The Purpose of Spiritual Gifts

From 1 Peter 4:9ff:

Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.

(emphasis added)

Server-Building Seminar

Jonathan Gray writes:

Event Info

Name:	ACM System Administrator & Server Building Workshop
Tagline:	Wanted to share my experiences
Host:	Acm (Association For Computing Machinery)
Type:	Education - Workshop

Time and Place

Start Time:	Monday, March 12, 2007 at 6:00pm
End Time:	Friday, March 16, 2007 at 9:00pm
Location:	COBA 214 also known as MBB 214
City/Town:	Abilene, TX

Contact Info

Phone:	615.330.9259
Email:	jhg03a@acu.edu

Description

I plan to cover topics including:
How to design a network topology
General server building practices
A few more specific topics such as DNS

This is a hands on workshop. We've got 4 servers that we are going to completely wipe and start over with. I'll divide whomever shows up into teams to rebuild a server.

I am also inviting other knowledgable people to participate in the discussions. I don't claim to know everything and I realize there may be some areas that I am wrong about. People are welcome to come and critique my knowledge and add their own (provided it does not detract from the overall progression of the workshop).

The workshop will end whenever we reach a stopping place or 9pm whatever comes first.

I am also trying to make the workshop minimally cumulative so that people can miss a day or two if needed.

Get a Job!

Or, as Paul puts it in his letter to Titus (3:14):

Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives.

Hosea Nuggets, Part Second

I'm not a great believer in man-made global warming (especially since Mars is also undergoing a similar climate change). Yet I've become convinced over the past year or so that human sin does have a direct effect on the Earth. Here's a quote from Hosea 4 that emphasizes this:

YHWH indicts the whole population: "No one is faithful. No one loves.
No one knows the first thing about God.
All this cussing and lying and killing, theft and loose sex,
sheer anarchy, one murder after another!
And because of all this, the very land itself weeps
and everything in it is grief-stricken—
animals in the fields and birds on the wing,
even the fish in the sea are listless, lifeless."

Hosea Nuggets

From Hosea 3:1

Then YHWH ordered me, "Start all over: Love your wife again, your wife who's in bed with her latest boyfriend, your cheating wife.
Love her the way I, God, love the Israelite people,
even as they flirt and party with every god that takes their fancy."

This struck me that a man's love for his wife is not just feelings, or a commitment, or a desire. It is a holiness; it is an imitation of God.

Men, loving your wife is the Holy Thing to do.

No Absolutes?

I just came across a statement that said:

Good and evil do not exist (as absolutes, but can exist in a different context and for different reasons as Nietzsche).

(From a Wikipedia article about the book series "Conversations with God" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conversations_with_God, a series that I preliminarily judge to be "evil", without knowing much about the books.)

I confess to being mostly ignorant about Nietzsche (except that I would've preferred him to spell his name like "Neatshee"), and I certainly do not subscribe to the notion that there are no absolutes.

But this concept struck me up-side the head.

Think about killing another human. It's clearly Evil to kill another human when it's "murder". But it's Good to kill another human in order to prevent that human from murdering innocents.

Same action: different contexts, different reasons, different valuations.

Hmmm. What are the implications of this concept?

Individual Bible Study

Rob Bell, in his book "Velvet Elvis", points out that prior to the 16th century or thereabouts, it was very rare for an individual to own a copy of any portion of the Scriptures, much less an entire copy.

Accordingly, individual Bible reading and study was essentially unheard of.

That which we encourage today, individualized reading, is a new invention.

I believe it's a good invention, but it's interesting to realize that it's a new invention.

However, I believe we have lost the advantage of not having our own copies of the Scriptures, for before that was common, the common practice was to get together with others and spend hours discussing scriptures. This sort of interaction would go a long way toward keeping the far-out ideas tamed, as you'd immediately have other knowledgeable Truth-seekers to analyze and critique your ideas.

However, lest you suddenly decide to do away with individual study in an effort to return to the "old paths", let me remind you that the Ethiopian eunuch had his own copy (at least of Isaiah), and was doing his own individual study. I would daresay that the eunuch was rather unique in having his own copy of a portion of the Scriptures.

Binding and Loosing

Ideas from Rob Bell's book, "Velvet Elvis":

In the days when Jesus walked this earth, the rabbinic practice of setting down rules of what is and is not allowed was technically referred to as binding and loosing.

To "bind" something was to forbid it. To "loose" something was to allow it. (p. 49)

---

Notice what Jesus says in the book of Matthew: "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

What he is doing here is significant. He is giving his followers the authority to make new interpretations of the Bible.

...

[He is also saying that when they do so,] somehow God in heaven will be involved.
(p. 50)

Two Witnesses

Ideas from Rob Bell's book, "Velvet Elvis":

As mentioned in previous posts, ancient rabbis had different rules applying their understanding of the scriptures. These interpretations were referred to as a rabbi's yoke, and a student of the rabbi was said to have taken the yoke of that rabbi.

Very rarely, a rabbi would arrive on the scene with a new interpretation of the Scriptures. This was nearly unheard of; after all, the scriptures had been debated and studied for centuries; how is it some newcomer has more understanding than all his predecessors?

So when this happened, the new rabbi was often challenged on his authority.

Jesus came along and said things like, "You have heard it said that X, but I tell you Y". He's essentially saying that other rabbis have it wrong; this is the correct interpretation.

The existing power structure challenged him with "Where did you get your authority?"

And Jesus' usual response was "You tell me, where did John get his?"

Jesus' appeal to John's authority was important, because in the case of a new rabbi coming along with a new yoke, it was a protection to him if two other rabbis laid their hands on him, essentially validating him, witnessing to their belief that the new rabbi had such authority to teach a new yoke. John, who was an important rabbi in that area, had made just such a witness to Jesus, saying that he was not worthy to untie Jesus' sandals.

John was one of the two necessary witnesses to Jesus' authority to teach a new interpretation of the Scriptures.

The second witness came just after Jesus came up out of the waters of immersion, when a voice from heaven proclaimed, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." (Later, on the Mount of Transfiguration, the phrase "Listen to him!" was added during a second endorsement by the voice from heaven.)

Speaking of Rabbis

Once upon a time, in the land of the Trids, a mean giant often came though the land, kicking at the Trids, knocking them flying this way and that. It was a cruel thing to do, but the giant enjoyed it, and did it often.

One day, a rabbi passed through the town on his journeys. While he was in town, the mean giant came through, and kicked Trids this way and that way, left and right. The rabbi was appalled, and stood up for the Trids.

"Mr. Mean Giant, you ought not to do such things. It's cruel and wrong of you to treat these Trid people this way. If you must pick on someone, you should pick on someone your own size!"

The mean giant looked down at this itinerant preacher and laughed. He then scooped up the rabbi into his hand, and bringing the rabbi up to his face, looked into the rabbi's eyes and stated,

"Silly Rabbi, kicks are for Trids."

(Apologies to the under 30 group, who may not get this. Also, apologies to the over 30 group who will ....)

Interpreting the Bible

Ideas from Rob Bell's book, "Velvet Elvis":

In Jesus' day there were various schools of thought as to the proper interpretation of Scripture (just as there are today). One rabbi might say that X is acceptable, while Y is not, whereas another rabbi across town might say just the opposite.

Different rabbis had different sets of rules, which were really different lists of what they forbade and what they permitted. A rabbi's set of rules and lists, which was really that rabbi's interpretation of how to live the Torah, was called that rabbi's yoke. ...when you followed that rabbi, you were taking up that rabbi's yoke.

One rabbi even said his yoke was easy.

...

Rabbis would spend hours discussing with their students what it meant to live out a certain text. If a student made a suggestion about what a certain text meant and the rabbi thought the student had totally missed the point, the rabbi would say, "You have abolished the Torah," which meant that in the rabbi's opinion, the student wasn't anywhere near what God wanted. But if the student got it right, if the rabbi thought the student had grasped God's intention in the text, the rabbi would say, "You have fulfilled Torah."
(p. 47-48)

The Bible is Confusing

Ideas from Rob Bell's book, "Velvet Elvis":

* The Bible is open-ended.

God is not the author of confusion (1 Cor. 14:33), yet the Bible is confusing.

Why?

Because the Bible is open-ended.

...we have to interpret the Bible. It is not possible to simply do what the Bible says. We must first make decisions about what it means at this time, in this place, for these people.

