Reading from Monday, July 26

Alright, today will be catch up day. I have been spending far too much time on my game blog and I am still way behind on this thing, hopefully I can do 3 or 4 posts today.

Reading for July 26
2 Chronicles 17:1-18:34
This is a pretty good story. It is another retelling of something that happened in Kings, but it was interesting enough for me to read again.

At this point in time, Jehoshaphat is king of Judah and Ahab is King of Israel. Jehoshaphat allies himself with Ahab and they are considering going to war against another nation. Ahab has a few hundred prophets under his employ that all tell him 'go to battle, you will be victorious'. Jehoshaphat suggests hearing what a prophet of God had to say. Ahab says that he knows of one but hates him because the prophet never says anything good about him.

I don't know why but read that line where he says he hates the prophet, I imagine Ahab looking and acting a lot like Francis from Pee Wee's Big Adventure.

Anyway, this prophet, named Micaiah tells both kings that they will not be victorious over this other nation, and that Ahab will die in battle. This obviously angers Ahab and his guards and servants. One of his guards comes up and slaps Micaiah in the face asking him basically, "you're so psychic - did you see that one coming?" Ahab orders his guards to take Micaiah away and put in prison.

²⁵ The king of Israel then ordered, "Take Micaiah and send him back to Amon the ruler of the city and to Joash the king's son, ²⁶ and say, 'This is what the king says: Put this fellow in prison and give him nothing but bread and water until I return safely.' "
 ²⁷ Micaiah declared, "If you ever return safely, the LORD has not spoken through me." Then he added, "Mark my words, all you people!"

Micaiah is a wonderful example of being convinced of God's presence and influence in our world. He would only share the information that God revealed to him - even when it meant things would be bad for him personally.There have been times when I knew God wanted something for me, but I chose differently because I was thinking only of myself - in the end, I always regretted the choice I made. But to look at Micaiah and see how obedient he is to God's word is inspirational, to say the least.

Ahab was indeed killed in battle by the way. He tried to disguise himself as a normal soldier, but an arrow fired at random hit him right between the armor and killed him.


Romans 9:25-10:13
There is a lot of focus in this section on how the Jews and Gentiles are indeed equally deserving of God's love. But Paul hits on something that I had previously mentioned - the idea that the Jews struggled so long to follow the law, and then when they finally get it right, God changes the rules on them with Jesus. Here's how Paul addresses that idea:

³⁰What then shall we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; ³¹but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. ³²Why not? Because they pursued it not by faith but as if it were by works.

This is a unique way of looking at that idea. What he's saying is that the Jews, who struggled for thousands of years to earn the grace of God, never fully received it; but the Gentiles, who never had this struggle with God, are now freely given his grace through simply faith in Jesus Christ.

I will agree that doesn't seem "fair", but the gift is for all - not just Gentiles, Jews are welcome to receive the gift of Christ's sacrifice just as much as the gentiles. I just think it was harder for them to accept it because they had been forced into this idea of strictly following the law.

Paul then briefly addresses Heaven and Hell and gives the lone criteria to make sure you get to Heaven:

⁹...If you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

This is a statement of faith that maybe everyone in America has heard. Even non-Christians have probably heard this on late night televangelist programming. This is a beautiful idea that simple belief in Jesus earns you a spot in God's kingdom, but I think this line is often taken out of context. Not in the way that the content is being misrepresented, but the fact that people who hear this for the first time, have no basis for why that is such a beautiful idea. This altar call statement should be changed to:

"First read Leviticus. Go on, read it...OK now, you can see what you would have had to do to earn God's favor before Jesus came to this earth, yes? Now, guess what? All you have to do is confess aloud that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead."

I know that's not as punchy, but it's true. I believe that's why people become Christians and are crazy about it for a short while and then they fall away - there is no foundation for appreciation on their part. Fortunately, my faith has survived for 17 years without falling away too far - I think most likely because I have a lot of Christian friends who keep me honest. But like I said earlier, I am just now starting to gain an appreciation for what Jesus did for me.

Psalm 20:1-9
 ³ May he remember all your sacrifices
       and accept your burnt offerings.
       Selah
 ⁴ May he give you the desire of your heart
       and make all your plans succeed.

It's interesting to see those two verses back to back. Verse 3 is such an Old Testament statement - the sacrifices no longer applied after the greatest sacrifice was made, Jesus. And verse 4 is so counter intuitive to the idea of only wanting God's plans to succeed in your life. I wonder if the two ideas have any connection....

Proverbs 20:2-3
 ² A king's wrath is like the roar of a lion;
       he who angers him forfeits his life.
 ³ It is to a man's honor to avoid strife,
       but every fool is quick to quarrel.

Verse 3 is a little more applicable than verse 2. 

 

Reading from Sunday, July 25

Hello. How are you? I'm great.

Reading for July 25
2 Chronicles 14:1-16:14
These two chapters talk about Asa, the king of Judah. I have a friend named Asa and when I started reading about King Asa back in the book of Kings, I sent Asa a message saying I was reading about him in the Bible. He sent back a message saying "I hope I don't get a fatal foot disease."

I had no idea what this meant, because Kings says nothing about how Asa died, but here in Chronicles, we learn that he indeed died of a foot disease.

For most of Asa's reign, he was loved by God and the people of Judah, but later in his life he began to lose favor with God. He was at war with many nations and he had received God's blessings at a younger age because he had asked exclusively for his help in battle. Later in his reign he made treaties with other kings to ensure Judah's victory, which angered God, and that is when I assume God inflicted Asa with this foot disease.

The writer here openly criticizes Asa for seeking the help of doctors over the help of God.

In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the LORD, but only from the physicians.

It's crazy how Asa was painted as the crazy one here, but today if people choose spiritual healing over medicinal healing, they are the crazy ones. Granted, doctors back then probably knew .001% of what doctors know today, so maybe it was better to go to God during that time period.

It does bring up an interesting point though. As a Christian, I am called to live my life with God at the center. Every decision I make and every thing I do should be vetted and filtered by God through prayer. This is not how I live my life. Though I don't think I'm a bad guy, and I always try to make the best moral decision, they are always my choices and mine alone. "What will benefit me and my family the most?" is the way I live my life. I don't know if I'm ready or even capable to live my life in the way I'm supposed to as a Christian. Maybe my outlook will change at the end of this thing.

Romans 9:1-24
Oh snap. I just got pwned.

In chapter 9, Paul is addressing those people who, like me, are questioning God's wrath anger and decisions. First off Paul quotes a line from Exodus where God is speaking to Moses:

"I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
      and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." ¹⁶It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy.

OK. That's fair. God created the universe, he has the right to do what he wants with it.

Then Paul obliterates every stand against God I have made so far:

 ¹⁹One of you will say to me: "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?" ²⁰But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' " ²¹Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?

In one way this feels very condemning. It feels like a "know your role" speech where we should just sit back and wait and wonder whether we have deserved God's grace or God's wrath. But in another way, this is an incredibly beautiful idea, and that idea is exemplified in verse 21 up there.

This idea I'm talking about is that God created all of us. But he did not create all of us equally - at least not in human standards. Some have been created to serve great purposes, while others serve more mundane purposes. Again, the delivery of this message is harsh, but what it's saying is that you should be satisfied with your position in life, given you feel that you are where God wants you. It's incredibly freeing to live without covetous desires of bigger and better things.

That idea alone is magnificent, but there is one other detail in there that makes it even more wonderful. Notice what those noble and common pots are made out of - the same lump of clay. We, as a human race, are all made from the same base material. Which means that we are also made of the same thing that made up the savior of the world. What a beautiful thought.

Psalm 19:1-14
This is a simple way of thinking about how to live your life according to God's will

¹⁴ May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart
       be pleasing in your sight,
       O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.

If you try to make everything you say and everything you think about pleasing to God, then you are living in the will of God, I believe. 

