A 2017 Goal

I don't do New Year resolutions. If a thing is worth doing, it's worth doing the moment you think it. It's also worth doing if you miss a day. I mean, if I miss a meal, I don't give up eating. Not that I have a lot of experience with missing meals, but the theory is sound. Giving up a good thing because of one failure is the worse failure.

I'm an Old Testament Christian. (Is that possible? Hmm.) I know the OT better than the NT. I prefer reading the OT to the NT. Maybe it's the narrative style. Maybe it's the violence. Maybe it's the do right or get stoned to death clarity that appeals to my judgmental nature. I don't know. I just know I don't spend that much time in the New Testament in general.

This is my year to change that. I have shelved my chronological NIV Bible and pulled out the new Holman Christian Standard Version I bought to match the new pastor's readings. I normally read from the New American Standard Version I used in college, but, hey, I'm willing to branch out. Since I don't read Hebrew or Greek, it's OK to see how different translators work with different words.

One of the things I'm doing is reading the books as books, and not verses. I ignore chapter breaks and sub-groups, and look for trains of thought. I'm applying some of my knowledge of book writing to asking why certain things were written in certain orders. Sorry, college professors. Only took me 25 years to want to do this on my own.

I'm starting by reading the books with the same authors in order. So, Matthew (based on Peter's account) followed by 1 and 2 Peter. I skipped Mark, which is historically based on Matthew's account of Peter's account, but I have all year, so no worries.

I've been reading a chronological Bible that cuts and pastes books together "in order." I warned My Dear Friend if she used one, not to take it as gospel. Get it? Don't take the Bible as gospel? But you really can't. The editors could be wrong and bits can get left out. It can be annoying to read all the books as they are, especially the ones that tend to overlap, but God preserved them for a reason, so it's worth the effort.

I'd forgotten a lot about how the gospels read. Where they start and stop. Where the focus is for each author. The same parts and the different parts. My goal in this study is to get to know Jesus better. He's the one part of the trinity that puzzles me, but he's the part I'm supposed to relate to best, because he's the part that became human.

Did you hear the story about the farmer who saw a flock of wild geese land in his field during a terrible winter storm? Wanting to help them, he tried to drive them into his barn where they could be safe, but they ran from him. Then he brought out his own geese and the wild ones followed them to safety in the barn.

It's a modern parable. Jesus became human because I have a better chance of understanding and following a human example than I do an invisible, all-powerful example (even though they're the same God, but that's another post). Maybe I'm a goose for trying, but if he went to all the trouble to get here, the least I can do is try to understand what he was doing. That's really what the New Testament is about. Why he came, what he did, and how we're supposed to respond.

Keep the faith.

I Don't Do Poetry

We've just passed the Psalms in our daily Scripture readings.

Perhaps it's odd for someone who loves language to dislike poetry, but I do. When I see words broken into stanzas or -worse- italics, I shudder. I tend to skip poetry in books. I don't think I've read any of the poems in LOTR since the first time when I was 12 and I realized they're all off topic.

This may smack of heresy to some folks. Psalms seems to be the favorite book of the Bible for many people. Not me. I'd rather read the narratives. Even the genelogies don't bother me, because I look for character names.

Give me solid prose with a sprinkling of snappy dialogue and I'm perfectly content. In fact, I prefer reading levitical rules to reading psalms.

I do enjoy Proverbs, though. Years ago, I started reading one chapter of Proverbs a day. There's 31 chapters, so most months it works out perfectly for a simple daily devotional time. They don't stick with me, either. Many proverbs are similar. A few are identical, so it's hard to remember exactly which one said what. But when I read them over and over, the themes sink in and those pop into my head at opportune times.

Like "a fool shows his anger, but a wise man holds his tongue." Not a quote, but a theme. It's kept my mouth shut on a few occasions, I can tell you.

So, if you like Psalms and think I'm nuts, join the club. If you feel this way too, just know you're not alone.

Love

Our paster is expounding on 1 John. In the nearly four years I've attended this church, I've yet to hear him finish a sermon outline, so I have no idea how long this will take. The concept of chiros at its best. I think I spelled that right. In Greek, you have chronos, the kind of time measured by a watch, and chiros, fulfillment time or when it's ready time. The pastor will be done when he's done and maybe not then.

This is part of a series on how you know you're saved. Remember: John was one of the 12 disciples, and one of the 3 often found with Jesus during the big stuff. He wrote the book of John as well as I and II John.

I John 5:1 says "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God; and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him." My pastor's first point is you know you're saved when you love Jesus.

Interesting question for me. I don't know if other people are put together like me, but there is very little I would say I love. (I could include food, but I'm trying for a more serious tone).

