Okay, there is currently some sort of functional division between my livejournal blog (www.livejournal.com/users/nathanalbright) and this blog. My livejournal blog is to update the more prosaic details of my life, and take quizzes, and this blog is for the more serious/political discussions I have. I just got a xanga blog for the purpose of commenting on my friends who have xanga blogs. It's so difficult to keep in touch with people when you have way too many means of communication, unless you don't mind having three or four (or more) chat clients, accounts on four or five (or more) friend networks, and have at least three or more blogs. It's all madness to me. But, to get to the point, I'm a busy man. Since my personal sort of activity is detailed elsewhere in greater detail, and I don't have the time to desire to be redundant, here goes my weekend activity for the next month or so:
May 28th: I get to show the Lifenets Charity Auction DVD to some friends from church visiting Tampa from Seattle, as we have a mutual friends who helped me co-write an entertaining skit.
June 4th: UCG wide church fast, Tampa Bay Family Weekend, lots of eating (after 5PM that is), dancing, and talking (sometimes the last two simultaneously).
June 5th: Well, I'm going to try to find reasonable housing in Wildwood, NJ, and I might (repeat, might) go to the beach event at Ft. Desoto Park, and pay $5 for lunch to hang out with some friends of mine who like the sunlight a little more (okay, a lot more) than I do.
June 12: Pentecost. Well, we're having a lovely lunch to celebrate the 10th anniversary of UCG, with lots of photos (it almost pains me to think of what photos they have uncovered to show us...I'm not a big fan of having pictures or videos taken of me). I'm also singing in the choir, as usual, for special music. Ironically enough, my family officially joined United (we had been a part of the independent congregation that later became United from the beginning) the Sabbath after Pentecost of 1995.
June 18th: Ladies' Night at Speaker's club. So far I'm responsible for the cheesecake (though that might change, since I reminded our acting president that we had forgotten a bread course, it's a guy's cookout sort of event, so I might end up being responsible for that as well). And I don't know who my "guest" will be for the event. It's not like there is an overabundance of young ladies in Tampa/St. Pete, but the ones there are nice and friendly enough, and certainly worthy guests. The problem is that there just aren't enough of them, given the fact that there will be over a half dozen single guys all looking for, at most, 5 young women in both congregations. Actually, this should be entertaining to watch, more entertaining if I wasn't involved.
That's it for now, but before I leave I'd like to make some comments on yesterday's sermon we had from our Pastor (Mr. David Treybig). I have to admit, I wasn't so psyched at the title (a closer look at the Second Commandment). But I warmed to the sermon rather quickly. It didn't take too long to appreciate that one of the best ways to fight against idolatry was to be a literate person (I read for enjoyment at least once a day, whereas it appears most people have trouble reading for fun once a week). Obviously, such a message found very fertile ground. Of course, a large part depends on what we choose to spend our time doing. Even among reading, not all books are created equal, or even close. Reading the Bible for fun is obviously an important part of maintaining a close connection with God. Reading nonfiction material of a morally uplifting nature is also an aid to mental (and occasionally spiritual) development as well. Other reading is not so valuable for intellectual/spiritual purposes. However, the mental activity involved in reading stimulating nonfiction material is a good thing. Watching tv (to the exclusion of other forms of entertainment) and receiving only mentally passive entertainment is not mentally productive, and can make us more susceptible to images, and thence the emotional reaction characteristic of idolatry. It was an excellent message, and one much appreciated by yours truly.
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4 comments:
After 5pm? Are you having a 21-hour fast there, for some reason?
(I just returned from a LONG trip, so apologies for no comments in recent days.)
Well, our congregation has a previously scheduled event, and thus the fast ends at 5PM. I think we're supposed to start a little earlier on Friday night, though, even it out. That's how I'm going to take it anyway. In the absense of clear directive I err on the side of caution.
On the side of caution.... so Someone doesn't fire lightning bolts at you?
Well...that's one reason, but far from the only reason...
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