[T]he Bible is open-ended. ... It has to be interpreted.
(p. 45-46)

Scripture Must be Interpreted

Ideas from Rob Bell's book, "Velvet Elvis":

* Scripture must be interpreted.

For example, the Biblical injunction to "Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy". What does that mean exactly? Defined by Genesis, the Sabbath is the seventh day, starting in the evening and going through the night, the next morning, and the next day until the following evening. But in our Western culture, it means the seventh day beginning at just after midnight between Friday and Saturday. Or, to many, it means the first day, as they've come to believe that the Sabbath is now the "Christian Sabbath" of Sunday rather than the seventh day.

But that's not all; in Jesus' day, one scholar might say that walking X meters is okay, but X+1 is work, and therefore forbidden. Another scholar might say that X+1 is acceptable, but X^2 is work.

There's a level of interpretation here as to what constitutes "work", what constitutes "holy", what constitutes "Sabbath", what constitutes "remember".

Even the things we think are obvious are only obvious because of our cultural baggage/lenses, and might not be so obvious to someone else.

And unless you're reading the Bible in the original language, you're relying on someone's interpretation of that language into your language. Here, Rob goes into an interesting discussion of the word gehenna, usually translated into English as hell, but which meant something entirely different to the citizens of Jerusalem in Jesus' day.

Scripture must be interpreted.

Bible Elitism

About a month ago a co-worker/friend loaned me a book to read, named "Velvet Elvis", by Rob Bell. After the introduction and first chapter, I have to admit I wasn't very impressed, and laid down the book and pretty much forgot about it (although I did blog about one highlight here).

A couple of days ago he asked me if I had finished reading it, which spurred me to pick it up again. I'm rather glad I did, because the second chapter has quite a few gems in it.

One of the things that resonated with me was a statement that seems to me to be the core of my conflict with the church I'm attending. Don't get me wrong; I'm not trying to be critical of the church; it's full of some great people. But anyone from a similar background who has come out of that background will understand this statement:

The idea that everybody else approaches the Bible with baggage and agendas and lenses and I don't is the ultimate in arrogance. To think that I can just read the Bible without reading any of my own culture or background or issues into it and come out with a "pure" or "exact" meaning is not only untrue, but it leads to a very destructive reading of the Bible that robs it of its life and energy.
(Pg. 54, emphasis added)

Bible Rap

Watch this video, and then tell me what you think of it.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EobF2TM9Fig

3 Meals a Day vs 6 Meals a Day

My mom was recently diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes, and in her education about the disease has learned that 6 smaller meals throughout the day are better than 3 bigger meals, because the blood-sugar levels are maintained at a more even level that way rather than the big roller-coaster effect of having alternating periods of famine and fasting.

As I was reading Neil R. Lightfoot's book "Everyone's Guide to Hebrews", a passage sent me on a mental tangent, and I realized that perhaps this form of diet, applied to God's word, would be better for our spiritual bodies also.

Instead of going to church three times a week and hearing a 20-30 minute sermon, how about going to church fifteen times a week and hearing a 5-minute sermonette?

Note that I'm not saying this is practical; some of us live across town from church. But look at the idea.

Many twenty-minute sermons are composed of five minutes' worth of good stuff, and fifteen minutes' worth of filler, which seem designed more to put the listeners to sleep or to daydreaming than to exhorting, encouraging, or teaching them.

Also, let me make clear, sometimes the material needs twenty minutes, two hours, or two weeks.

But the general church sermon has been standardized to be twenty to thirty minutes long, and the average preacher tends to focus on filling up that time-slot rather than tailoring the time-slot to the material.

Perhaps it's time to re-think the sermon; rather than having three big sermons per week, punctuated by long periods of fasting from God's word, maybe we should look for ways to ingest smaller doses of God's word more regularly. I don't know how the mechanics of that might be worked out; it's just a brainstorm.

What are your ideas? Do you know how to work out the mechanics of such a plan?

Your Wife Died? God May Have Done That On Purpose.

On 8 November 2004 I wrote to a friend:

I only have one chapter left to read in the book of Ezekiel, thankfully! It's a book that is so, well, meaningless, to me. But like other portions of the Bible that are similarly hard-to-understand-or-read-through, I just plod through, hoping that one of these times something will make sense.

So, apparently it takes me about two and a quarter years to read through the Bible, as I'm now back in the middle of Ezekiel again.

The book has a slightly different flavor this time around, just as I expected.

In last night's reading I came across a stunner.

Throughout the whole book YHWH has been telling Ezekiel to do this or that as a symbolic representation of the upcoming judgment on Jerusalem. Over and over again we hear warnings such as this from chapter 24:

The blood from murders
has stained the whole city;
Blood runs bold on the street stones,
with no one bothering to wash it off—
Blood out in the open to public view
to provoke my wrath,
to trigger my vengeance.

Therefore, this is what YHWH, the Master, says: "Doom to the city of murder!
I, too, will pile on the wood.
Stack the wood high,
light the match,...."

"Your encrusted filth is your filthy sex. I wanted to clean you up, but you wouldn't let me. I'll make no more attempts at cleaning you up until my anger quiets down. I, YHWH, have said it, and I'll do it. I'm not holding back. I've run out of compassion. I'm not changing my mind. You're getting exactly what's coming to you. Decree of YHWH, the Master."

And then we have this, where God speaks to Ezekiel:

YHWH's Message came to me: "Son of man, I'm about to take from you the delight of your life—a real blow, I know. But, please, no tears. Keep your grief to yourself. No public mourning. Get dressed as usual and go about your work—none of the usual funeral rituals."

I preached to the people in the morning. That evening my wife died. The next morning I did as I'd been told.

The people came to me, saying, "Tell us why you're acting like this. What does it mean, anyway?"

So I told them, "YHWH's Word came to me, saying, 'Tell the family of Israel, This is what YHWH, the Master, says: I will desecrate my Sanctuary, your proud impregnable fort, the delight of your life, your heart's desire. The children you left behind will be killed.

"'Then you'll do exactly as I've done. You'll perform none of the usual funeral rituals. You'll get dressed as usual and go about your work. No tears. But your sins will eat away at you from within and you'll groan among yourselves. Ezekiel will be your example. The way he did it is the way you'll do it.

"'When this happens you'll recognize that I am YHWH, the Master.'"

"And you, son of man: The day I take away the people's refuge, their great joy, the delight of their life, what they've most longed for, along with all their children—on that very day a survivor will arrive and tell you what happened to the city. You'll break your silence and start talking again, talking to the survivor. Again, you'll be an example for them. And they'll recognize that I am YHWH."

Wow.

Preventing two cows from living the Great Bovine Dream, and sending them to their death in a sacrifice, in order to be an object lesson for thousands of years is one thing (I Samuel 6), but this taking of a man's loved wife as on object lesson seems incredibly harsh.

And yet it's somehow comforting also. It means that God is in control, not just "nature". And although a part of me rebels at a God that would be so "cruel", another part of me rises up in praise to a God who is Holy, and that part believes that the Potter has the right to do with the clay whatever He wishes, and that the appearance of unrighteousness or unfairness in such a situation is just an appearance based on the limited and mostly-blind viewpoint of us fallen humans.

And then I wonder about the paradise that Mrs. Ezekiel found herself in, and that believing-part of me realizes she was benefited from the transaction.

Then I wonder if Ezekiel had that same comfort of knowing she was in Paradise and that neither she nor he would miss out on any joy, that it was merely being postponed for something better, or if his sense of "Why me?!" was greater than his faith in God's goodness.

Just ... Wow.

Unity in Diversity?

The phrase "Unity in Diversity" is popular amongst "Christendom", referring to the idea that although the many different groups of "Christians" are divided on a multitude of doctrinal and practical issues, we are, at core, united on a basic faith in Jesus.

On the other end of the spectrum are those who point out the New Testament insistence on unity and being of one mind and not having any divisions amongst us, such as 1 Corinthians 1:10ff:

I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ." Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?

It would seem safe to say that Paul would be appalled that today there are "Baptist Christians" and "Methodist Christians" and "Presbyterian Christians" and on and on.

It seems to me that the idea of "Unity in Diversity" is a cop-out; people claiming to follow Christ are too lazy to work out the differences so that unity would take precedence over diversity.

