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.