“Yes— But . . .!”

Lord, I will follow You, but . . . —Luke 9:61

Suppose God tells you to do something that is an enormous test of your common sense, totally going against it. What will you do? Will you hold back? If you get into the habit of doing something physically, you will do it every time you are tested until you break the habit through sheer determination. And the same is true spiritually. Again and again you will come right up to what Jesus wants, but every time you will turn back at the true point of testing, until you are determined to abandon yourself to God in total surrender. Yet we tend to say, “Yes, but— suppose I do obey God in this matter, what about . . . ?” Or we say, “Yes, I will obey God if what He asks of me doesn’t go against my common sense, but don’t ask me to take a step in the dark.”

Jesus Christ demands the same unrestrained, adventurous spirit in those who have placed their trust in Him that the natural man exhibits. If a person is ever going to do anything worthwhile, there will be times when he must risk everything by his leap in the dark. In the spiritual realm, Jesus Christ demands that you risk everything you hold on to or believe through common sense, and leap by faith into what He says. Once you obey, you will immediately find that what He says is as solidly consistent as common sense.

By the test of common sense, Jesus Christ’s statements may seem mad, but when you test them by the trial of faith, your findings will fill your spirit with the awesome fact that they are the very words of God. Trust completely in God, and when He brings you to a new opportunity of adventure, offering it to you, see that you take it. We act like pagans in a crisis— only one out of an entire crowd is daring enough to invest his faith in the character of God.

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers

Faith is not about doing the things that seem comfortable to us.  Faith is about going out of your way.  The woman with the issue of blood, left her home to find Jesus.  She braved the jostling crowd, was on the dusty ground with her hand outstretched to touch the hem of His robe.  Faith is the persistent mother who wanted healing for her daughter.  She refused to back down.  Faith is the blind man who shouted out to Jesus, refusing to let the crowd quiet him.  Faith is stepping up and out.  It’s putting yourself on the line because you trust God.  No one, Yes, Lord, I will follow you but…” or “I will do anything You ask, except this…”  No more hesitations or excuses.  Remember that it is God who is asking you to step out in faith.  He would never ask you to do anything that is wrong.

Fanny Crosby

Frances Jane Crosby was born on March 24, 1820, in her parents’ small gray single-story clapboard Cape Cod farmhouse, that was built in 1758 near a brook of the East Branch Croton River, and standing just back from a quiet country road, Gayville Road, Gayville (now Foggintown Road, in the village of Brewster)in the township of Southeast, Putnam County, New York, about fifty miles north of New York City, near the Connecticut border.  She was the only child of her father John Crosby a poor widower, who had a daughter from his first marriageand his second wife, Mercy Crosby.   

In May 1820, when six weeks old, Crosby caught a cold and developed inflammation of the eyes. As the family physician was out of town, an unschooled traveling doctor who came in his place applied mustard poultices to treat the discharges coming from her eyes. According to Crosby, this procedure damaged her optic nerves and blinded her. Many physicians today, however, “suggest it is much more likely that her blindness was congential”, and that “at such an early age her sightless condition may well have escaped her parents”. 

In April 1825 Mercy Crosby took Crosby to New York City to be examined by Valentine Mott, then “America’s premier surgeon”, hoping that he might be able to operate and restore her eyesight. After consulting with ophthalmologist Edward Delafield, a co-founder of the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary, Mott concluded that Crosby’s condition was inoperable and that her blindness was permanent.  At the age of eight Crosby wrote her first poem, which described her condition:

Oh what a happy soul I am,

Although I cannot see;

I am resolved that in this world

Contented I will be.

How many blessings I enjoy,

That other people don’t;

To weep and sigh because I’m blind,

I cannot, and I won’t. 

About her blind­ness, she said:

It seemed in­tend­ed by the bless­ed prov­i­dence of God that I should be blind all my life, and I thank him for the dis­pen­sa­tion. If per­fect earth­ly sight were of­fered me to­mor­row I would not ac­cept it. I might not have sung hymns to the praise of God if I had been dis­tract­ed by the beau­ti­ful and in­ter­est­ing things about me.

What faith!  Her faith comes from the environment in which she grew up in.  Her home environment was as sustained by “an abiding Christian faith”.  “At its center stands the Bible in the classic rendering of the Authorized Version. Crosby frequently admitted its centrality in her childhood home, where the family altar found a regular place. Although she could not read for herself, she memorized Scripture under the patient tutelage of her grandmother. Evidence suggests that this Crosby family pegged its understanding of duty, community, and family to the biblical text.

Shaped by the Calvinist reading of Scripture that years before had prompted the family’s migration to the New World, the Crosbys of Southeast understood that God had a purpose for whatever happened; they clung to the certainty that God was in control. They knew God as the source of true pleasure and believed that all they had—meager or abundant—came from God’s hand. … As lived out at home — at least in [Fanny] Crosby’s recollection — the Calvinism of these sons and daughters of Massachusetts Bay was serious without being dour, joyous without being frivolous. It refreshed the soul while sustaining the body, and so it seemed particularly suited to those who, like the Crosbys, eked out hard, meager livings from the land.” 

Encouraged by her grandmother and later by Mrs. Hawley, her family’s landlady, from the age of ten, Fanny had memorized five chapters of the Bible each week, until by the age of fifteen Crosby had memorized the four gospels, the Pentateuch, the Book of Proverbs, the Song of Solomon, and many of the Psalms.

On Saturday, March 7, 1835, just before her 15th birthday, Crosby became the thirty-first pupil of the year to enrol at the New York Institution for the Blind (NYIB) (now the New York Institute for Special Education), a state-financed asylum that had been founded in April 1831, and opened on March 15, 1832.  At the time of her enrolment, there was 41 pupils, Crosby was one of the 28 “indigent blind” who were funded by the state of New York, at the rate of $130 a year.

