Reading from Monday, June 28

Tomorrow is my last day in my current job. On Thursday I start my new job doing video production and development, and I couldn't be more excited. I guess I could be more excited. If the new job came with an ice cream sundae I would be more excited than I am right now...or...if it came with a endless supply of chicken sandwiches...then I would be REALLY excited. But I guess, all realistic things considered, I'm pretty darn excited. Everyone say "excited."

Excited.

Reading for June 28
2 Kings 13:1-14:29
Look at this sentence:

¹ In the second year of Jehoash ^[c] son of Jehoahaz king of Israel, Amaziah son of Joash king of Judah began to reign.

This is why I am having trouble following the events right now.  But I will do my best to summarize what I'm reading here...

Before I do though, check this out - apparently this is in Deuteronomy, but I didn't pick up on it when I read it...

"Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sins."

Well ain't that a bowl of cherries? I don't think I used that expression correctly. Obviously you can see the hypocrisy of this law here. God's favorite way to punish people is by killing their children. It happened to David - multiple times, it happened to just about every king of Israel, actually. Why would he make this law and then so conspicuously break it over and over?

So, main points from this reading:
1) Elisha dies. Later someone else dies and his body is thrown on top of Elisha's body. As soon as their bodies make contact the other guy is brought back to life.
2) There is a war between Israel and Judah. I would imagine that would be like America and Canada fighting a war against each other.

That's pretty much it, yo.

Acts 18:23-19:12
Again, not a lot of story progression here outside of the religion and good news expanding further and further and getting larger and larger. Here's something funny though if you've ever seen those late night faith healer dudes like Peter Popoff and his magical prayer handkerchief...

¹¹God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, ¹²so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them.

That must be where ole Peter Popoff gets his prayer handkerchiefs! From this massive pile of handkerchiefs that Paul went around touching all the time. Paul started this pyramid scheme 2000 years ago! 

Psalm 146:1-10
This is pretty neat:
 ³ Do not put your trust in princes,
       in mortal men, who cannot save.
 ⁴ When their spirit departs, they return to the ground;
       on that very day their plans come to nothing.
                                
Proverbs 18:2-3
 ² A fool finds no pleasure in understanding
       but delights in airing his own opinions.
 ³ When wickedness comes, so does contempt,
       and with shame comes disgrace.

Yup yup.

I'ma go take a shower. I have the invisible bugs all over me from sweating all day...

Reading from Sunday, June 27

Yo, son.

I'd like to give a quick shout out to my friend Pete's blog - Clipouts of the Day. He basically cuts out pictures and words from parenting magazines and puts them in his kids lunches like little hilarious ransom notes. They are incredibly funny. Please check it out.

Some of my personal favorites are "Yo. You fat, son." and "This Baby is Protecting America." and "Straighten your hair with this thing." Enjoy.

Reading for June 27
2 Kings 10:32-12:21
I'ma be honest. I have no idea what's going on in 2 Kings anymore. The king changes every chapter and everyone's name is so similar I just have no idea who anyone is, and I imagine the only way to accurately follow the events is to have a family tree in front of you - or rename everyone with really distinct names - not stuff like this: "When Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah"

...the who is on the what now?

So basically I think I need to just wait until the next book to get a foothold on what's going on anymore. I was able to gather that at some point, the Temple was destroyed. How did I miss that? Anyway, now they're rebuilding it and they are collecting money from all the offerings to the local priests. The money they gather is not used to create gold objects or shiny things, but to pay the workers for their labor. An act of humility on the part of man?

Also, I'm just realizing the hypocrisy of the use of these beautifully, lavishly adorned objects in the Temple. Weren't people being murdered for worshiping golden objects? I'm not saying that they were worshiping these things, but I think there was a somewhat conflict of interest. I have often had an internal debate with myself over the Vatican's use of extremely expensive objects. On one hand I could see how creating objects out of the best material on earth. On the other hand, we are called to use our money to help others, not opulently gloat about how great our religion is. I don't know, I go back and forth on the issue - nor am I certain about what this passage is trying to teach us.

Acts 18:1-22
There isn't much story progression going on here. Paul travels to Ephesus and Corinth - two of the cities to which he writes two of his most famous letters, Ephesians and Corinthians. But outside of that, nothing ground breaking from a story perspective.

Psalm 145:1-21
 ⁸ The LORD is gracious and compassionate,
       slow to anger and rich in love.
 ⁹ The LORD is good to all;
       he has compassion on all he has made.

This boggles my mind. How can a Jew who's only knowledge of God comes from the Old Testament, believe that God has compassion on all he has made? He has seen God utterly destroy nations and people for sometimes minor transgressions. Unless the psalmist here was privy to some future information, and was able to fully see the character of God and all his goodness, and then wrote a psalm about it...

Proverbs 18:1
 ¹ An unfriendly man pursues selfish ends;
       he defies all sound judgment.

Yes. Love each other today.

Saturday, June 26

Hey hey. I just went to a street fair in my hometown and took some pictures. Here's a couple of the better ones:

That turtle's name was "Soupy". And he was actually a tortoise, as I heard the owner say about 1000 times. Also, did you know those things live to be 100?! And that at full size it will be 150 lbs?! CRAZY!

Bible time.

Reading for June 26
2 Kings 9:14-10:31
There is a lot going on here. Basically everything that happens is all the descendants of Ahab being killed just as God had promised. Also, the prophets of Baal were all rounded up into a temple and slaughtered. I've been sitting here trying to make a connection to the holocaust without being offensive and I can't really think of anything, except to say that it seems like humanity has an extremely dark history that seems to manifest itself over and over. I'm not in any way saying that the holocaust was any sort of payback or revenge for the violent acts committed in the Old Testament - I'm merely pointing out that as shocking and horrific as it was, we as a species have been doing it for thousands of years.

There is often a debate on the inherent goodness of man is actually instilled from birth, or if it is learned. I think as a Christian, I have to believe that man is broken right from the start otherwise, Jesus' sacrifice would mean nothing. Maybe, as friends have been trying to tell me, I should not be focusing on whether or not God was good, but rather realizing and accepting that man is bad. We as a people are awful - all of us. My friend Kaas said to me once, "the ground is even at the foot of the cross." Meaning we are all sinners, some sins, such as war crimes against humanity, appear worse than others, but I have always been of the belief that a sin is a sin. Killing someone or telling a white lie both count as negative one point. But Jesus made it so that scorecard didn't even exist.

The thing that's making me think though is this: Jesus' sacrifice changed nothing within us. We are still the same, sinful people that commit the same stupid sins and engage in the same pointless, pissing-contest wars that we did back in the time of Ahab. Couldn't Jesus' death have done more than absolve us of sins? What if his death removed whatever was in us that made us the way we are? What if, by him dying on the cross, he actually saved the world, rather than just saving our souls for the afterlife? I'm not discounting what he did, I'm just mulling around the significance of it, and if it could have had a more profound, physical impact on the world. I can definitely say that his death ceased the punishment dealt on the world by God, but we are still screwing each other over. We are still killing people for no reason. We are still overlooking the homeless and oppressed and in some cases, oppressing people ourselves. I suppose that original sin had a much larger impact on us than I thought...there doesn't seem to be any escape from it...and that was quite a ramble...

Acts 17:1-34
Some cool stuff in here. The disciples are continuing their tour of the Middle East, spreading the message of Christ. I would like to think of them today as a band in a van. Driving from town to town, proclaiming their controversial message and then high tailing it out of there before they were killed. Do you mind if I share a humorous story quickly? Cool.

So when I was in a band, we were on our annual summer tour and we found ourselves playing at a bar in the panhandle of Florida, I believe it was Tallahassee. This was in the summer of 2004 and the governor of NJ had just resigned and had admitted to having a homosexual affair with another man. In the van we would often make jokes about being from the "gay state" and how other bands would make fun of us. (Please don't hate on me too hard - I wasn't as open minded at that time.) Well, we played this show and as we finished our last song I said (and I still cringe every time I recount this) "Thanks, we're from NJ. Sorry about our governor."

This did not end well. After we had loaded our gear back into the van, we found that our merch table had beer poured all over it, and someone had signed our mailing list with "Thanks. I'm gay." Oh boy. I was starting to feel like a pretty big butthole. So we stayed the night in a hotel around the corner, and the next morning we returned to our van to find another, large, intimidating black van sitting in the parking lot. There were two guys in the front seat and they were just staring at us. We decided it was time to leave and then they started following us. This is when I realized that what I had said was completely offensive. Our bandmate, Tim was driving and he was convince he could "lose them" in downtown traffic. We tried to remind him that we had a giant trailer that could be seen from about a mile away. He was convinced in his driving skills, and eventually they just backed off - I think they just wanted to scare us.