I should probably define love before I continue. So many definitions, after all. I believe the pastor is using it as a sense of affection and duty that encompasses your entire being. The old "love the Lord your God with all your mind, heart, soul and strength" from Deuteronomy. The Hebrew shema (that's for you, Mr. Isom!).

In this sense, I love my critters, too much, probably. I sometimes wonder if they are my stumbling block. God and I had a falling out over one of them several years ago. He's since resolved it - I certainly couldn't have - but my attachment to them may not be a good thing. I cannot stop it, and I wouldn't want to be the kind of person who doesn't feel that way about her animals, so I guess I'm stuck.

Using this definition, I love my family, and using this definition, family is a tightly defined word that includes my immediate biological family and a very few extremely close friends. I may be fond of others. I may go out of my way to treat them well, but that is a dutiful love, done because it is right, not out of any particular sense of good will on my part. This admission of want of feeling may make me a horrible person, but there it is. If I'm going to bring it up, I'm going to be honest about it. Perhaps others out there function the same way.

Dr. Gary Chapman wrote an interesting book called The Five Love Languages. I purchased it as a wedding gift and read it before I gave it (it's always a good idea to read a book before you give it to someone). My love language is quality time. I feel loved when someone shows interest in me, and I express love by spending my time with someone else. It's very simple. If I take the time to be with you, I love you. There is no other reason for someone as self-centered as I am to spend time with another person.

All of those with whom I spend time may now be assured of your place in my affections. For the rest, well, I'm not nearly as wonderful as I think I am, so don't worry about it too much. And if it does worry you, just give me an Oreo and tell me how great I am. I'm obviously fickle.

So, do I love Jesus? I practice a dutiful love toward Him. I know what He requires and I try to do it. But I don't always feel love toward Him. In fact, I rarely feel it. I suspect it's because I can't sit face-to-face with Him and talk. I can read His book, but it's not the same. I can pray to Him, but often that feels like talking to the ceiling or, worse, myself. The Holy Spirit is the manifestation of God within me, and He's supposed to comfort me and answer me, but, again, it's not the same.

So I must admit, I don't love Jesus the way I love the physical people in my life.

Let me pause to point out, Jesus is physical. He is alive in heaven and occupying the first physical, resurrected body, so I could touch Him if He chose to let me (Thomas did). But He remains in heaven until the Second Coming, so I must muddle through for now with a concept instead of a construct. That's scriptural, too, though. Paul says our faith remains in the unseen, because what is seen is not faith. Jesus Himself blessed those who would believe without seeing Him.

I suspect once again, praise is the key. "He inhabits the praise of His people." Perhaps I would feel more love if I spent more time thinking on why He's worthy of love. Perhaps I would feel more love if I spent more time getting to know Him through the resources He's given me: the Bible, the Holy Spirit and other Christ-followers.

I have no excuse for not loving Jesus. He's certainly shown a great deal of interest in me. That should appeal directly to my fickle nature. "The fault is mine and so must the remedy be."

Forgive me, Jesus, for not loving You as much as You deserve, and help me daily to love You more. Amen.

The Antidote to Worry

When Job gets the news he's been wiped out, he falls down and worships God. Whenever David gets upset, he writes a lament that turns to praise. Joshua and the Israelites praised God and the walls of Jericho crumbled.

I'm seeing a pattern.

In therapy school, I learned real change happens when you focus on replacing an inappropriate behavior with an appropriate one. Instead of sitting at home thinking about not eating, you go for a walk or bathe the dog or pull some weeds. You get your body doing the right thing and your mind will follow.

Long ago, I learned the trick of wiggling your toes while getting a shot. Your brain is more occupied with the toe-wiggling than keeping track of the pain. It still hurts, but not as much as just sitting there thinking "man, this hurts."

People often think of the Christ-follower's walk as a list of "don'ts." Fact is there are more "do's" than "don'ts" in the Bible. We just don't like to do the "do's." "Don'ts" are easier and make us feel superior about ourselves. Especially when one of the "do's" is "be humble." Heh.

It's beginning to occur to me that rather than "not worrying," I should be "praising God." If I'm doing the one, I have no energy left over for the other.

I tried it this Friday. In case you haven't figured it out, bad weather frightens me. It's not a phobia, but it's not rational, either. It's sort of like figuring that every time I survive something, the odds of it wiping me out the next time increase. Like one day, statistics will kill me.

Why this should bother me, I cannot say. "To live is Christ; to die is gain." I'm sure I would miss my critters, though, and I hate the thought of leaving them for someone else to protect. Welcome to my hell.