Fanny remained at the Blind Institution for eight years as a student, and another two years as a graduate pupil and it was during this time that she learned to play the piano, organ, harp, and guitar, and became a good soprano singer.  Even as an old woman she “would sit at the piano and play everything from classical works to hymns to ragtime. Sometimes she even played old hymns in a jazzed up style.”

Fanny joined a group of lobbyists in Washington, D.C. in 1843 after she graduated from the New York Institution for the Blind.  They argued for support of education for the blind. Fanny was the first woman to speak in the United States Senate when she read a poem there.  When Crosby appeared before a joint sitting of both houses of the United States Congress, she recited these lines:

O ye, who here from every state convene,

Illustrious band! may we not hope the scene

You now behold will prove to every mind

Instruction hath a ray to cheer the blind.

On January 24, 1844, Crosby was one of seventeen students from the New York Blind Institution who gave a concert for the Congress in the US Capitol, and she recited a thirteen stanza original composition that called for the creation of an institution for the education of the blind in every state, which “drew calls for an encore”, and earned the congratulations of John Quincy Adams. 

On January 29, 1844 Crosby and nineteen other Blind Institution students gave a presentation to Daniel Haines, the governor; and the council and New Jersey General Assembly at Trenton, New Jersey, where she recited a twelve-stanza original poem calling for the aid and education of the blind. When President James K. Polk visited the Blind Institution in 1845, Crosby recited a poem she composed for the occasion that praised “republican government”. 

Fanny was a woman of action.  She travelled to Washington, D.C. and again spoke before a joint session of the United States Congress, with delegations from the Boston and Philadelphia Insitutions for the Blind, “to advocate support for the education of the blind in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York”, she spoke to the Congress on April 30, testified before a special congressional subcommittee, and sang a song she composed in the music room at the White House for Polk and his wife.  Among the songs she sang as she accompanied herself on the piano was her own composition:

Our President! We humbly turn to thee -

Are not the blind the objects of thy care?

In 1846 Fanny was an instructor of the younger children at the New York Institution for the Blind, and was listed as a “graduate pupil”. In September 1847 she joined the faculty at the New York Institution for the Blind, teaching English grammar, rhetoric, and Greek history, Roman history, and American history, where she remained until three days before her wedding on March 5, 1858. By 1848 there were 60 pupils enrolled at the Blind Institution.  While she taught at the institute in New York, Fanny studied music.  She befriended future US president Grover Cleveland who was 17 at the time and the dean of students; an assistant teacher of writing, reading, and arithmetic; and a bookkeeper and secretary to the administrator of the Institution from 1853 to 1854.  The two of them spent a lot of time together.  Cleveland often transcribed the poems Fanny dictated to him and he wrote a recommendation for her which was published in her 1906 autobiography.

Fanny began writing poetry from eight years old.  Her earliest published poem was on the theme of a dishonest miller near Ridgefield, Connecticut, which was sent without her knowledge to P.T. Barnum, who published it in his The Herald of Freedomof Danbury, Connecticut. 

Despite a serious illness that resulted in her leaving the Blind Institution to recuperate, Fanny’s first published book, A Blind Girl and Other Poems was published after encouragement by the Blind Institution in April 1844 by Putnam & Wiley.  It contained 78 of her original poems and addresses, including what Fanny described as her first published hymn, “An Evening Hymn”, based on Psalm 4:8.

Fanny was reluctant to have her poems published, but she eventually agreed to have them published as it would both publicise the Institution and raise funds for it. 

On a personal note, Fanny met her future husband, Alexander Van Alstyne, Jr in the summer of 1843.  Alexander was legally blind and it was his mother (a widow) who convinced Fanny to recommend him to be enrolled at the NYIB, and to take him under her personal charge.  During his four years at NYIB, Alexander and Fanny were casual acquaintances of Crosby and sometimes a student in her classes.

In 1848 Alexander became the first NYIB graduate to attend a “regular college”, when he enrolled at Union College in Schenectady, New York, where he studied music, Greek, Latin, philosophy, and theologyand earned a teaching certificate.  He and Fanny married on March 5, 1858.  Sadly, they lost their only child–a girl, Frances who died in her sleep soon after she was born.  This loss made Fanny reclusive and she hardly ever mentioned that she was a mother.  It was in a few interviews toward the end of her life that she said, “Now I am going to tell you of something that only my closest friends know. I became a mother and knew a mother’s love. God gave us a tender babe but the angels came down and took our infant up to God and to His throne”

Fanny Cros­by was one of the best known wo­men in the Unit­ed States.  She was prob­ab­ly the most pro­lif­ic hymn­ist in his­to­ry. Though blind­ed by an in­com­pe­tent doc­tor at six weeks of age, she wrote over 8,000 hymns.  What an achievement!  To this day, the vast ma­jor­i­ty of Amer­i­can hymn­als con­tain her work.  One of my favorites is Praise Him, Praise Him.

Fanny was a rescue mission worker.   She and her husband lived in a small, cramped apartment in Manhattan’s Lower East Side. It was situated near one of Manhattan’s worst slums, just a few blocks from the notorious Bowery, a well-known “haunt for hopeless alcoholics and the main artery of a thriving red light district and pornographic center.”

Being so close to this needy area, Fanny became zealous in her efforts to help the people around her. She became a great fan of Jerry McAuley, a former convict who was converted after hearing the testimony of a friend. Jerry founded the Water Street Mission, America’s first rescue mission, to minister to those enslaved to alcohol and violence as he once had been. She often mingled with McAuley’s audiences, conversing and counseling with those she met. She did not believe in pointing out people’s faults to them. “You can’t save a man by telling him of his sins. He knows them already. Tell him there is pardon and love waiting for him. Win his confidence and make him understand that you believe in him, and never give him up!”

We salute this remarkable woman, dubbed America’s Hymn Queen, who did not spend her life in bitterness and defeat, but instead dedicated her life to Christ.  She reached out to the needy, showing them the love and compassion of her Savior.  She rescued the perishing.

