By grace, Dr/Pastor Gordon Lee

By grace

Speaker: Dr/Pastor Gordon Lee (Hillsong elder/Chinese Extension Services pastor/Principal of Dr Gordon Lee Surgery and full time General Practitioner)

Sermon recording:  http://www.1503.org.au/download_files/sermons/SS_N_2016_03_06.m4a

Introduction:

Unmerited favour from God.

Grace is being blessed when we don’t deserve it and Mercy is doing away the punishment we deserve.

Grace vs works

“And if by grace, then it cannot be based on works; if it were, grace would no longer be grace.”

Romans 11:6 NIV

I was a blasphemer, immoral; arrogant; nasty and definitely not because of all these I was saved.

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—”

Ephesians 2:8 NIV

Without this gift of Jesus, I probably wrecked my marriage, business, relationship with my children and friends. All I did when I was 25 was saying a prayer if Jesus were God, I will commit my life to Him. Immediately, Jesus opened a new way of life- peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, not giving me immediately what I was looking for at the time-purpose of life, but the immense presence and love of Jesus and then His purpose for me started to unfold. Faith in Jesus is not a magic wand to get what we want but the personal relationship with Jesus that surpass anything else.

Source of grace: Only Jesus

“But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God’s grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!”

Romans 5:15 NIV

“and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.”

Romans 3:24 NIV

Mercy of God demonstrated. The guilty became not guilty.

Rich inheritance

1.       “so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” Titus 3:7 NIV

Heirs- God’s sons and daughters; inherit everything that God has; royal family. Give us identity when we have no identity-my inferiority. Give me a status when I had none. That’s why apostle Paul was so confident to say I am what I am….

2.        “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them—yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.”

1 Corinthians 15:10 NIV

Empowering, persevere, patience-all the fruits of the Spirit at work. Because Jesus said when I go back to the Father, I will give you a helper, the Holy Spirit.

3.       “Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given.” John 1:16 NIV

Unlimited resources and grace. Run the race God wants you to and the back up is unlimited.

I started with leading a cell group, then Asian ministry, then Chinese service. As you step up, another level of grace is available to you.

4.       “With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all” Acts 4:33

Supernatural operates through us.

5.        “We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith;” Romans 12:6 NIV

You are gifted, don’t tell me you are not gifted. You may not have discovered it yet, but as you take the first step, God is right there to show you your gift. We are saved and called to serve. God does not call us to intellectual exercise over His Word, but to serve others with our gifts.

6.       “He has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time,”2 Timothy 1:9

When we know we are so loved by God, we will naturally start to do things that please Him.

Holy life is not a perfect life, but a life lean on God, and a teachable heart.

7.       “But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”2 Corinthians 12:9 NIV

So often we think we are no good-this verse is for you so that no one can boast-His power will be outstanding in your weakness.

Who can receive this grace?

“Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham’s offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who have the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.”

Romans 4:16 NIV

Our response to this grace

1.×

2.References for Ephesians 3:1

1.       Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, Ephesians 3:2 NIV

Administration for others

2.       “For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.” Romans 6:14 NIV

The most powerful force is love. Because we love someone, we will do everything for the person. How much you do for a person depends on how much you love that person. The more I love Jesus, the less I will sin.

3.       “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Colossians 4:6 NIV

Out of the heart the mouth speaks. When I heart is melted by grace, our words will be full of grace-compassion, empathy; forgiveness; encouragement, trust; patience;

4.       “Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.” Hebrews 4:16 NIV

Pray big prayers.

5.       “From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed.” Acts 14:26 NIV

Whatever we do, we committed our work to the grace of God.

6.       “Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms.”1 Peter 4:10 NIV

Are you gifted? Use it for others.

You think you are not gifted? Still serve others, then your gift will surface.

7.       “But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.”2 Peter 3:18 NIV

Need to grow in grace, trust God for more and more things and expand your territory and influence.

