One thing that helps keep me going in this crazy and increasingly absurd world is music. I’m not particularly talented at anything musical, but I have been singing in church choirs anyway, on and off, for the past 30 years (21 choir seasons).
I love this anthem that my choir sang this last Sunday, Our Great God, even though I wasn’t singing with them. The lyrics are a prayer. My favorite lines are “Our cold and Ruthless enemy, His pleasure is our harm / Rise up, O Lord, and he will flee Before our sovereign God.“
I like that approach. While others wonder why all these things are happening, and how “the authorities” can press ever onward, unphazed, no matter how much truth about them and their deceptions is unveiled, I see the work of the enemy quite clearly. Of those authorities, we can indeed say “their pleasure is our harm.” I’d prefer that there not be an enemy like that, but there is.
This was our Choir, Bells, and Orchestra week, and my “screens” week. I was in back turning the slides & livestream video captions for the service. Some of the slides are visible in the video, depending on the camera angle. I don’t create the slides; I run them, about once a month. The rest of the month I sing alto.
Here was my view early that morning, at the start of final rehearsals. That’s Jubilation Bells leading off. There are three bell choruses altogether, for different age ranges — they start them young. These are the adults.
Screens & Lighting Console
The coffee thermos is an essential part of my equipment.
Performed at Christ Community Church, Carmichael, California, February 19, 2023 Excerpted from youtu.be/gss6bH5lEuI
It's tough to hear pretty much everyone wondering why things are going the way they are. They are genuinely confused, and if you are so bold as to offer an interpretation they respond with frank scorn. Oh well. The enemy knows he's already lost, but we who live in time have to show what we're made of, and to whom we belong by how we engage in this war. Since most people are unthinking materialists who can't even conceive the nature of the war Satan is just sweeping up souls. But for those who do understand the end of the story is pretty terrific! Who has ears to hear, etc.
It has to be confusing to be seeing the the effects spiritual warfare while not believing there is even anything outside the material realm. As the evil expands and becomes more evident, however, I think some people are beginning to consider possibilities that they would not have previously. We'll do that sometimes when we're on a sinking ship.
I don't know what to do with the unthinking. There seem to be quite a few people here on Substack, however, that are thinking people, but caught in paradox because of their beliefs, or because they have never heard what they would need to hear for things to begin to make sense. I have had a lot of trouble with this in the past myself, and I am looking for things to say that might help others begin to rethink things just as I have had to do. The response so far has been surprisingly positive.
I really admire the things so many here are doing to try to turn the tide, but I know that human effort is not enough to put an end to evil. We need help! We need to see the problem, the sin problem, as ours rather than "theirs".
I know where to head, generally -- toward the gospel -- but working online with people I don't know that don't speak the language, so to speak, and may have had bad encounters with people that do (I certainly have), it's not all that clear how to proceed. So I go a step at a time, asking God what's next.
Caution in approaching people is very wise, I agree. None of us knows where, in relation to Christ, anyone else stands, and when some well-meaning boor insists on exactly what we all should think it naturally raises hackles. Speaking strictly for myself I can say that any real change of perspective came from within, like the lens (ugh, a now overused term) I see through shifted just slightly but enough to afford a completely different view. The shift came when it had to come. Trying to force or impede it never works. So, I try to keep my mouth shut and present a good example and try not to lead anyone astray, and leave it up to God to work on people's hearts.
I agree about all the earnest substackers. Even if most of them can't quite pinpoint the real underpinnings of our issues, they are certainly aiming the spotlights in the right direction. Probably the most useful thing to do is pray!! For them and for us.
Yes, pray, and pray through the blogs. I believe quite a few of us have been doing that. Substack isn't my only online connection, but there does seem to be something special happening here.
I was one of those "born into the faith", a legacy Christian. I also joined the unchurched during my college years, as often happens, and didn't return until I turned 40. That was a direct divine intervention, no other people involved. It happens. But I left again after eight years or so, experienced another intervention at going on 64 years old, 8 1/2 years ago, and I'm not leaving again.
My issues revolved around the behavior of churches. What I saw most of them doing in 2020 was even worse than before, but this time I had deep roots. That came about through a peculiar process that involved learning from other people, but mostly one-way, online, for the first three years. But I saw some of those same people that I had learned from, well-known leaders, bow down and worship the "vaccine" god in 2021, exhorting everyone else to do so as well. I had been thinking political idolatry was bad, but this was so much worse. I guess it was a test.
