Emotions make excellent servants, but tyrannical masters.
02543 – Brilliance without Conscience?
The world has achieved brilliance without conscience. Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. If we continue to develop our technology without wisdom or...
01278 – Surrender is Spiritual Power
Far from an act of spiritual cowardice, surrender is an act of spiritual power because it opens the heart directly to the more subtle realms of spiritual Wisdom and energy. One hands over, in the poet Dante's beautiful image, into "the love that moves the stars and...
01099 – Responsibilities: Master vs. Servant
It is true the servant does not know what the master is doing, but that has its bright side. The servant doesn't take his work home with him. For him the day ends when he puts aside the shovel and the hoe. But sometimes the master is up all night, pacing and worrying....
00863 – Church Music is Theological Expression
I believe we should consider church music basically to be THEOLOGICAL expression—part of the dialogue between God and worshipers. With few exceptions, music in worship is coupled with important words. For this reason, we should choose literature—for instance, hymns...
00826 – Servant Musicians
Each musician must come to experience the dignity, rightness, and eventual joy of putting things aside, of emptying oneself and taking the form of a servant. Such musicians must be able to move back and forth, gracefully, servingly, and willingly, from the symphony to...
00746 – Should Worship be User-Friendly?
Another misconception frequently touted is that worship should be user-friendly. I am certainly not advocating worship that alienates or is totally inaccessible, but Scripture helps us see that being confronted by God is not always comfortable or comforting. God is...
00476 – Keeping the Joy of the Spirit
The devil is most happy when he can snatch from a servant of God true joy of the Spirit. He carries dust with him to throw into the smallest chinks of conscience and thus soil one’s mental candor and purity of life. But if joy of the Spirit fills the heart, the...
00407 – Experiencing God Includes Discipleship
God wants us to adjust our lives to Him so He can do through us what He wants to do. God is not our servant to make adjustment to our plans. We are His servants, and we adjust our lives to what He is about to do and to His ways of doing it. If we will not submit God...
00406 – Follow Me; I am With You
“Follow me”: that is the whole of a Christian’s duty. “And where I am there also shall my servant be”: that is the whole of a Christian’s reward.