Wednesday, March 31

"With your eyes closed watching a string show play out in your head but you were smiling somehow. And your day froze and everyone in it sat still as a rose but we were moving somehow - back to when we started, losing who we were. Maybe we should only tip the bottle back to keep us filled up. Back to when we started, losing who we were. Everybody knows that you break your neck to keep your chin up." - Copeland, 'Chin Up'

I had a terrible day. Just awful. Nothing seemed to go right from the time I woke up to the time I left work. Then Jilly surprised me by asking me to surprise her by taking her out to dinner. Aren't I sweet? Anyway, that totally turned my day around - we had such a great night together and I am now getting ready for bed with a smile on my face.

It's Bible Time

Reading for March 31
Deuteronomy 16:1-17:20
This reading is basically split into two sections: Celebrations and Government.

Celebrations:
Some of this we have seen before, but again, God is reminding his people of all of his expectations for them when they enter the promised land. This, I imagine, would be the easy stuff to take in. God talks in detail about three main celebrations that happen throughout the year:

Passover
Discussed many times before, but Passover celebrates the event that symbolizes the Israelites emancipation from Egypt. It really brings it full circle to celebrate Passover in the land that was promised to the former slaves of an empire.

Feast of Weeks

⁹ Count off seven weeks from the time you begin to put the sickle to the standing grain. ¹⁰ Then celebrate the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God by giving a freewill offering in proportion to the blessings the LORD your God has given you.

That's all that's really said about this feast, so not much to gleam from it.


Feast of Tabernacles
This one sounds like the best. Seven day party. God actually commands his people to be joyful at this feast - a rarity coming from the diety that orders so much condemnation and destruction.

GOVERNMENT
This section is also broken out into various pieces: Judges, Courts and Kings

Judges
God commands that the people appoint a Judge for each region that they live in. He also commands that the judges be fair. He also tells them not to accept bribes - but the way he says it almost sounds like it could be part of Proverbs:

Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

Right? Interesting thing here however is the fact that the only thing God can seem to think of that's worth punishment is worshiping another god. The conversation always seems to veer in that direction. People caught and convicted of worshiping another god would then be sentenced to death by stoning. This is the kind of stuff that sparks witch trials, and I don't like it, or at least the methods used to punish it.

Courts
Pretty much the same stuff as the Judges

Kings
God commands that if his people want a king, they must elect whom God chooses. This idea was obviously abused later on when Kings would elect themselves saying that they were divinely selected, only to turn out to be major buttholes. There is a caveat though - God also commands that the king keep a scroll of every rule God just mentioned. You know, the last three books worth of rules? So the king is supposed to keep this scroll and read it every single day to remind him of the God he ultimately serves. Maybe the practice of writing down these rules on scrolls was how the Bible started to come together.

That's pretty crazy. Some King in the year Negative 3000 wrote it down on a scroll and now I'm reading it off a website. Maybe in 5000 years someone will read this blog off a super advanced cereal box.

Luke 9:7-27
One of the more oft quoted lines from Jesus:

"If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. ²⁴For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it."

 I don't think "daily" is in the other versions of this quote in the other Gospels. I think that puts a little more clarity around what it means to "take up my cross". So it's something I should be doing every day. Well, I'm reading the Bible every day, does that count? Maybe it's to just live the sacrificial, giving Christian lifestyle on a daily basis.

Psalm 72:1-20
This one is interesting because it's written by Solomon - David's son. Interesting because the entire thing is about praying for God's blessings on the King ...or David:

¹ Endow the king with your justice, O God,
       the royal son with your righteousness.
 ² He will judge your people in righteousness,
       your afflicted ones with justice.

 ⁹ The desert tribes will bow before him
       and his enemies will lick the dust.
 ¹⁰ The kings of Tarshish and of distant shores
       will bring tribute to him;
       the kings of Sheba and Seba
       will present him gifts.
 ¹¹ All kings will bow down to him
       and all nations will serve him.

Solomon seriously loved his dad. This seems a little like he's trying to make David out as more than God...especially verse 11 up there.

Another interesting thing here is that this is considered the last of the Psalms of David.

²⁰ This concludes the prayers of David son of Jesse.

 And before I started this project, I thought David wrote every psalm.

Proverbs 12:8-9
 ⁸ A man is praised according to his wisdom,
       but men with warped minds are despised.
 ⁹ Better to be a nobody and yet have a servant
       than pretend to be somebody and have no food.

Verse 8 - totally agree.
Verse 9 - umm...what?

Dear God. 

Thank you for giving me a tough day. Having days like this helps me to appreciate the things that aren't awful, like my awesome wife. Thank you for blessing me with such a perfect match. Thank you God for blessing me with a great dog as well. Please keep him strong and healthy. Thank you for new opportunities that are coming up and for Tim's Bachelor party this weekend. I pray that it will be a safe time and that people only get a little bit hurt.

God I pray for your blessing and comfort for a co-worker who lost their mother today, and I pray for my friend who is going through a life-changing phase in his life now. I pray that you grant him with all the right decisions and the right attitude about the situation.

Please let tomorrow be better than today.

In Jesus name I pray, Amen.

Tuesday, March 30

Wow, what a day. This may have been the busiest day of my professional career. I literally had meetings from 9 - 5:30 with no break at all in the middle. Plus Ben's bachelor party is this Saturday so the planning is reaching a fever pitch for that as well...sigh...what a day.

On a happy note, my friend Chris Dela Cruz used a piece of this blog in a talk he have this evening at my old youth group. I was completely honored that he would use something I did for his talk. I need to follow up with him to see how it went...

Alright, let's hit the books...or book as it were...

Reading for March 30
Deuteronomy 13:1-15:23
Some things are being repeated here, with the main themes in this section being warnings against worshiping other gods, clean and unclean food and tithing. The last section, however, God talks about canceling debts. He makes it a command that everyone must forgive anyone indebted to them every seven years, but only if it is a fellow Israelite. If not, the rule does not apply.

There was something interesting in the section on worshiping other gods, as well. Not so much revealed specifically here, but its a theme I've been picking up on about God. I have drawn several conclusions about God over the past few months - overall that he is an unchangeable, thought being whose opinions and standards are stubbornly immobile, and that he is in fact, nothing like us. However, if there is one human element that God exerts over and over, it's jealousy.

God takes extreme care to make sure that his people don't go off and worship some other god. He goes so far as to say that if someone comes up to you and suggests worshiping another god, that person should be stoned to death. Any country that tries to persuade you to worship another god must be completely annihilated and their city burnt to the ground.

Why is it so important that God be worshiped? If he is like the heavenly equivalent of a programmed robot (as I've thought before) - what is the reasoning behind his jealousy coding? Does he run on worship? Are songs of praise his fuel? Isn't he perfectly capable of satisfying his ego on his own by creating sweet planets and stuff? Come to think of it, since he hates sin so much, why is he even bothering, wouldn't it be better if they were completely separated?

I guess this reveals a little more of God's humanity as well. No matter how rebellious his people become, no matter how long he must endure spiritual separation from his people, he still loves them and desires a relationship with them. Even if that relationship is almost pure punishment. Except for him providing the promised land of Canaan. I can't see the punishment in that.

Luke 8:40-9:6
I think Luke is almost identical to Matthew. There are three stories here that are almost word-for-word what had occurred in Matthew. The resurrection of a dead girl, the sick woman who touched Jesus robes and Jesus sending out the twelve disciples. There really isn't anything new at all that I could see. Maybe my next blog can focus exclusively on the gospels...

Psalm 71:1-24
A couple of "cubicle worthy" gems here:

 ²⁰ Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter,
       you will restore my life again;
       from the depths of the earth
       you will again bring me up.

 ¹⁵ My mouth will tell of your righteousness,
       of your salvation all day long,
       though I know not its measure. 

 I really like those two...