Proverbs 20:1
I've never been a big drinker, so now when my friends get all drunk, I can get all preachy and quote this line to them:

 ¹ Wine is a mocker and beer a brawler;
       whoever is led astray by them is not wise.

Then I will probably get beat up. Maybe I'll let others discover it for themselves...

Reading from Saturday, July 24

Oof - it's been a long week. With Jill out of town the past three nights, I have not only missed her, but I have also missed her functioning as my sleepy-time barometer. She usually goes to bed earlier that I do, which is when I do most of my blogging, but with her not sleeping next to me, I stay up all late (like 1 or 2) reading or playing video games or blogging. She comes home tonight, and it will be nice to get some rest and just to be with her.

Yay - Bible time.

Reading for July 24
2 Chronicles 11:1-13:22
Buh - boring.

This section gets into the history of Solomon's son, Rehoboam who was now king of Judah - and his confusingly named counterpart, Jeroboam was king of Israel.

There were some battles. There was some Grace of God. There was some anger of God.

Then Abijah succeeded Rehoboam as king of Judah.

That's...about it.

Romans 8:26-39
This is an incredibly hopeful section of text. There is a bit of talk about how God predestined certain people to be his followers - which at first brings up the point - why not make everyone followers? But then it doesn't say that he made them followers, he just set them on the course for it to occur. I think the answer as to why he didn't set others on that course was because he wanted his predestined folks to be able to share the love they experience with people who have not experienced it yet.

There is also a big paragraph on this idea: regardless of who we are or what we've done, there is nothing that can separate you from the love of Jesus. I've often heard the word "unconditional" attached to the front of "love" when speaking of God's love. I have yet to see that specific phrase in the Bible, but Paul basically encapsulates it here. Saying that God will love us, even if we don't love him back, even if we turn away for the rest of our life, God will love us.

When I was in high school, a girl from our youth group committed suicide. I didn't know her that well but she was very much loved by many people in the church and in the youth group. A few days after her funeral, our youth pastor got us all together to talk through what had happened. I found out later that one of the biggest concerns shared by the majority of the group was the fate of this girl's soul. Catholics believe that suicide is something that will damn one's soul to hell, because you can't confess that sin before dying. In the Protestant church, which is where I was at the time, there isn't as much of an emphasis on confession, that being said, most of us were still worried about where this girl would be "ending up" so to speak.

After we all sat down, our pastor began speaking and talked for a while and we all shared stories about the girl and what we remembered about her. I wanted to ask the question that was on everyone's mind, but since I was only acquaintances with the girl, I didn't feel right doing so. For a while, it seemed like no one felt right asking anything at all. Then, finally, right at the end of our time together, someone asked the question directly: "Since she committed suicide, does that mean she's going to hell?"

Our pastor let the question hang in the air for a moment. A few people started softly crying. Then, to our tight-knit group of about 15 high school students who were all crammed into the first two rows of the massive sanctuary, our pastor responded only by quoting this verse from Romans, his deep voice echoing off the tall, vaulted ceiling:

³⁸For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We all sat for a moment, quietly. Absorbing this idea of God's relentlessly endless love. After a moment our pastor prayed for all of us. He said amen and we all quietly walked out of the back door.

Personally, I don't know what I believe about Heaven and Hell. I haven't read enough about either of them to make a fair assessment. But that night, after letting the crisp, fall air fill my lungs outside of the church, I knew the girl who we all missed was with God.

Psalm 18:37-50
 ⁵⁰ He gives his king great victories;
       he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed,
       to David and his descendants forever.

It's interesting to see that middle line there: "unfailing kindness to his anointed", meaning his unconditional love was extremely conditional. Now look at what kind of love we receive - nothing we do, nothing anyone else does, nothing even the devil does can keep God from loving us.

That appreciation of the ease in my faith just grew that much more.

Proverbs 19:27-29
 ²⁷ Stop listening to instruction, my son,
       and you will stray from the words of knowledge.
 ²⁸ A corrupt witness mocks at justice,
       and the mouth of the wicked gulps down evil.
 ²⁹ Penalties are prepared for mockers,
       and beatings for the backs of fools.

And it's bedtime. Goodnight, kids. 

 

Reading from Friday, July 23

Aww yeah, son.

Reading for July 23
2 Chronicles 8:11-10:19
This reading focuses on the greatness of King Solomon. The details here reveal the depth of his wealth, the width of his wisdom and the height of his power. It talks about how a queen from another nation came to visit and was very impressed with how smart he was. We see that Israel was never so prosperous as they were under Solomon.

If you remember, though, Solomon turned away from God in his old age. It's interesting that that detail is omitted from Chronicles, instead they kept only the good things about him. But I would argue that this wealth and plenty that Sol enjoyed was what ultimately led to his downfall. As wealth increases, so does pride, which quickly turns to arrogance and greed. One of Jesus' main messages was to get rid of your money, and to see such opulence in a biblical character is something that really sticks out when you think about Jesus' message of living a life of humility.

It makes me think that when Solomon asked God for wisdom and knowledge and he got wealth and power in addition to that, he should have respectfully declined those gifts. I wonder if God gave them to Sol as a test to see if he could handle the burden of wealth and power, and clearly he couldn't. And ultimately the split Kingdom that we read about in Kings (Judah and Israel) was Solomon's fault. God doesn't remove the promise he made to David, but he diminishes it slightly.

In the end, I think that God pushing David's family into a smaller land was the right choice; remember that Jesus kind of came from David's lineage. I think God was intentionally humbling the small family of Judah - which would produce the savior of the world, who is the model of a humble human being. He saw that the power which was given Solomon was too heavy to carry without succumbing to the negative fruits that go along with it. 

Romans 8:9-25
OK

⁹You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. ¹⁰But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. ¹¹And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

This is incredibly heavy and I have read it 5 or 6 times and still don't fully grasp it. Let me see if I can think through it.

OK starting at verse 10: if you are a Christian, your body is theoretically dead because of sin. I would assume that means that in the same way that God and sin are like oil and water, Jesus and sin are like oil and fire. So sin cannot exist in your body if Christ is within it. In this case I think Paul is also using "sin" and "the body" interchangeably.

Now verse 11: Your body can actually be brought back to life through the spirit which brought Christ to life from the dead. Why is this important? I think Paul makes this distinction because it is important for us to live in this world and bring God's message and love to others, and if our bodies are "dead" that wouldn't be possible. We need to balance our worldly, sinful selves with our ethereal, godly selves. Obviously a big part of that is actually attaining an ethereal, Godly self, but yeah...there it is.

Psalm 18:16-36
This is part two of the Psalm we looked at yesterday. This reveals a much more gentle, loving God because he is interacting with David in this half, not David's enemies. What's interesting here is this bit:


 ²² All his laws are before me;
       I have not turned away from his decrees.
 ²³ I have been blameless before him
       and have kept myself from sin.

Now, this was written right after David escaped from Saul trying to kill him, so at this point he hadn't done the whole Bathsheba thing, so he very well could have been blameless under OT law. I thought at first that this was a prophetic Psalm about Jesus, but it doesn't really fit if you read the whole thing.

Either way, David continues to be my favorite character.

Proverbs 19:26
Pretty straightforward here:

²⁶ He who robs his father and drives out his mother
       is a son who brings shame and disgrace.

Love.
 

Reading from Thursday, July 22

Oh yeah. What is up?

So my friend Andy came over last night. Andy is a pastor at my church and has always been somewhat of a Biblical mentor of mine. In 2004 when I didn't have a job, Andy would give me a specific assignment to read in the Bible, and then take me out to lunch every week and we would talk about it.

Now that I'm doing this blog thing, and many of these profound questions are revealing themselves to me, Andy wanted to hang out and talk through some of these difficult things. And while his answers didn't completely satisfy my skepticism or anger at God for certain things, he provided a fresh mental approach to looking at things.

