Hey, quick update here.
Obviously I have been slacking on the whole updating this everyday. I'm not going to give up on it already though. It's just I've been pretty much, straight up, lazy regarding it all.
Ok, I'm so tired right now the only thing I want to discuss is sleep - which will be my next update. I'll talk about some interesting things regarding sleep - good and bad. That's because I really like sleep - and I would love to share my drive to fall asleep with everyone else. :p
Anyway, G'night world who reads this.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Put on us an Ephod of Understanding
Judges 8:
(Gideon had just delivered Israel, with God's help, from the final kings of the Midians)
22 The Israelites said to Gideon, "Rule over us—you, your son and your grandson—because you have saved us out of the hand of Midian."
(Gideon had just delivered Israel, with God's help, from the final kings of the Midians)
22 The Israelites said to Gideon, "Rule over us—you, your son and your grandson—because you have saved us out of the hand of Midian."
23 But Gideon told them, "I will not rule over you, nor will my son rule over you. The LORD will rule over you." 24 And he said, "I do have one request, that each of you give me an earring from your share of the plunder." (It was the custom of the Ishmaelites to wear gold earrings.)
25 They answered, "We'll be glad to give them." So they spread out a garment, and each man threw a ring from his plunder onto it. 26 The weight of the gold rings he asked for came to seventeen hundred shekels, [b] not counting the ornaments, the pendants and the purple garments worn by the kings of Midian or the chains that were on their camels' necks. 27 Gideon made the gold into an ephod, which he placed in Ophrah, his town. All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there, and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.
God is an interesting sort. God leads us to really strange places while reading the bible and shows us something we never really thought about before. Then, confusion sets in.
Sooooo, Gideon is basically the main man for trusting God right now in the passage out of Judges. Seriously! The Israelites wanted him to rule. And after his huge faith-test with God, leading a paltry 300 men to simply crush the Midians, he tells them frankly "Nope. God is your King."
As important as that comment is, right after he starts gathering up some spoils of war, makes a vestment out of it, and people worship it. It's not really a wonder that right after he died they fell back away from God. Gideon was pretty awesome, but even he stopped worshipping God, even allowing his family to stumble.
What's the lesson here exactly? There's a lot of trust in God in Chapter 7, showing that Gideon was righteous. In Chapter 8, he kills the kings of Midian himself, and then falls away from God. So much so, that even after his death the people went right back to worshipping Baal.
The Israelites were a strange people too - instead of abandonning the God of Abraham (other cultures we well known to abandon gods when said god didn't seem to work so well anymore) completely, Israel kept coming back. This usually had to do with prophetic urging. And all the great men they had leading them....they all had their flaws. Gideon went to idol worship. Samuel was not a good father and his sons were unfit to take his place. David got a man killed so he could sleep with his wife. Each man died, because he was just a man. Christ was the only difference. No flaw, and after he died, he came back.
Now I think I have to realize that I'm just a man too. It's not that my flaws and failings are 'ok', but God is bigger than them. Christ has already overcome that struggle, it's not for me to fight and re-fight every day of my life. I just need to have the faith to claim that power, to choose out the 300 men God has picked, to annoint the scrappy pasture-boy God chose to be King, and to crazy enough to dance in front of a nation wildly to show the love and excitement I have for God. Just men were capable of doing all of that - I can too, if I mearly claim it.
What's so confusing about that?
Not much, except how to live it every day of our lives.
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
Haven't used this in awhile and the successes of accidentally hitting enter on blank posts
2 Peter 1: "But there were also false prophets among the people, even as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Lord who brought them, and bring on themselves swift destruction."
So I'll just get into some things that would be going on. First off, I have a personal resolution, and that is to write, every single day, for one year, in my blog. Now, this is January 6th. Internet was set up at the new house here yesterday, so as of right now, this is the first of the next 365 posts. Some days won't be much, others will be.
Ok, so I started with that verse up there at the top. Let me explain why:
Very long story very short, I was going to read my bible tonight and I wanted to find something to read. I navigated over to www.biblegateway.com (very good bible site, they have so many different versions it's crazy, many different languages too). Anyway, the verse of the day is from 1 Peter.
"Ok, lets read 1 Peter then, I know that's a shorter chapter anyway."
So here I was, sitting in my chair, with a new back massager Mike and Lindsay got me. They are so awesome to me, but I digress. I mean, seriously, it's got a heater and everything...crazy!
Ok, really got off topic there as I turned up the speed to high. It's like a muse.
Back on topic:
So I ready through 1 Peter, when I came across the verse I found there in Chapter 2, I realized that this would help greatly in a email discussion I have been having with my mom.
Long story long, my mom has always been interested in spiritual things. It's tricky to describe, because she believes in God, and as far as I know believes Jesus to be God's son, yet at the same time believes there to be ghosts, blessings and curses, and conspiracies regarding the bible. This brings us to the primary topic of Dan Brown's book, The DaVinci Code. There was a conspiracy in that book regarding Jesus and Mary Magdalene (sp?) such that the 'truth' is that they had a son and a lineage, and the Knights Templar are a shadow organization which protects said secret. Oh, and things get hairy when the characters in the book find out because this 'truth' would absolutely cripple Modern Christianity. So, my mom sees the movie for the first time, and sends me an email about it, saying she thinks it's true, that the Catholic Church has been purposefully trying to keep people from a relationship with God, and that it makes sense.
Enter me....3 weeks later. After I got her email, I read over it a few times but wasn't sure how to respond. I did not then or now have all the answers to the situation. However, in the past I have read Holy Blood, Holy Grail (I still have the book somewhere). Basically, it's the book Dan Brown utterly and completely plagerized. If I'm not mistaken, he did get out of a lawsuit made by the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail by claiming his work was fiction. Actually, I probably am mistaken, but I do remember him using that as part of a defense.