Anyway, this idea of the Disciples "getting the heck out of dodge" reminded me of this time in my life. Except what they were doing was preaching good news. I was being a closed minded bigot.

So back to the Bible. Paul is preaching in Athens and he is telling them about who God is and what he has done and who Jesus is and what he has done. Then he begins to talk directly about the fact that they had been worshiping idols.

²⁹"Therefore since we are God's offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man's design and skill. ³⁰In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. ³¹For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."

This idea of repentance is something that hasn't really come up much yet since I began reading. This is somewhat eye opening. With the forgiveness of Jesus comes a new responsibility on our part - to turn away from our old way of sinning and to live a Godly life. Obviously this is something we will need to do over and over again throughout a lifetime, but its something that is focused on heavily in the Epistles of Paul later on in the Bible. In the OT, God would judge and people would pay. Now he has given us a chance to redeem ourselves, but with that privilege, we also have the responsibility of taking ownership over our own sins.

The other thing to point out is that God was once vengeful. Since Jesus came, his vengeance has subsided, but there will be a day that comes again when his judgment is unleashed on the world. It seems to me that for those who have not accepted God's love, they will face his wrath. Which seems a little counter-intuitive doesn't it?

"I love you."
"Eh...no thanks. I love something else."
"DEAAATTTHH!!!"

Psalm 144:1-15

 ³ O LORD, what is man that you care for him,
       the son of man that you think of him?

A question I often wonder about...why us? And for a while, why only the Israelites?

Proverbs 17:27-28
 ²⁷ A man of knowledge uses words with restraint,
       and a man of understanding is even-tempered.
 ²⁸ Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent,
       and discerning if he holds his tongue.'

This is the lesson here: shut up. If you don't say anything, you won't say anything stupid. For example, "Sorry about our gay governor." 

 

Reading from Friday, June 25

Oh yeah. Poolside bloggin. I'm sitting out on my patio which looks right at our community pool. It's a pretty sweet setup to read the Bible.

Reading for June 25
2 Kings 8:1-9:13
This continues the Elisha story as well as the story of Israel and Judah as monarchies. Again there are several miracles performed by Elisha in this section, but the most intriguing one is when he shows off his psychic abilities. So the king of Aram, Ben-Hadad was very sick and he sent one of his delegates to ask Elisha if he would recover. So he goes and Elisha tells him that Ben-Hadad will be just fine, but he will die. Then there's a tense moment where they stare at each other, almost as if they're trying to call each other's bluff, then Elisha breaks down and starts crying. When the delegate asks Elisha why he's crying he says:

"Because I know the harm you will do to the Israelites," he answered. "You will set fire to their fortified places, kill their young men with the sword, dash their little children to the ground, and rip open their pregnant women."

Oof. Pretty intense. The delegate asks Elisha how he could possibly perpetrate such acts as a "mere dog" as he refers to himself. Elisha tells him that God has revealed that this delegate would become king of Aram.

When he returned, he told Ben-Hadad what Elisha had said, but only the first part about him recovering from his illness. The next day he took a thick cloth, soaked it in water and suffocated Benny.

Now, this lends some credibility to the all knowing God. I've always thought that God's future knowledge was only in his plans. If a person lives according to God's will, God's plans for that person will come to happen, if they live away from God, then there's no telling what will happen. But now we get into an interesting scenario where Elisha is living probably the most Godly life a person could live at that time, and God's plan is for him to see future events. I wonder if this was a marriage of necessity? Like God could not convey this message except through Elisha...but why would his plan be for pregnant Israeli mothers to be "ripped open"? Or was that not his plan, and through the Elisha/God tag team, they were able to see this future event.

The other thing to think about is the self fulfilling prophecy, or more accurately, the idea of inevitability. If Elisha had not told Ben-Hadad's delegate about what he saw, would he ever had killed the king? Would the king have died in another manner to allow this guy to succeed him as king? If you watched LOST you know the idea of "Whatever happened, happened." They did a lot of time traveling where they tried to change the events of the past, but ended up causing the events they were trying to stop.

For example [SPOILER WARNING] there's this guy named Ben on the island who is basically the main bad guy. The main characters go back in time and find him as a kid on the island. He's actually a really sweet kid and it's hard to see what made him become who he turns out to be. One of the characters shoots Ben in the stomach attempting to kill him, but Ben is then rescued by people who turn him into the bad guy he becomes. [SPOILERS OVER]

So was it the same way for this future king of Aram? Was he destined to rule his country and then invade Israel and slaughter hundreds? Or would it have never happened if Elisha never told him. Ah, paradoxes...

Acts 16:16-40
Paul and Silas condemn a girl for claiming she can see the future (ironic, no?), but not only because of that. She was using this gift to steer people away from believing in the message they were preaching. Paul and Silas command whatever demon is in her to come out. This little Ms. Cleo was actually a slave, owned by people who were very mad that Paul and Silas had hindered their golden goose. So they handed them over to the Roman authorities. They were "severely flogged" and then put in jail. That night there was a great earthquake and all the prisoners cells were opened. The guard was terrified because he was given strict orders to guard the prisoners, but none of them fled. Instead they shared the message of Jesus with him and that night him and his entire family were saved.

The next morning, the jailer was instructed to free Paul and Silas, but they said, "screw that! They threw us in here without a fair trial and now they want to quietly get rid of us?! No sir. They must come here and escort us out of the prison." Not the typical humility of a disciple, but I think there's a difference between humility and doormat. So the officials come and offer their personal apologies and ask them to leave the city.

After they leave they go to the home of Lydia, one of the women that they spoke with after their long journey which we read about last night. They prayed with people there and then continued on.

Psalm 143:1-12
Blam.

⁸ Let the morning bring me word of your unfailing love,
       for I have put my trust in you.
       Show me the way I should go,
       for to you I lift up my soul.
 ⁹ Rescue me from my enemies, O LORD,
       for I hide myself in you.
 ¹⁰ Teach me to do your will,
       for you are my God;
       may your good Spirit
       lead me on level ground.


Proverbs 17:26
 ²⁶ It is not good to punish an innocent man,
       or to flog officials for their integrity.

Everything seems to tie together today. This is totally related to the reading from Acts. Crazy.

OK - what to do for the rest of the day...
 

Reading from Thursday, June 24

Today was my last day at my desk in my old job. Mon-Wed next week, I'm still officially in my current role, but I'll be in the city supporting training. It was kind of a weird day overall with a lot of drama going on with this insane project a few people are working on. I did have a great conversation at lunch with my friend, Pete though. Pete is an agnostic for lack of a better term, but we agree on a lot of social issues and things and our conversations are always very amicable and never argumentative. I love conversing with people of opposing viewpoints, especially on something so important as faith. I think hearing the objections to what you believe and then wrestling and attempting to justify those objections is what makes you a stronger person.

OK, and I'm stepping down from my soapbox. Bible time.

Reading for June 24
2 Kings 6:1-7:20
I must admit I had some trouble focusing while reading this, and ended up reading several paragraphs over again. I'm just not feelin it tonight, I guess. Anyway, this section really tries to emphasize the power Elisha carries, giving examples of multiple miracles he performs, from making an iron axe head float in water to predicting the date and means of someone's death. What I find really interesting about both Elijah and Elisha is that they were both highly respected among the officials in Israel, while Jesus endured the exact opposite.

Kings and people of importance would often go to these prophets to discern God's will or to ask God for assistance in a situation. The people in the same seats of power tried to kill Jesus a few thousand years later. So what was different? They both performed miracles. They both seemed to care about the welfare of others over punishment. They both had a direct connection to God and to God's will. I think what was different was God. Jesus came preaching God's message of peace and forgiveness, while the  Eli's propagated the violent nature of the people at the time. Jesus was hated by these officials because he had changed the rules, essentially everything that these "holy men" dedicated their lives to was now completely different - they also believed that Jesus' words were utter blasphemy. And what do we do to blasphemers in Israel? That's right. We kill them. Sure the Eli's had their dissenters, the more corrupt kings didn't like them because they told the truth about what God wanted, but they were still respected. Jesus was shamed even in his hometown.