“When I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior.”

“Oh, what a happy child I am, although I cannot see! I am resolved that in this world, contented I will be!”

Fanny Crosby

Sources:  Wikipedia; http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/c/r/o/crosby_fj.htm; http://www.christianhistorytimeline.com/GLIMPSEF/Glimpses2/glimpses198.shtml

Heavenly Gifts

Genesis 21:1-7

“Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”
(JAMES 1:17)

How God our Father loves us so completely and consistently is beyond comprehension. Abraham and Sarah must have been overjoyed the day their first and only child was born. Surely their tent filled with laughter at the irony of such an old couple being blessed with this long-desired son. God’s promised child had arrived!

Only God can fill our hearts and fill them to overflowing. The Scriptures abound with references to His rich provision. In the Psalms He tells us, “Open wide your mouth and I will fill it.”

Jesus said that since even we human parents know how to give good things to our children, how much more does our loving heavenly Father know how to delight His children’s hearts (Matthew 7:11b). Does your life seem void of all this goodness? Sarah must have thought so, too, after many years of waiting. Wait on the Lord; His good and perfect plans – with His timing – for you are sure. All His promises and gifts to you are “Yes” in Christ Jesus.

INSIGHT
Praise to the Lord, who o’er all things so wondrously reigneth,/ Shelters thee under His wings, yea, so gently sustaineth! (Joachim Neander, 1680)

 

Anchor Devotional

I can almost picture God smiling as He pours His blessings upon us.  I know that He was just waiting to bless me with a family.  At the right time, He did.  He answered my prayer.  Like Abraham and Sarah, my husband and I were overjoyed when God blessed us with our son–the son we had prayed for.  We will always be thankful to Him for this heavenly gift.

Spiritual Gifts

A few months ago I took a spiritual test to see what my spiritual gifts are, even though I already had a good idea of what they might be.  Last night I got the results from Cyberspace Ministry.  I have three gifts:  writing, exhortation and faith.   

The gift of writing is the special ability that God gives to certain members of the body of Christ to formulate thoughts and ideas into interesting and meaningful written forms so that the reader will find courage, guidance, knowledge, or edification through the words shared with them.  People with this gift:

• can easily formulate their thoughts and ideas into effective written forms;
• have skill with words;
• can compose articles for newspapers, newsletters, etc., in an efficient and meaningful way;
• feel secure in the fact that the words they write is of benefit to those who read them;
• have been told that others have been helped and encouraged by their writing.

The gift of exhortation is the special ability that God gives to certain members of the body of Christ to minister words of consolation, encouragement, comfort, and counsel to other members of the body in such a way that they feel helped and healed.  People with this gift:

• come to the side of those who are discouraged to strengthen and reassure them;
• confront, challenge, exhort and encourage those who have gotten off track in their faith or life;
• help others change their behavior by applying biblical truth;
• often have people around them because they cheer them up by their simple attitude and demeanor and down-to-earth advice;
• emphasize God’s promises and to have confidence in the Lord’s will.

 The gift of faith is the special ability that God gives to certain members of the body of Christ to discern with extraordinary confidence the will and purposes of God for His work, and to act on God’s promises with confidence and unwavering belief in His ability to fulfill His purposes.  People with this gift:

• believe the promises of God and inspire others to do the same;
• act in complete confidence of God’s ability to overcome obstacles;
• have an attitude, in various crises that arise, not only that God can do something, but that He will do it;
• advance the cause of Christ because they go forward when others will not;
• ask God for what is needed and trust the Lord for provisions.

When I was a member of my church, I wrote for the newsletter; I became a member of the Communications team and one year I was the leader.   I am no longer with the church but I am still writing articles, stories and posts.  I sometimes answer questions on Yahoo Answers because it gives me the opportunity to share my faith and to encourage those who are seeking answers.  I have stepped out in faith and out of my comfort zone because I trust God.  He has blessed me with these gifts and will provide me with the opportunities to use them.

What are your spiritual gifts?  How can you use them to help others?  Here’s an opportunity to find out.  Check out what your spiritual gifts are by taking the test at http://www.cyberspaceministry.org/Services/Gifts/eng/eng-sga.html.

You can read Cyberspace Ministry’s lesson ”Spiritual Gifts and You”, which explains the role of spiritual gifts in the life of each believer at :
http://www.cyberspaceministry.org/Services/Gifts/eng/eng-gifts.html

There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit.  There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord.  And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all (1 Corinthians 12:4-6).  There is a gift for everyone.  In some cases, there are more than one.  Find out what yours are and use them for God’s glory and the benefit of others.

The Life To Know Him

. . . tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high —Luke 24:49

The disciples had to tarry, staying in Jerusalem until the day of Pentecost, not only for their own preparation but because they had to wait until the Lord was actually glorified. And as soon as He was glorified, what happened? “Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear” (Acts 2:33). The statement in John 7:39 — “. . . for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified”— does not pertain to us. The Holy Spirit has been given; the Lord is glorified— our waiting is not dependent on the providence of God, but on our own spiritual fitness.

The Holy Spirit’s influence and power were at work before Pentecost, but He was not here. Once our Lord was glorified in His ascension, the Holy Spirit came into the world, and He has been here ever since. We have to receive the revealed truth that He is here. The attitude of receiving and welcoming the Holy Spirit into our lives is to be the continual attitude of a believer. When we receive the Holy Spirit, we receive reviving life from our ascended Lord.

It is not the baptism of the Holy Spirit that changes people, but the power of the ascended Christ coming into their lives through the Holy Spirit. We all too often separate things that the New Testament never separates. The baptism of the Holy Spirit is not an experience apart from Jesus Christ— it is the evidence of the ascended Christ.

The baptism of the Holy Spirit does not make you think of time or eternity— it is one amazing glorious now. “This is eternal life, that they may know You . . .” (John 17:3). Begin to know Him now, and never finish.