Proverbs 12:5-7
 ⁵ The plans of the righteous are just,
       but the advice of the wicked is deceitful.
 ⁶ The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood,
       but the speech of the upright rescues them.
 ⁷ Wicked men are overthrown and are no more,
       but the house of the righteous stands firm.

Alright, homies. Have a good night.

Monday, March 29

Hey-o. It's Midnght and I just finished working for the evening. And by "Finished Working" I mean "got completely frustrated and gave up." Does anyone know how to convert an mov file to an swf file?

Reading for March 29
Deuteronomy 11:1-12:32
Some pretty intense lecturing from God here. Still waiting to cross the Jordan into the Promised Land, God continues his speech to his people. He once again goes over the fact that they must follow the Ten Commandments, and says that if they do so they will be blessed. But if they fail to do so, they will be cursed.

He warns several times about being persuaded to worship other Gods, or to worship him, but in the incorrect ways. I've always been a proponent of the freedom to worship God in any way you'd like, but God does have a good point: the people who currently inhabit the promised land worship their God's by killing their own children...I would not like to worship God that way.

God gets into the Kosher rules a little bit too, insisting that his people do not eat the blood of any animal. He says it several times in a row to really nail the point down - after all the Israelites were a rebellious bunch. The other interesting thing in this section though, is in regards to tithing. God says that while you're in your own home, you cannot eat the meat you have set aside as an offering to him, you must wait until you're in the presence of God to eat it. Which is weird because then that's not really giving up anything. You're still eating it. Maybe the point is to encourage community with the people. I guess tithing can have several uses...

There is also some words of great comfort from God - saying that when they inherit the land, that things will be much easier for them. They can have meat whenever they want, they will not be at risk of attack from enemies, they will not be wandering around the desert anymore, and they will have a permanent home, protected by the almighty God. That had to be like the sweetest dream an Israelite could have after walking around the desert for forty years...

Luke 8:22-39
This section talks about Jesus calming the storm and the healing of the Demon Possessed man - the one with all the pigs and stuff. Interesting thing I just picked up on - the man who is possessed says he is possessed by a demon named Legion. Legion is often used as a reference in many paranormal movies and stories about demonic possession and supernatural stuff. Let's see what we can find out about old Legion:

OK well there really isn't much about him/them at all. I guess pop-culture just picked him out as something interesting and went with it...I did find a lot of blogs from fanatical Christians who believe that people in mental institutions are probably possessed by demons and not actually sick...

Psalm 70:1-5
David is starting to sound somewhat pathetic. This psalm is only 5 verses. The first four are about praising God and shaming David's enemies. Each verse has a very strong, almost macho way of reading them, but then verse five crawls in:

 ⁵ Yet I am poor and needy;
       come quickly to me, O God.
       You are my help and my deliverer;
       O LORD, do not delay.

Oh, wah. I'm not trying to judge, but its just such a stark contrast between the first four verses and this one. It literally sounds like he's whining...

Proverbs 12:4
 ⁴ A wife of noble character is her husband's crown,
       but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones.

That'll do it for me this evening. Goodnight kids.
 

Sunday, March 28

Hi. How are you? I'm well. Great. Good to see you again. Yes.

OK, I just got done watching LIFE on Discovery Channel. Holy. Moly. That show is unreal. I don't want to say the stereotypical Christian thing and say "look how cool all those animals are - surely there's a God." But I mean just the variety of species and the ways they adapt are incredible. There's these monkeys in South America who have figured out how to crack nuts by using rocks as hammers. Like they beat the nuts with the the rock and then feast on the precious innards. That's insane to me. They're using tools!

Anyway, the show is incredible. Watch it. Sundays at 8 on Discovery.

Reading for March 28
Deuteronomy 9:1-10:22
The opening of this section is quite striking. Moses and God are still talking to the people, getting them ready to enter the promised land. Moses/God reminds the people that they are not God's chosen people because of what they've done or because of their righteousness, they are God's chosen people because of the wickedness of other nations.

This idea at first is kind of flattering - God chose Israel because essentially they were better than everyone else. But then thinking about it, it could almost be interpreted as Israel being God's last resort.

Either way, its an interesting parallel to the New Testament where it is often said that you cannot enter heaven only by doing good deeds. The rest of this section is a recap of things that happened in the previous few books.

Luke 8:4-21
Most of this has been discussed in previous gospels, including this, probably...but it just hit me for the first time. Somebody told Jesus that his mother and brothers were looking for him. To which Jesus replied:

"My mother and brothers are those who hear God's word and put it into practice."

Ah - well done, JC. Well done. 

Psalm 69:19-36
This one isn't great. In fact, this might be my least favorite Psalm so far, but that doesn't mean I should skip it. The majority of this Psalm is focused once again on God taking out the enemies of David - but the way it starts is I think what's important here.

²⁰ Scorn has broken my heart
       and has left me helpless;
       I looked for sympathy, but there was none,
       for comforters, but I found none.
 ²¹ They put gall in my food
       and gave me vinegar for my thirst.

In this case, I'm not sure if it's clear whether these people were his enemies before the "scorn broke his heart" or after. To me, it seems like David has these enemies because they weren't there to comfort him in his time of need from perhaps other enemies.  I'm probably totally off base, but it was an interesting observation.

Proverbs 12:2-3
 ² A good man obtains favor from the LORD,
       but the LORD condemns a crafty man.
 ³ A man cannot be established through wickedness,
       but the righteous cannot be uprooted.

Verse 3 is very interesting in today's society. It seems like for some people they can only be established through wickedness. Maybe this means established in the sight of God. It is in the Bible after all...

Saturday, March 27

Good evening. Our friends Pete and Sandi are coming up tonight to hang and go out for Indian Food. Excellent. Excellence in evening planning. I guess that's it for now. Bible time.

Reading for March 27
Deuteronomy 7:1-8:20
Wow - I love this whole section. There is some extremely interesting stuff in here, including why God had chosen the Israelites and you really get a large sense of the scale of God's plan for these people. We are still waiting for the Israelites to enter the promised land and God is still delivering this huge, inspirational, motivational speech to his people.

It opens with God telling the Israelites that when the enter this new land, that they should be not hold back and conquer all of these people. He tells them not to inter-marry with the people who currently live there and basically builds the Israelites up as a superior race. To which I was like, wait a minute...why would God favor these people so much over these other people? To which the Bible replied:

 ⁷ The LORD did not set his affection on you and choose you because you were more numerous than other peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. ⁸ But it was because the LORD loved you and kept the oath he swore to your forefathers that he brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the land of slavery, from the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

Then it goes into this - which is absolutely an incredible insight into God's mind:

² Remember how the LORD your God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. ³ He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. ⁴ Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. ⁵ Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you.

This explains why God led the people into the desert, the purpose of the manna, uses a line that Jesus famously quotes when being tempted by the devil, and rationalizes the punishment God deals out...to an extent.

It's just remarkable to see such transparency with God. Usually the whole idea of God is the wondering. The whole idea of God is based on faith in something we can't see, which is a mysterious idea in and of itself, and a lot of ideas about God come from man's interpretation of God's often-strange actions. So for him to be so forthcoming with information is such a change of pace that it really catches you off guard.

I've re-read this entire section 2 or 3 times now. It's so interesting, and while some of the things could be seen as cop-out type answers, I think it answers a good deal of things and presents a level of honesty and clarity that is so rare in the Bible.


Luke 7:36-8:3

This is a pretty famous scene. Jesus was invited to dinner at a Pharisee's house. While they're there, a "sinful" woman comes in and begins weeping at Jesus feet and pours a jar of expensive perfume on his feet. The Pharisee thinks that its a shame that such a sinful woman is touching the Savior, but Jesus rebuts him with a story:

 ⁴¹"Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii,^[a] and the other fifty. ⁴²Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both.

