Thursday, February 25

Hey chumps. How about that snow, huh? I just picked up Jilly from the train station, and if there was ever a night to believe in God, it was tonight. The roads were atrocious. But we made it home safely, and I prayed the entire time.

Reading for February 25
Leviticus 16:29-18:30
Alright. Here it is. One of the most debated verses in the Bible in recent years. Leviticus 18:22 says,

'Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.'

Let me just say before going forward, that I believe homosexuals should be welcomed in the church. I also believe that homosexuality is not a choice, but rather is an inherent trait in that person. Therefore, to me it cannot be sinful. In many of the debates I've seen, the text above also says 'that is an abomination'. The word abomination has been the source of a lot of the debate, as to whether it means detestable like in the text above, or another version. The other version suggests that abomination means simply "against the customs". I think God means exactly what he says here, but again you have to look at it in context.

This entire section of text focuses on people you should not be having sex with. However, I think the reason these rules are put in place is because the Israelites were trying to grow their numbers, and breaking these rules that God laid out could threaten the propgation of their people. The section starts with saying "Hey, in general, don't have sex with any relatives." I would take that to mean they understood the fact that doing that would cause defects. Then it goes throw a specific list of all the relatives you should not have sex with. Then at the end of the section, it has the line about homosexuality. At that point in history, homosexuality would risk their race not continuing. If everyone was gay, no one would have babies and they couldn't continue. I think that it the reasoning behind that passage.

Mark 7:24-8:10
Two new miracles here. One is about a woman who comes to Jesus asking for a demon to be removed from her daughter, who wasn't even with her, but still at home. Jesus tells the woman to feed the children all they want to eat and that its wrong to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs. But then the woman says that even the dogs can have the crumbs that fall under the table. Jesus somehow deems this an appropriate response and tells the woman she can go and that the demon had left her daughter. I have no idea what to make of this story, and I'm too tired to research it.

The second miracle here is Jesus' healing of a deaf and mute man. Jesus basically takes him aside, put his fingers in this man's ears and grabs his tongue says "Be opened" in aramaic and he's all better. Yay.

Psalm 41:1-13



Nothing super new here, I did enjoy this line though:

 ¹ Blessed is he who has regard for the weak;
       the LORD delivers him in times of trouble.

 ² The LORD will protect him and preserve his life;
       he will bless him in the land
       and not surrender him to the desire of his foes.
 ³ The LORD will sustain him on his sickbed
       and restore him from his bed of illness.

I think this might be the, 'please don't beat me up, I'll be your best friend' maneuver. I think in this verse, David is referring to himself when he mentions the weak here. So this message is almost to his enemies saying, "Hey if you don't try to kill me anymore, God will do all these great things for you."

Proverbs 10:15-16
 ¹⁵ The wealth of the rich is their fortified city,
       but poverty is the ruin of the poor.
 ¹⁶ The wages of the righteous bring them life,
       but the income of the wicked brings them punishment.

Yes. Goodnight.