Entries from October 2006 ↓

This is a repost from about this time last year.

Soon after my wife and I became Christians, the first holiday out the window was Halloween. It was obviously devilish, and we wanted our children to have nothing to do with it.

Back in the ’80s and early ’90s, Satanism scaremongers like the now-discredited Mike Warnke saw nothing but evil in the celebration of Halloween, and American Christians, steeped in the belief that the end times were upon us, were all too eager to believe the worst about any subject.

As my wife and I grew to understand more fully the sovereignty of God, our views on Halloween relaxed. But we were never completely comfortable with the idea.

Until (2004). Funny how one well-written article can dismantle all manner of faulty prejudices.

You must read the whole article. For one thing, it’s short. Well, kinda short. For another, it’s rare to find someone with this opinion of what is so commonly believed to be a Satanic holiday co-opted by the church. The truth may very well be the opposite:

(M)any articles in books, magazines, and encyclopedias are written by secular humanists or even the pop-pagans of the so-called “New Age” movement. … These people actively suppress the Christian associations of historic customs, and try to magnify the pagan associations. They do this to try and make paganism acceptable and to downplay Christianity. Thus, Halloween, Christmas, Easter, etc., are said to have pagan origins. Not true.

Oddly, some fundamentalists have been influenced by these slanted views of history. These fundamentalists do not accept the humanist and pagan rewriting of Western history, American history, and science, but sometimes they do accept the humanist and pagan rewriting of the origins of Halloween and Christmas, the Christmas tree, etc. We can hope that in time these brethren will reexamine these matters as well. We ought not to let the pagans do our thinking for us.

Read the entire article. (This is a slightly different link than what I had last year.)

BONUS: Carve your own online pumpkin.

Fort Wayne student (and former News-Sentinel intern) Andrew Welfle left a post down below telling me that, yes, there do seem to be plans to open an Apple Store right here in Fort Wayne, at the somewhat-chic Jefferson Pointe shopping mall.

(Photo is of the Apple Store on Michigan Avenue in Chicago.)

No one is allowed to take photos of the King Tut items. Sorry ’bout that.

But instead, as you wait for us to post our own photos from our trip to Chicago, you can see many of the items we saw at the Field Museum’s own web site. Check out the wonderful photos of the traveling exhibit.

Tutankhamun and The Golden Age of the Pharaohs

It’s in Chicago only until January 1. After that, the exhibit visits The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia, so if you’re reading this from out east, you still have a good shot at seeing these priceless pieces before they return to Egypt forever.

Hi! Our trip to Chicago and The Field Museum went great! We left Wednesday morning and got back Thursday night. Wow, we were tired by the end of it. The drive back seemed to take twice as long as the drive there.

This is our photo of the Sears Tower. I’ll post much more later, but we have a busy day today, with me meeting a friend for coffee this afternoon. Plus, we’re going to be carving pumpkins with another family this evening. Then, I work tomorrow morning, and Mary has a craft show tomorrow, too!

So, stay tuned for more photos, maybe in a few days.

And here is another song that I intend to perform at The Anchor Room on Novermber 3.

Still Beautiful
By Jon Swerens · Sept. 30, 2006

What if no one believes? What if no one perceives?
What if everyone leaves at the sound of His voice?
What if nobody fears? What if nobody hears?
If they plug up their ears like it’s nothing but noise?

The Word of God is still beautiful
The Word of God, still beautiful

What if everyone hates? What if everyone fakes?
What if everyone takes just the parts that they like?
What if they break the rules and establish the schools?
Teach a nation of fools that darkness is light?

The Word of God is still beautiful
The Word of God, still beautiful

What if every setback were an utter defeat?
Could we rest in the promise it’s all under His feet?

What if Christians behave as if Christ couldn’t save
Unless they become slaves to the law that oppressed?
What if grace were passé and a shackle the way
To show how we obey and deserve to be blessed?

The Word of God is still beautiful
The Word of God, still beautiful

©2006 Jon Swerens

Photo by Steve Linsenmayer

Here a new song that I intend to sing at my next gig at The Anchor Room on November 3.

We Simply Forgot
By Jon Swerens · September 2006

We promised our lives, we promised our gifts
And everything short of the moon
We entered the race then slackened our pace
It seems that we rested too soon
Father, remind us how quickly we tend to forget, with little regret
Father, forgive us for giving ourselves incompletely, and so weakly
I guess we got hooked on a fat pocketbook
And the treasures and trinkets it bought
We heard what You said but we’ve been so well fed
That it seems we simply forgot

With lips that tell lies and with covetous eyes
And with hands over unbroken hearts
We pledge to obey and in less than a day
Our faithfulness crumbles apart
Father, remind us how often we sink in defeat and beat a retreat
Father, forgive us for thinking we still deserve credit, we don’t get it
We tend to lose track ’cause we’re not looking back
At the parables You always taught
The stuff we ignore when we’re keeping the score
Are the things we simply forgot

So Father we thank You for telling us frankly
That thoughtlessness mars all we do
The only things You have forgotten
Are all of the times we forgot about You

You laid down your life, You laid down Your gifts
And you captured each one that You sought
We’re acting like squatters but we’re sons and daughters of You
We simply forgot

©2006 Jon Swerens

Photo by Steve Linsenmayer

Just to prove how much corporate hipness Fort Wayne has, we now have 10 Starbucks locations in town. With two more opening soon.

Starbucks in Fort Wayne

That counts one apiece in our two Targets, which also adds hipness, come to think of it.

Let’s hope that rumor that we’re getting an Apple Store is true. We’ll be so hip we won’t be able to stand ourselves.

But to mitigate, we have four Wal-marts, with two more to be built over the next year or two.

Creating posters for my next gigs:

I think they turned out well — after I figured out how to print a color photo on my ink jet printer.