Ok, so I had read my book, so I already knew a fair bit about the situation. Yet, I didn't feel comfortable approaching her about it because I didn't just want to lord over her that I'm right, she's wrong, and she'd have to deal with it. No. I wanted to at least offer some good reason, and was trying to find a particular website, which I couldn't find at the time. 3 weeks after I initially read the email from her, I found the website again and immediately got it over to her...with and essay that was more written by the Holy Spirit than myself. I basically shared everything I believed about Christ, and why I felt the position taken by those works was incorrect. The website information I gave her is this: http://www.y-jesus.com/
Addendum: I had to make some corrections but did not correct my story, purposefully. I believe error should be seen for what it is. The bible gateway verse is out of 1 Peter. I, not thinking, read 2 Peter. Above verse was thusly corrected at THIS point.
Additionally I addressed a website she had listed in her email: http://www.thetruejesus.org/
She stated this website made some sense and had some information about how to pray better and become closer to God. I had pointed out this website contained some real problem points, one of which is asking people to pay money for the secret system of Jesus. Additionally, the site states Jesus did not die on the cross. I won't go into the biblical side of it, but his death on the cross is somewhat hard to counteract in truth. It is far easier to attack the resurrection, but the point of this website was to claim he never died. As far as Christianity goes, Christ HAD to die, else his purpose lay unfulfilled, regardless of how 'awesome' he might have been. I shared with her all that information, and also stated at the end that I wish could convince her who Jesus was.
Her next email asked me why I felt I needed to convince her of anything. I haven't replied yet because I didn't have any good reasoning immediately. I've come up with a few things, and this verse from 2 Peter is helpful as well.
That's all for tonight. I think this writing thing is gonna be real good for me.
So I'll just get into some things that would be going on. First off, I have a personal resolution, and that is to write, every single day, for one year, in my blog. Now, this is January 6th. Internet was set up at the new house here yesterday, so as of right now, this is the first of the next 365 posts. Some days won't be much, others will be.
Ok, so I started with that verse up there at the top. Let me explain why:
Very long story very short, I was going to read my bible tonight and I wanted to find something to read. I navigated over to www.biblegateway.com (very good bible site, they have so many different versions it's crazy, many different languages too). Anyway, the verse of the day is from 1 Peter.
"Ok, lets read 1 Peter then, I know that's a shorter chapter anyway."
So here I was, sitting in my chair, with a new back massager Mike and Lindsay got me. They are so awesome to me, but I digress. I mean, seriously, it's got a heater and everything...crazy!
Ok, really got off topic there as I turned up the speed to high. It's like a muse.
Back on topic:
So I ready through 1 Peter, when I came across the verse I found there in Chapter 2, I realized that this would help greatly in a email discussion I have been having with my mom.
Long story long, my mom has always been interested in spiritual things. It's tricky to describe, because she believes in God, and as far as I know believes Jesus to be God's son, yet at the same time believes there to be ghosts, blessings and curses, and conspiracies regarding the bible. This brings us to the primary topic of Dan Brown's book, The DaVinci Code. There was a conspiracy in that book regarding Jesus and Mary Magdalene (sp?) such that the 'truth' is that they had a son and a lineage, and the Knights Templar are a shadow organization which protects said secret. Oh, and things get hairy when the characters in the book find out because this 'truth' would absolutely cripple Modern Christianity. So, my mom sees the movie for the first time, and sends me an email about it, saying she thinks it's true, that the Catholic Church has been purposefully trying to keep people from a relationship with God, and that it makes sense.
Enter me....3 weeks later. After I got her email, I read over it a few times but wasn't sure how to respond. I did not then or now have all the answers to the situation. However, in the past I have read Holy Blood, Holy Grail (I still have the book somewhere). Basically, it's the book Dan Brown utterly and completely plagerized. If I'm not mistaken, he did get out of a lawsuit made by the authors of Holy Blood, Holy Grail by claiming his work was fiction. Actually, I probably am mistaken, but I do remember him using that as part of a defense.
Ok, so I had read my book, so I already knew a fair bit about the situation. Yet, I didn't feel comfortable approaching her about it because I didn't just want to lord over her that I'm right, she's wrong, and she'd have to deal with it. No. I wanted to at least offer some good reason, and was trying to find a particular website, which I couldn't find at the time. 3 weeks after I initially read the email from her, I found the website again and immediately got it over to her...with and essay that was more written by the Holy Spirit than myself. I basically shared everything I believed about Christ, and why I felt the position taken by those works was incorrect. The website information I gave her is this: http://www.y-jesus.com/
Addendum: I had to make some corrections but did not correct my story, purposefully. I believe error should be seen for what it is. The bible gateway verse is out of 1 Peter. I, not thinking, read 2 Peter. Above verse was thusly corrected at THIS point.
Additionally I addressed a website she had listed in her email: http://www.thetruejesus.org/
She stated this website made some sense and had some information about how to pray better and become closer to God. I had pointed out this website contained some real problem points, one of which is asking people to pay money for the secret system of Jesus. Additionally, the site states Jesus did not die on the cross. I won't go into the biblical side of it, but his death on the cross is somewhat hard to counteract in truth. It is far easier to attack the resurrection, but the point of this website was to claim he never died. As far as Christianity goes, Christ HAD to die, else his purpose lay unfulfilled, regardless of how 'awesome' he might have been. I shared with her all that information, and also stated at the end that I wish could convince her who Jesus was.
Her next email asked me why I felt I needed to convince her of anything. I haven't replied yet because I didn't have any good reasoning immediately. I've come up with a few things, and this verse from 2 Peter is helpful as well.
That's all for tonight. I think this writing thing is gonna be real good for me.
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