He then asks the Pharisee which one of the men would love the moneylender more. The Pharisee says "the one with the larger debt." because he was in more trouble and was forgiven more trouble. So this woman who owed a huge debt because of her sin was forgiven and therefore loved Jesus all the more for it. It's an interesting dynamic between sin and forgiveness. There is a line about "Where sin abounds, Grace abounds all the more" or something like that. The two things definitely need each other to have any significance...the black and white, the good and evil. 

Psalm 69:1-18
Again, this one isn't saying much to me. Sorry everyone...

Proverbs 12:1
 ¹ Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge,
       but he who hates correction is stupid.

Alright - takin it back to the knowledge concept, only this time its switched around. Knowledge has already been established as something desirable. Now he is trying to establish discipline and correction as something to seek. Which I suppose is a good thing to look for - we should always be looking to improve ourselves and getting called out on stuff by others is the best way to do that.

OK - that's it for me this evening. Peace out, kids.
 

Friday, March 26

Good evening. So work has slowed down a little, which is good - that means I can actually do the work I need to do. Other than that - no big updates I guess...

Reading for March 26
Deuteronomy 5:1-6:25
Revisiting the Ten Commandments
So in this section, Moses reminds the people of the Ten Commandments, which I think were doled out in Exodus - a whole three books ago. This is all still in preparation of the Israelites inheriting the land of Canaan. The cool thing here is that Moses continues to give help and guidance to the people, even though he knows he won't be able to inherit the land with them. If I had heard that I was going to die instead of reaching the goal I'd been working towards for over forty years, I would have said "Eff it - I'm out. You guys are on your own." This very fact alone shows that God was working through Moses - they would not have survived if it hadn't been for Moses being God's representative...just like Richard being Jacob's representative for you LOST fans.

Anyway, Moses re-reads the commandments to the people, emphasizing some points, adding to others, but overall just stressing the importance of obeying them. This is essentially the cornerstone of the Jewish faith. And you can even see in the New Testament, in the people Jesus interacts with, how important the commandments are to them. Jesus replaces all of them with Love God, and Do unto others...

The last piece talks about how you should always talk about the commandments, and to try and remember them whenever possible. Moses suggests hanging them in doorways. I guess this is where the tradition of putting those scrolls on the doorways of Jewish homes comes from. My best friend in High School was Jewish and he had those scrolls on every door in his house. Every time he entered a new room, he would ritualistically touch the scroll, then kiss his hand. I always used to rag on him for it, but now I'm thinkin its pretty cool to have such a distinct reminder of one's faith...

Luke 7:11-35
Jesus raises yet another person from the dead. A young man who was living with his widowed mother. He was so dead that they were carrying his casket out of town for burial (I assume). So he had to be dead for a good day or two. I wonder if Jesus raising people from the dead was meant to be a foreshadowing event - or if he was genuinely just so good that he hated seeing others die. I can't believe that there is no connection between his resurrection and the resurrection of others.

Whoops - fallin asleep...

Psalm 68:19-35
 ³⁴ Proclaim the power of God,
       whose majesty is over Israel,
       whose power is in the skies.
 ³⁵ You are awesome, O God, in your sanctuary;
       the God of Israel gives power and strength to his people.
       Praise be to God!

Pretty


Proverbs 11:29-31


 ²⁹ He who brings trouble on his family will inherit only wind,
       and the fool will be servant to the wise.
 ³⁰ The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life,
       and he who wins souls is wise.
 ³¹ If the righteous receive their due on earth,
       how much more the ungodly and the sinner!

Goodnight...

 

Thursday, March 25

Hey there. So my friend, Nora sent this to me on Facebook...It's Bible Based, "Yo mama so fat" jokes. Here's the link: Yo Mama, and here's a couple of my favorites:

Yo momma so fat, she needs a wheelbarrow to turn the other cheek.
Yo momma so fat, when she was born, the priest had to baptize her in installments.
Yo momma so fat, she had to be born again by C-section.

Now why did Nora send this to me? I don't know...probably because its hilarious.

Reading for March 25
Deuteronomy 4:1-49
This section is God talking to the Israelites before they cross the Jordan into the promised land. He lays out a history of what has occurred so far for them since they were enslaved in Egypt. He recounts the multiple times that had direct interaction with God, hearing his voice on the mountain. He reminds them of the armies they were able to defeat and the miracles they saw that freed them from Egypt, and kept them alive while wandering the desert.

He reminds them of all of this so they don't stray from him once they inherit the promised land. I imagine it would be a legitimate fear of God's that his people would get the land they wanted and then turned their back on him. Which is why he is reminding them of these things - because he says that if they turn from him then they will be kicked out of Canaan and most of them will be killed.

The other important thing here is we're reminded that Moses will not go with his people to Canaan because of that party foul with the water from the rock incident. I would imagine that they should be getting in there soon, too. At this point, 40 years has already passed...

Luke 6:39-7:10
The image of a tree and it's fruit is a common one in the Bible. But this one is particularly interesting:

 ⁴³"No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. ⁴⁴Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. People do not pick figs from thornbushes, or grapes from briers. ⁴⁵The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For out of the overflow of his heart his mouth speaks.

So, whatever is inside, will be reflected on the outside - sooner or later I guess. There are some real buttholes out there who put a lot of effort into appearing good.

The rest of this section talks about the faith of a Centurion. I think a Centurion was like a High Ranking Roman Soldier, and this one had a highly favored servant who was very ill. The Centurion had heard about Jesus and asked him to come and heal his servant. On his way there, Jesus was stopped by the Centurion, telling him not to come to his house, because he was not worthy of having him under his roof. But, he believed so strongly that Jesus was who he said he was, that he said "But say the word, and my servant will be healed."

The Bible then says that Jesus was "amazed" by him, and because of this, his servant was indeed healed. Imagine doing something that amazes Jesus. That's pretty sweet. Jesus closes out this section by saying, "I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel."

This kind of goes back to what I was saying last night about Christianity getting in the way of faith and good deeds. The Israelites were so focused on the old rules and customs that it was hard for them to have faith in someone who seemed to be so against everything they believed in. While outsiders just saw him as a miracle worker and simply believed that he was who he said he was - they had no reason not to...the children Jesus always talks about are probably the same way...which is why he tells us to accept the word like children. BOOM! Touchdown.

Psalm 68:1-18


Not really feeling this one...

Proverbs 11:28
 ²⁸ Whoever trusts in his riches will fall,
       but the righteous will thrive like a green leaf.

Yo mama so trust in her riches, she fall.

Dear God, 

Thank you for a good day. Thank you for helping me to make difficult decisions and to have the courage to talk to the right people about them. Thank you for my wife and my dog, and I pray that tomorrow is better than today. 

In Jesus' name I pray, amen.

Wednesday, March 24

Hi-o. Welcome to blog time. I had a really great day, today actually. A lot of stuff hit me at once with regards to certain things I'd been struggling with - specifically the slaughter and genocide of the Midianites that God not only allowed, but ordered in the book of Numbers. While I don't have an answer to make that OK yet, I know I am in good company with others.

On Sunday, I was telling my wife, Jilly about the difficulty I was having with that passage. She definitely encouraged me by putting things in context. We talked about how even though the Bible has been divinely inspired, it has passed through many, many hands. And things could have been altered to fit the political need of that time.

Today, I had three separate run-ins with people who gave me a good deal of encouragement. I had lunch with a good friend who told me that if something isn't sitting right with me, then it's probably wrong. Not necessarily what the Bible says is wrong, but maybe the eyes I'm using to interpret that section.

Then I got an email from another good friend who was kind enough to give me the story of how he converted from outright atheism to becoming a hardcore Christian - and now he is planning on attending Seminary next year. His story helped me to put my faith in context, and gave me hope not to give up.

Both of these people - completely independent of each other - reminded me that the Bible is a living document. The words stay the same, but the meanings apply themselves to different time periods. I just thought that was pretty interesting that they both said the same thing.

Then I heard that Dashboard song on Pandora that totally encapsulated what I was thinking and feeling - THEN someone commented on that to remind me that even some of the disciples - Jesus' disciples doubted his resurrection. Even seeing his resurrected body, still doubted. He said that I'm in good company...