But this Friday, I did something different. Every time I started to worry, I changed to praise. I hummed, I sang, I recited praise songs. I focused on the good parts of God, the parts I know I can trust, and I let Him take care of the weather.

Odd thing. The weather disappeared. The storm that had built into something worse than anyone expected failed to show up for the party here in Kansas. The weathermen all seemed surprised (a few of them seemed disappointed, the fear-mongers).

But I was calm all day. I think, even if the storm had arrived, I would have been calm.

I'm not saying I've mastered anything. I'm not saying this is a trick like wiggling your toes. But I do think our Biblical ancestors knew something we've forgotten.

No matter what happens, God is always worthy of our praise.

Praise ye the Lord!

Individualism vs Nationalism

Do American Christians place too much emphasis on spiritual individualism?

The Old Testament is a story of nations rising and falling: the nations of Israel and later Judah. The history is told from the perspective of individuals, but it seems to be bigger than that. God raises up a nation, and God destroys nations for their collective wickedness, Sodom and Gomorrah being the first examples to spring to mind. Egypt and the Canaanites took their separate beatings, too.

God is a big God. It makes sense that He would deal with (relatively) large entities like nations when meting out blessings and curses.

Do today's Christians ignore the idea of group servitude in favor of individual relationship? Some do.
It does appear that Christ, by His incarnation, ushers in a new understanding of relationship with God. God promised the Israelites they would one day worship Him in spirit and in truth. And with His death on the cross, the temple veil was torn, opening the way for each person to approach God without the need for a human high priest. Jesus is now our high priest and available to every Christian through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

But in the New Testament, Acts in particular, we see people-groups coming to salvation. Not nations anymore, but households, like the Roman centurion's and Lydia's. Is this just a poetic way of saying when the leader of a house comes to salvation it is likely the other members will follow? Perhaps.

The New Testament is full of examples of individual salvation, as well - individual choices to follow Christ. That's something I don't see so clearly in the Old Testament. Maybe I'm not understanding, but it seems in the beginning God chooses whom He will and those people suck it up and go along. It's a little more complicated than that, I'm sure, but that's the broad version.

So did God change? Did people change? Was it God's plan all along to start big and narrow His focus?

God doesn't change, and I've noticed people continue to make the same mistakes, both individually and collectively, so I must assume God's plan includes individuals as well as nations.

We do see God continually saving out a remnant. He picked Noah and his family out of all the people of the earth to live and repopulate the planet. He picked Abram to demonstrate His faithfulness throughout time. He picked Joseph to save a nation from famine and destruction, and Moses to bring it out of slavery. That's a God of both individuals and nations.

Let's not forget the New Testament focus on the Church. Each Christian is part of the greater "body" of Christ, and is expected to gather together for group worship, fellowship and service. This is one of the ways we demonstrate and experience our faith. God is a Triune Being, knowing perfect harmony and fellowship within Himself. Our gathering together is an example and faithful striving for that same experience. Since we remain flawed humans until the Rapture, we will fail, but that doesn't excuse us from trying.

My conclusion is this is a "both/and" rather than an "either/or" debate. We are individuals in the faith, knowing Christ personally and following Him daily. But we also express our faith collectively and our influence on our nation can be felt on a much larger level as a group than as individuals.

So we the American Church must take care to follow Christ's example in both nationalism and individualism. He is our Leader, after all, the Author and Finisher of our faith. We should be Christians first, then Americans. (Which is not to say we should not seek to affect our nation as Americans, but that is not my point with this post).

I say all this to say, pray for your church and your fellow Christians. Support them as you are able. Do not withhold good when it is in your power to do it.

And pray for our nation. For lack of 10 righteous men, Sodom was destroyed. God does not change. Let us hope we will allow Him to change us, that His mercy may be demonstrated once more on a national level, for the sake of a few.

Good Leaders, Poor Fathers

Samuel led Israel as an honest judge. His sons, we are told, did not follow his example, which led to Israel's demand for a king. (That makes no sense to me. The hereditary line of a judge is inadequate, so the people want to set up another hereditary line on the assumption it will turn out better? What's the definition of insanity again?) Samuel's mentor, Eli, also had terrible sons, so maybe Samuel's failings as a father came from poor modeling.

One book later, we read about King David's troubles with his offspring. Those issues follow the Davidic line until the split into Israel and Judah and afterwards.

If you go way back to the Patriarchs, you'll see all manner of poor fathering. Abraham tries to kill his son (okay, that doesn't count because God told him to, but you have to wonder what Isaac thought about it as he grew up). Isaac plays favorites with his boys, and the favoritism continues and expands with Jacob to the point that his favorite son, Joseph, gets two tribes -Ephraim and Manasseh- by the time they take the Promised Land.

