Life, Death & Reality

(I wanted to post this as soon as I could. I think that the subject of Death needs to be pondered by all of us.)

I was reading a news story recently about a group of people who died on a yacht. I feel so bad for their families and loved ones. I am sure that many of us can relate to being blindsided by events that change everything. 

These people - and others we read about who die suddenly, unexpectedly, and tragically - were just living life and expecting to live another day. We do that, don't we? Take this moment and the next for granted, as if it belongs to us.

Whenever I hear of a story like the one I read, I always lament that the people might not have been ready. Not that I think anyone can be ready for an "unexpected" death. But, dying is a guarantee (for most) and some of us are prepared.  Note that I didn't say that some of us are "ready". I don't know if I will be ready when my time to die comes but I am prepared. All Christians should be.

Death is both a finality - where this mortal life is completely over - and a beginning - when the next eternal existence begins. 

One thing is certain, whether some of us believe it or not: Death is and Death will be.

Do you have Jesus? You are going to die whether you do or don't. Are you poor and downtrodden? Are you wealthy? Unattractive? Beautiful? Are you "fortunate" (by worldly standards) or not? None of that matters to Death.

Once, when a family friend died and his loved ones were trying to decide on a coffin and what type of service they would have in his memory, we all felt sorry for their ordeal. In a private conversation within our family, my mother said something that I thought (at the time) was unkind. My mother was not an unkind woman so I was shocked - at the time. During the conversation about the widow and the children stressing themselves over funeral details - especially the coffin - Mama said something along the lines of "'Henry' doesn't care what box they choose. All he can do in it is be dead."

As an adult, I now understand my mother's remarks. I thought about them when I read that news story. The people who perished were on a yacht. They were, of course, wealthy and, by worldly standards, "fortunate". Now they are dead.  How they died, where they died, and what their status was when they died doesn't change the fact that they are dead.

I'm not thinking about the status, wealth, or lifestyle of these people. All I can think about is whether or not they were prepared. 

I'm pretty sure they all had some worldly preparations made: wills, estate planning, etc. But I pray that they were prepared for eternity. I pray that in whatever moments they had left on this earth, they came to the Lord. Nothing else matters to them now.

I pray now that anyone reading this is prepared. No matter what you believe, you better be ready to believe it to death - literally. Please examine your hearts. Please think carefully about what comes after this.

Peace

--Free

A New (to me) Resource

 If you look to the right side of the page, about halfway down, you will see a list of resources. I find them useful for Bible reading and study. Today, while doing my reading, I found a new resource - Bibles.net. It is a large source of various kinds of helpful things for the Christian. It covers Bible reading plans, study, Q & As, and the list goes on and on.  This is a glance at the Menu of resources:

I actually came across the site from a link posted on another resource: questionsGod.com. If it were not so late at night, I'd still be over on both sites, browsing. I wanted to share it and I cannot believe this is the first time I am seeing it myself!

I hope that the resources I list on this blog are helpful to you. The Bible is such a marvelous and comprehensive book that I never tire of reading it and learning from it. Resources like those on the Bibles.net site encourage me to always go deeper in my studies.

Since I am just learning about both sites, I like to pray for discernment so that I don't get any unbiblical information in my head. I ask that you guys always do the same - when using any resource. 

Peace

--Free

Appetites, Entertainment & Life

 I recently posted on my other blog about my dental situation and how it affects my eating habits. Since I've been without teeth (and awaiting dentures), I think so much about food. I also realize that so many types of appetites affect me (us) - not just our appetite for food.

One of the things I pray quite a bit about is my different appetites - food, attention, gossip, and many other (often) unhealthy things.

When I first got serious about living my faith, music was one of the things I had trouble shedding an appetite for. I grew up listening to all sorts of music (including gospel and other Christian genres) but my favorite artists were mainstream pop, rock, and R&B. Almost none of those were helpful to my Christian life. They actually fed a lot of my other unhealthy appetites - mainly lust. Still to this day, there are songs I cannot even hear in passing without a stirring of some sort of fleshly feeling. Walking through a grocery store once, I heard someone's ringtone playing the opening bars of Marvin Gaye's "Let's Get It On". That's never aroused anything good in my thoughts!

