[Publius]

The concert included Mahler’s First Symphony played by the student orchestra and was just marvelous.

Which version? The four-movement version, or the five-movement version with the "missing" second movement, "Blumine," which was discovered in 1959 in Natalie Bauer-Lechner's trunk? I would hope the five-movement version.

[Jim W N]

Good question: What is the most important decision in life or in your life?

My answer simply put: Receiving Jesus Christ into my life.

Eternal life through Christ is THE most important decision one can ever make. It means you live forever in Heaven with Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit and fellow believers. And you will not be hurt of the Second death - eternal damnation in the lake of fire.

AFTER receiving Christ,

1) receive the baptism in the Holy Spirt which will give you power to live the overcoming life, and

2) MAKE SURE you learn about the TRUE Gospel of the Grace of Christ which will set you and others free. There are many “other gospels” out there, mostly that try to put you in back into bondage under the law (usually the ten commandments. BUT scripture clearly tells use, “You are not under the law but under grace” (Rom. 6:14).

[chajin]

The concert included Mahler’s First Symphony played by the student orchestra and was just marvelous.

For a symphony written by a teenager, it is extremely difficult to do well, and extremely powerful when it is. The scherzo could very easily be danced to as a waltz at court, while the final movement in general, and the last three minutes in particular, is a powerful tribute to both struggle and breakthrough victory--some day people will stop using Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries in movies for the gazillionth time and set something to the end of Mahler's First. It takes an hour to listen to, and worth the hour to hear: go here.

[Fester Chugabrew]

Thank you for posting this in its entirety. It is a perspicacious piece, worthy of wider publication and reading.

[PeterPrinciple]

but rather what kind of person we ought to be. Do we hunger and thirst for righteousness? Or do we seek our own advantage? In a way, there is no question in the moral and spiritual order more fundamental than that.

---

Worthy of much thinking.....................

[PeterPrinciple]

And if you become the persons God intends you to be, you will succeed in lighting a fire upon the earth.

---

Concluding statement.

Note the above has a qualification for fire lighting. Not just any old fire.

[Firehath]

I remember

60 yrs ago

when the head bishop

of Canada resigned

to be a missionary

in Africa

boggles the mind

doesn’t it

[Bonemaker]

"The Most Important Decision in Life...."

[Taxman]

Ping

[xp38]

Those two lines and scenes from A Man For All Seasons are unforgettable. It easily won best picture and Paul Scofield who said those lines best actor at the Oscars that year back when they meant something.

[Theophilus]

And if you become the persons God intends you to be, you will succeed in lighting a fire upon the earth.

Matthew 28
18 And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

[Albion Wilde]

bump

[Old Yeller]

Where will you spend eternity? Drop religion and have a relationship with Jesus.

[Cronos]

wonderful speech My intellectual hero, St. Thomas Aquinas, said that if we want to live a happy life, we should love what Jesus loved on the cross and despise what he despised on the cross.