spirituality

Putting “Real Life” into My Pleasure

Justifying taking pleasure in unrighteousness. Excusing brushing up against darkness.

In the course of writing material for the Teacher Guide for an eighth grade Bible course, I’ve come to a lesson titled “Evil Will Lose.” It’s based on portions of 2 Thessalonians 1 & 2.

While researching through some of my previous writing on those chapters, I came to this:

I’m talking about pleasure sources that may be amoral or even moral for the most part but have unrighteousness scattered through them.

I know, I know. Life is life, and life has loads of unrighteousness through it.

But why must my “entertainment” present it?

To be more interesting and realistic.

Fine. My concern stands.

This is a strike against many of contemporary Christian novels.

I wrote that almost eight years ago, but it’s pertinent enough that I’m encouraging you to read the entire piece — My Pleasure.

I still stand there. Or do I need to see something differently?

What do you think of including detailed evil in order to make something real-to-life?

Netanyahu’s Bible Study

If the man is a Christian or interested in becoming one, I can understand a Bible study.

Otherwise, I wonder if this is being called something it isn’t.

After all, a practicing Jew doesn’t accept the Bible as a whole, does he?

Makes me wonder: Will this study even be using Bibles? Genuine, sixty-six-book, two-testament Bibles? Read it all

What’s That Vague Malaise About?

  • “When you get up again…you feel a vague malaise.”
  • “Where life is, and where it is not.”
  • “Go where the nourishment is.”
  • “The streams of real life flowed elsewhere.”
  • “Enough to keep you from scurvy and beriberi but not enough for optimum health.”

That reminds me of some of my entertainment experiences.Read it all

Myth: Neutral Music

'Music is neutral; lyrics are the message.' There's simply no factual basis for this belief. Is the music I use really at war against the content of the lyrics?

Do you believe the myth?

And live by it?

And defend it?

And get defensive and testy when it’s challenged?

Here are the opening and closing paragraphs of a piece I learned about on…uh…Facebook:

For years I have heard the claim that the type of music in corporate worship is irrelevant. It is not the music that matters, but the lyrics. Music is supposedly “neutral,” and the lyrics alone determine the message. There is simply no factual basis for this belief. The propagation of this idea has resulted in much spiritual confusion today where the music used in worship actually wars against the content of the lyrics.

[…]

In summary, music always speaks. It always has something to say on its own—free of lyrics. What our worship music says about God must line up with what we are told about God in His Word. We know God two ways: both by His character and by His works as they are recorded in Scripture. Nobody is very interested in knowing the character and works of God today, and that ultimately is the root of the problem. We cannot speak honestly of one we do not know. God is made over into man’s image today, and the music used to worship Him reflects that. A thorough knowledge of God through His Word will have a reformational effect on Christian worship. Only when we know God can we truly worship him in spirit and in truth.

Soli Deo Gloria

Do read the whole piece: Music is Never “Neutral” by Tom Schlueter

Above all, love God!