Sir William's Sword

Sir William would be tickled to death if you stopped by his new blog and gave him a welcome.

Family Businesses

I know that one of the goals of Christian agrarians is to get families involved in family businesses together.  And I think we have a good role model in Bill Gaither.

 

Some of you don't recognize that name.  But many of you will.  Bill and Gloria Gaither are (or at least, were ... I think still are) from Alexandria, Indiana.  They started out as school teachers in the early sixties, and spent the weekends making music as the Bill Gaither Trio (including, for a while, Bill's brother Danny).  Gaither music took the Christian world by storm in the '60's and '70's -- I don't know what their most famous song was: perhaps He Touched Me, or Let's Just Praise the Lord, or Because He Lives, or another of the many dozens of songs they penned.  Eventually they started self-publishing (I believe the John T. Benson company in Nashville had been their original publisher), and then started introducing other new artists (Don Francisco, Steve Green, Larnelle Harris, and Sandy Patti are a few that come to mind).  Eventually the Gaithers decided someone needed to preserve the good old-time quartet gospel music, and so they started doing the Gaither Homecoming Concerts, with guest artists from all across the Christian music spectrum.  They also wrote books (at least Gloria did, co-authoring a book with Shirley Dobson, wife of the psychologist).

 

Well, I was shocked this evening when I discovered that they are dabbling in another line in the family business.

 

First, I didn't see Bill's name anywhere in the project, so maybe I'm stretching things a little bit.  BUT I still think this is interesting.  Some of you have seen the kid's movie, Hoodwinked.  I'm always scared to talk about movies, 'cause invariably there is a scene that I forgot about that is offensive to someone, and I just recommended it.  But I really liked Hoodwinked when I saw it back in January.  Well, tonight I saw part of the material on the bonus DVD that was released with the Hoodwinked DVD, and lo, and behold, Bill and Gloria Gaither's son, Benjy was one of the characters (voice behind the animated character) in Hoodwinked.  The bonus DVD also included a full-length feature film made by the same people, called Wobots.  Guess who produced it.  Yup, Benjy Gaither.  Now, get this!  Guess whose voice was the voice of the counselor at the orphans' home.  I about fell out of my chair.  No, it wasn't James Dobson (although that would have been type-cast).  No, it was Gloria Gaither!  Yes, Gloria Gaither is now doing animated films.  Okay.  One film.  I about fell out of my chair.  (I already said that, didn't I.  Oh well, now I've said it twice.)  I had the live-double-album vinyl that the Bill Gaither Trio did in about 1974, and I think I would recognize Gloria Gaither's voice anywhere.  And, indeed, her name rolled with the credits at the end of the film.

 

Now, I'm mostly kidding about this being a family business.  But those Gaithers have their fingers into everything.  And for some who may think I'm being critical of the Gaithers, I'm not!  I actually have a reasonably positive view of them.  (I mean, let's face it.  How many folks were writing amillenial prophecy songs in the '70's against the tide of Hal Lindsey and the dispensationalists.  I don't think The King is Coming quite fit the dispensational chart mold.)

 

Anyway, just wanted to report the interesting development.  And for folks who never heard of the Gaithers, nor any of the songs that Gaither wrote that I mentioned, I guess you can simply wish you hadn't wasted your time reading this post.

Shaved by Grace

I found the following commentary here.  It relates to the second half of the fifth point of TULIP (preservation of the saints).

A fellow got up one morning and decided he no longer was going to shave himself, he was instead going to the barber for his morning shave. The town barber also happened to be the Baptist pastor in town. When the guy walked into the barber shop the barber/pastor was not there, he was out on a pastoral call but his wife Grace was in the shop. The man said to Grace, "I want a shave." Grace told him to climb up in the chair and she gave him a shave.

When Grace was finished he asked her how much for the shave and Grace said, "Twenty dollars." "Twenty dollars, that seems a little steep," the guy replied. Grace said: "That's my charge." So the guy gave her $20 bill and went on his way.

The next morning when he got up he went to the mirror and looked and his face was as smooth as when he was shaved the day before. He checked the following the day, same thing, a week went by, two weeks and his face stayed as smooth as a baby's face.

Finally after the third week he stopped back in the barber shop and Grace happened to be there. The guy said to her: "Grace, I can't believe I still don't need another shave. You did some kind of magnificent job." And Grace replied, "Well, you have been shaved by Grace and once shaved always shaved!"

NOTE: Naddy, I hope you liked that!

