I give you, Maestro Jehovah

Always thought conductors were just silly people waving wands in the air with their
musicians pretty much ignoring them; sort of crowd pleasers, if you will. Well, thanks
to my wonderful son-in-law, and looking at the whole thing outside of the cartoon of Bugs
Bunny conducting, I have a new-found appreciation for what these wand-wavers do!

Turns out that the orchestra musicians actually are very much tuned in to the movements
of both the baton and the maestro's body language, and music is placed so that they
can see both music and conductor simultaneously. Pretty cool. Helps, I understand, to
have a big-name orchestra leader because it adds to the fame of the orchestra and, hopefully,
to the quality of the music.

So, now I would like to present, humbly, the ultimate maestro, Jehovah, my God, who
is the grand conductor of them all! He, in His glorious sovereignty, is in charge of all the
unique and complicated movements that allow this universe that He created to function!
Truly amazing!

Well, I would just like to use my bloggish creativity to wonder what it would be like for
God to create a musical score to the Bible; that's right, music to mirror and teach the story
of Jesus Christ, which, as you know, is what the books of the Bible accomplish.

Can you imagine the first magnificent chord? The orchestra completes their tune-ups,
followed by silence, and then the Conductor raises His wand and WOW! I'm not one to
give much credence to "The Big  Bang," but it works to imagine a magnificent beginning
to this Whole Symphony. 

How about the crossing of the Red Sea? The musical accompaniment to the walls of water
suddenly rising up and then crashing down upon the hapless Egyptians. 

The calming of the waters of the Sea of Galilee; Jesus changing the raging elements into
sheer calm, picture that musically.

How about the back-and-forth of the rulers of Israel; one good king followed by one really
evil one. Back and forth, back and forth.

Then there is the birth of the Son of God with some beautiful melodies. The many
miraculous moments of His three-year walk, the tragedy of His Crucifixion. the glory
of His Resurrection and His Ascension!  Wow! 

I could go on; but, here is the part we all are waiting for...the Finale. The return on
clouds of Glory of the triumphant King,  Jesus Christ. I hear a crescendo, growing
in strength and then, the final, unimaginably beautiful final grouping of sound. The
maestro now turns, amid Bravos and Joyous Hallelujah to receive the appreciation of
all His saints. Well done, Jehovah! Very Well Done!

Praise God Almighty!
Happy Thanksgiving!

The on-going ferocious struggle for your soul

There are titanic struggles occurring in the universe at almost every level. Galaxies
are closing in on other galaxies (that's a slow struggle). On a much smaller level, within
each person's cells, virus are struggling against the body's immune system. We are
healthy when the body wins out. 

It's good vs. evil, darkness vs. light, truth vs. lies... yet the single most important
struggle is the one being engaged over the eternal existence of our souls. In a small,
but significant way, each of us plays a part, but the major combatants are ones 
who have been at odds since before the creation of the universe: Jehovah and 
the fallen angel, Satan. The prize, here, is the very soul within your body.

God is sovereign, completely so! He is in control of our lives, our path and our
future. We, and here is the crucial component, have to TRUST Him. The very
essence of faith is the complete trust that God is with us, not apart from us; that
He is engaged, even when it may seem that there is only silence when we struggle,
face hardships,  that he is with us,even when we pray and seem to have no response. 

Satan is already a loser. Christ's resurrection completed the defeat of both death
and Satan. He had been tossed out of heaven, having been the most beautiful angel,
yet rebelling against God. He will, upon Christ's glorious return, be cast forever into
a very hot locale. But for now, he strives to create doubt, impatience...sin, which by
its very definition is rebellion against God. Not only does the devil work at our
weaknesses, he also attacks in areas that we may perceive as being strengths. He
tells is that God is too busy, doesn't care, isn't listening. Because we are born into
sin, continue to sin even when we wish not to and are in rebellion against God,
we are weak and prone to fall away, we decide to take matters into our own
hands, we think we can be in charge. We can be prideful, stubborn and very
impatient. We want quick fixes and it's very hard to just become quiet and wait
on God to lead.

Our part? We had better be more than observers in this struggle for our eternal
destination! We have to depend on God's Spirit within us to strengthen us each day,
we need to put on the armor of God, we need to quiet down and wait with the 
understanding that God is in control...always....forever. Praise God our Father!!