Ok, the dangers of posting once a week are catching up with me again. Last time we spoke, Easter was a long ways off, now, it's already behind us. It's interesting as the celebration comes and goes, to notice that it is one of a tiny handful of events in the New Testament we have a solid date on, with the events of Holy Week coinciding with the Jewish Passover celebrations. For all the attention Christmas gets, there is little solid evidence presented in the Bible of it's date. We know that the Bible tells us the important things we need to know, not always the things we want to know, so getting that detailed date on Christ's death and resurrection evidently trumps the need to know the date of His birth. Continuing down this path, I started thinking about how very few dates, celebrations, and even rituals we were passed through the New Testament. Reading through the Old Testament, we find a long litany of feasts, celebrations and rituals passed to Israel to properly worship God, while in the New, we have Easter and Pentecost for dated events, and we have communion, baptism and tithing for rituals. One could count the Lord's Prayer as one of the few examples of liturgy. Why the shift?
I'm not pretending to know the mind of God, but it's my two bits that the shift comes for several reasons. By the available accounts, we see that before the Mosaic Law was handed down, it seems that worship was a bit more personalized. Adam and Eve walked and talked directly with God in the Garden, without ritual, Cain and Abel brought the sacrifices of their own choosing. While David wrote a long variety of psalms to praise and petition God, once we get into the years of the nation of Israel, the focus of worship appears to be almost exclusively to the Mosaic rituals. This led to the legalism exemplified by the Pharisees and Sadducees whom Jesus spoke against. Not everyone performed the rituals or sang the songs heartlessly, but most of us know that feeling of just not being into it on Sunday morning, or even in personal devotion time, and just going through familiar motions.
The New Covenant not only opened up salvation for people outside the decedents of Abraham, it also reopened the world of worship. From the melodic chants of Benedictine monks to the tortured screams of the unblack metal band, from thumping beats of the hip hop Christian soldiers to the quiet tranquility of our favorite hundred year old hymns, they are all valid expressions of faith. I've never been a fan of the traditional/contemporary split services that are very common on church signs anymore, (just seems to be dividing not bringing together, other activities and group work can eliminate that split, however, it seems to be adding a lot of uphill struggle) but I do understand the reasoning of letting people worship in the ways most comfortable. That's part of the idea. Instead of tailoring our heart to our worship, we have the freedom to tailor our worship to our heart.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Monday, April 18, 2011
Camping in tents, looking towards the city
I'm working my way through another book off the shelf (Finding Your Purpose In God's Plan, by B.R. Coombs, available on good clearance shelves everywhere, that's where I got my copy, at least) and I came to a quote from Hebrews that set my mind off in a different direction from the rest of the chapter.
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Heb. 11:8-10, NIV
Some words and phrases jumped out at me. "He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise." "For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." We are sitting here, living in this world in our tents, our temporary, physical bodies, looking forward to the city with foundations, Heaven, which is built by God. If we go back to Genesis and read Abraham's account, it isn't an easy road he walked. The man even threw several of the rocks onto his own path by his choices. But he got through, not by focusing on the tent, or on the state of the land he had not yet received, but by focusing on the promise of God.
If you've been following me for a while here, you know politics is one of my favorite topics to debate. While there are numerous good reasons for Christians to be active in the political world, we have to be very careful not to get hung up on the tent while losing focus on the city with foundations. For example, are our words against political ideas and opponents in line with the Bible? The shooting of abortion provider Dr. Tiller in Wichita Ks comes to mind. Personally I abhor abortion and the abortion debate, for religious and political reasons (still haven't figured out how regulating a medical procedure falls under the federal government's Constitutional power, at minimum, on the legal side, the issue should be left to the states, instead of a federal mandate) but gunning the man down doesn't match our Biblical mandate, does it? Ideally, the best way to deal with the issue is to put the abortion providers out of business through a lack of customers, instead of legislation. That matches words like "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's" much better doesn't it? How many words and actions of "religious" people have been turned into fuel for nonbelievers, often with little to no twisting or taking words out of context? How many of those were spurred by putting that focus on the fragile, temporal, dirty tents instead of that solid, permanent, holy foundation?
