplied on this platform may wonder about the generous space they find devoted to explaining the pastoral dimensions of being an organist and what service playing has to do with the salvation of man.  On first thought it may seem that the mechanics of working the machine and being a musician are disparate artistic disciplines having only an indirect, if any, connection with soul-saving. 

That.  Idea.  Is.  False.

Faith comes by HEARING (Rom. 10:17).

Something a person HEARS

causes their faith to rise.

BEING SAVED BY THE NAME, PERSON, WORK, LIFE, DEATH, RESURRECTION, AND GRACE

OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST

is not of ourselves.

Salvation [the gracious work of God whereby He delivers undeserving human beings from judgment]

is a gift of God (Eph. 2:8).

By being descendants of Adam who sinned,

judgment for sin has been imputed to us.

By being believers in the gospel of Jesus,

His righteousness is imputed to us,

and the penalty for sin is lifted.

The organist's CALLING

in the music ministry 

is to use the organ to:

1.  express the joy of that gift,

2.  offer praise to God for that gift,

3.  help teach its message in hymn playing, and

4.  develop, feed, and strengthen the faith of believers.

Organists who perform for worship

are more than volunteers

and/or employees on the weekly payroll.

They are ministers

and ambassadors for the instrument

who use all the wonders of music

to reach out to the walking wounded of this world

to uplift their spirits and empower them

with the gospel of grace.

They are not concert performers.

They do not chase stages, titles, or applause.

They chase The King Of Kings.

The problems that exist within the Christian church today, and there are many, start with an inadequate understanding of God and what's expected of a follower of Jesus.

What understanding people do have about it these days is largely superficial, shallow, truncated, popularized, and, in a sense, personalized.  This is a massive problem because unless people know the truth of God [See the book How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth by Gordon D. Fee & Douglas Stuart] and the one true gospel of Christ, that there is no crown without a cross, and unless they understand that they are partnering with Satan (Matt. 4:8-11) when they expect to follow the Lord Jesus without distress or misfortune, they really can't say that they know the truth about anything else in this world in its fullness and in its richness.  As a consequence, there is much absolute truth that many religious authorities and the general public are failing to comprehend in the way God wants them to understand it.

This platform is not the place to adequately essay this subject save for saying that clergy and boards of directors,

while they may be the church musician's bosses,

generally know very little if anything

about WHAT'S NEEDED for the organist's job

or HOW TO DO the job.

Authority does not automatically imply knowledge.

 The ubiquitous "hands off" policy is a case in point.  Obviously, true musical instruments are not toys and are meant to be played, not played with.  Their whole purpose for existence however is to be heard, and thus used.  In the case of pipe organs in the churches, due to the size and complexity of their mechanism, perishable materials (primarily leather), and regular need for wind (to remove built-up humidity in wind trunks), are almost never in absolute, fully-functioning condition, not 100 per cent of the time.  They actually enter faster into a state of disrepair when they're fanatically guarded from visiting hands and feet and/or seldom if ever played, this despite the fact that, the more the organ can be turned on and used, the more it benefits the instrument.  Even electronic organs suffer from lack of use.  Anyone seriously interested, and young people in particular, should be introduced to the organ as early as possible and allowed to play it a little (under appropriate supervision, of course) rather than strictly denied.  Access is essential, and denying it means a slow death both to the instrument and to the life of the church.  The same applies to any other musical instrument the church may own.  A reliable source and highly talented pianist has reported that the administration at a certain "church" will not let any outsiders play its 9-foot concert grand piano no matter how musically gifted they are of God unless they have a degree in music and are on the faculty of some music school.  Those in charge at such a horrible place, frankly, are not running a fellowship of joy.  But whatever it is they ARE running is self-eroding

and destined in time to perish with them,

buried in its own debris.     

The contributions organists are called to make

in filling the air with soaring beauty and majesty

in worship spaces where they exercise their art

play a critically important role in communicating

God's plan for man through Christ Jesus 

prophetically revealed in the Old Testament

in Genesis 3:15

and even more explicitly by design 

in the generations of Adam

recorded in Genesis 5:

Adam [in the Hebrew language] -- means man,

Seth -- means appointed,

Enos -- means mortal, frail, miserable,

Mahalaleel -- means blessed God,

Jared -- means shall come down,

Enoch -- means teaching,

Methuselah -- means his death shall bring,

Lamech -- means despairing,

Noah -- means rest, comfort.

When you put it all together it says,

"Man is appointed mortal, frail, miserable, but the blessed God shall come down teaching, and His death shall bring the despairing rest and comfort."

THIS IS WHAT IT MEANS

TO WORK THE KEYS OF AN ORGAN IN WORSHIP.

IT MEANS EXPRESSING JOY, OFFERING PRAISE,

TEACHING SALVATION, AND STRENGTHENING FAITH.

It also means something else

which no church musician is able to escape or deny ...

IT MEANS ENGAGING IN SPIRITUAL WARFARE.

The agency behind all the evil seen in this world 

IS NOT IMAGINARY.

HE IS NOT MAN-MADE FICTION.

HE IS NOT SOME VAGUE PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPT.

Lucifer whose name meant "Light bringer" started out as an angel of very high rank in the angelic realm where all  dimensions are everlasting and time does not exist.  He was created by God to be perfect in his ways so that his noble powers be used to bless others and glorify heaven.  But after he came to indulge a desire for self-exaltation and aspired to power that it was the prerogative of God alone to wield he departed from the order of heaven and, in so doing, dishonored his Maker and brought ruin upon himself.  With pride in his own beauty and abilities nourishing the desire for supremacy and allowing jealousy of God to prevail he aspired to be equal with God, fully cast off his allegiance to his Creator, and, after setting aside divine authority, wrongly charging God with injustice toward him, preying with artful deception upon the gullibility and freedom of choice of other angels to induce them to unite with him against God, and his disaffection ripened into active revolt, he made himself into a "satan" of God, a term which means "adversary."

IT WAS VERY EARLY IN THE MINISTRY OF JESUS THAT THIS APOSTATE SPIRIT BEGAN HIS CRUEL WARFARE UPON THE WORLD'S REDEEMER BY SPEAKING DIRECTLY TO JESUS.