3 Questions for discussion in cell group:

1.       Share 1 example of your experience of grace in your Christian walk.

2.       What is 1 thing you are planning to do that is out of your own depth?

3.       What is your practical response to the grace of God from this day onward?

Morling Tuesday Chapel Ephesians: Big Picture Christianity

1 March, 2016

Topic: Big Picture Christianity

Scripture: Ephesians 1:1-14

Speaker: David Starling

Small-picture: Egocentric, my ministry, my kingdom, my blessings, where does God fit into my plans?

Big-picture: Ephesians 1, in Christ, reorientates the centre, where does my life fit into God's plans?

Why Some People Take Breakups Harder Than Others

Why Some People Take Breakups Harder Than Others: Part of it depends on whether they believe personality is fixed or constantly changing.

http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/01/romantic-rejection-and-the-self-deprecation-trap/424842/

  

An interesting article! This is why it frustrates me to see people who are stuck and constantly ruminating on their past – can’t forgive, can't let go, can’t move on, therefore can’t grow and can’t change, leading to a vicious cycle further reinforcing the belief that the personality is fixed and therefore remaining stuck, hopeless, and depressed, which further repels other people away leading to further experiences of rejection.

In one study, people were asked to reflect on a time when they were rejected in a romantic context, and then write about the question: What did you take away from this rejection? For some people, their answers made it clear that the rejection had come to define them—they assumed that their former partners had discovered something truly undesirable about them. For example, one person wrote: “Things were going well when all of a sudden he stopped talking to me. I have no idea why, but I think he saw that I was too clingy and this scared him away.” “Why wasn’t I good enough?” or “Is there something wrong with me?”

But the loss of a partner can make it easy to fall into the self-deprecation trap. Research by the psychologist Arthur Aron and his colleagues shows that when people are in close relationships, their self becomes intertwined with their partner’s self. In other words, we begin to think of a romantic partner as a part of ourselves—confusing our traits with their traits, our memories with their memories, and our identity with their identity. In a measure designed to capture the closeness of a relationship, Aron’s team ask people to consider themselves as one circle, their partner as another, and indicate the extent to which the two overlap.

If rejection seems to reveal a new, negative truth about a person, it becomes a heavier, more painful burden. When rejection is intimately liked to self-concept, people are also more likely to experience a fear of it. People reported becoming more guarded with new partners and “putting up walls.” One study participant wrote: “I feel like I constantly withhold myself in possible future relationships in fear of being rejected again.” The belief that rejection revealed a flaw prompted people to worry that this defect would resurface in other relationships.

In some cases, rejection also seemed to fundamentally change people’s outlook on romantic partnerships, leaving them with pessimistic views about the fundamental nature of relationships. As one person wrote: “To me, this rejection was like opening Pandora’s Box, and concepts like love and trust became fantasies that never really existed.”

So what makes for a healthy breakup, one in which the person moves on with minimal emotional damage? In the author's study, some people drew much weaker connections between rejection and the self, describing rejection as an arbitrary and unpredictable force rather than the result of some personal flaw. One person wrote, “Sometimes girls are not interested. It’s nothing to do with yourself, it’s just that they’re not interested.” Another noted how rejection wasn’t a reflection of worth: “I learned that two people can both be quality individuals, but that doesn’t mean they belong together.” Other people saw the rejection as a universal experience: “Everyone gets rejected. It’s just part of life.”

Yet another group of people saw the breakup as an opportunity for growth, often citing specific skills they had been able to learn from rejection. Communication was a recurrent theme: People described how a rejection had helped them understand the importance of clear expectations, how to identify differences in goals, and how to express what they wanted out of a relationship. Other participants wrote that breakups had helped them to accept that they couldn’t control the thoughts and actions of others, or to learn how to forgive.

Round Island trip Taiwan 2015-2016

I had the honour of coming back to Taiwan and taking my grandma for a round island trip. With the presidential election coming up shortly, I also did a marching prayer.

Day 1 December 28 Sun Moon Lake:

Sun Moon Lake, the heart (centre) of Taiwan. A very globalised tour, with people from the US, Australia, NZ, Germany, Norway, Austria, etc!