On the other hand, honest people sometimes have honest differences of understandings.

It is this "other hand" that Paul seems to tacitly recognize in his letter to the Galatians, when he recognizes the denomination of "Jewish Christians" and the denomination of "Gentile Christians", and particularly the "circumcision group" at Antioch (2:12).

These groups were divided on doctrinal issues no less than many of the doctrinal issues today.

Although Paul prefers that Christians be united, he admits that sometimes there are divisions, and these divisions do not in any way make one group less Christian than the other group.

Still, the aim should be for unity, not Unity in Diversity. Unity in Diversity is merely Plan B.

Why Did God Enact Bad Laws?

In a previous post, I pointed out how God said he enacted bad, impossible-to-follow laws because the Israelites kept rebuffing his righteousness. Here again is his conclusion from Ezekiel 20:25:

I also gave them over to statutes that were not good and laws they could not live by.

By chance ("providence"?!), I just read much of the book of Galatians, and found a rather interesting corroboration of this.

In the first three chapters Paul is arguing with the Gentile Christians of Galatia that they are doing wrong to start following Jewish laws as part of their Christianity. He says that righteousness did not come from following the Law of Moses, but from believing in God. He quotes Genesis 15:6 which says that Abram believed God about becoming the father of innumerable descendants, resulting in that belief being credited to Abram as righteousness. Paul's point is that the righteousness of God does not come from obedience to the Law of Moses, but rather from faith. Here's the actual passage:

Consider Abraham: "He believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness." Understand, then, that those who believe are children of Abraham. The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: "All nations will be blessed through you." So those who have faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith. -- Gal. 3:6-9

Paul continues, quoting from Deuteronomy 27:26 and Habakkuk. 2:4:

All who rely on observing the law are under a curse, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law." Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, "The righteous will live by faith." -- Gal. 3:10-11

Paul was fully aware that no one could abide by all the little rules and regulations of the Law of Moses, and thus was cursed with having to try, and cursed by knowing he was failing at it, and cursed because he failed at it. But Jesus took that curse, making us free.

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: "Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree." -- Gal. 3:13

Paul goes on to say that the Law of Moses didn't even exist until another 430 years had passed, and even then, the "new" agreement did not undo the "old" agreement:

What I mean is this: The law, introduced 430 years later, does not set aside the covenant previously established by God and thus do away with the promise. For if the inheritance depends on the law, then it no longer depends on a promise; but God in his grace gave it to Abraham through a promise. -- Gal. 3:17-18

And here's the corroboration with Ezekiel:

What, then, was the purpose of the law? It was added because of transgressions until the Seed to whom the promise referred had come. -- Gal. 3:19

In summary, Abram and his descendants were credited with righteousness because they had faith. However, because some did not have faith unto obedience, the Law of Moses was enacted 430 years later. And as Ezekiel reports, YHWH ...

... also gave them over to statutes that were not good and laws they could not live by.

And wrapping this up, Paul says:

Before this faith came, we were held prisoners by the law, locked up until faith should be revealed. So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law. You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. -- Gal. 3:23ff

Thus we have no responsibility to that Law of Moses, which was a curse for all who tried to follow it.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. -- Gal. 5:1

Bible Masters, Help!

I've been hunting online for scholarly opinions on the significance, if any, of the following from 1 Corinthians 16:22-24:

If anyone does not love the Lord—a curse be on him. Come, O Lord!
The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you.
My love to all of you in Christ Jesus. Amen.

The word "love" in the first sentence is the Greek "phileo", but in the third sentence, it's "agape".

Question 1: Why do none of the commentators even mention this fact?

Question 2: Obviously, Paul had different shades of meaning, or he would not have used two different words. What do those shades of meaning translate into when brought over into English?

God Enacted Bad Laws

You may remember how in the early years of the church, when Gentiles first started becoming Christians, the first Christians, being Jews, for the most part believed that the new Gentile Christians must also convert to Judaism (essentially). A big church conference was convened, and the apostle Peter argued against requiring the Gentile Christians to follow Jewish laws.

... why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of the [Gentile] disciples a yoke that neither we [Jews] nor our fathers have been able to bear? -- Acts 15:7ff

It seems clear that the Jews of Peter's day realized that the Law of Moses was an onerous law, impossible to observe completely.

Tonight, while reading from Ezekiel, I was struck to learn that God intentionally gave them a set of bad laws. The whole of chapter 20 is basically God reiterating how he'd extend his loving arm toward Israel, and Israel kept rebuffing God's advances, slapping him in the face. After so many rejections, God's response?

I also gave them over to statutes that were not good and laws they could not live by. -- Ez. 20:25

Wow. What a concept. Centuries of living under an unworkable system because they wouldn't do right.

And by "they", I wonder if I mean "we".

And by "we", I wonder if I mean "I".

God's Intent

It was a new thought to me, when I read this passage in Ephesians 3:10:

His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms....

Near as I can tell from this, God is using the church to show off his glory, not to humans, but to heavenly beings. Kind of similar to how God bragged to Satan about Job.

Interesting.

A Call to the Called Out

As many people know, the word for "church" in the original Greek of the Bible's New Testament is "ekklesia". The word means "a gathering of the ones called out". The web page at http://www.hisholychurch.net/ekklesia.asp has some very interesting things to say about this:

The word 'church' in the New Testament is translated from the Greek word 'ekklesia' which comes from two words 'ek' meaning 'out' and 'kaleo' meaning to 'call.'

...

In classical Greek "ekklesia" meant "an assembly of citizens summoned by the crier, the legislative assembly."

...

When the Greek city states found their governments had become too corrupt and oppressive, they would call for an ekklesia, an assembly outside the civil authority of the city. If enough people came out and refused to be under the civil authority, that government would collapse.

...

The ekklesia of Jesus Christ was founded and established by Jesus Christ almost 2000 years ago. It was a government established by Jesus the Christ, Yahshua, the anointed King and appointed to look after His Kingdom. Jesus was recognized by the existing civil government, Pontius Pilate. Jesus and His ekklesia, the called out, were persecuted by the apostate church of that day, the usurping authority of the remnant of Israel. He was killed and rose again and is living upon His throne.

...

Liddell and Scott define ekklesia as "an assembly of citizens summoned by the crier, the legislative assembly." [R. Scott, and H.G. Liddell, A Greek-English Lexicon, p. 206.] Thayer's lexicon says, "an assembly of the people convened at the public place of council for the purpose of deliberating" [J. H. Thayer, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, p. 196]. Trench gives the meaning as "the lawful assembly in a free Greek city of all those possessed of the rights of citizenship, for the transaction of public affairs" [R.C. Trench, Synonyms of the New Testament, 7th ed., pp. 1-2]. Seyffert's dictionary states, "The assembly of the people, which in Greek cities had the power of final decision in public affairs" [Oskar Seyffert, A Dictionary of Classical Antiquities, pp. 202-203].From "fully after the LORD" by Steve Flinchum http://www.bryanstation.com/flinchum-fully.htm

Christians have been "called out" of their existing governmental structures to form a new government. This government is "not of this world" (John 18:36) and we therefore do not defend it or grow it with guns and bombs --

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) -- 2 Cor 10:3-4

Here's the crux of this post: Jesus established one Kingdom, one called-out group. But since the early days of the church, humans have had a tendency to splinter off into sub-groups. What many Christians may not realize is that this tendency is strongly condemned by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:20ff:

I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought. My brothers, some from Chloe's household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas"; still another, "I follow Christ."
Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized into the name of Paul?

Jesus himself prayed just before his arrest that his followers "be brought to complete unity" so that the world would know that God had sent Jesus and has loved the followers even as God has loved Jesus -- John 17:23.

But Paul also recognized that there would be differences among believers, regardless of the goal of unity:

No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God's approval. -- 1 Cor. 11:19

He also recognizes that there will be differences over details, with some folks believing the details are very significant while others don't make a big deal of it at all (see 1 Corinthians 8).

And now here's the call I'm making to the called-out ones: We're not going to overcome our divisions overnight, but we can make a start by simply hearing the call to "come out" of any kingdom not established by Jesus, and recognizing that any organization that does not bear a Biblical name is not part of the Kingdom of Jesus.

If you're a "Baptist", drop that name. The New Testament church was never referred to in the Bible as a "Baptist church".