The daring blasphemy of his demand that the Son of God pay him homage and make a deal with evil, his presumptuous boldness and malicious intent betrayed in urging Jesus to test and tempt God (Matt. 4:1-11), the unsleeping malice that hunted Jesus from place to place inspiring the hearts of people to reject His love, all of this unmasked Satan for who and what he really is. 

Imaginary characters do not communicate in real time like this.

Satan the devil is real.

Jesus is also real.  He is God.  He is the Creator of every human being, whether they like it or not (John 1:3).  And unless someone has a personal, intimate, indwelling relationship with the Advocate (Holy Spirit) Jesus sends to live His life inside them,

unless they have this special and precious God-given anointing that comes about from faith in His gospel,

the Christian name they've adopted means nothing. 

God's wisdom having to do with the mystery of salvation by grace through faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ was kept hidden by God from the foundation of the world.  God kept it secret until He chose to reveal it to the apostle Paul beginning in Acts 9 ... because ... had Satan and his cohorts known what God was about to do through the cross work of Jesus Christ, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1Cor. 2:7-8).  The devil has been working against the prophesied coming of the Seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15) ever since he first intruded himself into time, got the first humans to sin, and triggered God's judgment against man.  Satan first tricked Israel into breaking the law covenant, then reminded God that he [Satan] was holding God's chosen people captive under sin, then tried to keep Jesus from being born, then tried to have Jesus killed as an infant, then misapplied Scripture to try to throw Jesus off track, and, after none of that worked, he was instrumental finally through Judas Iscariot and the chief priests of the Jews in getting Jesus condemned to death and executed.  After Jesus died and was buried Satan thought he had won his contest against God, but he never suspected that the condemnation of man under the law also would be nailed to the cross of Jesus (Col. 2:13-15).  After the glorified Jesus in heaven supernaturally revealed to the apostle Paul that salvation was being offered to ALL through the grace of His gospel, Paul was instructed to share this mystery of grace, long held in secret, with the world at large (Eph. 6:19).  Meanwhile Satan, realizing he had been outsmarted by God, that Jesus Christ had nailed the handwriting against man [viz. the law, the operating system, Satan's trump card by which he held mankind captive] to His cross, that it took away everything from Satan that he thought he had on man and he never saw it coming, that it proved he could not know every secret, that it put him to open shame, scandalized him, showed what a dummy he really was, and that God's divine wisdom prevailed over his own, Satan's hatred for God, Christ, the Bible, and humanity became implacable, incurable, and beyond human imagination or description.  Satan's tactic today is to trick you and me with his cunning craftiness and slight-of-hand into not standing in the truth of who we really are.  Satan can't change who God is or who God has made us into by believing and having faith in Christ, but he can try to trick us out of grace back into law using flawed theology, religions, and religious authorities (2Cor. 11:3,13-15).  In past ages the introduction of many destructive heresies into the simplicity of the Christian faith is directly traceable to him and is being promoted in churches to this very day.  In recent years we find the devil working to, among other things, a) separate Jesus from His cross work, b) beguile gullible human beings into embracing atheism, cultural Marxism, totalitarian wokeism, and radical secularism, c) employ victimhood to destroy capitalism, Western culture, and the nuclear family, d) encourage worship of a classless, genderless society, e) sexualize children, f) destabilize the existing social order, and g) mock, stifle, shame, and vilify conservative Christian values and morality.   

This is quite the laundry list, but it gets worse.  Under the guise of love he engenders a harmful mentality among men to cherry pick the parts of the Bible they like and reject the parts they don't.  He presents his own nefarious character as the high moral ground by cloaking it in the language of love, acceptance, and inclusion.  He repeatedly and relentlessly targets humanity by alloying with fiction the truth of God, His written Word, and the salvation and justification made possible through the grace of the Lord Jesus, the end result for each person being either a life spent soaking in unsound belief, indifference, or rejecting God outright.  This tactic of constantly promoting the lie isn't so much aimed at making people believe a specific untruth so much as ensuring that no one believes anything anymore.  Satan knows that a people who mistrust everything will mistrust the truth, their consciences which God uses to draw people to Him will be less able to distinguish right from wrong, that such a people deprived of the power to think and judge would be completely subject to the rule of lies, and that among such a people any maneuvering and manipulation [by him] is possible.

This obsessive, depraved nature is readily recognizable and sadly evident in human affairs in general, and politics and religion in particular.  No thief breaks into an empty house -- he chooses one which has something valuable to steal on the inside.  In the same way, Satan doesn't waste his time with those who have already turned their backs on God, neither does he try to counterfeit what is already false.  He focuses instead on those who have been drawn to Christ by the Holy Spirit and on counterfeiting the true gospel.  During the last two thousand years he's succeeded this way in raising up a vast multitude of self-styled Christians of his own, self-righteous individuals living and dead who have gone through the motions of religion presuming they were part of the body of Christ when they never were (1John 2:19).  Whether he incites animosity or indifference toward God, the result is the same.  The devil couldn't care less about how many songs of praise this army of self-styled, professing Christians of his may sing or how much any musical instruments might be employed in their worship assemblies so long as none of them become exegetes of their own, uncover the more perfect way of truth rightly divided from their own Bibles, and start using it to serve God.  The church which downplays independent Bible study and is tricked from grace back into law, being so stuck in the well-worn grooves of ritualic observance that it fails to charge congregants to go out into the world and tell people what God has done for them, plays right into Satan's hands.  When people are asleep in religion one morning a week and jamb-pack all the rest of their time with the sensual delights of this world they become double-minded (Jas. 1:8), unstable in their ways, and are doing just what Satan wants. 

Those on this broad road may feel that their token church-going compensates for their latest round of sins, but

to say that God is not impressed is an understatement.  If a mere fig tree earned the curse of the Lord Jesus for bearing no fruit when its leaves were plentiful (Mark 11:12-14), then it becomes the absolute business of everyone in the body of Christ, musicians included, to make their own individual contributions to a) bearing spiritual fruit (Gal. 5:22-23) which reflects the Spirit Christ within them, and b) to teach others about the gospel of grace, the love of God, the absolute authority given to Christ Jesus in heaven and in earth, and what He has commanded.