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers

Dame Shirley Bassey

Whenever I hear the name “Shirley Bassey”, I think of her powerful voice belting out the theme songs from the James Bond movies, “Goldfinger”,”Diamonds Are Forever” and “Moonraker.  I reminisce about the album my father used to play when I was growing up–it was called “One of Those Songs” with the “one” crossed off and replaced with “Twelve” and I remember being impressed when I saw that Sean Connery had done a little write up on each of those twelve songs. That was and still is my favorite album. 

One thing I admired about Shirley Bassey was her ability to sing with such feeling.  You could hear the sadness in her voice as she sang some of the songs and in some cases, the desperation.  She was a woman who loved deeply and in each song it was as if she had to let the man to know that.  I have come to the conclusion that no one can sing like this Dame and I mean, no one.

Recently I stumbled across The Bassey Blog and saw pictures of her and she looks amazing–ageless and vibrant.  She recently became the godmother of a ship which she named Adonia in a ceremony in Southampton.

Shirley Bassey born born 8 January 1937 in Tiger Bay, Cardiff, Wales.  She was the last child of Eliza Jane (née Start) and Henry Bassey of paternal Nigerian and maternal English descent.  She grew up in the nearby working-class dockside district of Splott. After leaving Splott Secondary Modern School at the age of fourteen, Bassey first found employment packing at a local factory while singing in local public houses and clubs in the evenings and weekends. In 1953, she signed her first professional contract, to sing in a touring variety show Memories of Jolson, a musical based on the life of Al Jolson.

It was in1955 when a chance recommendation of her to Michael Sullivan, a booking agent, put her firmly on course for her destined career. He saw talent in Shirley, and decided he would make her a star. She toured various theatres until she got an offer of the show that put her firmly on the road to stardom, Al Read’s Such Is Life at the Adelphi Theatre in London’s West End. While she starred in this show, Philips A&R and record producer Johnny Franz spotted her on television, was impressed, and offered her a recording deal. Bassey recorded her first single, entitled “Burn My Candle (At Both Ends)”, and Philips released it in February 1956, when Bassey was just nineteen.

During that year, she also recorded under the direction of American producer Mitch Miller in New York for the Columbia label, producing the single “If I Had a Needle and Thread” b/w “Tonight My Heart She Is Crying”. She then travelled to Las Vegas to make her American stage debut at the El Rancho Vegas.

In mid-1958, she recorded two singles that would become classics in the Bassey catalogue. “As I Love You” was released as the B-side of another ballad, “Hands Across the Sea”; it did not sell well at first, but after a chance appearance at the London Palladium things began to pick up. In January 1959, it reached number one and stayed there for four weeks. It thus became the first number one single by a Welsh artist. Bassey also recorded “Kiss Me, Honey Honey, Kiss Me” at this point, and while “As I Love You” raced up the charts, so too did this record, with both songs being in the top three at the same time. A few months later, Bassey signed to EMI’s Columbia label, and the second phase in her recording career had begun.

In the early and mid 1960s, Bassey had numerous hits on the UK charts, and five albums in the top 15. Her 1960 recording of “As Long As He Needs Me” from Lionel Bart’s Oliver! reached #2, and had a chart run of 30 weeks.  On 13 November 1960, Bassey made her debut performance on American television, appearing on The Ed Sullivan Show.  In 1962, Bassey’s collaboration with Nelson Riddle and his orchestra produced the album Let’s Face the Music (#12) and the single “What Now My Love” (#5). Other top ten hits of the period included her second #1, the double A-side “Reach for the Stars”/”Climb Ev’ry Mountain” (1961), “I’ll Get By” (also 1961), and a cover version of the Ben E. King hit “I (Who Have Nothing)” in 1963.

During this period, Bassey appeared on the cover of Ebony magazine and sang at a Washington gala celebrating the end of President Kennedy’s second year in office.  I heard her sing, “I Who Have Nothing, and was moved because she poured such feelings into the words.

In the aftermath of her success with Goldfinger which was a #1 hit in the U.S and the only U.S. top 40 Billboard Hot 100 hit and the single inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, her sales in the UK faltered and continued to suffer until her comeback in 1970.  she returned to the UK with a record breaking run of performances at the Talk of the Town nightclub. 

It was during that year, she released the album Something, which showcased a new Bassey style, a shift from traditional pop to more contemporary songs and arrangements.  She achieved something no other artist ever had and that was she made this single  more successful in the UK charts than the original Beatles recording. “Something” was also a Top 10 U.S. hit on the Adult Contemporary chart.  Between 1970 and 1979, Bassey had 18 hit albums in the UK Albums Chart and she closed the decade with her third title theme for the Bond films, Moonraker (1979).

During the 80s and 90s, Shirley focused on charitable work and performing occasional concert tours throughout Europe, Australia, and the United States. 

In 2001, Bassey was principal artiste at the Duke of Edinburgh’s 80th Birthday celebration. Then, in 2003, Bassey celebrated 50 years in show business, releasing the CD Thank You for the Years, which was another Top 20 album. A gala charity auction of her stage costumes at Christie’s, ‘Dame Shirley Bassey: 50 Years of Glittering Gowns’, raised £250,000 (US$500,000) for the Dame Shirley Bassey Scholarship at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama and the Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospital Appeal. Bassey topped the bill at the 2005 Royal Variety Performance, introducing her new song “The Living Tree”.

In 2007, Shirley performed “Big Spender” with Elton John at his annual White Tie and Tiara Ball to raise money for The Elton John AIDS Foundation.  In 2007, Bassey performed in Fashion Rocksin aid of The Prince’s Trust at the Royal Albert Hall.  Last year May, Shirley Bassey performed at the Rainforest Foundation Fund 21st Birthday concert at Carnegie Hall, New York City.

