Reading from Thursday, April 8

Yo yo, son. Still a day behind. Today was awful. Just a terrible day at work. Nothing was going right and it was just a huge frustrating piece of crap. But once again Jilly made me feel better the minute I saw her at the end of the day. Thanks babe.

Also, I just watched the Veggie Tales version of the story of Joshua - which I am just about to start reading. For those of you who don't know, Veggie Tales is a series of cartoons where vegetables reenact scenes from the Bible. They're actually very well written and funny, but I did find myself getting a little frustrated with the "editing" of the "nasty bits". Now I'm not saying that they should include murder and rape scenes in a kids show, but I think this is a larger problem. Christian media only selects the good bits of the Bible and the palatable pieces of God's character to put forth so people don't get the whole story.

To be honest, the majority of my understanding of the Old Testament came from Veggie Tales until I started this project. I can see now that I was only getting the "happy side"  of the story. My point is that when people are given a rosy picture of God, they overreact when something bad happens, or they interpret things incorrectly. God is not to be effed with. He's not some peace loving hippie tree hugger. He's a serious, intensely loving being who will do whatever it takes to defend his love of his creation. The love of a father of a kidnapped child. Ever see last house on the left?

OK - rant off.

Reading for April 8
Deuteronomy 32:28-52
The story doesn't progress too far here. Moses finishes up his song about how the Israelites will turn their back on God once they're in the promised land, then he goes up to a mountain to die. He is only granted the privilege of seeing the promised land from a distance. Remember, God told both Moses and Aaron that they would not enter the promised land because they did not credit God when they brought water out from a rock. Then again, the Bible says that Moses was 120 years old at this point, so it's not like his life was cut short....

Luke 12:35-59
A couple of things here:


1) Jesus talks a lot about his "return", and that "no one will know the day or time". One of the interesting things is that often when he makes these statements, the reader is led to believe that he intended to come back during the lifetime of those to whom he was speaking. Although he does say "not even the son knows, only the father" - that could go either way since God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are all considered one.

But I have a theory. What if Jesus' return isn't the huge earth shattering event that everyone pictures, but rather an individual experience. What if this "return" happens to each person as they die? Just playin a little game of speculation...

2) A very controversial statement here:

⁵¹Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. ⁵²From now on there will be five in one family divided against each other, three against two and two against three. ⁵³They will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law."

This illustrates the point I was making earlier. Jesus is not John Lennon. He's not about peace on earth. I mean I believe that if everyone followed these teachings there would be peace, however, Jesus knows that not everyone will, which will lead to disputes among friends and even family. Wow. He knows there will be people who don't accept his teachings, and yet still dies for those people. That's awesome.

Psalm 78:56-64
This continues the recap of the Old Testament stories. Nothing really jumps out at me here.

Proverbs 12:24
 ²⁴ Diligent hands will rule,
       but laziness ends in slave labor.


Word up, homies. Goodnight.