God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and ever-present, a Supreme Being Who exists outside of time and rules His creation with order, beauty, perfection, and intelligence.  His wisdom and very existence defies man's finite mind to comprehend or explain.  He is holy, and because of His holiness He views sin very differently than we do.  God cannot look upon sin, it is ugly and revolting to Him, and so, when man became stained with sin God could no longer have fellowship with man.  Because man still sins and defies God's authority, a great gulf exists between man and a holy God which man cannot bridge on his own.  Sin hardens, sears, and kills the conscience of man.  It makes man a criminal lawbreaker who must be judged and sentenced to satisfy God's justice.  Our heavenly Father however is also a God of love Who in His wisdom has provided a plan to restore fellowship with man in spite of man's sinfulness.  God planted a bridge across that great chasm to close and heal the breach between sinful humanity and a holy God.

That bridge is the cross of Christ.

People are born into this world with a) a physical BODY, b) a non-physical SOUL [mind, will, emotions] and c) a non-physical SPIRIT [conscience, intuition, fellowship] that's initially out of touch with God (1Cor. 2:11, Eph. 2:1).  When they begin to sense without the aid of reason or circumstance their need for obedience to God's ways, believe in the Son of God and His gospel, and repent of their sins, their spirit is then poised to receive something miraculous and regenerative from the risen Jesus Christ from heaven -- a quickening of their spirit by an anointing from the Lord and Giver of Life.  Their spirit is then no longer dead to God, no longer in a spiritual blackout (2Cor. 4:4).  They are no longer only the product of a physical birth -- they have been brought forth spiritually (John 3:3, 1John 4:4,5) and are alive with a new identity (Gal. 6:15), one which delivers them from the power of darkness (Col. 1:13).  This new birth, this "born again" condition, can happen to people in all kinds of ways, over a period of time or in a moment.  Reaching that point of decision may be very distinct or very circuitous.  But once someone is twice born like this and has been baptized with the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ (Matt. 3:11, 1Cor. 12:13, Gal. 3:27) it's the will of our heavenly Father that all who have been so anointed and sealed this way share with others what they've seen and heard about His love and what He's done for them (Col. 1:27,28). 

The pipe organ's ability to adapt to both sacred and secular contexts has allowed it to thrive for more than two thousand years.  During this time it too became deeply rooted in its Christian identity because it has been churches which have provided organists with jobs, it was primarily churches that  encouraged organists to learn the organ, and it was frequently churches that were the biggest patrons of the instrument.  While precise statistics are hard to come by, the vast majority of pipe organs today are indeed found in churches with estimates suggesting that nearly 90 per cent of them are installed in primarily Christian religious settings due to their long standing association with such ceremonies and liturgical music.  At the same time it would be untrue to say that the organ's history is solely or even primarily Christian.  In acknowledging the vast repertoire of the instrument created during the last 7 centuries it's important not to create a false dichotomy between its sacred and secular uses.  The goal should not be to remove the secular, nor the sacred, from the organ but rather to reveal the true multiplicity of its identity.

This platform's home page has already touched upon the idea that true worship stems from a sincere heart and reverence for God, that when worship becomes focused more on performers rather than spiritual connection it indicates a departure from authentic spirituality.

It follows that those organists who feel called to the music ministry these days need to know something about what the Christian institutions

with which they seek to connect themselves

are teaching.

Once a student's interest in organ playing leads them to wade into this vast ocean of learning it's inevitable that they find themselves beginning to sense -- rather sooner than later -- the conjoining between theology and organ performance,

that it all fits together. 

The situation however is not a simple one

in this present, pluralistic, politically correct world.

ALL DENOMINATIONS, FELLOWSHIPS, 

AND FORCED UNITY CULTS

WITHIN CHURCHIANITY TODAY

FOLLOW A THEOLOGY OF THEIR OWN THAT

EMBRACES BIBLICAL TRUTH AS A STARTING POINT.

THE DIFFERENCES AMONG THEM

ARE TRACEABLE TO THEIR OWN EISEGESIS

WHICH MAY UNDERMINE THAT FOUNDATION IN WAYS

THAT ARE NEITHER BIBLICAL NOR CHRISTIAN

BY ANY STRETCH OF THE IMAGINATION.

SALVATION CANNOT BE MERITED OR EARNED. 

WHEN ANY SYSTEM OF BELIEF DIRECTS PEOPLE

TO PERFORM CERTAIN WORKS

OR MAKE CERTAIN SACRIFICES

IN ORDER TO DRAW DOWN THEIR SALVATION

IT RENDERS THE CROSS OF CHRIST OF NO EFFECT,

MAKES GOD INTO A LIAR,

AND DENIES HIS GRACE (Gal. 5:4). 

PLEASE NOTE:  Religion doesn't save.

Compliance with ritualistic law doesn't save.

Inviting Jesus into one's heart doesn't save

[Soliciting Jesus is not part of it].

Water baptism doesn't save.

Confessions made to clergy doesn't save.

Penances and acts of contrition doesn't save.

Prayers to angels and dead saints doesn't save.

Befriending clergy doesn't save.

Charity and volunteerism doesn't save.

Trying to be a good person doesn't even save.

