Thursday night we had our first Artist Series of the semester. Valentina Lisitsa and Alexei Kuznetsoff (don't let the names throw you. they're married) played pieces specifically written for duo piano.
They were good. Very good. Even I could tell they were good. They got a standing ovation. And two encores. (but that's another story altogether) One of the things I liked was that they actually explained stuff about the piece and the composer before they performed it--for the less-than-perfectly-classicaly cultured such as myself, it made all the difference in the world once I understood a few things.
At any rate, they included the poems Rachmaninoff claimed as his inspiration to his Fantasie-tableaux (Suite No. 1), Op 5. They immediately caught and held my attention and interest, and when the piece was finally played after intermission I was properly moved and impressed and even visualized the reality the notes were to represent. The poems are magnificent.
Bravo!
Click "more" for Lermontov's Barcarolle (the classic song of the gondolier), Byron's Night of Love, Tyutchev's Tears, and Khomyakov's Russian Easter.
Barcarolle
At dusk half-heard the chill wave laps
Beneath the gondola's slow oar.
...once more a song!
once more the twanged guitar!
...now sad, now gaily ringing,
The barcarolle comes winging;
"The boat slid by, the waters clove;
So time glides by, o'er the surge of love;
The waters will grow smooth again,
But what can rouse a passion slain!"
Night of Love
It is the hour when from the boughs
The nightingale's high note is heard;
It is the hour when lovers' vows
Seem sweet in every whisper'd word;
And gentle winds and waters near,
Make music to the lonely ear...
Tears
Tears, human tears,
that pour forth, beyond telling,
Early and late, in the dark, out of sight,
While the world goes on its way all unwittingly,
Numberless, stintless, you fall unremittingly
Pouring like rain, the long rain that is willing
Endlessly, late in the autumn at night.
Russian Easter
Across the earth a mighty peal is sweeping
Till all the booming air rocks like a sea,
As silver thunders carol forth the tidings
Exulting in holy victory...
One moment gone
is gone eternally.
The opportunity to honor God
or benefit fellow mortals,
irrecoverably past.
William Carey
Curiously, while projection technology has been improving and maturing at an uprecedented pace, there has been a conspicuous lack of progress in the area of presentation graphics.
Today's projectors may be able to paint the walls of our cave with the most mesmerizing imagery in history, borne of the most dramatic engineering wizardry ever conceived, but today's presentation graphics look pretty much the same as they did five or 10 years ago. In that sense, nothing has changed; the mediocrity has just gotten easier to see.
So on we drift, getting better and better projectors, but shaming the technology by putting the same tired slides on the wall year after year. Call me a skeptic, but I do not believe that the apotheosis of 2,000 years of technical evolution is an electronic slide with five bullet points and a logo in the lower right-hand corner. There has to be something better--or at least there ought to be.
from Tad Simons, editor-in-chief of Presentations magazine
The prosecution is looking for moralists--someone that sees things in black and white. They're looking for someone that will stop at a red light at 3 a.m. in the middle of nowhere, and even when there's no traffic for 50 miles will wait until it turns green.
a legal expert on the evening news
Providence Baptist Ministries has a site with archives of works by A.W. Pink, John Gill, Edward Payson, Dabney, and William Cunningham. They also have sections on being Baptist, Eschatology, Heretical teachings (including Promise Keepers, Harry Potter, and Dispensationalism), a slew of articles from some past greats on a plethora of subjects, and some resource links.
WARNING: It's not exactly the prettiest site ever (read clip art and scrolling text boxes), and the books are a bit unwieldy and the format rather blocky; however, if you're looking for something specifically from one of those guys, it's a good site. The site strikes me as Baptist with a big B and Reformed with a big R.
We've had this discussion about transparency and self-disclosure before, and I suppose I tend a little toward the more transparent side.
(which makes some people a little uncomfortable. maybe i should develop a rating system for my personal blogs--G for won't make anyone uncomfortable, ST for starts to reveal a little about me, but mostly only good stuff, and VT for I'm going to be extremely open, including things about me as a sinner you won't like so don't read it unless that won't bother you. anyway...)
While some of you may read the extended entry and say, "Of course, David, that's obvious," I am posting it because it's also possible some of you are just like me and need another reminder, regardless of how well or poorly it's done, that we live by grace.
(in fact, it touches on issues I have thought a lot about lately, particularly this question: Does God judge repentant believers for post-salvation sin?
Along that same vein, does He only chasten or punish in order to bring us to repentance? Does He allow the consequences of sin to be our sole punishment, or does He bring some kind of direct judgment? If the punishment for all my sins was taken by Christ, what is that saying about the threat of ongoing punishment? Am I failing to apply basic principles about grace or, on the other hand, am I ignoring valid principles of warning about sin and its repercussions?
I mean, I remember when God suddenly dawned it on me that I can't make Him love me any more than He does, nor can I make myself righteous. Seriously. That may sound a bit absurd, but I honestly thought that in the work of sanctification, mine was the lion's share. I also thought God was waiting to club me for my sin; however, I don't want to lose a valid fear and respect of Him and recognition of the gravity of sin in favor of a mamby-pamby lightness in the face of evil. I don't want to repeat some of those same mistakes in regard to this specifically.