For instance, when talking about "the big picture" of the Bible, he said that if you try to rationalize things in a mathematical sense, it will never work. But rather try to rationalize them in a aesthetic way. So in the same way there are dark and light elements in a painting, there are dark and light elements in the story of God. In the same way that there are elements of a painting that aren't noticeable the first time you look at it, the Bible has hidden treasures of wisdom. And in the same way that there are elements that aren't part of the subject of a painting, they add to the overall image and mosaic of the beauty of it - so too the Bible has elements that don't move toward the ultimate goal of salvation, but paint a larger, more beautiful mosaic of love, redemption and forgiveness.

He had some other, really fantastic thoughts as well, and I'll probably bring them up in context as I get to things that relate to them. But for now, let's hit the good book.

Reading for July 22
2 Chronicles 6:12-8:10
Once again we see a direct Ctrl+C Ctrl+V job here from Kings to Chronicles. This section recounts the completion of the temple, and then Solomon giving a great prayer of dedication. Sol's prayer is incredibly insightful, but like I said, I've already read it. However, he highlights something that I think is very important.

³⁶ "When they sin against you—for there is no one who does not sin—and you become angry with them and give them over to the enemy...

This idea of no one being worthy before God is something I thought was unique to the time after Christ. But here in this one line, we are witness to the abject hopelessness that the Israelites are doomed to live in. And yet there was hope. Because of the sin in the world, the population of the earth probably deserved to be annihilated every day. Their hope came from God's grace - which, admittedly, he gave out in small doses in the Old Testament. Their hope eventually turned to a savior that would one day come to rescue them from the bonds of sin.

This is something else Andy and I were discussing last night - the narrative of the Bible. If you look at the Old Testament only to contrast it against the New Testament, you will see that all of this was done for you. Specifically, you. And while I don't believe God had planned for his people to turn away and for him to have such a terrible relationship with them for centuries upon centuries, I do believe that time of suffering for humanity was something awful that God turned into good.

We live in a free society today. We have very little to worry about when compared to the people of the OT. Without that context of horror and fear that the Jews lived in, we would have absolutely no appreciation for what Jesus did for us. And I think until a new Christian fully understands the contrast between the two time periods, they cannot fully realize their faith. I've proudly called myself a Christian for almost about 17 years now, and I am just now starting to catch a glimpse of what that title truly means.

Romans 7:14-8:8

²¹So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. ²²For in my inner being I delight in God's law; ²³but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. ²⁴What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? ²⁵Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!
      So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.

This, I think is the only way to preach God's message. We as Christians today are so ready to condemn others for being a certain way, being interested in a certain thing. Or we protest events or businesses for the things they practice.  But remember, just as Solomon said, "there is no one who does not sin". So to preach the message of God with a finger pointing out is to make the already wide gap that much wider. Rather, if we find ourselves in a situation where we have an opportunity to share the message, we need to first make the point that we are equal to the person with whom we are talking. All are guilty. That means you too, Westboro Baptist.

It also means me.

Psalm 18:1-15
This Psalm paints God as the toughest dude ever. David is praising God after he was delivered from the hand of Saul, who was trying to kill him.

⁸ Smoke rose from his nostrils;
       consuming fire came from his mouth,
       burning coals blazed out of it.
¹³ The LORD thundered from heaven;
       the voice of the Most High resounded. ^[c]
 14 He shot his arrows and scattered the enemies ,
       great bolts of lightning and routed them.
 ¹⁵ The valleys of the sea were exposed
       and the foundations of the earth laid bare
       at your rebuke, O LORD,
       at the blast of breath from your nostrils.

Boom. You've been Godded. 


Proverbs 19:24-25
 ²⁴ The sluggard buries his hand in the dish;
       he will not even bring it back to his mouth!
 ²⁵ Flog a mocker, and the simple will learn prudence;
       rebuke a discerning man, and he will gain knowledge.

Sham wow. 

Reading from Wednesday, July 21

Hey.

Reading for July 21
2 Chronicles 4:1-6:11
This basically retells the information around the actual construction of the Temple. The materials used, the measurements taken, the amount of time put into it, etc. Again, this is something that was lifted right out of Kings and repeated here - obviously, this information holds a great deal of significance, and yet it's really, really boring.

I have talked about this before, but I think this idea of a Temple, a place where God would symbolically "live" amongst his people was incredibly important to the readers of this original text. It's also interesting to think about how there was such meticulousness around the details of the Temple and making it look beautiful and powerful and rich and magnificent - and Jesus, who also referred to himself as a Temple, was so humble and carried only the basic things. I think that stark dichotomy between the two Temples is not only intentional, but remarkably beautiful.

Can these things be used to show the difference between Jesus and God? Or is this more of a difference of how the people perceived God?

Romans 7:1-13

Oh boy, I'm gettin sleepy. This is good stuff though - I may need to come back and revisit this tomorrow.

First off, Paul is talking about how in the same way a woman is free to remarry after her husband dies, so too are we free to take on a new master after sin dies to us through Jesus. He also talks about the way that the law actually enticed sin to grow within us:

For I would not have known what coveting really was if the law had not said, "Do not covet."^{[b] 8}But sin, seizing the opportunity afforded by the commandment, produced in me every kind of covetous desire.

It's a strange paradox here, but I think Paul is really hitting on something important. So the law essentially formalizes sin. God lays out a specific set of do's an don'ts and if you break any of those laws, that will be deemed as "sin". But now the existence of the law is, in fact, making people want to break it. It's like telling a kid not to touch the shiny red button, or, I don't know, don't eat from a specific tree. It's a characteristic of humanity that we also want to do what we are forbidden to do. It's also great to read that Paul is subject to the very same difficulty that I am.

Psalm 17:1-15
This is nice

¹⁴ O LORD, by your hand save me from such men,
       from men of this world whose reward is in this life.
       You still the hunger of those you cherish;
       their sons have plenty,
       and they store up wealth for their children.

Proverbs 19:22-23
²² What a man desires is unfailing love ^[a] ;
       better to be poor than a liar.
 ²³ The fear of the LORD leads to life:
       Then one rests content, untouched by trouble.

And I'm sleeping. 

Reading from Tuesday, July 20

OK, second post of the day, yo.

Reading for July 20
2 Chronicles 1:1-3:17
Yay! 1 Chronicles is done! On to 2 Chronicles! Technically they were all one book and just split into two to make it easier to read! Yay!

The first half of this section recounts almost word for word a story from Kings. This story is when Solomon, who had recently become king, had a vision of God one night and God told Solomon that he could have anything he wanted. Solomon asked for wisdom and knowledge to guide and rule over his people, Israel. God was very pleased with Solomon's answer. And because he did not ask for riches or power, they were given to him anyway.

I like this story in some ways, and in others I don't. Obviously the writer of Chronicles liked it enough to repeat it word for word, and I'm sure this example of humility was used many times in the early Jewish culture when trying to show children the right way - and is probably still used today. The reason I don't like it is because it opens up a little deceit window in my head. Maybe for you too, and maybe it's subconscious, but my mind reads this and says, "hey you just have to pretend to be humble to get what you really want."

One day when I was in second grade, the teacher was giving out Jolly Ranchers to people who answered questions correctly. She gave me one, even though I didn't answer a question correctly. I said, "I didn't answer the question" and handed her the candy back. She made a big deal out of how honest I was and made a huge example in front of the class about honesty and values and stuff and I was totally embarrassed. BUT she gave me the Jolly Rancher back. And it was Blue Razzberry (spelled with z's because it was the 90s) and I was freaking pumped to eat it. But I realized that pretending to be honest could get you what you really want. If she really wanted me to learn a lesson of honesty, she should have taken the candy back.

Sometimes I wonder if I'm actually a good person, or if I've subconsciously realized that being a nice guy has it's benefits, and I'm really just a selfish jerk. I'm defintiely proud of my "nice guy" persona. I definitely love to hear "oh he's such a nice guy" in my most vain moments. But is it because I'm selfish, or because I'm actually nice. I often wonder.

