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.