It's not up as of this writing, but check www.kfaonline.org later this week for the April 17th sermon on the normal Christian life. Pastor Dan talked a great deal about how even Christians have a tendency to get focused on the tents others are wearing, like skin color and sexual orientation, instead of focusing on that eternal foundation and treating others the way Jesus wants us to. Yes, it's nice when the Church wins some of its legal and social battles, but what about when we individuals listen to the hurts of an unsaved friend? What about when we break down those stereotypes and don't just beat sinners up with Scripture? What about when we follow Christ's example and weep for the world instead of screaming at it?
It's hard to keep that focus on the eternal and not the worldly. The world is here in front of us, in our faces, yelling at us, taxing us, sending us disconnect notices, telling us our loans weren't approved, apologizing for the pink slips, telling us that if we just let go of those old superstitions our lives will be so much more enjoyable, while the eternal tells us to wait, trust, and have faith. Go back to Abraham, he listened to the world, took the world's route to answer God's promise, and the result caused numerous problems, even beyond Abraham's lifetime. Compare that to the Apostles after the Ascension, who listened to Jesus' words and waited in Jerusalem and received the Holy Spirit, in spite of the possible threats against them there. These are just two examples of the results, it doesn't take too much looking to find more, in the Bible, in history, and even in our own spheres of influence. The question we have to ask ourselves is, which example are we making?
By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. Heb. 11:8-10, NIV
Some words and phrases jumped out at me. "He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise." "For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God." We are sitting here, living in this world in our tents, our temporary, physical bodies, looking forward to the city with foundations, Heaven, which is built by God. If we go back to Genesis and read Abraham's account, it isn't an easy road he walked. The man even threw several of the rocks onto his own path by his choices. But he got through, not by focusing on the tent, or on the state of the land he had not yet received, but by focusing on the promise of God.
If you've been following me for a while here, you know politics is one of my favorite topics to debate. While there are numerous good reasons for Christians to be active in the political world, we have to be very careful not to get hung up on the tent while losing focus on the city with foundations. For example, are our words against political ideas and opponents in line with the Bible? The shooting of abortion provider Dr. Tiller in Wichita Ks comes to mind. Personally I abhor abortion and the abortion debate, for religious and political reasons (still haven't figured out how regulating a medical procedure falls under the federal government's Constitutional power, at minimum, on the legal side, the issue should be left to the states, instead of a federal mandate) but gunning the man down doesn't match our Biblical mandate, does it? Ideally, the best way to deal with the issue is to put the abortion providers out of business through a lack of customers, instead of legislation. That matches words like "Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's" much better doesn't it? How many words and actions of "religious" people have been turned into fuel for nonbelievers, often with little to no twisting or taking words out of context? How many of those were spurred by putting that focus on the fragile, temporal, dirty tents instead of that solid, permanent, holy foundation?
It's not up as of this writing, but check www.kfaonline.org later this week for the April 17th sermon on the normal Christian life. Pastor Dan talked a great deal about how even Christians have a tendency to get focused on the tents others are wearing, like skin color and sexual orientation, instead of focusing on that eternal foundation and treating others the way Jesus wants us to. Yes, it's nice when the Church wins some of its legal and social battles, but what about when we individuals listen to the hurts of an unsaved friend? What about when we break down those stereotypes and don't just beat sinners up with Scripture? What about when we follow Christ's example and weep for the world instead of screaming at it?
It's hard to keep that focus on the eternal and not the worldly. The world is here in front of us, in our faces, yelling at us, taxing us, sending us disconnect notices, telling us our loans weren't approved, apologizing for the pink slips, telling us that if we just let go of those old superstitions our lives will be so much more enjoyable, while the eternal tells us to wait, trust, and have faith. Go back to Abraham, he listened to the world, took the world's route to answer God's promise, and the result caused numerous problems, even beyond Abraham's lifetime. Compare that to the Apostles after the Ascension, who listened to Jesus' words and waited in Jerusalem and received the Holy Spirit, in spite of the possible threats against them there. These are just two examples of the results, it doesn't take too much looking to find more, in the Bible, in history, and even in our own spheres of influence. The question we have to ask ourselves is, which example are we making?