As we waited to board the boat at the dock, the melodies of “Amazing Grace” floated in the air, played by some street artist. The weather was great.

Got to the highest point in the Sun Moon Lake region. It looks almost as if there is an island floating in the sky, like Laputa!

https://youtu.be/GAkz6mDzubA

Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)

Our hotel room number happened to be 921, which reminds me of the 921 earthquake which shrunk the Lalu Island in the centre of the lake! Today it is sinking to the point where people cannot board the island!

Day 2 December 29 Ji-Ji, Buddhist Memorial Centre, Kaoshiung:

Yesterday my hotel room number at the Sun Moon Lake was 921! Today the tour guide suddenly had a new idea and added something not in the itinerary: go to the very centre of the 921 earthquake disaster region, Ji-Ji, to see a temple destroyed by the quake in 1999! They built a new temple in front of the destroyed temple and coincidentally they were celebrating some sort of temple ceremony and it was very noisy.

There is only one kingdom that cannot be shaken (Hebrews 12:28)!

Then we drove along the Jianan plain (the largest plain in Taiwan, the producers of rice) towards the Fo Guang Shan Buddha Memorial Centre. This place is like a theme park: with Starbucks, 4D movie, foodie map, etc!

We visited three temples today, and there are no more temples on the itinerary: the rest of the trip will be national parks and natural sceneries.

In the evening we arrived in Taiwan’s second largest city, Kaoshiung!

Day 3 December 30 Kenting, Taitong:

Today, the tour guide began talking about the tragic history of Taiwan (from the Aboriginal people to modern day). He mentioned “Orphan of Asia”, a novel written by Zhuoliu Wu, which accurately describes Taiwan’s multilayered identity crisis. There are many countries that helped Taiwan in order to maintain stability in the Asia Pacific region, but tragically, it seems Taiwan can never choose its own fate.

But is fate really in our hands? Can we truly control it by our own power?

Naked I came from my mother’s womb, and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised. (Job 1:21)

 

Day 4 December 31 Taitong, Hualien:

The tour guide told us that the East Coast of Taiwan is pretty different from the West Coast, one of the most prominent differences being all the crosses on the tombstones. In the past, the Han Chinese did not dare to cross over the mountain ranges into the East Coast because the Indigenous people do head hunting, and there are many high cliffs that drop directly into the sea. So, who are the people that were not afraid of being beheaded? The western missionaries! So most of the indigenous people are Christians these days.

In life, sometimes it's as if the ghosts of the past keep coming back to haunt us.

Sometimes it appears so real, that we feel as though we are stuck in a vicious cycle endlessly.

This is the history of Taiwan. 400 years ago, the last remnants of the Ming Dynasty escaped from China onto the island, along with other Han Chinese that did not want to be assimilated by the Manchurians. They drove the indigenous people up the mountains, kicked out the Dutch, and ruled the island for approximately 40 years. Then the Ching Dynasty took over Taiwan. Shortly after that, it was given to Japan in a fashion not unlike cutting out an appendix. Having been under the control of various political powers we did not choose, the population is in an acute multilayer identity crisis. History keeps repeating itself, conflicts between the different tribes on the land continues, it is as though the wounds of this land never closes.

In actual fact, all of this has passed. The inhabitants of this land are moving into a new unique identity. May God heal this land.

We cannot change the past. We can only accept it and let it go. Look at today in the eye and move on forward.

How many times have we projected wounds from the past onto future relationships?

Moving on, not just physically in time, but emotionally and spiritually.