Shirley was married and divorced twice.  She had two daughters with her second husband, Sergio Novak–.  Unfortunately, one of them–Samantha was found dead in the River Avon in Bristol, England.  It was suspected that she committed suicide but Shirley always maintained that this was not the case.  On 24 March 2010, Avon and Somerset Police confirmed they were undertaking fresh inquiries into the death of Novak, and specifically claims that the convicted killer Michael Moffat was involved in her death.  However, in October 2010 it was reported that the investigation came to an end, and concluded that there “is no evidence of any criminal act involved” in Novak’s death.  Shirley is currently living in Monte Carlo. 

In recognition of her career longevity, and admiration from the British Royal Family, Bassey was created a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) on 31 December 1999 by HM Queen Elizabeth II. She was invited to perform in 2002 at the Party at the Palace, a public celebration of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. She was awarded France’s top honour, the Legion d’Honneur, to signify her popularity and importance in the culture of France (Wikipedia).  On March 30th of this year, Shirley, accompanied by the London Symphony Orchestra, performed two very special songs to celebrate Mikhail Gorbachev’s 80th birthday, and in aid of the Macmillan Foundation. The event was held at the Royal Albert Hall (http://www.dameshirleybassey.com/).

We salute this amazing woman with a big voice.  She is the “Most Successful British Female Singer” according to the Guinness Book of Records.  She is a UNESCO Artist for Peace.   Shirley, nobody does it like you.

Diamonds never leave you… men do!

It’s hard for a man to live with a successful woman – they seem to resent you so much. Very few men are generous enough to accept success in their women.

 

You don’t get older, you get better.

 

Shirley Bassey

 

 

 

Simplify

In a radio interview, a basketball superstar was asked about his knack for making the game-winning shot in crucial situations. The reporter asked how he was able to be so calm in such pressure-packed moments. His answer was that he tried to simplify the situation. “You only have to make one shot,” the player replied. One shot. That is the essence of simplifying a difficult situation. Focus only on what is in front of you right now. Don’t worry about the expectations of your coach or teammates. Simplify.

Recognizing that the challenges of life can be both overwhelming and suffocating, Jesus urged us to take matters in hand by simplifying. He said, “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matt. 6:34). This was His wise conclusion to His teaching on the debilitating power of worry. Worry doesn’t accomplish anything positive; it just adds to the sense that we are drowning in the troubles we are facing. We must take things as they come­—one day at a time­—and trust Him for the wisdom to respond properly.

If you feel overwhelmed by life, do what you can today and then entrust the rest to Him. As Jesus said, “Each day has enough trouble of its own” (NIV).

Don’t worry for your future needs,
It will only bring you sorrow;
But give them to the Lord instead—
He’ll take care of your tomorrow. —Sper

We lose the joy of living in the present
when we worry about the future.

Our Daily Bread

To me worry shows lack of faith.  When we worry, we are in essence saying that we don’t trust God to provide for our needs.  We need to be like the birds who go about their business, not worrying about anything because they know that their Creator will take care of them.  We should learn from our children–who are happily going through life, not worrying about what they will eat, wear or anything because they know that we will provide these needs.  Let us show God the same trust and faith that our children show us.

Take Jesus’ advice and stop worrying.  It accomplishes nothing except more stress.  Take one day at a time.  Remember God is greater than your problems and troubles.  “God is our shelter and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble.”  Learn to let go and let God.  Simplify rather than complicate.

Farewell, Oprah

She is television’s most influential talk show host and on Wednesday, May 25, she bids farewell to the Oprah Winfrey show after 25 years.   She has been ranked the richest African American of the 20th century, the greatest black philanthropist in American history, and was once the world’s only black billionaire. She is also, according to some assessments, the most influential woman in the world.  Her name was originally supposed to be Orpah, after biblical sister-in-law of Ruth but it was misspelled on her birth certificate.  Oprah is one of the most recognized and famous names today.

Oprah was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and later raised in an inner-city Milwaukee neighborhood.  One of the most moving experiences she has ever shared was the incident when a member of her family didn’t want her inside the house because Oprah was “too black”.  She got emotional as she shared this story.

Oprah had a difficult childhood.  She was sexually abused as a child and became pregnant at the age of 14.  Her son died in infancy.  At 13 she ran away from home after suffering years of abuse.  She decided that she would not become a mother because she had not been mothered well.  She testified before Congress in support of “The Oprah Bill”, establishing a national database of convicted child abusers.

Oprah was sent to live with the man she calls her father, a barber in Tennessee, Winfrey landed a job in radio while still in high school and began co-anchoring the local evening news at the age of 19. Her emotional ad-lib delivery eventually got her transferred to the daytime talk show arena, and after boosting a third-rated local Chicago talk show to first place, she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated.

Oprah’s successful career in media would not have surprised her grandmother, who once said that ever since Winfrey could talk, she was on stage. As a child she played games interviewing her corncob doll and the crows on the fence of her family’s property. Winfrey later acknowledged her grandmother’s influence, saying it was Hattie Mae who had encouraged her to speak in public and “gave me a positive sense of myself”.

Oprah’s show went from last in the ratings to overtaking Phil Donahue’s show within months of moving to Chicago and taking over WLS-TV’s low-rated half-hour morning talk show, AM Chicago.    It was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show, expanded to a full hour, and broadcast nationally beginning September 8, 1986. Winfrey’s syndicated show brought in double Donahue’s national audience, displacing Donahue as the number one day-time talk show in America. Their much publicized contest was the subject of enormous scrutiny. Time magazine wrote:

Few people would have bet on Oprah Winfrey’s swift rise to host of the most popular talk show on TV. In a field dominated by white males, she is a black female of ample bulk. As interviewers go, she is no match for, say, Phil Donahue [...] What she lacks in journalistic toughness, she makes up for in plainspoken curiosity, robust humor and, above all empathy. Guests with sad stories to tell are apt to rouse a tear in Oprah’s eye [...] They, in turn, often find themselves revealing things they would not imagine telling anyone, much less a national TV audience. It is the talk show as a group therapy session.