Monday, April 11, 2011
Change, change, and more change
Change came to my mind recently. It's quite amazing how much change the last couple of generations have seen, experienced, and incited. Technology is the easiest one to quantify, and we'll get to that one, but there have been many other changes as well. Just in my lifetime, we've seen the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the reunification of Germany on the international front, just for two major examples. Shortly before my lifetime, homosexuality was listed by the APA as a mental disorder. (Not delving into that one right now, just using it as an example) The US economy has moved from production to service as it's major product. Marriage has become more and more optional, whether people are starting one or continuing one. People don't typically find a job and stay there until retirement, instead changing companies and often career paths frequently. Those are just the tip of the iceberg on the social side of changes that have happened in the last thirtysomeodd years. The social changes alone could take pages and pages to list. Feel free to think of your own before we move to the next section.
Technology, like I said, is the easiest area of change to see. When I was a kid, the telephone was attached to the wall, the receiver was on a cord that only stretched a couple of feet from the box, and it had a rotary dial. A few years later, the phones had push buttons instead of rotors, multiple lines in the home became more common, and eventually wireless handsets let you wander around the house on the phone. Now of course, we've moved from the house phone to the cell phone, which has grown in it's own leaps and bounds. Early cell phones weren't cell phones, they were car phones, because you still had to plug them into something. I've still got my first cell phone in a box somewhere. It made phone calls, as long as the little plastic antenna could pick up a signal, send and receive text messages, and play Snake on the little green screen. Now our phones make calls, play high end video games, take pictures and video, store gigs of data, read books, surf the web, track our global position..... you get the point. The same has happened to computers. Our first computer was an Apple IIc, with big old 5 1/4 in floppy disks that held a whopping megabit or two. You know that old cellphone I was talking about? It is a more powerful computing device then that poor old Apple.
These are a lot of changes that have gone on in my short lifetime. It certainly isn't a matter of things haven't changed before. The difference is that the change seems to happen much faster now. Way back when, it took months or even years for changes to disseminate into the culture, outside of small pockets like big cities. I was watching a movie about the great Oklahoma land race, and started thinking about the years it took to set that up, and the years it took for the settlers to establish themselves on their new land, even though it became theirs in a very short amount of time.
I think this tendency to change is one of the reasons why the last couple of generations have had such an issue in accepting God. God is eternal, and in that eternal, He hasn't changed. His plans haven't changed, from Adam and Eve to the nation of Israel to Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross to the wait for Jesus' return. We have gotten so accustomed to change that the idea of God being the same, having the same values and plans and desires and expectations for us over all these centuries is hard to fathom. We think that somehow, because the world has changed, God has changed along with it, and adjustments have to be made. But that isn't how it works. God isn't the one who has to make adjustments, we are. I know changing that paradigm isn't going to be easy, but we have to do it, first in ourselves, then in the Church. How do we make the changes? Get back to the Bible. Read those hard parts again, and see how they stand against our ideas. Our pastor preached on Acts 5:1-11 this week, when Ananias and Sapphira were struck down for lying about what they had given. Go back and read that, and think about whether that principle has changed any. That's just one example of many where we have gotten ideas in the world and in the Church that somehow time has changed the way God works and wants us to work.
Over the years, I've read lots of various commentators (of various degrees of talent) express how the Bible is full of old fashioned ideas that have outlived themselves. Silly concepts like mankind is a special creation, not a random happenstance, or like we are naturally selfish, greedy, and sinful, not taught such things by society. But I'd like to ask those folks, we've been living under those changes in mindset, along with others, for some time now. How is that change working out for us? Have those changes made a happier, safer, better world? If not, maybe there's something to these old constants, no?
