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...