Reading from Wednesday, September 22

Hey ho. What do you know?

Reading for September 22
Isaiah 39:1-41:16

"All men are like grass,
       and all their glory is like the flowers of the field.

 ⁷ The grass withers and the flowers fall,
       because the breath of the LORD blows on them.
       Surely the people are grass.
 ⁸ The grass withers and the flowers fall,
       but the word of our God stands forever."

 One of the more famous verses in the Bible. What does it mean? Well, it lays out here that the grass represent us, and the flowers represent our glory. But grass and flowers are temporary things. They are great and beautiful to look at, but one day they will no longer be there. So in the same way, there are awesome people on this earth who we can admire and and attempt to emulate, but we have to remember that none of this is eternal.

I know it's not the most Christian of shows, but we were watching True Blood a couple of weeks ago. It's a show about vampires and werewolves and all that other super popular stuff right now. There was this one really awful vampire who was buried under six feet of quick dry cement. Before he was fully submerged, he said that it would only be 100 years max that he would be down there. It would be like a nap to him. Meaning whatever stupid mini mall they were building over him would be gone in 100 years and he would be free. But 100 years is a normal person's entire life. For everything we want to see and everything we want to do and achieve in this life, we have about 100 years to do it, and then it will be over. God and his word are just as eternal as that vampire - even more so - because the Bible doesn't need to drink blood to survive.

Ephesians 1:1-23

³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. ⁴For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love ⁵he^[c] predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— ⁶to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

A couple interesting things here. Particularly the predestination stuff. Paul is arguing that God chose each of us before the earth was even created. While that might conflict with the idea of free will, I may have an explanation for it. Maybe God chose us the way we would choose a puppy. We can pick a dog we want, but that dog will end up doing whatever it wants. We can train it and scold it when it does wrong, just like God does, but ultimately we may have to give it back if it doesn't behave. You know what makes this analogy even better? Dog spelled backwards is God. Mind blown.

The other thing that is a bit concerning is that he chose specific people. What about the others? They don't get to experience God's grace? Automatically before they even have a chance to live and prove themselves, they're already damned to hell because they weren't a believer? That doesn't seem fair. That would be like me picking a puppy from a litter to be born 20 years from now and ordering the breeder to burn all the rest.

Psalm 66:1-20

 ¹⁷ I cried out to him with my mouth;
       his praise was on my tongue.
 ¹⁸ If I had cherished sin in my heart,
       the Lord would not have listened;
 ¹⁹ but God has surely listened
       and heard my voice in prayer.
 ²⁰ Praise be to God,
       who has not rejected my prayer
       or withheld his love from me!

Proverbs 23:25-28

 ²⁵ May your father and mother be glad;
       may she who gave you birth rejoice!
 ²⁶ My son, give me your heart
       and let your eyes keep to my ways,
 ²⁷ for a prostitute is a deep pit
       and a wayward wife is a narrow well.
 ²⁸ Like a bandit she lies in wait,
       and multiplies the unfaithful among men.