The Bible often records history without moral commentary. For example, His design for marriage appears to be one man and one woman (Adam and Eve). Were polygamy acceptable, you would think He would have made several women. However, most of the OT folks had multiple wives and no judgment (other than the natural consequences of jealousy, bickering and unrest) seems to fall on those families.

Many times, it is the writers of the New Testament who provide the interpretation of God's opinion on some of the things flawed people did. Perhaps those insights were passed down verbally or given to the Apostles specifically as special revelation. I'm grateful for them. I have trouble understanding why people do the things they do when they obviously know better.

The Apostle Paul encourages the church to choose men whose children are God-fearing to be elders and deacons. Is this to provide examples of good boundaries? Is it that fathers with non-God-fearing children cannot lead effectively? Or should those fathers perhaps channel their energies into dealing with their own planks before helping others with that speck of sawdust?

So, while God used many men as powerful leaders, I suspect it is His intention for more of them to be leaders within their families, as well. It is a far harder job, but eternally rewarding.

Let Him Do What Is Good

I was reading 1 Samuel last night before bed. I know devotions are usually performed in the morning, but I remember better if I do them at night.

Eli, the high priest, has 2 wicked sons serving in the priesthood. God decides to punish Eli's household because of their sins and, I assume, Eli's lack of fatherly restraint. God tells the young Samuel His plan, and Samuel, at Eli's urging, tells the old priest everything.

After hearing what judgment will soon fall on his family, Eli says, "He is the LORD; let him do what is good in his eyes." I can't tell if Eli is being sarcastic, but I think not. I think he knows his wicked sons deserve whatever happens to them.

David says much the same thing when he learns God will punish him for taking an unauthorized census. He decides to allow God to choose the penalty because even an angry God is better than no God at all.

I am trying to embrace this attitude toward God. I know I cannot control everything (hardly anything, really) but I keep trying. I worry about things I have no power to affect. I fret over circumstances, good and bad. It's part of my anal-retentive nature to rigidly organize my world into chunks over which I have absolute, if illusionary, rule.

But I think I should write this down and keep it close: He is the LORD; let him do what is good in his eyes.

It seems to apply to most everything.

The Importance of Bibles

This has not been my best blogging week ever. Fortunately, I took down my rules, so likely no one but me and my 4 daily readers remember my goal is to blog daily.

I recently began listening to a Texas-based radio talk show host named Scott Wilder. I first heard him as a guest host on Point of View, and I liked his style. His show went national at the beginning of March. No station in Topeka carries it, so I listen online at http://www.scottwilder.com/ and use the link for scottwildertv. It airs just after Point of View, so it's easy to remember to switch over.

Scott Wilder often discusses politics from a Christian worldview, much as Point of View does. But Scott Wilder doesn't want to be known for that. His emphasis in each and every show is the importance of Scripture in the lives of believers.

Scott Wilder is a Bible-smuggler.

He's visited numerous "closed" countries over the last 14 years, smuggling Bibles in to give to Christians. He's been to North Korea (yes, North Korea), Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and other places whose names I can't remember. Right now, he's focusing on sending Bibles to China. Each day, he asks his listeners to join him in donating Bibles to be smuggled into those countries. He has a link on his website to make it easy.

This Thursday, he spent all two hours telling stories about the places he's been and the people he's met, and what those Bibles mean to them. It changes your life when you meet a woman whose hands were beaten to mush with lead pipes because she didn't want to let go of her Bible when the authorities came to take it away.

Bibles are common in America. I suspect you can buy one at Walmart. I haven't counted but I have at least 7 in my house, of various sizes, translations and ages. I keep one in my car, in case I forget one of the others on my way to church. I have one I read from, one I study from and one I just think is pretty.

Four years ago, at the urging of a sermon series on giving by David Jeremiah, I changed my spending habits. I made a conscious effort to give money to God. I give monthly to my local church, to Point of View and to American Family Radio. I give to Crystal Peaks Youth Ranch whenever God blesses me with something extra. When something happens, like the earthquake in Haiti, I give.

I didn't use to do this. I figured I don't make a lot, and I need what I have. Well, maybe that's true. But even Dave Ramsey says there's only 3 things to do with money: save it, spend it and share it. Strangely, in God's ecomony, sharing tends to lead to more money than spending. I don't know why. I only know that since I've done this, I've been able to give regularly, pay all my bills, and still have a little left over for me.

Scott Wilder says for every Bible donated (cost $4/Bible), 5 people find Christ. He jokingly calls it "souls for 80 cents." How much is an eternal soul worth?

I will be giving to this cause. Maybe not monthly, but I will give. What better use of the temporal than to further the eternal?

