The Grey Cubicle-More iWeb Goodness

I just finished revamping my iWeb site (The Grey Cubicle). Actually its virtually the same as the last one except that I decided to change the template. This template is a bit cleaner and seems to load faster probably due to very little objects unlike the last template that had all these hidden objects all over the place. Since I remembered to save often this time I didn't lose much. The only thing is that I wish you could simply switch templates w/out a redo like you can in Sandvox or RW. I still say though that Apple is on to something with iWeb it is so easy to use its almost addictive. I also wish that you could change the date and time of your blogs. I had a few blogs from another blog site that I wanted to republish here and I didn't find a way to change the date… The Apple folks didn't think this one through or I'm missing something.

Job Concludes & Other Stories

It was a struggle this week to read because I had so much stuff rummaging through my mind but I was able to double up the last few days which made all the difference. For this blog I won’t cover Genesis, I’ll simply roll all the Genesis passages in the next one and focus on the rest of Job and Matthew today. Lets start with Job. This week I read Job 34-42.

In 36-37 Elihu speaks about God’s justice, God’s dealings with Men, and God in the back of a storm. Although I found these words valid and such I’m still left with gosh do you really need to throw this stuff at this guy right now? I guess there is something to be said that in times like these we need to be reminded of who God is and what he’s done in our lives and such but I still struggle with this whole exchange between Job and his friends. I’m thinking that Job needs to hear from God directly which I think was Job’s point here rather than being reproached by Elihu and company. There is room for encouragement and such in times when our friends are suffering though and there is a time for us to remind them of God’s faithfulness but harping on the persons sin which Elihu end up on doesn’t help much either.
God Speaks- Finally in chapter 38 God speaks to Job and I found it so interesting that I wrote a song about it mainly using the same verses, arranged a little differently with a refrain added in after each section. The tune to the song sounds beautiful when played on a bodhrán (kinda hard to explain unless you hear it). Here it is:
Were you there when he laid the earth’s foundation
Who marked off its dimension surely you know
Who stretched a measuring line across it
On what were its foundation set

Where oh where oh where were you
Where oh where oh where were you
Where oh where oh man were you
Surely you must understand these things
You have lived so many years

Do you know who shut the seas behind doors
or when it bursts forth from the whom
Were you there when he made the clouds their garments
When he set its doors and bars in place
Have you ever given orders to the morning
Have you ever shown the dawn its place
Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
Or walk in the recesses of the deep

Who oh who oh who are you
Who oh who oh who are you
Who oh who oh man are you
Surely you must understand these things
You have lived so many years

Can you bind the beautiful Pleides or
loose the cords of Orion
Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons
Or lead out the bear with her cubs
Do you know the laws of the highest heavens
Can you set up God’s dominion over the earth
Can you tip over the water jars of the heavens
or cut a channel for the torrents of rain

Can oh can oh can can you
Can oh can oh can can you
Can oh can oh man can you
Surely you must understand these things
You have lived so many years

In the rest of Job God goes on about various things which I think gives you a bit of an idea as to how all-powerful and all-knowig God really is and how small we are in comparison. Some creatures are mentioned that the footnotes speculate about but I’ve yet to see a leviathan or a behemoth so they’ve always seemed a bit way out there to me. Job hardly gets out a reply but humbles himself before the Lord and in the epilogue we are told that God deals with Job’s friends and tells them that he is angry with them and instructed them to repent and for Job to pray for them. In the end we are told that [The LORD (restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the LORD increased all that Job had twofold). Then all his brothers and all his sisters and all who had known him before came to him, and they ate bread with him in his house; and they consoled him and comforted him for all the adversities that the LORD had brought on him. And each one gave him one piece of money, and each a ring of gold. The LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning; and he had 14,000 sheep and 6,000 camels and 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys. He had seven sons and three daughters. He named the first Jemimah, and the second Keziah, and the third Keren-happuch. In all the land no women were found so fair as Job's daughters; and their father gave them inheritance among their brothers. After this, Job lived 140 years, and saw his sons and his grandsons, four generations. And Job died, an old man and full of days].