 Cowards are the first category of human souls listed [even before murderers] in God's Word (Rev. 21:8) whose end will be in the lake of fire [Gr. "Gehenna," translated "hell"] burning with brimstone, sometimes called "the second death."  This passage refers in particular to self-styled Christians who believe that sinful man is only justified when his own merit-based works are super-added to the cross work of Jesus as a sin offering.  Satan the enemy has tripped them into this suspicion, and, due to their church's faulty hermeneutics, a great deal of biblical truth ends up misconstrued, mischaracterized, and codified into its own web of flawed theology.  The moment a man is suspicious of the power of Christ's salvation like this, that same man is shutting the door of mercy in his own face.  Over one billion professing Christians today don't understand this or even recognize the season they're in because the homilies they're hearing from the pew and the messaging they're hearing from the gallery contradict or barely touch upon it, if at all.  They play church, they attend services, they may rote learn a catechism, they recite a creed, they perform a rite, they get water baptized [which portrays but does not produce salvation], they follow the prescribed routine, it makes them feel a sense of community, moral code, and humility, but in the back of their minds they're uneasy, haunted by whether they've "done enough to make it to heaven."  They're also spoon-fed the same pabulum from the cradle that they don't need to even own a Bible, that all they need to do is attend and do what they're told.  They've been tricked into believing that all relating of man to God and God to man operates through a religious heirarchy whose job is largely to give constant reassurance that their form of godliness is the only pure and valid one.  The apostle Paul described those who practice this kind of diluted, works-dependent salvation as having a form of godliness but denying its power -- moreover, he advised his student Timothy to turn away from such people (2Tim. 3:5).  Any church which puts its own eisegesis and traditions ahead of owning a Bible is lifeless because it has its congregants caught in the merry-go-round of religion at the expense of that precious learning and growing in the knowledge of God that comes from independent consulting of Scripture.  Those joined with Jesus in the body of Christ bear a fixed relationship with Him and are anything but mindless robotic devotees slavishly following a theology that may even violate a positive command of His (e.g. Matt. 23:9) -- they feel the joy and peace that only His inner presence can provide (John 15:11, 16:33) -- they love Jesus back so much because of what He's done for them that the idea of grieving the Spirit by continuing in sin becomes abhorrent -- they have no misgivings whatsoever in the singular saving power of the grace of God through faith alone in His cross work, burial, and resurrection.  The faith-perfecting works they manage to perform (Jas. 2:20-26) follow salvation not precede it, glorify God (Matt. 5:16, Eph. 2:10), and have nothing to do with drawing down God's deliverance.  

Jesus claimed, rightly, that HE was "the Way, THE TRUTH, and the life" (John 14:6).  We therefore have it on the authority of the holy and Spirit-filled Son of God that there is indeed such a thing as absolute truth and that HE was the embodiment of it.  The error of indifferentism, a form of heresy prevalent in some of the churches today, has to do with the big lie sweeping modern society that there is no such thing as absolute truth, that one religion is as good as another.  It rests upon the supposition that truth is relative, that it ebbs and flows and changes depending upon what the latest polls say it is or what people want it to be, and that it doesn't matter what people believe, it's what they do that counts.  The fact of the matter is, truth and error are NOT equally pleasing to God and never were. 

The feel-good messaging being repeated by many well-meaning church-goers these days, such things as 

"All religions have value as paths to God,"

"The heart [of man] is fundamentally good,"

"God loves everyone unconditionally," &

"Redemption is possible for all"

are soaking in unsound belief.

There is only one road to heaven, and it is not religion.

The heart [soul + conscience] of man

is naturally dishonest.

All men are under condemnation for sin.

There is no redemption possible for those

who reject or ignore the gospel of Christ.

The Word of God clearly states:

"No one comes to God but by Jesus" (John 14:6),

"The heart is deceitful above all things

and desperately wicked" (Jer. 17:9),

"If anyone preach any other gospel [than Christ's]

let them be accursed [damned]" (Gal. 1:8-9).

"Whosoever shall [try to] save his own life [without Christ] shall lose it" (Matt. 16:25).

Man in his search for truth simply cannot expect to rely solely upon his own intuition, impressions, reason, or experience and not be led astray at the same time by his own pride (1Cor. 2:9).

There is one place, and one place only, given to man

where truth is to be found and understood rightly divided as God wants us to learn it (2Tim. 2:15).

That place is in the pages of the Bible, in its entirety.

It's calamity enough to realize that Buddhists, Hindus, Jainists, Sikhs, Confucianists, Shintoists, Muslims, unbelieving Jews, wiccans, atheists, agnostics, rationalistic skeptics, and glib intellectuals who were made aware of the cross of Christ but lived their lives omitting ever receiving Him have destined themselves for eternal separation from God, but it gets worse.  Jesus warned that many self-styled, professing followers of His won't realize until it's far too late that they've spent their whole life chasing a butterfly that turned out to be a dead leaf (Matt. 7:21-23, Luke 12:32).  People can acknowledge the identity and spiritual authority of the Lord Jesus Christ [even demons do that], attend worship services regularly, sing in the choir, donate to charity, volunteer their time, and go about every performative work their "church" prescribes, but without having that personal, intimate, faith-filled encounter with Christ and experiencing that regenerative conversion of heart and mind that results from the moment the Advocate (Holy Spirit) He sends comes to live inside them, without that transformative anointing and make-over that renews their thinking, character, and inborne sinful nature, without expressing the same fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23) approach to all of life that reflects being twice born, they simply DO NOT have Christ, and He DOES NOT know them (Matt. 7:21-23).  Like Nicodemus their rigid philosophical and theological system may be a good plan with God at its center, but their assumptions do not allow for a starting point.  Jesus told Nicodemus, in so many words, that he could not see with spiritual insight until he embarked on a fresh journey, plunged himself of his own free will into a new system, and was born spiritually (John 3:1-5).  A man can go to his grave ignoring or rejecting Christ, and there's nothing God can do about it.  God will do everything in His power to warn him, He'll put negative incidents in his life, He may even allow catastrophic loss to happen, out of love, to save that man,

But God will never trespass on man's free will.

God has free will, and He made man the same way,

in His own image (Gen. 1:27).

Our modern culture prefers a view of God Who is all love and no justice, all mercy and no judgment, and this same line of thinking has made its way into the pulpit.  When the apostle John wrote that God is love (1John 4:16) he did not intend it to mean that "love is the God we seek," a false dictum being promoted amiss in certain quarters today.  First of all, those in the body of Christ have already found God.  In the second place it's idolatrous for anyone let alone a minister to claim divinity for and encourage the veneration of an affective emotion.  The church addicted to a steady diet of good fortune sermons, feel-good motivational speaking, promises of divine favor, and messages of thriving well-being in the here and now to the near exclusion of instructing people about such things as man's sin problem, God's solution for it, what happened at the cross of Christ, heaven and hell, repentance, law vs. grace, being alive and growing in the new birth, salvation being offered to ALL people, and witnessing to others, for example, is exercising friendship with the world.  Such a church makes the words of the Son of God of no effect (John 16:33), is alienating itself from God, and is at animus with Him (Gal. 1:4, James 4:4).  

Jesus taught that only those who DO the will of God shall enter [spiritually into] His kingdom (Matt. 21:28-32).

