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.