Happy 2016

 

The Face of the Future

Sin, its judgment, and its mitigation:

The original sin occurred in the Adam and Eve narrative in the book of Genesis, which led to the downfall of humanity. The book of Genesis teaches that the nature of sin is related to the unbelief in God’s commands and promises, and human pride. It also teaches that sin affects all dimensions of one’s relationship, with oneself, with God, with each other, and with the rest of the creation, and physical death will come as an inevitable consequence to all. Furthermore sin spreads like wildfire and has a tendency to become more severe as it spread from a personal to a community level. God’s acts of judgment were always related to a particular sin, and punishment became increasingly more severe with the increasing spread of sin. The general pattern seemed to be a movement from human sin to divine punishment to divine forgiveness or mitigation of the punishment[1]. On an individual who sin, as in ‘The Fall’ and Cain, God’s dealing could be highly personalised, where they were punished for their sin but were partly relieved of the severity of their punishment, as Adam and Eve did not die immediately and God had put a mark of protection on Cain when driving him out. But where a whole community’s relationship with God was involved, the operation of justice in punishment can sometimes be undifferentiated, as in the ‘Sons of God’ episode, where all humanity’s life-span became shortened because of the sins of the ‘Sons of God’. When the vast majorities sinned and were punished as in the Flood narrative, there was the near annihilation of mankind with mitigation taking effect only for one man and his family. In the Tower of Babel, all of those who have sinned were punished with ‘dissolution of mankind’s unity’ and there was no direct mitigation[2]. For more details about this essay I wrote, please see http://dryvonnewang.blogspot.com.au/2014/05/what-does-book-of-genesis-teach-about.html

Globalisation:

In the patriarchal narratives, we see the theme of a line of seeds arising from Eve that will crush the head of the serpent and become a channel of blessings to all nations on earth. We can also see hope even in the imperfect characters whose lives became greatly transformed and blessed by God when they recognized divine action previously hidden from their eyes, as in the case of Judah. 

The punishment for the Tower of Babel incident was ‘dissolution of mankind’s unity’. Personally, I think the process of globalisation is part of the mitigation for this ‘dissolution of mankind’s unity’. In other words, a reversal of what happened in the Tower of Babel. It is an extremely difficult but inevitable process which produces devastating conflicts. With globalization, the whole world is connected, whether we like it or not...

Morphing - The Face of the Future:

I suddenly remembered an interesting photograph on the cover page of my high school biology textbook. This author used 16 photos of the students from my high school and morphed them together. This face illustrates the likely product of several generations of inter-racial marriages.

https://www.mediaproductions.auckland.ac.nz/index.php?p=digital_manipulation

http://www.donovanimages.co.nz/media/morphs/Morph-face-of-the-future.html

This job was done for the Biology textbook Patterns of Life by Meg Bayley (published by Addison Wesley Longman New Zealand, 1998). The brief was to create a composite portrait. To quote from the text:

The face in the large picture was formed from one-sixteenth of each of the sixteen girls shown at the top. Brian Donovan of the Audio Visual Centre at Auckland University created it for us. We gave him 16 photos of girls at Diocesan School, selected to reflect the ethnic distribution of New Zealand's population today. Brian then paired up the photos and linked each pair together at approximately 100 key points around the face and hairline (a very time-consuming process!). A morphing program then 'mixed' the pairs of photographs together. So, the pictures in the second row are composed of half of each of the two photos above.

'This was then repeated with each new photograph until we got the final face: one-sixteenth of each girl. We added some hair, and there she was.

'This process mimics the mixing of genetic factors down five generations or 150 years ignoring the fact that each photo is of the 'daughter' of two girls! Of course, rather than particular features coming through (as might happen in real life) we have ended up with a girl who is an average of 16, but we hope you get the general idea.'

Note the increasingly smooth complexion in each 'generation'; if minor facial characteristics such as freckles, lines and other marks are regarded as 'noise' and the major features - the shape of the face, eyes, eyebrows, nose, cheek lines, and mouth - are regarded as 'signal' then the signal-to-noise ratio is increased with each successive transformation.

The notion of a composite photographic portrait is not new: in the late nineteenth century in England, the statistician Francis Galton pioneered a technique for making such composites (to illustrate human types among other things) by successively copying registered portrait prints onto a single photographic plate. The exposure for each individual was determined by dividing the total exposure by the number of prints in the sample. Among his experiments were averaged criminals, mixtures of family members, and composites of heads on ancient coins such as Alexander the Great, Nero and Cleopatra. If Galton had expected the composite of Cleopatra to reveal her legendary beauty he was to disappointed; still, he wrote, it was better than any of the individual components, none of which gave any indication of her reputed beauty; in fact, her features are not only plain, but to an ordinary English taste are simply hideous.