The will of God is that everyone who sees the Son and believes on Him may have everlasting life (John 6:40).  God will be found working His will in those who have been baptized with the Holy Spirit upon receiving Christ (Rom. 12:2) and are twice born.  They will sense God's tug on their heart much like a little boy flying a kite so high

that it may disappear behind a cloud.

No one's eyes, including his, may see that kite,

but because he feels its strong tug

HE KNOWS IT'S THERE.

It can be argued that the main reason most people today including certain pastors and preachers are willingly ignorant is because they refuse to accept the truth that God's methods over time have been different for different people.  Many people are caught in the hamster wheel of religion, and their own sense of religious pride has their hearts hardened against anything which could call into question or interfere with their cherished system of belief.  They steadfastly reject any and all truths outside of their own religious framework, cling to the assumptions they've been taught, and refuse to humble themselves to learn the more perfect way of God rightly divided [law vs. grace], as Apollos received from Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:24-26).  Any Christian communion today tricked out of grace and back into law will forever be in error unless it humbles itself in the same way as Apollos and be willing to accept the fact that the Bible never contradicts itself, no verse cancels out another verse, and ALL of the Bible is for the whole body of Christ, Jew and Gentile alike. 

NOTE:  Nowhere in the Bible does it say that there are two different gospels after the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  Water baptism also, while it portrays salvation, does not produce (and is not a requirement for) salvation.  We get baptized because we ARE saved, not TO BE saved.  The entire Bible also is applicable to the body of Christ, not just Romans through Philemon as some dispensationalists are teaching.  Right division as Paul taught it refers to keeping law from grace separate so that we do not get tricked out of grace and back into law in order that none of us might become modern day Pharisees by lapsing into legalistic interpretations of Scripture.  God gave us the entire Bible, all 66 books, not just Romans through Philemon, for a reason -- because the whole Bible is for us.  We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, and that's simply not open for discussion to any scholars, authors, theologians, dispensationalists, heirarchy of clergy, colleges, universities, synods, or seminaries.  There's ONLY ONE gospel message, and it's the gospel of Jesus Christ.  During the earthly ministry of Jesus He and His followers spoke primarily to Israel, not the body of Christ which was still a mystery hid in God at that time.  Gentiles were not a part of that until the gospel of grace for ALL people in effect today was given to us through the apostle Paul (1Cor. 15:1-4), not through Peter in Acts 2.  What Paul began preaching was the revealing of a method kept hidden by God for the salvation of Jew and Gentile alike, but it was not a different gospel ... different METHODS for different PEOPLE, yes, absolutely ... but still the same gospel.  Those who have trouble seeing that need to consider accepting all of Scripture as applying to this age of grace because the Bible DOES NOT contradict itself, ever.   

The Lord Jesus, the very embodiment of truth, was quite clear about the danger of hell fire (Matt. 5:22).  In the gospels He spoke often about heaven, but He spoke 3 times more about hell than He did about heaven.  He was also quite clear that there would be a price to pay for being His follower, and it has nothing to do with prosperity in this life (John 16:33).  He said if any man were to come after Him, let him deny himself, take up his cross -- NOT his Rolex wristwatch, NOT his keys to the Mercedes -- daily, and follow Him (Matt. 16:24, Luke 9:23).  This means giving up everything for His sake, traveling a difficult, narrow road in this world, and having to bear the full brunt of hatred and affliction that comes with it (Matt. 10:22) even if it should mean an unjust execution, the highest price of all.  Having faith in Jesus does not trigger uncommon financial favor with God as some today are falsely teaching.  If you're going to heaven, you're not living your best life now.  So, for those would-be new congregants who walk with God in Bible reading and prayer, who have investigated the original linguistic meanings of biblical passages, understand them in correct translation and in proper context, and are clear on sound biblical doctrine, the dishonest gainsaying they find being preached unbiblically in so many "churches" these days is a complete turn-off (Gal. 1:9).  They know that the sin society condones, that the clergy may disregard, overlook, or excuse, or that man has made legal, is still sin to God and has many well-meaning people on the broad way that leads to destruction (Matt. 7:13).

There are five warning signs

that people are on the road to hell:

1) ignoring Christ as the only way to heaven,

2) denying the existence of hell,

3) not having a changed life through faith,

4) living in unrepentant sin, and

5) having a hardened heart toward God.  

Any gathering of the body of Christ today is supposed to be a place where the Spirit of Christ is there, reflecting His love, joy, peace, and other attributes of the Spirit of truth (Gal. 5:22-23).  And yet, the way churches operate today, supposedly in His name, they give potential new congregants a thousand reasons never to attend.  As for the music, the major denominations may still have an organ of some kind in mostly or partly working condition, but most, sad to say, do not have anyone to play it.  More often than not they rely upon a piano to accompany any live singing.  As for the listeners, a fair number of them really do not prefer the "pop concert" swing-and-sway atmosphere which now pervades the church music scene.  High-tech assisted worship, for them, is unnecessarily complicated.  They want it simple, not so communication glutted, easy to figure out and easy to follow, something that doesn't get them lost.  This means a simple hymn book with music lines, a single song-leader, and plain accompaniment as opposed to the most up-to-date sights and sounds of a modern technology-glutted society.

 

To hear so many congregants talking today the well-meaning rock band performing all kinds of special music of their own, while all well and good, is, frankly, wasted on them in a worship setting.  They agree that there is plenty of room for musical creativity, excellence, and talent, but they also admit that it should work with and not compete with assembled voices uplifted in worship.  They want to hear ALL of God's people united in praise, not merely the praise band singers.  They don't want to be forced to stumble through or silently listen to unfamiliar music and words they have trouble following while gazing at lines flashing across a Jumbotron screen.  They want to KNOW the music so they can sing it from their hearts.

This is a sobering situation facing the music ministry today.  Trends like this have pushed many an organist, whether deliberately or not, out of the picture right along with the traditional hymn book.  The current so-called shortage-of-organists can be attributed in large part to the concert atmosphere that's developed and the fact that worship attendance and offerings have been dwindling.  Consequently fewer young people are undertaking the study of an instrument which consumes time and energy to develop, then maintain the several skill sets involved. but doesn't provide commensurate financial return.  There are some organists out there, of course, who attempt to make a full-time living from their music with a pay scale which provides for a part of their needs, health coverage, and other considerations, but such positions are very few and far between.  It's a fact that a great many churches these days have lost their organists because their musicians are expected to perform weekly for zero compensation.  The best case scenario seems to be relying on doing something else for a primary income which would allow someone to pursue the music ministry with a mind free of undue concern.