If you're a "Methodist", drop that name.

If you're a "Lutheran", drop that name.

Same for any other name that is not Biblical.

I'm not calling you (at least today) to leave that organization, but to simply drop that name in favor of a Biblical name.

Some of the Biblical names for the church are:

* church - Acts 2:37, 12:5, 14:27, 15:4
* church of Christ - Romans 16:16
* church of God - Acts 20:28, 1 Corinthians 10:32
* church of the living God - 1 Timothy 3:15
* general assembly and church of the firstborn - Hebrews 12:23
* church of Jesus - Matthew 16:18
* House of God - 1 Timothy 3:15
* Kingdom of God's Dear Son - Colossians 1:13
* Kingdom of God - Colossians 4:11
* Kingdom of Christ and of God - Ephesians 5:5
* Body in Christ - Romans 12:5
* Body of Christ - 1 Corinthians 12:27
* Saints and Faithful Brethren - Colossians 1:2
* church of Gentiles - Romans 16:4
* Fellow Citizens with the Saints - Ephesians 2:19
* Household of God - Ephesians 2:19
* church of the Saints - 1 Corinthians 14:33
* Temple of God - 1 Corinthians 3:16
* Them Sanctified by Faith - Acts 26:32
* The Called Ones - Jude 1:1
* The Ones Preserved in Jesus Christ - Jude 1:1

In other words, stop being a "Baptist Christian" or a "Methodist Christian" or an "Episcopalian Christian"; just be a "Christian".

It's a modest start toward unity in the Kingdom of God, but it is a start.

Linux and Flash 9

Arg! Adobe just came out with version 9 of their Flash player for Linux. I installed it on a couple of my Debian GNU/Linux boxes and found that it is still unreliable for me. I had been using the beta version of 9, and reported this problem to one of the Flash developers. I hoped the problem would get fixed, but nope.

The problem is that while playing a Flash stream, such as a video from YouTube, the playback will often just quit at random spots in the playback. There's no way to get the playback started up again except to reload the page and start from scratch. This gets mighty painful on longer videos.

I can tell I'd like the version 9 player better than the version 7 player, if it worked! As it is, I've written a script allowing me to quickly switch between the two versions. I use 9 for most things, but switch to 7 when playing a longer video and suffering from this problem.

Bummer. Maybe the next version will work.

BTW, I never really have liked Flash. It's always felt "klunky" to me, even on Windows and Macintosh. It's just that so many web developers seem to be enamored of it that you miss out on a lot of content if you don't have it.

Cells have a Zip Code

From http://creationsafaris.com/crev200701.htm#20070113a

Scientists reported in an article in [the Public Library of Science] that cells have the equivalent of a Zip-code built in to their DNA that codes their location in the body. Skin cell DNA from 47 locations on a subject were compared. Three locations on the DNA were found to correspond to the location of the cell in the body, specifying whether it came from the upper or lower torso, near to or far from the center of the body, and near to or far from the surface of the body.

Truth 2

For all of my adult life I've been interested in the Creation-Evolution controversy, and have had a love and respect for science and Truth.

In recent years, I've been disillusioned by the loudest voices in the "Scientific Community", as it has become apparent to me that they are no longer interested in Truth, but rather in maintaining their Doctrine which they equate with Truth.

I also saw a little bit of that at church last night too, which saddened me.

(And in light of recent events in my personal life, I have to add the disclaimer that as much as I think I love the Truth, I now know that in my deepest core I'm blind to my own self-deceitfulness. But no matter the darkness lurking in my deepest parts that deceives me, on the surface where I do my conscious thinking, I want to have the goal of pursuing Truth.)

Truth

An interesting statement made by Rob Bell in his book "Velvet Elvis":

Truth always leads to more . . . truth. Because truth is insight into God and God is infinite and God has no boundaries or edges. So truth always has layers and depth and texture.

Earlier in the book Rob had pointed out that his book ...

has shape and volume and weight and all the stuff that makes it a thing.

It has thingness.

The book has edges and boundaries that define it as a finite thing. It is a book and nothing else.

He then contrasted that with God who is a "being with no edges or boundaries or limits. God has no thingness because there is no end to God."

I believe I've always thought of heaven/paradise as a place where we'd finally get all our questions answered. But if Rob is correct that God has no boundaries, then there can never be an end to knowledge, and we can always learn a bit more. As Rob says, truth will lead to more . . . truth.

Wow. Fascinating.

You Can't See God, but You Can See Where He's Been

There's a passage in the book of Exodus in which Moses wants to see God's glory, and God agrees to pass by Moses while shielding Moses' eyes with his hand. God then says, "I will remove my hand and you will see my back."

Rob Bell, in his book "Velvet Elvis", says:

The ancient rabbis had all sorts of things to say about this passage, but one of the most fascinating things they picked up on is the part about God's back. They argued that in the original Hebrew language, the word back should be understood as a euphemism for "where I just was".

It is as if God is saying, "The best you're going to do, the most you are capable of, is seeing where I ... just ... was."

That's the closest you are going to get.

Cain the Murderer; Lamech the Defender?

My cousin has suggested a different way of looking at Lamech.

You probably recall the story of Cain and Abel, how Cain, out of anger, rose up and killed his brother, thus providing our first recorded instance of murder (Genesis chapter 4). Cain was given a sign and promised that if anyone should kill him in retaliation, he will be avenged seven times over.

A few generations later, a descendant of Cain's, Lamech, is recorded as killing someone also.

Lamech said to his wives,
"Adah and Zillah, listen to me;
wives of Lamech, hear my words.
I have killed a man for wounding me,
a young man for injuring me.

If Cain is avenged seven times,
then Lamech seventy-seven times."

I've always thought of Lamech as the typical bad-guy outlaw in Westerns, running rough-shod over other folks, and having a cocky "I run this town" attitude.

My cousin suggested otherwise; perhaps Lamech killed in self-defense, and he was merely saying, "A young man attacked me, and I killed him. If Cain is avenged seven-fold for murder, I should be avenged seventy-seven fold for self-defense."

Interesting thought.

Hydroplate Theory Revisited, a Short Video

I blogged earlier about the Hydroplate Theory. Here's a short (five mins?) video of an animated explanation of the Hydroplate Theory of Noah's Flood: http://www.acu.edu/~westk/fonte23.mov

Worshipping the Bronze Snake

I picked up a copy of the "Absolute Beginner's Guide to the Bible" (Tom Head, Que Publishing, 2006) from the local library the other day. All sorts of fascinating little tidbits.

Remember the bronze snake that Moses made in Deuteronomy 21:4-9? It eventually found its way to the Temple, where it became an object of veneration for the Israelites. During King Hezekiah's reforms, he smashed up this idol:

In YHWH's opinion [Hezekiah] was a good king; he kept to the standards of his ancestor David. He got rid of the local fertility shrines, smashed the phallic stone monuments, and cut down the sex-and-religion Asherah groves. As a final stroke he pulverized the ancient bronze serpent that Moses had made; at that time the Israelites had taken up the practice of sacrificing to it—they had even dignified it with a name, Nehushtan (The Old Serpent).

2 Kings 18:3-4

Was Isaiah Familiar with the ancient Babylonian Epic of Gilgamesh?

I picked up a copy of the "Absolute Beginner's Guide to the Bible" (Tom Head, Que Publishing, 2006) from the local library the other day. All sorts of fascinating little tidbits.

Apparently (I say "apparently" because I realize there might be other factors at work here than how the book presents things) God expected Isaiah to be familiar with the Epic of Gilgamesh. You've likely heard at least a passing reference to this ancient Babylonian tale, which essentially is the Babylonian version of Creation and the Flood, etc, written, according to this book, about 2000 B.C. (but I'm always suspicious of dates prior to about 500 B.C. -- too much guesswork and assumptions needed in most cases).

According to page 56, the Epic of Gilgamesh says this:

Inanna tended the tree carefully and lovingly
she hoped to have a throne and a bed
made for herself from its wood.
After ten years, the tree had matured.
But in the meantime...
the demon Lilith had built her house in the middle.
But Gilgamesh, who had heard of Inanna's plight,
came to her rescue...
[and] Lilith, petrified with fear,
tore down her house and fled into the wilderness.

Isaiah 34:14 (The Message) says this:

Wildcats and hyenas will hunt together,
demons and devils dance through the night.
The night-demon Lilith, evil and rapacious,
will establish permanent quarters.