Romans 6:1-23
Romans 6:23 is a very well known verse in Ye Olde Biblee.

²³For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

This whole section focuses on the divide between sin and righteousness. Paul says that we used to be slaves to sin, but now we should be slaves to obedience, which leads to righteousness. And it's a bit of a difficult thing to grasp, but I think I got a little piece of it. If you think back to Exodus, when the Israelites were freed from slavery in Egypt, to wander the desert for forty years, they thought it would be better to go back to Egypt and be slaves again than live in the desert eating stupid flat bread.Obviously they were wrong, and they weren't seeing the big picture.

In the same way, we who were once slaves to sin, are now free from that - and in the same way, every day we go back to Egypt - whatever your Egypt may be. Anger, drugs, porn, lying, stealing, whatever - we are unable to ever fully leave our former masters. But I think what Paul is saying here is that before Christ, the shackles were bolted tight - with no means of escaping from sin. After Christ, we hold the key and can turn around and leave it behind any time we please - but it's up to us to do it. And even though we keep going back to our own personal Egypt, there is no Pharaoh to keep us there anymore.

Psalm 16:1-11
 I dig this

⁸ I have set the LORD always before me.
       Because he is at my right hand,
       I will not be shaken.

Confidence in God is a really cool thing. 

Proverbs 19:20-21
 ²⁰ Listen to advice and accept instruction,
       and in the end you will be wise.
 ²¹ Many are the plans in a man's heart,
       but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.

Verse 21 is awesome. Remember that the next time things don't go according to plan.

Reading From Monday, July 19

Good Lord, I am behind. I think this is the farthest behind I've been since I started - it's been a bit of a rough week, so please forgive me for not updating this thing as much as I should be. Jilly is away for the next three nights so I'll have nothing to do but blog, so hopefully I can do some catch up.

Reading for July 19
1 Chronicles 28:1-29:30
The first half of this reading focuses on the building plans for the Temple. It is revealed here in 1 Chronicles that even though Solomon was the one who ultimately oversaw it's construction, David was the one who actually had drawn up all the plans and blueprints. It was David's vision, and his son carried it out.

Parallel!

OK follow me here, because I'm kinda making this up as I go along:
In the same way that David had a beautiful vision for a temple dedicated to God, God had a beautiful vision for humanity. And in the same way that David could not actually carry out that vision because he had too much blood on his hands, God could not bring his vision for humanity to fruition. In both cases, the son took on the task, and both tasks were designed to glorify God. And both of the end results were successful.

The second half of the reading focuses on Israel's wealth at the time when the plans were being drawn up. The plans for the Temple called for gold, silver, copper and fine wood - all things Israel had in abundance. David takes note of this in a song-like prayer to God. This is the line that stuck out to me:

¹⁴ "But who am I, and who are my people, that we should be able to give as generously as this? Everything comes from you, and we have given you only what comes from your hand.

I think that's a really interesting way of looking at one's own wealth. They should be so lucky that they have this surplus of materials and money and land and wealth much to give back to God. If we as a country - myself included - could adopt that mindset I think we would be much better off for it. And I don't mean specifically to give money to the Christian God, but just to give it away. Give it to people who need it, give it to organizations that could use it to improve the world or improve the lives of children. Technically, if I'm gonna be turbo literal about it, giving money to those people would be giving our money to God based on Jesus' "whatever you do for the least of these you do for me."

And also based on the Red Hot Chili Peppers' timeless classic "Give it away now." Although I think that was about something naughty.

Romans 5:6-21
Yes. Romans.

OK, this is a section that I am very familiar with. Usually, when I would sit down and just randomly open the Bible, I would settle on Romans, and this is sorta in the middle so I read this part a lot. What Paul is talking about here is the correlation of two men - sin entered the world through one and was defeated by the other. Those men were Adam and Jesus, I think you can figure out which one did what.

Paul really pounds this idea into the readers' heads here - stating and restating his point over and over; and he just harps on this idea alone for these sixteen verses. It is a remarkable thing, indeed. Maybe I'm just jaded because I've read it so many times, but there are some distinct new things that stuck out to me here.

1. ¹⁴Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come.
   
   It's interesting to think about the time between creation and Moses when there really was no rule book for God's people to abide by. What's more interesting is to look at Leviticus and realize that there are seventy bajillion rules that the Jews had to follow, and how many did Adam and Eve have? One. "Don't eat from that tree." One rule, and they couldn't do it. So because of that, thousands upon thousands of rules were made an consequently broken over and over which resulted in millions of violent deaths.
    
2.  ²⁰The law was added so that the trespass might increase. But where sin increased, grace increased all the more, ²¹so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
   This one's a little harder to swallow. Paul is saying here that God created the law so that people would be punished more. This is something I guess I kinda knew already when God did things like put darkness in people's hearts, or when God "gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another."
   
   I mean please correct me if I'm wrong, but this seems like completely backwards logic. I've said this probably half a dozen times before, but if you want your creation to love you and worship you, why make it so difficult to do so? I suppose sin had a more profound effect on the whole picture than I realized.
   
   Now, the point Paul is making here is once again comparative. So just as sin increased, grace increased all the more. But then does that mean that God made it so easy to sin so his people would be awful and then need a savior so we would all have a nice story to read and be inspired to be good people? I mean thank God I don't live in a time before Christ, but what were those people? Sacrifices so future generations could succeed? I mean I guess I'm thankful for that but again, my and God's morals don't line up here.
   
   I'm probably way off here - who's got some knowledge to drop on me?

Psalm 15:1-5
I don't know if David was being prophetic when he wrote this psalm, but check it out:
 ¹ LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary?
       Who may live on your holy hill?
 ² He whose walk is blameless
       and who does what is righteous,
       who speaks the truth from his heart
 ³ and has no slander on his tongue,
       who does his neighbor no wrong
       and casts no slur on his fellowman,
 ⁴ who despises a vile man
       but honors those who fear the LORD,
       who keeps his oath
       even when it hurts,
 ⁵ who lends his money without usury
       and does not accept a bribe against the innocent.
       He who does these things
       will never be shaken.

I mean I only know one person in the history of ever who was blameless - Jesus. David certainly could have been speaking about his turbo-great grandson, but I think this could also be viewed in a sarcastic light. David could be pointing about the absolute impossibility of living in harmony with God. Living in God's presence on his "holy hill." He could have written all these things in jest as if saying, "there is absolutely no one who could ever meet these standards."

Someone did.

Boom.

In your face Grandpa.

Proverbs 19:18-19
 ¹⁸ Discipline your son, for in that there is hope;
       do not be a willing party to his death.
 ¹⁹ A hot-tempered man must pay the penalty;
       if you rescue him, you will have to do it again.

Sweet yo - one down.

Reading from Sunday, July 18

Lordy Lordy I am behind. I was sick last night and too tired the night before that, so here I am four days behind again.

Well, let's see what kind of damage we can do...

Reading for July 18
1 Chronicles 26:12-27:34
This section outlines many of the various jobs which were filled by all the people of Israel under King David. We see the Treasurers, Army Officials, Tribal Officers, and King David's miscellaneous helpers and court staff. One of the interesting things that stuck out in the army section was this bit:

²³ David did not take the number of the men twenty years old or less, because the LORD had promised to make Israel as numerous as the stars in the sky. 

It's interesting that:

A) There was still a sense of some sort of morality when it came to wartime, and
B) That similar restrictions are in place today, yet America sends out it's soldiers at 18. The common argument - "not old enough to buy a beer, but old enough to take a life."

Romans 4:13-5:5
Wow, this is about as deep and rich as you can get in regards to Bible text. In these dozen or so verses, Paul captures the entire history of the Jewish/Christian faith. He also continues the faith versus law debate here. I think this would be a good time to bring up something that I have been thinking about for a while now.