Matthew 14-18:

Head on a Platter and other stories. This part of Matthew is rich with some of my favorite Bible stories some of which
have puzzled me to this day. This section starts off with a story about a little girl who danced and pleased a King so
much that he vowed to give her anything she wanted. This King happened to be her uncle and was hooked up with her mother who was the wife of his brother. Talk about some serious dysfunctional family. Prompted by her mother the little girl asked for the head of John the Baptist on a platter and the King not wanting to lose face gives it to the little girl. Now I’m thinking gross what kind of a mother ask a child to ask for someone’s head on a platter this is just morbid and gross. Most parents now try to protect their children from death and destruction this mother had no such desire to protect her child at all. I look back at these Biblical times in my mind and I’m quick to not remember the gross violations of human lives that happened in those days, I only think of Jesus and his disciples walking around in their togas and sandals and preaching and healing and forget about the people being flogged, the crucifixions, the Romans harassing the Jews more than likely dragging off a host of them to prison for no good reason and yes some people like John even lost their heads now and again coz the King wanted it or in this case his mistress wanted it that way.

Feeding the 5000 with 5 loaves and 2 fishes : Now after Jesus heard about the death of John he went off to be by himself a little while (understandable since he just lost his friend) Like before the crowds got wind of it and followed him on foot. Now Jesus I’m sure still grieved for his friend had compassion on the crowd and starting healing the sick. I’m thinking if I just lost a good friend I would seriously want to get away from the crowd and go hide and bawl somewhere but not Jesus. He started healing people and not only that he wouldn’t send them away to get food to eat as his disciples had instructed. Jesus made it seem like these folks came to visit him in his house and I won’t send them away hungry… He said to his disciples you give them something to eat. They scrounge up 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes and Jesus prayed over it and it multiplied enough that everyone ate their fill and they had plenty of left-overs (12 basket full) I don’t know the size of the baskets but they had left overs after feeding 5000 men not including the women and children from 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes. Wow what would happen if we applied this type of faith to the starving folks in Africa and other places? I remember on one occasions a few of us had cooked for our fellowship meeting. The food turned out to be a bit on the small side that is we didn’t have enough to feed everyone by the looks of things. We prayed and that food most definitely multiplied, expanded or something coz everyone had enough and even went back for seconds. We kinda laughed it off nonchalantly and said God multiplied the food. I haven’t forgotten the experience though and know that this kind of stuff can and does happen. Having little money in my wallet this week I’m hoping for some serious multiplication of food in my fridge. No pun intended.

The Canaanite Woman: In chapter 15 Jesus encounters a woman from the vicinity of Tyre & Sidon who kept crying out to him to heal her daughter who was demon possessed. Jesus did something very puzzling to me he ignored her. The woman of course did not let this get to her and kept up the commotion so much his disciples got fed up and asked him to send her away. He tells the woman “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.” she in turn came and knelt before him and asked him to help her (talk about not getting a clue). He replies that “it is not right to take the Children’s bread and toss it to their dogs” an apparent insult. I like this woman, she has gusto she knew what she wanted and she wasn’t giving up. His statement did not deter her one bit and she says to him “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.” Jesus’ reaction? “Woman, your faith is great; it shall be done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once. I am humbled and challenged by this example. I think sometimes when I ask God for something important I give up too easily. I’m not persistent I just ask half way and hope for the best. This woman pressed Jesus until she got what she wanted… healing for her daughter. She wanter her child to be well again and no disciple or Jesus’ initial reaction was going to keep her from her daughter being healed. She knew where to go, she knew he could do it, she persevered and it was credited to her as faith and her daughter was well again.

The Transfiguration: In Chapter 17 we are told that Jesus took Peter, James and John and led them up a high mountain by themselves. There he was transfigured before them. The passage says that “his face shown like the sun and his clothes became as white as the light.” To add to this Moses and Elijah appeared and were talking to Jesus. Can you say weird? First of all Moses and Elijah are supposed to be dead , second Jesus looks totally different, he’s got some kind of glow going on. He’s talking to these two dead guys and a cloud came down and enveloped them and a voice from the cloud started speaking. Now the disciples did what I would have done (they fell down on their faces terrified) except maybe I would have fallen backward down the mountain in addition. Jesus touches them and tells them not to be afraid then tells them not to tell anyone until he was glorified. I would have had some more questions about the glorified bit at this point but the disciples got into some discussion with him about the law and Elijah instead.