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[1] Clines, The Theme of the Pentateuch, 66-67

[2] Clines, The Theme of the Pentateuch, 68-70

Going Global: A Congregation’s Introduction to Mission beyond Our Borders, by Nelson, King, and Smith

For years, the missionary was the axis by which one understood and did global mission. They described and interpreted the country to those of us “at home” through the lens of their own experience. Everything was brokered through them. This has all changed. The missionary has been decentred and is in the process of being dethroned due to a shrinking world and greater global access. We have many angles and perspectives from which to choose. Each of them presents a different view. Media feeds us with daily images of the global world. Travel and immigration brings the world to our door.[1]

Globalisation is experienced on a daily basis. We can no longer assume that “our way” of looking at things is the “only way”. For example, for many Europeans and North Americans, Pearl Harbor and D-Day lie at the centre of that time in history. For the Chinese their stories contain events such as the “Rape of Nanjing.”[2] The experience of Peter in Acts 10 is an example of this shift of paradigm. His worldview and his understanding of God was shaped around cultural and national identity. The invitation to visit and share table fellowship in the home of Cornelius required Peter to examine fundamental issues of his identity. Living in a global world necessitates a constant questioning of our assumptions and our prejudices.[3] The Western churches might need to ask themselves this question: If our methods of ministry and mission are so effective, why are the Western churches in decline and the church in the Global South growing?[4] Christianity is flourishing wonderfully among the poor and persecuted while it atrophies among the rich and secure.[5] This is not to suggest that everything about the church in the South is good, but simply to suggest that they have much to teach to the West about their nominalism and stagnation.[6] The centre of Christianity has moved to the Southern world.[7] The churches in the South read the Bible in ways much different from those that Western missionaries taught as their readings and reflections emerge from their experiences. Jenkins goes on to muse about “who should be missionaries to whom?”[8]

Six basic shifts to understanding are required of missionaries, churches, denominations, and mission agencies that wish to offer faithful service to God at home and in distant lands. 
1) Our basic framework of mission: from an exclusive to an inclusive understanding of God’s mission. In the traditional paradigm, mission is understood as the task of the church to bring God, in Christ, to the “unreached” peoples. This understanding is what is called Noah’s ark model of mission (Genesis 6-8). Like the ark of Noah, the church is composed of people who are plucked out of an evil world that is set for damnation and who need to be safeguarded to enter their heavenly abode. As those who are rescued, it is now their task to prevent people from jumping out of the ark, and to rescue a few others who may be drowning.[9] An inclusive understanding of mission is based on the affirmation that Christians are in mission because God is “already present and active” in the world, bringing it unto himself. God’s mission, which God carries out in many different ways, includes the creative and healing activities happening in the world even though these actions may not always be under the umbrella of the church. Mission takes place through God’s participation in the sufferings of the world. This inclusive understanding of mission therefore places the loving, caring, judging, and compassionate presence and mission of God in the heart of all human affairs, despite all its ambiguities. 
2) Goal of mission: from conversion to transformation. The traditional approach is to set conversion as the ultimate goal of mission. However, aggressive models of evangelism have increased mistrust, animosity, and tension between religious communities. During the rehabilitation and relief work being done to and for the victims and survivors of the December 2004 tsunami in Indonesia, the efforts of some Christian groups were severely criticised. They had intentionally compelled orphaned children of Muslim families to accept the gospel message within the context of Christian orphanages. Mission today challenges the narrow notion of conversion. Conversion is the transformation activity of the Spirit in the lives of individuals and communities, leading them to a life orientated toward God and their neighbours.[10] 
3) Community of faith: from majority to minority. The traditional model of conversion is an imperialist and colonialist aspiration for church growth and development. The resurgence of denominationalism and the emphasis on church planting and church growth reminds us there is still a triumphalist desire to become the Christian majority: as if strength is measured by size or number. But churches need to relearn how to be at home as a minority community whose life is rooted in God, and whose life is lived in, for, and on behalf of the world. God will call us to account, not simply about numbers, but about how faithful we were in working for the transformation of the world to reflect God’s values of justice, love, and mercy. 
4) The content of mission: from doctrinal debates to spiritual concerns. Traditional mission paradigms have often focused on Christian apologetics, trying to convince others that our theological framework is superior to others. The result has been rivalry and animosity both within the Christian traditions and among different believers. Peace, reconciliation, and freedom from violence and oppression are deep spiritual longings. These spiritual concerns that transcend religious or denominational labels should help define the content of our mission today.[11] 
5) The practice of mission: from tokenism to genuine partnership. What is being done today in mission promotes a “recolonization of mission.” Missionaries arrive with money, buy land, and build churches and schools. They declare a desire to cooperate with national partners, but their actions too often create socioeconomic enclaves of independent behaviour. In some countries, missionaries have gone as business people setting up factories, taking advantage of cheap labour and resources. How can there be genuine partnership between people who are unequal right from the start? To be in solidarity is to stand alongside one another. It shares deeply the pain and hurt of the other, and requires sharing the burden of the other as if it were one’s own.[12]
6) Finality of mission: from liberation to reconciliation. Liberation and reconciliation share similarities: both are concerned about overcoming oppression and place the pursuit of justice at the heart of their activity. Both presume God acting in our history here and now and actively seek the opportunity to bring hope for better humanity by reference to the great biblical narratives. They also acknowledge the need to attend to the structural dimensions of oppression and conflict. However, reconciliation emphases on God’s role in healing and restoration and builds a framework for the future.[13]