(It seems that most translations hide this "Lilith" as "night bird" or similar, but some offer the margin note of the literal Hebrew being "Lilith".)

Samson the Vow-Breaker

I picked up a copy of the "Absolute Beginner's Guide to the Bible" (Tom Head, Que Publishing, 2006) from the local library the other day. All sorts of fascinating little tidbits.

Samson, you'll recall, was dedicated at birth ...

to God as a nazirite, which means he must be kept away from unclean animals, corpses, fermented food and drink, and that his hair must never be cut. He violates most of his vows -- most notably in [Judges] 14:8-9, where he eats fermented honey from the corpse of an unclean animal....

(pg 104)

The Tanakh

I picked up a copy of the "Absolute Beginner's Guide to the Bible" from the local library the other day. All sorts of fascinating little tidbits.

One of the things I found interesting: you're probably familiar with the way the folks of Jesus' day referred to the Old Testament, as "The Law, the Prophets, and the Writings". In Hebrew, the "Law" would be "Torah", the "Prophets" would be "Nevi'im", and the "Writings" would be "Kethuvim". Taking the first letter of each word, you get "T.N.K.", and adding in some vowels, you get "Tanakh". This is the word used by adherents of Judaism to refer to what we call the Old Testament.

You Have Rocks in Your Head

From http://creationsafaris.com/crev1003.htm#body80

Rocks in the Head are Good for Balance 10/10/2003
Next time someone says you have rocks in your head, it might be a compliment, depending on where and how big. You have rocks in your inner ears that keep you from falling over. No kidding. Fish, birds, and mammals have tiny crystals of calcite, called otoliths, that are a key ingredient in the sense of balance. This means that we all have tiny chunks of limestone in our heads.

How They Work: Because rocks have inertia, they resist motion when moving forward, and they fall in a gravitational field. The otoliths rest against tiny hair cells in a part of the inner ear called the utricle (in mammals, just below the semicircular canals). When you move or turn over, the hair cells sense the shearing motion of the otoliths, and report the information to the brain. This sense works in conjunction with the eyes to help you know which way is up, how fast you are moving, and which direction you are turning. A good explanation, with illustrations, can be found on the website of a clinical otolaryngologist, Dr. Timothy C. Hain. What They Look Like: Otoliths are microscopic. Fish have one large oblong otolith resting on a bed of hair cells in the macula (the gravity-sensing organ), whereas mammals have many smaller, irregular ones, called otoconia, surrounded by hair cells. Sometimes referred to as “ear dust,” the otoconia are too small, 30 microns or shorter, to be seen without a microscope. They are made up of calcium carbonate in a protein matrix. They form early in the embryo and are maintained throughout life. Some of the vertigo that ails seniors is due to shortage or accumulation of otoconia. Normally, debris is thought to be reabsorbed and new otoconia regenerated, but there is much still to be discovered about this sensory mechanism. In fish, the otoliths are also part of their sense of sound. What’s New: Scientists just found an enzyme essential for proper otolith development. In the Oct. 10 issue of Science1, Sollner et al. found a gene they named Starmaker that when mutated, causes zebrafish to produce irregular stones with sharp edges instead of the smooth, oblong otoliths produced in normal development. This is partly because it switches the biomineralization process to produce aragonite instead of calcite, a different crystal form of calcium carbonate. (Some animals, like amphibians, actually use aragonite in their otoliths.) Donna Fekete, in a review of this paper in the same issue,2 has illustrations of these little rocks in the utricle and describes how they work. She says that the discovery may lead to improved medical treatments for vertigo and more: “In humans, mutations of a related protein have been linked to congenital deafness and defects in tooth mineralization,” she notes. In other words, the proteins that guide otolith development are also essential for hearing, and are involved in producing the other gemstones in our head – tooth enamel. 1Christian Sollner et al., “Control of Crystal Size and Lattice Formation by Starmaker in Otolith Biomineralization,” Science Magazine 25 June 2003; 10.1126/science.1088443. 2Donna M. Fekete, “Rocks That Roll Zebrafish,” Science Magazine 25 June 2003; 10.1126/science.1091171. Did you know this? Did you know that you have limestone in your ears? Did you know it is essential for you to stand and walk? This is amazing stuff. Consider that it is not just dust collected from a cave or wherever, but it is carefully manufactured by proteins and enzymes, that are in turn directed by the DNA code. The result are beautiful hexagonal crystals of calcium carbonate: little gems in your head. They reside in a fluid in your inner ear, enmeshed in a forest of hair cells that can sense every move they make. Then there are the lovely crystals in your teeth – that’s another amazing story, for another time. Everywhere they look, scientists find complex systems of interrelated parts. Slight mutations often cause complete loss of function, sometimes in several apparently unrelated systems. Without these rocks in your head, you would wobble dizzily like a drunken sailor and have a hard time just standing up. When they work, as they usually do, they work very, very well. The rocks are actually the simplest part of the system. The sensory apparatus that reports each movement, and the brain software that continually monitors and interprets the signals and sends the necessary messages to the appropriate muscles for rapid response, is mind boggling in sophistication. How could such things evolve without intelligent design? Get real! Whether it’s in a fish darting in the water, or an eagle dive-bombing on its prey, or a cheetah in pursuit of a gazelle, the hardware and software to accomplish such things surely overwhelms any man-made imitations, and yet we get all excited when Sony builds a robot that can walk upstairs (slowly) without falling over (sometimes). It’s time to give credit where credit is due. Think about these tiny gemstones the next time you watch the Olympics, and see a champion gymnast do a complex routine on the balance beam. When she nails that double-twisting dismount, stand up and cheer – not just for her, but for the Creator who thought of a good use for rocks in the head.

New Pyramids

http://www.bosnianpyramid.com/ and http://www.bosnian-pyramid.com/ report that new pyramids, twice the size of the Great Pyramid at Giza, have been found in Europe.

And The Register says, "Nope".

A Message to Religious Leaders

Jeremiah 23:

"Doom to the shepherd-leaders who butcher and scatter my sheep!" YHWH's Decree. "So here is what I, YHWH, Israel's God, say to the shepherd-leaders who misled my people: 'You've scattered my sheep. You've driven them off. You haven't kept your eye on them.'"

...

"I know what they're saying, all these prophets who preach lies using me as their text, saying 'I had this dream! I had this dream!' How long do I have to put up with this?"

...

"But don't go around pretending to know it all, saying 'God told me this...God told me that....' I don't want to hear it anymore. Only the person I authorize speaks for me. Otherwise, my Message gets twisted, the Message of the living YHWH-of-the-Angel-Armies."

...

I'm telling you: Quit the 'God told me this...God told me that...' kind of talk.

A Message to Political Leaders

Jeremiah 22:2ff:

Listen to what YHWH says, O King of Judah, you who sit on David's throne—you and your officials and all the people who go in and out of these palace gates. This is YHWH's Message: Attend to matters of justice. Set things right between people. Rescue victims from their exploiters. Don't take advantage of the homeless, the orphans, the widows. Stop the murdering!

To Know God

Jeremiah 22:16

He defended the cause of the poor and needy,
and so all went well.
Is that not what it means to know me?"
declares YHWH.

You Make Me Hate My Brother

Joel Turtel has an interesting article over at American Daily that concisely contrasts arguments for Big Government with those against. Here's one of the arguments:

[The government says] "You must pay 50 percent of your salary in state and Federal income taxes to support all our entitlement programs. You are morally responsible to help the poor, unwed mothers, college students, corporations who want tax breaks, big farmers who want farm subsidies, and Mexican illegal aliens who insist on free medical care."

"By what right," I replied, "do you force me to be my brother's keeper at the point of a gun? Why do you think you have the right to rob me to give unearned handouts to people who will vote for you? You turn compassion into compulsion and make me hate my brother."

This is so spot-on, that "forced compassion" leads to ill-feelings toward those recipients of that compassion. I found that very interesting.

Hydroplate Theory

UPDATE: I've just now noticed that most of my images have disappeared (my mistake), so rather than recollect/restore them I'll just suggest you look at the pix on this page in the original: http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/HydroplateOverview7.html
/End of UPDATE


There's an online book (http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/, from which all illustrations below have been taken (apologies that the right-side of the pix are chopped off; go see the originals at the link above)) that presents a "Hydroplate Theory" for the current structure of the earth's surface. I find it fascinating, and although not everyone will want to read the whole book, you might find looking at a few pictures to be interesting.