To end this section, in Chapter 18:15-35 Jesus instructs his disciples on handling conflicts with each other then he ends with the story of the unmerciful servant. He instructs them that if a brother sin against them they are to first go to the brother and show him his fault, just between the two of them. I know we have a hard time with this, its easier to first go to someone and tell them how the brother did this and that without talking to the offending brother first. Only if going to the brother fails are we to bring in 1 or 2 others and confront the offending brother, if he refuses to listen then take it to the church, if he still refuses then that’s it. Peter asks how many times he is to forgive a brother that sin against him I suppose the law at that time required 7 times. Jesus multiplied it by saying 77 times. To further illustrate his point he tells them the story of the unmerciful servant. In this story a king wanted to settle his accounts with his servants and found a servant who owed him 10,000 talents (from the notes this is millions of dollars) talk about a large credit card debt. Anyway, the servant could not possibly pay up so the king was going to have him and his wife and kids and their possessions sold to pay off the debt. The servant pleaded for mercy and the king cancelled the debt and let him go (wish the bank would do this today). Anyway, this guy should have been ecstatic with joy but what does he do? He finds a servant who owes him 100 denarii (a few dollars) grabs the man by the throat and ask him to pay up. The fellow servant pleaded for mercy and what does this fellow do? He had the man thrown in prison for a few dollars. The other folks who witness this were distressed and went back and reported it to the king. The king confronted him about it and had him thrown in prison and tortured until he could pay back all he owed. This is a jarring story of how much we ought to forgive but not only that how much we have been forgiven. Here is this servant forgiven $1 million and he could not forgive someone who owed him a few dollars. How much do I do this though? I have been forgiven much yet the question I ask myself is how much do I forgive?

Identifying with Suffering & Avoiding Cults

I’m finally caught up on the Bible reading plan for the week. It was a bit rough catching up though. I’ve decided to blog what really stuck out to me in the passages instead of doing a chapter by chapter summary coz quite frankly I find myself spending too much time typing away at this keyboard. The fingers need a rest since I do this 7 days a week. Anyway, I’ll start with Job this time. In this week’s reading I covered Job 20-33. The format was chapter after chapter of Job having to defend his integrity to his friends who were constantly trying to tear him down instead of building him up as they should have done. I’ll mention again that he poetry in these chapters are simply beautiful… I was really struck by chapters 29 and 30 where Job reflects on his past and then look at his future. In 29 Job reflect by saying:
“Oh that I were as in months gone by, As in the days when God watched over me; When His lamp shone over my head, And by His light I walked through darkness; As I was in the prime of my days, When the friendship of God was over my tent; When the Almighty was yet with me, And my children were around me; When my steps were bathed in butter, And the rock poured out for me streams of oil! When I went out to the gate of the city, When I took my seat in the square, The young men saw me and hid themselves, And the old men arose and stood. The princes stopped talking And put their hands on their mouths;The voice of the nobles was hushed, And their tongue stuck to their palate. For when the ear heard, it called me blessed, And when the eye saw, it gave witness of me, Because I delivered the poor who cried for help, And the orphan who had no helper. The blessing of the one ready to perish came upon me, And I made the widow’s heart sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; My justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind And feet to the lame. I was a father to the needy…”
In 30 Job goes on to say “But now those younger than I mock me…And now I have become their taunt,
I have even become a byword to them. They abhor me and stand aloof from me, And they do not refrain from spitting at my face… They have cast off the bridle before me. On the right hand their brood arises; They thrust aside my feet and build up against me their ways of destruction. They break up my path,They profit from my destruction; No one restrains them. As through a wide breach they come, Amid the tempest they roll on. Terrors are turned against me; They pursue my honor as the wind, And my prosperity has passed away like a cloud…”

