Easter Service

I cannot let this very special day go by without reflecting and jotting a few notes about the service I attended. If for any reason at all, just to reflect later to see if I still feel the same way or view it differently.

I went to M&D's church North Campus of FCC. They are doing a series called Crosswords that Puzzle. The Pastor Ken Brown led the sermon. He began with Jesus' last words. "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit" Luke 23:46. I thought this was going to be a very interesting sermon. The Pastor asserted that Jesus resurrected himself. Basing this on John 10:18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father. I think these word may have been taken out of context. The Pastor goes on to give several examples of how God raised Jesus from the dead. I wrote down at least 7 such examples from the Bible and he went on to give what seemed like 28 more. (I think each power point slide had at least 7 examples) I personally think too much time was spent hammering the point to home, but that is me. The Pastor ended with an interesting thought. In the bulletin where you can make notes for the sermon the heading for the last thought was "What does it all mean?" Resurrection = God's signature : Satisfied. His last thought for the day was that God was satisfied that sin was paid in full so he resurrected Jesus. After mentally reviewing the sermon where Elton John was referenced along with Gomar Pile, spraying cookies with raid before throwing them away, Aaron Rodgers, Buddha, and Jimmy Hoffa, I thought that last statement lent a hand to a mob boss saying to someone with a surmountable debt, that he was off the hook. Which is the case, I just prefer not to think of it that way.
Lesson learned: We are forgiven.

How to deal with bullies the Old Testament way.

Considering all the bullying that goes on these days and the tragic consequences that fall on ones who experience it, I could not help but take special notice of Elisha in 2 Kings 2:23-25.
Paraphrasing...Elisha was walking along the road and some youths from the town came out to jeer at him saying "hey baldy, hey you with the baldhead, git on now." Elisha called down a curse on them and 2 bears came out of the woods and mauled 42 of the youths. Lesson for the day: don't be a bully.

BGOTB Lot's Wife

It has taken alot of thought, and I am not sure I still have solid thoughts for Lot's wife. I grew up with the story of Lot's wife turning to a pillar of salt but I don't think I ever thought about what that meant. I think I thought that she was told not to look back, she did, and wham, pillar of salt. I didn't think of the implications that maybe she didn't want to leave her luxurious life style. After reading the commentary and hearing that she did not utter a single word, I almost wonder what her purpose was. What I was able to come up with was that she probably had no dialogue with her husband or God for that matter. 1 Peter 3:5-6 implies that wives be submissive to their husbands. Be seen and not heard, your actions are what makes you beautiful. (I hope I summed that up OK) But...! I don't know that her actions were beautiful, it never really said. I am assuming that she went along with the lifestyle, accepted it whether she thought it was good or not. It almost reminds me of so many domestic abuse cases. Women stay in relationships because the don't know any better or don't know how to get out. It doesn't sound like domestic abuse but could she have taken a stand? What did she believe in? Another thing that got to me was that Lot was waiting at the entrance of the city, almost like he felt a bit guilty of being there, knowing he was better/ could do better, and he is just waiting to scope up visitors because he knew what they would be subjected to. He pretty much pleads and begs these Angels, Angels of the Lord, to please come to my house, like he can potentially talk his way into saving them if need be. This is another thing that got me... The town came calling, they wanted to do despicable things to the strangers, and he offered his virgin daughters. What? How does that make sense. I just don't understand why Lot would stay in such a place if he felt so strongly that unfortunate things were going to happen. That is an anxiety attack ready to happen. And then, when they Angels plead for him to leave, there is the fact that he complained that he couldn't make it to the mountains but he could go to the small town of Zoar. Hey, if God is setting you free from imminent danger, do you compromise? Anyway, some food for thought I hope. Here are some of my favorite suggested Bible verses: 1 Peter 3:5-6 2 Peter 3:9 Deuteronomy 8:5 Hebrews 12:10-11 Proverbs 6:23 Proverbs 13:19 2 Corinthians 7:10

The wicked...

I did some resaerch to try and keep all these "ites" straight. Moabites: descedants of Lot thru incestral relations with his oldest daughter. They are said to have made human sacrifices. Their god was named Chemosh Ammonites: also descendants of Lot thru relations with his youngest daughter. Their god was Molech Hittites: descendants of the Caananites, served as high ranking officers in David's army. Storm gods were prominent in their pantheon. One of the gods was the symbol of the bull

Man of God from Judah, I Kings 13

I think this is an example of watching out for false witnesses. I kinda feel bad for the guy. He seemed very steadfast in what God told him to do, yet an "old prophet" came and found him and told the man from Judah that the Lord told him, old prophet, that he was to bring old guy back. How confusing would that be. He seemed innocent of any wrong doing except for not following God's message to the very letter to the end. An intercessor comes along claiming he also has been given instruction from the Lord. What would you do? He was obviously punished, and "old prophet" felt bad. Why is it the good guys finish last? Seems to me old guy should have been punished in some way also.

I Kings 10

I had to go back a bit to find it but I blogged New Thoughts on Leviticus and I was commenting on how medicine, law, and geography have Christian ties, and now I see King Solomon had quite an import/export business going. He did pretty well for himself. I wonder if any marketing major ever used that story as a case study.

Human Sacrifice? (2 Samuel 21)

I hope nobody glazed over this little gem of a story. The Gibeonites wanted to kill 7 men from Saul's family as revenge or atonement for Saul having virtually wiped out their family/tribe (2 Sam 21:5-6). They arrived at this brilliant idea as a way to stop a 3 year famine that had been plaguing the land. Sounds like crazy "pagan" superstition to me.