The basic jist is that prior to the Flood there was a vast underground reservoir about 10 miles below the surface of the earth, and about half a mile deep. There were pillar-like supports dividing this reservoir into interconnected chambers and providing support for the crust above it. During the 1656 years between the Creation and the Flood, tidal forces (from the moon acting on these underground water chambers, just as it acts on today's oceans) caused daily stretching/compressing cycles on these pillars that built up heat and pressure, and that caused partial melting of these pillars allowing iron and nickel to sink to their bottoms while quartz remained nearer the top.



Eventually, in Noah's day, the pressure got so great that some micro-fractures opened up on the surface of the earth. These micro-fractures rapidly spread around the globe (in a matter of hour), causing the beginning of the world-encircling mid-oceanic ridge.






The sudden release of this pressurized water was even stronger than you'd think, because of some interesting physics that take place with water under certain pressures and temperatures, and when the fountains of the deep blew, they blew catastrophically.





The rift quickly eroded, and the eroded portions of the crust formed huge deposits of sediments that quickly buried many organisms, later to become fossils, and that got blown into space to become our modern-day asteroid belt,asteroids, meteoroids (composed largely of iron and nickel), and comets (http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/Asteroids2.html), and that blasted craters in nearby planets and moons.

As the heavy overlying crust was eroded away, the underlying pressure forced the remaining crustal plates up; the continents sitting on those plates, lubricated by a still-remaining water layer, slid down the slopes thus created, away from the upraised ridge.



They traveled rapidly, and then came to a rather abrupt slowdown at the end of their trip, causing all sorts of continental crunching and folding and uplifting, giving form to our modern-day folded and up-turned mountain ranges.


The newly exposed thin crustal plates now allowed all sorts of incredible volcanism to burst forth, spewing forth millions of cubic kilometers of lava, giving rise to the vast volcanic deposits we see on the Earth's surface today.

As the continents were compressed by their sudden stop, they thickened (trading thickness for breadth), and rose up out of the flood waters while sinking down to the newly-evacuated underground chambers, choking off further flood-waters. Water rushed off the newly-exposed land into the newly widened space between continents, creating vast sheet-erosion of freshly-laid sediments at first, and then slowing down to a vast "trickle" carving canyons and valleys. Trapped lakes later breached natural dams, causing further erosion (such as the Grand Canyon by the sudden drainage of two vast lakes East of the canyon), or died a slow death of evaporation, leaving great salt flats such as the Salt Flats of Nevada and the Great Salt Lake of Utah.

In the early years after the flood, sea level was much lower than at present, creating land bridges for humans and animals to cross into islands and continents now separated by water barriers. As the continents sank into the underground chambers over the course of several centuries, sea level "rose" to its present level, drowning those land bridges.

The incredible amounts of warm water, leading to high rates of evaporation, combined with the cold atmosphere from all the volcanism and debris and re-radiation of solar heat from so much water reflecting it, and cloud cover preventing solar heat, would have caused centuries of heavy snow, resulting in an "ice age".

All-in-all, a rather fascinating theory that accounts for a lot of observations.

And You Thought Abe Lincoln was a Good Guy...

As a kid I considered Abraham Lincoln to be my favorite U.S. president. I know many such folks consider him likewise. Over the past few years however I've begun to realize that ol' Honest Abe was actually one of the worst things that could have happened to these United States of America.

This article at http://www.lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo118.html provides a quick overview that might entice you to rethink your position regarding Lincoln. Here's a snippet to get you started:

Boritt does not deny that Lincoln was a non-believer. "He would not join a church, could not embrace the Christian conception of sin and redemption, kept mostly silent about Jesus, and showed no inclination to build a personal relationship with God," he writes in Newsweek. He "rejected, even ridiculed" the Calvinism of his parents. But Lincoln was a master politician, once defined by Murray Rothbard as one who is "a masterful liar, conniver, and manipulator." There has never been anyone better at it than Lincoln.

...

Nearly every one of Lincoln’s major claims in the Gettysburg Address is not only false, but exactly the opposite of the truth.

...

Lincoln of course did not believe in equality of the races at all. He clearly stated his opposition to it many times, spent his entire adult life advocating "colonization" or deportation of blacks; and supported the Illinois Black Codes and other laws that would deny blacks any semblance of citizenship. He also was behind the "Corwin Amendment" to the Constitution that would have enshrined slavery in the Constitution forever.

The article also points out that our current understanding of a nation known as the United States of America is totally foreign to the founding fathers' understandings, which was that of a collective of several states in America, united. Some good reading, that only takes five or ten minutes to read. I suggest it.

The Attack of the Killer Snow Dog

It was the first snow of 2006, and when I hunkered closer to the ground to snap a picture of 'Reo, he thought that meant I wanted him to jump into my arms. Just as I snapped, he left the ground, and it turned out to look like a vicious attack.

God's Social Justice Scheme

Much of my life I've heard, particularly from non-believers, that the God of the Old Testament is angry and jealous and vengeful and cruel, whereas the God of the New Testament is merciful and loving and forgiving.

Of course, most believers, myself included, find that to be an inaccurate claim.

This time 'round of reading the Old Testament (and I'm really beginning to not like that phrase to refer to that section of the Bible) I have been stunned to realize just how much of God's emphasis in it is on social justice. This snippet from Isaiah 58 is a great example:

The bottom line on your 'fast days' is profit.
You drive your employees much too hard.
You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight.
You fast, but you swing a mean fist.
The kind of fasting you do
won't get your prayers off the ground.

This is the kind of fast day I'm after:
to break the chains of injustice,
get rid of exploitation in the workplace,
free the oppressed,
cancel debts.

What I'm interested in seeing you do is:
sharing your food with the hungry,
inviting the homeless poor into your homes,
putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,
being available to your own families.

The Ethiopian Eunuch

You may remember the story of the Ethiopian Eunuch in Acts chapter 8.

In the very earliest days of the church, Philip, the evangelist, met with an eunuch who had traveled to Jerusalem to worship. The eunuch was heading back to Ethiopia, Africa, reading from the book of Isaiah. He must have been self-consciously aware that as an eunuch he was not "good enough" to serve as a priest (Leviticus 21:20). He also probably felt pretty much like a societal outcast anyway because of the stigma attached to being an eunuch. But the eunuch wasn't thinking of these things at the time he was reading from Isaiah, as the passage he was reading was this passage:

He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before the shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.

According to Acts,

Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.

What I discovered last night, is that if they read just three more chapters from this passage in Isaiah 53, the eunuch would have found this little gem in chapter 56:

Do what's right and do it in the right way,
For salvation is just around the corner,

...

Make sure no outsider who now follows God
ever has occasion to say, 'God put me in second-class.
I don't really belong.'
And make sure no physically mutilated person
is ever made to think, 'I'm damaged goods.
I don't really belong.'

for God says:

"To the mutilated who keep my Sabbaths
and choose what delights me
and keep a firm grip on my covenant,
I'll provide them an honored place
in my family and within my city,
even more honored than that of sons and daughters.
I'll confer permanent honors on them
that will never be revoked."

Here comes Philip saying, "that time is at hand; no need for you to worry anymore about being an eunuch. You are just as acceptable to God as any uber-priest, because of what Jesus has done."

No wonder the eunuch "went on his way rejoicing".

A Message to Jews

To my fellow sons and daughters of Adam, chosen by God:

Take note of your holy scripture, from these snippets starting in Isaiah 48 (The Message):

And now listen to this, family of Jacob,
you who are called by the name Israel:

God is talking to you.

you who use God's name to back up your promises
and pray to the God of Israel?
But do you mean it?
Do you live like it?

And He wants you to live as a God-fearer, not just act like one.

I know you're a bunch of hardheads,
obstinate and flint-faced,
So I got a running start and began telling you
what was going on before it even happened.

He wants you to be able to see His work in the world, so He's telling you beforehand what it will look like.

This isn't a variation on the same old thing.
This is new, brand-new,
something you'd never guess or dream up.

And it's unique.

You've never been good listeners to me.
You have a history of ignoring me,

But He still expects you to miss the significance of it.

