Seeds For Thinking

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: “Sound the trumpet in Zion! Call a fast and gather all the people together for a solemn meeting. Bring everyone - the elders, the children, even the babies.” (Joel 2:15-16a, Living Bible)

What calls you to worship services? Bells, drums, a gong, a shofar, trumpet or loud voice? Chances are, in our time, None of the Above.
All are time-honored ways of communicating with the faithful or alerting the community. Imagine a time when there are no clocks, no telephones -either cell or Plain Old Telephone Service. No radio or TV to reach the multitudes. What do you do?
Make a loud noise! Sound the trumpet. Ring a bell. Bong a gong, or beat a drum. Shout from the roof tops1, if that is what it takes to spread the word.
The Christian communities long depended upon tintinnabulation -
To the swinging and the ringing
Of the bells, bells, bells -
Of the bells, bells, bells, bells,
Bells, bells, bells -
To the rhyming and the chiming of the bells! (Edgar Allen Poe: The Bells - c1845)
A church bell was rung either to signify the hour or the time for worshippers to go to church, perhaps to attend a wedding, funeral, or other service. Before mass communication they were the only way to gather a village together, so they served for secular functions also.
The bells peal joyfully on wedding days and on the great feast days of the Church. They toll mournfully as the departed receive the Church’s last blessing.
By the end of the eighth century, bells and belfries were seen as an integral part of every church. By medieval canon law, cathedrals were required to have at least five bells, a parish church to have two or three and small chapels to have one.2
The Shofar is one of the earliest instruments used in Jewish music. Usually made from a rams horn, a shofar can also be made from the horns of other animals, including those of a goat or sheep. It is the one musical instrument that has not changed in over 5,000 years. The blast of a shofar emanating from the thick cloud on Mount Sinai made the Israelites tremble in awe (Exodus 19:16-19). Many texts use the word “trumpet” for both the shofar (ram’s horn) and the familiar trumpet instrument. Each had its special significance. The 'trumpets' described in Numbers 10 are a different instrument, described by the Hebrew word 'trumpet' not the word for shofar.
The shofar was blown to start the battle of Jericho, “and the walls came tumbling down.” (Joshua 6:4-5) The ‘trumpets’ were to be blown loud and long on the Day of Atonement to proclaim the Jubilee year. "Then you shall transmit a blast on the horn; in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, the day of Yom Kippur, you shall have the horn sounded throughout the land ... And proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." ((Leviticus. 25:9-10a).)
In our times its liturgical use is restricted to New Year (Rosh Hashanah) and the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). 3
In Joel’s Day, it was “Blow the trumpet in zion, consecrate a fast, call a sacred assembly; gather the people sanctify the congregation, assemble the elders.” Today - “Tell a friend or neighbor - don’t count on horns or bells to draw them in.

1 The Islamic Call to Prayer -The muezzin, a man appointed to call to prayer, climbs the mineret of the mosque, and he calls in all directions, "Hasten to prayer."
http://www.balaams-ass.com/alhaj/calltoprayer.htm
2 Why Do Church Towers Ring Bells? http://www.ehow.com/facts_5873166_do-church-towers-ring-bells_.html#ixzz17HfulUWU
3 http://www.holidays.net/highholydays/shofar.htm
(Go to page: Scroll down and listen to examples of shofar)

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

* Failure
* Scripture: But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached (Jesus) and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me." (Luke 10:40, NKJV)

