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ETBUmonkey
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Name: Daniel Norton
Country: United States
State: Texas
Metro: Arlington
Birthday: 11/6/1979
Gender: Male
Interests: My interests here are providing encouragement and answers to those under my charge.
Be sure in the comments section to ask about any spiritual/moral/biblical question you may have, and I will attend to each in time.
If you are only a passing visitor, you still fall under that category, and I hope you find something here uplifting.
Expertise: Ministry and Worship for my Lord and King, Jesus Christ. Caring for my wonderful students and sometimes some infants and monkeys in Christ...sometimes including myself
Occupation: Administrative
Industry: Nonprofit
Message: message me
Website: visit my website
AIM:  ETBU Monkey
Member Since:
7/7/2005
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| Honestly guys,
I really had this moment where I was going to post something very serious, but then this awesome music video popped up in front of my vision and all thoughts of seriousness are now gone. This really speaks to my childhood in an awesome way. Check it out! I put it up the header for all the world to see!!!!
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| This weekend I had the amazing opportunity to attend my brother-in-law's graduation from East Texas Baptist University. It was a strange sort of a time because while it was the end of a chapter for Steven, it is merely a preview of the chapter in our lives that we are about to be writing. So strange to meet Steven's friends and realize that in a few months we might be making friends with some of the same people.
Graduation was fun. I forgot how much a part of me does very much love tradition and symbolism. Songs and processionals and maces and eternal lights...good stuff. I got to hear an amazing choir that moved my heart to tears even as they simply sang an arrangement of Amazing Grace. (I'm torn at this point as to which lyrics I'm going to post at the end of this blog...either 'The Prayer of St. Francis' or 'Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken')
An image was etched onto my brain, though, as we sat there. (It's funny how life's lessons jump up on you like mosquitos in the backyard at sunset.) There was a man there in a wheelchair. He could barely get around, there were people there to help him do everything. He was so disabled that one of the deans had to read his speech for him because he could not do it himself. This man was here for a great honor. ETBU was going to confer on him an honorary doctorate. (to give you an idea of how great an honor this might be, you should watch the movie 'A Beautiful Mind,' particularly the part at the end when Crowe's character is receiving his honor at the end of the movie. What this movie captures pales greatly in comparison to the honor I saw being bestowed before me.) So, the award is conferred, a stole is placed around his shoulders and he is wheeled forward to be presented...his speech is read, but we're not done there. This man, with great effort to himself, stands to his feet and takes his place at the mic. With speech slurred and muted, he relates to us a story of a violinist playing at the NY Philharmonic; this artist played his piece with great fervor but in the middle on of his strings broke. Embarrassing, to say the least, no one would have batted an eye while he restrung his Stradivarius and began again, but he did not. The artist finished his piece to flawless perfection. At the end, to explain his actions, the artist simply said, "I finished to show that it's amazing what you can do with what you have left."
A man stands before us, broken and ravaged by this thing we call life, and he reminds us that in the end God will restore everything to perfection. But until then, even when he began to think that his life served no purpose anymore, here he 'stood' to pass on another lesson and even to receive some reward in this life; and he told us again, "It's amazing what you can do with what you have left." Would I want to be like this man? I think so. He wears his disability with honor and still continues to live 'life.' How many of us are not really living, but not really wounded compared to this man who showed such great integrity? Honestly, at a past point in my life, I would have mocked and dismissed the man whom I could hardly understand, but I'm beginning to understand that we can learn something from everyone.
I leave you now with some words that stirred my soul:
Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God. He, whose word cannot be broken, formed thee for His own abode. On the Rock of Ages founded, what can shake thy sure repose? With salvation's walls surrounded, thou may smile at all thy foes.
See, the streams of living waters, springing from eternal love. They well supply thy sons and daughters, and all fear of want remove. Who can faint, while such a river ever does their thirst assuage? Grace which, like the Lord, the giver, never fails from age to age.
Round each habitation hovering, see the cloud and fire appear for a glory and a covering, showing that the Lord is near. Glorious things of thee are spoken, Zion, city of our God. He, whose word cannot be broken, formed thee for His own abode.
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| Larry the Cucumber: "I expected a little pep talk or something, you know. A little 'Well done good and faithful servant.' "
Pa Grape "If you want to hear a 'Well done,' you have to do what God says.