Acts 15:36-16:15
This passage was preached about at ORB a few months ago. I'll try to give a brief synopsis. Paul and a few other disciples had been traveling from town to town preaching the word of God, but for a while, nothing was working out. Everywhere they were led was a dead end. God would tell them to go to another place, hundreds of miles away, they would get there and would again be dissapointed for lack of people to preach to, or being unable to get to the people that were there. Finally they come to Phillipi where they are assured they will be able to preach the good news. Now the expectation among them was to find holy men from the temple, or high ranking officials (again, men) to preach to and have these men share the news within their own community. When they arrive though, they find only a group of women and I think there is still a feeling of dissapointment. Nevertheless, they convert and baptize these women and consider it a great success.

I believe the lesson in this is to not give up when you believe God has a plan for your life. It's kind of  like the Leper who wanted to be healed by Elisha in some big ceremony with lightning and stuff, but was just told to wash himself in the river. In the same way, Paul and his disciples were hoping to convert thousands of men on their years-long journey, but only ended up preaching to a handful of women. Sometimes its the things that seem so unimportant to us that have the biggest impact.

You can listen to the sermon here - it's much better than how I just said it. Please listen to it, it''s awesome.

Psalm 142:1-7
A reminder to trust fully in God and not in man:

⁴ Look to my right and see;
       no one is concerned for me.
       I have no refuge;
       no one cares for my life.

 ⁵ I cry to you, O LORD;
       I say, "You are my refuge,
       my portion in the land of the living."

 Proverbs 17:24-25
 ²⁴ A discerning man keeps wisdom in view,
       but a fool's eyes wander to the ends of the earth.
 ²⁵ A foolish son brings grief to his father
       and bitterness to the one who bore him.

Love. Each. Other.

Reading from Wednesday, June 23

Hey friends. So my video game blog took off like a rocket today. I posted a discussion in the gaming forum, neogaf and a bunch of guys from there came and checked out the blog. I think I got like 150 hits today! What's even cooler is a few of them found their way over to this blog.

I also want to share a quick story with you. A couple months ago I confessed the sneaky little thing I was going to do with the flash for my camera. If you don't remember, my flash was broken and I was going to email the company, say I got  it as a gift and that it was broken when I got it. Jill discouraged me from doing something so sneaky and she was right - it was a pretty crappy thing to do. So I ended up not sending the email and just figured I would buy another one some day. Well earlier this week, a friend and I were talking about photography and I mentioned that I didn't have a flash anymore. He said "Oh, I've got one just gathering dust at home. If you want it, it's yours."

Now I'm not big into the "wow what a crazy coincidence - God did that for me" camp, but there was a clear correlation of events that wouldn't have occurred had I emailed that company and gotten a replacement flash. Plus the one my friend gave me for free is so much better, so it just felt like this huge blessing for doing the right thing and being patient. I need to remember to pass that on to others.

Reading for June 23
2 Kings 4:18-5:27
This section focuses on three miracles performed by Elisha.

The first deals with the boy he promised to the barren woman in the last reading. The boy became ill very quickly one day and died. Elisha came in and brought the boy back to life.

Next, he fed over 100 men with only 20 loaves of bread and there was bread left over - that sounds familiar.

Finally he heals a leper, and this is the most interesting story out of the three. An army official from the land of Aram has leprosy, and he comes to Israel to see what Elisha can do for him. Elisha tells him to go and wash himself seven times in the Jordan. Now what's interesting about this is the man's response:

¹¹ But Naaman went away angry and said, "I thought that he would surely come out to me and stand and call on the name of the LORD his God, wave his hand over the spot and cure me of my leprosy. ¹²

Are not Abana and Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than any of the waters of Israel? Couldn't I wash in them and be cleansed?" So he turned and went off in a rage.

Eventually the man did what Elisha said and he was healed of his leprosy, but that reaction is more typical of myself that I thought at first blush. Sometimes the solutions God comes up with are very simple solutions - no fireworks, no one clapping for you and cheering your name at the end, just enough to give you exactly what you need. This fellow is the prime example of this reaction, and maybe overreaction. I don't know a lot about leprosy, but I know it sucks - and that if someone said "Go rinse off in the Hudson, and your leprosy will be gone." I would be jumpin in the Hudson.

I like to imagine Elisha with a "WTF, mate?" look on his face when this happens. 

Acts 15:1-35
There is a big debate in this chapter about whether or not someone who comes to God needs to be circumcised to be recognized as a Christian. Paul and Barnabas believe that it is not required to be circumscised to become a follower of Christ. They feel that everyone should be welcomed to this new religion and that there shouldn't be any prerequsities to believing.

These prerequsites still continue today, only not on the surface level. Many churches will shun or even turn away people who do not match the congregation's standard and they lose that person forever. This come as you are approach to Chisitianity is really the best way to go about it I believe.

Psalm 141:1-10
So tired. I may come back to this one tomorrow. Goodnight.

Proverbs 17:23 

Reading from Tuesday, June 22

So I started the video game blog. It's called Brandon's Game Adventure. You can check it out here:

http://brandonsgameadventure.blogspot.com

Let me know what you think and give me some feedback if you can think of anything cool to do for it. I must say I was a little ashamed when I laid out all of the games I own. My collection consists of 141 games - I don't even want to price out how much money that cost. It's humbling to say the least, and definitely eye opening to see how much of my resources are going to this habit. Hopefully doing this will also help me curb my spending on video games.

So a new blog has started, and this one hit a major milestone. Last night's post was post number 200! We also hit 1000 unique page views a few weeks ago which is exciting. Thank you to everyone who consistently reads this blog. I'll admit that I am a vain person, and the fact that I know that people are interested in what I have to say is really what has kept me going. I confess that vanity to you, my two readers, but also want to thank you. It's because you read this thing that I continue to go through the Bible. If no one read the thing I would have likely given up shortly after starting. So thank you. 

Reading for June 22
2 Kings 3:1-4:17
OK, so another war occurs in chapter 3, this time it is Israel and Judah vs. Moab. As the Israeli army is making its way to Moab to fight, they run out of food and water. They call on Elisha to ask God for help - he tells them to dig trenches in the ground all around them and that in the morning, these trenches will be filled with water. So they dig the trenches, go to sleep and in the morning, the trenches are filled with water. Something kinda cool about this is the way Elisha tells them its going to happen. Look:

You will see neither wind nor rain, yet this valley will be filled with water, and you, your cattle and your other animals will drink. ¹⁸ This is an easy thing in the eyes of the LORD

So first of all - the water comes from nowhere, which is pretty amazing, but look at verse 18 there. "This is an easy thing in the eyes of the LORD". It's incredible that creating water from nothing is easy for him, but there's something interesting about the fact that he said it's easy. That implies that there are things that are difficult for God to do. I don't know if that means it's difficult emotionally; like wiping out the population of the Earth in a flood, or sending his son to be murdered for instance; or difficult physically like creating everything  on the Earth - hey it said he rested, he must have been tired...

What this makes me think is that God is not all powerful, or at least not in the way we think he is. I think the common perception is that God just points at things and they come into existence, blow up, fall apart, repair themselves, change colors, or turn into Chicken Sandwiches. The idea that some things are harder than others gives a shade of human to God's character.

Anyway, Israel goes into Moab and wins the war. Yay Israel! And they don't kill any kids! YAY!

Chapter 4 focuses on Elisha and a couple of miracles he performs. The first is very similar to the one Elijah performed with the bread and oil. There is a woman who's husband died and now the people to whom he owed  money want to take her sons into slavery as payment. Elisha asks her what she owns and she says "only a little oil". He tells her to go out and collect jars from her neighbors and to pour the oil she has into every jar she gets. She fills up multiple jars and is able to sell them for enough money to pay off her husband's debts and has enough left over to provide for her and her sons going forward.

This "bounty out of little" miracle is very common. Elijah did it, Elisha did it, Jesus did it a couple of times, and I think the disciples do it as well. I also wonder if there's any significance in the fact that it appears so many times, or if there is any symbolism in the miracle itself.

I suppose God created something out of nothing. Well, actually he created everything out of nothing to begin with. Also, the story of Jesus is sort of a "bounty out of little" type of thing. Jesus was arguably the greatest human to ever live, and he came in such a humble package. Seminarians - any insight?

After this he predicts that a barren woman will become pregnant, and she does. This is another common miracle that is actually performed by God himself a few times in the OT.