I guess the thing that I was reflecting on is this: How do we treat people who are suffering around us… I look around and I see the homeless walking the streets, begging, cold, and alone. There are many… Add to that the sick, the weak, the kids down the block who have lost their parents to cancer or a car accident and you have a bunch of suffering folks out there. How many times do we extent a hand? Do we look away? Make them feel worse? Do we taunt them? Do we ever think what their lives were like before they ended up on the streets? Before their parents died or left? Before they were sick? When they were healthy and strong? Did they have a nice cushy job before this? A nice home? Spouse and kids? What happened? Is there a “Job” among them? Closer to home how do I treat my friends or family when they are suffering through something? Do I console and encourage? Help out or attack their character? Do I listen to them or give them my good for nothing two cents? Do I impart wisdom from God or rattle off idle and empty words to them that does more harm than good? Such were the counsel given to Job by his friends in his time of need… What counsel will I give the next time a friend or family member is in dire need? What will be my reaction the next time a homeless person ask me for a $1. Are they not worth a moment of my time? Will I taunt in my heart? Blame them for their misery or simply look away with coldness and move on?
Matthew-10:21-42 to 14;22-36 ; I’ll like to pick out Matthew 10:36-39 “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38″And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39″ He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it) because I have some odd memories associated with this passage and to this day when I read the passage I remember… Anyway I was in undergraduate at the time and a friend of mine asked me to a movie (Ghost), no big deal I wanted to see the movie so I went. As it turns out there were a bunch of other people at the movie from her church gosh it must of been at least 20 other folks from her church. I guess that they were excited to see Ghost too. I didn’t mind that either and I sat down and enjoyed the movie. The movie theatre was a bit far from home so I got a ride back which was the understanding. On the way back to the dorms we took an unexpected side trip that my friend failed to mention was going to happen. The next thing I knew we were stopped at someone’s apartment and the only thing that kept me from running out at this point was this girl that I knew from my high school days. I said hi to her and we struck up a little conversation which put me at ease just a little bit. Anyway, I sat down in the living room waiting for my ride and the next thing I knew several people from my friend’s church came in and whipped out their Bibles at me and started asking me if I was a Christian (they used the term disciple) with the basic assumption being that I was not. They proceeded to prove that I wasn’t a Christian (disciple) by pointing out this very passage. They are really big into discipleship and what it means. In fact, they didn’t use the term Christian at all they used the term discipleship from beginning to end. After 10 minutes of this, I was not feeling good about the situation… Here I was in the middle of I didn’t know where with these folks who were asking me a lot questions, defining terms, and throwing out scriptures from left and right at me… I was not a happy convert and I would have none of it. BTW at that time, I was attending meetings with IVCF and while I wasn’t a committed Christian at that time, I was interested in learning more and these people confused the daylights out of me and gave me the creeps. I can’t remember what I said to them that made them take me home but they did so and kept calling me until one day I finally told them to stop calling me. Granted the passage says what it says and there is definitely a cost in following Christ which I’ve come to realize over the years but having it ram down your throat when you don’t even know what all this is about and taken out of context to prove their point is quite annoying. I later found out that they were a cult and use this passage a lot mainly in isolating people from their families and such. The church have gone through a lot of changes of late, repented and is currently under “reform”. I later found out what being a Christian meant with the help of some good friends but I now read this passage with great care and realize the harm it can do when shoved down someone’s throat.
This has been longer than I had planned but I finally downloaded what’s been swimming in my head for a few days now…
go mbeannaí Dia thú!

My List of 10

OK I have to say that I got this idea off a site that I was looking at earlier today and thought that it was fantastic. So here is my list of the top 10 people that I wouldn’t mind meeting at some point in my life. I don’t have to become buddies with them but it would be nice to give em a warm hello from the moi. These are not necessarily in order just wrote em down as they popped into my head. I should have compiled a top 20 list instead of just 10 but I’m getting a bit tired of staring at my computer.

