Preface: I've been struggling lately with how to put these thoughts in a post....and this odd older post....with a little humor in it....came to mind....actually I came across it for today for an unrelated reason. Here is what I have been struggling with....how do I explain to friends....or readers to these posts....that we on the whole seem to have backslidden on our love for Christ.....not our faith in Him....but in our love.....or maybe not even in our love if one zeroes in on the awesome majesty of our King.....and the incalculable mercies freely and undeservingly bestowed upon us....the kingdom of God being ours right here and now. We do not seem to outwardly show that we remain....each and every day....in awe at the blessings given us....for if we did....we would talk more of Christ....we would want to hear more of Him....we would pay rapt attention to the warnings to His children....which is why I recommend so many sermons....as I so often describe them to be....by men of the past....and men of today who preach like men of the past. When I recommend them to friends....in person....grasping maybe for words glorious enough....they often look at me as if to say....'that's nice but I have my own sermon every week.' Sometimes I plead with them....usually to no avail....and there have been times when they seem to take offense....but...Oh do not take offense because I cannot stop talking about Him....or relaying the warnings that He would emphasize by repeating them to us....rather try to remember how you were so filled with joy when first you trusted in Christ that you also could not contain your affections....and how every word and exhortation you might read in Scripture was hidden away as one might protect a gold coin. Was that something just for new Christians? Are you wiser than that now? Is He not as majestic and awesome as He seemed at first? I think it's the opposite....for as time passes we see Christ even clearer....and understand even more what happened on Calvary....and in that tomb....and on that mount! So....once again I'll recommend a sermon....again by Spurgeon....this one simply because I listened to it yesterday.....A Blast of the Trumpet Against False Peace.
The following is from 2015....posted immediately upon returning home from a play in downtown Pittsburgh....for enjoyable a time as it was....Christ is what came to my mind.
The Rine....In Spine....Sties Minely....In The Pline
Aah the theatre! I took an acting class at Pitt in the early 70s and the first half of it was going well. I worked on one scene, not even a scene but a couple of lines, for we all had lines from different plays. I was Paul Bratter from Barefoot In The Park. I stood on a chair and said good-bye to a hole in the skylight. I thought I had great potential for it's not easy talking to a hole in a skylight. Alas, we moved quickly on to improvisational techniques. I was to be a snake on the ground. I was a terrible snake for I had not any idea as to how to slither. My ego was crushed and I dropped the class. Too bad...I coulda been a contender.
I enjoyed the plays at Pitt's Stephen Foster Memorial Theater and once took a young lady from the Theater Arts Department out to dinner after a play....(my instructor in one of the theater classes actually)....where we met some of her theater friends at the restaurant. I felt totally out of place in the conversation. I was so different. I felt that they snickered at this older student....and army veteran in a field jacket. (it wasn't a popular resume at the time) I felt that way a little bit tonight even though my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed My Fair Lady at Pittsburgh's O'Reilly Theater in the Cultural District. I'm sure that it was all in my head for I had on a tie and sweater....and aside from the pipe and tobacco sticking out of my worn leather coat and the bright yellow....somewhat dirty ball cap in my hand with specialdogg.blogspot.com embroidered on it....I almost fit in. No....I think that it was the money aspect for these were expensive seats....given in generosity to us from friends and I'm sure that the folks that support the theater are of the very upper crust. I tried not to move during the performance for fear that it would be found out that a street person had found his way in. I had a coughing spell for about a minute and saw myself as a wastrel imposing his dodgy behavior on the sanctity of an intimate setting of the performing arts. In short, I was Eliza Doolittle trying to be cultured while at the races only to blow my cover because of a tickle in the throat. Yes, I was indeed Eliza, only I could never in a million years pull off what she did at the Grand Ball.
Untrained eye for the theater though I might have, I thought the play and the actors and the theater were great. There was one scene...one scene where I felt as if I were on the stage. George Bernard Shaw, the author of Pygmalion, aka My Fair Lady, was an atheist and a radical Socialist and he surely was as far away in his intent from my interpretation as Barack Obama is from a constitutional lawyer, but the emotion is the same. Eliza had, for the first time, pronounced one of Henry Higgins phonetic tests correctly....the...Rain...in...Spain...stays mainly....in the plain. She was free, no longer doomed forever to be an uncultured flower girl. She had pronounced something purely. She had partaken of the grace of civilized society. She had hope. It was three in the morning and the governess of the home urged her to get some sleep but the thrill of it had set her to dancing and singing around the room....as a lady....a lady. I'm reminded here of the stories told about Sarah Edwards, wife of the great American theologian Jonathan Edwards, upon experiencing the majesties of Christ. She too could have.....praised her Savior.... all night long! I'm reminded also of my own epiphany many years ago at finding that the most undeserving creature of all was given clean clothes to wear and words of the most profound eloquence to say....."To Him (Jesus) be...blessing....and honor...and glory...and might...forever and ever!" That feeling never leaves one unless one voluntarily bids it adieu.
I took liberties in this post....for effect....as to people's positions in life who enjoy the theater....only to emphasize that to the one who calls Jesus their Lord and Savior...."There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for (all) are one in Christ Jesus."