There is such emphasis on following God's law in the Old Testament. Everyone who was blessed was someone who followed God's law, while everyone who was cursed or killed or whatever, was someone who broke God's law. So there was this centuries long battle between God and man with man not being able to follow God's law because of the inherent sinful nature. Then, when Jesus comes around, there are groups of people who are strict followers of God's law - these are the Pharisees and other religious leaders of the time. Now, you would think that these people would be highly regarded in the community for their strict adherence to the law, and likely they were very well regarded by the populace; but not by Jesus. Nearly every argument in the gospels takes place between Jesus and one of these religious leaders, and 99% of the time, it is an argument about a specific law that Jesus appears to have broken. So I think I can understand when these people started getting a little ticked off - they had been scolded for thousands of years for not following the law closely enough, and now, when they are following the law very closely, they are once again the bad guys. Also, let's not forget that Paul himself was one of these religious leaders, and one of the most ruthless ones at that.

OK - wow. Again, this may take a couple read-throughs to really grasp, but take a look:

 ¹³It was not through law that Abraham and his offspring received the promise that he would be heir of the world, but through the righteousness that comes by faith. ¹⁴For if those who live by law are heirs, faith has no value and the promise is worthless, ¹⁵because law brings wrath. And where there is no law there is no transgression.

 ¹⁶Therefore, the promise comes by faith, so that it may be by grace and may be guaranteed to all Abraham's offspring—not only to those who are of the law but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham. He is the father of us all.

This is such an intricate and delicate idea that I want to make sure the point isn't lost here. Up until this point, I have perceived Paul's and Jesus' messages as an extreme de-emphasis of Jewish law. But now I see how closely the two play together.

On one hand we have faith in God and Jesus Christ - our great, unseen deities. And through that faith alone, we are redeemed and justified before God.

On the other hand we have the law - which is still just as relevant as it was before. In verse 15 there we see "where there is no law there is no transgression." Extrapolating that a bit - where there is no law, there is no need for Jesus.

So because of our own nature, we are doomed to break God's law over and over - the transgression. Because of those transgressions, Jesus came into the world to save us from our own sin. And because of Him, we are able to be reunited with the God who loves us. All it takes is a little faith.

Wow - read this slowly. It is incredible.

¹Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. ³Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; ⁴perseverance, character; and character, hope. ⁵And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

I seriously just read that like 10 times and got something new out of it each time. In the words of Milhouse: "It's so thick!" 
 
Psalm 14:1-7
David repeats himself

We saw a few nights ago, a very similar set of verses in Psalm where David said there is "not even one" who does good, and we see it here again.

 ² The LORD looks down from heaven
       on the sons of men
       to see if there are any who understand,
       any who seek God.
 ³ All have turned aside,
       they have together become corrupt;
       there is no one who does good,
       not even one.

This, I think, is the evidence of the need of a Savior for Israel, and by extension, the whole world.

Proverbs 19:17
 ¹⁷ He who is kind to the poor lends to the LORD,
       and he will reward him for what he has done.

Yes, I think I liked everything I read tonight! There was nothing that I disagreed with in any of the readings - that may be a first.

Reading from Saturday, July 17

Hey. I am once again harboring a cold, or at least the start of one. I almost bailed on doing this thing tonight, but I'm already three days behind so I didn't want to fall off the train. However, I really don't feel well, so please forgive me if this one is a shorter one...

Also, a quick plug. Yesterday, my pastor spoke about a very dark message from Jesus. It is one of the hardest sections of text in the Bible and it is from Matthew. He speaks about it in as honest a way you could hope to hear it, and it is riveting and frightening and moving and beautiful all at the same time. I sincerely urge you to listen to it. Crap - I wrote all that and then found out that the mp3 isn't available yet. Well, remember what I said about this later in the week when it goes up.

Word. The Good Word in fact.

Reading for July 17
1 Chronicles 24:1-26:11
90% of this reading is just lists of names, and I don't feel good, so I don't feel like reading them. There is one thing that stuck out as pretty interesting to me though, and that was the appointment of the musicians that played in the Temple. After listing the names of these musicians, the text says this:

⁶ All these men were under the supervision of their fathers for the music of the temple of the LORD, with cymbals, lyres and harps, for the ministry at the house of God.

It's just interesting because I have served that very same role many times in my life, and I've always thought of praise and worship music as a fairly modern thing. I mean I know there were songs in the Bible, but I always thought of them as like impromptu bursts of joy that came out of hearing great news from God. To see that there were hired, skilled musicians working specifically to lead praise at the Temple is really cool. New Ancients guys - does this strike a fancy in your pantsys? 

I just noticed something else too. These musicians cast lots to determine what their duties would be, or what instrument they would play, I suppose. Casting lots was something the Jews did to determine God's will. It was basically like rolling a set of dice, or a 20-sided die. Actually, it was more like Dungeons and Dragons. God is always dungeon master and he's vicious. Anyway, it goes down the list of people who participated in this casting of the lots and it says each person got 12 as their number. I might be wrong, but it seems to me like that's a pretty unique circumstance. I imagine it would be like getting 20 people to roll 2 dice and every one of them rolls double sixes.

Now, I have no idea what it means that they all ended up rolling a 12, other than it probably forces them all to play 12-string guitar, but I think we all know the importance of the number 12 in and of itself. 12 Tribes of Israel, 12 disciples, and so on. This site explains the number 12 pretty thoroughly, but here is the definition if you don't want to click:

Twelve is a perfect number, signifying perfection of government, or of governmental perfection. It is found as a multiple in all that has to do with rule. The sun which "rules" the day, and the moon and stars which "govern" the night, do so by their passage through the twelve signs of the Zodiac which completes the great circle of the heavens of 360 (12 x 30) degrees or divisions, and thus govern the year.

Twelve is the product of 3 (the perfectly Divine and heavenly number) and 4 (the earthly, the number of what is material and organic).

While seven is composed of 3 added to 4, twelve is 3 multiplied by 4, and hence denotes that which can scarcely be explained in words, but which the spiritual perception can at once appreciate, viz., organization, the products denoting production and multiplication and increase of all that is contained in the two numbers separately. The 4 is generally prominently seen in the twelve.

It doesn't answer my question as to why all the musicians cast 12, but it sure is interesting, init?

Romans 4:1-12
This is one of my favorite topics of the Bible - the relationship between faith and works (or deeds). Paul here is trying to promote the idea that you cannot "earn" credit or favor from God by doing good works. The book of James later challenges us to let good works flow from our faith, and that if faith does not produce good works then that faith is dead. But Paul first builds the foundation of this idea by presenting his ideas on the importance of faith over works:

¹What then shall we say that Abraham, our forefather, discovered in this matter? ²If, in fact, Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about—but not before God. ³What does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness."

I often quote the line from God on Trial where the Rabbi suggests that Abraham should have told God 'no' when God asked him to sacrifice his son. And the writers of that movie certainly had a good point there, but what an example Abraham created. I think almost every biblical author references Abraham's faithfulness. Looking at other examples of this, we just saw a conversation between King David and God where God was kind of disgusted with all the people David had killed. Remember that God had ordered him to do that, and he wasn't being punished for it, but there was no reward for protecting Israel from hundreds of thousands of people either. David had God's favor because of his faith, not his kill count. Or for you COD nerds, his K/D Ratio.

Then Paul gets into the whole bit about circumcision. Apparently there was a group of people who believed that those who were uncircumcised were unworthy of God's love - circumcision being the physical symbol of being set apart for God - I just realized how weird that is...

"No no - I'm Jewish, check it out!!"
"OK - this date is over."