Acts 14:8-28
Paul and Barnabas visited a place called Lystra where the healed a crippled man. The people of Lystra believed in the Greek gods - Zeus and those guys. So when they saw this miracle performed, they said "God has come down in human form!" But they were referring to the Greek gods. They begin to set up sacrifices to Paul and Barnabas thinking that they were their gods. Paul rebukes them saying:

5"Men, why are you doing this? We too are only men, human like you. We are bringing you good news, telling you to turn from these worthless things to the living God, who made heaven and earth and sea and everything in them. ¹⁶In the past, he let all nations go their own way. ¹⁷Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy."

I like the little statement in there about how God protected only Israel in the past, he still provided food and water to the rest of the world. I kind of came up with this idea the other night - it's nice to see it validated here in Acts. I also imagine that Paul had this quote ready for every "conversion talk" with any group of Gentiles.  Think about it. If some invisible deity in the sky only helped out a certain group of people for thousands of years and now all of a sudden loves you and wants to hang out with you, you'd be a little skeptical at best. At worst you'd probably say "screw him. He killed my grandpa for no reason. Or whatever."

Either way, it's a cool thing to ponder.

Psalm 140:1-13
Interesting:

 ¹² I know that the LORD secures justice for the poor
       and upholds the cause of the needy.

Does he do that? In the Old Testament I mean. I'm sure there were some poor and needy people amongst the Midianites, or the other nations the Israelites slaughtered.

Proverbs 17:22
I love this:

 ²² A cheerful heart is good medicine,
       but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

OK. Please be patient with me if I get a little behind now and then. I'm now managing two blogs. Also please continue to pray for Jilly as she's still out in San Fran fully sick with Strep Throat.

Love you guys. Love each other today.

Reading from Monday, June 21

Hey ho. So the last week in my current job is winding down. I am beginning to transition projects off to other people and and posting all my project files in a public domain - like tombstones that commemorate the life of an effort of the past.

Gotta admit - I really don't feel like doing this right now.

Reading for June 21
2 Kings 1:1-2:25
Hey - I finished another book. That's encouraging!

OK, some interesting things in here. The current king of Israel, Ahaziah had fallen off his balcony and injured himself. He asked his men to go and consult with Baal-Zebub to inquire if he would get better or not. Early early on in this project, I looked into who Baal actually was and it turned out that many believed him to actually be Satan, and their reasoning must have come from this chapter in 2 Kings where Baal is called Baal-Zebub...as in Beelzebub, and I think Baal is pronounced "Bail" so the progression makes sense. And I'm starting to see a few things line up that would not so much prove that Baal is actually Satan, but they definitely lend some credibility to the theory.

1) He's called Baalzebub, that one should be obvious
2) He is written about as if he were real, not a pretend god that the people made up. God often instructs people to avoid following Baal specifically and seems to get the most angry when his people turn and worship old Baalsy.
3) Similar to #2, but he is the clear adversary of God here in the Old Testament. While we never get any details or stories about Baal actually doing things or influencing the world in any physical way, there certainly is something appealing about him if people keep giving up on God to worship him.

So the king of Israel was consulting with the devil himself. My, how the chosen have fallen. Elijah asks him, "Is there no God in Israel that you have to consult with the devil?" 

Obviously this ends badly for Ahaziah, 100 of his men are killed by fire from heaven that Elijah commanded from God, and Ahaziah dies in his bed, never recovering from his injury.

The second chapter of Kings focuses on the passing of the prophet torch from Elijah to Elisha. Let's call them Jah and Sha to make it easier. So Jah tells Sha that he is about to die and Sha is visibly upset about it happening. Jah asks him what he can do for him before he dies and Sha asks for a "double portion" of Jah's spirit. I'm not quite sure what this means, but it sounds awesome.

The final scene is absolutely ridiculous. I feel like I would have been in a huge uproar about this a couple of months ago, but at this point its so out of control, I just laughed.

So Elisha was walking through the woods when a group of "youths" - I would assume tween aged - started taunting Sha calling him "bald head". I guess he was bald. I also guess that cue balls hadn't been invented yet as to allow for a more creative insult. Well, since these kids made fun of Sha, he asks God for vengeance and...well, here's how it plays out:

Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. ²⁵ And he went on to Mount Carmel and from there returned to Samaria.

Like - really? You're gonna maul a bunch of kids for being a little snarky? Wow. I included verse 25 in there just to show the blase attitude Sha seemed to portray.

"Hey look at those bears go! Wow those kids are definitely dead. Wooh. That's nasty! Welp! On to old Mt. Carmel! Doo de doo de doo!"

What a jerk.

Acts 13:42-14:7
A neat little tidbid here. Paul and co are being interrogated about their preaching from the Jewish leaders, specifically about their consorting with the Gentiles - and they bust out this quote"

 " 'I have made you^[a] a light for the Gentiles,
      that you^[b] may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.'^[c]"

Guess where that's from? If you guessed the Gospels you are wrong. I thought the same thing - but this is from Isaiah - as in Old Testament. The predictions and intentions were there, but the actions were still not quite there yet...Interesting.

Psalm 139:1-24
Love this:

⁷ Where can I go from your Spirit?
       Where can I flee from your presence?

 ⁸ If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
       if I make my bed in the depths, ^[a] you are there.

Proverbs 17:19-21
 ¹⁹ He who loves a quarrel loves sin;
       he who builds a high gate invites destruction.
 ²⁰ A man of perverse heart does not prosper;
       he whose tongue is deceitful falls into trouble.
 ²¹ To have a fool for a son brings grief;
       there is no joy for the father of a fool.

Blammo.

In closing, I would like to ask for your prayers for Jilly. She is in San Francisco right now and has step throat - and she's working a 6AM to 9PM day, every day until Friday. Please pray for a quick recovery, or at least quick pain relief. It's definitely gotta suck being away from home and having such an awful illness. I love her and will be praying for her, but would you please pray for her as well?

Thanks friends. Remember you can submit prayer requests in the comments or at brandonamurray@gmail.com



Gnite.

Reading from Sunday, June 20

Look at this:



This is a game called Bit.Trip Runner for Wii. It is awesome, but this level had me screaming at the TV. Look how hard it is! It's unbelievable. What you may not know is that if you collide with ANYTHING (walls, steps, obstacles) you have to start from the BEGINNING of the level.

I beat this level tonight after about 4 hours of repeated attempts, and repeated F words. Sorry, God. Bit Trip Runner is the devil.

Reading for June 20
1 Kings 22:1-53
Well, I guess God was lying about not bringing destruction onto Ahab, because he is totally killed here, but it seems to be by his own boneheadedness. Ahab wishes to go to war against Aram again and decides to seek the counsel of his secular prophets. They all encourage him to go to war, ensuring his victory. Someone then suggests he ask a prohpet of God, so Micaiah is summoned to prophecy for Ahab. Micaiah tells Ahab that if he decides to go to war that he will be killed in battle and all of Israel will have no king. He also tells him that God "sent a lying spirit" to Ahab's other prophets so he would be convinced to go to war. Ahab ignores this and goes to war against the Arameans, and guess what - he is totally killed in battle. So his son takes over and he's just as bad as his father - same old story.

Now, a couple of things REALLY bother me about this story. First, God went back on his word twice. First he said Ahab was going to be destroyed, then he says, "Oh wait, no - I'll hold off and give the punishment to his son." Then he kills him anyway. You could argue that Ahab was given full disclosure and the decision to go into war - even after hearing the prophecy that he would be killed in battle - was entirely his own, there was still some trickery coming from God. Which brings me to my second point: "God sent a lying spirit to trick Ahab into going into battle?" Really? A lying spirit? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe that one of God's Ten Commandments, the commandments that he enforced with the constant threat of death, is to not lie. Should we now stone God for forcing others to lie? Or should we stone those who lied? Obviously they sinned because God forced them to.

And we're back on the "God was despicable in the Old Testament" kick.


Acts 13:16-41
OK, something just hit me, hard. A couple nights ago I was talking about the old addage "The sins of the father will be visited upon the son." Remember? And I was saying that it seems like that is the case a lot of times in the Old Testament where a father messes up and his son is killed because of it. Then I saw a parallel between God and Jesus - Jesus the son and God the father, which led me to a wild accusation of God actually sinning. I'm still on the fence about that one, but the connection was there.


Here, Saul is preaching to a group of Jews and keeps mentioning "our fathers" referring to the historical figures of the Old Testament - King Saul, King David and so on. He says that Jesus is the fulfillment of the promise made to "our fathers." See where I'm going with this?

So in the same way that a child would be punished for the sins of the father, in this case, the case of the world, the child was redeemed because of the sins of the father. That's pretty awesome.

Psalm 138:1-8
Beautiful

⁶ Though the LORD is on high, he looks upon the lowly,
       but the proud he knows from afar.

