Thursday, January 28

Hey-ho. Welp, today was my birthday and I had a pretty good one! I played a ton of video games, actually BEAT Mario Bros Wii, gorged myself at Friendly's with my lovely wife, and then we came home and had a facebook battle - that's when we update eachother's statuses to make the other person look foolish. I made her be in love with Nickleback. Haha.


Lets-a Go! (Mexico)

Reading for January 28

Exodus 5:22-7:25
This begins the "let my people go" stand off. On one side we have God, Moses and Aaron - on the other we have the Pharaoh of Egypt. There is an answer to my question from yesterday here - the question was, "Why would God make Pharaoh's heart hard in the first place?" Here, God tells Moses,

³ But I will make Pharaoh’s heart stubborn so I can multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in the land of Egypt.

Basically, I will make it take longer so I can really show that I am God. Now that I think about it, that's a pretty crappy answer. Unless...hmm...let's look at this from God's point of view. If what I've been told is true, then God wants the best for us. So then, by "showing off" by performing a weeks worth of miracles, the Israelites would be more inclined to not only believe in God, but fear him. So believing in and fearing God is good for us. If what I was taught was true, then this isn't God trying to show off so he can have a lot of signatures in his yearbook at the end of the year, this is God trying to get his people on the right path, and he knows that the way to as Isrealites heart is through his miracle receptors.

Only problem is - the stuff he helps Moses do aren't miracles. Not these first two anyway....the first two acts are Moses turning his staff into a snake and turning water into blood. But the Egyptian magicians could do the same thing. Meaning these were likely slight of hand tricks...I know the later plagues can't be replicated by the magicians but why not start with a bang? Open with your big number?

Matthew 18:21-19:12
Parable of the unforgiving debtor
OK - as far as I know, this is the first parable Jesus tells that is an analogy to his life and sacrifice. Here it is in a nutshell.

There's a dude who owes a lot of money to a king. I've heard interpretations that say it would take this guys like 70,000 years to pay off this debt with an average salary. Anyway the dude obviously can't pay it back and begs for mercy from the king to whom he is indebted. The king takes pity on him and forgives him the entire debt.

Up until this point, we can easily see a clear parallel. We humans are the person in debt, the king is Jesus. We could never atone for the sins we've committed, so Jesus pardons all our sins by dying on the cross. But the parable doesn't stop there.

As soon as the dude (let's call him Steve) leaves the king's chambers, he sees another dude (let's call this dude Kyle) who owes Steve a very small amount of money. Kyle asks for another day, but Steve has him arrested and thrown in jail until he can pay up. The king hears about this and then re-instates the debt that Steve owed and he also throws Steve in jail to be totured until he can repay his debt. Which will never happen, because he is now being tortured for a living. Hell, get it?

The lesson here is forgive, because we have been forgiven everything.

The second half of  this reading focuses on marriage, and Jesus lays out some specific rules about divorce and marriage. This line is quoted a lot in weddings, but its still pretty cool:

⁶ Since they are no longer two but one, let no one split apart what God has joined together.” 

Psalm 23:1-6
Ah, the most popular psalm of all. Now that I'm seeing it in the context of the other psalms, it doens't quite stand out as much. Maybe I'm just decensitized to it becuase its so popular. Anyway you know it. Good old GW Bush read it during one of his State of the Union addresses, or some public address.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. And so on.

Proverbs 5:22-23 

²² An evil man is held captive by his own sins;
      they are ropes that catch and hold him.


I think I know what Solomon meant here, but reading this another way, you could say that this talks about mental disorders. That people who commit murders or rape women can't control themselves and are actually controlled by these desires. Now here's the million dollar question, why would God make people that way?

I do a lot of big talk about how I think Gays are OK in the sight of God. My argument is simple:
If God created man, and God is a good God, then he would not create something that is inherently against him and his will. That point can be debated if one believes homosexuality is a choice or a disease, but I'm not here to debate that. My point is, if gay people were born with these desires, they should be OK by God - but then a lot of serial murders say they were born with sick and twisted tendencies. Are murderers OK too then? Ah how the mind swims at 1:30 AM. 

Feel free to counter-point me on any of these topics in the comments below, on facebook or if you want to talk in person - I'm always down for that. I think discussions like these lead to more concrete conclusions.

Alrighty - have a good one, kids. And to any ORB folksies reading this - I might be making a surprise cameo at church on Sunday. :O!!!

K - nite.