Get out of Babylon! Run from the Babylonians!
Shout the news. Broadcast it.
Let the world know, the whole world.
Tell them, "God redeemed his dear servant Jacob!"

First off, He's going to get you out of Babylonian Captivity, which He has already done.

God put me to work from the day I was born.
The moment I entered the world he named me.
He gave me speech that would cut and penetrate.
He kept his hand on me to protect me.
He made me his straight arrow
and hid me in his quiver.
He said to me, "You're my dear servant,
Israel, through whom I'll shine."

Next, He's going to use you as a mirror of His glory.

this God who took me in hand
from the moment of birth to be his servant,
To bring Jacob back home to him,
to set a reunion for Israel—

And He will raise up a specific Servant to bring you back to His good graces.

But, here's the new thing He mentioned earlier:

He says, "But that's not a big enough job for my servant—
just to recover the tribes of Jacob,
merely to round up the strays of Israel.
I'm setting you up as a light for the nations
so that my salvation becomes global!"

Wow. God's Servant will not merely save you; he'll save the Goyim also!

But Zion said, "I don't get it. God has left me.
My Master has forgotten I even exist."

But when it happens, you still won't "get it".

But even if mothers forget,
I'd never forget you—never.
Look, I've written your names on the backs of my hands.
The walls you're rebuilding are never out of my sight.

But God remains faithful to you.

Listen to me, all you who are serious about right living and committed to seeking God.
Ponder the rock from which you were cut,
the quarry from which you were dug.
Yes, ponder Abraham, your father,
and Sarah, who bore you.
Think of it! One solitary man when I called him,
but once I blessed him, he multiplied.
Likewise I, God, will comfort Zion,
comfort all her mounds of ruins.

Abraham was but one man, but from him came an entire nation.

Israel is but one nation, but from her comes an entire world of salvation.

Pay attention, my people.
Listen to me, nations.
Revelation flows from me.
My decisions light up the world.
My deliverance arrives on the run,
my salvation right on time.
I'll bring justice to the peoples.
Even faraway islands will look to me
and take hope in my saving power.

Again, God's salvation is not for the Jews only, but also for the Gentiles. And it will come through his Servant:

Just watch my servant blossom!
Exalted, tall, head and shoulders above the crowd!
But he didn't begin that way.
At first everyone was appalled.
He didn't even look human—
a ruined face, disfigured past recognition.
Nations all over the world will be in awe, taken aback,
kings shocked into silence when they see him.
For what was unheard of they'll see with their own eyes,
what was unthinkable they'll have right before them."

You've been watching for a Servant who is tall and exalted; you've failed to watch for one that has a ruined face and is disfigured. And what happens will be unthinkable (which should be a warning that you'll resist believing in it).

Who would have thought God's saving power would look like this?

God's salvation won't be what you expect.

The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.

You won't recognize God's Servant, because he won't look like what you expect. And when God's Servant suffers, you'll think it's his own fault.

But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost.
We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong,
on him, on him.

But this Servant will function as an atoning sacrifice. I daresay few modern Jews today understand this aspect of the Messiah, since burnt sacrifices seem to be more of an historical oddity than a modern reality (but I'm speaking as a Gentile here; I may not know what I'm talking about).

He was beaten, he was tortured,
but he didn't say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he'd never hurt a soul
or said one word that wasn't true.

Still, it's what God had in mind all along,
to crush him with pain.
The plan was that he give himself as an offering for sin
so that he'd see life come from it—life, life, and more life.
And God's plan will deeply prosper through him.

This suffering servant will die. He'll be buried. But yet ....

Out of that terrible travail of soul,
he'll see that it's worth it and be glad he did it.
Through what he experienced, my righteous one, my servant,
will make many "righteous ones,"
as he himself carries the burden of their sins.
Therefore I'll reward him extravagantly—
the best of everything, the highest honors—
Because he looked death in the face and didn't flinch,
because he embraced the company of the lowest.
He took on his own shoulders the sin of the many,
he took up the cause of all the black sheep.

This sacrifice will result in a great salvation, and the dead servant will see it.

This sounds to me very much like something new, like something unexpected.

Question: Have you ever been taught that your Messiah would be un-recognized and die a horrible death? Because if not, your teaching has not been scriptural, according to Isaiah.

Have you ever considered the possibility that you've been taught wrong about the Messiah, and therefore may have missed him?

Jehovah? Yahweh? LORD? What?!

In the comments to a previous post, I mentioned that the term "Jehovah" is a man-made term and we have no business using it. I was directed to an article that convinced me to retract that claim, at least temporarily, until further evidence swayed me one way or the other. The following is my (slightly edited) reply to that exchange.

---

Well, I've done further research, and my conclusion is that "Jehovah" is indeed a man-made term.

The clinching evidence is that the Tetragrammaton is not always marked in the Hebrew text with the vowels for "Lord". When it is in conjunction with the actual word "Lord", the Tetragrammaton is marked with the vowels for "God", so that the audio reader would render the phrase "Lord God" rather than "Lord Lord". If the Name was truly "Jehovah", the reader could simply read the text as written, "Lord Jehovah", and there would be no need to use the vowel markings for "God".

An interesting side note is that I had a dialog with a Jewish scholar who assured me that "Jehovah" is not the correct term. He claimed that a few of the Jewish elite, himself included, such as the members of the Sanhedrin, know the actual pronunciation of the Name, but are forbidden from revealing it to the world at large. (Yeah, whatever.) He also assured me that "Yahweh" was not the correct pronunciation either.

In talking to him I found it fascinating that I have more respect for his written scriptures than he does, as he has more respect for the interpretation of those scriptures as given by the Oral Law, as delivered by the Sanhedrin, regardless of all the warnings in the Torah against adding to or taking from the written word. His only substantial argument was to appeal to something Jesus said (ironic, ain't it, as he's no Jesus-follower?). He pointed out that Jesus said in Matt 23:2 that because the "Sanhedrin" sits in the Seat of Moses we should obey them. But it seems pretty clear to me from the context that whatever Jesus meant by this statement, he did not mean for us to elevate the traditions of the Sanhedrin over the written word of God.

The Efficacy of Prayer?

Today was a half-day at work, being as everyone was allowed off the afternoon to begin the Thanksgiving Holidays.

I hate being sick on Holidays! If I'm gonna be sick, why must it be on a day I already have off? Arg!

Just before leaving work to go home, I started wondering if that uneasy feeling in my gut was a portent of something worse. As I drove home, I actually thought about praying to God that I don't get sick, but I didn't want to treat God like Santa Claus, so I intentionally did not.

By the time I got home, I was not feeling well at all. I went straight to bed, and slept fitfully for a couple of hours, then spent the next six hours in very much pain. I was absolutely miserable. But Jesus went through much worse; what's a bit of discomfort in light of his sufferings?

But finally, I broke down and started crying out to Jesus and to YHWH for pain relief. I cried out and whimpered and begged and cried. All day long, the problem in my gut had just settled mid-range, and would go neither up nor down. I had no sensation of nausea or bathroom needs; I just had some blockage in my gut that was near intolerable. Within about ten minutes of my crying out to Jesus, all of a sudden I needed a vomit bucket. I hate vomiting, mostly 'cause it takes thirty minutes of nasty feeling to get the process started, and then there's the burning throat and nose, and the bad taste, etc. But this time, the need came on suddenly, and within two minutes I was hurling, Baby, yeah! And it was relatively easy, quick, and no burn or bad taste!

A couple of minutes after that, I felt so much better. I'm not well, but I feel so much better. I have to give credit to Jesus / YHWH for my relief; I was miserable for hours until I prayed, and then shortly after starting to pray, God granted me much relief.

So often, prayer seems to not work for me, but this event helps to re-emphasize that Jesus does hear and act on our prayers.

I want to use this venue to publicly praise Jesus and give him credit for my improvement. Thank you, Jesus! Thank you YHWH! Thank you Spirit!

The Fruit of the Spirit

A wise friend of mine wrote in regard to Gal. 5:22-23:

"The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control”.

This is a description of a Christian’s character. This is not about Sunday and Wednesday. This is about how we behave and respond and think every day. At home, at work, at the grocery store, even in traffic.

