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About the Book
"Harvest of Health" by Gloria Copeland explores the connection between faith and physical health, emphasizing the importance of trusting in God for healing and wellness. Copeland draws on biblical principles and personal experiences to offer practical advice for cultivating a healthy lifestyle. The book encourages readers to trust in God's promises for abundant health and well-being.
Steven Curtis Chapman
Steven Curtis Chapman is an American Christian musician, singer, song writer, record producer, actor, author and social activist. He is the only artist in the history of music to have won 56 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards and is also a proud receiver of 5 Grammy Awards. His music is known for being a unique cross between country music, soft rock and orchestrated pop, which made him a prominent artist in the contemporary Christian music circuit of the 1980s. Chapman grew up in a humble environment where he found his calling for music, owing to his fatherâs inclination towards country music. He learnt to play instruments like guitar and piano just by hanging around in his fatherâs music store, listening to him play along with his friends. He took up music seriously when he moved to Nashville and got recognized by Sparrow Records, a company he stayed with for a long period in his career. He has released 19 studio albums and has sold over 10 million albums until now. Chapman is a family oriented person just like his father and has a big family comprising of his wife Mary Beth and 3 biological and 2 adopted children. He is a vocal advocate for adoption and has worked socially to eradicate the problem of youth violence.
Childhood & Early Life
Steven Curtis Chapman was born on November 21, 1962 in Paducah, Kentucky, to Herb and Judy Chapman. His father was a country singer and songwriter, who turned down opportunities to become a successful singer to concentrate on his family. His mother was a stay-at-home mom.
His father owned a music store, a business he managed from his basement and used to play music with his friends. Such creative environment at home influenced Chapmanâs life from very early on and he bought his first guitar at 6.
Chapman joined as a pre-med student at Georgetown College in Kentucky but after few semesters he moved to Anderson College, Indiana. But he ultimately dropped the idea of studying and went to Nashville to pursue his first love, music.
During 1980s, he wrote a song âBuilt to Lastâ, which gained huge popularity after getting recorded by a gospel group âThe Imperialsâ. The success of the song fetched Chapman a songwriting deal with Sparrow Records.
Career
Chapmanâs first official album âFirst Handâ was released in 1987. The album was an instant hit with singles like âWeak Daysâ and topped at number 2 on the Contemporary Christian Music chart. The album had a mix of country music with soft rock and pop.
In 1988, following the success of his first album, Chapman released âReal Life Conversationsâ. Its hit single âHis Eyesâ received the âContemporary Recorded Song of the Yearâ award from the âGospel Music Associationâ. He co-wrote it with James Isaac Elliot.
After a few years, he made a swift turn to mainstream music with his album âThe Great Adventureâ in 1992. It earned him two Grammy awards for the album and for the title song of the album.
After gaining consistent success with albums like âHeaven in the Real World (1994), âSigns of Life (1996) and âSpeechless (1999), Chapmanâs next great album âDeclarationâ came out in 2001, for which he toured 70 cities.
In 2003, âAll About Loveâ was released and it ranked at Top 15 on the Christian Music charts. It was released under Sparrow Records and Chapman very humbly credited his wife Mary Beth for being the inspiration for his album.
âAll Things Newâ was released in 2004 and the album added another Grammy to Chapmanâs proud award collection. This time he received it in the category of Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album. It was also nominated for the Dove Award.
In 2005, âAll I Really Want for Christmasâ was released, which was Chapmanâs another successful Christmas album after âThe Music of Christmasâ. It had traditional holiday tunes and favorites like âGo Tell It on the Mountainâ and Silver Bellsâ.
Chapman took his music to greater levels by taking his concert to South Korea for the U.S. troops who were serving there in 2006. It was the first Christian concert that ever performed for the American army in that country.
In 2007, he released âThis Momentâ which included hit singles like âCinderellaâ, for which he was chosen for WOW Hits 2009. He also went on his âWinter Jamâ tour and took his sonsâ, Caleb and Willâs band along.
âBeauty Will Riseâ, Chapmanâs seventeenth album, was released in 2009. It is said that he wrote the songs of the album after getting inspired by his daughter Maria Sueâs sad and untimely demise. It included songs like âMeant to Beâ and âRe:creationâ.
