Preface: I saw our first butterfly of Spring yesterday. Snowbirds....as we refer to them...will start to return north. Florida is attempting to have its cake and eat it too. That phrase has always pointed to a person who wants to do two things at the same time....something that cannot be done....for if you eat your cake....then you no longer....have....your cake. It wants immigration from everywhere....the northern US....Canada....Europe....from which it can make money....but not from anyone that it might have to put out money. It wants workers....so that the snowbirds will continue to come and have service....and it wants landscapers to beautify the gated communities. It wants to be a paradise for its citizens. So is Florida a paradise....or just an ideal? Does the paganism and idolatry that plagues America stop at the borders with Alabama and Georgia....or is it something that cannot be licensed....but exists in the heart and mind? Solomon shows us wisdom here. He had his paradise....but it turned into a paganism....and he along with it....until he saw that all was indeed vanity. The following preface is a little more recent than the post that follows it.....which was from October 6 of 2019:
"Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My name's sake. And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another. (Matthew 24: 9,10) The Apostle recorded these words of Jesus....probably decades before the Apostle John recorded another warning that Jesus gave:
"They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service." (John 16: 2)
We are not really considering verses like this today....for if we did consider the many warnings of this nature....describing what it will be like as the Lord returns....we would be seriously sobered. Billy Graham would be warning us if he were with us today. Solomon tried to warn us....of the outright paganism that he himself fell into....but we are not really into his failures....in fact we're probably not even aware of them....and we are not really interested in paganism....for that [concept] is for people who take the Bible too literally....as with....the four horses of Revelation six. False prophets are never mentioned....for that would be a church growth killer....(even though we have one in Donald Trump)....as are idols....(how many Christian men showed more passion yesterday....and even attention....Easter....watching the Masters....than any words in the church service they may have been in....commemorating the greatest day in the history of the world....and the reason that they will not spend eternity in....can I say the word...hell?)
"The Rite Of Spring"
My habit generally is to listen to a certain type of music in light of what I'm doing at the time. So if I don't really want to be involved in the music....but just relax by it....I tune in Sirius/XM's classical music channel. Such was the case this evening....but within a few minutes I noticed how unsettling what I was hearing was.
Igor Stravinsky's Rite Of Spring is considered one of the most influential compositions of the 20th century as it was extremely innovative in a number of ways. A riot broke out in the audience when it first opened as a ballet in Paris in May of 1913. Some have asserted that it was Nijinsky's famously odd and disjointed dancing that contributed to the chaos....but the ballet revolves around a pagan sacrifice....so that also may have added to the darkened mood.
The Rite Of Spring later was performed in St. Petersburg on February 18, 1914....Stravinsky's homeland of Russia....as an orchestral movement only. Vladimir Lenin would have been living in exile outside of Russia at the time....waiting to come back to continue to instigate revolution. Four months later World War I would begin. Well....enough of classical music of which I'm just an outside observer. What interests me about this it that there seems to be certain times in history when there seems to be something in the air....(biblically speaking)....and when chaos tends to rule. 1968 was just such a year. It was a terrible year. I was 18 years old at the time.
We are in just such a time period today as chaos seems to be the rule all over the globe. It's a time that I would expect a Rite Of Spring to be composed....or written....or put on film....or acted out on some public stage.
It is at times like these that Christians are supposed to be calm....but as I described in a very recent post....there is a difference between being calm because of the assurance that God has everything under control....and being calm because we just have no idea or even concern about what is going on in the world.