This Appeals to Me Greatly

For some time now I've been pulled toward the idea of switching careers, to take up the study of the inner workings of microbiology. I'm fascinated by the machinery, by the incredible design of the workings in living cells. This article points up the fact that so much of modern-day "science" is wasted on trying to prove we're just random accidents of nature, when with a re-focusing of our efforts, we could be harnessing sophisticated designs already in existence for solving world hunger and poverty. If you're at all interested, take a quick look-see:
http://creationsafaris.com/crev200611.htm#20061118a

I'm Trying to Build a House, but the City Regs Keep Getting in the Way

Solomon puts it in an interesting way, according to the New American Standard Bible:

Abundant food is in the fallow ground of the poor,
But it is swept away by injustice.

Prov. 13:23

Textorize Me

I plugged the address of this picture









from this blog into this web page:
http://textorizer.whatfettle.com/

and got this result, made from text:










Cool.

The Basics of Life

The answer's simple:
Live right,
speak the truth,
despise exploitation,
refuse bribes,
reject violence,
avoid evil amusements.
This is how you raise your standard of living!
A safe and stable way to live.
A nourishing, satisfying way to live.

Isaiah 33:15-16 "The Message"

Giving Thanks at Meals

You know how it's common practice to give thanks before a meal? I found it interesting that Deuteronomy 8:10 indicates that the thanks should be after the meal:

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise YHWH your God for the good land he has given you.

===

Ever noticed how often someone is asked to give thanks for a meal, and they pray about everything under the sun, and never actually get around to thanking God for the meal?

===

Ever noticed how it's common courtesy to say "thank you" to someone who holds open the door for you, but it would be bordering on insanity to stand there and thank the door-holder for being a good citizen and holding a job to support his family and refraining from theft and telling him how nicely dressed he is and how you'd like it if everyone were as courteous as he and would it be possible for him to hold open the door for the little old lady coming down the street, and and and. This is kind of the way I view giving thanks for a meal. Why can't we just say, "Thanks, God, for this meal; we appreciate it", instead of turning it into a long-winded cover-all-the-bases prayer?

Just some thoughts....

Taking the Lord's Name in Vain

It's not exactly the Lord's name, and I don't reckon I'd actually say it's "in vain", but my mind can't help but be drawn to the concept when I listen to some prayers.

This past Sunday, I counted the number of "Father"s in two different prayers, as in "Dear Father ... blah blah blah, and, Father, yada yada yada...".

One prayer had twenty-one "Father"s, and the other had twenty.

If I'm in a three-minute conversation with a friend, I most assuredly don't say that friend's name twenty times. To do so would seem, well, mocking, or something. Definitely odd.

So why do it when we pray?

Just curious. Comments are welcome.

Eula Myrtle (McElroy) West

30 Jan 1903 -- 4 Nov 2006













Born in Godley, Johnson County, Texas (USA) on 30 January 1903, to Jefferson Davis McElroy and Marnevia Delilah ("Minerva Della") Gilliland McElroy.

Married William Earl West 27 December 1921 in Cleburne, Johnson County, Texas.

Children:
James Ray West (deceased, Tennessee).
Oleta (West) Jackson (Abilene, Taylor County, Texas).
Emmet Aldon West (Abilene, Taylor County, Texas).
Roger Lynn West (Richland Hills, Tarrant County, Texas)

Died at age 103, 4 Nov 2006, in Richland Hills, Tarrant County, Texas.

Some Geek Humour

For Geeks Only (well, geeks will be the only ones to get the humour).

On the Debian GNU/Linux mailing list recently, Jochen wrote:

[I need a non-geek way to do a computer-related function because ...] I have a non-geek girlfriend using my computer from time to time. But maybe that fact disqualifies me as a Real Geek[tm] a priori. ;-)

Ron replied with:

I'd say there's a higher probability of creating new geeks if existing geeks reproduce.

To which Kent replied:

What is this "reproduce" of which you speak? Is that a new utility similar to "cp"?

Douglas chimed in with:

More like "fork".

Florian finished up with:

I was also confused by this sub-thread, so I tried to research the "girlfriend" issue:

$ apt-cache search girlfriend

psad - The Port Scan Attack Detector

$ apt-cache show psad | grep -i girlfriend

* various backdoor programs (e.g. EvilFTP, GirlFriend, SubSeven)

My preliminary conclusion is that with a girlfriend you are essentially "pwned".

If a tool breaks in your hand while using it ...

I found this passage from Isaiah 10 interesting.

Doom to Assyria, weapon of my anger.
My wrath is a cudgel in his hands!
I send him against a godless nation,
against the people I'm angry with.
I command him to strip them clean, rob them blind,
and then push their faces in the mud and leave them.
But Assyria has another agenda;
he has something else in mind.
He's out to destroy utterly,
to stamp out as many nations as he can.
Assyria says, 'Aren't my commanders all kings?
Can't they do whatever they like?
Didn't I destroy Calno as well as Carchemish?
Hamath as well as Arpad? Level Samaria as I did Damascus?
I've eliminated kingdoms full of gods
far more impressive than anything in Jerusalem and Samaria.
So what's to keep me from destroying Jerusalem
in the same way I destroyed Samaria and all her god-idols?'"

When the Master has finished dealing with Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he'll say, "Now it's Assyria's turn. I'll punish the bragging arrogance of the king of Assyria, his high and mighty posturing,

Evil Rulers

In recent years I've learned that very much of the Bible is focused on treating people properly. From Isaiah 10:

Doom to you who legislate evil, who make laws that make victims— Laws that make misery for the poor,
that rob my destitute people of dignity,
Exploiting defenseless widows,
taking advantage of homeless children.
What will you have to say on Judgment Day,
when Doomsday arrives out of the blue?
Who will you get to help you?
What good will your money do you?
A sorry sight you'll be then, huddled with the prisoners,
or just some corpses stacked in the street.
Even after all this, God is still angry,
his fist still raised, ready to hit them again.

Paradise

The wolf will romp with the lamb,
the leopard sleep with the kid.
Calf and lion will eat from the same trough,
and a little child will tend them.
Cow and bear will graze the same pasture,
their calves and cubs grow up together,
and the lion eat straw like the ox.
The nursing child will crawl over rattlesnake dens,
the toddler stick his hand down the hole of a serpent.
Neither animal nor human will hurt or kill
on my holy mountain.
The whole earth will be brimming with knowing God-Alive,
a living knowledge of God ocean-deep, ocean-wide.

Isaiah 11

Unto Us a Child is Born

For a child has been born—for us!
the gift of a son—for us!
He'll take over
the running of the world.
His names will be: Amazing Counselor,
Strong God,
Eternal Father,
Prince of Wholeness.
His ruling authority will grow,
and there'll be no limits to the wholeness he brings.
He'll rule from the historic David throne
over that promised kingdom.
He'll put that kingdom on a firm footing
and keep it going
With fair dealing and right living,
beginning now and lasting always.
The zeal of God-of-the-Angel-Armies
will do all this.

Isaiah 9

Seeking out a Spiritist

Years ago, when I was teaching High School ( -- and I'll just make a quick note to say that our public school system is broken -- ), I had a young girl student who seemed to be enamored of "gray-area" spiritualism: astrology, tarot, and the like. I was reminded of her when I read this passage from Isaiah 8:

When people tell you, "Try out the fortunetellers.
Consult the spiritualists.
Why not tap into the spirit-world,
get in touch with the dead?"
Tell them, "No, we're going to study the Scriptures."
People who try the other ways get nowhere—a dead end!
Frustrated and famished,
they try one thing after another.
When nothing works out they get angry,
cursing first this god and then that one,
Looking this way and that,
up, down, and sideways—and seeing nothing,
A blank wall, an empty hole.
They end up in the dark with nothing.

I've always wondered what ever happened to her, and if she ever grew up.

Wonderful Word

I was reading an article by Illana Mercer (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=5263) and came across this little phrase, in relation to the "wisdom" spouted by our mass-media outlets:

Our Delphic oracles are the pundits and assorted self-styled presstitutes.

I love that word, "presstitutes".

I Love a Peaceful Argument

Doug writes, and I find it to be a wise statement:

There are times when people of good character need to disagree. If they simply agree to disagree then no progress toward truth is made. Argument is the only way to progress. There are no times when it is appropriate for people of any character to be disrespectful. I love a peaceful argument.

http://lists.debian.org/debian-user/2006/10/msg02778.html