Find one of your Bibles today. Look at it. Think about what it's worth to you. All around the world, people are imprisoned and tortured for owning one yet they take the risk. Why? As the lady with the beaten hands said, it's because it tells everything we know about Jesus. There is nothing more important than that.

Judges

Our daily Scripture readings have brought us to the book of Judges. Israel, under the human leadership of Joshua and the heavenly leadership of God Almighty, has taken the Promised Land after five years of fierce and bloody fighting. Many enemies are dead, punished by God for their unrighteousness (I discussed this in my other blog, Old Fashioned Thoughts in a New Age World). But many enemies remain, and those that do become a scourge to Israel.

In Judges, we read a continuous cycle of righteousness leading to apostasy, leading to punishment, leading to repentance, leading to salvation through a judge, leading to righteousness. This happens over and over again. Why? Because people are stupid. We are created with a God-shaped hole in our souls and born with an insanity that turns us away from the only God who can fill it. The Israelites turned again and again to false gods of wood and blood sacrifice when the real God who gave them the land in the first place was right there waiting to bless them if they would simply serve Him. And they couldn't do it. They couldn't bend their stiff necks enough to bow to the one, true God.

How often have I done the same thing? It is easy to yell at the Israelites for their stupidity, but it is my stupidity, as well.

Our nation has fallen into idolatry. We sacrifice babies to the god of personal choice. We give the government our trust and money and tell it to do what it will with them because it knows best. We believe in all manner of spiritual things like ghosts and past lives, but mention the name of Jesus and you become intolerant.

Judges is an ugly lesson of what happens when we forget the God we serve. It is a lesson we must remember quickly, for all our sakes. Christian brothers and sisters, I urge you to join me in praying for the salvation of our country, lest we finally come under ultimate judgment as a nation and cease to exist altogether.

Year of Jubilee

I've been farming all weekend. Not real farming. Farmville farming, which is more fun and less beneficial exercise. I hope to ride out the crush in a week or so and settle down into a normal pattern of plant, live in the real world, harvest, repeat. I'm always like this with a new love interest. It takes about two weeks for the blush to wear off.

But virtual farming got me thinking about real farming, and God has some things to say about that.

Our daily readings for last month and this month include the Old Testament laws. Forgive me, because it's late and I should remember this, but most theologians break the Old Testament laws down into categories of dietary, Levitical (laws relating specifically to the priests and sacrifices, I think) and one other word I can't think of right now referring to the laws that continue but were fulfilled in Christ. Like the 10 Commandments are immutable, but Christ simultaneously raised the bar by exemplifying those laws and lowered the bar by becoming our Savior so we aren't required to be perfect in this life. That's a whole other post, so I'm not going into it here.

Anyway, God told the Israelites to celebrate the Year of Jubilee, a sort of Sabbath year when the ground rested (Lev 25:18-22). They could not actively plant or harvest crops that year. Whatever grew, grew and they could gather it, but they were not allowed to cultivate anything.

During that year, God promised He would bless the land enough to sustain them. They were to trust that He would take care of them without their interference.

I've heard that in the time before chemicals, this practice was necessary to restore the fertility of soil. Practicing the Year of Jubilee made ecological sense, even if it did frustrate the farmers. Some might say we have no need for such practices now because of technological advances. I won't argue with them. Technology has changed a lot of things.

I do wonder, though, if God's promises of blessings would still apply in this day and age if a Christian were to honor the old law and practice the Year of Jubilee. After all, God doesn't change. If He promised He would bless His children then, why would He not bless His children now?

I suppose you could argue His children at that time were the Israelites and these laws applied only to them. Okay. But aren't we adopted children? Isn't that the point of Christ's coming, and why the Jews didn't understand His message at first, because they thought the Messiah was supposed to save just them?

When God gives rules, He does it for our benefit. It teaches us something, or protects us from something, or reminds us of something. I find this an interesting rule because it teaches reliance on God, it protects the soil from depletion and it reminds us that everything that grows comes from God anyway.

So this is what I'm thinking about while I'm planting in Farmville, and I'm considering taking Sundays off from the game.

But not for another two weeks.

Deuteronomy 5:32-33

So you shall observe to do just as the Lord your God has commanded you; you shall not turn aside to the right or to the left. You shall walk in all the way which the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land which you shall possess.

I like commandments with promises. Like, the Fourth Commandment: Honor your father and your mother so that it will be well with you and your days will be long on the earth.

I like it when God tells us the consequences of doing something, whether right or wrong. He doesn't have to. He's God. He could use that most annoying of all reasons: Because I said so. Sometimes He does. But sometimes, He gives us a reason, and I think He does it to soften the blow.