Good stories entertain and inform. They stick with you for a long time and pop into your consciousness at strange moments. Shared stories play an important role within social movements. They unite people around common values and create a unifying vision of social transformation.[14]

There is a critical need to shift attitudinally form seeing mission as “doing something” to mission as discipleship formation. This discipleship framework considers all involved in the mission activity of God in the world as sisters and brothers in Christ. It demands a willingness to move toward mutual partnership models in which all partners learn from each other. If agencies and organisations working in the same areas simply “do their own thing” without talking to each other, there will be potential for duplication of resources and unhealthy competition for loyalty. When we reduce mission to what we can accomplish, we can miss the call of God on each of our lives, the call to become his disciples.[15] While much has been written about the professionalization of mission, “good” mission emerges out of genuine and authentic living. Better techniques, strategies, and practices will never replace humble human living. The witness of the church is always strongest when authenticity and powerlessness are its characteristics, when people live in the tension of faith and doubt but still act on what they believe. In Matthew 28:18-20, we are told that we will not be alone in our being sent by God, as God will be with and will empower the activity. Missional discipleship is a faith internalised and formed so that, while we fling ourselves into the world to make a difference, the difference is made by the One who sent us.[16] It takes great faith to be a disciple, because it is only the presence of Christ that will make obedience possible. Disciples cross cultural boundaries. We are to make disciples of all “nations”. “Nations” means cultural peoples or ethnic groups that are distinct and different. This means, the good news of the Gospel will transcend ethnic barriers and be translatable in a variety of ways culturally. The Gospel will be able to speak to all cultures because of its unlimited translatability. It will shape the church’s mission within the culture in which it is located.[17]

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[1] Gary V. Nelson, Gordon W. King, and Terry G. Smith, Going Global: A Congregation’s Introduction to Mission beyond Our Borders (St. Louis: Chalice Press, 2011), 10.

[2] Nelson, King, and Smith, Going Global, 11.

[3] Nelson, King, and Smith, Going Global, 12.

[4] Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 56.

[5] Jenkins, The Next Christendom, 96.

[6] Nelson, King, and Smith, Going Global, 16.

[7] Nelson, King, and Smith, Going Global, 35.

[8] Jenkins, The Next Christendom, 204.

[9] Nelson, King, and Smith, Going Global, 53.

