| Poster | Thread | Compton
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Joined: 2005/2/24
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Destinational Cruise of a Lifetime
LOL. Nice link there Diane! Very appropo.
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Unplugging isnt always so simple
Yeah, I know. These days we moderns seem to need every aspect of our spiritual lives to be caffeinated, amplified, and above all, punctual. Well, it isn't my style to cut the television cord. (Being a man, I prefer taking control of the remote. ;-)
Maybe the prayer from the musician I quoted below, was really the cry of a worshipper trapped aboard an entertainment cruise ship. Remember Shostakovich's testimony about his 5th symphony? Beneath it's exaltant melodies you can hear the whisper of a crushed spirit, "My business is to rejoice, my business is to rejoice."
I can relate to poor Dimitri...pretending on a church stage, starving among the overstuffed, dying among the over stimulated.
We would meet in plush buildings built with our consent and money, but would have nary a cent for one anothers needs, let alone the poor. We would sing of putting on garments of praise but cared nothing about the naked. We gorged ourselves with feasts and music, but we were shadows and skeletons of God's people. We reveled in exciting prophecy, but our propechies were only straw to line our beds with at night.
And one day I didn't have to unplug anymore...one day light fell upon the stage and ruined the illusion for me. The triumphant processional was only a cardboard cavalcade, painted scenery ready to be blown over by the slightest disturbance. For another year or so I stayed on the stage out of 'loyalty'...sharing my concerns over the falseness of the festival. Of course everyone knods in deep agreement, solemn, pious. But like the governments of this world, they cannot be stopped by good intentions...the very system we turned on has become our energy source...and we must be plugged into it to stay animated. It is our IV, our massage chair, and our iron lung. The machine has taken over and we are it's blissful stimulated captives. Even the pastor eyes are rolling in the back of his head, flikering under the stimuli.
It's not the machines that need unplugged. It's us...and when we are we become heartbroken at where we find ourselves, and what we have done in church.
By the rivers of Babylon, There we sat down and wept, when we remembered Zion. Upon the willows in the midst of it. We hung our harps. For there our captors demanded of us songs, And our tormentors mirth, saying, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion."
In the meantime, remember...our business is to have church, our business is to have church.
Blessings sister,
MC
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Mike Compton
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|  2007/11/10 9:11 | Profile | roadsign
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remember...our business is to have church, our business is to have church.
Around here it's hockey! Church is mostly for the conservatives and seniors. I don't think we're as churchy as our friends south of the border. Maybe the plug was pulled long ago.
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Remember Shostakovich's testimony about his 5th symphony? Beneath it's exaltant melodies you can hear the whisper of a crushed spirit, "My business is to rejoice, my business is to rejoice."
Funny, some of the most observant people I know seem to be agnostic or athiest - also creative and artistic. At least they are free of the illusion - and just maybe, that frees them to risk talking about spiritual things.
Last night, at a benefit concert, one singer sang the most depressing songs imaginable. He (obviously) used his moment under the spotlight to vent a lot of anger at society. Everybody was mad at him, as a result. After his stint, the rest of us dutifully cheared up the atmosphere with happy songs.
I am praying for an opportunity to share Christ with this singer.
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In the meantime, remember...our business is to have church, our business is to have church.
Oh yes, I almost forgot, thanks for the reminder!
Diane
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Diane
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| | 2007/11/10 9:53 | Profile | Compton
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| | Re: | | Quote:
Around here it's hockey!
Well for us, much of what goes on in our churches is hockey. (Sorry, I couldn't resist...don't take me too seriously) :-D
MC
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Mike Compton
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| | 2007/11/10 10:54 | Profile | roadsign
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| | Re: Hockey and church | | MC said:
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don't take me too seriously
Why not when you are on to a good analogy.
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much of what goes on in our churches is hockey
I never doubted this comparison! However, I admit, I had no idea just how intense this game has become in the USA until my husband had me watch a TV documentary called God is on my Side which presented the religious scene in Texas and area - the southern fundamentalists and how tied it was to nationalism and hype!
The same day my attention was also drawn to this article in the Toronto Star: [url=http://www.thestar.com/living/Religion/article/275393]In a Consumer Society: Browsing for belief[/url]
I ask, Is it really that bad down there !!?!! My goodness, by comparison, we Canadians only play hockey on the back streets. (Marketing religion is nothing new here - just on a smaller scale. Mission societies, Bible colleges, etc have been doing it for some time - before Hybels was around)
MC, As your creative analogies suggest, this kind of religious sub-culture can be compared to an intensive care unit where everyone tries to keep a body alive by hitching it to numerous machines. And all the while the EEG is flat (dead brain). So, if you pull the plug, what do you have left?
As for me, on Sundays I pass mostly Amish buggies on the way to church. Now, there you see another form of the artificial lung machine. Mind you at least the Amish dont permit hockey because it is a competitive sport. Likewise, their religion is not so attached to nationalism and hype. And they dont lure me.
I am gaining an appreciation for the alarming reactions expressed by our American posters. It must surely be intensely distressing to be surrounded by this all-season hockey-like sub-culture.
I guess I needed to have my eyes opened a bit wider. Yet both reports were a drain on my spirit. Sure, the reporters exposed the shame in the house of God. But they failed to restore hope in God or his word. Likewise both failed to present anything about what God is doing, has done, or is capable of doing. So the world is still left in the dark likely more cautious than ever to stay away from the Christian religion and especially that Bible which, as I was once told is the cause of so much division.
Such reports are just another offensive strategy for our relativist opponents. (they play hockey too!) Let's be careful we don't hit the puck back to them.
Without a doubt, I too have been guilty of presenting the dark side of the church at the expense of keeping the Light from shining brightly. But these days, more than ever, that Light needs to shine! It is the only way out of the dark.
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. Matt 5:16
Of course this idea is nothing new! And it certainly is not referring to artificial light.
Diane
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Diane
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| | 2007/11/12 7:27 | Profile |
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