It's sadly astonishing that a fair number of churches today are saying that they're "no longer able to utilize" their pipe organ, a fine piece of musical equipment that may well have served and inspired countless listeners and for which so many had sacrificed to purchase and install some decades ago.  Church boards are claiming they don't want to pay to keep the instrument maintained when they can't find anyone to play it ... all the while ignoring the fact that, in order for it to attract a talented player, it has to BE in working order not to mention that, by offering no pay, they've destroyed any financial incentive for talent recruitment.  The truth is, when there are important organs hundreds of years old in Europe that are in excellent condition today because someone cared enough to preserve them, it's nonsensical, a dirty rotten shame, and a crime against music bordering on blasphemy to put a fine pipe organ out on the street and end up with worship music that's "all sauce and no beefsteak."  Too many congregations today find themselves under-selling if not giving away their organ, then in a few months after the music director has hit the road for obvious reasons they wish they had their organ back.  Would it not be better to keep the organ, begin fund-raising to keep it in good repair, and pay someone talented to play it?  It's a fair question.     

In terms of filling the pews every week, the very misguided disuse of the hymnal and organ in worship has been far more of a hindrance than a help.  There are probably a very great many people who don't really care whether or not they're singing with an organ, but it's as if hymnals and organs have become the scapegoats for the decline in attendance.  The resulting fallout in education has involved school faculties which seem to be more challenged than ever before to recruit organ students.  Among denominations where organ music and accompaniments are or might still be embraced, there are fewer local churches open than ever before, fewer ministers, fewer congregants, smaller choirs (where there IS a choir), greater costs for upkeep of the building and the functioning of worship, and more internal legislation on security, youth, insurance, etc.

While the musical mindset of flat-screen pastors and worship teams is no longer what it was half a century ago, it still rings true that church services have little to do with what people prefer and everything to do with what they need.  It's still true that when people reverently and routinely come together to hear the Word of God, fellowship in a spirit of joy, and sing praises to Him, this points to the use of a type of sacred song that's a) strong in doctrine, b) not mantra or emotionally driven, and c) not filled with repetitive lyrics.  These are foundational conditions, and, in churches where hymnals have been gathered up and are sitting in boxes or stacked in hallways, the ministry there would do well to remember that traditional hymns meet these requisites better than anything else [See blog, Hymns, Parts I-XII].

Hymns are theological statements set to music.

• Hymns serve as a means to teach and reinforce the foundational beliefs of the Christian faith.  Many contemporary songs simply lack the depth and theological richness that hymns provide.  Hymns can help educate and spiritually nourish congregations of all sizes.
• Hymns have connected generations of believers throughout history.  The singing of just one hymn at an appropriate moment, something approved of and encouraged by Jesus Himself (Matt. 26:30, Mark 14:26), can serve as a bridge between the church's past and its present, reminding all participants they are part of a much larger, timeless group which shares unity and continuity in worshiping God.
• Hymns are easy to remember.  Their melodies and lyrics stay with people for a lifetime.  Congregants can carry the messages and lessons contained in hymns throughout their lives, reinforcing their faith.
• Hymns can be a unifying force among a diverse congregation.  They transcend cultural and language barriers and provide an opportunity for people of different backgrounds to worship together.  They are a beautiful expression of unity in Christ among various sundry peoples that gives them a real sense of identity and belonging.
• Hymns can offer a broader musical palette and a sense of balance in worship.  They are flexible, arrangeable, and can accommodate a wide multiplicity of musical tastes and preferences.
• Hymns often carry deep emotional resonance.  Their melodies and lyrics can evoke strong feelings of reverence, joy, comfort, and pleasant memories of departed loved-ones.  They reach deeply into the soul, beckon the unsaved, and provide a safe space for people to express their emotions, a place where they can find solace and healing.
• Hymns can be powerful teaching tools.  They can be and are very often used to instruct and encourage, especially in conjunction with the preaching of sermons.  Many hymns are directly tied to biblical passages and stories, making them valuable teaching aids.
• Hymns preserve a sacred legacy for future generations.  These timeless songs of the church are a way that children and grandchildren have the opportunity to experience an unbroken musical heritage.  

While it would be narrow-minded to think that hymn singing out of the hymnal is incapable of joining in praise with other kinds of worship music when congregations gather to offer praise to God, it does provide a great deal of spiritual depth, theological richness, timeless connection, memorability, inclusivity, variety and balance, and emotional resonance while serving as a powerful teaching tool with a living legacy.  There's also something else to consider:  just holding a hymnal during worship is important.  Practically speaking, hymn books cannot break down in the middle of a liturgy like technology can.  Musically, they teach -- looking at notes on a page as opposed to just lyrics helps people learn the basics of melodic direction and rhythmic value, giving them the first steps in learning to read music.  Theologically, congregants don't just see what the worship leader has selected but are instead exposed to the full repertoire.  They can turn the page and encounter hymns in other languages, reminding them of the church's diversity.  Seeing old hymns next to newer ones unites them with all believers throughout history.  Hymnals are also symbols of consistency.  Unlike a screen that fades or a paper bulletin which is discarded, they demonstrate that what is being sung is worth keeping around as well as reminding everyone that prayer is continuous and can't be turned off or discarded.  Hymnals are something that can and should be held proudly in the hands.  The fact that congregants have a voice and the organist has an organ which can lead them remains a very dynamic way to enrich the spiritual lives of congregations by maintaining connection with the church's roots, providing a robust theological foundation, reminding people of God's love and grace, and fostering unity and inclusivity while helping to stir souls and draw them closer to God.

At the same time, Jesus died to save sinners,

not to create the mayhem of denominations

we see today.