Anyway, my first reaction was to ignore that section because it really isn't relevant any more - no one judges people based on whether or not a piece of skin on their wiener has been removed. But think about it - are there modern examples of physical characteristics that Christians use to shun people outside the faith? Just a few off the top of my head:

Smokers
Drug addicts
The poor (sadly sometimes this is true in some churches)
People with unsavory career choices
People with tattoos or piercings
Gays
People of a different race or gender

Anything at all could be something to use to exclude people from the church, or from the faith. I have done my best to look past all of these things in people and just love everyone the same. I have definitely failed in this area over and over again, so I need to challenge myself (and feel free to do this too) to look at people as Jesus looked at people. Loving and unassuming.

Psalm 13:1-6
David, I totally feel ya, buddy:

 ¹ How long, O LORD ? Will you forget me forever?
       How long will you hide your face from me?

 ² How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
       and every day have sorrow in my heart?
       How long will my enemy triumph over me?
 ³ Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
       Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;

Verses 1 and 2 are the exact things I'm going through with some of the stuff I've encountered in the Bible. David is quickly climbing the ranks as my favorite Biblical figure.  He's honest about his feelings towards God. He gets angry at things I get angry at. He is an emotional, sensitive, sometimes cowardly person. I am all of these things. Me and David would have been homies if I was alive back then.

Proverbs 19:15-16
 ¹⁵ Laziness brings on deep sleep,
       and the shiftless man goes hungry.
 ¹⁶ He who obeys instructions guards his life,
       but he who is contemptuous of his ways will die.

And I've written probably double the amount I would write on a normal, non-sick night. Such is life. 

 

Reading from Friday, July 16

Over the past two days I have been to two sacred events in the Christian faith - a Wedding and a Christening, both were Catholic ceremonies. Now there are things about Catholocism that I don't agree with, but overall it's the same message and certainly the same God. Both ceremonies, oddly brought up the character of God himself.

During the wedding, the priest opened his sermon with this line:

"The supernatural stuff of which God is made, the glue which holds the Holy Trinity together, is love. In the same way, the two of you [the couple getting married], will become one - united through love."

That got me thinking. If God is the perfect image of love, not to mention he's actually made of love, maybe my understanding of love is wrong. God loved Israel. Therefore he protected them and coddled them through an extremely rough period of terrible twos. He fought off anyone that tried to harm them, then when he realized that there was no way for these people to ever redeem themselves, he came to Earth, as a human and allowed himself to be murdered by them. Because he loved them. But not did he love them alone anymore - his love was extended to the whole world on the day he was killed.

There was a very similar message of God's love at the Christening today and it just felt like one of those times where God was speaking to me. Where you get a message just beat into your head until you go, "hey! That's just what I was thinking about! What a coincidence!" Also, congrats to Lucas, Caprice and Charlie Deux on the Christening today.

Reading for July 16  <-- You can click this to read what I'm reading
1 Chronicles 22:1-23:32
This section retells a conversation between King David and his son Solomon. He tasks Sol with building the Temple for God and, after time had passed, appointed Solomon as king. What struck me was David's retelling of the conversation he had with God about the building of the temple:

⁸ But this word of the LORD came to me: 'You have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my Name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. ⁹ But you will have a son who will be a man of peace and rest, and I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. His name will be Solomon, ^[a] and I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign. ¹⁰ He is the one who will build a house for my Name. He will be my son, and I will be his father. And I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.

What sticks out there to you? To me it's the fact that God didn't want David to build the temple because he had committed so many violent acts. Now many - if not all - of these violent acts were ordered or condoned by God. Does this mean that God dislikes violence, but he's just got a really good poker face about the whole thing? And as many people know, you:

Can't read God's, can't read God's, no you can't read-a God's po-ker face...

It certainly creates another potential side to the story. Could God actually be that loving big teddy bear that I want him to be?

Romans 3:9-31
My hardcover Bible cited Romans 3 as a chapter that so deftly sums up the entire Christian faith. There is a metric ton of stuff here, let me see what I can get to...

Paul is extremely focused (at least so far) on the idea that everyone is sinful, no man is holier or closer to God's love than another, and all of us "fall short of the glory of God." He cites Old Testament scripture that reemphasizes that fact - a verse from Psalm states that "There is no one who does good, not even one" as well as a few other little bits and boops. Check out the rest of it if you get a chance, it's really cool.

Next is a definitive answer to one of my running questions, which is "What stuff can be dismissed as cultural norms of the time?" It is answered in a short paragraph where Paul talks about the relationship between faith and the law.

²⁷Where, then, is boasting? It is excluded. On what principle? On that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. ²⁸For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. ²⁹Is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too, ³⁰since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. ³¹Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law.

So through this new faith we are upholding the law. Now, critical thinking hat on, there are definitely some things that are indeed different. Gentile's inclusion in God's love and the removal of the cleanliness and sacrificial laws of the Old Testament. However, what I believe Paul means here is that this faith in Jesus Christ is how the law should have been written in the first place, in an ideal world. Think about it: the laws which I mentioned that are now moot, all had to do with keeping one self as clean and pure as possible before God so as not to entice his wrath. Now that layer between man and God has been taken away, and so too have the laws that required such formality between the parties. And I think that God's ideal lawbook from the beginning was a lawbook without those formalities included, and since Christ's death and resurrection, that is indeed the case. So believing in and following Jesus, we are living out the true, ideal law of the Old Testament.

Psalm 12:1-8
There are a lot of groups that like to talk about how "This generation is damned!" or "I've never seen such wickedness or disrespect! Back in my day people were decent."

I think every generation says this to the younger generation. Look, even David was saying it 3500 years ago:

 ⁷ O LORD, you will keep us safe
       and protect us from such people forever.
 ⁸ The wicked freely strut about
       when what is vile is honored among men.

Remember: people are terrible creatures. There are going to be bad examples of us in every generation.

Proverbs 19:13-14
 ¹³ A foolish son is his father's ruin,
       and a quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping.
 ¹⁴ Houses and wealth are inherited from parents,
       but a prudent wife is from the LORD.

Family.

Alright, I'm feelin good about this stuff. And we're going to church tomorrow for the first time in a while. Very excited.

Reading from Thursday, July 15

Yo yo. We just got back from a wedding. It was mad fun - I wasn't the average demographic of person there, so many were entertained by my ORB Wedding Dance Style. Also, they had Newcastle on tap which is one of my favorite things in the world.

Anyway, it's late and I'm fairly exhausted, so let's hit the good book.

Reading from July 15
1 Chronicles 19:1-21:30
The continues the recap of the story of David. There is one detail confirmed in here that was speculated about back when reading 2 Samuel. Remember when David takes a census of the people and then feels guilty about it? Then God gives him a choice for his punishment? I was confused about why there was guilt for taking a census - but it's clarified here that the Devil ordered David to take the census.

I'm not sure what the Devil's intentions were, or why taking a census would make someone feel guilty - it's a pretty benign thing to do. Like, would you feel guilty if Satan told you to eat a chicken sandwich? I wouldn't. Chicken Sandwiches are delicious - and as long as there's no curse or evilness associated with the Chx Sand I would gladly enjoy it.

Romans 2:25-3:8
Before I jump back into the text here, I want to point out that the comments on the previous few days readings have been really insightful. I've gotten views from almost every side of the spectrum, from non believers to conservative Christians to liberal Christians. Everyone has really offered me a unique viewpoint, and I agree with some of the point from everyone, but I also disagree with some points from everyone. As I said a few days ago, I want to develop my own unique understanding of the text. Obviously, insight from other people is incredibly helpful to do so - especially non believers, so please don't take that as a request to stop commenting. But through my own interpretations, mixed with a little of everyone elses, I hope to have a fresh, personal perspective on the story of God.

OK, on to Romans.

There is an extremely provacative passage here that sort of sounds like something I would ask. You may have to read this a couple times to really get it, but here it is:

⁷Someone might argue, "If my falsehood enhances God's truthfulness and so increases his glory, why am I still condemned as a sinner?" ⁸Why not say—as we are being slanderously reported as saying and as some claim that we say—"Let us do evil that good may result"? Their condemnation is deserved.

