Soundtracks

I've recently noticed that I might be making a mistake.

You see, when I listen to music, it's always with something. Doing the dishes? How bout some Bach? Homework? Hello Mozart. Laundry? Hey Brahms. Jogging? Yay for fun Pop! Etc.

In fact, I'm listening to Bach even as I type!

Here's the problem, when I actually go to a concert and try to devote my entire attention to listening, I constantly want to do something else. Eventually, I start dozing off (If it's been a hard day). But most of the time, I'm just fidgeting, like I'm waiting for something to happen. This is not good.

If you'll remember, back before we had portable music players or even radios, people went to concerts and just listened. Nothing else. (They still do). And it's unfortunate that we have relegated music to just an accessory rather than an experience in and of itself.

Music is a definite art form and should be treated as such. For example, you don't try to look at five pictures at once in an art gallery right? Same with music. (Unless it's a movie, but arguable a movie is one whole image). To really listen requires all you've got. Your whole being.

Key Takeaway: Stop multitasking when it comes to music. If you're going to listen, then truly listen.

This isn't to say that doing things along with music is completely bad, but I do believe that the full experience of music requires complete concentration.

Back to Bach...

Halfway through Martin Luther...

I feel pretty lost in a forest of terms, concepts, definitions, and ideas.

Let's begin with the main question. The fact is, people still sin after they become Christians. (And I define becoming a Christian as when a person accepts Christ as their personal savior from sin and death) How then do we reconcile sin with the fact that we have been saved? I admit that we are not saved by anything but faith in Christ's work, that is, there is not a single action I have done or can do in order to gain eternal life, but I don't understand the seeming contradiction which after-salvation sin places before me. (Even excepting faith in Christ which is itself an action which "God effects in us" pg. 23).

Let me try that again. If I find myself still sinning after I have confessed Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, does this mean that I am no longer saved? I know of some who get out of this by saying that once you're saved you're always saved, but that doesn't seem satisfactory because one has no objective way of knowing if one is saved. If good works are the concomitant effects of true faith in Christ, then does this mean that bad works (i.e. sin) are the concomitant effects of damnation?

I guess what I'm trying to say is, why all this continual purgation? Why can't God remove the possibility of sinning after I have willed to no longer sin?

I hope I haven't uttered anything heretical or blasphemous (though I'm afraid I probably have).

Help?

Under the Mercy,
Gabriel

Some Questions

I recently watched about 75% of a movie called "Departed". It was this years academy award winner for "Best Foreign Film". It's about a cello player whose orchestra is disbanded and who ends up with a job as a "encoffiner", someone who performs the Japanese death ceremony. So two questions came to mind:

What does it mean to die well?

What is a beautiful death?

What should a persons legacy be?

From what I've seen of the movie, I recommend it. However there is one sensually explicit minute long scene which younger viewers will want to be wary of. Other than that, it is a rhapsodic meditation on death, life, and love.

Can't wait to finish it. =]

Go to Dark Gethsemane

Go to dark Gethsemane,
Ye that feel the tempter's power;
Your Redeemer's conflict see,
Watch with Him one bitter hour;
Turn not from His griefs away,
Learn of Jesus Christ to pray.


Follow to the judgment hall;
View the Lord of life arraigned;
Oh, the wormwood and the gall!
Oh, the pangs His soul sustained!
Shun not suffering, shame, or loss;
Learn of Him to bear the cross.


Calvary's mournful mountain climb;
There, adoring at His feet,
Mark that miracle of time,
God's own sacrifice complete:
"It is finished," hear Him cry;
Learn of Jesus Christ to die.

-James Montgomery

Silence in the Sun

ooooh. Artsy title. ;)

This afternoon I decided to sit down on a small plot of grass. The morning had been cold and so it was good to feel the sun on my body. Lying down felt even better because it reduced my exposure to the wind and maximized the amount of sunlight I could absorb.

I've forgotten how wonderfully relaxing that is. Just sitting and being silent and listening to people talking (with no obligation to answer since they think you're sleeping). Apparently, I cut quite a haiku-y figure. =P

Opening my eyes again, everything was sort of white washed. My eyes were adjusting so the world took on a blaring blue-rinse like color tone. It felt like I was in a movie...

Spring Break has started. It's good to relax. It's good to love and be loved. It's good to live. It's good to Affirm things.

God Bless you all, my friends. Let us pray for one another, always.

In Which I Recant...

I have deactivated my Facebook account until further notice. That is, until I learn how to properly control my time and use it rightly. =P

Sorry about our Scrabble game Mr. Leigh, I bow to your superior word skills. =D