ORGANISTS PLEASE TAKE NOTE:

When the Bible is not consulted as authoritative for guidance and direction from God there are no limits to the denominations, religions, and forced unity cults people can come up with to suit their own fancies and feed their beliefs.  During the first decades of church history the world quickly became saturated with an untold number of contentious and divided Christian factions all claiming purity and all in disagreement (1Cor. 1:10-15).  In more recent times these factions have multiplied exponentially many times over.   Until each of us are willing to cast off the mis-appropriated truths we've accumulated through years of not studying the Bible rightly divided according to God's different methods for different people, Scripture will never come together and make sense.  There will always be pieces of the puzzle that don't fit, and whether these pieces are rejected or ignored the result is the same:  people fail to learn what God wants them to understand from His Word.

Put another way:  Truth and Grace is what the believer sees

when Jesus shows up

and religion gets out of the way (John 1:14).  

This too is a sobering situation organists and church musicians are certain to encounter in the churches today,

and it is a massive problem.

All who work in the ministry in any capacity need to accept and get used to the idea that Father God never changes (Mal. 3:6), He is the same yesterday, today, and always, but God Who at sundry times and in diverse manners spoke in past ages through the prophets (Heb. 1:1) has changed His methods in dealing with different people over the course of human history in accordance with the unfolding of His plan for man.  People need to do their homework.  The book of Acts records the historical transition from Law to Grace, from Prophecy to Mystery.  The purpose of the Mosaic law given to the nation of Israel was to serve as a mirror to reveal the condition of the human heart, show us what God wants, viz. holiness, and ultimately to lead us to Christ.  While the Law was good, the trouble was, it had no power to change a sinful heart (Rom. 8:3) or to save anyone (Rom. 3:20, Titus 3:5).  Incompatibility between Grace and Law inevitably arises when someone 1) misunderstands the purpose of the Law, 2) redefines Grace as something other than God's benevolence on the undeserving (Rom 11:6), 3) tries to earn his own salvation or supplement Christ's sacrifice, 4) follows the error of the Pharisees in tacking man-made rules, rituals, and traditions onto the gospel of Grace, or 5) fails to focus on the whole counsel of God (Acts 20:27).  

 *

It's important for organists/church musicians, wherever they're music ministry takes them, to remember this one thing ABOVE ALL:  worship music, no matter how pious it may sound, can be the front door to unbiblical deceptions.  Those in the body of Christ today don't get to follow Jesus on their own terms, neither do they get to worship God just with their heart or any other way they want.  Referring to the Scriptures, Christ taught that people must worship God in spirit AND in truth (John 4:24).  Both are necessary and non-negotiable conditions according to Jesus, which means that the Bible is conjoined with the hymnal (and comes before it).  Preachers who go along to get along are leading many churches today.  More time is spent listening to and watching Christian-based songs performed at their services than the messaging people need to hear.  Since congregations learn their theology not only by the preaching they hear but by the songs they sing it's important to bear in mind that Satan the devil, as described above, also is a musician -- he knows all about music, and his workmanship in this department was prepared for him in heaven from the time he was created (Ezek. 28:13).  As a largely underestimated master of disguise, Satan is well aware that spiritual giftedness, especially in the creative arts, does not equal spiritual maturity.  So, with characteristic, unmitigated gall he cunningly and treacherously deceives and preys upon any well-meaning but unwary, underinformed, misinformed, and susceptible praise song writers.  He specifically targets their proficiency in crafting poetic and artistic language to perpetrate a hoax; he misleads them to incorporate what's theologically false into the lyrics they're matching to the latest captivating tune to issue from their pen.  In so doing, this malevolent being, working undercover, exploits the creativity of the naive musician to adroitly assemble a Trojan Horse for him.  The musical product is a very subtle, perfidious imposture which on its surface looks and sounds and seems uplifting, reverent, and honoring to God but when introduced into and performed at worship it ends up achieving the pernicious end that Satan wants; its wording, when mirrored against biblical truth, is irreverent and lacking honor to God while at the same time promoting what's untrue in such an astute and guileful way that it goes unnoticed.  This is only one way that Satan, the ruler and god of this world (John 16:11, 2Cor. 4:4) who knows that God will not trespass on man's free will, exploits churchianity.  He worms his way into the arts, infiltrates religious thinking and worship, and manipulates the people involved (including seminary attendees & musicians); he manipulates places (including pulpits & the elevated dais); he manipulates things (including seminaries, liturgies, bible translations, theologies, music, etc.) to taint the purity of biblical truth -- in this case within sung stanzas of songs -- just enough to discolor with error the purity of truth.  Incognizant singers who are duped by all of this may be charter members of their church, they may have multiple baptismal certificates to their name, have a drawer full of Sunday school pins, have never missed choir practice, and still end up, of their own free choice, missing their chance to experience God's presence and fellowship with Him forever.  As long as the result is still the same, Satan is fine with that.  As stated, the devil doesn't come on as a bad guy; he works behind the scenes masquerading as a good guy to achieve his ends; he doesn't give a hoot about how much people sing praises to God in the churches every week as long as the singing is off target.  Satan, master of fine-spun, insidious propaganda that he is, ambush predator walking about this earth seeking whom he can devour that he is (1Pet. 5:8), arrogant, brazen, back-stabbing traitor to God that he is, hates man, hates the Word of God rightly divided, and hates the true gospel, is infuriated by it, and will stop at nothing, and stoop to anything, to contaminate and pollute its message, lure people away from God, and get them to disqualify themselves by any tantalizing and nefarious means his genius can contrive.  This is because Satan knows that a) no man has ever turned away from God and found happiness, joy, and peace that was lasting and permanent, b) God has made

+  the cross of Christ  +

the road to heaven, c) there isn't any other way for sinful man to be forgiven and enter into eternal fellowship with God, d) the man or woman who refuses to accept the shelter it offers is doomed, and e) it's been made crystal clear that anyone saved by it is no longer dead in spirit (alive physically but without relationship or fellowship with God) but part of a new creature called the body of Christ, miraculously formed by grace through faith, against which no weapon formed, seen or unseen, shall prosper (Isa. 54:17).  

Is this what's really going on in the churches

and with church music today?

Dear friends, you better believe it ...

Where you spend eternity depends upon it.

If Satan is shrewd enough to talk angels out of heaven

he can talk man into hell.

He accomplishes this

by mischaracterizing God and His motives,

twisting absolute truth,

and using this world and its distractions

to occupy every waking moment of man

with everything and anything except God.

