I learned about two new studies today that I can’t wait to study more closely.

The first is Harry’s Masculinity Report, USA 2018, a survey of 5,000 American men. Its results show that what makes men happy is good work. “The strongest predictor of a positive mindset in men—by far—is satisfying employment.”

Men at work are men at peace: everything else flows down from satisfying employment. Men who have high job satisfaction are more likely to feel optimistic, happy, motivated, emotionally stable, in control and confident.

But, as you know, many working-class men have trouble finding satisfying employment, or even any kind of employment. According to a second report released this week, Work, Skills, Community: Restoring Opportunity for the Working Class, 1 in 4 working-class men are unemployed.

“Work, Skills, Community” helps us understand the job problem—for men and women—better, and not just unemployment, but underemployment and unsatisfying employment too. The report identifies and defines core areas of concern based on lots of data-analysis and listening, in-person, to real humans. And it proposes thirty-four specific policy recommendations that could make life better, even happier, for all of us.

And there’s one more thing.

“Work, Skills, Community”, is a bipartisan report, convened by Opportunity America and produced by two of America’s leading think-tanks, AEI and Brookings.

We listened and negotiated and ultimately compromised with one another.

This is good because at the policy-level, we need research-based solutions that are also politically practical and able to help people when they need it, which is now.

Two-years of collaborative study and decision-making have gone into producing “Work, Skills, and Community”, a report on a serious and immediate problem. Now it’s time for the rest of us to read it.

Be bold. Don’t hesitate.

In a sermon on John 1:14, Martin Luther tells us how to beat back the devil when under his attack.

Little is gained against the devil with a lengthy disputation, but a brief word and reply such as this is effective: “I am a Christian, of the same flesh and blood as my Lord Christ, the Son of God. You settle with him, devil!” Such a retort would soon make him depart.

When under attack, let Christ be your strength. People who dialogue with the devil don’t usually win. Jesus being the exception, send the devil to him.

The following is Abraham Lincoln’s Thanksgiving Proclamation of 1863:

The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever-watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege, and the battlefield, and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently, and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the divine purposes, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity, and union.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 3d day of October, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-eighth.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

What do you do when the pastor isn’t at church to preach and lead worship on Sunday?

This happened to Covenant last Sunday.

About two hours before I was supposed to be at church, I had some severe pain and ended up in the emergency room. I was hoping I could get out quickly and still get to church on time, but when I learned the estimated wait times on lab results—and the pain hadn’t abated—I realized that wasn’t going to happen.

I’m feeling fine now, but there are other times in the life of the church when a pastor can’t be present, like during his vacation or study leave, or during a pastoral search process. And mission works without a church planter often face this probelm. So what’s a church to do? Especially, when there is no associate minister or nearby pastor in another church to help.

One option is to have ready-to-use liturgies on hand that don’t require preaching. It’s not ideal, but it’s not a bad option at all. I put one of these together at the beginning of the year, and an elder used it one of our two services last Sunday. It went well, but we quickly realized that having more of these on hand would be a good idea.

What follows is the (slightly revised) email and liturgy I sent to my elders ten months ago. Feel free to copy and adapt it for your own needs. And if you write one of these, please share!

Subject: A Simple Liturgy, In Case I’m Not There

Dear brothers,

I thought it might be useful for you to have a ready-to-use liturgy in case I am unable to lead worship for some reason. So, I put one together for you. If you like, you could print out a copy and keep it at church somewhere you can find it. I suggest a locked glass case with a hammer hanging on a hook nearby. Just for fun.

For the King, Christopher

Invocation and Prayer: “Our Heavenly Father, you are holy, wise, and powerful above all things. By your grace we are forgiven our sins and made alive in Christ. We pray that as we meet with you now, by the power of the Holy Spirit, you would make alive those who are dead in sin, and that those who are already born again would be built up in the true Christian faith. O Holy Spirit, transform all you hear your Word, so that we may not just be hearers of the Word, but doers of the word as well. We pray in the name of our only mediator, Jesus Christ our glorious Lord. Amen.”

Hymn: To God Be the Glory (THR, 55; TPH, 236)

Expository Reading: John 12:1-19

Hymn: Psalm 110 (THR, 313; TPH 110B)

Lord’s Prayer: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.”

Hymn: Jesus! What a Friend for Sinner! (THR, 498; TPH 456)

Expository Reading: John 12:20-36a, 13:1-28, 18:1-19:30

Hymn: Lift High the Cross (THR, 263; TPH 287)

Prayer for God’s Blessing: “Almighty God, we praise you for revealing your glorious grace to us in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Teach us to believe it and follow after him. And we ask that you would keep us from stumbling and present us blameless before the presence of your glory with great joy. And to you, the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever more. Amen.”

