A quote:
If homosexuality is a disease, can I call into work 'gay'?
If you are going to walk on thin ice you might as well dance
This is the personal website of Matthew Dellinger. I use it speak my mind on the continuing work of God in my life, our culture, the the church, and anything else that comes to mind.
I'm currently trying to move into a more serious realm. I want to use this space primarily to address the second and third topics I mentioned: culture and the church. I'm always looking for something to write about, so if ya'll think of anything, just ask and I'll talk about it.
Enjoy, or at least think about what I post.
The Valley of Vision is a collection of Puritan prayers from pastors
and theologians living in North America and England during the 16th
and 17th centuries. The Puritan era really lasted until Charles
Spurgeon, the last great Puritan mind, who died in 1892 and left
behind an epoch that will go down in church history as one containing
some of the greatest minds and most influential lives. The opening
prayer of the book is as follows;
"Lord, high and holy, meek and lowly,
Thou has brought me to the calley of vision, where I live in the
depths but see thee in the heights;
hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold thy glory.
Let me learn by paradox
that the way down is the way up,
that to be low is to be hight,
that the broken heart is the healed heart,
that the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
that the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
that to have nothing is to possess all,
that to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
that to give is to receive,
that the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from the deepest wells,
and the deeper the wells, the brighter thy stars shine;
Let me find thy light in my darkness,
thy life in my death,
thy joy in my sorrow,
thy grace in my sin,
thy riches in my poverty,
they glory in my valley."
The paradoxes of the Christian faith truly are great and beyond human
ability to fully understand or live out. God has called us out of the
darkness into His marvelous light so that we might declare His deeds.
This is a call to come and to die to our own selfish, sinful desires
to some form of fame that will not last past this world and instead
to live lives of missionary sacrifice that look to the world like our
treasure is in heaven and not on the earth. It is a call to walk in
the way of His truth and to wait eagerly for Him, not the pathetic
pursuits of this world. Instead of pursuing the remembrance of our
name we are to live in such a way that God's name is remembered and
His renown is great.
The call to die is the call to live, and the call to glory is the
call to lowliness. The call to eternal joy is the call to temporal
suffering and the call to live in the light is a call to dwell in the
darkness. God has granted that we should suffer in this life so that
we can fill up what is lacking in the suffering of Christ; namely,
the presentation of this suffering. We are to show for all the world
to see the way that Christ responded to unjust suffering; with God's
glory as foremost.
(9/31/06)
And we're going to Floyd next week while Jon's here. Everybody had better be there, or there are many terrible things which may descend upon your noggins. Such as sushi, tomatos, pictures of Michael Jackson, and stereos which only play Britney Spears songs. Yeah, so you'd better come, because I may also dub you a filthy heathen (aka someone who doesn't like bluegrass) if you don't.
(9/30/06)
I just realized that I have put up an entire series of serious posts. THIS MUST END. Indeed, its end has already begun, you are roughly 5.97/19 of the way done with its end already. So, for your reading pleasure...
Ask A Ninja
(9/27/06)
"Mentioning musical mannerism reminded me of a brief snippet of your conversation about the African American worship leader and his dancing. Matt I do NOT think that style of worship is compatible with our
congregation as a general rule. I could not help but think that you are
trying to "push the envelope" and I think you need to stop before it becomes
sin."
No, I just want our congregation to see how its possible to be joyful while singing. Black (I refuse to go out of my way to be politically correct) folks have always been great at demonstrating thier joy while singing, and I think that we need some of that.
(9/26/06)
"Call it the ExhibitioNet. It turns out that the Internet has unleashed the greatest outburst of mass exhibitionism in human history. Everyone may not be entitled, as Andy Warhol once suggested, to 15 minutes of fame. But everyone is entitled to strive for 15 minutes - or 30, 90 or much more. We have blogs, "social networking" sites (MySpace.com, Facebook), YouTube and all their rivals. Everything about these sites is a scream for attention. Look at me. Listen to me. Laugh with me - or at me. The larger reality is that today's exhibitionism may last a lifetime. What goes on the Internet often stays on the Internet. Something that seems harmless, silly or merely impetuous today may seem offensive, stupid or reckless in two weeks, two years or two decades. Still, we are clearly at a special moment. Thoreau famously remarked that "the mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." Thanks to technology, that's no longer necessary. People can now lead lives of noisy and ostentatious !
desperation. Or at least they can try.