The idea here is that God has grace on the sinner. Some would argue, by presumably taking advantage of the system, that by sinning they allow God's grace on them to increase. Or by doing bad, God will make something good out of it.

This is kind of what I have been thinking about around the idea of the Jews condemning Jesus to death. I have written a couple times about how although the Jews are penned as the villains of the Gospel, they were responsible for the greatest human act of all time. Through their evil, good resulted. Now they weren't thinking that at the time, but perhaps people during Paul's time made the connection that something wonderful came from something so awful and thought, hey, maybe if I go around killing Christians they'll all rise from the dead too.

I don't know if this is a problem today or not. I've never heard of anyone trying to be bad on purpose to make God's goodness flow more freely, if not its a neat little window into the toddlerhood of Christianity.

Psalm 11:1-7
Don't these two consecutive verses contradict themselves?

 ⁵ The LORD examines the righteous,
       but the wicked ^[b] and those who love violence
       his soul hates.
 ⁶ On the wicked he will rain
       fiery coals and burning sulfur;
       a scorching wind will be their lot.

He hates those who love violence, but he will burn those people alive. That's like someone picketing outside an abortion clinic and killing a mother who is leaving. Protesting against violence and then committing it yourself.

My friend from high school sent me a great email about some of my running questions and about God's "morality" in general. He said this:

For a human being to accuse God of "doing something wrong" is to childishly impose our standard of morality, which comes from our own habits of life or from our own imaginations, on God.

It's true that we as humans have a generally accepted standard of morality. On this list we have killing people, kicking people while they're down, hurting children or animals, being honest about our money, etc. Most people with a moral center will try to avoid these things, or if not, will at least feel some guilt about committing these types of things. But where does this moral center come from? My first thought would be God, but so many of our ideas of justice don't line up, in fact they are the exact opposite sometimes. I'll concede that we will never fully know the reasons God does anything, but when we see something that plainly opposes something that "feels right" in our hearts, we stand up and say - that's wrong. Even David did it. He was pissed at God for killing that dude because he accidentally touched the ark of the covenant. Or my recent beef with God "sicking homosexuality" on the human race. If he is a God that desires nothing else but to be loved by his creation, why would he make it so difficult for some people to do so? Why put roadblocks up? Especially when he punishes those who don't love him? It just doesn't line up for me.

Again, I come back to that speech from God on Trial.

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

It's a compelling statement - especially when you realize that there is such a stark disconnect between God's idea of justice and ours.

See it's these types of questions that make it easy for me to see why people lost faith after reading the Bible.


Proverbs 19:10-12
 ¹⁰ It is not fitting for a fool to live in luxury—
       how much worse for a slave to rule over princes!
 ¹¹ A man's wisdom gives him patience;
       it is to his glory to overlook an offense.
 ¹² A king's rage is like the roar of a lion,
       but his favor is like dew on the grass.

And I'm tired. Good night, friends. 

 

Email to Westboro Baptist Church

So there's this church that you may have seen on the news and stuff called the Westboro Baptist Church. They are famous for picketing soldiers funerals and picketing with signs that say things like "God Hates Fags."

If you want to (Big If) check out their website, and actually type in these words, the address is www.godhatesfags.com

Obviously, I disagree with the title of their website, and their message in general. I don't believe that a God who died for the world could hate anything in it besides sin, so I decided to send them an email. Now with the full knowledge that they likely get thousands of pieces of hate mail every day, I took the nice guy approach, so I'm not immediately blown off. Here is my letter to them, which is based on the reading we just looked at in Romans:

Hey there,

Please don't let this come across as an attack, but I was just reading Romans and came across this verse - Romans 2:1

 1 You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things.

By definition, aren't we all sinners? No man or woman is free from the bonds of sin, right? If we aren't all sinful by nature then why did Christ die?

Again, not an attack, I'm just wondering what your response to that is.

Thank you for taking the time.
Brandon

Now I'm waiting for a response - if I get one, I'll be sure to let ya'll know about it. 

Reading from Wednesday, July 14

Hello. I just returned from a delicious dinner with friends cooked by my friend Lucas (what up, son?)
Lucas refers to me and Jilly as "Team Christ" because we are the resident Christians in that group of folks. It's nice to be known as "the Christian guy" or "the Christian couple" every once in a while.

Bible time, yo.

Reading for July 14
1 Chronicles 16:37-18:17
Lots of recappy stuff going on here from the story of David, a lot of it is pretty dull, but something huge hit me while reading this. The writer here describes a conversation between God and David where God says that he selected David out of his humble job as a sheep herder and made him King over Israel. At the same time, by association, God also chose Judah to be the tribe from which all Israeli kings would come from that point forward.

What if in the same way, but on a much larger scale, God chose Israel from their humble beginnings to mold and shape and teach, knowing that at some point, Jesus would come from that group of people? I mean that raises all sorts of circular questions about why God would bother to create the other nations in the first place, but it's at least a somewhat redeeming way to look at the violence condoned and committed by our great deity.

Romans 2:1-24
OK, wow. A whole lot of stuff going on here. First off, let me sort through some of the comments I got from my last post about Paul condemning homosexuality. One of my friends suggested that Paul himself was a closeted homosexual - which certainly could be possible. He would write such harsh language about it to condemn himself; which segues nicely into my first point about this reading. After the listing of the "evilness of people" in the last chapter, Paul then counters that by saying everyone is guilty of sin, therefore you should not judge others.

¹ You may think you can condemn such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse! When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things.

So, Westboro Baptist Church - take notice. Your ways are not Godly.

There was another comment from my friend Pete about why God would create non believers. This was in response to my frustration with the idea that God led people to be homosexuals as a punishment for mankind's wickedness. This got into the whole discussion of the Philosopher's God and the Christian God and the differences between them, when my friend Henry so beautifully summed up the difference:

The Philosopher's God is all powerful and all knowing. The Christian's God is one who suffers and dies.  

That wasn't related to this reading as much as it was the last reading, but I just wanted to make sure I addressed that.

OK, back to this chapter. Now, Paul refers to this "day of judgment" which has been mentioned a couple of times now in the New Testament. This, as I understand it, is when God's patience with humanity runs out and the ruthless judgment that was present in his character in the Old Testament will once again return and everyone who's on the naughty list will get coal in their stockings so to speak. But wait a minute, based on the previous paragraph, Paul declared everyone guilty. So what is the criteria for passing God's judgment on that terrible day? Repentance? I think by definition, repentance means turning away from sin and asking forgiveness, but we can never fully turn from sin. We are sinful by nature.

Now this is really very interesting. Check it:

¹⁴ Even Gentiles, who do not have God’s written law, show that they know his law when they instinctively obey it, even without having heard it. ¹⁵ They demonstrate that God’s law is written in their hearts, for their own conscience and thoughts either accuse them or tell them they are doing right.

This basically says that people who "behave", essentially, are living according to God's law. So if you have a strong conscience and often take heed to your conscience, then you are following God's law by default. Here's my issue with that: most laws of the Old Testament go against my instinctual conscience, as you may remember my freak out episodes from a few months back.

Now, if we are talking about the normal human conscience of helping others and being kind to people then would that mean that people like Gandhi would indeed go to Heaven? Was Tony Campollo right when he said "I don't care who you worship, as long as you're doing good"? This seems to say that's true. Meaning you don't need the close personal relationship with Jesus Christ to be accepted into heaven. You could be a Christian and not even know it. Hm...

Psalm 10:16-18
This sort of covers the entire spectrum

 ¹⁶ The Lord is king forever and ever!
      The godless nations will vanish from the land.
 ¹⁷ Lord, you know the hopes of the helpless.
      Surely you will hear their cries and comfort them.
 ¹⁸ You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed,
      so mere people can no longer terrify them.

In three verses, the author (David I presume) damns the non Jew/Christian and yet redeems the orphans, oppressed and helpless. Which one to believe? Which way to follow?