In the early years, The Oprah show was more tabloid oriented.  I remember one show where she had single men from Australian and the women in the audience were going wild.  Then, the show moved in a different direction. In the mid 1990s Oprah adopted a less tabloid-oriented format, hosting shows on broader topics such as heart disease, geopolitics, spirituality and meditation, interviewing celebrities on social issues they were directly involved with, such as cancer, charity work, or substance abuse and hosting televised giveaways.

In 1996, Oprah angered angered cattle growers when her show featured Howard Lyman, a former cattle rancher-turned-vegetarian-activist.  Oprah was sued by Texas cattlemen for “false defamation of perishable food” and “business disparagement”, claiming that Winfrey’s remarks sent cattle prices tumbling, costing beef producers $11 million. On February 26, after a two month trial in an Amarillo, Texas court, a jury found Oprah and Lyman were not liable for damages.

Winfrey endorsed presidential candidate Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election, the first time she made such an endorsement. Winfrey held a fundraiser for Obama on September 8, 2007, at her Santa Barbara estate. In December 2007, Winfrey joined Obama for a series of rallies in the early primary states of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina.

In 2002, Christianity Today published an article called “The Church of O” in which they concluded that Winfrey had emerged as an influential spiritual leader. “Since 1994, when she abandoned traditional talk-show fare for more edifying content, and 1998, when she began ‘Change Your Life TV’, Oprah’s most significant role has become that of spiritual leader. To her audience of more than 22 million mostly female viewers, she has become a post-modern priestess—an icon of church-free spirituality.”  The sentiment was echoed by Marcia Z. Nelson in her book The Gospel According to Oprah.  Since the mid 1990s, Winfrey’s show has emphasized uplifting and inspirational topics and themes and some viewers claim the show has motivated them to perform acts of altruism such as helping Congolese women and building an orphanage.

Oprah stated “God is a feeling experience and not a believing experience. If your religion is a believing experience [...] then that’s not truly God.”  Frank Pastore, a Christian radio talk show host on KKLA, was among the many Christian leaders who criticized Winfrey’s views, saying “if she’s a Christian, she’s an ignorant one, because Christianity is incompatible with New Age thought.” 

While I may not agree with Oprah when it comes to religion, I applaud her for her charitable work.  In 1998, she created the Oprah’s Angel Network, a charity that supported charitable projects and provided grants to nonprofit organizations around the world. Oprah’s Angel Network raised more than $80,000,000 ($1 million of which was donated by Jon Bon Jovi).  

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Oprah created the Oprah Angel Network Katrina registry which raised more than $11 million for relief efforts. Winfrey personally gave $10 million to the cause.  Homes were built in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama before the one year anniversary of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.  Winfrey has also helped 250 African-American men continue or complete their education at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia.   

Oprah was the recipient of the first Bob Hope Humanitarian Award at the 2002 Emmy Awards for services to television and film. To celebrate two decades on national TV, and to thank her employees for their hard work, Winfrey took her staff and their families (1065 people in total) on vacation to Hawaii in the summer of 2006.

In 2004, Winfrey and her team filmed an episode of her show, Oprah’s Christmas Kindness , in which Winfrey travelled to South Africa to bring attention to the plight of young children affected by poverty and AIDS.  During the 21-day trip, Winfrey and her crew visited schools and orphanages in poverty-stricken areas, and distributed Christmas presents to 50,000 children, with dolls for the girls and soccer balls for the boys, and school supplies.

Throughout the show, Winfrey appealed to viewers to donate money to Oprah’s Angel Network for poor and AIDS-affected children in Africa. From that show alone, viewers around the world donated over $7,000,000. Winfrey invested $40 million and some of her time establishing the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in Henley on Klip south of Johannesburg, South Africa.

The school set over 22 acres, opened in January 2007 with an enrollment of 150 pupils (increasing to 450) and features state-of-the-art classrooms, computer and science laboratories, a library, theatre and beauty salon. Nelson Mandela praised Winfrey for overcoming her own disadvantaged youth to become a benefactor for others.  Of course, there were a few critics who claimed that the school was elitist and unnecessarily luxurious.

Recently, I watched the outpouring of love as celebrities like Tom Hanks, Tom Cruise, Will and Jada Pinkett-Smith, Halle Berry, Madonna, Queen Latifah, Beyonce and Usher, to name a few showed up on The Surprise Oprah! A Farewell Spectacular Special to pay their tribute to the television icon.  Even, her friend Maria Shriver was there to show her love and support, despite her own personal problems.  Madonna had this to say about the the talk show queen, “She fights for things she believes in, even if it makes her unpopular.”  The auditorium was packed with screaming fans.  Jada Pinkett-Smith made a moving tribute about Oprah being a mother to everyone.

Oprah has come a long way from the poor child who wore dresses made out of potato sacks of which local children made fun of, abuse, early pregnancy, the loss of a child, criticism, negative publicity and rumours.   She has risen above adversity and has become a successful woman in her own right.  Oprah’s modest dress, combined with her triumph over adversity and abuse has caused some women in Saudi Arabia to idealize her.  We salute this remarkable woman who has changed the face of talk tv.  Congratulations, Oprah on having the longest running day-time talk show–25 years!  For many who tuned in five days a week to watch the Oprah Winfrey show, television will never be the same.

Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.

Excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism.

I don’t think of myself as a poor deprived ghetto girl who made good. I think of myself as somebody who from an early age knew I was responsible for myself, and I had to make good.

Oprah Winfrey

 

 

 

Sources:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey
http://www.nndb.com/people/466/000022400/

Having God’s “Unreasonable” Faith

Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you —Matthew 6:33

 

When we look at these words of Jesus, we immediately find them to be the most revolutionary that human ears have ever heard. “. . . seek first the kingdom of God . . . .” Even the most spiritually-minded of us argue the exact opposite, saying, “But I must live; I must make a certain amount of money; I must be clothed; I must be fed.” The great concern of our lives is not the kingdom of God but how we are going to take care of ourselves to live. Jesus reversed the order by telling us to get the right relationship with God first, maintaining it as the primary concern of our lives, and never to place our concern on taking care of the other things of life.