One would think that holiday seasons would be the happiest times of the year. Not so, many researchers suggest. Rather than times of relaxation and rejoicing, remembrance and celebration, holidays are periods of intense stress for many people. Why so?
For one thing, there are many Marthas in this world, "soul kindred," distracted with much serving. This is one of those 'tight rope' areas, I know. We walk a very narrow line, here, between duty and dereliction. Balance is a key word. Should Mary have helped Martha? Probably. Would Jesus have severely criticized Martha if something wasn't perfect, like if the towels didn't match, or if the table cloth had a spot on it? Probably not. It's all about friendship, not fatigue!
Martha doesn't seem to share in the joy of this occasion. She appears to be rather stressed out, fearing failure as a good hostess. Was Jesus perhaps there to be pampered, or to critique Martha's hospitality for a five-star rating? I doubt it. Perhaps He was instead thinking, "Hey, I came for a visit, let's enjoy it."
Failure is "laboring for the wind," claims the 'Preacher" of Ecclesiastes, to eat in darkness, with much sorrow and sickness and anger. (Ecc. 5:16-17)
There is likely little that you can do to make an old grouch satisfied. The grouch is longing, expecting to eat in darkness, with much sorrow and sickness and anger, and will go to extremes to obtain his goal. Like a pig, if you wallow in their mud, you will both end up 'dirty.' So move on down the street; let the pig - er, grouch, wallow in bitterness and self-pity.
Life is too short to wallow in bad things when there are so many good things to celebrate.
Many people have the "movie set syndrome." On-screen, the camera shows perfection, the perfect house, the ideal standard to strive for. It is instead just a front, a sham, a wall with nothing but props behind it to hold it up. You wouldn't, you shouldn't want to live there. Do you have four walls - and a roof? Be glad!
I recall the quotation:

"A man's reach must exceed his grasp,
else what's a heaven for."

It is one thing to be inspired, to strive, yet,

"Ideals are stars to guide us,
not clubs with which to beat ourselves."

Striving, reaching is not by itself our downfall, but to be consumed by striving for the truly impossible without rejoicing in the possible - that is failure.
We are, perhaps, at times like the mice that I sometimes find in my barn. They have acquired the food supply of their wildest dreams - at the bottom of the grain barrel, from which there is no escape.
Failure is like climbing a mountain, only to be stopped by an impassable obstacle, then, to gaze dismally at the peak, out of reach, rather than turning and rejoicing in the view from the height that you have attained.
Failure is to worry, worry, worry about your next breath, when you should be rejoicing about the breaths that you have already taken.
True failure is to wallow in despair over what has not been done, instead of rejoicing over what has been accomplished.
Failure is anger at what has been lost, rather than joy at what has been found.
Failure is like standing at the door, frustrated, with a dead battery in your radio car keyset, when all you need to do is to insert the key in the lock, the old fashioned way.
Rejoice! It shall be opened.
Do not be distracted by much serving and striving for the winds of the world.
Seek ye the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near.
December 31, 2006

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

* Tuned In
* Scripture: Isaiah wrote, "Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near." (Isaiah 55:6, NKJV)

Dad bought a new radio when I was in - oh, probably the 2nd grade. The old radio wasn't pitched out, though. It served the rest of its useful life in the milking parlor in the dairy barn, bringing Dad the farm news and market reports, plus "milk-letting-down music" each morning and evening.
Radio station WLW billed itself as "The Nation's Station" in the 1930's and '40's, and indeed it was. WLW broadcasts reached coast to coast, border to border, because they were licensed to transmit with more than 10 times the power of any other station in the country. It is the stuff of broadcasting legend.
Many broadcasts originated from "Everybody's Farm," owned by the station and located near Cincinnati, Ohio. And, yes, they included a musical interlude that they called "Milk Letting Down Music." I'm not sure how the cows really felt about it, but I never noted them to complain.
Cadle's Tabernacle was heard in both the house and barn each morning, fifteen minutes of music and 'The Word.' Their theme song "Ere you left your room this morning, Did you think to pray?" is firmly planted in my memory.
The ladies were not neglected, either. Ruth Lyons created what has to be one of the original talk shows, first on radio and later on television. Then, as now, daytime drama -"The Soaps" - held sway in the afternoon.
Most stations broadcast programs for the kiddies right after school. I don't remember which stations aired "Captain Midnight," "Jack Armstrong" (the All-American Boy) "Superman," "Gene Autry" and others, but thousands of us tuned in each afternoon.
"Tuned In" are the operative words here. If you wanted to listen, you had to turn the tuning dial to the number you wanted, 700 in the case of WLW. Otherwise, you either got nothing, garbled noise, or the wrong station.
There was something nearly mystical for me about that little box with the glowing tubes inside, their heat creating an aroma of bakelite and hot wax from the components and cabinet. And the tuning device itself, wondrously strange, with plates of metal that meshed as you turned that knob on the front.
You didn't need to know how it worked electronically, though, to tune in. You just had to believe in that little box, have faith that turning the dial to the right number would connect you, and then- in faith believing - turn the dial!
Think about this - God is broadcasting on your channel.
Tune Him in!
"Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near."
September 10, 2006