Technology, like I said, is the easiest area of change to see. When I was a kid, the telephone was attached to the wall, the receiver was on a cord that only stretched a couple of feet from the box, and it had a rotary dial. A few years later, the phones had push buttons instead of rotors, multiple lines in the home became more common, and eventually wireless handsets let you wander around the house on the phone. Now of course, we've moved from the house phone to the cell phone, which has grown in it's own leaps and bounds. Early cell phones weren't cell phones, they were car phones, because you still had to plug them into something. I've still got my first cell phone in a box somewhere. It made phone calls, as long as the little plastic antenna could pick up a signal, send and receive text messages, and play Snake on the little green screen. Now our phones make calls, play high end video games, take pictures and video, store gigs of data, read books, surf the web, track our global position..... you get the point. The same has happened to computers. Our first computer was an Apple IIc, with big old 5 1/4 in floppy disks that held a whopping megabit or two. You know that old cellphone I was talking about? It is a more powerful computing device then that poor old Apple.
These are a lot of changes that have gone on in my short lifetime. It certainly isn't a matter of things haven't changed before. The difference is that the change seems to happen much faster now. Way back when, it took months or even years for changes to disseminate into the culture, outside of small pockets like big cities. I was watching a movie about the great Oklahoma land race, and started thinking about the years it took to set that up, and the years it took for the settlers to establish themselves on their new land, even though it became theirs in a very short amount of time.
I think this tendency to change is one of the reasons why the last couple of generations have had such an issue in accepting God. God is eternal, and in that eternal, He hasn't changed. His plans haven't changed, from Adam and Eve to the nation of Israel to Jesus' sacrifice on the Cross to the wait for Jesus' return. We have gotten so accustomed to change that the idea of God being the same, having the same values and plans and desires and expectations for us over all these centuries is hard to fathom. We think that somehow, because the world has changed, God has changed along with it, and adjustments have to be made. But that isn't how it works. God isn't the one who has to make adjustments, we are. I know changing that paradigm isn't going to be easy, but we have to do it, first in ourselves, then in the Church. How do we make the changes? Get back to the Bible. Read those hard parts again, and see how they stand against our ideas. Our pastor preached on Acts 5:1-11 this week, when Ananias and Sapphira were struck down for lying about what they had given. Go back and read that, and think about whether that principle has changed any. That's just one example of many where we have gotten ideas in the world and in the Church that somehow time has changed the way God works and wants us to work.
Over the years, I've read lots of various commentators (of various degrees of talent) express how the Bible is full of old fashioned ideas that have outlived themselves. Silly concepts like mankind is a special creation, not a random happenstance, or like we are naturally selfish, greedy, and sinful, not taught such things by society. But I'd like to ask those folks, we've been living under those changes in mindset, along with others, for some time now. How is that change working out for us? Have those changes made a happier, safer, better world? If not, maybe there's something to these old constants, no?
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Sumthin's better than nuthin, right
Ok, I've been a bit sick all day, and none of the things I've been working on have been clicking, so we'll cut the losses and give a short bit of wisdom. There is an account that tells us Thomas Aquinas was in the Vatican, and Pope Innocent IV took him to his personal chambers, where they were counting the gold. Innocent said "You see the Church is no longer in an age where she can say 'Silver and gold I have none' (Acts 3:6). To which Aquinas answered "It is true holy father, nor can she say to the lame man 'Get up and walk'. A whole lot of thought there, I'll let you ponder it for a while. It's one of my favorite stories, because it's disturbingly accurate, so I'll likely be expanding on it later. Till then, enjoy.
Monday, March 28, 2011
The simple things in life....
What to blab about today? Obama's speech on why we went into Libya? Nah, I'm honestly too torn about whether we should be putting our dog in the fight or not. New report that a fractional increase in consumer spending was primarily spent on increased gas and energy costs? No, trying to stay a little happier than that for a while. My youngest child's upcoming 5th birthday and it's reverberations? See previous answer :).