In 2012, Chapman finally parted ways with Sparrow Records, the record company that he remained loyal to for so many years. He was signed on by Sonyâs Provident Label Group and came out with a Christmas album called âJOYâ.
âThe Glorious Unfoldingâ was released in 2013 under Reunion Records and it peaked on number 27 on the Billboard 200 and was number 1 Top Christian Album. The album was produced by Chapman himself and Brent Milligan.
Major Works
Chapmanâs âThe Great Adventureâ in 1992 was a turning point in his musical career because until now he was making soft and contemporary country music but with âThe Great Adventureâ he targeted the mainstream audience and tasted huge commercial success for the first time.
Awards & Achievements
Chapman is the winner of five Grammy awards for albums like âFor the Sake of the Callâ âThe Great Adventureâ âThe Live Adventureâ, âSpeechlessâ and âAll Things Newâ. He has also received 56 Gospel Music Association Dove Awards, more than any other artist.
Personal Life & Legacy
Chapman got married to Mary Beth in 1984 after they first met at Anderson University in Indiana. They have three biological children: Emily, Caleb and Will and three adopted children: Shaohannah, Stevey and Maria, together.
In 2008, Chapmanâs youngest son Will ran over his car by accident on his adopted daughter Maria Sue Chunxi Chapman. She was running towards him to meet him but he did not see her and she was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.
Trivia
Chapmanâs wife Mary Beth Chapman has written and released a book about losing her youngest daughter called âChoosing to SEE: A Journey of Struggle and Hopeâ.
Chapman and his wife have written three children's books with adoption themes: âShaoey And Dot: Bug Meets Bundleâ (2004), âShaoey and Dot: The Christmas Miracleâ (2005), and âShaoey and Dot: A Thunder and Lightning Bug Storyâ (2006).
He has received an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Anderson University.
hero in an unmarked grave - the unusual modesty of john calvin
On May 27, 1564, just after eight oâclock in the evening, a nurse urgently summoned Theodore Beza (1519â1605) to Calvinâs bedside. âWe found he had already died,â Calvinâs friend and fellow pastor later wrote. âOn that day, then, at the same time with the setting sun, this splendid luminary was withdrawn from us.â 1  Calvin was 54 years old. Calvinâs death sent a shock wave throughout Geneva and beyond. Beza writes, âThat night and the following day there was a general lamentation throughout the city . . . all lamenting the loss of one who was, under God, a common parent and comfort.â He records that two days later âthe entire cityâ gathered at the St. Pierre Cathedral to honor their beloved pastor. Despite Calvinâs prominence, the funeral was unusually simple, âwith no extraordinary pomp.â 2  But Calvinâs burial was particularly unusual. Unmarked Grave Eighteen years earlier, on February 18, 1546, fellow Reformer Martin Luther died at the age of 63. As was common practice for ministers, Lutherâs remains were interred inside the church where he had faithfully served. His casket lies in Wittenbergâs Castle Church, near the pulpit, seven feet below the floor of the nave. Lutherâs successor and fellow Reformer, Philip Melanchthon (1490â1560), is buried beside him. So also William Farel (1489â1565), who first called Calvin to Geneva in 1536, is buried in the cathedral of NeuchĂątel, where he spent the final years of his ministry. When Calvinâs friend and successor Theodore Beza died in 1605, he was buried next to the pulpit of St. Pierre, the Genevan church in which he and Calvin ministered together. But Calvinâs remains lie elsewhere. Rather than being interred in St. Pierre, Calvinâs body was carried outside the city wall to a marshy burial ground for commoners called Plainpalais. With close friends in attendance, Calvinâs body was wrapped in a simple shroud, enclosed in a rough casket, and lowered into the earth. Beza writes that Calvinâs plot was unlisted and, âas he [had] commanded, without any gravestone.â 3 Why did Calvin command that he be buried, contrary to common practice, in an unmarked grave? Some speculate that he wanted to discourage religious pilgrims from visiting his resting place or to prevent accusations from the Roman church that he desired veneration as a saint. 