“. . . do not worry about your life. . .” (Matthew 6:25). Our Lord pointed out that from His standpoint it is absolutely unreasonable for us to be anxious, worrying about how we will live. Jesus did not say that the person who takes no thought for anything in his life is blessed— no, that person is a fool. But Jesus did teach that His disciple must make his relationship with God the dominating focus of his life, and to be cautiously carefree about everything else in comparison to that. In essence, Jesus was saying, “Don’t make food and drink the controlling factor of your life, but be focused absolutely on God.” Some people are careless about what they eat and drink, and they suffer for it; they are careless about what they wear, having no business looking the way they do; they are careless with their earthly matters, and God holds them responsible. Jesus is saying that the greatest concern of life is to place our relationship with God first, and everything else second.

It is one of the most difficult, yet critical, disciplines of the Christian life to allow the Holy Spirit to bring us into absolute harmony with the teaching of Jesus in these verses.

 

My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers

The Grandmother of Europe

On Monday, May 23, we celebrate Victoria Day here in Canada.   When I think of Queen Victoria, two things come to mind–her long and successful reign and her devotion to her husband Albert.

Victoria was born at Kensington Palace in London on May 24, 1819.  She was the only daughter of Edward, Duke of Kent, the fourth son of King George III.  Sadly, her father died shortly after she was born and since her three uncles who were ahead of her in succession didn’t have any legitimate children who survived, Victoria became heir to the throne.

Her parents proposed to call her Victoire Georgina Alexandrina Charlotte Augusta, but on the instructions of the Duke’s elder brother, the Prince Regent (later George IV), three of the names were dropped. She was baptised Alexandrina, after one of her godparents, Emperor Alexander I of Russia, and Victoria after her mother.

Victoria later described her childhood as “rather melancholy”.  Her mother was extremely protective, and Victoria was raised largely isolated from other children under the so called “Kensington System”, an elaborate set of rules and protocols devised by the Duchess and her ambitious and domineering comptroller, Sir John Conroy, who was rumoured, probably wrongly, to be the Duchess’s lover.  The system prevented the princess from meeting people whom her mother and Conroy deemed undesirable (including most of her father’s family), and was designed to render her weak and dependent upon them. 

The Duchess avoided the court because she was scandalised by the presence of the King’s bastard children, and perhaps prompted the emergence of Victorian morality by insisting that her daughter avoid any appearance of sexual impropriety.  Victoria shared a bedroom with her mother every night, studied with private tutors to a regular timetable, and spent her play hours with her dolls and her King Charles spaniel, Dash.   Her lessons included French, German, Italian, and Latin,  but she spoke only English at home.

Victoria had a gift for drawing and painting and was educated by a governess at home.  She was a natural diarist and kept a regular journal throughout her life. According to one of her biographers, Giles St Aubyn, Victoria wrote an average of 2500 words a day during her adult life.  On William IV’s death in 1837, she became Queen at the age of 18.

In 1836, the year before she became queen,Victoria’s uncle, Leopold,King of the Belgians since 1831, hoped to marry her to his nephew, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha.  Leopold , Victoria’s mother, and Albert’s father (Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha) were siblings.  Leopold arranged for Victoria’s mother to invite her Coburg relatives to visit her in May 1836, with the purpose of introducing Victoria to Albert. 

Victoria was very much aware of the plans to marry her and she critically appraised a parade of eligible princes.  However one prince stood out for her.   ”[Albert] is extremely handsome; his hair is about the same colour as mine; his eyes are large and blue, and he has a beautiful nose and a very sweet mouth with fine teeth; but the charm of his countenance is his expression, which is most delightful.” Alexander, on the other hand, was “very plain”.  Alexander, the prince of the Netherlands was William IV’s choice for Victoria because he disapproved of any match with the Coburgs.  Poor Alexander didn’t stand a chance.  From the beginning Victoria enjoyed Albert’s company.

Victoria wrote to her uncle Leopold, whom Victoria considered her “best and kindest adviser”, to thank him “for the prospect of great happiness you have contributed to give me, in the person of dear Albert … He possesses every quality that could be desired to render me perfectly happy. He is so sensible, so kind, and so good, and so amiable too. He has besides the most pleasing and delightful exterior and appearance you can possibly see.”  However at 17, Victoria, though interested in Albert, was not yet ready to marry. The parties did not undertake a formal engagement, but assumed that the match would take place in due time. 

Her coronation took place on 28 June 1838, and she became the first sovereign to take up residence at Buckingham Palace.

In the early part of her reign, she was influenced by two men: her first Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, and her husband, Prince Albert, whom she married in 1840.  Both men taught her much about how to be a ruler in a ‘constitutional monarchy’ where the monarch had very few powers but could use much influence.   Politically inexperienced, Victoria relied on Melbourne for advice and it is believed that she saw him as a father figure. 

Although Victoria was queen, she had to live with her mother because she was unmarried.  However, she complained to Melbourne that  her mother’s close proximity promised “torment for many years”.  Melbourne sympathised but said this could be avoided by marriage, which Victoria called a “schocking [sic] alternative”.  She showed interest in Albert’s education for the future role he would have to play as her husband, but she resisted attempts to rush her into wedlock.

Victoria continued to praise Albert following his second visit in October 1839. Albert and Victoria felt mutual affection and the Queen proposed to him on 15 October 1839, just five days after he had arrived at Windsor. They were married on 10 February 1840, in the Chapel Royal of St. James’s Palace, London. Victoria was besotted. She spent the evening after their wedding lying down with a headache, but wrote ecstatically in her diary:

I NEVER, NEVER spent such an evening!!! MY DEAREST DEAREST DEAR Albert … his excessive love & affection gave me feelings of heavenly love & happiness I never could have hoped to have felt before! He clasped me in his arms, & we kissed each other again & again! His beauty, his sweetness & gentleness – really how can I ever be thankful enough to have such a Husband! … to be called by names of tenderness, I have never yet heard used to me before – was bliss beyond belief! Oh! This was the happiest day of my life.