For me (for a lot of us, I'm thinking), music is one of the best tools the Enemy uses to get inside our heads. Music is something that can get access to our brains without us even realizing it. We hear a harmless-sounding song like "Imagine" by Lennon and maybe don't understand what he's asking us to imagine. No heaven? Why would a follower of Christ want to imagine that? Probably none of us do, but Lennon's voice and music lull us with a Satanic beauty. The same goes for songs like the one from another Beatle, George Harrison's holy-sounding-but-hellish "My Sweet Lord." His "lord" is not the Lord I serve. But, again, we hear the melody and the word "lord" and our brain thinks it's hearing good things.

I'm way more aware these days of how sneaky music can be. Another entertainment medium - television - is one I am just learning to watch with a discerning eye. Still, I struggle to give up some of the shows. 

Recently, I got access to Hulu and started bingeing "Boston Legal". It's funny, snarky, witty, and stars James Spader (of "Blacklist" and "Pretty In Pink") on whom I've always harbored a mostly harmless celebrity crush. It's harmless in that even if I ever did meet him, I'd never act so silly as to show my crush. I'm strongly in the camp of never meet your heroes crushes.

Anyway.

The show is a good watch but probably not healthy. It's certainly not helpful to me as a person of faith. I've watched it in the past but seeing it fresh, I realize how awful it is in terms of the behavior and ideas it pushes. One of the female characters is smart, pretty, and very life-capable but lives proudly as a sleep-around chick. Her main role is to promote the whole "friends with benefits" lifestyle. From her viewpoint, it is seen as healthy, liberated, and normal. I guess these days it is normal but normal does not mean right or healthy.

Spader's character - highly intelligent and ruthless - is that of a deeply damaged soul. He wants everything that comes with the richness of love and intimacy but pursues random and careless physical sex. The character is, of course, extremely liberal and seems sure about everything pagan but is very unsure of God and the purpose of "religion". 

William Shatner plays well off of Spader's. Their friendship is admirable but twisted. They are both damaged but validate each other. My worldly eyes see their camaraderie as something to envy. My discerning eye however sees this partnership promoting dangerous ideas. Theirs is a friendship that makes two bad people look likable. 

There is one character who is more comfortable living as a cross-dressing sass, reminiscent of Flip Wilson's Geraldine. He's very likable and, in a lot of ways, draws the viewers' sympathy (or empathy). But his cross-dressing is never portrayed as anything but "quirky" and not that off-putting.

Other characters are just as bad as those mentioned. The more conservative-leaning characters are shown to be uptight or buffoonish and mostly undesirable. Older characters on the show are just as rowdy, randy, and sexually loose as the others. Except for the, you know, uptight "weirdos".

Yeah, most of the best-promoted shows are not something I should so gleefully watch. "Living Single" (the precursor to the whiter-casted "Friends") promotes, on one hand, the idea that people of color are just as smart and accomplished as any other race. On the other hand, they are promoted as just as morally loose and spiritually confused as characters on most shows. Any "religious" characters are usually shown as being silly, foolish, or not truly "Christian" at all.

Reaching way back, I will mention "The Godfather) movies and books. I noticed that out of all the ruthlessness shown by the characters, as a whole, the Mafia families are touted as being better at governing than other groups of people. The admiration shown for the "codes" the families live by is more prevalent than the horrendous lack of respect for life. Don Vito is a wise and careful administrator of Mafia justice. His Consigliere is shown to be smart calm and in control of his emotions. Then you get the broodingly sexy and attractive Don Michael Corleone. Even most of the women - good Italian ladies - are willingly blind to the deadly culture of their men.

Still, even though I can see the flaws in this kind of entertainment, I am drawn to it. I often tell myself that I'm just fascinated with it and enjoy perusing these shows with discernment but, truthfully, I just have an unhealthy appetite for watching them.

This is a strange world we live in, isn't it? I mean, for us Christians. I am still learning and growing and reigning in my fleshly appetites. It's a daily struggle. The spirit and the flesh - the willing and the weak. 

Pray for me and for all of our brothers and sisters dealing with worldly appetites. 

Peace

--Free

P.S.: Here is something that Got Questions says about entertainment. I found it interesting.