Proverbs 17:17-18
 ¹⁷ A friend loves at all times,
       and a brother is born for adversity.
 ¹⁸ A man lacking in judgment strikes hands in pledge
       and puts up security for his neighbor.

Alright, kids. Have a good night.

 

Reading from Saturday, June 19

Yes yes. So I think I'm definitely going to start that new video game blog where I go back and try to beat all the games in my collection that remain unconquered. My main motivation in doing this - which is partially the same as this blog - is to hold myself accountable to you the reader, to not purchase any more games until I beat what I've got. You see, I have had my eye on a little gem known as Super Mario Galaxy 2, but I have so many other "in process" games right now that I know I would ditch them and probably never return.

By forcing myself to play my games one at a time, I will not be tempted to jump to something else or buy something new. It's similar to the measured way I'm reading through the Bible. For years I've wanted to read the entire thing, but would always just kind of pick it up and randomly open to a page and start reading. This was obviously ineffective and I would never finish it. It's the same thing with games - I'll pick up a game here or there, play it for a few days and then move to something else. Now I will be forced to play through in order, and also not to buy anything new during the process. The siren song of Mario Galaxy 2 may be too strong however, which would mean I would need to start the project after I've bought that.

The other thing that will hopefully be interesting to readers is my lack of skill in classic games - specifically the original Super Mario Bros. which I have never beaten. What I would like to do is make that game my final game in the project - to know that I have beaten the game that has haunted me for 23 years. Anyway - that's that.

This is the Bible.

Reading for June 19
1 Kings 20:1-21:29
Some intense stuff going on here. There is a war between Ahab's Israel and Ben-Hadad's Aram. Ben Hadad sends a message to Ahab asking for all of his wealth and his "best wives", and Aram agrees. Ben then sends a second message asking for the same from all of Ahab's followers which Ahab denies. This sets Ben off and declares war on Israel. Israel was greatly outnumbered like 10,000 to 250 outnumbered, and Israel totally destroyed them, but Ahab hears that Ben-Hadad is still alive and goes to meet him. Ahab spares Ben's life in exchange for a treaty between the two nations. For this, the only documented redeemable act in Ahab's reign, a prophet of God condemns Ahab to die for having mercy on someone, but Ahab doesn't die right away - he is actually somewhat redeemed at the end of chapter 21. We'll get to that in a minute - there's more WTF moments to get to before that.

The prophet that condemns Ahab asks another man to strike him with his sword, saying that it was a command from God. The other man, obviously thinking he was being tricked said "no thanks." The prophet then said "because you have disobeyed the word of the LORD, you will be mauled by a lion." And wouldn't you know it - the poor guy was mauled by a lion.

How is one supposed to follow the word of God when there are so many people declaring they know the word of God and are exploiting that to get their way? And then when someone uses common sense and reason to judge the situation, they are wrong and get mauled by a lion (remember that other guy who was duped by someone and then mauled by a lion?) How is that fair? People are being punished by God because of people's butthole nature.

Now to close out this chapter, Ahab has his eye on a vineyard owned by a guy named Naboth. He asks Naboth to sell him his vineyard but Naboth declines saying that it was an inheritance of his family and it was God's will for him to keep it. Ahab reacts like a child. He goes into his room sulking and refuses to eat. What a baby. Enter Jezebel - she asks what is wrong, Ahab tells her and she sets the trap. She invites Naboth to a big banquet with a ton of people and has two spies in there sitting across from Naboth declare to the whole room that Naboth was speaking against the LORD. Naboth was immediately stoned to death and then Ahab got his little vineyard. That's pretty dirty, and I would definitely say this is worthy of the punishment we're used to seeing from God.

So Elijah goes to Ahab to speak for the LORD, saying that because he has done such an awful thing, and was probably the worst king in the history is Israel, that God would destroy his lineage like that of Jeroboam and the other rotten kings of Israel. He also tells Ahab that dogs will eat Jezebel. At hearing this, Ahab rips his clothes and puts on a sackcloth - which I think is like a potato sack - and he fasted. Because of this act, God redeems Ahab.

²⁹ "Have you noticed how Ahab has humbled himself before me? Because he has humbled himself, I will not bring this disaster in his day, but I will bring it on his house in the days of his son."

Now if we're to take the Bible as the direct word of God, I think this story is in place to challenge our own assertions of right and wrong. I think most of us were excited to hear that Jezebel was going to be eaten by dogs. Based upon my own moral code, she was perhaps the worst person so far in the Old Testament. I know I was like, yeah give that jerk what's coming to her. Ahab wasn't much better, leading people astray to a new God to serve his own motives and taking that poor guy's vineyard. But when I finally saw a person who most deserved God's wrath, and was awaiting the big payoff, God has mercy on him, not punishing someone who is so deserving of it.

I think this is again, very symbolic of the future grace which he will have for all mankind. It doesn't explain why he didn't have mercy on the poor guy who refused to stab someone else, but it's one of those small cracks of kindness that's peeking out from the core of God's being.

Acts 12:24-13:15
Again, there isn't much in the way of story progression here. The disciples begin traveling farther and farther away from Jerusalem and meet a magician named Bar-Jesus. Bar means "son of" so this guy was pretty ballsy. Bar-Jesus was an attendant of a local government official who had sent for the disciples because he wanted to hear the word of God. Bar-Jesus tried to turn this guy away from hearing the message but Saul, who is first identified as Paul in this chapter rebukes him:

⁹Then Saul, who was also called Paul, filled with the Holy Spirit, looked straight at Elymas and said, ¹⁰"You are a child of the devil and an enemy of everything that is right! You are full of all kinds of deceit and trickery. Will you never stop perverting the right ways of the Lord? ¹¹Now the hand of the Lord is against you. You are going to be blind, and for a time you will be unable to see the light of the sun."

   Immediately mist and darkness came over him, and he groped about, seeking someone to lead him by the hand. ¹²When the proconsul saw what had happened, he believed, for he was amazed at the teaching about the Lord.

What I find interesting about this scene is the punishment that is given to Bar-Jesus. This guy is obviously low on the "Guys Who God Thinks Are Awesome" list - besmirching the name of Jesus, turning people away from the faith, he is definitely not a favorite of these people. So, raise your hand - what would have happened to this guy in the Old Testament? Yes, you there. That's correct. He would have either:

A) Been stoned to death
B) Been mauled to death by a lion or
C) Had his children killed in front of him

So instead of doing one of those things to prove the existence and power of God, they inflict Bar-J with blindness. But not even permanent blindness, only temporary. Like they used a low level darkness spell in Final Fantasy. This could easily be cured by Esuna or eye drops. Just a little reminder not to mess around with this stuff. This allows him to be given mercy later on, instead of making one false move and dying for it.

By the way, how sweet would a Bible RPG be? MP could be GP (God Points) and they could summon the different manifestations of God - the cloud, the burning bush, the pillar of fire. It would be awesome. Where my Christian programmers at?

Psalm 137:1-9
I think there's some great stuff in here - but I don't think I've read enough to properly interpret it. I'll just post it here and hope someone else has some better insight than I do:

¹ By the rivers of Babylon we sat and wept
       when we remembered Zion.

 ² There on the poplars
       we hung our harps,
 ³ for there our captors asked us for songs,
       our tormentors demanded songs of joy;
       they said, "Sing us one of the songs of Zion!"
 ⁴ How can we sing the songs of the LORD
       while in a foreign land?
 ⁵ If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
       may my right hand forget its skill .
 ⁶ May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
       if I do not remember you,
       if I do not consider Jerusalem
       my highest joy.
 ⁷ Remember, O LORD, what the Edomites did
       on the day Jerusalem fell.
       "Tear it down," they cried,
       "tear it down to its foundations!"
 ⁸ O Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction,
       happy is he who repays you
       for what you have done to us-
 ⁹ he who seizes your infants
       and dashes them against the rocks.

Proverbs 17:16
 ¹⁶ Of what use is money in the hand of a fool,
       since he has no desire to get wisdom?

Sweet. Good day to you.

Reading from Friday, June 18

Bam. Post #2 for the evening.