Herrick's Writings

One of our fellow members of the Agrarian Blogging Community, Herrick Kimball (aka The Deliberate Agrarian), has recently published a book titled (rather aptly), Writings of a Deliberate Agrarian.  I must first confess that I have not completed the entire book yet.  I have been busy enough, and distracted enough, that I have read pieces, but not the total.  Nevertheless, I think I have read enough to come away with the clear conviction that it is a worthwhile read.  If you have not ordered your copy yet, it would be well worth it.

 

And, while we are on the subject of Herrick's books, let me go a little further.  Many of you know that Herrick has written a number of books relating to home construction / repair and to agrarian topics.  Two of the books he has written are about chicken processing: a complete guide to building a Whizbang chicken plucker, Anyone Can Build a Tub-Style Mechanical Chicken Plucker: Complete Instructions for the Kimball Whizbang, and a manual for building a Whizbang chicken scalder, Anyone Can Build a Whizbang Chicken Scalder.  Well, there are a couple of us out there that think he needs to write another book for the pastured poultry crowd.  Here's why:

 

Christine has recently lamented that her laying hens have not yet begun laying, although the expected time has come and gone.  Several of her readers have advised her to be patient, and give them some more time, before taking the potential step of turning them into fried chicken, or some such delicacy.  I suggested, however, that should they continue to fail as layers, then perhaps she ought to change her name to Mrs. Tweedy, and start making chicken pot pies.  To which she replied that Herrick would need to build her a machine, and we decided he could also write a book: The Whizbang Chicken Pot Pie Machine Made Easy.

 

Herrick, we'd like a tiny commission when the book appears.

 

Psalm 119

We have been reading through Psalm 119 for the past several weeks in family worship.  Many of you are aware that Psalm 119 is an acrostic Psalm.  That is, it is comprised of 22 stanzas (each stanza is 8 verses), and the 22 stanzas correspond to the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet.  Each stanza (and perhaps each verse in the stanza, I am not clear as to whether it is the stanza or each verse therein) begins with the corresponding letter of the alphabet.  We have been doing one stanza per day.

 

It has been a very interesting experience.  The entire Psalm is devoted to the Word of God.  In fact, almost every verse in the Psalm speaks of the Word of God.  Many different terms are used for the Word of God: law of the LORD, his testimonies, his ways, his precepts, his statutes, his commandments, his righteous judgments, his word, his ordinances.

 

Tonight, we finished the Psalm.  We read the final 8 verses, the last stanza.  And then after prayer time, we sang the same passage: the final 8 verses of Psalm 119.  It is a Psalm we learned at church two years ago, when we first started meeting for worship on the Lord's Day.  It is a Psalm that we love to sing, because in the second half of the music, each voice part separates from the rest and sings its own melody against the other voices, blending together in a beautiful harmony which demonstrates the glory of the Word of God, of which we sing.  We have been working on it for a month or two at home, singing it periodically after family worship time is over.  It is particularly glorious, because my 8-year old son is singing (and carrying by himself) the melody, the (nearly) 15-year-old sings tenor, and I sing bass.  What we have learned at church, we are able to do without additional voices to strengthen each part here at home.

 

I have found this Psalm to repeatedly speak to my soul.  While those around us in the world care little, or none, for the things of God, and especially for the law of God, I find refreshment in the Psalmist echoing the theme: "I love your Law; it is my delight."  While others speak of sentiment, devoid of the fixed ethics of God's Law, I hear the Psalmist speaking of God's law being a fountain of life.  No, we do not find life in the letters of the Law, apart from the life-giving Spirit.  But neither do we find the life-giving Spirit giving life out of mere sentiment, divorced from the Word of God.  And so we echo the thoughts of this Psalm, and the words of another, in saying about the words from God: "More to be desired are they than gold; yea, than much fine gold.  Sweeter also than honey, and the honeycomb."  (Psalm 19:10)  Or to echo God's words to Moses: "Be careful to observe all the words of this law. For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land."  (Deut 32:46-47)  God's Law is life to us, which He graciously gives.  Or as John writes in his first epistle, "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome." (1 John 5:3)  When someone tries to define love sentimentally, apart from God's instruction, they have missed the boat.  God defines love in terms of obedience to His Law, and notes that when we have been the recipients of God's mercy in receiving His Law, that His Law is not burdensome.

 

What a refreshment, to read the Psalmist repeating stanza after stanza that he rejoices and delights in the precepts, rules, statues, ordinances, commandments, testimonies, and ways of God.  May our hearts be so changed by His grace that we, too, rejoice in his precepts.  For it is in graciously receiving this life-giving Word that we are being reborn. (James 1:21, 1 Peter 1:23).