4  But the answer lies somewhere deeper â in Calvinâs understanding of Christian modesty. Forgotten Meaning of Modesty When we speak of modesty today, we most often mean dressing or behaving in such a way as to avoid impropriety or indecency. But modesty more generally refers to the quality of being unassuming or moderate in the estimation of oneself. For centuries, the church understood the connection. Immodest dress was not simply ostentatious or sexually suggestive; it reflected an overemphasis on appearance. As Jesus warned, outward appearance can mask impiety (Matthew 6:16) or pride (Luke 18:12). This is why both Gentile women converts in Ephesus and the Jewish Christians addressed in Hebrews are urged to consider how their outward appearance relates to the disposition of the heart. Excessive adornment could be evidence of self-importance (1 Timothy 2:9). Acceptable worship requires a posture of reverence, not pretension (Hebrews 12:28). Thus, a modest person represents himself neither too highly nor too meanly because he understands both the dignity and the humility of being transformed by the grace of God. âModesty is simply the outward reflection of true Christian humility.â Modesty, then, is simply the outward reflection of true Christian humility. It obliterates pride by embracing the reality that a Christian is both creaturely and beloved. In this light, self-importance becomes absurd. Grandiosity becomes laughable. Celebrity becomes monstrous. We Are Not Our Own For Calvin, the gospel radically reshapes our view of self. As those created in Godâs image, provisioned by his goodness, redeemed by his mercy, transformed by his grace, and called to his mission, those who belong to Christ no longer live for themselves. âNow the great thing is this,â Calvin writes, âwe are consecrated and dedicated to God in order that we may thereafter think, speak, meditate, and do, nothing except to his glory.â Calvin continues, If we, then, are not our own but the Lordâs, it is clear what error we must flee and whither we must direct all the acts of our life. We are not our own : let not our reason nor our will, therefore, sway our plans and deeds. We are not our own : let us not therefore see it as our goal to seek what is expedient for us according to the flesh. We are not our own : in so far as we can, let us therefore forget ourselves and all that is ours. Conversely, we are Godâs : let us therefore live for him and die for him. We are Godâs : let his wisdom and will therefore rule all our actions. We are Godâs : let all the parts of our life accordingly strive toward him as our only lawful goal. Oh how much has that man profited who, having been taught that he is not his own, has taken away dominion and rule from his own reason that he may yield it to God! For, as consulting our self-interest is the pestilence that most effectively leads to our destruction, so the sole haven of salvation is to be wise in nothing through ourselves but to follow the leading of the Lord alone . 5 âModesty blossoms when we experience the freedom from having to prove ourselves to God or one another.â Modesty and humility flow from a heart transformed by the Spirit of Christ. âAs soon as we are convinced that God cares for us,â Calvin writes, âour minds are easily led to patience and humility.â 6  The Spirit shapes us with a kind of moderation that âgives the preference to othersâ and that guards us from being âeasily thrown into agitation.â 7  Modesty blossoms when we experience the freedom from having to prove ourselves to God or one another. âModesty, His Constant Friendâ Calvinâs life reflected this reality. Despite the doors that were opened to him through his writing and network of connections, he was committed to âstudiously avoiding celebrity.â 8  When the Institutes  was published in 1536, he was so successful in his object to ânot acquire fameâ that no one in Basel knew that he was its author. For the rest of his life, wherever he went, he took care to âconceal that I was the author of that performance.â 9  Calvin even sought to avoid a wider ministry in Geneva, having âresolved to continue in the same privacy and obscurity.â He was drawn into the limelight only when William Farel warned him âwith a dreadful imprecationâ that turning down the post would be refusing Godâs call to service. 10  In brief autobiographical comments he wrote the year that he died, we see a glimmer of his own surprise over Godâs sovereign hand through his life. God so led me about through different turnings and changes that he never permitted me to rest in any place, until, in spite of my natural disposition, he brought me forth to public notice. . . . I was carried, I know not how, as it were by force to the Imperial assemblies, where, willing or unwilling, I was under the necessity of appearing before the eyes of many. 11 It is no surprise, then, that a few days before his death, Calvin exhorted his friends to not be those who âostentatiously display themselves and, from overweening confidence, insist that all their opinions should be approved by others.