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.