[10] Nelson, King, and Smith, Going Global, 54.

[11] Nelson, King, and Smith, Going Global, 55.

[12] Nelson, King, and Smith, Going Global, 56.

[13] Nelson, King, and Smith, Going Global, 57.

[14] Nelson, King, and Smith, Going Global, 80.

[15] Nelson, King, and Smith, Going Global, 142.

[16] Nelson, King, and Smith, Going Global, 146.

[17] Nelson, King, and Smith, Going Global, 147.

Music Lessons Were the Best Thing Your Parents Ever Did for You, According to Science

I started learning piano when I was 5y.o. I stopped playing during high school. Lately I had a bit more time so I started playing my piano again quite randomly. Two days ago I suddenly discovered I could sing and play at the same time! I’ve tried doing that quite randomly a few times previously and couldn’t do it, so it’s a new breakthrough! (yeah I know many people can do this type of thing, but it's just unusual for me coz I couldn't do it before).  Learning music is good stuff! Still having new stuff happening past 30y.o.

http://mic.com/articles/110628/13-scientific-studies-prove-music-lessons-were-the-best-thing-your-parents-did-for-you#.Oaxo4rW99

If your parents ever submitted you to regular music lessons as a kid, you probably got in a fight with them once or twice about it. Maybe you didn't want to go; maybe you didn't like practicing. But we have some bad news: They were right. It turns out that all those endless major scale exercises and repetitions of "Chopsticks" had some incredible effects on our minds.

Psychological studies continue to uncover more and more benefits that music lessons provide to developing minds. One incredibly comprehensive longitudinal study, produced by the German Socio-Economic Panel in 2013, stated the power of music lessons as plain as could be: "Music improves cognitive and non-cognitive skills more than twice as much as sports, theater or dance." The study found that kids who take music lessons "have better cognitive skills and school grades and are more conscientious, open and ambitious." And that's just the beginning.

The following list is a sampling of the vast amount of neurological benefits that music lessons can provide. Considering this vast diversity, it's baffling that there are still kids in this country who are not receiving high-quality music education in their schools. Every kid should have this same shot at success.

1. It improved your reading and verbal skills.

Several studies have found strong links between pitch processing and language processing abilities. Researchers out of Northwestern University found that five skills underlie language acquisition: "phonological awareness, speech-in-noise perception, rhythm perception, auditory working memory and the ability to learn sound patterns." Through reviewing a series of longitudinal studies, they discovered that each these skills is exercised and strengthened by music lessons. Children randomly assigned to music training alongside reading training performed much better than those who received other forms of non-musical stimulation, such as painting or other visual arts. You've got to kind of feel bad for those kids randomly assigned into art classes.

2. It improved your mathematical and spatial-temporal reasoning.

Music is deeply mathematical in nature. Mathematical relationships determine intervals in scales, the arrangement of keys and the subdivisions of rhythm. It makes sense then that children who receive high-quality music training also tend to score higher in math. This is because of the improved abstract spatial-temporal skills young musicians gain. According to a feature written for PBS Education, these skills are vital for solving the multistep problems thatoccur in "architecture, engineering, math, art, gaming and especially working with computers." With these gains, and those in verbal and reading abilities, young musicians can pretty much help themselves succeed in any field they decide to pursue.

3. It helped your grades.

In a 2007 study, Christopher Johnson, a professor of music education and music therapy at the University of Kansas, found that "elementary schools with superior music education programs scored around 22% higher in English and 20% higher in math scores on standardized tests compared to schools with low-quality music programs." A 2013 study out of Canada found the same. Every year that scores were measured, the mean grades of the students who chose music were higher than those who chose other extracurriculars. While neither of these studies can necessarily prove causality, both do point out a strong correlative connection.

4. It raised your IQ.

Surprisingly, though music is primarily an emotional art form, music training actually provides bigger gains in academic IQ than emotional IQ. Numerous studies have found that musicians generally boast higher IQs than non-musicians. And while these lessons don't necessarily guarantee you'll be smarter than the schlub who didn't learn music, they definitely made you smarter than you would have been without them.