From v.14, "After that, God answered prayer in behalf of the land." God didn't seem to object to this or try to stop it. Actually, it was acceptable to him because he apparently ended the famine afterward.

Thoughts?

BGOTB Potiphar's Wife

My Bad Girls of the Bible brought me to Potiphar's wife this week. The writer of the book, Liz Curtis Higgs, makes a great deal about the fact that she had no name, she was simply referred to as Potiphar's wife. She had a great deal to do with bringing down one of the best good guys and she didn't even get her name mentioned. I don't think it is that big of a deal because I don't think she deserved to be known by any other name. Probably if she were still alive she might be more angry that she didn't even merit a name reference, which would be fair punishment given all she was trying to do. I also think that in everyday life, we use titles similar to that to be able to categorize our acquaintances. How often do you find yourself asking someone what they do? Why do we do that? Why is it we identify them by their job before anything else? Her job was to be the wife of the head of pharaohs bodyguards. Maybe there needed to be some role clarity next to that. Maybe she should have read the fine print before she took on that job if she wanted something else out of the relationship. Another question is what was the relationship like before he became so great (Potiphar)? Like so many relationships we hear of these days, did she help/watch him rise to this glamorous position and they just grew apart? If that is the case how does one keep a relationship fresh and new and continually growing with one's experiences and life goals that may or may not change as time goes by? I will leave you with that question to ponder. There may be more to come on Potiphar's wife....A challenge I will lay out also is to try not to ask a new friend what they do or where they work. The next lady of interest is Lot's wife. Looks like it is Genesis 13-19. See you next week.

I really needed a visual of the temple. It sounded very grand and ornate. This is one picture I found. Some of the others were just architectural sketches.

God and David (2 Samuel)

David sees Bathsheba - "Heeeey, how you doin'?"

David amazes me that way he maintains his humility and respect for God despite his power and influence. I'm sure that's a big part of why he and God had such a good relationship.

I found a couple of peculiar (interesting) things about the way God dealt with David though. So after David breaks 2 of the 10 commandments (don't covet your neighbor's wife and don't murder), God punishes him by killing his baby? Granted there's a certain poetic justice in not letting him keep the child from the illicit union, and David accepted it as such. But it's still seems odd to think of God disciplining in that manner. Especially since then, God goes on to not only allow them to have another child, but then that child (Solomon) becomes king and comes to be regarded as one of the wisest men to ever live. Just an interesting mix of harsh consequences, grace and love in this story.

To be honest, a lot of what is attributed to God in these stories seems like superstition; like people trying to make sense of good and bad events by saying God did it because it was deserved because of this or that. I know that's a cynical outlook, but then how do you make sense of good things happening to bad people and bad things happening to good people. Do you attribute it all to God specifically blessing and cursing individuals? Are people dying of AIDS in Africa because God's upset with them about something? I don't know. Would love to hear thoughts...

Supplimental Books

I'm starting a couple of supplemental books to my Bible reading:

One book on each side of the story, although not necessarily on opposite sides of the same argument. I feel strongly that you need to hear all sides of a debate in order to have a clear understanding of your own position and reasons for holding that position.

Bad Girls of the Bible (BGOB)

I have taken on a side project of reading BGOB and the first one up is Eve. Some random thoughts on the subject: Genesis 2:18 God said it is not good for man to be alone, I will make a suitable helper for him. Was this to keep Adam's mind off the forbidden tree? To help with the gardening? or in response to Adam's human longing for a companion? God first tried pets, not just cats or dogs, but the whole group of animals that was in the garden. I mean, how fun would it be to get to name all the creatures of the earth. So when no suitable helper was found God created woman. I was secretly wondering if there were actually other people, not living in the garden, that didn't necessarily live up to God's expectations that could have been considered. Anyway, the book I am reading says that God chose a bone nearest the man's heart as a gentle reminder to keep his help mate close by his side (when he created woman) I like that. But it makes me ask the question of where was Adam when the snake was tempting Eve? Another thing that struck me from this lesson is that the serpent asked Eve "Did God really say you must not eat from the tree?" If she didn't hear this for herself, or Adam just paraphrased what God said the interpretation could be all wrong. It is very important not to misquote what God is saying to us. One more thing...I know this is getting long winded....How did the serpent know what would tempt Eve. She is by all accounts innocent. I find it interesting just in the fact that what may be a temptation to one is not a temptation to another. I kinda feel sorry for Adam in this whole thing because when he happened along, Eve simply said here, try this. He didn't question where it came from, he just ok. Big dummy. But this is a good lesson in how we often get sucked into messes in our own lives. We go along with the crowd, or in his case, the only other person on the planet, it gives new meaning to "everyone is doing it" I'd be interested in your thoughts.

2 Samuel

Hold up, I guess I don't really understand the relationship Saul and David had because as soon as David hears Saul is dead he goes into mourning. Then he kills the messenger. It sounds to me like the messenger did what he thought he had to do out of compassion. He came across Saul who was mortally wounded by his own sword, not quite dead yet, and to facilitate the who process the messenger puts him out of his misery. At the very least I would say the messenger deserved to be sent to one of those towns for people who accidentally murder other people.

Tail end of 1 Samuel

Saul was one crazy dude. When I think of him I think of the old king in the last of the Lord of the Ring series. The old guy who was going to burn his son who just so happened to still be alive....anyway, crazy stuff. I am struck that he so relentlessly pursued David from town to town for years. And several times David could have killed him but didn't, and he (Saul) knew this and still kept coming at him (David). When Saul finally died in the last chapter by his own hand because he didn't want the uncircumcised fellows to kill him and abuse him, the Philistines find him and do it anyway by cutting of his head and then fastened his headless body to a wall. Gross. This Old Testament has crazy drama in it.