How about simplicity? I finally finished Max Lucado's Traveling Light, and fact that the whole book is built off of the 23rd Psalm reminded me that it is the simplest things that really reach us best. Think about some of the most enduring praise and worship songs. Amazing Grace, I Can Only Imagine, God Of Wonders all come to mind as packing huge amounts of encouragement, praise and theology into very tight packages. The same goes for Bible verses and stories. Again, think about the most familiar ones, like the aforementioned 23rs Psalm, the account of Shadrach, Meshach and Abendego, and most of Jesus' parables. Again, we find a lot in these small packages.
"OK, great, so there's a lot for the new believer in these songs and verses, what does that mean to us more seasoned Christians?" Glad you asked. Just because something is simple doesn't mean that it can't have a number of layers. Remember that tale of Rack, Shack, and Benny? When we learned it in Sunday School, do you remember hearing, really hearing that line "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”(Dan. 3:17,18, emphasis mine) Think about Jesus washing His disciple's feet at the Last Supper. As we grow in knowledge of the society an the times, it goes from a simple act of humility to realizing that not only did these men have filthy feet from walking on dirt roads all day long, but that for that reason, foot washing was the bottom man on the totem pole's job. What did that additional information do to your understanding of that action?
Have you slipped into a humdrum? Have you overloaded on theological disseminations? Are you just searching for that next step in maturation? Look back to those simple things. The kid's choruses you sang, the old hymns you rolled your eyes at as all the old people sang, ;) the parables and histories you think you know by heart, revisit those. Look at them through new eyes and listen through new ears. Enjoy their messages. Add your knowledge and experiences to them. You will be amazed at what you can find.
How about simplicity? I finally finished Max Lucado's Traveling Light, and fact that the whole book is built off of the 23rd Psalm reminded me that it is the simplest things that really reach us best. Think about some of the most enduring praise and worship songs. Amazing Grace, I Can Only Imagine, God Of Wonders all come to mind as packing huge amounts of encouragement, praise and theology into very tight packages. The same goes for Bible verses and stories. Again, think about the most familiar ones, like the aforementioned 23rs Psalm, the account of Shadrach, Meshach and Abendego, and most of Jesus' parables. Again, we find a lot in these small packages.
"OK, great, so there's a lot for the new believer in these songs and verses, what does that mean to us more seasoned Christians?" Glad you asked. Just because something is simple doesn't mean that it can't have a number of layers. Remember that tale of Rack, Shack, and Benny? When we learned it in Sunday School, do you remember hearing, really hearing that line "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us from Your Majesty’s hand. But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.”(Dan. 3:17,18, emphasis mine) Think about Jesus washing His disciple's feet at the Last Supper. As we grow in knowledge of the society an the times, it goes from a simple act of humility to realizing that not only did these men have filthy feet from walking on dirt roads all day long, but that for that reason, foot washing was the bottom man on the totem pole's job. What did that additional information do to your understanding of that action?
Have you slipped into a humdrum? Have you overloaded on theological disseminations? Are you just searching for that next step in maturation? Look back to those simple things. The kid's choruses you sang, the old hymns you rolled your eyes at as all the old people sang, ;) the parables and histories you think you know by heart, revisit those. Look at them through new eyes and listen through new ears. Enjoy their messages. Add your knowledge and experiences to them. You will be amazed at what you can find.
Monday, March 21, 2011
Bright Lights, Big Honkin' City
Last week was our spring break, so this Kansas transplant into Arizona and the family took a big leap and hit the bustling metropolis of Los Angeles for the first time. It was an excellent trip, we all had fun, and I thought I would just share my own various and somewhat random observations about the expedition to a city with a bigger population than many counties I've lived in.
