Friday, April 30

Evenin'. One of the main goals of this project was to see how reading the Bible every day affected my day-to-day life. It even says it in the description of the blog up there. And up until this week, I haven't really seen any effects at all. I mean minor ones like finally sticking with something for more than a week and maybe being more analytical about the way I think about things. But this week I was able to see a tangible result of reading this book every day: knowledge.

Every so often I have lunch with a friend from work. He's agnostic but a really great conversationalist and a really good friend. So we often have these huge philosophical discussions about life and spirituality and religion and all that stuff. So whenever these conversations happen I usually just listen and try to understand the other person's viewpoint. And outside of a few random times I would never really have a strong opinion of my own. Well this week, in the conversation I had with my friend from work, I felt very confident in my own viewpoint and was able to argue it fairly effectively, I think. The conversations aren't ever arguments, and are very civil, but I just felt more like a participant and less like a listener. I also felt like I knew who I was a little more.

I've always admired people who were so convinced of their faith based on studying they'd done or experiences they've had. Whereas I had done very little studying and have had little to no tangible contact with God. Now that I have more of a grasp of who God is, I have more of a grasp of who I am in light of that. No, scratch that - I have more of a grasp of who I am - period. It's extremely satisfying to be able to state my point of view effectively with evidence to back it up.

Also - today is four full months of reading the Bible every day. Woot.

Reading for April 30
Judges 11:1-12:15
This section is about Jephthah. Jephthah is really annoying to type, so I'm just gonna call him Jeff. So Jeff was the son of Gilead and a prostitute. Because he was born of a prostitute, Jeff's brothers from another mother made him an outcast and banished him from the family.

Several years later, Israel was in trouble as the Ammonites rose against them. They came to Jeff because he was a great leader and a mighty warrior. He agreed to help them if he was made the leader of Israel which they agreed to as well.

Before he went into battle he made this oath to God:

"If you give the Ammonites into my hands, ³¹ whatever comes out of the door of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from the Ammonites will be the LORD's, and I will sacrifice it as a burnt offering."

Well, he fought the Ammonites and led Israel to victory. Yay Jeff! But then he returned home and guess what came out of the door of his house when he got home. His only child. His daughter. He tears his clothes and weeps because of the promise he made to God. He lets her go into the mountains for 2 months to weep because she will never marry. After that, she came back and Jeff sacrificed her as a burnt offering. Pretty heavy...

But then again, why would he word it that way: "Whatever comes out of my house to meet me"? What else would come out of a house but a human? Why not "The first animal I see" or "My best livestock"? It was either gonna be his wife or his daughter. Maybe he just really didn't like his wife and was using this as a way out of the marriage.

"Ooh - sorry. I'd love to go to the opera but I promised God I would burn you to death. Next time?"


Is that wrong? What I just said there? Is that messed up?

John 1:1-28
Alright - new book! Exciting.

John opens with a very interesting look at Jesus and God. John theorizes that Jesus was with God from the beginning of time. He refers to Jesus as "The Word" here. And this, I think is an explanation of the holy trinity:

 ¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ²He was with God in the beginning.

Then he goes on to talk about the light of men. And this light of men came from the life of God. I would think that the "light of men" would be referring to the non-sinful side of people.

Then there's some stuff that sounds like it was written after Jesus was killed and resurrected:

¹¹He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. ¹²Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— ¹³children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God.

Very interesting stuff in this. I bet there's gobs of books written about just these first few verses. 


Psalm 101:1-8
This psalm sets up a dangerous aspect of Christianity - what I like to call the "Christian Bubble".



The majority of this psalm talks about how the psalmist will avoid associating with any evil person or immoral character. So if this is taken literally, and out of the context of Jesus sitting and loving the sinners of the world, it allows us to easily put ourselves in the Christian Bubble.

I lived in the Christian Bubble for a long time. I worked at a Christian Bookstore, I DJ'd a Christian radio show, I was in a Christian band, and yet my faith and understanding was entirely shallow. It wasn't until I started hanging out and talking with non-Christians that my faith started to grow. I was challenged by other people's beliefs and that allowed me to search out and strengthen my own faith. Take THAT psalmist and your elitist Christian attitude!

Proverbs 14:13-14
 ¹³ Even in laughter the heart may ache,
       and joy may end in grief.
 ¹⁴ The faithless will be fully repaid for their ways,
       and the good man rewarded for his.

Good lawd it's a-late. Bedtime kids. Thanks for reading.