Fact is, following God's commands is hard. Not that the commands are particularly difficult most of the time, but they tend to go against our own desires.

Don't steal (yeah, but I want it).

Don't lie (yeah, but I'll get in trouble if I tell the truth).

Don't murder (but, he's really annoying).

I'm using some of the Big Ten as illustrations here. God gave lots of commands. Fortunately, Jesus boiled them down to two.

1) Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength, and
2) Love your neighbor as yourself.

Boy howdy, even those two aren't easy. My sin nature wants to put itself first all the time. It's all about me. Except it's not. God is all about the other guy. This comes up again and again in the Bible, how the real neighbor goes out of his way to do the right thing for the other guy, even if it means taking the hit himself.

I'm a ridiculously selfish person. My faithful readers may have a sense of that, but you really have no idea how truly selfish I am. I do not find it easy to follow those two commandments Jesus gave. I am trying, though. I'll be trying the rest of my life.

I'm just glad He gave me some reasons to keep in mind as I try.

Why Job?

You ever notice when suffering enters the equation, we all run to Job? He's not the only person in the Bible to suffer, you know.

Jeremiah was called "The Weeping Prophet." It was his fun job to tell the Israelites they were about to suffer judgment for all the stupid stunts they'd been pulling for generations.

Hosea was told by God to marry and remain faithful to a prostitute as an example of how God remained faithful to the nation of Israel while "she" (Israel as a nation is always referred to in the feminine in the Bible) prostituted herself with false gods.

Jesus got to spend His whole life looking forward to the suffering on the cross. Why does Job get all the press?

Maybe we like that Job's happy ending comes in this life. We like the idea that suffering doesn't follow us around to the grave.

Do we forget that this life is not all there is? This is our beginning, but it is not our end. Jesus said, "Do not fear those who can destroy the body. Rather, fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell." Suffering, however long it is endured, is temporary. Even if I die here, I will live forever with Christ.

I say all this to say, I think my cold is gone again. How long, I don't know. I'm thinking I should just isolate myself until spring. Don't know how my boss would feel about that. Anyone else who's tried to have contact with me should be totally fine with it. I'm not a pleasant sick person, though to be fair, all I ask is to be left alone to live or die. Why is that so hard?

I'm not Job. I'm not Jeremiah, or Hosea or Jesus. I don't like to suffer and I don't do it well. I hope the worst I'm called to suffer remains colds. Otherwise, I'll be needing a lot more grace.

Who Is This Guy?

Say "Moses," and nearly every American over the age of 30 thinks "Charlton Heston." Thank you, Hollywood.

But who is Moses? He's a Hebrew, a Levite and the second born son in his family. He gets adopted by the Pharaoh of Egypt's daughter and reared as a prince. He's a murderer (kills an Egyptian guard whipping an Israelite) and a fugitive (flees to Midian where he meets a priest and marries his daughter). He's our second major hero who remains monogamous throughout his lifetime. He's a shepherd for a while.

Then God appears in a burning bush and everything goes crazy.

Moses argues with God about going back to Egypt to free the Israelites. Read it (Exodus chapter 3). He actually tells God he'd rather not go. How is it he didn't end up a crispy critter after that statement?

Moses becomes The Lawgiver (another Charlton Heston movie comes to mind - can you guess which one, my dear geek readers?), which is funny because it's God who actually gives the laws. Moses just repeats them.

Moses herds these 600,000 plus people out of Egypt into the Promised Land and puts up with all the ungrateful belly-aching that goes with them. He gets to wander the desert for the same 40 years they do. He gets to watch them die from snake bites, plagues, divine fire and earthquakes, and pretty much sheer stupidity throughout that time, and yet, he's the one who often seems to talk God out of destroying the Israelites completely.

Who is this guy?

Moses was the only one officially allowed to climb Mt. Sinai to see God and receive The Law, although the text says he took Joshua with him as his aide. Makes sense since Joshua becomes the leader after Moses. Before the tabernacle is built, God would meet with Moses in his tent. And Moses lives through it, time and again. At the time of his death, Moses is 120, strong in body and mind, and God takes his body away (probably to keep it from becoming a relic).

The Bible says God talked to Moses as to a friend. So, I guess the answer to the question is "Moses was God's friend."

With friends like that...

Just kidding. If I only get one friend, the Creator of the Universe is probably the best one to have.

Joseph, continued

I thought I'd said all I wanted to say about him. I was wrong.