1. Enya
2. Angelina Jolie
3. Whoopi Goldberg
4. Steve Jobs
5. Djimon Hounsou
6. Denzel Washinton
7. Vin Diesel
8. Condoleeza Rice
9. Bill & Melinda Gates (OK this is 2 not one but they are inseparable)
10. Tilda Swinton

Demons, Healings & Job Loses Everything

I have to admit although I am much closer than I was a few days ago to catching up, I’m still behind a few chapters in my reading. At this point mainly because I find myself noting a lot of things. Thus far I have 12 pages of handwritten notes and I haven’t finished the last few chapters of Job yet for week two. I have to stop writing so much. This blog is basically the notes I’ve compiled in the last two days. Its a bit long so bear with me. Matthew 8:1-27 Matthew starts off this section by presenting us with a series of miracles. We get the story of the man with the leprosy and the centurion. In both cases they ask for healing and in both cases they had faith for the healing. Its interesting that the leper asked Jesus if he was willing, and the centurion was commended for his faith. How often have I asked God for something and doubted? Too many times… Have I had the faith that he would provide/ whether it was healing or not? Not as often as I care to admit. We often get tangled up with this issue of faith and healing as if it is a formula of some kind. Sometimes one can ask God for something and it doesn’t happen the thing is really a matter of if he’s willing as the leper asked Jesus in this passage. Seems that there is this faith that has to happen on our part but a willingness on God’s part as well. I’ve struggled with this over than over so I do not have any answers on this one but its interesting to note. Now we come upon one of the stories which leaves me shaking my head every-time I read it… The story of Jesus calming the storm. Basically Jesus & his disciples are in a boat, Jesus is sleeping and a violent storm breaks out. His disciples wake him up and says Lord save us we are going to drown. My question here is if they believed that Jesus could save them then why did they think that they are going to drown? Jesus of course rebukes them for their little faith and quieted the wind. The reaction of the disciples is that they are in awe and amazement. I can see them doing a double take as they try to wrap their minds around what just happened. I can rip on the disciples all I want but quite frankly I can remember a time not too long ago when God did something for me after I cried out for help and I had that wow and amazement look on my face. I was as surprised as they were. It was sometime in the summer and I was driving to church as I had done any other Sunday, it was a gorgeous day too sunshine and all. I’m behind a pickup truck, stopped at a red light no big deal until for some reason my foot suddenly shift to the gas instead of the brakes and next thing I know I’m headed for the pickup truck infront of me. To say I sent up a quick prayer for help would be an understatement but I do remember that much. Next thing I know the steering wheel is turning the car glides into the left lane and I’m taking a left turn. All I can say is someone else was driving at that moment coz I didn’t even notice that the left lane was empty and all I could think of was the fact that I was going to hit that pickup truck. After a 1/2 a block or so I started driving again and I went around the block and made it to church a few minutes later. Big shock on my face, heart racing, wondering what just happened and amazed at how I got from behind the pickup truck safely in the other lane and on the other street. I couldn’t wrap my mind around it I still can’t.

Matthew 8:28-34: The demon possessed men- After reading this story again I have 2 questions 1. Why did Jesus send the demons into the pigs as the demons had requested? 2. Why did people pleaded with Jesus to leave their territory? I would have thought that they would have thanked him for delivering them from the two violent men demons and all. It seems to me that these folks were concerned mainly about their livelihood, perhaps they were fearful of Jesus if he could drive out demons what else could he do? OK perhaps that’s more than two questions.

Matthew 9: The healing of the paralytic & the sick woman- In the healing of the paralytic it is interesting to note the reactions of the teachers of the law and the reaction of the crowds. The teachers of the law accused Jesus of blasphemy while the crowds responded by praising God. We see more criticism from the Pharisees who had an issue with the fact that Jesus was eating with tax collectors and sinners. This brings up a classic point that as Christians who do we associate with? Do we associate with the tax collectors and sinners of our time? Or are we comfortable in our circle of Church going friends? In 9:18-34 we have the story of Jesus healing the woman who had suffered from a hemorrhage for twelve years. She knew Jesus was her only hope and believed that if she just touched his garment she would be healed. His reply? “Daughter, take courage; your faith has made you well.” and it was so. I admire this woman’s faith and courage to push through that crowd and touch Jesus. Could learn a few lessons about perseverance from her. Jumping to 27-34 Jesus heals two blind men then tells them not to tell anyone. Now if you were blind and someone laid hands on you and then you could see wouldn’t you be telling everyone? I for one would be blogging my fingers off… so why did Jesus tell these guys not to tell?