As we traveled down the freeway through California, the vast amounts of unused land on each side of the road struck me. In Kansas, we plow, plant or pasture (usually rotating all three) every square foot of land. I realize that most of the Cali countryside is too barren or too rough to be good for any of those three P's, but nevertheless, the difference stood out to me. Once we got into the city, we did several of the standard tourist activities, including a trip to the Sunset Strip. On the Walk of Fame, I must admit, it was less impressive than it should have been. In part due to the knowledge from the past that there is no qualification to get a star, other than shelling out the cash to put it down and maintain it, and in part due to the realization that this haphazard approach really shows when the individual stars of teams like Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello are nowhere near each other. There is now a picture of me by Alice Cooper's star, and the kids wanted one of me by KISS's star sticking out my tongue (passed on that one though) but it ain't quite up to the hype.
Maintaining the musical theme, we did go to the Hard Rock Cafe. While my hamburger was an excellent slab of meat, it wasn't anywhere near worth the $10, and I doubt that the $15 burgers were either. My advice, just walk through, ooh and aahh at the really cool rock memorabilla (Jim Morrison's pants, Ray Charles' braille lyric sheets, guitars from Eddie Van Halen and Bo Diddly) and hit one of the smaller deli's on the strip. Again segueing seamlessly, one of those small delis that we ate at was really cool for two reasons. The Hollywood reason was that some scenes from Million Dollar Baby were shot in it (so now I have to get it watched to see if we sat in the same seats) and my reason is that it, and many of the other shops and restaurants on the strip aren't just big name cash cows (like Hard Rock) but little independent businesses, the kind that built America and that the franchises are shoving out of the way. Well worth the money to support them on your next trip.
We also loaded up on one of the "see the homes of the stars" tours. While it was cool to see the Fresh Prince of Bel Air house up on the hill, the people who are or were living in the houses wasn't nearly as impressive as the real beauty of many of the homes up there. Even the houses who's residents weren't special enough to warrant mention by our very entertaining tour guide were absolutely gorgeous. (Debating going off on a tangent about how some of these folks who like to ask us to donate money could fund entire countries with the costs of these houses, but I think I'll save that for another day. I know lots of stars are very generous with their fortunes, but most of them aren't putting much of a dent in their discretionary spending with their charity work) Vaguely related to that offshoot, I didn't think about it, but my wife raised the point that for all the complaints about the California economy, Hollywood and the beaches we visited seemed to be staying pretty active. There were people on the sidewalks, in the shops, in the restaurants, on the beaches. (ok not a lot on the beaches, but there was quite a crowd considering the serious cold front and rain rolling in along with the threat of big waves and other stuff rolling in from the Japan earthquake) One of the kids wanted to go bowling, and the first alley we found charged $65 for a lane for an hour, plus shoes, and it was booked solid until 11:00 that night. The second one was much more reasonably priced, but we still faced an hour's wait to get one of it's 40 lanes on a Saturday night.
Speaking of beaches, we did hit a couple, of course. As mentioned, it was a bit chilly with the weather coming in (I swear I felt ice in those waves) but it was still cool for this long land-locked land lubber to watch the sun sink into the water and see the kids digging for seashells. It was not cool having to guard our paltry food supply from sea gulls on the beach, but that's the dangers of being outside I guess. Practical tip of the trip, finding a hotel on the Pacific Coast Highway seems to be a prime way of having pretty easy access to most of L.A., as well as making it pretty easy to find one's way back to the hotel at the end of the day.
I think that covers the big points. Expect more revelations from the big city, especially once summer hits. It's barely a day's drive to get out there from here, so we might even run out for the occasional event. Close enough to visit and enjoy the city life no and again, far enough away we don't have to worry about the stuff that tends to come with that city life.
As we traveled down the freeway through California, the vast amounts of unused land on each side of the road struck me. In Kansas, we plow, plant or pasture (usually rotating all three) every square foot of land. I realize that most of the Cali countryside is too barren or too rough to be good for any of those three P's, but nevertheless, the difference stood out to me. Once we got into the city, we did several of the standard tourist activities, including a trip to the Sunset Strip. On the Walk of Fame, I must admit, it was less impressive than it should have been. In part due to the knowledge from the past that there is no qualification to get a star, other than shelling out the cash to put it down and maintain it, and in part due to the realization that this haphazard approach really shows when the individual stars of teams like Laurel and Hardy or Abbott and Costello are nowhere near each other. There is now a picture of me by Alice Cooper's star, and the kids wanted one of me by KISS's star sticking out my tongue (passed on that one though) but it ain't quite up to the hype.
