Sunday, February 21

It has been a meat filled weekend. Last night we went to a beefsteak - being a recent transplant to North Jersey, I understand the feeling of 'what the heck is a beefsteak?' A beefsteak is like a spaghetti dinner fundraiser, but instead of spaghetti, you get thin slices of steak served over a thin slice of italian bread, with garlic butter drizzled over that - but as much as you can eat...I musta had me about 30 pieces.

Then tonight, our crew of 'Asian friends' took Jilly and I out for Korean BBQ - a first for both of us, but my my was it delectable. It's kind of like hibachi in that they cook the food at a small grill in your table, but its BBQ meat, and a lot of it. My only issue with this place was the smoke from the grill. I just happened to pick the seat where the smoke exclusively blew. So I was getting punched in the face the entire night by sweet sweet BBQ smoke. Kreacher licked my entire head when we got home.

Reading for February 21
Leviticus 11:1-12:8
Is this Kosher?
So here we have the exact rules for what the Jews are allowed to eat, or what is Kosher for them. For meat, it is any animal that has split hooves and "chews the cud" - which I think means "eats grass" is OK, but they must do both. If the animal has a split hoof, but does not chew the cud, it is considered unclean, and vice versa.

Now the idea of unclean isn't as damning as I originally thought. Basically, if you eat or touch the meat of an unclean animal, you will be deemed "unclean" until that evening. You must also bathe and wash your clothes, but there's no real penalty for breaking the Kosher rule. It says later that a woman is considered unclean for up to two weeks after child birth, which is encouraged  by God! So the idea of unclean isn't like this harsh banishment, its just an "eugh dude, you need a shower..."


So I had two questions as I was reading this.

1) Why the strict regulation? What's the point?
     Well, God actually answers that one at the end of this reading:

⁴⁴ I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. Do not make yourselves unclean by any creature that moves about on the ground. ⁴⁵ I am the LORD who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.

But this begs another question - what does it mean to be holy. Well, God is holy so we can see an example of someone who is holy, but what exactly does holy mean? I think in this context we can take it to mean 'like God'. So by avoiding certain foods, we are becoming like God. Now is it the act of obedience of avoiding the foods that makes us holy, or is it actually the fact that these specific foods are actually bad for us? Sorry - that was like four questions in the first one.

2) Why does this no longer apply to us as Christians? Or does it apply, but its not really popular so modern Christianity has dropped these regulations in favor of the ever  so delicious pork roll and cheese on an everything bagel?

I think this may go back to the sin separation of God and man. That eating Kosher made it easier for God to be around his people and tolerate their sin, but now that that aspect has been taken care of by Jesus, we no longer need to worry about that. Any thoughts?

Mark 5:21-43
Another account of a couple of mircales.

This section focuses on two people, a sick woman and a dead girl. The sick woman had been bleeding for twelve years, had seen many doctors and had drained all of her money due to this illness, and she only got worse (sounds like a personal story from the health care debates) - when she heard about Jesus she knew that if she only touched the hem of his clothes she would be healed.

Now the idea of touching Jesus' clothes had never been provided as a way of being healed, this woman just assumed that Jesus' power radiated all around him and that just slight physical contact would cure her. My initial thought when reading this miracle was "yeah, if you believe something strongly enough, you can actually make it happen on your own. So Jesus didn't really have anything to do with this, it was just a placebo effect based on this woman's strong belief as to what would happen." This was refuted by the fact that Jesus could feel that power had gone from him. There was a physical feeling Jesus had that indicated someone took some of his power. It's like a video game, Jesus saw his health bar go down. Anyway, he felt energy leave him and knew that someone had touched his clothes to be healed. The woman admits to the act and Jesus tells her that her faith has healed her.

In the meantime, the little girl who Jesus was on his way to help had died. The family of the girl told him not to bother coming anymore because she had already died. The family was weeping heavily and there was some serious mourning going on when Jesus walked in the door. So based on her family's reaction, this girl was pretty dead if that's how they were acting. Jesus says, "hey she's not dead. She's sleeping." The Bible says that they actually laughed at him for saying that, further evidence that they believed this girl was suffering from an extreme case of deadness. But Jesus took her hand and said "little girl, get up!" And she was raised from the dead.

This scene is interesting because I think this may show us that Jesus had a different perception than we do. He probably actually saw her  as a little girl who was calmly sleeping. Like dead-ray vision or something...

Psalm 38:1-22
This one is pretty depressing...David is saying how God has humbled him because of his sin.

³ Because of your wrath there is no health in my body;
       my bones have no soundness because of my sin.
 ⁴ My guilt has overwhelmed me
       like a burden too heavy to bear.

Is he just being emo or is this actually what's happening? God has actually made David unhealthy because of his sin? Or is this more a metaphorical illness? Look at verse 4 there. Have you ever been sick with guilt or worry? I think that might be the situation here. This is a good example of fearing God if that's the case, because if you are so worried about your transgressions that you make yourself sick over it, you are obviously afraid of the wrath of something...

Proverbs 10:8-9

 ⁸ The wise in heart accept commands,
       but a chattering fool comes to ruin. 

Or, the wise man listens, the fool speaks.

Alright - bedtime. Hey if you have time, check out the poll down on the right. Actually, depending on your monitor, it may actually be above where you're reading this - anyway, please take a moment to vote on the ad situation if you would. Thanks chums!