The Voice

The *At-Risk Asterisk

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AsteriskSometime during the day, I usually stop by McDonald’s and grab a cup of coffee.  When I made my caffeine pit stop yesterday, a sign caught my attention.  It was promoting McDonald’s 2016 version of the Monopoly game.  At the bottom of the sign a red circle was emblazoned with the words, 1 in 4 Win*.

I’ve learned that a person can be at-risk, if he doesn’t pay attention to an asterisk.  After a quick search about the significance of the 1 in 4 Win asterisk and the odds of actually winning, I discovered the following:

  • The odds of getting the exact combination to win the $1 Million prize is 1 in 513,591,720.
  • The odds of winning one of the instant cash prizes is 1 in 45,000.
  • The best odds of winning are associated with the food prizes, and they equate with the advertised 1 in 4 Win*.

An asterisk offers essential data about information that has been changed, is missing, or has been updated.  It’s a coach that guides you through the mental gymnastics of comprehension.

When I think of the asterisk in this context, it reminds me of the work of the Holy Spirit who will offer an at-risk warning.  The ministry of the Spirit is multifaceted, and he empowers, guides, and convicts of sin.

Jesus said the coming of Spirit would be a great benefit to His disciples:

The truth is that My departure will be a gift that will serve you well, because if I don’t leave, the great Helper will not come to your aid. When I leave, I will send Him to you. When He arrives, He will uncover the sins of the world, expose unbelief as sin, and allow all to see their sins in the light of righteousness for the first time.  This new awareness of righteousness is important because I am going to the Father and will no longer be present with you.  ~John 16:7-11, The Voice

Whenever you feel an impression to take some action or you hear a small voice within you, it might be the whisper of the Spirit attempting to give you a new awareness of righteousness.

Paul contrasted the new awareness with the old nature in Romans 8, and I think I’ll use it as an * to share some essential information with you concerning the transforming power of God’s Spirit:

Those who think they can do it on their own end up obsessed with measuring their own moral muscle but never get around to exercising it in real life. Those who trust God’s action in them find that God’s Spirit is in them—living and breathing God! Obsession with self in these matters is a dead end; attention to God leads us out into the open, into a spacious, free life. Focusing on the self is the opposite of focusing on God. Anyone completely absorbed in self ignores God, ends up thinking more about self than God. That person ignores who God is and what he is doing. And God isn’t pleased at being ignored. ~Roman 8:5-8, The Message

The Voice or THE VOICE

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2015_Voice_s8_DKA_horz_ShowAbout_CC_1The Voice is NBC’s flagship entry into the arena of reality TV.  This Emmy Award winning program debuted in April of 2011, and it has risen to the number one spot in NBC’s primetime programming. The Voice showcases some of the country’s best unknown artists.

These aspiring stars are judged and coached by a panel four of the biggest names in music. The judges this year are Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, and Pharrell Williams.

Due to the popularity of the show, people associate “the voice” with The Voice; but, this hasn’t always been the case.

  • When Adam, not Levine, and his wife heard THE VOICE, it was “the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day (Genesis 3:8 KJV).”
  • In Psalm 29, there’s a captivating description of the majestic voice of God: The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord, is over many waters. The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is full of majesty.
  • John the Baptist described himself as: The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Make straight the way of the Lord . . . when John saw Jesus coming toward him, he said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:23, 29).”
  • Jesus spoke about the welcome sound of His voice: My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me (John 10:27).

While you might be a fan of The Voice, I hope you will listen to the words of Peter and heed THE VOICE of eternal life:  You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God (John 6:68-69).”

The Voice is Your Voice

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The-VoiceLast night I had my TV tuned in to ESPN, so I could watch the Kansas State Wildcats play the Kansas Jayhawks in a game of basketball.  During a commercial break, I quickly flipped through the channels and found The Voice playing on channel 3.

NBC describes The Voice as “the Emmy Award winning, number one series on NBC, featuring the country’s best unknown artists and four of the biggest names in music as coaches.” Due to the success of the program judges Adam Levine, Pharrell Williams, Christiana Aguilera, and Blake Shelton have become household names.

The title of the show, The Voice, reminds me of the words of Psalm 5:1-4: “Listen to my words, O Lord, and consider my meditation. Give heed to the voice of my cry, My King and my God, for to You I will pray. My voice You shall hear in the morning, O Lord; In the morning I will direct it to You, and I will look up.”

