Wednesday, February 17

So I'm in this intramural basketball league with work. We've been playing since the beginning of January, we play 3 games every night we play, and we haven't won a single game yet. We have one win on our record becuase one team had to forfeit. So we're 1-17, and the three games we played tonight contributed to that total. I know its just for fun, and I'm really happy for all the exercise I'm getting from it, but it sure is frustrating to lose every single game. It's also not the best place for me to be a good example of a Christian since I'm cursing my head off all the time for losing.

Alright - Bible time.

Reading for February 17
Leviticus 4:1-5:19
OK - the process for sacrificing animals to absolve one's sins continues here. God goes into each possible person who could sin, but not know it - and they must sacrifice an animal to atone for their sins. A lot of this information repeats itself, and again I am seeing the connection to Jesus, but a few things of note are here. Firstly, it was up to the preist to decide who was forgiven of their sins and who wasn't based on the sacrifice they brought to the temple. Secondly, the majority of this text focuses on sins you would commit without knowing it.

The text says that the person who committed the sin is still guilty and must atone for their sins by sacrificing an animal to God in this very specific way. I don't understand the reasoning behind the animal sacrifice though...maybe since you're supposed  to bring your finest animal with no defects to be destroyed means some serious problems for  your livelihood. People depended on their animials and having to sacrifice then would obviously cause them some financial hardships. Or is the sacrifice of these animals something a little more cosmic? Is there something about the killing of animals that appeases God's anger against his people who are sinning?


Mark 2:13-3:6

“The Sabbath was made to meet the needs of people, and not people to meet the requirements of the Sabbath. ²⁸ So the Son of Man is Lord, even over the Sabbath!”

What a change of pace. While the Old Testament seemed to be that every rule and law catered to God, its interesting to see Jesus saying that something was created to meet the  needs of people. I believe that this holds true for the rest of the stuff in the Bible as well. Basically, if I boil it down, "It's good for you to follow God and follow the rules of the Bible.  

Psalm 36:1-12

   You care for people and animals alike, O Lord.
    ⁷ How precious is your unfailing love, O God!
   All humanity finds shelter
      in the shadow of your wings.
 ⁸ You feed them from the abundance of your own house,
      letting them drink from your river of delights.
 ⁹ For you are the fountain of life,
      the light by which we see.

Oh really, I  disagree - how could God care for animals when he mandated that one be slaughtered if you screw up only once? Also, "All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings."??? What about the Egyptians? They didn't find shelter in the shadow of God's wings...they found torment in the shadow of God's fist. 

Proverbs 10:1-2
Again - very simple, but totally sweet.

 ¹ The proverbs of Solomon:

   A wise child^[a] brings joy to a father;
      a foolish child brings grief to a mother.
 ² Tainted wealth has no lasting value,
      but right living can save your life.

This is funny...again I'm so tired for some reason, but as I'm typing I'm almost falling asleep. So every once in a while, I'll just start typing while completely unconscious of it and then look back and be like "AHH! that's not what I meant!" Last night I started typing a quote from "The Wedding Singer" starring Adam Sandler. Then woke up, realized what I was writing and deleted it. I promise I will leave my sleepy rants up from now on.

Brandon