Preface: At times I have what I would describe....'venting posts'.....and at other times....'rumination posts'....both the result of just sitting down and watching all that goes on around us....and typing as I think about it. I usually keep these 'venting' and 'rumination' posts up for only a little while....but always move them somewhere back in the pack:
One personal item stands out in my mind from my pre-teen years....circa 1959....an entirely different world than it is today. It was a transistor radio. I can picture it but cannot recall the make. I would carry it with me and listen to Bobby Darin and Frankie Avalon and Bobby Rydel and Tommy Roe and Connie Francis and Chubby Checker....and of course....Elvis. The Hula Hoop was also a prized possession....and balls of every shape...the most prized being my bowling ball....which I would lug along the highway a mile every Saturday morning. Christmas 1963 brought my 110 pound weight set....of which I still have....and believe it or not....spent about twenty minutes with it this very morning....almost sixty years later!
My point in all of this is that back then a young person could occupy himself/herself....on very simple things. I don't bring this up as any kind of cultural commentary....but biblical commentary. You can only put so much liquid in any glass. You can pack only so much clothes in a standard suitcase. If you absolutely need more clothes....you either get a bigger suitcase or use two suitcases. There are only twenty-hours in a dayn....and only so much attention that we can give to any subject.
I have numerous letters from the past packed away in the basement. I came across a box of them the other day....sent to my mother while in the army. In a way....the Bible is a letter sent from....what words can I use....if I say....the creator of the universe....you will probably just pass over that as something so unimaginable that it cannot seriously be meditated upon. Maybe if I word it as....the One who can keep you out of the torment of an everlasting hell....maybe that might give the letter a little bit of urgency.
Something has transformed the average mind that once was semi-organized at least....with plenty of storage to spend considerable time accumulating and weighing evidence....working through problems....and more than willing to put a ball aside for a few hours to contemplate the weightier matters of life. Even only a few years out of my teens....drinking draft beer having become my favorite pastime....even here I could and did sit for hours over a pitcher of that draft beer....and contemplate the meaning of life. It was all wrong....filled with the faddish ideas of the time....but at least the mind was being exercised.
Our lives today are filled with the extravagance of entertainments. I have a friend who is today....right now....probably just getting off the golf course in South Carolina....thirty of them down there for ten days....playing all day every day....just average guys....with average jobs. I have another friend....many actually....spending their last few weeks down in Florida.....snow birds over the winters....escaping the ice and bitter cold. I was not raised in a middle-class home....but I was raised in a middle-class neighborhood....and none of this would even be day-dreamed back then. I didn't even see the ocean until while in basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey....at almost twenty years of age....but my wife and I took our son....at fourteen years old....to Europe.
God's Word....that letter sent directly to us....speaks of the horrors of the judgments at the end of times. Visions of those judgments sickened the prophet Daniel....they sickened that great prophet in that which we don't even have the time or inclination to consider....and Paul mentioned something he described as a...."falling away"....or "apostasy"....or "rebellion" that will come first. That comment is the reason for this post. Is this that we live in today....the inability to think through problems....our minds being filled up to the brim with everything from entertainments to money....with no room to add any meditation....the result being that the riches of that letter to us from God....cannot be understood....the commands only summarized.....lacking definition....of little help....and the mind that should be constantly renewed with power....atrophying into a religion of lowest common denominators?
I look around at the church and cannot but compare it to the church of forty years ago. Our conversations are different. The salvation of souls seems to have slipped off into the distance. Our eyes were wide open to warnings back then....but we cannot keep our eyelids open today. We seem to have lost the ability to debate....as we only memorize facts provided us....that is our preparation....as the two sides face each other....'talk over' each other to make up for the lack of any real argument....raise our voice to hide our ignorance of the issues....and then the facts all used up.....we change the subject....the other side more than willing to also....and walk away....both claiming obvious victory in debate....a debate that never even took place.
You may be able to see this transformation most.....by visiting the very professional websites of probably any mega-church near you. You will find many ministries.....plenty of coming events....photos of the worship music galore.....but more space given to directions to the church....than what the church believes. The family has become more important....than the cross of Calvary. The only cults we are concerned with today....are in the Democrat caucus. The only hell....is life under Joe Biden.