There is a voice that God listens for throughout each and every day of the Earth’s existence, and it is your voice.  God listens to your words, and He considers your concerns.

When you read this Psalm, you can discover several things:

  • The details of the prayer: It was not some haphazard exercise, but there was an appointed time to meet with God—“in the morning.”
  • The determination and discipline of the prayer: “I will pray” not “I might pray.”
  • The direction of the prayer: It was directed towards God (Jeremiah 33:3).

The difference between “The Voice” and “Your Voice” is this:  You have never had to compete to get the Judge to hear you voice and to get His attention.  You can approach Him boldly in your time of need (Hebrews 4:16), and you can have the confidence of knowing He always hears your voice: “The Lord has heard the sound of my weeping.  The Lord has heard my appeal for mercy; the Lord has accepted my prayer (Psalm 6).”

…..Please feel free to share this link and this blog with your family and friends…..

Earbud Buddies

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music_11000118724-1013intWhen your music loving teenager shares his earbuds with a friend, does this provide fertile ground for germs to blossom into a nasty infection? Lisa Sturm, director of Infection Control and Epidemiology at the University of Michigan Health System, decided to investigate this waxing scenario.

Sturm cited a 2008 study in India that followed 50 medical students as they shared earbuds. The research found that among frequent users of earbuds, bacterial growth was significantly higher in the ears and on the earbuds, compared with people who used the earbuds infrequently. Even though this type of sharing can transfer bacteria to another person, Sturm says, “that study did not look at infections, just the presence of bacteria—which our bodies are covered in (WSJ).”

Sturm suggests that before sharing earbuds, they should be wiped with a disinfectant such as a cotton ball soaked in isopropyl alcohol. Thinking about Sturm’s suggestions, I wonder: Should we also disinfectant what we hear?

The Mayo Clinic sees a correlation in positive thinking and optimism on good health. These benefits include:

• Increased life span
• Lower rates of depression
• Lower levels of distress
• Greater resistance to the common cold
• Better psychological and physical well-being
• Reduced risk of death from cardiovascular disease
• Better coping skills during hardships and times of stress

The value of filtering what you hear and say is some of the practical wisdom found in Proverbs: “Listen, my child, and accept my words, so that the years of your life will be many. I will guide you in the way of wisdom and I will lead you in upright paths (Proverbs 4:10-11).”

Solomon also said you should incline your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding (Proverbs 2:2). He contrasts this for us in Ecclesiastes: It is better for a person to receive a rebuke from those who are wise than to listen to the song of fools. For like the crackling of quick-burning thorns under a cooking pot, so is the laughter of the fool. This kind of folly also is useless (Eccl. 7:5-6).”

What fills your ears? Do you listen to the “song of fools” or the rules of righteousness?

The Broken Circle

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circleThis past Tuesday night the contestants on The Voice sang “Will The Circle Be Unbroken?” The aspiring musicians sang a different rendition of the song when it came to the word “Lord.” Instead of singing “Lord,” they substituted the word “Oh.”

In an effort to harmonize with the pitch of the producers, The Voice hopefuls were off key with the original message of the song. Changing from “Lord” to “Oh” might be a small change if all a person is concerned with is spelling; however, it has major implications when we consider the often skewed circle of a once grateful nation.

The producers of the show eliminated the “Lord” at the time our nation once expressed gratitude for His grace. Their lack of grazioso stated a motif that was more buzzard than blessing.

Kudos to coach Blake Shelton who said: “I was sitting in my chair singing that song how I grew up on it, with ‘in the sky, Lord, in the sky.’ I sang it as loud as I could. And that might be why I didn’t realize until after the fact that ‘Lord’ was either taken out, or it was just performed some other way.”

The title of this show, The Voice, reminds me of a story in I Kings 19. God spoke to Elijah and said: “Go out and stand on the mountain in the Lord’s presence.” At that moment, the Lord passed by. A great and mighty wind was tearing at the mountains and was shattering cliffs before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire there was a voice, a soft whisper. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Suddenly, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Social media indicated that many of the people who watched the show asked the same question: “What are you doing!”

Doing what they did is a far cry from what President George Washington did when he proclaimed Thursday the 26th of November 1789 as a day of “public thanksgiving and prayer” devoted to “the service of that great and glorious Being who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be.”

Oh Lord, may I always remember Your blessings, grace, and mercy. For these I give thanks.