Another year to live, a new line to cross. Age twenty one.
A significant cultural mark. A rite of passage, many would say.
I don't feel like an entirely different person, or different at all. I like the status, but I'm not above anything or whatnot. I'm still me. Soon I'll be thirty one and I'll then truly feel old. Old.
I don't know, I'm kinda excited about being this age. I eagerly embrace having no curfew to hold me down from late nights in the future- talking, experiencing life, love, and for that matter friendship befitting to the third shift lifestyle I've come to love.
I love how jovial I feel about this day, especially leading up to it. It's like remembering something really good that has been stowed up and awaiting being found. And when you land on this day, dreams come true. I'm kind of a sentimental guy. I like to remember what happened a year from the here and now, where I was what I was feeling and what I stood for. Who did I like? What was I in to? Listening to. Thinking about doing. Did.
I was listening to Aqualung's Strange and Beautiful and man that's a great song. You should listen to it on playlist.com. It'll change your life around.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Sunday, February 1, 2009
Where we stand
Where do we stand on a lot of issues?
There are so many gray areas that I see in the Bible that I could go on for hours discussing until my voice gets raspy and gross sounding--like a tractor running over barbed wire. My heart is in a place where I want to propel in my experience with Christ, getting to know him on a more intimate a way as possible, but I don't want to shut my mind down either. I want to listen and ponder things so that I can then hear God's voice and it will all make sense, hopefully. Talking with a dear friend of mine, we went on for hours and now I'm just writing this blog, as a means to some sort of closure so that I can sleep I guess.
One person said that drinking alcohol to the point at which you get a buzzed feeling is considered a sin and the other said that once you are drunk is when you should draw the line and consider it a no-go because drunkenness enters into an arena of sin. Jesus provided much wine, 138 additional gallons, miraculously for an ongoing wedding which he was at. His first miracle. Therefore Jesus promoted and provided alcohol for a wedding and most likely took part in the drinking as he did in days to come. The Bible says later, in a letter by Paul somewhere, to not be drunk with wine but rather with the holy spirit.
It seems that those two things, Jesus' miracle and words of wisdom against drunkenness, seem to collide a little. It makes me wonder if at Jewish wedding feasts there was any form of drunkenness. I mean with all that wine, isn't it obvious that the point of it was to drink to enjoy it's effect--the design of alcohol, for the pleasurable enjoyment. The tingling effect that it brings. Would Jesus be at the wedding fest picking people out of the crowd with a megaphone in their face and telling them to cut it out with the drinking when they got a little too tipsy?
Is there a place for drinking in the kingdom of God or should it be banned? Christians seem to struggle with this issue because we come from different paradigms of thought on this based on our experience. It's weird but really strict Christians seem to partake in a lot of drinking while at the same time very free-going Christians are totally against any drop of the forbidden juices. It seems more like a festival of confusion rather than a wedding fest of enjoyment. Jesus was all about communion--getting together to form bonds with people of all walks and backgrounds, rich/poor. It also seems that people throughout history, Christian or not, get together and are propelled in their enjoyment of one another through the intake of a good brew, bottles of champagne or simply wine. That's one spectrum of it's use (the stuff in the bottle that is) but what about the drunken orgies and the slaying of the innocent because of chaos that comes from drugs and alcohol. There is this frightening illustration in Revelation that talks about God pouring out his cup of wrath on the nations--this is a judgment--so that those who have sinned (everybody) can become drunk upon the wrath of the lamb. This is setting up the illusion that drunkenness is something the Lord looks down on and he says hey why don't you put this in your "pipe" and smoke it, so to speak, as a way of showing his love. Obviously people abuse alcohol left and right, that is no secret. Church leaders are doing it, devout Catholics, innocent school children, elderly folk. It's everywhere!
What should someone who loves Jesus do? Should we drink wine and eat and thank him for what he's given us at the appropriate time? Abstaining from something like food, technology, blogging, or sexual gratification can give us a chance to let God fill an area that's missing. It kind of lets him do his job when we give things up. I don't think a person can honestly give up food for good or any of those things because they're gifts from the Lord when they're used properly--in their place with moderation. (Which is why I blog once every 10 and a half years)
I still love my friend even though I'm not won over to everything he says or stands on. I do stand on God's word and that's a really cool thing. I also like to water ski which makes me a very cool Fitzgerald warrior!
There are so many gray areas that I see in the Bible that I could go on for hours discussing until my voice gets raspy and gross sounding--like a tractor running over barbed wire. My heart is in a place where I want to propel in my experience with Christ, getting to know him on a more intimate a way as possible, but I don't want to shut my mind down either. I want to listen and ponder things so that I can then hear God's voice and it will all make sense, hopefully. Talking with a dear friend of mine, we went on for hours and now I'm just writing this blog, as a means to some sort of closure so that I can sleep I guess.
One person said that drinking alcohol to the point at which you get a buzzed feeling is considered a sin and the other said that once you are drunk is when you should draw the line and consider it a no-go because drunkenness enters into an arena of sin. Jesus provided much wine, 138 additional gallons, miraculously for an ongoing wedding which he was at. His first miracle. Therefore Jesus promoted and provided alcohol for a wedding and most likely took part in the drinking as he did in days to come. The Bible says later, in a letter by Paul somewhere, to not be drunk with wine but rather with the holy spirit.
It seems that those two things, Jesus' miracle and words of wisdom against drunkenness, seem to collide a little. It makes me wonder if at Jewish wedding feasts there was any form of drunkenness. I mean with all that wine, isn't it obvious that the point of it was to drink to enjoy it's effect--the design of alcohol, for the pleasurable enjoyment. The tingling effect that it brings. Would Jesus be at the wedding fest picking people out of the crowd with a megaphone in their face and telling them to cut it out with the drinking when they got a little too tipsy?
Is there a place for drinking in the kingdom of God or should it be banned? Christians seem to struggle with this issue because we come from different paradigms of thought on this based on our experience. It's weird but really strict Christians seem to partake in a lot of drinking while at the same time very free-going Christians are totally against any drop of the forbidden juices. It seems more like a festival of confusion rather than a wedding fest of enjoyment. Jesus was all about communion--getting together to form bonds with people of all walks and backgrounds, rich/poor. It also seems that people throughout history, Christian or not, get together and are propelled in their enjoyment of one another through the intake of a good brew, bottles of champagne or simply wine. That's one spectrum of it's use (the stuff in the bottle that is) but what about the drunken orgies and the slaying of the innocent because of chaos that comes from drugs and alcohol. There is this frightening illustration in Revelation that talks about God pouring out his cup of wrath on the nations--this is a judgment--so that those who have sinned (everybody) can become drunk upon the wrath of the lamb. This is setting up the illusion that drunkenness is something the Lord looks down on and he says hey why don't you put this in your "pipe" and smoke it, so to speak, as a way of showing his love. Obviously people abuse alcohol left and right, that is no secret. Church leaders are doing it, devout Catholics, innocent school children, elderly folk. It's everywhere!
What should someone who loves Jesus do? Should we drink wine and eat and thank him for what he's given us at the appropriate time? Abstaining from something like food, technology, blogging, or sexual gratification can give us a chance to let God fill an area that's missing. It kind of lets him do his job when we give things up. I don't think a person can honestly give up food for good or any of those things because they're gifts from the Lord when they're used properly--in their place with moderation. (Which is why I blog once every 10 and a half years)
I still love my friend even though I'm not won over to everything he says or stands on. I do stand on God's word and that's a really cool thing. I also like to water ski which makes me a very cool Fitzgerald warrior!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)