Reading from Thursday, July 8

It's been a busy bloggy day.

I finally beat the first game (Final Fantasy XIII) in my game adventure and just finished writing the review. You can check it out here if you're interested.

Or you can check out my rants and raves about the Bible below. The choice if yours.

You can also obviously do both.

Reading for July 8
1 Chronicles 5:18-6:81
Boring.

No, there is something kind of cool in here. What I'm finding interesting is that I think Chronicles is written by someone different than wrote the last few books of the Bible. This person is including previously unmentioned details from periods that were written about in previous books. And this is one of those instances.

 ³¹ These are the men David put in charge of the music in the house of the LORD after the ark came to rest there. ³² They ministered with music before the tabernacle, the Tent of Meeting, until Solomon built the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem. They performed their duties according to the regulations laid down for them.

Who these people are isn't important. What's interesting to me is that David had musicians in his employ. Remember that David wrote many of the psalms - it was probably with these musicians that he did that. Pretty cool. 

Acts 26:1-32
Man, this story just gets better and better. Paul is now defending himself before King Agrippa and he drops a little nugget of wisdom during his defense that I have so far overlooked: that the only thing he is doing is preaching about the manifestation of God's promise to the Jewish forefathers.

. ⁶And now it is because of my hope in what God has promised our fathers that I am on trial today. ⁷This is the promise our twelve tribes are hoping to see fulfilled as they earnestly serve God day and night. O king, it is because of this hope that the Jews are accusing me. ⁸Why should any of you consider it incredible that God raises the dead?

I never thought of that. I mean of course I knew that Jesus was an answer to a promise God made, but I never made the connection between him and the message Paul preaches in Acts. He is again defending himself the right way - flattering his accusers and showing that he was once just like them, but now has something much greater.

At the end of his speech the king says "surely you don't think you could convince me to become a Christian in such a short time?" Here's how Paul so eloquently responds:

"Short time or long—I pray God that not only you but all who are listening to me today may become what I am, except for these chains."

I like this, but I also don't. As a Christian in this modern "I'm OK, you're OK" society, I often struggle with the issue of Christianity being "right" or the only true religion. Christian tough guy, Tony Campollo once said "If you're doing good in the world, I don't care who you're worshiping. As long as you're doing good." And yet, we're told to try and convince people who aren't Christians to become Christians and that has become the goal of many churches. Should we focus on seeing how many people we can convince that we are right, or focus on how many needy people we can help out of the charity preached by Jesus? Both missions are equally weighted in the gospels so which one should we focus on? Or should it be both?

Sorry, I'm worked up about this because I just watched the 700 Club featuring everyone's favorite Televangelist, Pat Robertson. They had a story on there about a Muslim woman who was being abused by her husband. She was praying to Allah when all of a sudden she saw Jesus and decided to pray to him instead. Then she became a Christian while watching the 700 club (shameless self endorsement) and all was great! This bothers me because first of all it demonizes Islam as people who just abuse their wives. How many Christian men abuse their wives? Probably more. And secondly it declares without a doubt that she was wrong for being a Muslim and now is right for being a Christian. How can someone be wrong based on their upbringing and culture? Why are we right? We serve a God who has slaughtered millions for no reason sometimes. Why is he the right one?

I know this is a common moral dilemma among thinking Christians. Questions like "well, does Gandhi go to hell because he wasn't a Christian?" I can't believe that he would. I don't know, though.

I think I'm starting to lean towards religion as relative truth - Christ is true for me because that's what I believe, but Mohamed and Allah are just as true for Muslims because that's what they believe. Is that wrong?

Rant off.

Psalm 6:1-10
 ⁶ I am worn out from groaning;
       all night long I flood my bed with weeping
       and drench my couch with tears.
 ⁷ My eyes grow weak with sorrow;
       they fail because of all my foes.
 ⁸ Away from me, all you who do evil,
       for the LORD has heard my weeping.

I like verse 8 in there. Like "He's gonna getcha! Watch out! He's gonna getcha!!" 


Proverbs 18:20-21
 ²⁰ From the fruit of his mouth a man's stomach is filled;
       with the harvest from his lips he is satisfied.
 ²¹ The tongue has the power of life and death,
       and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Bam. Bedtime.