Notes:

• THR = Trinity Hymnal Revised; TPH = Trinity Psalter-Hymnal.
• In “expository reading,” one reads the text with the goal of communicating the meaning of the text, though without additional comment. So, no sermon, just good reading. I learned this term from Daniel I. Block in his book, For the Glory of God: Recovering a Biblical Theology of Worship, 191. (The liturgy above is modified from one he recounts in fn. 54 on that page.) Block says, “Expository reading means reading the Scriptures so that their literary qualities are appreciated, their message understood, and their transformative power experienced.”

Visit christopherchelpka.com/simple-liturgies/ for more simple liturgies like this one.

It’s almost Christmastime, and if you’re a string player wanting to play some Christmas music this year, I’ve got a great recommendation for you.

Buy for yourself, and anyone you might want to play, with Robert S. Frost’s Christmas Kaleidoscope books: Book 1 and Book 2. I have been playing from these books every Christmas since the mid-90s and I’m still not tired of them. Here’s why they work so well.

You can find a book for your instrument.

There is a book available for violin, viola, cello, bass, and piano. There is even a conductor’s score.

The books work GREAT with ensembles.

With the Christmas Kaliedoscope books, you can put together any kind of string ensemble you want. This is possible because every book has a melody line and two harmony parts. The melody line is listed as A; the harmony parts are B, C, D, and E. Violin and viola have the A, B, and C parts in their books. Cello and bass have the A, D, and E parts. This means that when playing with others it is easy to pass the melody around, and you can switch to different harmony parts as you please, no matter what instrument you’re playing. The possibilities for interesting arrangements are endless.

The publisher once produced books for every instrument. As far as I can tell, only the string books, piano, and conductor’s score are available now. But perhaps if you’re an internet super-sleuth, or if you want to clean my garage, you might be able to find the ones for winds and brass.

Between the two books, you get a solid collection of classic Christmas songs.

The two books give a total of 30 songs including Silent Night, Here We Come A-Caroling, Angels We Have Heard on High, The First Noel, and We Wish You A Merry Christmas. You can see the complete table of contents for Book 1 and Book 2.

The books are not difficult.

If you’re familiar with the difficulty grading system publishers sometimes use, Books 1 and 2 are graded at levels 1 and 2, respectively. Essentially, this means that Christmas Kaleidoscope can be played by anyone except the most beginning of beginning players. So, even if you’ve had only a few months of playing your instrument, you can definitely learn most of these songs, especially in Book 1.

But anyone will enjoy playing these pieces.

Though the songs aren’t difficult, Robert Frost’s arrangements are so well-written that professionals enjoy playing and improvising from them too. I know this from personal experience.

Bottom line:

The Christmas Kaleidoscope books give you a solid collection of Christmas songs that you can play as solos or with your friends, all while creating different arrangements every time you play. You will enjoy playing them and your audience will love listening.

For my cello students, here are direct links to Christmas Kaleidoscope Book 1 and Book 2. For everyone else, use this link to search. May you have a very merry, music-making Christmas. 🎁

I’m using an Apple Smart Keyboard with a 10.5” iPad Pro running iOS 12.1.

1. Connect a keyboard.

You can’t access Greek accents or Hebrew niqqud (vowels, dagesh, shwa, etc.), with the iOS touchscreen keyboard.

2. Add Greek and Hebrew keyboards.

Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboards > Add New Keyboard…

3. Change Greek to Greek - Polytonic and Hebrew to Hebrew-QWERTY.

Settings > General > Keyboard > Hardware Keyboards > Greek > Greek - Polytonic. Follow the same for Hebrew, but choose Hebrew - QWERTY.

4. Wherever you are typing, choose a font that contains Greek, Hebrew, and English letters.

Times New Roman is already installed and capable of this.

5. Switch keyboards—not fonts—using the global key on your keyboard.

Or use whatever switching command you’ve set up.

6. Learn to use the keyboards.

Especially learn the option+number keys for Hebrew niqqud and the option+punctuation keys for Greek accents.

Bonus Tips!

• Under the keyboards menu (see Step 2), you can click “edit” and then drag the keyboards into your preferred order.
• If you like, you can install other capable fonts. For example, Accordance has a font package you can install using the AnyFont app. And the font, Cardo, can be installed directly from FontSquirrel.com.