"Gideon: Tuba Warrior"
I've always noted this passage in the Bible, but a lot of stuff jumps out to me hearing it like this. I don't think it's coincidence that God takes the time to say, "Well done, good and faithful servant," to us at the end. I've been discovering a lot about myself lately from some very interesting events in our lives. One of these is remembering a book I once read called "The Five Love Languages" (same author as above) I have learned that my primary language of love (not romantically, but the way of someone letting me know that I am loved, accepted, and appreciated) is 'Words of Affirmation' (the other four love languages are: Physical Touch, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, and Acts of Service.) Anyway, so mine's Affirmation: that means in order for me to feel loved and appreciated I need to be praised and encouraged (I know, I know...that's a crappy love language to have in the world of church work where every minister is summarily underappreciated and underencouraged - very unforgiving work...)
But here's what I get from this thing that God says: (I'll remind you that it is, "Well done, good and faithful servant.) God doesn't just say "Hey thanks," or "Good job," He says, "Well done"....it seems to me like it's a little more than a simple good job because God goes on to call His servant 'good' and 'faithful' both are words that are only truly reserved for Himself. Jesus said no one is good but God, and in Psalms 61 (I think?) it says that 'we all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way'...so the only one truly faithful is God. But...but....God reserves these words for His servants....I don't think it is any coincidence that He uses such words because I think they are words that many of us need to hear. Just like I think that the rewards that God offers excites others, or His presence...or maybe even the fact that Jesus was a servant...maybe God expresses all of these languages of love that we need, and maybe He uses others to do so as well.
I know this is a little more disjointed than normal, but maybe you can't tell since most of my writing is purposely disjointed.
Be His
Matthew 25:21 "His master replied, 'Well done, good and faithful servant! You have
been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many
things. Come and share your master's happiness!'"
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| note: I've decided to keep this going. Mary likes very much to be able to read my thoughts (words..not the ones in the brain.) and I have no designs on many others reading them, but I do like to put them down. So, I'll keep this going, but I've also connected a feed to my facebook so they can go there as well...I think that's nifty...ok "Everybody, Everybody!" (girlish singing voice)
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| I heard a cool story today, but it comes with a face before the real one, or and introduction, or a pre-face even. (Daniel is now visualizing a person who walks around and before you see his face, you see another face similar to his floating in the air to let you know he's coming....weird, I know.) A 'Calvinist' is a person who believes that God is completely in control of the world. He believes that God's gonna get His stuff done no matter what. An Armenian is a person who believes in a lot of free will (that we have the ability to make our own choices contrary to God, as opposed to 'freewill,' being goodwill or charity handouts.); meaning that God will only do so much, based on how we respond to Him.
Anyway, here's the real face. We've got two awesome guys: George Whitefield, who is a Calvinist, and John Wesley, who is an Armenian. One night after a long hard tiring day, both of them went back to a boarding house where they were staying. After getting all snug up and ready to go to bed, each one of them knelt by their beds and prayed. Whitefield (the Calvinist) prayed like this: "Lord, we thank You for everyone that we spoke with today, and we are so excited that their lives and their futures are entirely in Your hands. Honor the work effort that we accomplished today as Your perfect will sees fit. Amen.*" Then he got up and went to bed.
At this point, Mr. Wesley (the Armenian) was still beginning his prayer , and he took a moment to look up and say, "Mr Whitefield, is this where your Calvinism leads you?" And then He bowed his head and went on with his praying. Mr. Whitefield went to sleep and 2 hours later he woke up to find Mr. Wesley still down on his knees praying. As he got up, on closer inspection, he discovered that Mr. Wesley had actually fallen asleep in his kneeling position. So, he shook him by the shoulder to wake him and said, "Mr. Wesley, is this where your Armenianism leads you?"*
"Our Father, who is closer than the air we breathe,
Just your name is enough to amaze millions,
And Your Kingdom (Heaven) is here, right now as we speak,
So let us be part of what you are causing to happen all around us.
Fill our needs, not just all the little ones, but the deepest, most noble dreams of our hearts,
Forgive us for failing in our relationships and let us remember to forgive others who are just as flawed as we are.
You have freed us from evil. Don't let us slip into our old bad habits again.
You are the source of everything, God,
You own your kingdom, no one can overpower you, and you deserve for the world to look at you in awe 24/7. Amen."*
* All prayers adapted for added comprehension and removal of archaic language (words we would never be caught dead using, such as Thee, Thou, Hallowed...Much like a man I once knew who returned home to find his house burning. In his shock he blurted out, "We praise Thy name most hallowed God for Thou givest and takest away." Then he proceeded to age a few hundred years to match the age of the language he was using...we remind each other fondly at his funeral, that he gave a new meaning to 'caught dead.') Glad we could help you save a few years on your life by reading such words.
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