5. It helped you learn languages more quickly.

Children who start studying music early in life develop stronger linguistic abilities. They develop more complex vocabularies, a more nuanced understanding of grammar and higher verbal IQs. These benefits don't just impact children's learning of their first language, but also their ability to learn every language they attempt to learn in the future. The Guardian reports: "Music training plays a key role in the development of a foreign language in its grammar, colloquialisms and vocabulary." These heightened language acquisition abilities will follow students their whole lives and will aid them when they need to pick up new tongues late in adulthood.

6. It made you a better listener, which will help a lot when you're older.

Musical training makes people far more sensitive listeners, which can help tremendously as people age. Musicians who keep up with their instrument enjoy a much slower decline in "peripheral hearing." They can avoid what scientists refer to as the "cocktail party problem" in which older people have trouble isolating specific voices (or musical tones) from a noisy background.

7. It will slow the effects of aging.

But beyond just auditory processing, musical training can also help delay cognitive decline associated with aging. Some of the most promising research positions music as an effective way to stave off dementia. Studies out of Emory University find that even if musicians stop playing as they age, the neurological restructuring that occurred when they were kids helps them perform better on "object-naming, visuospatial memory and rapid mental processing and flexibility" tests than others who never played. The study authors add, though, that musicians had to play for at least 10 years to enjoy these effects. Hopefully you stuck with it long enough.

8. It strengthened your motor cortex.

All musical instruments require high levels of finger dexterity and accuracy. The training works out the motor cortex to an incredible extent, and the benefits can apply to a wide range of non-musical skills. Research published in the Journal of Neuroscience in 2013 found that kids who start learning to play before the age of 7 perform far better on non-musical movement tasks. Exposure at a young age builds connectivity in the corpus callosum, which provides a strong foundation upon which later movement training can build.

9. It improved your working memory.

Playing music puts a high level of demand on one's working memory (or short-term memory). And it seems the more one practices their instrument, the stronger their working memory becomes. A 2013 study found that musical practice has a positive association with participants' working memory capacity, their processing speed and their reasoning abilities. Writing for Psychology Today, William R. Klemm claims that musicians' memory abilities shouldspread into all non-musical verbal realms, helping them remember more content from speeches, lectures or soundtracks.

10. It improved your long-term memory for visual stimuli.

Music training can also affect long-term memory, especially in the visual realm. Scientists at the University of Texas at Arlington reported last year that classically trained musicians who have been playing more than 15 years score higher on pictorial long-term memory tests. This heightened visual sensitivity likely comes from parsing complex musical scores. The study makes no claims for musicians who learn to play without reading music.

11. It made you better at managing anxiety.

Analyzing brain scans of musicians ages 6 through 18, researchers out of the University of Vermont College of Medicine have found tremendous thickening of the cortex in areas responsible for depression, aggression and attention problems. According to the study's authors, musical training "accelerated cortical organization in attention skill, anxiety management and emotional control." That's why you're so emotionally grounded all the time, right? Right.

12. It enhanced your self-confidence and self-esteem.

Several studies have shown how music can enhance children's self-confidence and self-esteem. A 2004 study split a sample of 117 fourth graders from a Montreal public school. One group received weekly piano instruction for three years while the control received no formal instructions. Those who played weekly scored significantly higheron self-esteem tests than those who did not. As most of us know, high levels of self-esteem can help children grow and develop in a vast number of academic and non-academic realms.

13. It made you more creative.

Creativity is notoriously difficult to measure scientifically. All measures generally leave something to be desired. But most sources hold that music training enhances creativity "particularly when the musical activity itself is creative (for instance, improvisation)." According to Education Week, Ana Pinho, a neuroscientist at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, found that musicians with "longer experience in improvising music had better and more targeted activity in the regions of the brain associated with creativity." Music training also enhances communication between the right and left hemispheres of the brain. And studies show musicians perform far better on divergent thinking tests, coming up with greater numbers of novel, unexpected ways to combine new information.