So to all my friends, my wife, and my sleepy puppy who is dozing on my lap right now - thank you.

Reading for March 24
Deuteronomy 2:1-3:29
The recap continues...

Moses (at least I think it's Moses) continues the recap of the Israelites journey so far. But while this does encompass much of what had occurred in the book of Numbers, it isn't just a rehash - there are some new details in this. Not very interesting details, but new nonetheless.

There was an interesting bit about the Israelites encounter with the descendants of Esau. Remember Esau? Jacob's brother? Also known as Israel's brother? It's weird to think about how Esau's descendants are not considered Israeli, and just that one branch out of all those people in the Old Testament is God's chosen people. At the same time, this group still seems very well taken care of by God. God tells Moses not to disturb any citizens of Esau's people, and that God had already given them a large piece of land as inheritance, so the Israelites could forget about taking any of it.

Could this be the first sign that God cares about other peoples besides the Israelites?

Luke 6:12-38
You know I never made the connection that there were 12 Tribes of Israel and also 12 Disciples? These Disciples are just as important as the tribes. This is who they are:

¹⁴Simon (whom he named Peter), his brother Andrew, James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, ¹⁵Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Simon who was called the Zealot, ¹⁶Judas son of James, and Judas Iscariot, who became a traitor.

Two Simon's, Two James', Two Judas's, Andrew, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas (Doubting version)

 ³⁷"Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. ³⁸Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."

This seems to be very important to Jesus. This comes right after the beatitudes (Blessed are the hungry, etc), and also after the famous "Turn the other cheek" line. Jesus is tearing down the rules and customs of old. I would imagine that the audience listening would have been raised their whole life with the eye for an eye mentality. Then Jesus comes and says if someone takes one of your eyes, give him the other. That is some radical thinking - not to mention the exact opposite of God's original rules. No wonder the Pharisees wanted to kill him - he was condemning everything they stood for...

I wonder though - if the plan all along was for Jesus to die - could he have done all of these controversial things to provoke the Pharisees? He had to know it would piss them off big time. 


Psalm 67:1-7 ⁵ May the peoples praise you, O God;
       may all the peoples praise you.
 ⁶ Then the land will yield its harvest,
       and God, our God, will bless us.
 ⁷ God will bless us,
       and all the ends of the earth will fear him.

Back to the fear of God thing...Doesn't that last line appear to be out of context? Praise, praise, bless, bless, fear. I don't get it...

Proverbs 11:27  ²⁷ He who seeks good finds goodwill,
       but evil comes to him who searches for it.

That'll do it for me, kids. Thanks again to everyone who was an encouragement in this doubtful time. Peace out, homies.

Dear God,

Thank you for making yourself known through the work of friends. Thank you for quelling my anger against you, and I apologize for turning away so angrily. God, I still have a need to understand why you chose to do that to the Midianites, but for now I can live with it. Please help me to find the right answers about that.

God, I pray that you open my eyes for opportunities to do good in your name. And give me the courage to act on those opportunities. Help me to live outside my bubble, and in the world. Help me to get inside other people's bubbles who may be struggling with something.

Thank you God for a good day, and I pray for another tomorrow.


In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.

New Dashboard

Hey, what's up? I was just listening to Pandora at work and this new Dashboard Confessional song came up, and the lyrics hit me like a train. Check it:

I make my slow way home
Limpin' on broken bones
Out of the sickest heart
Onto the county lines
Onto your wooden stairs
I know you can't repair
I know you've seen the light
I know you'll get me right
Right

I own a sinner's heart
I know the rain falls hard
I know the currency
I know the things you'll need
I know you say the prayers
I see you cut your hair
I know you get me right
Right

Oh Jesus, I've fallen
I don't mind the rain if
I meet my maker
Clear, Jesus, I don't mind
I don't rush the reasons
I need my maker
To cure me of the sins I love
And take me out of my thinning blood
Take from me my disbelief
I know it should come easily
But it remains inside of me
It battles and devours me
It cuddles up beside of me
In whispers, it convinces me I'm
Right

The bolded part I think is really what hit me, because its encapsulates basically everything I'm feeling right now.

Side note: It's nice to see Chris Carrabba back to the faith based lyrics - The content of his albums has slowly been maturing ever since he left Further Seems Forever, and this just hit me right in the bones.

Anyway - I just thought I'd share it...maybe it speaks to you too.

Tuesday, March 23 - UPDATED

Hey. I came back in and re-did this one while I was actually awake! 
______________________________________________________

Good evening. Very tired. Bible go.

Reading for March 23

Numbers 36:1-Deuteronomy 1:46

Hey, check it out. I finished Numbers - the hardest book I've ever read.

So the last chapter of Numbers is a strange one. There is a debate about inter-tribe marrying. The leaders of the tribe are complaining that if a woman from another tribe marries a man in their tribe, it will skew the population count and when it comes time to divide up the land it will make the distribution uneven. So God gives the decree that all marriages must occur between two people of the same tribe. Soooo they married their cousins. Excellent. And that's how Numbers ends. A book about even more obsure rules and possibly the most agregious offence God even created and has been written down.

The first chapter of Deuteronomy is a recap of what happened in Numbers and how many times the Israelites turned away from God and did not trust him.

Luke 5:29-6:11

³²I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance."

This is a commonly quoted line from Jesus. Basically, "We don't have doctors to take care of healthy people, we need doctors to take care of sick people." Jesus came to help the outcasts and sinners.

The rest of this section revisits the argument between Jesus and the Pharisees about healing on the Sabbath. Jesus says, ""I ask you, which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to destroy it?"

What I take this to mean is "why follow some old rule that prevents you from doing good."

You know, this is a question I've been thinking about a lot lately: morality. I had lunch with a good friend today and he was talking about one of his friends who wasn't a Christian. This friend of his was one of the most moral people he's ever known - constantly looking for ways to help others and was always a selfless person, and yet she had no reason to act that way. She had no God to answer to or be accountable to.

At the same time - she wasn't being good in the hopes of achieving salvation from a divine being. She was just being good to others because that's what felt right. And I think that might be what Jesus is getting at here. From the way my friend described it, his friend put most Christians we know to shame in terms of the selflessness his friend possessed.

I think as Christians, we often get so caught up in ourselves and focusing on the one-on-one relationship with God, that we start to live in a self-important bubble. So much of Christian preaching is about being good enough to not go to Hell, and that creates a petty narrow, selfish world view...wouldn't you think?


Psalm 66:1-20

Oh man, I'm so tired. This psalm is a very nice psalm.

You know, I tried to come back and read this one and write something meaningful, but this one just isn't speaking to me. I think what I said last night is pretty sufficient. 

Proverbs 11:24-26


 ²⁴ One man gives freely, yet gains even more;
       another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty.
 ²⁵ A generous man will prosper;
       he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed.
 ²⁶ People curse the man who hoards grain,
       but blessing crowns him who is willing to sell.

This is an interesting spin on the eye for an eye way of thinking, and its more like a good deed for a good deed.

OK - now this entry is good enough for prime time. Excellent times.

Monday, March 22

When you go into work and you're not feelin real well, does anyone ever say to you "sounds like you have a case of the Mondays"? If you've seen office space, you probably know the rest of that quote. Work just keeps piling and piling up, and I simply don't have time to do it at work because I'm so inundated with meetings. To top it off, I don't have the faith right now to be praying about it...as soon as I start a new regiment of praying, I get kicked in the mouth with that Midianite garbage. Well, I'm sure you don't want to hear my whining - on to the Bible.

Reading for March 22
Numbers 33:40-35:34
Oh, the irony. The Israelites are getting ready to take the final leg of their journey into the promised land. But before they do, God tells Moses how to divide up the land and what is to be what. God tells Moses to set up cities that will serve as a refuge for someone who had accidentally murdered someone else. Then he gets into what constitutes accidental murder. Check this out:

 ¹⁶ " 'If a man strikes someone with an iron object so that he dies, he is a murderer; the murderer shall be put to death.