â Instead, he pleaded with them to âconduct themselves with modesty, keeping far aloof from all haughtiness of mind.â 12  For Beza, Calvinâs modesty â forged by his vision of Godâs glory, Christâs redeeming love, and the Spiritâs animating power â was his defining characteristic. After Calvinâs burial, Beza captured it in verse: Why in this humble and unnoticed tomb Is Calvin laid â the dread of falling Rome; Mournâd by the good, and by the wicked fearâd By all who knew his excellence revered? From whom evân virtueâs self might virtue learn, And young and old its value may discern? âTwas modesty, his constant friend on earth, That laid this stone, unsculptured with a name; Oh! happy ground, enrichâd with Calvinâs worth, More lasting far than marble is thy fame! 13 Free to Be Forgotten In old Geneva, on the grounds of the college Calvin founded, stands an immense stone memorial to four leaders of the Protestant Reformation. At its center are towering reliefs of Calvin, Beza, Farel, and John Knox (1513â1572). Calvin would surely detest it. But the monument is a metaphor. We live in a culture that fears obscurity and irrelevance. We measure ourselves against others and build our own platforms in the hope that we will not be forgotten. We attempt to distinguish ourselves at the expense of the humility and modesty that honors Christ. Calvin would have us be free from such striving. For however anyone may be distinguished by illustrious endowments, he ought to consider with himself that they have not been conferred upon him that he might be self-complacent, that he might exalt himself, or even that he might hold himself in esteem. Let him, instead of this, employ himself in correcting and detecting his faults, and he will have abundant occasion for humility. In others, on the other hand, he will regard with honor whatever there is of excellences and will, by means of love, bury their faults. The man who will observe this rule, will feel no difficulty in preferring others before himself. And this, too, Paul meant when he added, that they ought not to have everyone a regard to themselves, but to their neighbors, or that they ought not to be devoted to themselves. Hence it is quite possible that a pious man, even though he should be aware that he is superior, may nevertheless hold others in greater esteem. 14 We may rightly regard Calvin as a hero of the faith, but he didnât ultimately see himself that way. Humility had taught him to walk modestly before God and others â and, in the end, the freedom to lie down in a forgotten grave. Theodore Beza, âThe Life of John Calvinâ in Tracts Related to the Reformation  (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1844), 1:xcv. ⩠Beza, Tracts , 1:xcvi. ⩠Beza, Tracts , 1:xcvi. ⩠Eighteenth-century guidebooks indeed list the disused Plainpalais cemetery as an important stop for tourists, though they warn that pilgrims will search for Calvinâs resting place in vain. By the nineteenth century, keepers of the burial ground staked out a âlikely-enoughâ site for Calvinâs grave (complete with a rudimentary marker) simply to avoid the irritation of being so frequently asked. ⩠John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion , ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2011), 3.7.1 (emphasis mine). ⩠John Calvin, Commentaries on the Catholic Epistles , trans. John Owen (Edinburgh: T. Constable,1855), 149. ⩠John Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul the Apostle to the Philippians, Colossians, and Thessalonians , trans. John Pringle (Edinburgh: T. Constable, 1851) 52â53. ⩠John Calvin, Commentary on the Psalms , trans. James Anderson (Edinburgh: Edinburg Printing Company, 1845), 1:xli, xlii. ⩠Calvin, Psalms , 1:xlii. ⩠Calvin, Psalms , 1:xlii. ⩠Calvin, Psalms , 1:xli, xliii. ⩠Beza, Tracts , 1:xci. ⩠Beza was widely known for his literary works. As a humanist, he became famous for his collection of Latin poems in Juvenilia , published just before his conversion in 1548. He continued to write poetry, satires, and dramas until the end of his life. Francis Sisbonâs nineteenth-century translation attempts to capture the sense of the Latin in a more familiar poetic form (Theodore Beza, The Life of John Calvin , trans. Francis Sibson, [Philadelphia: J. Whetham, 1836], 94). For the original text, see Calvin and Beza, Tracts , 1:xcvi. ⩠Calvin, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul , 53. â©