Reading from Tuesday, November 23

Reading for November 23
Ezekiel 45:13-46:24
This is more detail about the new Temple. Pretty boring and uneventful. Skip.

1 Peter 1:13-2:10
Its weird to see this type of talk in the New Testament

⁹ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. ¹⁰ Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

That type of language is generally used when an author is speaking about Israel. The Israelites were God's chosen people. I've heard it said that God chooses you to be saved and all you have to do is accept it. That conclusion bothers me because of people who aren't Christians or don't have an opportunity to know about him will be sent to hell for not knowing him.

A couple days ago, a friend of mine was telling me about his wife's take on the idea of God.  She believed that God manifests himself to you in a way that makes sense to you. So if that means you are touched by the story of Jesus, then that's how you perceive God. If you are inspired by the Gods of Hinduism, then that's the way God makes himself real to you.

The peaceful, "can't-we-all-just-get-along" side of me loves this theory. Looking at it from a Biblical perspective, it's blasphemy, technically. But when you think about it, if every religious text claims to be absolute truth, then they're all blasphemy when held against one another. At the same time, all the major religions boil down to the same ideals: be kind to one another, be charitable with what you have, and strive for peace. So take out the place of worship and the names of the God(s) that are praised, and put a Jew, a Christian, a Muslim, a Hindu and a Buddhist in a room together - better yet, start a society with families from each faith - all devout practitioners. What does that look like? Assume they don't get into philosophical arguments about religion and they are likely to be kind to one another. They are likely to be charitable to the poor, banding together for a greater good. Helping those who are in need of help and worshiping their vision of God peacefully.

I don't know. I'm really just spitballing here, but what do you guys think about that? Hit up the comments.

Psalm 119:33-48
Really interesting couple lines here:

³⁶ Turn my heart toward your statutes
   and not toward selfish gain.
³⁷ Turn my eyes away from worthless things;
   preserve my life according to your word.^[b]
38 Fulfill your promise to your servant,
   so that you may be feared.

Verses 36 and 37 are extremely wise things to ask of God - instead of praying for a new car or to win the lottery, the Psalmist asks to be kept within the law of God and to help him not want "worthless things". But verse 38 is where I want to dig a little.

Since the beginning of this project I have been very curious about the idea of fearing God. Its an extremely important and prominent piece of Christianity and Judaism. Ultimately, I think the answer to why we should fear God comes to us through the destruction of Jerusalem. The Israelites had become too comfortable and too "fat and happy" if you will, to even consider needing God, much less fear him. God, reminding them of his awesome power, destroyed their city but immediately began plans to rebuild it because they feared God once again. They were humbled. This guy is going as far as praying to fear God. He knows that through the fear of God, we are humbled and that builds character and fosters kindness and love within us.

Proverbs 28:11
Or, you can take everything I just said about the last psalm and say it like this:

¹¹ The rich are wise in their own eyes;
   one who is poor and discerning sees how deluded they are.