Oh. Really? Well then put to death the 12,000 Israeli men who just viciously slaughtered a nation of innocent children, but kept the precious virgins for their own desires. Oh what's that? You're not going to? Oh I see. Well no worries. Justice always prevails I guess.

Sigh. I'm sorry. I don't want that event to distort my view of the rest of the Bible, but its such a majorly offensive section of history that I'm having a hard time digesting it. And this line about punishing murderers comes so closely after it that it's hard not to make that connection.

OK - I think what I need to do is leave that behind for now and take the rest of the Bible as it comes. I refuse to let it go though on the back end. I would really like to understand what others think about it and know if its as faith shaking to others as it was to me.

Luke 5:12-28

Jesus heals two people in this section. The first is a man with leprosy - remember that in Leviticus, people who have any sort of skin condition are considered unclean, and cannot be touched by anyone, lest that person become unclean as well. Well, a man with leprosy approaches Jesus to ask him to heal him, specifically he says, "Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean." Jesus says, "I am willing" and touches him and he is immediately healed of his affliction.

This is so significant because Jesus is not afraid of the cleanliness rules. He is all about helping people. This is the dichotomy that I think he is constantly trying to walk - Yes the old rules are good to follow, but don't let them get in the way of helping others. If you are able to heal someone with leprosy, but the rules say you can't touch them then screw the rules. Help the person.

This is more along the lines of what I like to see...

Psalm 65:1-13
There is something extremely calming about this psalm. The imagery is absolutely beautiful - and its also a strange way of talking to God. David addresses God as if God was not all knowing, and that actually, David knew more than him. I don't think it was meant to be usurping God's power, just poetic license. Here take a look:

¹ Praise awaits you, O God, in Zion;
       to you our vows will be fulfilled.
 ² O you who hear prayer,
       to you all men will come.

This is a stunning opening statement, and just sets the mood. There is no mention of David's enemies in this psalm - perhaps the first one he wrote that doesn't talk about them. It just rolls around in the marveling and appreciating God's landscape.

 ⁶ who formed the mountains by your power,
       having armed yourself with strength,
 ⁷ who stilled the roaring of the seas,
       the roaring of their waves,
       and the turmoil of the nations.
 ⁸ Those living far away fear your wonders;
       where morning dawns and evening fades
       you call forth songs of joy.
 ⁹ You care for the land and water it;
       you enrich it abundantly.
       The streams of God are filled with water
       to provide the people with grain,
       for so you have ordained it. ^[c]
 10 You drench its furrows
       and level its ridges;
       you soften it with showers
       and bless its crops.
 ¹¹ You crown the year with your bounty,
       and your carts overflow with abundance.
 ¹² The grasslands of the desert overflow;
       the hills are clothed with gladness.
 ¹³ The meadows are covered with flocks
       and the valleys are mantled with grain;
       they shout for joy and sing.

Oh man. So poetic. It's like I'm at the best coffee house open mic I've ever been to. I think I would like to memorize these verses. I would love to be able to quote this...Psalm 65:6-13. It's my new jam. 

Proverbs 11:23

 ²³ The desire of the righteous ends only in good,
       but the hope of the wicked only in wrath.

There it is, friends. Another Monday in the books. Time for bed. Back to the doo doo storm tomorrow.
Love.
 

Sunday, March 21

Hi there. So I had a little rant last night, so far I don't feel better about it either. I went to church today hoping to hear a message that was "exactly what I needed to hear" - but I did not. I had some conversations afterward about the very thing that got me upset, and found that  there is no easy answer. So here I shall sit, stewing in my self pity.

Reading for March 21
Numbers 32:1-33:39
The majority of this chapter gives the exact locations the Israelites stayed in and traveled through on their way up to this point right now. And they move around quite a bit: I count 23 different cities or areas they stayed in, following a cloud around.


Its not super interesting though, its literally just a list of places...

Luke 4:31-5:11
The calling of the first disciples...again.


So here, the story of Jesus calling Simon the fisherman, but the details are very different. In Matthew, he writes that there were three fishermen, Luke only mentions Simon. Jesus instructions were different as well - in Matthew he tells them to cast the net on the other side of the boat - in Luke, he tells them to cast it in deep water.

Then, in Matthew, it says that they caught so many fish that their nets were breaking. In Luke it says that they fill up two boats so high that the boats begin to sink. I imagine whatever story is closer to the truth - these guys must have known that Jesus was the real deal. They probably never saw so many fish in their entire life. This was their livelihood, and Jesus gave them a tip that paid off big time. The ironic thing is, as soon as Simon strikes the fish jackpot (with Jesus help), Jesus calls him as a disciple - so he's not even able to take advantage of the money he would have received for such a large catch of fish.



Be warned - I am very sleepy...
Psalm 64:1-10

This is same-old, same-old here...


Proverbs 11:22
 ²² Like a gold ring in a pig's snout
       is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.


Tired. night.
 

Saturday, March 20

Good evening. It is currently 1:13 AM and I have been working since 7:00 tonight trying to catch up on stuff I'm behind on. All that and I still don't even feel like a made a dent in the massive pile of stuff I need to get done. Tomorrow's pretty much boned as well because of church and other commitments. I suppose I will just have to work tomorrow night as well to finish up...Buh...

Reading for March 20
Numbers 30:1-31:54
Wow. This is a serious war in this chapter. It's not really a war, per-se - more of a genocide. And this is the kind of stuff that really makes me question the God I believe in...

God orders a war against these Midianites - who were descendants of Abraham mind you - because they worshiped a different god. Damn, God's jealousy is that thick and childish that he would have an entire race of people killed for not worshiping him? Anyway, God orders this destruction against this seemingly harmless nation of people. The Israelites carry it out with great efficiency and return to their current camp.


Moses then approaches the army leaders and tells them to also kill all the woman and children as well - except for the virgins, which he told the soldiers to keep for themselves. Wow - real classy, Moses. So they go back and slaughter innocent women and children for no good reason, after slaughtering innocent men a day earlier.

The chapter ends with a disgusting "tally" of their loot, and everything they stole from the Midianites. And all the while, God stood by - no punishment against his people for slaughtering women and children. No anger for raping virgins in this ruthless, horrific display of ignorant self-centeredness. Oh, but didn't he order someone to be killed for accidentally lifting a branch on the Sabbath? Behold our loving and merciful God. I guess we don't need to question why there is evil in the world anymore...God creates it to serve his own selfish ego.

Now, let's pretend for a minute that God doesn't exist. So then, why would this happen? Moses seems to be the instigator in this battle, and since he's the only one who can communicate directly with God, it would be pretty convenient to be able to say, "Oh yeah, God told me to do this. Let's go get us some virgins!" That makes much more logical sense.

The more I read the Old Testament, the less and less I'm taking as factual, historical information - at least with the supernatural stuff. I've questioned many times why God appears so regularly in the Old Testament and hardly at all in the New. It's believed that Moses wrote the first few books of the Bible - so if that's true Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers were all first hand accounts by Moses - but what about Genesis? Events that occurred possibly hundreds of thousands of years before his time. It would be pretty easy to make up a relationship with a holy being and then fill in a back story about how that all worked out...

This has me extremely worked up, as you can probably tell. I sent a "what's the deal" to the Metro Bible Blog - I'll post the answer if they're able to get to it. 

Luke 4:1-30
Well, I was hoping for something here that reaffirmed my faith, but I only got something very confusing. After Jesus spends the forty days in the desert, he returns to his hometown of Nazareth to preach.

This was written about in Matthew as well, but the details are much different. In Matthew the people are amazed by Jesus until they realize that he's one of them, and just pass his off as another local.