Albert took an active interest in the arts, science, trade and industry; the project for which he is best remembered was the Great Exhibition of 1851, the profits from which helped to establish the South Kensington museums complex in London.  He became an important political adviser as well as the Queen’s companion, replacing Lord Melbourne.  Victoria’s mother was evicted from the palace, however, after the death of Princess Augusta’s death in 1840, she was given both Clarence and Frogmore Houses.  Thanks to Albert’s mediation, relations between his wife and his mother-in-law slowly improved.

Seven attempts were made on Victoria’s life, between 1840 and 1882 – her courageous attitude towards these attacks greatly strengthened her popularity.

On 21 November 1840, Victoria and Albert welcomed their first child whom they named Victoria.  It’s interesting that although Victoria hated being pregnant, viewed breast-feeding with disgust, and thought newborn babies were ugly, she and Albert had eight more children.

The year 1861 was a tragic one for Victoria.  In March her mother died with Victoria at her side.  It was throuhg reading her mother’s papers that Victoria discovered that her mother loved her dearly and she was heartbroken.  She blamed Convory and Lehzen for “wickedly” estranging her from her mother.  Being the loving and thoughtful husband he was, Albert sought to relieve his wife during her intense and deep grief by taking  on most of her duties, despite being ill himself with chronic stomach trouble.

In August, Victoria and Albert visited their son, Edward, Prince of Wales, who was attending army manoeuvres near Dublin, and spent a few days holiday in Killarney. In November, Albert was made aware of gossip that Edward had slept with an actress in Ireland.  Appalled, Albert travelled to Cambridge, where his son was studying, to confront him.  By the beginning of December, Albert was very unwell.   He was diagnosed with typhoid fever and he died on 14 December 1861.

Victoria was devastated.  She blamed her husband’s death on worry over her son Edward’s philandering. He had been “killed by that dreadful business”, she said.  She entered a state of mourning and wore black for the remainder of her life. She avoided public appearances, and rarely set foot in London in the following years.  Her seclusion earned her the name “widow of Windsor”.

It was while she was at Balmoral that Queen Victoria became very close to John Brown, a Scottish servant. Victoria’s friendship with Brown caused some concern and rumours began to circulate that the two had secretly married. Hostility towards Victoria increased and some Radical MPs even spoke in favour of abolishing the British monarchy and replacing it with a republic.  I watched this movie with Judi Dench. 

Victoria’s long reign witnessed an evolution in English politics and the expansion of the British Empire, as well as political and social reforms on the continent. France had known two dynasties and embraced Republicanism, Spain had seen three monarchs and both Italy and Germany had united their separate principalities into national coalitions. Even in her dotage, she maintained a youthful energy and optimism that infected the English population as a whole.

The national pride connected with the name of Victoria – the term Victorian England, for example, stemmed from the Queen’s ethics and personal tastes, which generally reflected those of the middle class.

Victoria’s links with Europe’s royal families earned her the nickname “the grandmother of Europe”. Victoria and Albert had 42 grandchildren. Their descendants include Elizabeth II, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, Harald V of Norway, Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, Margrethe II of Denmark, Juan Carlos I and Queen Sofía of Spain.

Victoria’s popularity grew with the increasing imperial sentiment from the 1870s onwards. After the Indian Mutiny of 1857, the government of India was transferred from the East India Company to the Crown with the position of Governor General upgraded to Viceroy, and in 1877 Victoria became Empress of India under the Royal Titles Act passed by Disraeli’s government.

On 23 September 1896, Victoria surpassed George III as the longest-reigning monarch in English, Scottish, and British history. The Queen requested that any special celebrations be delayed until 1897, to coincide with her Diamond Jubilee, which was made a festival of the British Empire at the suggestion of Colonial Secretary Joseph Chamberlain.

The prime ministers of all the self-governing dominions were invited, and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee procession through London included troops from all over the empire. The parade paused for an open-air service of thanksgiving held outside St Paul’s Cathedral, throughout which Victoria sat in her open carriage. The celebration was marked by great outpourings of affection for the septuagenarian Queen.

Queen Victoria died at her house on the Isle of Wight on 22nd January 1901, leaving an impressive legacy behind.  Around the world, places and memorials are dedicated to her, especially in the Commonwealth nations. Places named after her, include the capital of the Seychelles, Africa’s largest lake, Victoria Falls, the capitals of British Columbia (Victoria) and Saskatchewan (Regina), and two Australian states (Victoria and Queensland).

The Victoria Cross was introduced in 1856 to reward acts of valour during the Crimean War, and it remains the highest British, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand award for bravery. Victoria Day is a Canadian statutory holiday and a local public holiday in parts of Scotland celebrated on the last Monday before or on 24 May (Queen Victoria’s birthday).

We salute this woman who survived seven attempts on her life (the first took place when she was pregnant with her first child), married for love and is to this day, the longest reigning monarch with an era named after her.

None of you can ever be proud enough of being the child of such a Father who has not his equal in this world – so great, so good, so faultless. Try, all of you, to follow in his footsteps and don’t be discouraged, for to be really in everything like him none of you, I am sure, will ever be. Try, therefore, to be like him in some points, and you will have acquired a great deal.

The important thing is not what they think of me, but what I think of them.

Queen Victoria

Sources:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Victoria

http://www.royal.gov.uk/HistoryoftheMonarchy/KingsandQueensoftheUnitedKingdom/TheHanoverians/Victoria.aspx

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/PRvictoria.htm 

http://www.victorianstation.com/queen.html