Proverbs 19:8-9
Back to the Wisdom

 ⁸ To acquire wisdom is to love oneself;
      people who cherish understanding will prosper.
 ⁹ A false witness will not go unpunished,
      and a liar will be destroyed.

As I get older I start to see how valuable wisdom is. If I went back to school at this age, I would soak up every bit of information I could...in theory of course...

OK - epic post, yo. Have a good night.

Reading from Tuesday, July 13

Hot dog! This is the fourth post in one day. I don't think I've done this many since I started the project back in January. Hopefully the quality hasn't suffered too much. I am running out of interesting stuff to write about in these intros though. So think of something funny. Now think of something else funny. Haha, wasn't that great? Now think of something thought provoking. Hmm...that's a good point.

Reading for July 13
1 Chronicles 15:1-16:36

One of the Psalms of David is recorded here, which I think is the same one that is recorded in one of the earlier books. Honestly, I just skimmed it because I feel like I'd already read it. Also, this is entry number four for the day and I'm getting bored. Sorry guys. Total disclosure.

Romans 1:18-32
OK - this is the condemn-y bit I was talking about. Paul begins preaching against those who are not living according to the will of God, or as he puts it, people who "suppress the truth by their wickedness".

Now, a couple of things. First off the people to whom he is preaching are people that he knows personally. He spent a lot of time with them and likely knew many of them by name. What I'm getting at is that he is not condemning a group of people just based on a trait or characteristic about that person like we so often do as Christians. As I said in the last post, he first got to know them on a personal level, and then sent them instructional criticism. It's like that classic step-father --> son relationship on TV where the phrase "You're not my dad! You can't tell me what to do!" is so common.

If you try to correct someone for something they're doing without first getting to know that person, your argument might as well be about the flying spaghetti monster. It holds no water if you haven't first loved the person. Now, on to what he is talking about.

He isn't outright condemning the people to whom he is writing. He is speaking in general about the "wicked people of the past" who God wrathed upon. He mentions and then condemns homosexuality in this way:

²⁶Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. ²⁷In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

My argument for homosexuality not being a sin has been "God made them that way - how could it be a sin?" But here we see evidence that God did indeed make them that way, but as punishment for mankind's wickedness. So because of people turning against God, he went and made it even harder for certain people by giving them a desire that can not be controlled, just like I can't control my desire to have heterosexual relations with my wife. (hey now)

But then again, people lust after other people than their spouses, but avoiding acting upon that is the key. So then by the same token, should gays have to avoid sex all together because they want to have it with someone of the same gender? I don't think that's fair.

On a related note, there are now scientific studies that say that many serial murderers have something wrong with their brain that turns off the part that feels remorse, or the part that judges right and wrong, and that this was an inherent condition within their brains. Now God made these people this way, right? Is this the same idea of God "giving them over" to evil and dark desires? Why on earth would God want to put people in a position like that? It's masochistic.

Ugh - this is the kind of thing that really shakes the old faith.



Psalm 10:1-15
 ^{1 [a]}Why, O LORD, do you stand far off?
       Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

This is a question that is so common these days with constant natural disasters and murders and terror attacks. Where is God? It's at least somewhat comforting to know that this question was being asked thousands of years ago as well. Then again, its a little discomforting too...has he been absent this entire time? Has he been there at all? What is he waiting for?

Proverbs 19:6-7
More incentive to be rich...

 ⁶ Many curry favor with a ruler,
       and everyone is the friend of a man who gives gifts.
 ⁷ A poor man is shunned by all his relatives—
       how much more do his friends avoid him!
       Though he pursues them with pleading,
       they are nowhere to be found.

Maybe God does want me to have a Farrari and tons of cash. 

Reading from Monday, July 12

George W. Bush was once being interviewed and was asked what one book he would bring with him if he was stranded on a desert island. His answer was "The Bible. Because it's the only book that I can read over and over again and it will continue to challenge me."

When I first heard that, I passed it off as political nonsense and simply Bush appealing to his Evangelical voters. But now after reading a little over half of this thing, I totally agree with him. I have already begun my second read through of Psalm and already I'm seeing new things. Many of the books and passages I'd read 100 times are now brand new to me because of the other things I've read in conjunction with them. The Bible is so unique because it can literally be viewed through thousands of lenses. I mean, how many denominations of Christianity are there? How many unrecognized "crazy" sects of Christianity are there? How many groups use the Bible as a tool to condemn gays? How many use it as a tool to love gays? There is no limit to what people can see in this story.

One of my main goals in this project is to really define myself. If at the end I still want to be a Christian, it will be how to define myself as a Christian. And to do that I want to have a completely unbiased or rather, uninfluenced view of this enormous book on which my faith is based. I don't want to be swayed by politics or activist groups or churches or doctrine or mission statement or anything else. I want this to be my interpretation and mine alone. I will not try to hold this view over anyone else, I will not try to convince people in my view of it. I want to have my own, personal relationship with the information and hopefully, with God. And in that, hopefully I will better be able to understand myself as a person.

Reading for July 12
1 Chronicles 12:19-14:17
There is a story in I believe 2 Samuel about David trying to return the Ark of the Covenant to Israel. Within the story, one of the men who is transporting the Ark named Uzzah accidentally touches it and because of that, he is killed by God. This story is retold here, but with one additional little detail:

⁹ When they came to the threshing floor of Kidon, Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark, because the oxen stumbled. ¹⁰ The LORD's anger burned against Uzzah, and he struck him down because he had put his hand on the ark. So he died there before God.  ¹¹ Then David was angry because the LORD's wrath had broken out against Uzzah, and to this day that place is called Perez Uzzah.

I don't remember that bit about David being mad about it. I was mad about that. So that means that David was a person just like me. Of course I'm not comparing myself to the greatest king of Israel, but on a human guttural level, we are both people. People who think that God was wrong sometimes. I'm not saying I think I'm justified in accusing God of being wrong, but the immediate reaction I get when hearing about a guy who was killed because of a mistake is "that's wrong." And apparently, David felt the same way.

Romans 1:1-17
Alright! Romans!! Now remember, Paul had just spent two years preaching to these people the good news of Jesus out of a house which he was renting, and which he could not leave. So this must be after he had left and been freed from house arrest, and he is writing to them to remind them of the things he spoke about.

There's a couple lines that really jump off the screen at me:

⁸First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world.

I love this. It's like a proud parent who hearing great things about their child from someone else.  Paul spent a good amount of time with these people, and now he hears that the message has stuck and that they are living the life Paul outlined for them. I can just imagine the ear-to-ear smile on Paul's face as he writes that opening line.

¹¹I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— ¹²that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other's faith.

What a great reason to want to see someone. Notice he's not saying "I need to get there because you're all acting like buttholes" or "I need to come out there to show you how to be a Christian" No.

He wants to encourage them, but wants to receive encouragement from them just as much - mutual encouragement. What a great idea. See if you can mutually encourage someone today.


Psalm 9:13-20
This is a terrifying passage:

 ¹⁹ Arise, O LORD, let not man triumph;
       let the nations be judged in your presence.
 ²⁰ Strike them with terror, O LORD;
       let the nations know they are but men.
       Selah

Let's uh...let's forget about that one for a while. It's not so great for God's re-election campaign. We don't want his opponent to get a hold of this for a smear ad. 

Proverbs 19:4-5
 ⁴ Wealth brings many friends,
       but a poor man's friend deserts him.
 ⁵ A false witness will not go unpunished,
       and he who pours out lies will not go free.

I'm a bit confused about verse 4. Isn't the intention to tell people to not be rich? This looks like a benefit of money. Unless, it's a summary downside sort of thing...Like - you will live a much better life apart from money, but rich people will have more friends. But don't let that stop you, I'm just warning you that you might not have as many facebook friends as the Benningtons.

I think that's what Solomon was trying to say.