Here in Luke, they recognize him as one of them, to which Jesus quickly replies:
"Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.' "

 ²⁴"I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown. ²⁵I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. ²⁶Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. ²⁷And there were many in Israel with leprosy^[f] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian."

Um...what? Apparently, this angered the crowd and they tried to kill him by throwing him off a cliff? WHAT?!  Then it says Jesus just walked back through the crowd. All casual like. What the heck did I just read?

Psalm 63:1-11
Nothing really interesting in this one.

Proverbs 11:20-21
 ²⁰ The LORD detests men of perverse heart
       but he delights in those whose ways are blameless.
 ²¹ Be sure of this: The wicked will not go unpunished,
       but those who are righteous will go free.

Wow - that's ironic. Because he ordered his people to rape and kill an innocent nation of people. So he hates them too according to verse 20? Wow, he just hates everyone. I guess the misconception of Christianity being a hateful religion isn't a misconception at all. God just hates everyone.

Dear God,

Get bent.

Brandon

Friday, March 19

Hi. So, work is not letting up, and probably won't for a while. Everyone on our team is completely booked to capacity, so I don't have any right to complain, but its just taking its toll on me. I'm so mentally exhausted at the end of each day that I don't want to do anything else except go to sleep. Now I have to work for most of the day tomorrow to catch up on lost time. Buh.

Reading for March 19
Numbers 28:16-29:40
This is a particularly uneventful section of text. In last night's reading, God started to tell Moses what should be sacrificed on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. This text continues that through all the different Jewish holidays. There is:

• Passover
• Feast of Weeks
• Feast of Trumpets
• Day of Atonement
• Feast of Tabernacles

The feast of Tabernacles is the most interesting as there is a large sacrifice every day for seven days. Here is what is required:

• Thirteen young bulls
• Two rams, and 
• Fourteen one-year-old male lambs, all with no defects.

Every day for seven days, you had to make the exact same sacrifice, except each day, you would sacrifice one less young bull. So day 2 you would sacrifice 12 bulls, day 3 - 11 and so on...I can't really find the significance in that, so let's just say that it's cool and move on...

Luke 3:23-38
This section is purely Jesus' lineage. It goes all the way from Joseph, the father of Jesus, back to Adam, the first son of God. Now this is somewhat debatable because this lineage is based on the fact that Joseph was Jesus' father, when in fact, Joseph had nothing to do with the birth of Christ. If the Bible is to be taken at its word, Mary had an immaculate conception and gave birth to Jesus - Joseph still hadn't slept with her yet. So doesn't that make this entire lineage invalid? If the lineage had been traced to Mary that would have made more sense...

Now a couple things to note here. First off, the text says "Jesus was known as the son of Joseph" - so the author is aware that he wasn't actually the son of Joseph. The other cool thing is that this says that Adam was the son of God. I've never actually thought of Adam and Eve as children of God in that way, but it is very cool how that works. Later in the Bible, I think in Romans, there is something about how "though one man condemned the world, so too one man saved the world". It's just really interesting to think that both of those men are considered "sons of God".

Psalm 62:1-12

 ¹⁰ Don’t make your living by extortion
      or put your hope in stealing.
   And if your wealth increases,
      don’t make it the center of your life.

David gets a little proverby in this one. There is something very honest about that second half of verse 10 though. It's not condemning the wealthy people, its simply saying, "Don't let money control your life." I suppose by extension the thought should be "Let God control your life." But the fact that its not mentioned makes this even more palatable to a wider audience.

Proverbs 11:18-19
 ¹⁸ Evil people get rich for the moment,
      but the reward of the godly will last.
 ¹⁹ Godly people find life;
      evil people find death.

There seems to be a lot of talk about rich people in these past few days. I know a large portion of the Bible talks about giving your money away to the needy. Jesus says that its easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And while that might be true in a lot of cases, I've known a few very wealthy people who were the most generous people I knew. Now that is most likely the exception rather than the rule, but it's still something to consider.

Alright, short one tonight I suppose. Later homies.

 

Thursday, March 18

Howdy. Exhausted. Work is once again out of control. A looming beast of a devil hanging over my head...

Reading for March 18
Numbers 26:52-28:15
After the census, which I read about last night, God tells Moses to give the people land according to the size of their family. This leads to an interesting case of a group of sisters who's father died. Their father never had a son, only daughters - so according to the way the decree was issued, they were ineligible for an inheritance of land. Moses brought this to God and God allowed them to inherit the land they were owed.

The next section talks about giving regular offerings to God, but this seems like quite a bit of work:
Every Day: 2 Lambs, 1 year old without defect
Every Sabbath: 4 lambs, 1 year old without defect
Every Month: 2 young bulls, 1 ram and 7 male lambs a year old, all without defect.

I don't even know where to get a lamb. Much less one that's exactly a year old, and without defect. I mean I know these people kept livestock, but two lambs every day? How quickly are you gonna run out of lambs? That's 730 lambs a year, per household! And that's not including the monthly or weekly offerings. Did people actually do this? It seems so wasteful...

Luke 3:1-22
The ministry of John the Baptist
This section focuses on John the Baptist's ministry. He actually sounds very much like Jesus here in Luke. Everyone comes to John and asks how they should behave, he gives them basic moral advice (don't cheat people, or falsely accuse them of things) - and the people saw this and wondered is he was the Messiah. I think later in the Old Testament, there is a lot of talk about a savior coming to earth to rescue the Israelite people. They must have really been on their toes looking for a savior, because John was kind of a weirdo - and as great as he was, he wasn't saying anything revolutionary.

Then John says one of the more famous lines from the Bible:

"I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire."

I've never really understood what it means to be baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire, but I think the point on a very shallow surface level is that while people think John the Baptist is so remarkable, there is another who is coming that is even more remarkable and powerful. My pastor is currently doing a series on the Holy Spirit, so I would hope that by the end of it, this verse would make more sense. 

Psalm 61:1-8
 ² From the ends of the earth I call to you,
       I call as my heart grows faint;
       lead me to the rock that is higher than I.
 ³ For you have been my refuge,
       a strong tower against the foe.

Could that also say, "From the end of my rope I call to you"? I know that David really did have some serious enemies on earth, but I would like the think that "the foe" mentioned here could also be representative of sin. God being a strong refuge against the perils and temptations of sin. 

Proverbs 11:16-17
 ¹⁶ A kindhearted woman gains respect,
       but ruthless men gain only wealth.
 ¹⁷ A kind man benefits himself,
       but a cruel man brings trouble on himself.

This was kind of the conversation I had with my friend, Pete at lunch today.  We were discussing the origins of morality, and why, as humans we, on average, default to moral behavior more often than not. Pete said that there have been sociological studies that prove that for a society to flourish, morality will always win out over being a butthole. You may get short terms gains by stepping on the backs of others to get to where you want to be in life, but verse 16 above says it all. You may gain wealth by being ruthless, but true respect comes from kindness.

True fatigue comes from brain exhaustion and work overload. Good. Night.


 

Wednesday, March 17

Hey ho. I just got back from the Devils game this evening. It was my first one in a while, but we got a deal with work and it was just a splendid time. We also talked about the Devils theoretical rivals on the way to the game: "The Jesuses" But then we got into an argument over what the plural of Jesus would be - Jesuses or Jesi. That turned into an argument about "in what circumstance would there ever be more than one Jesus that we would need to refer to." The best we could come up with is if there were a bunch of kids on Halloween dressed as Jesus. THAT turned into an argument over what that group of Jesuses would be called - like how a group of geese is a gaggle, a group of lions is a pride and so on - I don't think we pursued that branch of the conversation very far...in the end I conceded the argument and we settled on "Jesuses" as the acceptable term. Henceforth, let it be known that in the case of Jesus accidentally falling in a cloning device, they shall be referred to as "The Jesuses" - and they will make a sweet hockey team.

