Monday, January 18

Very busy day at work. Nice to come home and work on this while cooking a little din din.

Reading for January 18


Genesis 37:1-38:30
Alright, so there are two stories here. Both concerns sons of Jacob, who is the son of Isaac, who is the son of Abraham. The first story is about Joseph. This is again, another popular story in the Bible. There is a play about it which I have never seen called Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Here is the actual story: Joseph is the youngest of all of Jacob's sons and Jacob loves him the most. Joseph begins to have dreams that signify that he will rule over his brothers and then ultimately, his mother and father as well. Jacob's other sons, who were tired of Joseph getting all the attention anyway, had enough when he started telling them about these dreams. So they plan to kill him, but fear the moral reprecussions, so they decide to sell him into slavery. That story stops there for a while and takes a turn to focus on Judah.

Judah has three sons. His first son, Er, is struck down by God for being 'wicked in the LORD's sight.' Doesn't give any more description beyond that. Er was supposed to marry a woman named Tamar, but died before that could happen. So Judah arranged for his second son, Onan to marry Tamar, but he didn't want to get Tamar pregnant with a child that wouldn't be his heir. So he 'spilled his semen on the ground' when he had sex with her. Kinda selfish, but not morally abhorrent. Well, God doesn't like this and takes out Onan as well.

What happened to the compassionate God who regretted humanity's maladies? This sounds like he's got his finger hovering over a "Kill Brandon" button waiting for me to screw up!

Well, Judah's third son Shelah isn't old enough to marry her, so Tamar is instructed to be a widow until Shelah is old enough. One day, Tamar goes into town and Judah mistakes her for a prostitute because she is covering her face. Judah sleeps with her and gets her pregnant. Tamar has twins, and I believe that one of those twins continues the lineage to Jesus. Born out of human depravity. And miracles.

Matthew 12:22-45
The only unforgivable sin

This is interesting. Jesus is talking about how every sin and blasphemous act can be forgiven. Even blasphemy against Jesus. So everything can be forgiven EXCEPT blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. I'm not even sure how to do that. Hopefully I haven't been doing it my whole life...

Another thing of note here is talking about sin as well and how we should reform ourselves when repenting:

“When an evil^[c] spirit leaves a person, it goes into the desert, seeking rest but finding none. ⁴⁴ Then it says, ‘I will return to the person I came from.’ So it returns and finds its former home empty, swept, and in order. ⁴⁵ Then the spirit finds seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they all enter the person and live there. And so that person is worse off than before."

I think this is something a lot of people can relate to. The point here is to focus on inward reform rather than just pushin sin out the door. So lets say you're trying to quit smoking. Not to say that smoking in a sin, but its an easy example. If you focus on the smoking aspect of it, you just think about it all day and that cigarette becomes more and more desirable.  Making it that much easier for it to return to your life and hurt you. Not only that, but it will welcome in other vices. But if you focus on the inside first and letting Jesus chaneg your heart, it will be easier to stay on course. At least that's what I think He's saying. I'm no Billy Graham over here! Ahem.

Psalm 16:1-11
Again, I am convinced that reading the psalms in order like this is shows how fickle we humans are. One Psalm, David is asking God why he has abandoned him. In this one he is talking about how great God is because his enemies have left him. I am starting to see the benefit of reading the Bible in its entirety and seeing things in context.

Proverbs 3:27-32
Some simple wisdom here.

 ²⁷ Do not withhold good from those who deserve it
      when it’s in your power to help them.
 ²⁸ If you can help your neighbor now, don’t say,
      “Come back tomorrow, and then I’ll help you.”
 ²⁹ Don’t plot harm against your neighbor,
      for those who live nearby trust you.
 ³⁰ Don’t pick a fight without reason,
      when no one has done you harm.
 ³¹ Don’t envy violent people
      or copy their ways.
 ³² Such wicked people are detestable to the Lord,
      but he offers his friendship to the godly.

I'm writing this while watching the latest on Haiti - there were 380,000 orphans in Haiti BEFORE the earthquake. Between 800 and 900 kids were in the process of being adopted by families in the US before the earthquake.

On the other end of this, I have heard some good things out of this. A Haitian being interviewed on NPR this morning said he thought the quake was a blessing in disguise. All the aid will allow them to rebuild the country, both physically and financially. God does take evil and use it for good. But at what cost? It is so painful to watch. And yet the faith of the Haitians seems unshaken. I don't know...

Dear God. Please pour out your unrelenting mercy on the victims of the earthquake in Haiti. Please perform healing miracles and make yourself known through your faithful followers. God, please protect the children and orphans specifically. Your word says that you care for all the little children - please help and protect all these children who are now without parents. 

Thank you God. Amen.