Monday, December 1, 2008

Velvet Curtain

I want to share the theme of a book "The Velvet Curtain" by Trudy Harvey Tait. Lori had a friend who shared the book with us to see what we thought. It is fictional. The girl who is the main character comes from Eastern Europe when Communism ruled in the eighties. She comes to live with distant family in America. On the plane over, a Christian elderly gentlemen admonishes her of the velvet curtain. She has left the Iron Curtain behind but has exchanged it for another type of curtain. At first it is a real culture shock seeing people waste food at restaurant buffets and seeing how freely young people dress and act. She is pretty and attracts attention. Her cousins influence her and the velvet curtain starts to close in on her till she messes up her life. She rejoiced in her new found freedom but found that she also had to escape the velvet curtain and find the balance that is in the freedom that is found in Jesus. I know there is much need for prayer for those who are persecuted in foreign countries. But there is much need for prayer also for those in America who are so swallowed up by this velvet curtain. The root of all sin against God is wanting to go our own way and not His. Revelation 3, the letter to the Laodiceans, warned them of feeling like they had no need of anything but yet they were wretched and poor and needed the eye salve of God so they could have a good vision of themselves. This was not just a letter for them, but a lesson for us. I constantly need God's guidance on my life that I may let Him shepherd me. That will always lead me beside the still waters where I can find a breath of His fresh air.

5 comments:

  1. Did you read it? What is your opinion?

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  2. Yes. I read it. My opinion is yes we need to be careful of the velvet curtain and find the balance of the freedom we have. Affluence does not indicate spirituality. Remember Jesus said that they that are rich have a hard time entering into the kingdom. Being in the valley of trials is hard, it drives us to our knees and we are in places where God must help us. But being on the mountain makes us feel good and it is there that we are tempted to forget God. Many in America have forgotten God. After the tragedy 9/11 many people spoke of prayer but there is still the push to take "under God" out of our pledge and the push for the rights for abortion. In the media there is so much talk of those who have died in the war but never concern for the millions of babies who are killed through abortion.

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  3. yes, I agree with you... when we are in trouble we try to be close to God 'cause we know that He is our only help...but when we are free and everything is fine, then we start to be part of laodicea... church flourish in hard time...

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  4. Oh, and an Etsy shop is what I see on some other blogs where they are selling homemade items.

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  5. A good book and a good reminder. There is, I believe, a sequel. We should look into that.

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