Reading for March 17
Numbers 26:1-51
This chapter opens with another census of the people of Israel. It once again mentions the twelve tribes of Israel. Since this is a major building block of Christian history, I thought it would be a good idea to learn their names. These are the twelve tribes of Israel:

Reuben, Korah (who's people rebelled and were swallowed by the earth. Their line did not die out though), Simeon, Gad, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Manasseh, Ephraim, Benjamin, Asher, and Naphtali

The Israelites total number was now 601,730. down from 603,550 at the beginning of Numbers. They were using the same rule of any man over twenty, which means that 1820 people died since the last time the census was taken, which I think was two years prior. Outside of old age, I think most of that number is from God's vengeance. 250 died in the earthquake purge, hundreds died from the plague, hundreds died from the snake storm God sent, still more from various other times they pissed God off. Do you think God looked at that number and said "Geez, that's a lot of insubordination"?

Then again, why would God need that information - if he knows the number of hairs on my head, surely he knows the number of Israelite men over twenty-years-old. I suppose it was for historical purposes.

Luke 2:36-52
This section of Luke opens with yet another close up on a woman - Anna from the tribe of Asher. She was a prophetess and told everyone about how Jesus was going to redeem Jerusalem.

The next section is - I think - the only account of Jesus as an adolescent throughout the four gospels. It shows Jesus around twelve years old, sitting and discussing scripture with the priests of the temple. He had left his parents side to do this, and they were frantic until finding him in the temple the next day. Jesus said, "Didn't you know I had to be in my Father's house?" Luke then writes that Joseph and Mary had no clue what this meant.

My friend Pete sent me a link to an NPR interview today with a Biblical scholar named Bart Ehrman who talks about the discrepancies within the Gospels. He has a book called Jesus Interrupted which I would like to check out, but there are some interesting things in the interview, particularly about what Jesus' life and death meant, and how that meaning changes across the four Gospels. I'll be looking for some of this stuff as I continue to read, but I just wanted to mention it before I forgot. If you'd like to listen to it, here's the link: NPR Interview

Psalm 60:1-12
 ⁷ Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine;
       Ephraim is my helmet,
       Judah my scepter.

This is God speaking and I find this really interesting - this imagery is very similar to the armor of God which Paul mentions in Ephesians. The line about Judah being his scepter, or "symbol of power" as I'm interpreting it is even more prophetic because Jesus' lineage comes from Judah.

Proverbs 11:15
 ¹⁵ He who puts up security for another will surely suffer,
       but whoever refuses to strike hands in pledge is safe.

This one makes no sense to me - does security mean money? And then does that mean that we will suffer for helping others? And then what's that about the pledge? Now we can't make business deals and shake on it? We have to refuse that if we want to be safe? I may be misinterpreting this, but...it don't sound right.

Alright, that will do it for me this evening. Love all the time.

Dear God, 

Thank you for the beautiful weather today. Thank you for friends and co-workers that are fun to be around. Thank you, as always, for my pup and wife. Thank you for not letting me give up on this project so far. I have already learned so much and still have so much left to read.

God, I want to pray for the homeless man I walked by twice this evening. While I enjoyed soda, hot dogs and pretzels, this man sat outside the arena, begging for food. I ignored him twice and both times he said "God bless you" anyway. Please forgive me for ignoring him, and by extension, ignoring you. Please soften someone's heart enough to provide that man with food and shelter for this evening. Please soften my heart in the future to be brave enough to stop for a moment and help someone in need.

Thank you for today, and please bless my tomorrow.

In Jesus' name I pray, Amen.
 

Tuesday, March 16

Whoops. So Monday was actually Mach 15, so I skipped a day - so today I will do the entry from yesterday. Here we go

Reading for March 15
Numbers 22:21-23:30
The majority of this story is about Balaam meeting an angel and being spoken to by the angel through his donkey. It's pretty interesting - Balaam is set to go and curse the Israelites on Balak's request, but since God doesn't want this to happen, he sends this angel to stop him. While Balaam is on the road to his destination, the angel appears, but Balaam cannot see him. Three times the angel appears, and three times Balaam does not see him - but his donkey does. Each time the angel appears, the donkey gets scared and turns and runs in the opposite direction. Balaam just thinks that she is being a bad donkey and beats her each time.

Finally, it says that the angel "opened the donkey's mouth" and she spoke to Balaam. Eventually, he is able to see the angel and receives a message to give to Balak. Balak brings Balaam to three different places to curse the Israelites, but three times Balaam blesses them. Not only blesses them, but builds seven altars and sacrifices seven bulls and seven rams across the seven altars. Each time, Balak is angry that Balaam blesses the Israelites instead of cursing them, and each time Balaam says,

“I will speak only the message that the Lord puts in my mouth.”

I saw this in yesterday's reading, too. The conviction he has is remarkable, but then again, he was spoken to by a donkey and saw an angel on a road. I suppose I would be pretty convicted too if that's what I saw. 

Luke 1:57-80
The Birth of John the Baptist

This entire section focuses on the birth of John, with some really interesting details surrounding it. When John's father, Zecharia was told that his wife was pregnant he did not believe it because his wife was so old - sounds similar to old Abraham, no? Well because of his disbelief, God punishes Zecharia by making him unable to speak until the baby is born.

Once John is born, all of their friends and family say that he should be named Zecharia after his father - which is somewhat weird because in all the Bibilcal history I've read so far, I haven't seen a single son named after his father. Anyway, John's mother Elizabeth jumps in and says "No! His name is John!" as the Angel told them to name him. Confused, the crowd asked Zecharia what he should be named. Still mute, Zecharia wrote on a tablet, "His name is John" and instantly he was able to speak again.

Zecharia was then filled with the Holy Spirit and busted out a prophecy. In it, he basically says that this baby is the first sign of things changing. He says, "⁶⁹ He has sent us a mighty Savior from the royal line of his servant David, ⁷⁰ just as he promised through his holy prophets long ago." Remember that Jesus had not yet been born at this point.

⁷⁸ Because of God’s tender mercy,
      the morning light from heaven is about to break upon us

This verse is particularly poignant. Up until this point, God's people have rebelled and there has been this constant struggle between the people and God. The morning light, obviously representing Jesus, I think also means "a new day" for the Israelites. A new beginning where this struggle does not have to take place, and we can live in peace, safe from the wrath of an angry God.

Psalm 58:1-11
This psalm is extremely directed at one specific group of people. It's not clear exactly who, but David has obviously been wronged by one or more people from this group, which he classifies as "rulers" - which I guess would mean kings and queens and stuff.

Proverbs 11:12-13
Sensible Advice
 ¹² It is foolish to belittle one’s neighbor;
      a sensible person keeps quiet.
 ¹³ A gossip goes around telling secrets,
      but those who are trustworthy can keep a confidence.

Alright that will do it for me. Later. 

Monday, March 16

Hey, alright. Entry two for today. I'm gonna get right to it, it's late, yo.

Reading for March 16
Numbers 24:1-25:18
So there's these two guys, Balak and Balaam. Balak was the king of a nation called Moab and Balaam was a prophet working under Balak. Balak heard about the Israelites as was afraid of them because of their large numbers. Balak ordered Balaam to put a curse on them so they couldn't overtake the nation of Moab. BUT, God came to Balaam and told him to bless the Israelites rather than curse them. Also, God told Balaam this through a donkey, which is hilarious by the way.

Anyway, Balaam does indeed bless Israel here in a beautiful set of verses. Balak freaks out and gets extemely angry with Balaam. This is Balaam's response:

¹³ 'Even if Balak gave me his palace filled with silver and gold, I could not do anything of my own accord, good or bad, to go beyond the command of the LORD -and I must say only what the LORD says'

This is the type of conviction I wish I had. I may never get it, but it is something to strive for. Then again, I don't expect to be spoken to by a God-Donkey anytime soon.

The next section of text showcases a particularly vicious God. The Israelites were camping in a place called Shittim (Really? You can't think of a better name for your town? "Come to Shittim - Not Nearly as Sh***y as it Sounds!") and they all begun to worship the local god/idol Baal. Shittim and Baal...this region needs a marketing guy. Anyway, worshiping another god seriously sets God off.

