What happens on February 17, 2009? If you know, then you probably pay way too much attention to consumer electronics. (So how do I know?) That is the date that over-the-air analog television broadcasts will be a thing of the past; all TV will be digital TV. If you get your TV signal from cable, satellite or fiber, then you have to do nothing... except pony up what they will charge for the privilege. But if you get your TV over the air through rabbit ears or housetop antenna, then you will need a converter box to show the digital signal on the ol' Sony Trinitron. You can get a taxpayer-funded coupon for a converter box, but after February 17 you will need a set-top box just like everyone else.
There was a Senate Commerce Committee meeting yesterday that allowed Senators the chance to bluster about concerns for constituents. Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas was concerned that people who don't type the "exact right" Web address for the coupon program may not be able to find it (unless they've heard of Google, I guess). Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska was worried that all the "TV public service announcements" that will take place (and already are) over the next year announcing the changeover and coupon program may not not succeed in getting the word out. He worries about "those people in rural areas who rely on the (TV) system but don't pay attention to it." They rely on TV for information (so they need it) but don't really pay attention to it (so they won't get the word)? Does that make sense?
I wonder if that says something about the church and the Bible. Just think about how important the Bible is to our "official" church meetings. Sunday morning begins with 45 minutes of Bible classes, and the biggest part of the worship service is a sermon from the Bible. Small groups on Sunday (and other) nights center around Bible discussion. While the kids are doing their WOW Bible classes on Wednesday night, the adults are studying through the Old Testament as a support to our daily Bible reading program. So that is a lot of emphasis on the Bible, right? We really do rely on it.
But do we pay attention to it? Do we change our behavior based on all the "public service announcements" that we come across each week in the Bible? Are our lives continually changed and challenged by all the time we spend studying the Bible? Or is the Bible something we rely on but just don't pay any attention to? Does that make sense?
There was a Senate Commerce Committee meeting yesterday that allowed Senators the chance to bluster about concerns for constituents. Sen. Mark Pryor of Arkansas was concerned that people who don't type the "exact right" Web address for the coupon program may not be able to find it (unless they've heard of Google, I guess). Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska was worried that all the "TV public service announcements" that will take place (and already are) over the next year announcing the changeover and coupon program may not not succeed in getting the word out. He worries about "those people in rural areas who rely on the (TV) system but don't pay attention to it." They rely on TV for information (so they need it) but don't really pay attention to it (so they won't get the word)? Does that make sense?
I wonder if that says something about the church and the Bible. Just think about how important the Bible is to our "official" church meetings. Sunday morning begins with 45 minutes of Bible classes, and the biggest part of the worship service is a sermon from the Bible. Small groups on Sunday (and other) nights center around Bible discussion. While the kids are doing their WOW Bible classes on Wednesday night, the adults are studying through the Old Testament as a support to our daily Bible reading program. So that is a lot of emphasis on the Bible, right? We really do rely on it.
But do we pay attention to it? Do we change our behavior based on all the "public service announcements" that we come across each week in the Bible? Are our lives continually changed and challenged by all the time we spend studying the Bible? Or is the Bible something we rely on but just don't pay any attention to? Does that make sense?
7 comments:
I heard a good analogy to what you're describing in a Beth Moore bible study a few months back.
She was describing a trip over into Angola, Africa I believe where missionaries were distributing crop seeds to the Angolan people with the intention of teaching the people to grow food for themselves. Instead of sowing the seeds to yield a large crop that could sustain them for a long time however, the hungry people simply ate the seeds instead looking for immediate relief!
She made the analogy that we often treat scripture this way. We hear scripture on Sunday morning, Wednesday night, and in small groups, but often don't "sow" it, allowing it to change our behavior. Instead it's often an in-one-ear-and-out-the-other thing with maybe a temporary change to our behavior, but it yields no bigger, sustainable crop of true behavioral change. We just simply swallow little doses of scripture here and there and feel good about ourselves for a short time, but nothing long-lasting comes of it.
I remember thinking how frustrating it must have been for the missionary workers to see the people eating those seeds instead of planting them because they knew what kind of long-term relief a large crop of food could provide to starving people. I can only imagine how frustrated or disappointed God is with us when we treat his life-changing Scripture this way. I'm as guilty as the next person.
