I spent my share of time on the streets in downtown Pittsburgh celebrating Super Bowl victories, and I would even travel a petty fair distance to see a Steeler game that was blacked out at home. To make a long story short, I became a Christian and later saw that Sunday was the Lord's Day. I put away the NFL many years ago. ...and have never missed it!
The NFL started playing their games on Saturday but early on moved to Sunday's. They have since taken over the Lord's Day from September into February. Personal opinion here...few of our entertainments have destroyed the discernment of the church in America as has professional football. That day that God commanded us to set aside...we have turned into a worldly passion. The blessings associated with the commandment are long gone....along with discernments that were to have been ours by honoring the Lord's Day.
Every step away from the NFL that we take is a step in the right direction, for it would free many Christians of which some would surely find the blessing of God's commandment. So I follow these many controversies whirling about concerning the NFL with more than only a patriotic interest.
Surely, to have brought upon ourselves in America so many judgments, we have all contributed somehow! This is only one area where we erred while in pursuit of our own enjoyments over God's commands. Few are without culpability....and my bust is probably prominently displayed in the Hall of Blame.
Our town has a little clock tower in the middle of it that occasionally plays beautiful music of the bells. I think that everyone must love it....as I do....but there's a glitch in it....for in amongst John Philip Sousa and Stephen Foster songs is the Star Spangled Banner. I take you back two weeks. I parked on the main street and was headed to the local bakery when our national anthem started playing on the bells. The town was crowded and I tuned toward the clock tower and stood at attention until the national anthem was over. They didn't realize just what they put into the mix of music.
Here's another anecdote.....an Ohio radio station conservative talk show host ends his program every day at noon with our national anthem? One day recently I was stirring a pot on the stove and had to reach over and turn the radio off. It was either that or boil over the pot. Have we forgotten just what this music means? Well, that's the understatement of the year....of course we have forgotten...and that is what is behind the current controversy literally shaking the foundations of America.
I'll give you a third anecdote from a post of a few years ago:
The Star-Spangled Banner
I've researched this time and again and cannot come up with the particular person's name. It wasn't too long after the terrorism of 9/11, maybe a year, that a famous American rock star returned from touring in Europe. As he travelled around the United States after being out of the country for a while he was aghast at how many American flags were being flown in front of individual homes. I can't remember his exact words but in essence, seeing so many flags flown.....seeing such evidence of nationalism....of love of country....well, he said that it made him ill! I think that his remark made me ill, for I may not remember the quote verbatim but I have never forgotten his admittance of revulsion at seeing the Stars And Stripes flown in front of so many homes.
Let me set the scene for you that I experienced tonight. The setting was a church....in a fairly conservative community.....a community where even today many American flags are flown on the front porches of people's homes.....mine being one of them. It was a benefit where classical music artists, both professional and students of the musical genre, donated their time and extraordinary talents with the proceeds in the form of donations going to a very good cause. Just about all of the people were seated and chatting with neighbors and friends who sat around them. Two very young, pretty and talented girls set the ambiance for such an event by playing their violins very softly. So softly that the music was barely discernible over the conversations and laughter.
They played one piece after another and included in this was the Star-Spangled Banner. One by one the people in the audience turned to the two young violinists and stood up until all in attendance were standing. The girls must have thought that the main concert was beginning and they stopped playing. The audience laughed at this to ease the violinist's embarrassment and someone must have told the girls to begin playing again. They did, and we softly sang along... the words penned by Francis Scott Key during another period when our nation was under attack. It was an emotional moment for me, a stark change of tempo and attentiveness, so natural, yet so almost out of place today depending on the venue, an audience picking up on the faint notes of our national anthem and immediately standing and singing along. It was a beautiful moment really, and an encouraging one!
The NFL started playing their games on Saturday but early on moved to Sunday's. They have since taken over the Lord's Day from September into February. Personal opinion here...few of our entertainments have destroyed the discernment of the church in America as has professional football. That day that God commanded us to set aside...we have turned into a worldly passion. The blessings associated with the commandment are long gone....along with discernments that were to have been ours by honoring the Lord's Day.
Every step away from the NFL that we take is a step in the right direction, for it would free many Christians of which some would surely find the blessing of God's commandment. So I follow these many controversies whirling about concerning the NFL with more than only a patriotic interest.
Surely, to have brought upon ourselves in America so many judgments, we have all contributed somehow! This is only one area where we erred while in pursuit of our own enjoyments over God's commands. Few are without culpability....and my bust is probably prominently displayed in the Hall of Blame.
Our town has a little clock tower in the middle of it that occasionally plays beautiful music of the bells. I think that everyone must love it....as I do....but there's a glitch in it....for in amongst John Philip Sousa and Stephen Foster songs is the Star Spangled Banner. I take you back two weeks. I parked on the main street and was headed to the local bakery when our national anthem started playing on the bells. The town was crowded and I tuned toward the clock tower and stood at attention until the national anthem was over. They didn't realize just what they put into the mix of music.
Here's another anecdote.....an Ohio radio station conservative talk show host ends his program every day at noon with our national anthem? One day recently I was stirring a pot on the stove and had to reach over and turn the radio off. It was either that or boil over the pot. Have we forgotten just what this music means? Well, that's the understatement of the year....of course we have forgotten...and that is what is behind the current controversy literally shaking the foundations of America.
I'll give you a third anecdote from a post of a few years ago:
The Star-Spangled Banner
I've researched this time and again and cannot come up with the particular person's name. It wasn't too long after the terrorism of 9/11, maybe a year, that a famous American rock star returned from touring in Europe. As he travelled around the United States after being out of the country for a while he was aghast at how many American flags were being flown in front of individual homes. I can't remember his exact words but in essence, seeing so many flags flown.....seeing such evidence of nationalism....of love of country....well, he said that it made him ill! I think that his remark made me ill, for I may not remember the quote verbatim but I have never forgotten his admittance of revulsion at seeing the Stars And Stripes flown in front of so many homes.
Let me set the scene for you that I experienced tonight. The setting was a church....in a fairly conservative community.....a community where even today many American flags are flown on the front porches of people's homes.....mine being one of them. It was a benefit where classical music artists, both professional and students of the musical genre, donated their time and extraordinary talents with the proceeds in the form of donations going to a very good cause. Just about all of the people were seated and chatting with neighbors and friends who sat around them. Two very young, pretty and talented girls set the ambiance for such an event by playing their violins very softly. So softly that the music was barely discernible over the conversations and laughter.
They played one piece after another and included in this was the Star-Spangled Banner. One by one the people in the audience turned to the two young violinists and stood up until all in attendance were standing. The girls must have thought that the main concert was beginning and they stopped playing. The audience laughed at this to ease the violinist's embarrassment and someone must have told the girls to begin playing again. They did, and we softly sang along... the words penned by Francis Scott Key during another period when our nation was under attack. It was an emotional moment for me, a stark change of tempo and attentiveness, so natural, yet so almost out of place today depending on the venue, an audience picking up on the faint notes of our national anthem and immediately standing and singing along. It was a beautiful moment really, and an encouraging one!
Folks.....we process information differently in America today. Roughly half of us process information in the same general way that Americans have since our colonial days. The other half of us have been influenced by John Dewey's communist inspired 'destroy the individual and anything that is good' education and therefore they process information in a different way. As it stands, neither one of us is going to get through to the other. It is utterly impossible for Communism to succeed in a nation whose people know the Lord. Our crumbling culture is evidence of our crumbling faith...belief...and reverence for God.