I few other reasons I like Joseph:

1) He was honest/ trustworthy. These two go together in my book. He kept getting put in charge of people and things, and his bosses never worried about anything he was in charge of (we're told that three times about three different guys: Potiphar, the warden, and Pharaoh). Dave Ramsey would call that "stupid," but it kept happening. Even Jacob practically put him in charge of his older brothers. That's not only why they sold him into slavery but how they were able to to do it - it was Joseph's honest nature that sent him into harm's way (he couldn't make up something to tell his father) and his trustworthy nature that prevented him from seeing the real danger he was in from his own brothers.

2) He was hard-working. When his dad asked for that report on his brothers, Joseph kept going so he could finish the task. A lazy boy would have stopped looking when his brothers weren't where they were supposed to be. Joseph searched for them. When, as a slave, he enters Potiphar's house, he starts working and works so well Potiphar puts a slave in charge of everything. Same thing happens at the jail. Once more for Pharaoh. Joseph does everything as to the Lord, no matter who he's working for. Genesis tells us God prospers him for it.

3) He was monogamous. Maybe this is an Egyptian cultural thing and Joseph didn't have any control over it, but he's the first guy in four generations to be happy with just the one wife. Even his grandfather Abraham took Sarah's maid as a wife and sired Ishmael. Since God planned humans to be monogamous (only Adam and Eve, remember?), it's nice to see one of our heroes living up to that standard.

4) He was tender-hearted. I cry when Joseph cries, so I cry a lot reading his story. He cries when he meets his brothers, when he meets Benjamin, when he reveals himself to his brothers, when his father shows up after all those years. As Nick Parker would say, "A real man isn't afraid to cry." Joseph was a real man.

5) He had complete faith in God. Joseph is also the first guy in four generations to trust that God will take care of him even if he tells the truth. Abraham lied about Sarah being his sister, Isaac lied about Rebekah being his sister, Jacob lied about everything, pretty much, and yet those are the guys held up as models of faith. I think Joseph should get that prize. But what do I know? I'm just a turtle.

I'm probably done for now. We've entered Exodus in our daily readings, and Moses is a whole other pan of flatbread.

Joseph

Joseph may be my favorite historical person from the Old Testament. His story affects me more deeply the older I get.

Joseph is the almost youngest son (his full-brother Benjamin is the last born) of Jacob/Israel. He is the firstborn son of Jacob's favorite wife, Rachel, and it is obvious from the beginning - to everyone - that Joseph is his father's favorite son, too.

Israel's obvious favoritism leads to jealousy among Joseph's ten older brothers and ultimately to Joseph being sold into slavery by them.

I've heard his life interpreted two ways.

First, Joseph is an arrogant brat who needed years of slavery and imprisonment to squash the "holier-than-thou" out of him. This is supported by the "coat of many colors" given to him by his father, his regular tattling on his older brothers, and the prophetic dreams he relates to his entire family that sort of become the spark that sets fire to his current life. Without his tempering, Joseph would never have been able to forgive his brothers and save his family.

Second, Joseph is an exceptional guy, doing his best for God in extremely difficult circumstances beyond his control. This is supported by the fact that he cannot control how his father treats him, every time he moves into a new situation God prospers him, and he is continually escaping the worst possible consequences (slavery instead of murder, imprisonment instead of death, vizier over Egypt instead of, well, anything else) and instead moving up in the world with each life change. He is obviously trusted completely by his masters and they prosper as a result. This is not typical of brats, who tend to irritate strangers and bring all manner of grief on themselves as a result (I know whereof I speak).

David Jeremiah is the only one I've heard give the second option, but David Jeremiah is a compassionate guy. He's the only person I've ever heard cut King Saul some slack, too.
Most preachers assume Joseph starts as a jerk and changes to a hero.

Maybe.

I'm a brat, and God continues to temper me. Thankfully my brothers never tried to kill me, but I've been assured that was because of the threat of our father, not any particular merciful sentiment on their parts.

I was pretty awful.

But Joseph, whether he begins as a brat or not, shows one of the most forgiving spirits in the history of the world. His love for his brothers is genuine. When he recognizes his brothers but they don't recognize him, it hurts him. He feels their guilt over what they did to him and that hurts him, too. He understands how God used them, and doesn't hold it against them. That's forgiveness.

If you get the chance to hear David Jeremiah's sermon series on Joseph, take it. It will change your perspective of this famous man who saved the world during seven years of famine. Hopefully it will strengthen your perspective of his God, who showed the ultimate forgiveness on the cross and saved the world from ultimate death, if it will only accept the gift.

Jacob's Birthright

We're reading Genesis mid-20's to early 30's this week (I'm trying to catch up, thanks to the cold).

I wonder, did God want to use Esau to fulfill His promise to Abraham? Esau was the firstborn son. By tradition, he should have inherited everything. If he had kept his head and controlled his appetites when presented with that bowl of lentil stew, would Jesus have come from the line of Abraham, Isaac and Esau?