Maintaining the musical theme, we did go to the Hard Rock Cafe. While my hamburger was an excellent slab of meat, it wasn't anywhere near worth the $10, and I doubt that the $15 burgers were either. My advice, just walk through, ooh and aahh at the really cool rock memorabilla (Jim Morrison's pants, Ray Charles' braille lyric sheets, guitars from Eddie Van Halen and Bo Diddly) and hit one of the smaller deli's on the strip. Again segueing seamlessly, one of those small delis that we ate at was really cool for two reasons. The Hollywood reason was that some scenes from Million Dollar Baby were shot in it (so now I have to get it watched to see if we sat in the same seats) and my reason is that it, and many of the other shops and restaurants on the strip aren't just big name cash cows (like Hard Rock) but little independent businesses, the kind that built America and that the franchises are shoving out of the way. Well worth the money to support them on your next trip.
We also loaded up on one of the "see the homes of the stars" tours. While it was cool to see the Fresh Prince of Bel Air house up on the hill, the people who are or were living in the houses wasn't nearly as impressive as the real beauty of many of the homes up there. Even the houses who's residents weren't special enough to warrant mention by our very entertaining tour guide were absolutely gorgeous. (Debating going off on a tangent about how some of these folks who like to ask us to donate money could fund entire countries with the costs of these houses, but I think I'll save that for another day. I know lots of stars are very generous with their fortunes, but most of them aren't putting much of a dent in their discretionary spending with their charity work) Vaguely related to that offshoot, I didn't think about it, but my wife raised the point that for all the complaints about the California economy, Hollywood and the beaches we visited seemed to be staying pretty active. There were people on the sidewalks, in the shops, in the restaurants, on the beaches. (ok not a lot on the beaches, but there was quite a crowd considering the serious cold front and rain rolling in along with the threat of big waves and other stuff rolling in from the Japan earthquake) One of the kids wanted to go bowling, and the first alley we found charged $65 for a lane for an hour, plus shoes, and it was booked solid until 11:00 that night. The second one was much more reasonably priced, but we still faced an hour's wait to get one of it's 40 lanes on a Saturday night.
Speaking of beaches, we did hit a couple, of course. As mentioned, it was a bit chilly with the weather coming in (I swear I felt ice in those waves) but it was still cool for this long land-locked land lubber to watch the sun sink into the water and see the kids digging for seashells. It was not cool having to guard our paltry food supply from sea gulls on the beach, but that's the dangers of being outside I guess. Practical tip of the trip, finding a hotel on the Pacific Coast Highway seems to be a prime way of having pretty easy access to most of L.A., as well as making it pretty easy to find one's way back to the hotel at the end of the day.
I think that covers the big points. Expect more revelations from the big city, especially once summer hits. It's barely a day's drive to get out there from here, so we might even run out for the occasional event. Close enough to visit and enjoy the city life no and again, far enough away we don't have to worry about the stuff that tends to come with that city life.
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
Render unto Ceaser what is Ceaser's.....
Ok, I've been gone for a while, I was on the road for a bit finishing up our move. One of the side things to come out of that is I splurged on an MP3 player to listen to in the moving truck going down the interstate through six states, and got some time to listen to some of the various stuff I've collected over the last several months (hopefully that means I'll get to adding the music reviews I've been meaning to get to). One of those was a sermon series from John MacArthur about the Christian and government and our roles and responsibilities to both. I had the initial four, hour long sermons and a fifth hour long sermon spent answering some questions that came in as the series was initially given and broadcast (back in 1985), so this was a rare opportunity for me to sit and listen to that much audio consecutively.
