Same Thing I Do Every Evening – Try to Take Over the World!

Anyway, what am I really doing this evening? Well, it really is pretty much the same thing that I do every evening. I play a few games on my Meta Quest, watch a few YouTube shows, and read.

I mention elsewhere that I try to focus on a different country every day, alphabetically. I watch a few tourist videos on the day’s country, including an episode from the Geography Now series, which I only discovered recently. I try to find some information on the spiritual state of the country, and I pray for it. So, today’s country will be CURAÇAO. I used to try to pray for a different country each day years ago, but it’s much easier to motivate myself nowadays because I can watch videos and virtually visit them on YouTube. And, for some countries, 8K 3D 180-degree movies are available, which I can watch on my Quest. It feels like I’m really there😀. I often play a quick game of Walkabout Minigolf on my Quest too or go fishing using Real Fishing VR.

The church would be similar to the Roman Catholic church, with the King instead of the Pope in charge with a few tweaks to bring to closer to the New Testament pattern. The Puritans generally preferred to go right back to the New Testament and start from scratch.

Kings and Queens saw the Puritans, with their radicalism and range of strong opinions, as a threat to stability and a threat to their own power. Puritans, such as John Bunyan, are often admired by evangelicals nowadays, but back then, some of them would have been seen as a little dangerous to society. I don’t know what religious outlook the author, Michael Winship, has but it’s always interesting to listen to different perspectives. I’m not a fan of wacky radical people myself, but without the Puritans, perhaps we wouldn’t have the freedom of religion that we have today in my part of the world. And, in a vibrant movement for change, you’ll get people who are a bit too bossy. But the answer is not to avoid change. Just avoid the bossy people😀.

One quibble that people might have with the Puritans is their view of Christmas. The Puritans would have happily banned Christmas. I agree that the New Testament doesn’t ask us to celebrate Christmas, but I think it’s good to have something to break up the winter. And even if it’s a tradition that arose from a pagan festival, or has pagan elements, I always just think of it as celebrating the birth of Jesus. But you don’t need to have Christmas to do that.

I generally end the evening by watching a TV show with my wife. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been watching BBC Coast again on DVD. It’s a nice gentle way to end the evening.

I often like to end my daily post with a hymn. The Puritans didn’t agree with hymns. They believed that we should only use biblical Psalms in worship. But I see hymns as I see people praying or praising God in their own words. I assume that the Puritans did that in their meetings, even if they only sang Psalms. One famous hymn written by a Puritan is He Who Would Valiant Be by John Bunyan. He didn’t write it as a hymn. It was a poem in his book, Pilgrim’s Progress. Someone put it to music later. I remember purchasing a modern version of Pilgrim’s Progress back in 1981 and I absolutely loved it. I just noticed a film adaptation on YouTube from 2019. I’m sure that there are many more.

Though the Puritans didn’t like hymns, they did attempt to make Psalms more singable. One good example is All People That On Earth Do Dwell by William Kethe, based on Psalm 100. And when I think about it, a huge number of hymns that we sing are based on Psalms. Here are some that I’m familiar with:

• “For the Beauty of the Earth” – Based on Psalm 8
• “The Lord’s My Shepherd” – Based on Psalm 23
• “The King of Love My Shepherd Is” – Based on Psalm 23
• “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” – Based on Psalm 46
• “How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place” – Based on Psalm 84
• “All People That on Earth Do Dwell” – Based on Psalm 100
• “I’ll Praise My Maker While I’ve Breath” – Based on Psalm 146

And numerous other attempts have been made to make the Psalms singable. I suppose the ones that are tightly based on the wording are more difficult, but here are two examples; one an old style Anglican rendering and another from The Psalms Project.