I wonder.

What about Jacob, the deceiver? He offered that bargain to his brother, the little sneak. He tricked his dad into giving him the blessing that should have gone to Esau. Yes, I mean tricked. He wrapped himself in goatskins so he would feel hairy like Esau if his father touched him. That's malice aforethought in my book, and I understand completely why Esau was hacked about it.

I don't believe God wanted Jacob to do what he did. God is truth. He doesn't lie or deceive or trick people. It is contrary to His nature. God didn't condone Jacob's actions; He allowed them. Part of that free will thing.

The amazing part to me is how God was able to use Jacob at all. The guy's a mess from the get-go. He's a pathological liar. How great is the God who can redeem such a man and use him to bring Jesus into the world?

The Bible shows in every chapter how holy God is and how corrupt man is. It's not an easy book to read, but I'm glad we have it.

The God Must Be Crazy

It's no wonder people think Bible-believers are insane.

Pick up the book of Genesis and start reading. (This is what most normal people do with a book - begin at the beginning)

You will see a God who creates everything, calls it good and then destroys almost everything because now it's all bad (Noah and the ark). Then he picks a liar and a coward to be the "father of nations" (that would be Abram, later Abraham) and waits until the guy is 100 to fulfill His promise of a son and heir. This guy's relatives (Lot and his family) live in the worst city in the world (Sodom) yet have to be forced out of it to save their lives. Later, these same people (Lot and his surviving daughters) commit incest and God makes nations out of the resulting children.

What is going on in this book?

Well, there's a few things to understand about the Bible.

First, it's an accurate historical record. As we all know, people do some really stupid, horrible things (getting kicked out of Eden springs to mind). The Bible doesn't sugar-coat those things. It shows people in all their stupid horribleness. That's one of the reasons we can know it's true. It shows reality.

Second, the Bible shows God dealing with these stupid, horrible decisions. In every instance, He shows justice tempered with mercy.

The world becomes completely evil; God redeems one family to keep humans alive (instead of killing them all and starting over with bees). He even saves animals because He knows we need them.

Humans forget God, yet He chooses one guy for no particular reason at all to demonstrate His faithfulness to the rest of us. The story of Abraham is the story of God fulfilling His promise because He said He would.

The Bible must be read as a whole. Even though it is many different books, it was written by one Author - the Author who was and is and is to come. He is outside time and sees the whole picture. No part of the Bible is obsolete. No part should be ignored.

If you decide to start at the beginning, keep reading. And remember, God isn't insane.

We are.

The Bible

God willing, for 2010, Sunday posts will be about scripture. I have no idea what that means, so I'll just start writing.

I believe the Bible is both an accurate historical record and a divine revelation of God's relationship with humans from the beginning of time, written by men inspired by God, eyewitnesses to the fulfillment of prophecy given by the One who knows all things (2 Peter 1:16-21). This belief puts me in the minority of Christians today, who prefer to water down scripture by believing certain things are metaphors or fictional lessons or plain made-up stories.

I once heard a pastor completely remove the divine miracle of the feeding of the 5000 by saying Jesus' example of sharing led everyone there to pull their "hidden" lunches out of their pockets. To dilute the meaning of scripture because you don't believe in the supernatural power of God is blasphemy in my book. I doubt that pastor believes in Judgment Day, either, which won't stop it from happening.

Here's where things get dicey. While I believe the Bible is accurate and divinely inspired, and useful for lots of things, it is not sufficient for salvation. An example.

Let's say I wrote an auto-biography. You read it. You like it. You think I'm the best person in the world (this is a made-up example, remember) and you want to be my best friend. You carry my book with you everywhere. You memorize whole chapters and quote them at people. I come up in your daily conversations. One day, we meet at Sonic and you start telling me how great I am and how close we are and how you've sold all your stuff so you can come live with me. You know what I'm going to say?

"Get away from me, crazy person. I don't know you."

Sound familiar?

God is a person. A really big, powerful person, but a person. Jesus is a person, too. So is the Holy Spirit. To meet one is to meet them all. The Bible can tell you about God, but only He can be your friend. If you don't know Jesus, it's easy to remedy. Ask Him now to become real to you. Ask Him to teach you how to know Him. Then read your Bible. You will see things you've never seen before because your new friend The Holy Spirit will teach you how to see.

Yes, it all sounds mystical and weird. Well, get over it. God is mystical and weird. That's the kind of guy He is. But He's also loving, and constant, and personal and, quite frankly, the most interesting person you will ever know.

Way more interesting than me. :)

Well, that's one post about scripture.