Reading from Sunday, April 11

Hey brahs. Tonight, Jilly and I worked on some cover songs for her 80s cover band. One of the songs we worked on was "Lose Your Love Tonight" by The Outfield. It's a really fun song, but I couldn't resist doing my own parody. Get a load of this:

"You just bought these gloves at a fancy store, and I know they're really special. I'm afraid I'll lose them on the dance floor, then try to find them when you're not looking. I don't want to lose your gloves tonight, but I'd like to use your gloves tonight."

Oh yeah. That's copyrighted material there, baby. Don't even try to steal it. Weird Al, I'm looking in your direction.

Reading for April 11
Joshua 3:1-4:24
Alright. Interesting story here. God asks for twelve men, one from each tribe to follow the priests who are carrying the ark of the covenant. These twelve men follow the ark all the way to the Jordan river - the same Jordan river that stood between the Israelites and the promised land. Now when the twelve men reached the edge of the river, the water dried up - the same way it had in the Red Sea.

Now to commemorate this miracle, Joshua instructs these twelve men to each pick up one stone from the river bed. They do so and as soon as they stepped out of the river bed, the waters rushed back to their normal flow. These twelve men brought these twelve stones with them to a city called Gilgal, and it sounds like these stones were still there at the time this book was written.

I looked up these stones and it looks like some scholars believe that Joshua made this story up to explain why there were twelve stones sitting in a circle in the city of Gilgal. It would be like me writing a story about how God made me pick up 18 stones from England and make stonehenge. But then again - these stones had to  come from somewhere. A bunch of dudes grabbing them from a river isn't the most far fetched idea there could be. A bunch of lollypops breeding within these stones and starting a global pyramid scheme to bring down the imitation sweetner industry would be the most far fetched idea there could be.

Something else that I picked up on that I want to mention before I forget. Joshua refers to God in a unique way in this chapter. He calls him "The Lord of all the Earth" - which isn't at all an outside of the norm description of God, but Joshua goes out of his way to make sure we see that. He calls God by this name several times in this section. Could this have been Joshua trying to persuede God into loving all of humanity, and not just this group of people.

Luke 14:7-35
Uh oh...getting sleepy.


There's some great stuff in here. The first section talks about attending a banquet, although I think Jesus is also speaking in the parable form here too. He instructs the people around him to take the seat of lowest importance when attending a banquet, then they will be honored when the host asks them to move to a higher seat. But if they take the seat of highest importance, then they will be asked to move to a seat of lower importance and then be totally embarassed in front of everyone. Obviously God is the host of the party, and if we make an attempt to glorify ourselves, we will be humbled. Likewise, if we attempt to humble ourselves, we will be glorified.

As an addendum to that, Jesus adds:

"When you give a luncheon or dinner, do not invite your friends, your brothers or relatives, or your rich neighbors; if you do, they may invite you back and so you will be repaid. ¹³But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, ¹⁴and you will be blessed. Although they cannot repay you, you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous."

That's such a neat idea. Cooking dinner and inviting the poor and needy instead of your friends. I don't know if Jilly and I have the courage to do that. If you do, please let me know and that will encourage me to do it. I can't think of a better thing to do with my time or money...I'm gonna add that to my goals.

Then Jesus talks about the cost of being a disciple. He opens with a very controvercial statement:

²⁶"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters—yes, even his own life—he cannot be my disciple. ²⁷And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

So all disciples of Christ are wife beating, child neglecting losers? I don't think so. I don't think he means literally 'hate your children', but rather, if a man's wife and children are higher on his list of importance than Christ, that man cannot be a disciple. As of now, there are too many things that I love that are preventing me from being a disciple, and I'm not ready to give these things up, possibly ever. Though, I think there's a difference between being a disciple and being a Christian. I would love to be a disciple of Christ, but I feel like I'm a perfectly adequate Christian. And by perfectly adequate, I mean sinful failure like the rest of us. 


Psalm 80:1-19
Nothing really stands out in this one...

Proverbs 12:27-28
 ²⁸ In the way of righteousness there is life;
       along that path is immortality.

Goodnight, babies.