Reading for June 18
1 Kings 19:1-21
So far there has been this character named Jezebel who was the wife of King Ahab. Jezebel was persecuting all the Israelites who would not bow to Baal. And by persecuting, I mean murdering. So Elijah was obviously a big target for Jezzie. So he fled to about a day's journey away and hid in a cave where God spoke to him. He said, "go outside for the LORD is about to pass by". Now check this out:

Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. ¹² After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. ¹³ When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Maybe I'm just seeing what I want to see here, but I think the symbolism here could certainly be interpreted in a favorable way towards God, even amongst all the killing and violence. It says that a mighty wind, an earthquake, and a fire all passed by, but God was not in any of them. All three were very destructive forces, but those were not God. God was in the gentle whisper that followed those things. Now, the way I see it, this could be interpreted in two ways:

1) God brings the destruction and pain, but the real lesson is what occurs after those things happen.
2) God is none of these destructive forces. His true nature is that of a gentle whisper, and the destructive forces are only an outside layer that needs to be peeled back to see what he truly is.

Any other theories on this? It's defintiely rich in symbolism, but I'm not quite sure I got the meaning. Something to think about though.

After this happens, God tells Elijah to instruct someone named Elisha that he will be the new prophet. They made these names confusing on purpose.

"You used all the glue on purpose!" Who knows what that's from? Bonus points if you do.

Acts 12:1-23
Peter's bustin on outta here...

So King Herod (is this the same King Herod who tried to have Jesus killed as a baby?) is persecuting the Christians and has James killed which pleases the Jewish authorities. Seeing that this was a good thing for him, Herod also arrested Peter and has him put in jail, I would assume to be executed shortly thereafter.

During the night while Peter is in jail, an angel of God comes and removes his chains and opens the gate to free him. The next morning, Herod brings the guards who were on duty the night before in for questioning. It doesn't take long before Herod just has them killed.

Some time later, Herod was giving an address to the people of the region and someone shouted out "This is the voice of God not of a man." Herod didn't correct the person and because he did not give the glory to God, but instead accepted it for himself, and angel of God struck Herod dead. I thought God was done with the jealousy killings after the Old Testament.

Psalm 136:1-26
Most of this psalm is the same as the last one, where the praise to God is about him killing people that stood in the Israelites way, but these last two lines stood out to me:

²⁵ and who gives food to every creature.
       His love endures forever.

 ²⁶ Give thanks to the God of heaven.
       His love endures forever.

I like the idea of God caring for every living thing, but it also contradicts the psalmists ideas of ethnocentricity (yeah - big word, right?) of the Jewish people. He cares enough to at least feed everything on earth - from the dung beetle to the prophets of Baal. This also reminds me of the quote from Jesus where he says "see the birds of the air? God gives them food and water, and yet you worry about what you will eat. How much more does God care for you than those birds?" Something like that.

I also like the line above because my dog's name is Kreacher, and it reminds me of him. He's laying on my stomach right now and he brings me so much joy. Only God could make such a hideous dog so lovable and cuddly. 

Proverbs 17:14-15
 ¹⁴ Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam;
       so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out.
 ¹⁵ Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent—
       the LORD detests them both.

Boom verse 15. Boom.

 

Reading from Thursday, June 17

Yes, I know - I'm extremely behind. Here's hoping for motivation to catch up at least a little tonight.

Reading for June 17
1 Kings 18:1-46

Showdown time. Elijah returns to the kingdom of Ahab in Israel and basically challenges Ahab and his followers to what ca only be described as a "God-off". Ahab and his people followed Baal and Elijah obviously followed God. They set up only one event which was the 100-meter-which-God-will-set-fire-to-the-burnt-offering-first hurdles. So here's what they did. They went to a mountain and set up two slaughtered bulls as burnt offerings. They agreed that the challenge was to pray to their respective god and whichever god set the burnt offering ablaze would win the 'my god exists and yours doesn't' trophy.

So Ahab and his followers begin praying loudly to Baal for fire to rain down on their bull. Nothing happens. So they begin to pray louder and wail. Still nothing happens. Then they begin to cut and stab themselves with swords and spears and still no fire. They had done this for almost the entire day with no result. Meanwhile, Elijah is sitting there taunting them saying "Maybe Baal is on vacation" or "yell louder I don't think he can hear you." Kinda mean if you ask me, but he knew he was right.

After the Baalians had given up, Elijah ordered that his bull be doused with water three times. There was so much water that it filled up a trench that was dug around the slaughtered bull. Here's what happens:

³⁶ At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: "O LORD, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. ³⁷ Answer me, O LORD, answer me, so these people will know that you, O LORD, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again."
 ³⁸ Then the fire of the LORD fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench.
 ³⁹ When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, "The LORD -he is God! The LORD -he is God!"

So the people believed in God! Yay! That's good for them, right?...R-right?

⁴⁰ Then Elijah commanded them, "Seize the prophets of Baal. Don't let anyone get away!" They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there.

Oh dear...

Acts 11:1-30
There's not too much going on here. After Peter returns to the other disciples, they accuse him of soliciting with Gentiles, but Peter explains the vision he had about accepting everyone into the faith.

The second part of this reading focuses on the church in a town called Antioch where Saul and someone named Barnabas taught for a year. The significant thing here is that Antioch was the first place where this group of people were called Christians.

Psalm 135:1-21
This psalm is one of very high praise for God. And yet, I find it strange for what the psalmist is praising him for...he praises him for the killing of the first born in Egypt and the murder of kings and nations. Now I know that was beneficial to the Israelites, but it's just strange to give someone such praise for such audacious acts.

Playing my own devil's advocate and looking at it from the other side, God could have easily given up on humanity at the first sign of sin, but he chose to stick with them. He chose to protect and defend one small group of people, and keep them and them alone safe from harm. To mold and shape them into the people who would eventually bear his ultimate message of love and kindness. The molding and shaping didn't really seem to stick. The people were constantly led astray by other gods and various temptations and things. So even after centuries of punishment and correction and patience, it never stuck for the Israelites, much less the rest of the world. So the only thing left to do was to die for them.

You know that quote from Jesus "There is no other way to the father except through me"? I think what Jesus meant there was not what we commonly take at surface level and say we have to believe in Jesus or we won't go to heaven. What JC is saying there is "God has tried everything else. Punishment, patience, kindness, forgiveness, and nothing has worked. The only way that you will ever be reunited with the God who loves you is if I die for you. And all you have to do is accept that."

Wow. That's pretty powerful...

Proverbs 17:12-13
 ¹² Better to meet a bear robbed of her cubs
       than a fool in his folly.
 ¹³ If a man pays back evil for good,
       evil will never leave his house.

Done. Let's do another!

 

Reading from Wednesday, June 16

OK. Time for the big reveal. The good news that I am finally at liberty to share with all of you. Well, all two of you...I got a new job! It's actually within the same company, so the transition will be very easy, but the new gig is with our Events and Meetings group and I will be working with my friend Jim doing video production and editing. I'm so pumped about this new jobby and am really excited to learn to be a pro-level photo/video dude. In addition to it being a sweet position, it's also a promotion, which is awesome.

So that's my good news. But the Murray's have another reason to celebrate! Jilly got promoted as well to Manager! Yay, Jilly! We are so thankful for this blessing in both of our lives and the challenge will be to take the increased income and use it in a Godly way.

Bible Time! 

Reading for June 16
1 Kings 15:25-17:24
We have now entered the "Judges" period of Kings. By that I mean we are covering larger portions of the timeline in single chapters where Kings come to power, act like jerks, die and then are replaced by another jerk. So at the start of this chapter, both Israel and Judah have new kings - Asa becomes king of Judah and Nadab, son of Jeroboam (Jerry) became king of Israel. Then Baasha, the son of Ahijar the prophet, killed Nadab and succeeded him as king. As soon as Baasha took power he killed everyone in Jerry's family, just as God had promised Jerry's wife a few chapters ago. A few years later Baasha's son Elah bacame king. Some dude named Zimri kills Elah, takes over as king and kills everyone in Baasha's family. This was also prophesied to Baasha in the last chapter. Then Omri takes over  as king, followed by his son Ahab. Every single one of these kings were awful people and "did evil in the eyes of the LORD" Ahab was the worst though, building altars and statues to Baal, God's nemesis.

The interesting thing about this whole chapter is that as the throne of Israel changes hands every few years, the throne of Judah remained the same. Each time a king took power the text said, "In the twenty third year of Asa, King of Judah" or "In the thirty-eighth year..." Indicating that the "shamed" portion of Israel was doing just fine and trucking along without angering God or bringing his fury. 

Chapter 25 introduces Elijah - a pretty well known dude in Jewish history. I know very little about him except that he appeared during the Transfiguration, so I'm excited to see what this guy is all about. Right off the bat, he has a very Christ-like attitude about him, and he even performs miracles similar to those of Jesus. Before I get into those though, I want to point out a clue about God's power. God orders Elijah to go to a certain ravine.