[Washington Post]
LAUNCHER: What are the deep longings and motivators that compel so many to broadcast our lives online? Is desperation, or is it something else?"
It's the lack of true, deep, intimate friendships in the world today. It causes people to share superficial things with everyone, because they want to share, but can't shared what they truly want to share. I even feel this, and I have a couple of really great friends.
(9/23/06)
Its that feeling that you get when you know that you've messed up something important, and there's nothing you can do about it now. Why do I mention this? Because I'm feeling it right now due to making a dumb mistake on the last and most important question on my engineering test. Its not that I think that I did incredibly bad on the test, its just that I know that I made a mistake that I shouldn't have, and it is driving me nuts. I would quite literally rather lose ten points due to "smart" errors, or errors made through lack of knowledge or ability, than lose one point because of a dumb mistake. Oh well, that's my rant for this evening. Maybe it will spur me on to work harder and check my tests better. Now I get to go to Cru, and that will make up for it.
(9/21/06)
Going to college has been a unique and somewhat shocking experience for me. Its not that the classes are that much harder of complicated, its that the people in them are. When I walk into class every day, I know that, instead of walking into a room full of people who at least claim to believe something like what I do, I walk into a room full of people who would be willing to laugh in my face and ridicule me for what I believe. For example there is the chap in the back of my Enge 1024 and Math 1224 classes that continually spouts hatred toward Pres. Bush; he asserts that the only reason for the war in Iraq is that Bush wanted more oil. He is not afraid to push his views in front of everyone during an engineering presentation. This made me think; how would the world react if it was suddenly revealed to them that he was completely right? It would change the face of world politics, redirect wars, and devastate economies. In essence, it would forever change the face of the globe. Its that important. Yet he is willing to go around spouting it to any listening ear.
Well, if Mahatma Gandhi is correct, and we hold a "document containing enough dynamite to blow all civilisation to pieces, turn the world upside down, and bring peace to a battle-torn planet," why aren't we sharing it? It is because of fear; so my question is, why does this athiest have no fear in asserting something false when I fear to assert the truth? It is because what I have to tell them relates to them personally; if they disagree with me, I have not only disagreed with them about politics, something outside ourselves over which we have little control, but over the nature of ourselves. Therefore I tell them something with which they disagree, it has become personal to them. However much to the misfortune of my lack of interaction with the others in my classes, my Lord has not left doing nothing as an option. What does this mean? It means that Christ wants us to endure the poor opinion of others, to insult people with truth, and to be unpopular for truth. Lucky for us, our imaginations run wild, and when you actually talk to folks, the number who are insulted by you being a Christian is a lot smaller than you'd think.
(9/20/06)
Well even in the light of day
We somehow slipped away
Into the city down by the lake.
And just beyond the crowded streets
We found a place to meet
Where the grass was greener
And how we did sing beneath our God.
And the measure of that place
Was the pleasure on your face
As the music starts to rise.
And the sun did fall
But when the melody was young
Until the singers all were sung
The Maker of the skies
Well He just smiled on.
And the move was fine.
Beneath the mountain city walls
It was a picture of us all
And our hearts were laughing
As the band did play.
Until the music took our feet
To the motion of the street
This grass was bluer
And how we did dance
On the yellow lines.
And the measure of that place
Was the pleasure on your face
As the music starts to rise.
And the sun did fall
But when the melody was young
Until the singers all were sung
The Maker of the skies
Well He just smiled on.
When the darkness finally fell
The mountains cast their spell
And we were together
With our eyes upheld
To the passion in the sky
Our God and country light
It's an endless matter.
And how we did shine,
How we did shine beneath that light.
Beneath that light
Beneath that night.
And the measure of that place
Was the pleasure on your face
As the music starts to rise.
And the sun did fall
But when the melody was young
Until the singers all were sung
The Maker of the skies
Well He just smiled on.
(9/18/06)