Matthew 10: Sending Out the 12- Jesus called his 12 disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness then he gives them a set of instructions of where to go, what to take, then he launches into this whole section on persecution that the disciples will face. Nothing much to say about this except that I find it interesting that Jesus speaks of both the near future and way into the future here as this scripture applies to our time as well as back then when he was sending the 12 out. One question to note here does this type of stuff happen nowadays/ Does God appoint people to go out and heal the sick and drive out evil spirits? I remember someone saying no this doesn’t happen today a while back… Yet most of the missionaries that I’ve encountered who have come back from parts of Africa & S. America have a stack of such stories.

Job 1-16: Job has been one of those books that I find hard to swallow. Not that I’m in the habit of eating my books but wow its a difficult book to wrap my brain around. We are told at the beginning that Job is blameless and upright. That he feared God and shunned evil. He was a wealthy man and had 10 children and that he was the greatest man of all the people of the East. He would send and have his children purified and offer burnt offering on behalf of all his children just incase they had sinned on a regular basis. Now here is where my mind starts to flip flop. In verse 6 of chapter 1, the angels come to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. Besides the fact that I’m thinking the angels come and present themselves before the Lord on a regular basis? I didn’t realize that Satan was allowed to present himself before God. This kind of throw out all the sermons I’ve heard of God not being able to have evil in his presence. There was Satan before God… and God was having a conversation with him. He ask Satan where he came from then after Satan tells him from roaming through the earth (his usual mischief) God asks him if he has considered his servant Job. Then God brags on Job a bit and Satan being the destructive sort incites God to stretch out his hand against Job. That is he ask God permission to mess up Job’s life in order to prove to God that Job will curse God if all he has is taken away from him. God gives him permission (problem… why? God why?) Satan of course got to work right away and the result is that Job loses his wealth and his children all in one day. All he’s left with?His wife who incites him to curse God and die.

My problem point blank is why did God allow this to happen to Job? What did Job do to deserve this? Why was Satan given an audience here with God? I don’t understand these things at all. The amazing thing is that Job does not curse God. Instead he reacted by worshipping God. The end line of chapter 1 says that through all this Job did not sin nor did he blame God. Chapter 2 begins with Satan presenting himself a second time before God , similar conversation happen and this time the result is that Job is covered in painful sores from head to toe. Again Job did not curse God. The end of Chapter 2 Jobs friends showed up and they sat down with him speechless for 7 days and 7 nights. What could they say really. What do you say to someone who have lost everything and is now inflicted with a disease such as what Job had? In chapter 3 Job cursed the day he was born. Aside from the obvious depression here I find the poetry quite something in this lament. I tend to like laments in general for the prose but you can see where Job was at in those words. In chapters 6 to 16. Job’s friends go back and forth with Job by giving him their opinions on the situation, telling him what he should do, challenging his character, and speaking ill of God in the wake. I’ll sum it up by using Job’s own words: “A despairing man should have the devotion of his friends, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty. But my brothers are as undependable as intermittent streams, as the streams that overflow when darkened by thawing ice and swollen with melting snow, but that cease to flow in the dry season, and in the heat vanish from their channels. Caravans turn aside from their routes; they go up into the wasteland and perish. The caravans of Tema look for water, the traveling merchants of Sheba look in hope. They are distressed, because they had been confident; they arrive there, only to be disappointed. Now you too have proved to be of no help; you see something dreadful and are afraid.” It goes to show that your friends can sometimes be more a hinderance than a help when you are going through a painful situation. Hopefully none of us will have to endure what Job did. BTW if your friends begin to give you advise by starting off something like this “A word was secretly brought to me, my ears caught a whisper of it. Amid disquieting dreams in the night, when deep sleep falls on men, fear and trembling seized me and made all my bones shake. A spirit glided past my face, and the hair on my body stood on end. It stopped, but I could not tell what it was. A form stood before my eyes, and I heard a hushed voice:… do yourself a favor: close your ears and send him/her packing.