³ "Leave here, turn eastward and hide in the Kerith Ravine, east of the Jordan. ⁴ You will drink from the brook, and I have ordered the ravens to feed you there."

"I have ordered the ravens to feed you there." Is that not incredible? And it happens, too! The ravens come and hand deliver (or I suppose, beak deliver) bread and meat to Elijah. It's just so interesting to me that God has control over animals. I know we're to believe that God has control over all things, but we usually associate that with weather and coincidence. Not wild animals. The author uses almost the same language in the next paragraph:

 ⁷ Some time later the brook dried up because there had been no rain in the land. ⁸ Then the word of the LORD came to him: ⁹ "Go at once to Zarephath of Sidon and stay there. I have commanded a widow in that place to supply you with food."

I wonder what the difference in the Hebrew is between "ordered" and "commanded", but to me it seems like God has just as much control over animals as he does humans.

So Elijah goes and stays with this widow who is preparing to die alongside her son because they are running out of food and water. Elijah tells her to make a meal for him out of what little they have left and if she does, her bag of wheat will never become empty and her pot of oil will never dry up. Miraculously, this happens just as Elijah predicted, but soon the widow's son becomes very ill and eventually dies. She accuses Elijah of coming to represent God and kill her son because of her sins, an event that seems to be so common that ordinary people fear it's occurrence. Elijah goes up to the room where the dead boy is laying and prays to God to bring the boy back to life. Here's how it plays out:

²¹ Then he stretched himself out on the boy three times and cried to the LORD, "O LORD my God, let this boy's life return to him!"
 ²² The LORD heard Elijah's cry, and the boy's life returned to him, and he lived. ²³ Elijah picked up the child and carried him down from the room into the house. He gave him to his mother and said, "Look, your son is alive!"

Now, this part is crucial - look at the woman's reply:

 ²⁴ Then the woman said to Elijah, "Now I know that you are a man of God and that the word of the LORD from your mouth is the truth."

Up until this point, God has proved his power and existence through destruction, murder and terror. This is the first chronological instance I can think of - and correct me if I'm wrong - where someone is convinced of God's power through an act of mercy and love. Could this be the point where God's heart  started to change? I wonder if there was any sort of mental or psychological connection between Elijah and Jesus. Based on what I've read so far they are extremely similar in their character and manner of speaking. I wonder if that cosmic connection to Jesus allowed God to see what could be through the actions of his future son. 




Acts 10:24-48
So right after Peter has the vision with all the unclean animals he goes to meet with a group of Gentiles and explains his vision.

²⁷Talking with him, Peter went inside and found a large gathering of people. ²⁸He said to them: "You are well aware that it is against our law for a Jew to associate with a Gentile or visit him. But God has shown me that I should not call any man impure or unclean[...]I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism ³⁵but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right. "

It's interesting the way Peter phrases this:  I now realize how true it is that God does not show favoritism. He certainly did at one point - for about 5000 years he played favorites. So has Peter had a revelation that God wasn't actually playing favorites the whole time? Or was it that now the favoritism had ended? I'd say the answer's pretty obvious, unless you completely dismiss the validity of the Old Testament. How then, could I say that God is the same? I will consent that he has remained the same entity since the beginning of time, but his heart went through a radical change from the Old to New Testaments.

Towards the beginning of this project I came up with this idea that God was sort of like a Robot. He was a known constant who could not be shaken from his plans and reactions. I came up with this equation that I can't find now, but it was something like =(if.Israelites=sin then.God=vengeance) - meaning that when someone sins, there is no other reaction for God to have than the freak out and kill things. This was certainly true of the first few books of the Old Testament. Now we're seeing him show compassion and mercy for the first time in the Elijah story, and love and universal acceptance here in Acts. So to say that God did not change would be a disservice to the huge character arc God went through. He came full circle, originally creating man in a paradise where sin was not even possible, man blew it, and for 5000 years God raged out on humanity, showing little cracks of kindness and love here and there. Then finally he was able to quell his anger with sin because of Jesus' sacrifice. Still not existing in perfect harmony like he envisioned, but it's the best stop-gap in history.

I haven't studied it too in depth yet, but I'm pretty sure that there is one more step to bring up back to that paradise - and that is the rapture. When Jesus returns to earth to create the paradise that was planned for us from the beginning, which we are also apparently able to experience after death. That's a pretty incredible story. That would make an excellent screenplay done in allegory. Who wants to work on the first draft with me?

Psalm 134:1-3
 ¹ Praise the LORD, all you servants of the LORD
       who minister by night in the house of the LORD.
 ² Lift up your hands in the sanctuary
       and praise the LORD.
 ³ May the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth,
       bless you from Zion.

Not too much goin on there.



Proverbs 17:9-11
 ⁹ He who covers over an offense promotes love,
       but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.
 ¹⁰ A rebuke impresses a man of discernment
       more than a hundred lashes a fool.
 ¹¹ An evil man is bent only on rebellion;
       a merciless official will be sent against him.

Alright. Time for a celebratory dinner with Jilly. We goin to Charlie Browns, son. For her birfday I'ma take her somewhere ruuuul nice like Olive Garden. 

New Thing: Weekly Challenge

From time to time, I write out a challenge for myself for the week and suggest that the reader's challenge themselves with it as well. To make these challenges more in-your-face, I've added a new box at the top of the page which will be updated weekly to reflect that week's current challenge.

I will also probably run out of ideas pretty quickly, so please feel free to send in suggestions for weekly challenges and I will definitely use them for the blog.

Thanks yos. Yos is the plural of yo.

Did God sin?

In my last post, I made the wild accusation that God was a sinner in the Old Testament, and that Jesus redeemed God from his sins by dying for them, on top of dying for the sins of humanity. I wanted to back up that statement with some evidence. I have been very outspoken about my anger towards OT God's preference for genocide and murder over peaceful resolution and sacrifice, but let's look at it objectively. And what better way to see if God sinned than to put his actions up against his Ten Commandments:

1) Do not have any other Gods before me. Innocent
2) Do not create or worship any false idols. Innocent
3) Do not take the Lord's name in vain. Innocent, though you could say he tarnished his own name with other nations with his actions.
4) Do not work on the Sabbath and keep it holy. I don't remember - did God ever do work on the Sabbath? I feel like at least a few of his destructive tantrums occurred on a Sabbath day. 
5) Honor your mother and father. N/A
6) Do not murder. Guilty. God is responsible for more deaths than anyone in the OT. Many of them were completely innocent people, often children.
7) Do not commit adultery. N/A
8) Do not steal. Debatable. God ordered the Israelites to loot and pillage the lands they took over. I say guilty.
9) Do not lie. Innocent. In fact this is probably God's most redeeming characteristic in the OT. He ALWAYS delivered on his promises.
10) Do not covet your neighbor's possessions. Guilty. God was extremely jealous of anything that led his people away from him, and his reactions to their infidelity towards him seem to be why he created this commandment in the first place.

So out of ten, you could argue that God was at least partially, if not fully guilty in half of them. Now why shouldn't the rules God gave to his people apply to him?

Again, I realize how controversial this is, and God is probably super pissed at me right now, but it's something I think that should be examined. What do you think?

Reading from Tuesday, June 15

Hey hey hey. So that "good news" I kept alluding to a couple weeks ago will finally be revealed on Friday. I'm very excited about it, but just to confirm - it is NOT that we are having a baby. That is still years off.

Reading for June 15
1 Kings 14:1-15:24

So remember that the people of Israel are divided into two kingdoms: Israel and Judah. Here's a map to make it a little easier to grasp:

Israel is ruled by Jeroboam (whom we are calling Jerry) and Judah is ruled by the grandson of King David, Rehoboam (whom we are calling Randy)

Chapter 14 opens with Jerry's son being very sick. He instructs his wife to go and visit the prophet Ahijah to ask him what will happen to Jerry's son. Jerry's wife goes to visit Ahijah and he lays down the LORD Hammer with a pretty intense message.

¹⁰ " 'Because of this, I am going to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam every last male in Israel—slave or free. I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns dung, until it is all gone. ¹¹ Dogs will eat those belonging to Jeroboam who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country. The LORD has spoken!'

Before I get into the nitty gritty details of what happens here, I want to point out something really funny. God ends this speech (spoken through Ahijah) with "The LORD has spoken!" I love that. I imagine God in a rap battle with someone like in 8 Mile, and he closes his sweet flow with this final line:

"You got nothin, son. Your raps is broken. Now get the f*%^ off my stage - The LORD has spoken!" 