Apart from removing those leaders (and a certain magazine) from my life, I left two churches during the "pandemic", one in 2020, and another in 2021, responding to the signs I saw. I'm on my seventh church now as an adult. There are problems as always, but this one is doing better than the others, and there are quite a few people there that are awake to what is happening in the world, the leadership isn't doing anything to try to discourage us from talking about it. It's an evangelical church in the true sense of the word.
It's good to gather with others. We're far from perfect, but moving in the same direction.
Yes, the church has always had its problems. And it's upsetting in the extreme that so many have decided to just chuck the Bible aside and write all new rules for themselves. I'm glad you've found a solid church. As you say, it's good to gather with others.
It's tough to hear pretty much everyone wondering why things are going the way they are. They are genuinely confused, and if you are so bold as to offer an interpretation they respond with frank scorn. Oh well. The enemy knows he's already lost, but we who live in time have to show what we're made of, and to whom we belong by how we engage in this war. Since most people are unthinking materialists who can't even conceive the nature of the war Satan is just sweeping up souls. But for those who do understand the end of the story is pretty terrific! Who has ears to hear, etc.
It has to be confusing to be seeing the the effects spiritual warfare while not believing there is even anything outside the material realm. As the evil expands and becomes more evident, however, I think some people are beginning to consider possibilities that they would not have previously. We'll do that sometimes when we're on a sinking ship.
I don't know what to do with the unthinking. There seem to be quite a few people here on Substack, however, that are thinking people, but caught in paradox because of their beliefs, or because they have never heard what they would need to hear for things to begin to make sense. I have had a lot of trouble with this in the past myself, and I am looking for things to say that might help others begin to rethink things just as I have had to do. The response so far has been surprisingly positive.
I really admire the things so many here are doing to try to turn the tide, but I know that human effort is not enough to put an end to evil. We need help! We need to see the problem, the sin problem, as ours rather than "theirs".
I know where to head, generally -- toward the gospel -- but working online with people I don't know that don't speak the language, so to speak, and may have had bad encounters with people that do (I certainly have), it's not all that clear how to proceed. So I go a step at a time, asking God what's next.
Caution in approaching people is very wise, I agree. None of us knows where, in relation to Christ, anyone else stands, and when some well-meaning boor insists on exactly what we all should think it naturally raises hackles. Speaking strictly for myself I can say that any real change of perspective came from within, like the lens (ugh, a now overused term) I see through shifted just slightly but enough to afford a completely different view. The shift came when it had to come. Trying to force or impede it never works. So, I try to keep my mouth shut and present a good example and try not to lead anyone astray, and leave it up to God to work on people's hearts.
I agree about all the earnest substackers. Even if most of them can't quite pinpoint the real underpinnings of our issues, they are certainly aiming the spotlights in the right direction. Probably the most useful thing to do is pray!! For them and for us.
Yes, pray, and pray through the blogs. I believe quite a few of us have been doing that. Substack isn't my only online connection, but there does seem to be something special happening here.
I was one of those "born into the faith", a legacy Christian. I also joined the unchurched during my college years, as often happens, and didn't return until I turned 40. That was a direct divine intervention, no other people involved. It happens. But I left again after eight years or so, experienced another intervention at going on 64 years old, 8 1/2 years ago, and I'm not leaving again.
My issues revolved around the behavior of churches. What I saw most of them doing in 2020 was even worse than before, but this time I had deep roots. That came about through a peculiar process that involved learning from other people, but mostly one-way, online, for the first three years. But I saw some of those same people that I had learned from, well-known leaders, bow down and worship the "vaccine" god in 2021, exhorting everyone else to do so as well. I had been thinking political idolatry was bad, but this was so much worse. I guess it was a test.
Apart from removing those leaders (and a certain magazine) from my life, I left two churches during the "pandemic", one in 2020, and another in 2021, responding to the signs I saw. I'm on my seventh church now as an adult. There are problems as always, but this one is doing better than the others, and there are quite a few people there that are awake to what is happening in the world, the leadership isn't doing anything to try to discourage us from talking about it. It's an evangelical church in the true sense of the word.
It's good to gather with others. We're far from perfect, but moving in the same direction.
Yes, the church has always had its problems. And it's upsetting in the extreme that so many have decided to just chuck the Bible aside and write all new rules for themselves. I'm glad you've found a solid church. As you say, it's good to gather with others.