All in all I’ve enjoyed this bible Plan so far. I’m not seeing the parallels yet from a Chronological point of view but it has been helpful in aiding me to read the Bible daily and think about what’s going on in the stories and such as well as to draw some application form my own life and story.

Bible Reading Plan

I joined up last week with my friend Marcy to keep up with a one-year chronological Bible reading plan. The plan involved two readings per day but since it had already started I was ~1 week behind. I’ve been needing something like this because my Bible readings have been ad-hoc of late. Her announcement in church at the right time… Anyway, as you can imagine I went through the first week more than doubling up per day plus I have to keep up with the current week. I haven’t gotten caught up yet mainly because my brain tend to take a break from reading much of anything after Wednesdays it just shifts into weekend/give me a break now please mode. I’m aiming to catch up by tomorrow though and will blog the second week sometime tomorrow or Monday. Anyway, in the first set of readings I went from Genesis 1-22 and Matthew 6:19-34. Marcy has posted a pretty good summary of the major points so I won’t go into all of it just major things that stuck out to me.

• Genesis 1-3: The creation story & the fall: The whole creation story has always fascinated me. I liken it to a master artist painting a masterpiece except that he knows exactly what he’s painting as he’s doing it and having fun. We have this repeating phrase God saw that it was good after he created light, the land, the earth, the seas… as if he’s going wow that’s cool! He seems quite taken with the creation as it unfolds. In (v.24-25) he said “let us bring forth living creatures after their kind…” in vs 26 he says something quite different ‘let us make man in our image, according to our likeness and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds… and over all the earth…” Besides the fact that I always ask who is he talking to who is us? when I read that passage, God seems to make a distinction between man and animals here. Animals after their kind, Man [woman] in His image and likeness. The other thing that I find interesting is that at the end of chapter 1 God gives man and woman plants and fruits to eat. To the beasts he gives plants. I’m thinking hmmph I guess God’s original plan was for us to be Vegans? In chapter 2 you have God resting from his work and the creation story being repeated again except this time there is more detail on the creation of Eve. It is important to note that Eve was the crescendo of his creation the final touch on the canvas so to speak. In verse 18 God makes an interesting remark “it is not good for the man to be alone.” Perhaps this is why guys who are married tend to live longer than the ones who don’t. Anyway God said he will make him a helper suitable for him. In vs. 24 the foundation for marriage is set fort. In Genesis 3 the fall takes place and at the end Adam & Eve gets kicked out of the Garden of Eden and the trouble for all sons and daughters of Adam & Eve begins. The thing that struck me about the Fall is that Adam was right there when the snake was tempting Eve and he didn’t do anything about it, he was passive. I’ve always wondered what would have happened if Adam did not eat of the tree. Would God have exiled Eve and made Adam another one or what? At the end God also did not want them to eat from the tree of life after they had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil I’ve heard a few ideas on this but wonder what the consequence would have been if they had in fact eaten from this tree. Does anyone else out there get a kick out of all these important trees that were in the garden or is it just me. Imagine a garden full of trees that cured diseases and other ills. I find this whole garden fascinating and have wondered where this thing is and if you happen upon it if you can see the cherubim and flaming sword. I’ve got more than a few questions to ask on this matter eternity side.