Then he totally spikes his mic on the floor. Then everyone would be all like

"OHHHHH!!! Oh Snap, yo" 

OK. Back to serious. So regardless of how much of a rap star as God might be, he certainly has a thing for punishing kids for the sins of their fathers. In addition to the quote above, God goes on to say that Jerry's son will die because Jerry's sins were greater than all of the other previous kings combined.

What is the deal with God killing children because the adults were terrible people? I mean, maybe its something we can't possibly understand, but again I want to refer back to that scene from God on Trial. At the end of the speech,  the rabbi says

"When God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son, Abraham should have said 'no!' We should have taught God the justice that was in our hearts. We should have stood up to him."

It raises an interesting question between our understanding of justice and God's understanding of justice...God's justice is often referred to as perfect. Perfectly loving and perfectly just. But again, where is the justice for the mothers of the children God decided to destroy? Where is the justice for the innocent ones who suffered for the guilty. I mean, there's some symbolism there for the completely perfect and innocent Jesus, being murdered for we, the guilty...but why would God kill children just to make some vague symbolic point? That's the kind of stuff that crazy serial killers do...

Oh man! Moment of complete realization! Have you ever heard the quote:

"The sins of the father shall be visited upon the son a thousand times"?

Think about that from a God the Father, Jesus the Son perspective. Every despicable thing that God did to his people from the beginning of time until the birth of Jesus was absorbed by Jesus. I have theorized before on this blog that Jesus' death not only redeemed humanity, but also redeemed God with his people. And while I realize that the idea of God sinning is blasphemous and extremely controversial, the idea of Gods sins being visited upon Jesus is one that could make the whole "OT God vs NT God" thing a little clearer.

Acts 10:1-23
I have referenced this scripture several times throughout the progress of this blog, and now it's here. Peter has a dream/vision/trip out trance where this happens:

¹¹He saw heaven opened and something like a large sheet being let down to earth by its four corners. ¹²It contained all kinds of four-footed animals, as well as reptiles of the earth and birds of the air. ¹³Then a voice told him, "Get up, Peter. Kill and eat."

 ¹⁴"Surely not, Lord!" Peter replied. "I have never eaten anything impure or unclean."
 ¹⁵The voice spoke to him a second time, "Do not call anything impure that God has made clean."

So on the surface of this vision, God is saying that it is now OK to eat pork and whatever else. On a deeper level, I believe this scripture is meant to say that everyone is worthy of God's love, not just the Jews. The language here though is great, and something I didn't pick up on the first time I read through.

Peter is taken aback when God commands him to eat animals that were classified as unclean based on the laws in Leviticus. God corrects him by saying that nothing is  unclean that the LORD has made clean. So here is evidence to the contrary of my prevalent suspicion that God changed between the OT and NT.  The people who were considered unclean or unworthy of God's love in the OT were "made clean" through the sacrifice of Jesus.  God seems almost proud in the way he says that everything is  now clean in his sight. Like a proud parent who is so pleased with the way their  child has turned out, defending the honor and character of their child, God was now, for the first time ever, defending and protecting the entirety of his creation and not just a small section of the entire world.

Gosh the ideas are flowing this evening. I don't feel comfortable saying "I feel like the spirit is moving in me" but I imagine that is the correct way to pronounce this feeling...

Psalm 133:1-3
 ¹ How good and pleasant it is
       when brothers live together in unity!

It's nice to see something like that in the Bible. Especially in the OT where everything is so violent and awful. After a while you start to believe that God prefers his people to be at war and always killing and pillaging and destroying. While he punishes and kills and destroys on top of their work. "How good and pleasant it is when brothers  live together  in unity" reads like a breath of the freshest air you  could breathe. I could sit and read and reread that verse over and over for at least five minutes.

Proverbs 17:7-8
 ⁷ Arrogant ^[a] lips are unsuited to a fool—
       how much worse lying lips to a ruler!
 ⁸ A bribe is a charm to the one who gives it;
       wherever he turns, he succeeds.

Yeah. Some good stuff coming out this evening. I am pleased as punch.

 

New Layout

Hey, kids. I was playing around with this new layout, what do you think? Should I keep it, or should I go back to the basic layout? Click "Funny" below if you think I should keep the new layout, or click "Interesting" below if you think I should go back to the old layout. Responses are anonymous.

Reading from Monday, June 14

Yes yes. I just had a great small group with my friend Alex. We were talking about how the Bible calls us to be good stewards of our money. And while the majority of the time when you are donating  a portion of your money, it's going to churches or charities, I think there is definitely some value in being generous with your friends, or even random strangers, even if they're not in need. The example I gave was something that happened over the weekend. Jilly and I went to lunch with some friends in the city and on top of them paying for the whole meal, they also gave the waitress about a 50% tip. This made the waitresses day. She absolutely could not believe that someone would be so generous towards her. She said that even before she got  the tip we were cheering her up with our "positive attitude" and after she got the tip she was totally floored. I've always been a huge fan of the random act of kindness but hardly ever actually commit one. I think being generous or randomly  kind to a stranger has a lot of value. You never know what someone is going through - "Each heart knows its own bitterness and no one else can experience its joy"

My challenge to myself this week is to commit a random act of kindness to a stranger or fairly unknown acquaintance. I would invite you to take on this challenge as well if you'd like. Let's see how much better we can make this week for one person.

Reading for June 14
1 Kings 12:20-13:34

OK so to understand this, we really need to define our characters. The problem is that their names are almost exactly the same:

Jeroboam - the current king of all of Israel, except Judah

Rehoboam - the current king of Judah, and son of Solomon, grandson of David.

To make it easier, let's call them Jerry and Randy.

At the start of this section, Randy is all set to drum up support from Judah to overthrow Jerry and reclaim Israel as his own. God interferes and tells him not to go through with it, and to just faithfully serve as the leader of Judah. Randy obeys and retreats to Judah.

Jerry however, believes that Randy is actually coming to overthrow the kingdom. So to make sure Israel would follow and support Jerry, he built two golden calfs and convinced all of Israel that these were the gods that led them out of Egypt. Really, Israelites? Come on...you really fell for that again?

Anyway, this obviously does not sit well with God and he send a messenger - let's call him Bradley - to tell Jerry that what he's doing is wrong and that these idols will be destroyed. Jerry does not take kindly to this message and actually orders the golden calf to sieze Bradley. Remember, this is a religion that Jerry invented - and he ordered his pretend god, a statue, to seize someone. When he does this, Jerry's hand freezes up and he is unable to lower it. Then the statue breaks in half, just as Bradley predicted. Jerry realizes he's dealing with the real thing and asks Brad to pray that his hand be restored. He agrees and Jerry gets his hand back. Jerry then invites him over for dinner, but Bradley says that God instructed him to not eat or drink anything in the Jerusalem and to return a different way than when he came.

On his way back, someone else invites Bradley over for dinner. Bradley tells him about the command from God but this other guy says "Hey God gave me a command too - it was to have you over for dinner" (Ugh...that sounds like maybe the world's worst pick up line). This second guy was lying about the command from God and as soon as Bradley sat down to eat, the second guy said "Ha! You disobeyed God and now you will pay!" So Bradley leaves, probably thinking "What a freaking jerk" then - are  you ready for  this - he gets mauled by a lion. The Bible says that this was his punishment for disobeying God. Um...are you effing serious? Some douche tricked him! Why should he be punished for someone else being a butthole? You know, it's petty little things like this that make a strong case for the God of the OT and the God of the NT being completely different - and maybe even separate - entities.

Acts 9:26-43
Not a lot of story progression here. The twelve disciples are unconvinced that Saul is changed, but the rest of the Christians do believe him and it seems like there are now two groups of people spreading the message. One led by Saul, and the other led by Peter. One thing I noticed when researching this chapter was that Saul was often known as the Apostle to the Gentiles (Non Jews) which is strange because the message was being freely given to everyone from both sides of the mission...

Psalm 132:1-18
Wow - I'm just picking up on some cool stuff here. This psalm describes the promise David made to God, and the promise God made to David. David promised that he would not rest until there was a dwelling place for God on earth - this eventually became the temple. God promised that one of David's descendants would sit on David's throne. But the hidden message there is that one of David's descendants actually ended up sitting on the throne at the right hand of God. That is pretty incredible.

Proverbs 17:6
 ⁶ Children's children are a crown to the aged,
       and parents are the pride of their children.

Alright friends. Have a good night.