Idolatry

This morning I went to church and my mind trailed off on a tangent that was not really related to the sermon for today. My pastor here was discussing Acts 17 when Paul is discussing the "unknow god" that is in a city he is visiting. I have been considering idolatry and in what ways does that has taken shape in the world we live in today.

When I greeted people at church this morning I talked to multiple people that in response to "How are you doing?" replied "I am so tired", "Oh why's that?" "Well I stayed up late the last few nights."

I am tired today. There is nothing wrong with being tired besides the effects on your health as a result of chronic lack of sleep. But there may be something wrong with the reasons behind why we are so tired. I believe that there is an addiction to entertainment and it is evident all over the place. I once gave my parents a hard time for having the TV as the focal point of the living room, and yet this is very common is most houses. Advertising is rampant. The resources we have are endless when it comes to being entertained. There are so many things that are not in and of themselves evil, but the excessive use and abuse is what is evil.

I purposely use the word evil.

We are addicted to being constantly doing something, of being entertained. It is our priority! Check your email, watch some TV or a movie, play Ultimate Frisbee, listen to music to fill in the silence because silence is always awkward, excessive eating just because it is enjoyable, going to concerts, going to the mall, buying things in general. I would suggest that it has even come to the point of affecting our churches and services. I like, want this attribute in the service, and I don't like this about the service. And once the dislikes out weigh the likes then we can go to the church down the road that meets all or at least more of what we desire.

Idolatry is evil, it separates us from God. If we idolize entertainment it is a distraction and a obstacle that takes up our time and energy and it can over take our lives. I am always on the look out for "something to do" and if I am unsuccessful then I am bored. I think I have said it before, but I will say it again. Boredom is often a choice.

So now the question is how do you get a generation addicted to entertainment and doing stuff to break the cycle and the controlling desires to DO DO DO? And something else I find interesting is that our worth is dependent on what we do.

What did you do this weekend? Is it worthy of bringing up in conversation when you "hang out" with whoever. Why do you hang out with those people? Well, he has these things, he is socially acceptable, because he wears the right things and says the right things. If you have not been sufficiently entertained this weekend then you fail the test of Monday morning conversation...your weekend was boring, uneventful and you have nothing to contribute. You have no worth. Even our conversation is required to be entertaining. That is funny, that is amazing or that is extreme...whatever adjectives you want to use.

Give it to me...all of it. Give me what is physically, visually, and audibly pleasing. I want it because it tastes good. I may lose sleep over it, but it is worth my time because it is more entertaining than sleeping. Plus I can then check off my quota for how I have been entertained.

But our appetite, just like with any other addiction, will never be satisfied.

Stop it! Break the addiction. Start with a day, move on to a few, a week, a month. My mind is working against me, it lusts after my desires for fun and enjoyment.

It has become my American Idol.

Watching the news.

Something that is on my today after watching the news...INFLATION!
As if the American dollar could lose anymore value on an international level.

Stormy

Last night I woke up at 4am to what seemed like a strobe light going off in the room, and then...the building shook. I am not even joking. A huge thunder storm rolled through and it was one of the biggest and most intense lightning and thunder storms I have ever witnessed. I stayed up for a bit counting 1/1000, 2/1000 after every flash. At one point lighting was hitting so frequently and so closely that I could not even finish saying 1/1000 before thunder hit. It was crazy.

Lately I have had a couple different experiences like this that have been reminders that God is in control, and he cares about individual people. Enen in seeing parts of the movie Men in Black I was thinking about how small I am. If you have seen the movie you might remember how it suggests that the size of something is all relative.(i.e. an entire galaxy, in a marble sized ball, hanging from a cat's collar.

Antoher instance was in recently reading Psalm 56, especially verse 8.

"You have taken account of my wanderings; Put my tears in Your bottle. Are they not in Your book?"

All of Psalm 18 is the same way. It descirbes all these crazy powerful attributes about God and then out of nowhere in verse 16 you come face to face with that same God. He is personal and He loves his people.

"The End Is Here"

Endless day
We search for what we hold inside
So hard to find
Luck turns
Will the fallen ever reach within
And rise again

For the rest of my life
I will find the answers
That were always here
I will find the meaning this time
I will fight for the end
Till the end is here

Wasted time
With words that seem to break our will
They blind us still
Without a care
They tarnish what we hold so dear
What was once so clear



"'Salvation belongs to our God
who sits on the throne,
and unto the Lamb." (Revelation 7:9-10)

These were joined by the heavenly hosts, "saying,

'Amen!
Praise and glory,
and wisdom, and thanks, and honor
and power and strength,
be to our God for ever and ever,
Amen!'
. . . These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore, they are before the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple.'" (Revelation 7:12, 14-15)

...

They sang a new song, which they alone could sing:

"And I heard a sound from heaven like the roar of rushing waters and like a loud peal of thunder. The sound I heard was like that of harpists playing their harps. And they sang a new song before the throne

...