Some of the answers seem clear, while others allude me. And I'm not sure where some of the answers will lead logically, and how that applies to the preaching and teaching I get normally. So basically, I'm saying I'm confused about something theologically (not a position I like to be in) and am in the midst of working through it. In light of that, on to the extended entry of some current musings that I wrote the other day.)
I have been impressed again by both my need and failure to properly understand grace and my relation to God. A long struggle late in my teen years brought me to the proper biblical understanding that I needed grace for sanctification just as much as I did for salvation (Gal. 3:3), yet I continue to struggle with strongholds of a works mentality.
Most recently, this applied to my view of sin after salvation. I have been more and more impressed by God’s Word that I am free from God’s condemnation, for my sins before and after my conversion. I am accepted in Jesus Christ. I have grace and forgiveness in Him. My peace, even after I have failed the God of Heaven, comes from the grace found in Jesus Christ.
I do not have to wonder if God will forgive me, or if I have irreparably destroyed my relationship with Him, or if anything I have rebelliously done is evil enough to separate me from His love. Sin is not a trivial thing, nor is God complacent about evil, but neither is God’s forgiveness to be bought with my effort.
For so long I have attempted as a Christian to merit my forgiveness. I have refused to see myself as forgiven until something bad happened after my sin that I could view as God’s punishment, or at least until sufficient time had past for me to feel like I could finally be restored.
A proper sense of remorse and hatred of sin is eclipsed by feelings of guilt, shame, and hopelessness that I not only entertain but also feed on, even in the face of the repeated promises of righteousness in Christ. While I would clearly decry works in relation to salvation, somehow I fail to apply those same truths to my post-regeneration sins.
I have not had a properly high estimation of the wonderful sufficiency of Christ’s sacrifice.
While these thoughts may strike some as juvenile, they have recently come home to my heart as liberating. I think they probably are juvenile. It is basic Christianity to know what God’s grace is. It is the Gospel applied to the ongoing Christian life. But I am thankful for God’s prompting to teach me to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our wonderful, forgiving, liberating Savior.
Visit the site of Grace Bible, where my friend Will Lee is the Pastor of Teen and Worship Ministries. It's a great church web site (in my unprofessional opinion). Besides the other resources available there, I also appreciated their music page.
Read Dave Doran's review of Dave Hunt's What Love is This? Calvanism's Misrepresentation of God
This is:
2. A small stand of sparsely foliated trees
3. Just me. Yesterday
(not to worry. i'm all better (hah!) now
E.B. Pusey (1800-1882) suggested rules for those who wish to gain contentment that surely reflect Jesus' own attitude:
1. Allow theyself to complain of nothing, not even the weather.
2. Never picture thyself to thyself under any circumstances in which thou art not.
3. Never compare thine own lot with that of another.
4. Never allow thyself to dwell on the wish that this or that had been or were, otherwise than it was, or is. God Almighty loves thee better and more wisely than thou doest thyself.
5. Never dwell on the morrow. Remember that it is God's, not thine. The heaviest part of sorrow often is to look forward to it. 'The Lord will provide.'"
"Lay not more upon us, O heavenly Father, than Thou wilt enable us to bear; and since the fretfulness of our spirits is more hurtful than the heaviness of our burden, grant us that heavenly calmness which comes of owning Thy hand in all things, and patience in the trust that Thou doest all things well. Amen." (Rowland Williams, 1818-1870)
thanks, Natalie, with secondhand thanks to Angie
A call to the duty of prayer will not overcome spiritual indifference, because prayer is an internal compulsion born out of love for and dependence on our heavenly Father.
Lack of prayer doesn't mean merely that we are disobedient; it is also an indicator that our love for God has grown cold.
John MacArthur, in Lord, Teach me to pray
Just heard about this site. Remember Batman? Abott and Costello? Amos and Andy? Gunsmoke?
ON RADIO?
Then this site is for you. The ol' timey radio shows, free, and ready for your visit of nostalgia. Just um, don't mind the title.
"Religious fundamentalism is the greatest enemy of religion and the most dangerous force of our times. Overcoming fundamentalism is an urgent and top priority for all religions..."
Christ "goes beyond Christianity. We must understand other religions are part of God's plan for salvation and are not a mission's field."
his holiness Aram I, World Council of Churches' Central Committee Moderator, in Geneva
Hi! I'm back. No, I wasn't dead. No, I haven't journeyed across continents, discovering rare plant species and developing cures for the common cold. But I did have my hands full with plenty of other activities.
Time with Cathy's family (racquet ball, presents, driving to York, last minute shopping), time with mine (darts, foosball, LoR, preaching Christmas Eve), a wedding in North Carolina (congrats, Thomas and Cristy Slawson; it was worth the all night Christmas drive to get to spend the extra time with you), then right into full time work for CleanSite.
After getting our apartment finally in finished order (minus some decorations) and getting the internet, now I'm back. I hope. :-)
Click on "more..." to see some pics of the new place.