 ⁴ The LORD said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of [those who are worshiping Baal], kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the LORD's fierce anger may turn away from Israel."

The next part, I'm not sure I understand, so CDLC and Andy Newberry, I'm looking in your direction for explanations...

It says that after this happened, an Israelite man brought a Midianite woman to his family. Phineas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron killed both the Midianite woman and the Israeli man. Somehow this action quelled God's anger against his people, but why? I'm not quite sure who the Midianites are exactly...Extremely confusing here...


Luke 2:1-35
Something kind of cool I just picked up on in this section: Jesus was the first born son to Mary - according to what we've been looking at in Leviticus and Numbers, God said on multiple occasions, "All first borns belong to me". Luke actually mentions this here:

 ²²When the time of their purification according to the Law of Moses had been completed, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord ²³(as it is written in the Law of the Lord, "Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord")

I don't think that changes anything about what I believe, but it is interesting to see the customs carry over to Jesus. 

Psalm 59:1-17
There really isn't anything of note here. More of the same "crush my enemies" stuff.

Proverbs 11:14
 ¹⁴ For lack of guidance a nation falls,
       but many advisers make victory sure.

Alright, bedtime. Glad to be caught up.
 

Saturday, March 13 and Sunday, March 14

Hey friends. Don't worry I haven't given up - we lost power on Saturday night and it just recently came back on. It was funny too, because on Saturday night, I was planning on taking ZE GERMANS out to dinner and bowling. The power went out right before we left and then we couldn't get anywhere because all the roads were closed. Then we tried to go to a local burger place, and as soon as we pulled in the parking lot, their lights went out. So we came back to the apartment. We lit some candles, had cereal for dinner, and then played Uno and Spoons by candelight. It was actually a really fun and unique experience and I'm glad that the power was out that night.

But then it was out all day yesterday and that was extremely sucky. No hot water, no light, no cooking (we have an electric stove), so we got bored pretty quickly. I did keep up with my reading though and actually did it by candlelight for the past two nights. I felt like a biblical scholar of the days of yore! Seriously though, it is nice sometimes to have something we depend on taken away to realize how much we need it, but also to experience life without it for a little while. I sort of felt like the Israelites yesterday - I got all grumpy and whiny because I couldn't play video games or watch movies. I asked our building manager why she ever led me out of Egypt, only to die in my apartment of boredom. At least I had electricity in Egypt.

Anyway, I'm gonna do one entry for the past two days, because I still need to do the book report for Mark.

Reading for March 13 and March 14
Numbers 19:1-22:20
So now the Israelites complaining has shifted from "we have no meat" to "we have no water". Now I can understanding complaining about a lack of water. As a wise man named Milhouse once said, "Hey, I need that to live." The people are now not only wishing they had been left in Egypt, but actually wished they had died in the "Earthquake Purge" from a few chapters ago.

Thankfully, God doesn't seem to take offense at his people's need for water. God instructs Moses to take his staff - the staff of miracles - and to strike a rock with it. Doing this will cause water to spring forth. So Moses does as he is instructed, and the Israelites get the water they need for themselves and  their livestock. However, Moses and Aaron did not recognize God as the provider of the water when they performed this miracle. As a result, God did not allow Moses or Aaron to accompany the Israelites to the promised land when that time eventually came.

Shortly after, Aaron died on a mountain called Mount Hor. God instructed Moses to remove Aaron's clothes and to put them on Aaron's son, Eleazar - an obvious 'passing of the torch' so Eleazar would now be the chief priest of the Israelites.

The next passage is about the Israelites trek across the land they were in, and about all the various kingdoms that would not allow them to walk through their land...and how most of them were ultimately destroyed.

There is one bit in here that caught my attention though. The Israelites begin complaining again about the lack of any sort of comfort of living and God gets pissed and sends a bunch of venomous snakes down to them, many are bitten and many die. Look how they respond:

"We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people.

Is that not almost word for word what the Egyptian officials said when the plagues were ravaging their land and their people? Is this symbolic to show that the Israelites are no closer to God than the Egyptians were? God's response to this is very strange, too. He has Moses make a bronze snake and put it on a pole and anyone who looks at it will be cured of the snake poison. Isn't that an idol then? And not just an idol, but an idol of a snake - the one animal that represents the downfall of humanity. Was this intentional poetic justice on God's part? That God is very cunning. 

Luke 1:1-56
The opening passage of Luke is really interesting:

 ¹Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled^[a] among us, ²just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. ³Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, ⁴so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

So, right off the bat, you know that Luke was not an eyewitness to the events of Christ, and is going on things he had studied. In the notes in my Bible, it said that the scene in Mark when Jesus was arrested, and that naked dude fled the scene - most scholars believe that to actually be the Mark who wrote that Gospel. The other thing that stood out of this is that Theophilus bit in there. Who is that?

Well apparently, Luke wrote both the Gospel of Luke and the book of Acts, and both were addressed in the same way to Theophilus. Also, it looks like no one has really agreed on who this actually is, or if it is a specific person at all. Some people believe that its just a general title like "student" or "friend". Pretty cool though.

Luke, so far is a very different approach than Matthew and Mark. Aside from that intriguing opening paragraph, he goes into a lot more detail around the events surrounding the birth of Christ, and also John the Baptist, who certainly played a large and important part in Jesus' story.

The thing that really stands out to me in this first chapter of Luke is the emphasis on women. Reading the old testament, women are never included in any equation or census. They are never accounted for and don't seem to matter very much at all. So for Luke to open with an entire chapter devoted to the mothers of Jesus and John the Baptist must have been extremely controversial for the time. Also, the mother of John the Baptist is the sister of Mary, so Jesus and John were cousins. I never knew that...

Psalm 56 and 57
 ⁸ Record my lament;
       list my tears on your scroll ^[b]—
       are they not in your record?

I like the idea of God keeping a record of tears. That he would care that much to keep track of every tear we have cried, is very humbling.

Also, I think this may be my favorite verse so far:

 ⁷ My heart is steadfast, O God,
       my heart is steadfast;
       I will sing and make music.

If I had my own music room, or studio, I would put that in a plaque or something and display it very boldly somewhere. So cool. 

Proverbs 11:8-11
 ⁸ The righteous man is rescued from trouble,
       and it comes on the wicked instead.

 ⁹ With his mouth the godless destroys his neighbor,
       but through knowledge the righteous escape.
 ¹⁰ When the righteous prosper, the city rejoices;
       when the wicked perish, there are shouts of joy.
 ¹¹ Through the blessing of the upright a city is exalted,
       but by the mouth of the wicked it is destroyed.

Alright, I just remembered that I need to do the entry from today as well. This is the first time I've been three days behind since I started this thing...but I would like to mention something first. At church yesterday, our pastor said that there are basically four categories of things we need to partake in to have a rich life as a person and as a Christian - these are the four:

Community
Scripture
Prayer
Service

I think I got the scripture down, cuz I'm reading it every day. Community, I'm pretty good at and I try to be an "example of God's love" to others as much as I can. The other two are where I'm lacking. But I think I can make up for the prayer one here. So I'm gonna try to reinstitute the prayers in these entries. So here we go:

Dear God, 
It certainly has been a while, and I am sorry. I have been extremely frustrated and confused by some of the things I've been reading, and I pray that at the end of this thing, I will see for myself what the truth is.
I pray for my friends who are having hard times right now, and especially for someone who is facing a particular hardship - please guide this person to make as many right decisions as possible in this time. 
God, thank you for my wife and dog who bring me immense amounts of joy. Thank you for a church I can feel proud of and comfortable in. Thank you for a job that requires me to be creative and energetic. Thank you for letting me spend some time away from electricity this weekend and just experiencing pureness.

I pray these things in Jesus' name
Amen.