A Powerful Rest
"One of the most universally recognized pieces of music of all times is Beethoven's 5th Symphony. You know the one: dun dun dun dunnnnn...dun dun dun dunnnnnn. You know the song, but what you may not know is that the song starts with an 8th note of rest. A song that begins with a rest! As strange as that is, it creates a uniquely powerful melody.
The strategic 8th note rest continues through the entire song."
A rest is a highly unusual way to begin a piece of music. But realize that the Christian life also begins with a rest. Before God can make a beautiful symphony of our lives, we must first find complete rest in His Son.
"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28).
Illustration Exchange
The Beautiful Apology
Casey Baseel, for Sora News 24, reports:
Japanese trains are awesome for a number of reasons, not the least of which is how amazingly punctual they are. But on Tuesday, a train on the Tokyo-area Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company’s Tsukuba Express line failed to stick to its timetable.
The line connects Akihabara in Tokyo with Tsukuba in Ibaraki Prefecture, and on weekday mornings there’s supposed to be a northbound train that leaves Minami Nagareyama Station at 9:44 a.m. However, the train instead left at 9:43:40, 20 seconds earlier than it’s supposed to.
Before the day was done, the Tsukuba Express management issued an official apology, posted to the company’s website.
The statement reads:
"On November 14, at approximately 9:44 a.m., a northbound Metropolitan Intercity Railway Company (main office in Tokyo, Chiyoda Ward, President & CEO Koichi Yugi) train left Minami Nagareyama Station roughly 20 seconds earlier than the time indicated on the timetable. We deeply apologize for the severe inconvenience imposed upon our customers."
... [T]he fact that Japanese companies care so much about customer satisfaction, consistently try to look at things from the end-user’s point of view, and are willing to offer a sincere apology even for understandable inconveniences is, really, one of the most beautiful parts of Japanese society,
How far afield do you have to stray before you stop to say, “I’m sorry?” In the West, we are quick to make excuses and slow to consider the other person's point of view. Indeed, a sincere apology for an understandable inconvenience is a beautiful thing. It shows that we are looking at things first and foremost with an attitude of service.
Be slow to blame but quick to say, “My bad.”
“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry” (James 1:19).
Together, We Will Replace God
Reuters reports;
FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Humanity no longer needs God but may with the help of artificial intelligence develop a new form of collective consciousness that fulfills the role of religion, U.S. author Dan Brown said on Thursday.
Brown made the provocative remark at the Frankfurt Book Fair where he was promoting his new novel, Origin, … inspired by the question "Will God survive science?"
"... Are we naive today to believe that the gods of the present will survive and be here in a hundred years?" Brown, 53, told a packed news conference.
... Turning to the future, Brown said technological change and the development of artificial intelligence would transform the concept of the divine.
"We will start to find our spiritual experiences through our interconnections with each other," he said, forecasting the emergence of "some form of global consciousness that we perceive and that becomes our divine".
"Our need for that exterior god, that sits up there and judges us ... will diminish and eventually disappear."
Who is really being naïve, those who place their faith in man or in God? It’s amazing how quick we are to place our faith in man despite the many lessons offered to us by history. But we keep thinking, “This time we’ll get it right!”
But we don’t even need the aid of history to realize how ridiculous this proposal really is--just spend a little time in the comments section of a trending story. The typical banter found in these comment forums should dispel the idea that a global human consciousness will replace the voice of God. Man’s vitriol and collective ignorance is a poor substitute for the wisdom of God.
As individuals, we aren’t the men and women God says we should be. Nevertheless, we are supposed to believe that collectively we will replace God. Really? As though all we need is more of a bad thing to equal a better thing.
I hear echoes of the serpent in the Garden, who suggested that Adam and Eve really didn’t need to listen to God anymore. The idea was that in their disobedience they would somehow “be like God.” We see how that worked out.
"For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:5).
"Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18).