They follow the Lamb wherever he goes. They were purchased from among men and offered as first-fruits to God and the Lamb." (Revelation 14:2-4)

Just the vials with the last seven plagues are poured out, there is another burst of praise and thanksgiving in the heavenlies:

"I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and over the number of his name. They held harps given them by God and sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb:

Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty.
Just and true are your ways, King of the ages.
Who will not fear you, O Lord,
and bring glory to your name?
For you alone are holy.
All nations will come and worship before you,
for your righteous acts have been revealed.' (Revelation 15:2-4)

We are now reaching the climax. A "Hallelujah Chorus" precedes the announcement of the Marriage of the Lamb:

"After this I heard what sounded like the roar of a great multitude in heaven shouting:

'Hallelujah!
Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,
for true and just are his judgments.' . . .
And again they shouted:
Hallelujah!'

Then a voice came from the throne, saying:
'Praise our God, all you his servants,
you who fear him, both small and great.'
Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing water and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:

Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.'
(Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)

Then the angel said to me, Write: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!' " (Revelation 19:1, 3, 5-9)

Anybody want to go with me?

At the end of this year I will be going on a choir tour back to the Netherlands...amazing. A couple nights ago I was talking to a friend about whether I was going to do some traveling around Europe after the tour. He suggested I just take another loan out and travel now while I'm still single and just out of college. So I have been considering where I would go if I did travel. I have already decided against it, but it would be really nice to get around to some of the countries that I didn't get to go to the first time in Europe. Plus some other locations that I wold love to visit.

England
Ireland
Sweden
Finland(I was in the airport for about 2 hours)
Norway
Poland
Czech Republic
Croatia
Italy
Australia
New Zealand

So who's up for it? A few thousand dollars here a few there and the trip of a lifetime. And then when we get back we ca job search together to attempt paying off the debt accumulated. I do not like guilt, it is way too good at preventing so many things i want to do.

All in the Family

I think it is funny, like ha ha laughable, that from the outsider persepctive on a family how it can seem like "man they really have it together". And of course the following thought process gives us this feeling like my family is really messed up. There was a TV show called "All in the Family" and those writers splendidly portrayed the family of its chaotic qualities.

I often refer to my close friends as brothers and sisters, and I really like the idea of having a large family...that there is something kindred and unifying between us that makes us family. Christ would be the dominant factor, but there is so much built into these relationships. We have our commonalities and ways we can relate to each other, and by all means we have differing opinions.

So this illusion there are families that don't have as many problems and sit peacefully in the family room every evening to talk about how wonderful there day was is ridiculous. And of course mother knits while father reads the paper and the children piece together the latest Thomas Kinkade puzzle. aaaaa, no.

I think that in the family structure God has a beautiful and often hilarious way of using the ways we hate each other's guts at times and the disagreements to make the statement "can't live with 'em and you can't without 'em" so true. I love my family, and I love my brothers and sisters. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, but sometimes when need to remember that reuniting after that absence often leads back to the reality of the kids fighting because the other is hiding pieces of the puzzle to put the last piece in and mom and dad going crazy from the bickering and on and on and on.

And there you have it. Family is really designed to remind us of how depraved (or deprived) we are and our need for a savior. Hey check it out, I am already developing the ability, that all pastors have, to turning everything into a message about the gospel!

"God bless us, everyone."

Pictures

Upon my return to Dordt I was given some picture by on eo fthe girls that was on the SPICE program in Holland last spring. I found them entertaining...quite. The other guy in the pictures is Alex...one of my roommates this year. The explaination is that we were invited to a Hawaiian Luau themed event and the best part is that it was the youth group of one of the churches in the area. Oh, and yes they did serve beer. It was a dandy old night, and we had a good time listening to all the Dutch students sing karaoke to Dutch songs.

Kantorei

The other singing group that I am in this year is a small enseble called kantorei. Now that I think about it I don't even know what that means. But a song that we sang through today is called "Calling My Children". Dr. K., my choir director appropriately labelled this as the piece that all the freshmen parents attending the concert will weep to. Out with the old seniors and in with the new freshmen. It is relaly nice that seasons change over the course of the year because in a place like Sioux Center, Iowa I always find myslef wanting the next season to come already. But this is with the foolish thinking that the next season will be better than the current one. BAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! Too flippin hot or way to freezing cold and by some miraculous act of God we sometimes get a day or two when the extremes take a break.

Calling My Children Home

Those lives were mine to love and cherish.
To guard and guide along life's way.
Oh God forbid that one should perish.
That one alas should go astray.

Back in the years with all together,
Around the place we'd romp and play.
So lonely now and oft' times wonder,
Oh will they come back home some day.

I'm lonesome for my precious children,
They live so far away.
Oh may they hear my calling...calling..
and come back home some day.

I gave my all for my dear children,
Their problems still with love I share,
I'd brave life's storm, defy the tempest
To bring them home from anywhere.

I lived my life my love I gave them,
to guide them through this world of strife,
I hope and pray we'll live together,
In that great glad here after life.

I'm lonesome for my precious children,
They live so far away.
Oh may they hear my calling...calling.. and come back home some day.

P.S. Kantorei is the name of another, older, German choral ensemble, and I suppose that the Kantorei here at Dordt is named after that.