If any people end up lost and in hell

it won't be because of the pardonable sins they've done.

Those sins can be forgiven by the precious blood

of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The overwhelming majority will end up lost

because of what they HAVEN'T done,

by omitting ever receiving Him as their personal Saviour.

The classic hymns also have poetic and artistic language in them, but it's always combined with a reverence and an honoring to God that's sadly lacking in a fair number of the newer songs used in praise.  This is why true Christians are obliged to follow Saint Paul's example (1Cor. 14:15) when he says he will sing with the spirit and also sing with the understanding.  This is why organists who play for worship services need to be (and cannot afford NOT to be) well acquainted with true biblical Christian doctrine.  When there is a proper way to worship and sing to the Lord, viz., in the spirit with both truth and understanding, then people are not to sing songs to God that they do not understand (if it's something they don't understand, then it's truthfulness cannot be determined).  People fail to catch any untruths in the stanzas they're singing in worship without knowing the truth directly from sacred Scripture.  This makes it incumbent upon organists as well as praise music writers and other performers involved in the music ministry to reflect upon the body of belief being taught where their music is being heard.   

*

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS WORTH SHARING ...

Some of our organist friends, while they cannot find any hard numbers to support it, believe that the profession of liturgical organist is dying.  In some locales a fair number of churches have either shut down completely or merged with other congregations.  Many are no longer employing the organ and are using either piano or praise band music.  Active choirs are becoming increasingly rare because of the diminished and aged congregations.  Many young organists today are completely eschewing church work and trying to build recital careers.  While understandable, they do not have the career paths of other musicians such as violinists or pianists.  As such, even our major organists cannot command the fees many up-and-coming pianists make.  The demand and audience attraction just aren't there.  The sad part is that many new organists are fine musicians, their talent is something about which to marvel, but it seems that, without a massive examination of the topic of marketing, this profession will be gone in the not too distant future.

In many locales there are some fine teachers available for organ study, but they find it discouraging because it seems that no one wants to study the instrument.  A significant issue appears to be that organists can't find full time positions with even basic benefits because so many churches can no longer afford that, notwithstanding the issue of those who just want a paycheck and have no concern for the music ministry.  The cause for this situation is multi-faceted.  In the big cities where many large and important instruments are located a fair number of congregants have grown tired of political agendas that have flown directly in the face of their faith, and, being conscientious objectors, a fair number of those able to move away have done so.  The Covid scare and the church's reaction to it also caused people to get out of the habit of attending worship services, opting instead to watch online.  The woke ideology direction some of the churches have taken also is part of the picture, many people just don't go for drag queen bible study, and these are dying by their own hand.

It's a disheartening reality that many extraordinarily talented young musicians, brimming with potential, will see their careers falter or stagnate -- not due to a lack of skill but because they do not understand how to market themselves.  Despite their musical prowess they find themselves adrift in a landscape that increasingly values visibility and self-promotion.  What's particularly troubling is that even our most prestigious music education institutions often fail to equip these gifted individuals with the business acumen necessary for building a successful concert career.  A comprehensive musical education should not just focus on the art itself but also on the practical realities of turning that artistry into a viable profession.  One of the most crucial aspects of being a performing artist is selling tickets and filling seats in a performance venue.  In today's competitive world, being excellent is no longer enough -- the recitalist must also be a magnet that can draw a wide and loyal audience.  Major concert venues will simply not hire an artist who cannot fill their halls, regardless of their talent.

This challenge extends beyond just filling seats.  Musicians must also know how to cultivate relationships with foundations and corporations to secure funding for their desired projects, many of which are not cheap.  The ability to attract patrons and sponsors, present compelling proposals, and manage funding is now as integral to a musician's success as the ability to perform beautifully on stage.  The tragedy deepens when we consider the sheer breadth of opportunities available today.  In this digital age, with platforms like social media and streaming services at their fingertips, musicians have unprecedented access to audiences around the globe.  However, far too few know how to harness these tools effectively.  Many young artists seem overwhelmed or simply unaware of the power these resources hold on shaping their future careers.

This disparity between talent and visibility underscores the urgent need for our music institutions to evolve.  It's no longer enough to teach the notes; how to be heard in a noisy world also needs to be taught.  The modern performing artist has to be a skilled marketer, relationship builder, and fundraiser as much as they are a master of the instrument.  Any time-saver [such as online educational websites like this one] which helps fast-track that mastery can be expected to help create more time for the budding professional to focus on these other career-building skills.

BOTTOM LINE MESSAGE FOR ORGANISTS:

Because it takes a lot of years to get to a point where you can use your music to make a living, even partially, you need to find a balance between what part of your music is ministry and what part of it is career.  Doing music doesn't always give instant gratification from others.  The unspoken compliments are valuable, too.  Just blessing and touching someone's heart and soul with something you play is the goal.  Let God do His work through your music.  He will give the increase.  Keep on working, and keep on enjoying what you do.  Keep your eye on the finish line and beyond.  Remember as well, it's extremely easy to get burned out with music.  It's hard work, and negative criticism hurts.  Try to ignore the negative junk.  Music is a wonderful journey but certainly not a perfect one, either.  Give your concerns whatever they are to the heavenly Father, and put your burden in His hands.  You are no accident.  God loves you.  He knew you before you were born.  He has invested you with a combination of traits and abilities unlike anyone else who has ever walked the face of this earth.  You are uniquely, almost strangely, qualified for the assignment God has in mind for you, and he has put you in the here and now, in this generation, for a purpose (Rom. 8:28-30).  That purpose may not always be clear to us, but it is to Him.  Implore His help in prayer, sincerely believe and state that it's for His greater glory and for the glory of His Son, then show Him your faith by thanking Him ahead of time for removing whatever obstacle(s) may be in your way.

Thank Him for creating a door where none is there

and opening it ahead of you.

Ask Him to show you the Way

to what's true and right and good.

With God Nothing is impossible (Matt. 19;26, Luke 1:37).

Trust Him to solve your puny little problem

and believe the solution is already signed, sealed,

and on its way in His own good time,

and in His own good way.

Be mindful after that, of what happens (2Thess. 3:3).

Faith is what moves the hand of God.

May the good Lord bless you this day

and forever.

      *