Tuck, I pray the answers to your questions are, Yes, yes and double Yes.
About the television broadcast that will be changing over to all digital on Feb 17 of next year. I haven’t had a new television since before I got married (it was a display model and my got it for half price).
I don’t know what we are going to do with all the old rabbit ears. (Join them together and build a directional a yang antenna. . . maybe) I for one am looking forward to the challenging task of building or ‘acquiring’ a ‘digital to analog converter’. Will I break out the old oscilloscope, spectrum analyzer and soldering iron? (Who has that kind of time?)
I expect that a converter box will be between our rabbit ears and our old giant hand me down television very soon. I just hope they don’t wait until the last minute to distribute them.
There are many ‘shut ins’ who’s only contact with the outside world is television and most of them have rabbit ears. Tune your radios to 790 am on Sunday morning at 9:00 for the good news.
I meant to say (my (wife) got it for half price.) Please forgive my over sight and redundancy, I will try to proof read before clipping and pasting in the future.
My Brother-in-law and I talked about this the other day. He mentioned the fact that Congress approved 1.5 Billion to subsidize the cost to the consumers for the digital converters. i.e. We, the taxpayer, are paying for the coupons we get to cut our own cost for the converter! I have nothing else to write I'm speechless. What would Dave Ramsey say if he looked at the National Budget?
The converters to be made available via coupons will be very basic. They will make your old televisions work with the new broadcast format (that will go into effect soon, read Tuck’s blog). The converters will take they new digital signal and convert it to analog that your old television set was designed to proses. You will be able to get a clearer picture from the new digital broadcast even with an old television and a basic converter (for reasons I could write a book about). If anyone wants a ‘Cadillac converter’ with all the bells and whistles it will cost them and they will have to pay extra for it. The basic one you can get with the coupon (for a very good price) is functional well designed to do the job and the most practical one you can get for your dollar. Some expensive models have extra features like analog bypass that will allow you to watch digital and analog broadcasts (but after the change over there will be no analog broadcasts for television (so why pay extra for a feature you will not need?) 1.5 billion dollars, that's a lot of converters! I want to talk to someone in charge.
The best way to stay out of debt is to take donations and hand me downs. Like the old televisions that people will be getting rid of because they are useless as they are.
If you don’t mind digging through the garbage before it goes into the landfill and asking around you could save a lot of money as I do. It gets somewhat complicated and cluttered to operate with zero funds, it is posible to stay out of debt.
It has been my experience that people with ‘extra’ money do not mind paying a little extra for simplicity and to reduce ones clutter.
With an old hand me down set all you will need is a d/a converter.
Any body want an old oscilloscope and spectrum analyzer. I will let you have it for what I paid for it... (NOTHING!)
The spectrum analyzer can be used to observe bat’s ultrasonic chatter (there are some that are endangered and they have a unique pattern of vocalization that is invisible to the naked ear.) or you could analyze radio transmissions in there intensity and frequency in real time.
Unfortunately the oscilloscope was crippled by someone before I acquired it and the only thing I know to do with it is to use the onboard five volt power supply. I will not sell either the oscilloscope or spectrum analyzer and I do not want them to be sold but if they can help you in any way they are yours.
For 19.99 you can hear everything Dave Ramsey has to say, http://www.daveramsey.com/shop/Audio_CD_Special_With_Free_Boo_P227C48.cfm?afid=10&s%5Fkwcid=TC%2D3062%2D9563447022%2DS%2D1286195022.
I have the owner manual for the $10,000.00 HP spectrum analyzer (it’s a couple of hundred pages and it was not easy to find (it was not easy to learn how to turn it on, hook up the $5 dollar ultrasonic microphone with the homemade parabolic reflector and see the insect chatter around the base of the trees.)
The HP was state of the art in 1986 and it still works like new, I really do like being able to see the invisible world of ultrasonic sound and radio waves but things are just getting to cluttered and complicated and I want to simplify and de-clutter, it is spring time. Does that make any sense?
Post a Comment