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

* Carpe Diem
* Scripture: Isaiah wrote, Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.” - Isaiah 55:6

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying,
And this same flower that smiles today,
To-morrow will be dying. ROBERT HERRICK

So - take time to smell the roses!
“Carpe Diem” is a Latin phrase that is sometimes used to express the thought of making the most of an opportunity. Literally, “Seize the Day,” with roots in the word for pluck, gather or harvest.
I can picture a rose - yes, any flower - at its peak of perfection, filled with the aroma which we are admonished to enjoy. How quickly, how fleetingly, is that moment snatched from us.
Fruit, also, the sometimes fullness of the flowering, may be in the developing stage that we call ‘green’ for an extended time, reaching ripeness with its own aroma and taste only briefly before passing into inevitable decay. The fullness of time, Yes! That is the moment to harvest, to savor, that which the Lord has prepared.
The harvest is only half of the given opportunity, however. If someone gives us a gift, we respond with an expression of gratefulness; a “Thank You” is appropriate. The flower, the fruit, I may pluck and present to you. I have not caused it to bloom, to ripen, though; that is The Lord’s gift.
All too often the phrase “Carpe Diem” is taken, especially by poets and lovers, as the enjoyment of the pleasures of the moment without concern for the future. And, I might add, without concern for the Giver of the moment.
I think Jesus expressed the earthly, unthankful viewpoint well in the parable of the man who built many barns for his harvest, and enjoyed the moment as a time to “eat, drink, and be merry.” No thanksgiving, no thought of sharing his bounty, which he would not have received except the Lord provided it. (Lk 12:16-21)
Paul wrote, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith,” Galatians 6:10, NKJV
That is the double opportunity; as we receive from the Lord, we need to remember to call upon Him when His presence is evident in the gift. Seize the moment, yes, the moment to ‘Seek the Lord while He may be found, to call upon Him while He is near.’
And give thanks!
November 20, 2005

Link: http://seedsforthinking.oldgleaner.com/

Scripture: Isaiah wrote, Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.” - Isaiah 55:6

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old time is still a-flying,
And this same flower that smiles today,
To-morrow will be dying. ROBERT HERRICK

So - take time to smell the roses!
“Carpe Diem” is a Latin phrase that is sometimes used to express the thought of making the most of an opportunity. Literally, “Seize the Day,” with roots in the word for pluck, gather or harvest.
I can picture a rose - yes, any flower - at its peak of perfection, filled with the aroma which we are admonished to enjoy. How quickly, how fleetingly, is that moment snatched from us.
Fruit, also, the sometimes fullness of the flowering, may be in the developing stage that we call ‘green’ for an extended time, reaching ripeness with its own aroma and taste only briefly before passing into inevitable decay. The fullness of time, Yes! That is the moment to harvest, to savor, that which the Lord has prepared.
The harvest is only half of the given opportunity, however. If someone gives us a gift, we respond with an expression of gratefulness; a “Thank You” is appropriate. The flower, the fruit, I may pluck and present to you. I have not caused it to bloom, to ripen, though; that is The Lord’s gift.
All too often the phrase “Carpe Diem” is taken, especially by poets and lovers, as the enjoyment of the pleasures of the moment without concern for the future. And, I might add, without concern for the Giver of the moment.
I think Jesus expressed the earthly, unthankful viewpoint well in the parable of the man who built many barns for his harvest, and enjoyed the moment as a time to “eat, drink, and be merry.” No thanksgiving, no thought of sharing his bounty, which he would not have received except the Lord provided it. (Lk 12:16-21)
Paul wrote, “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith,” Galatians 6:10, NKJV
That is the double opportunity; as we receive from the Lord, we need to remember to call upon Him when His presence is evident in the gift. Seize the moment, yes, the moment to ‘Seek the Lord while He may be found, to call upon Him while He is near.’
And give thanks!
November 20, 2005