As you can imagine, between the topic and the time allotted, a lot of material was covered. The main point of all of this was though, is that we (the Church) are supposed to be focused not on politics and citizenry as we are on Kingdom work. We are called to be good, active citizens, but it is the opinion of the speaker that we should be spending far more time and energy on evangelizing and encouraging than politicking and protesting. This is a hard one for some of us, not because it isn't logical or Biblical, but because we have entwined our politics and our faith so much. It is my none too humble opinion that we are living in the most politically turbulent times in the U.S. since before the Civil War, and many of those political issues are moral issues, such as abortion. However, one of the ideals that sticks out from the series is that governments are temporary, souls are eternal. We are definitely getting reminders that governments are not far from permanent, from the swing back to Republicans in Congress back in September to the uprisings in Egypt and Libya now.
So how do we balance this better? I really haven't come up with a good answer yet, despite being back off the road for a week already. National and world politics have gotten so mired in bureaucracy, partisanship, dirty pool, career politicians, and general fertilizer that it takes a laser like focus on the politics to have any clue what's really going on, who's really pulling strings and who's just blowing in the wind. We are living in the results of most people spending several decades not paying attention and being active in the political world, so we know that ignoring it is not an option either.
Perhaps we need to be focusing on better utilizing the ripple effect. Take the big ugly abortion issue. Instead of fighting in the courts, what happens if more Christian effort goes into educating people about why they shouldn't be having abortions and changing the mindset that leads to them? Instead of going after the supply, if the demand vanishes, then does the legal status really have an effect? If more people are saved and operating in an educated, Biblical mindset, how many of those ballot box fights would fade away? If we had more Christ-minded people in office, how much of the gaff and corruption would run back into the shadows? Have we wasted a lot of time and money over the years by taking the wrong route to fixing the system?
If you're interested in the inspiration behind this particular rant, you can stream or download it all here, along with a couple of more sermons on paying your taxes. Definitely a lot to ponder, especially in these times when we seem to be within spitting distance of a major breaking point.
As you can imagine, between the topic and the time allotted, a lot of material was covered. The main point of all of this was though, is that we (the Church) are supposed to be focused not on politics and citizenry as we are on Kingdom work. We are called to be good, active citizens, but it is the opinion of the speaker that we should be spending far more time and energy on evangelizing and encouraging than politicking and protesting. This is a hard one for some of us, not because it isn't logical or Biblical, but because we have entwined our politics and our faith so much. It is my none too humble opinion that we are living in the most politically turbulent times in the U.S. since before the Civil War, and many of those political issues are moral issues, such as abortion. However, one of the ideals that sticks out from the series is that governments are temporary, souls are eternal. We are definitely getting reminders that governments are not far from permanent, from the swing back to Republicans in Congress back in September to the uprisings in Egypt and Libya now.
So how do we balance this better? I really haven't come up with a good answer yet, despite being back off the road for a week already. National and world politics have gotten so mired in bureaucracy, partisanship, dirty pool, career politicians, and general fertilizer that it takes a laser like focus on the politics to have any clue what's really going on, who's really pulling strings and who's just blowing in the wind. We are living in the results of most people spending several decades not paying attention and being active in the political world, so we know that ignoring it is not an option either.
Perhaps we need to be focusing on better utilizing the ripple effect. Take the big ugly abortion issue. Instead of fighting in the courts, what happens if more Christian effort goes into educating people about why they shouldn't be having abortions and changing the mindset that leads to them? Instead of going after the supply, if the demand vanishes, then does the legal status really have an effect? If more people are saved and operating in an educated, Biblical mindset, how many of those ballot box fights would fade away? If we had more Christ-minded people in office, how much of the gaff and corruption would run back into the shadows? Have we wasted a lot of time and money over the years by taking the wrong route to fixing the system?
If you're interested in the inspiration behind this particular rant, you can stream or download it all here, along with a couple of more sermons on paying your taxes. Definitely a lot to ponder, especially in these times when we seem to be within spitting distance of a major breaking point.
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