• Genesis 4-6: Descendants of Adam & Eve- These stories are quite familiar to me and I didn’t have much of a problem with God rejecting Cain’s offering and accepting Abel’s it seems to me that Cain just didn’t give God his best he did the minimum while Abel gave God his firstlings of his flocks suggesting that he gave God the best. He was sincere. Cain’s later actions also tells me that his heart was not in the right place. He killed his brother in jealous anger and when God asked him what he had done he got annoyed and asked God if he was his brother’s keeper. The thing that I’ve always mused on here is vs. 14 “Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground; and from Your face I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” Who are these people that Cain & God is referring to and later on who is this wife of Cain? Did Cain marry his sister? Did God create some other folks and scatter them throughout the Earth after Adam & Eve? Are all these direct descendants of Adam & Eve? I guess the long life makes sense then… You can imagine the other questions I have here. Chapter 5 talks about the descendants of Adam and reads like a typical genealogical record not much to fuss over there except for those folks with long life. Methuselah was 969 years when he died (wow that’s almost 1000 years). What did these folks eat back in those days? Chapter 5 ends with Noah (the guy who built the ark). Chapter 6 opens up with a line in verse 2 that is quite odd to me “the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves, whomever they chose”. Who are these? Then later on in verse 4 it talks about “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Besides the fact that this sounds like something out of LOTR (the Numenoreans) I’m wondering who these sons of God are and these Nephilim. Some folks have suggested that the sons of God refers to angels but you can understand this boggles the mind and lead to more questions and wonderings about this whole thing. maybe aliens aren’t so far fetched after all

• Genesis 7-9- The Flood & the Rainbow- Here we have the familiar story of God wiping out every living creature man, woman, beast and child upon the Earth (except for those in the ark) via flood (it rained for 150 days). I’ve always wondered what the people around Noah said to him when he was building the ark, and imagined the ridicule that he and his family must have endured during that time. The water eventually subsided and those in the ark came out. Interesting what God says to Noah about food… something changed from the story of Adam & Eve 3 “Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you, as I gave the green plant. 4 “Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. Does this means its OK to eat meat now or what? Anyway, towards the end of the chapter God establishes a covenant with Noah and every living creature on the earth never to destroy the earth by flood again. The sign of His promise, a rainbow. I’ll like to dwell on the rainbow for a moment I find it fascinating that where I live the rainbow means something else entirely. There are many people with rainbows on their cars only it does not mean what God intended at all. I find this quite ironic.

• Genesis 10-12- The Descendants of Noah- The story of Abraham and Sarah is told here I don’t have much to comment on that one at all. Also there is the tower of Babel story which is a bit of interest to me since it seems that this has contributed to the creation of the many cultures and languages that exists today. I also found it fascinating that God did this on purpose and that his remark was “Behold, they are one people, and they all have the same language. And this is what they began to do, and now nothing which they purpose to do will be impossible for them. My mind begins to wonder here about the motivation and push us modern day folks seem to have of late for one universal language, governmental structure and such.

• Genesis 13-22- The rest of this section to chapter 32 has some interesting stories of Abraham & Sarah having a child in their old age (seems no big deal to me on account that Adam had Seth at 130 I’m assuming Eve was around the same age). What have always gotten me about this section is that Abraham was always hiding the fact that Sarah was his wife and getting the guys that would take her as wife in trouble with God. He did this a number of times and I found this quite annoying. Melchizedek is mentioned in Chapter 14 the importance being that he was both King & Priest.. a foreshadowing of Jesus. The Destruction of Sodom is presented in chapter 19. I’ve always wondered why Lot lived in that place if the outcry against it was so great that it went up to God. Then I wonder about where I live and what the outcry to God is regarding this City. I didn’t have much of an issue with Abraham willing to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham had heard so much from God and walked with him for so long that he figured God would provide a way out. The good news is that God did just that and Abraham’s willingness to offer God his only son was credited to him as righteousness. God later made a covenant with him in 16-18 of Chapter 22.

• Matthew 1-6: I always appreciated the book of Matthew perhaps because it is a very practical book. The first chapter lays out the genealogy of Jesus then moves on to his birth and the response of the Magi & Herod’s response. I thought it interesting that this beautiful story of the birth of Christ and the response of the magi is contrasted by such horrors as Herod’s actions in Chapter 2:16 and the eventual flight of Joseph and Mary to Nazareth. Chapter 3-4 is basically Jesus overcoming temptation (wish I can remember how he dealt with this in my own dealing with temptation), his baptism and the beginning of his ministry including the calling of his disciples. I thought it interesting that in 4:21 James and John just up and left their father Zebedee in the boat and followed Jesus. I’ve wondered would I have done the same if I was in that boat. Chapter 5 gives the famous sermon on the mount and in chapter 6 we are taught how to pray. I’ll end with that here:• “Our Father who is in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”

[posted with ecto]