Understanding vs. Denial

Matthew 10:34-40 was one of "those" passages of scripture. The kind that basically slaps you in the face, it shakes your values. Your beliefs. Your understanding of Christianity.

Reading the passage I was perplexed, having read it before, having heard it taught before, I had this reaction of wanting to really get down to the bottom of what the Big J was getting at here. After reading a brief commentary, I realized, a lack of understanding was not the problem here, but acceptance of the teaching. The commentary offered a simple to the point statment:

...the vast majority of people still cling desperately to life (compare Eph 5:29; Epict. Disc. 2.22.15-16). But the moment we become Christ's followers, our own lives and wills become forfeit; we die with Christ to sin (that is, to the right to make selfish choices; Rom 6:3-4) and choose a path that could lead any day to our execution for Christ's name (Mt 16:24). Although we may speak glibly today of "our cross" as the need to put up with Aunt Molly or a leaky roof, "taking up the cross" in Jesus' day meant being forced to bear the instrument of one's execution past a jeering mob to the site of one's imminent death as a condemned criminal (see Hengel 1977)


The words are writing difficult now. Syntax and sentence structure, and cohesive thought are being over ruled by this thought:

Christian community is made of men and women living selflessly for others. It's giving up your sunday afternoon to fix a car for someone you've never met with a church you don't go to. Its giving water to people you don't know in a part of the world you don't understand and that may not even like you. It's going to baseball, soccer, and basketball games when you'd rather be taking a nap. Its not allowing inconvenience to blockade you from a divine moment of not being selfish.

Bad Aliens

Poor Abimelech. Abraham, an alien traveling through the land of Gerar, fears the people there and so he conceives a deception. He decides to tell them that Sarah is his sister rather than his wife. (It turns out the Sarah is actually his half sister, but a terrible deception nonetheless.) King Abimelech takes Sarah as his wife. God comes to Abimelech in a dream and tells him that Sarah is Abe's wife. Apparently a God-fearing man, Abimelech takes Sarah back to Abraham and says... "How have I wronged you that you would bring such great guilt upon me and my kingdom. What was your reason for doing this." The reason is obvious. Abraham feared men more than he feared God. Afraid for his own life and not willing to entrust his protection to God, he takes the extraordinary action of offering up his wife. Unbelievable.

What's the lesson here for us? First, if there is a sense in which we are "aliens and strangers" in this world, the last thing we need to do is create mistrust. This defames the reputation of God in our culture. Half-truths are deceptions nonetheless. Secondly, we've got to know God well enough to fear him more than men and entrust ourselves to his care. Incredibly, Jacob pursues the same course of self-protection in Gerar a generation later by offering Rebekah as his sister. "The sins of one generation visted upon the next."

Genesis: A good not so good place to start.

Genesis is the wild west. Its the new frontier. It reads like the narration of an epic tale liking to Lord of the Rings or Conan the Barbarian. Lawrence of Arabia with out the guns (or planes). Primitive, new, undiscovered worlds colliding and growing daily with the interaction of its Creator. Stories of travel, adventure, war, destruction, incest, moments that bring wonder.

All of this a story of Gods interaction with man. It's quiet amazing to think about, almost like it is in a distant land long ago.

But it is our story.

At times I read and think, "Ok so I'm not the guy who God's angels are trying to rescue from the destruction of my city, btw I'll offer my virgin daughters to the angry mob, because that will make thinkgs all better guy." But I'm a guy, and I don't do things right, and because of Jesus who I read about in the parallel chapters, I too can have interactions with God. The thought provoked by Genesis for me, is: How? How is God intersecting and interacting in my life? How is He intersecting in the lives of others? What prejudices are blinding me from seeing God interact in the lives of the imperfect?

It's amazing you read the stories, and almost in passing a fact like "at that time men began to call on the name of the Lord." [Gen. 4.26]" is brought into the drama. Amazing. Hundreds of years in four chapters and men begin calling on God. The things I take for granted. What an amazing book this is!

The Covenants

There are several (seven) major covenants God has given his creation. This is the first of seven. Some are conditional and some are unconditional. Gen 9:8-17 "Noahic Coventant" is an unconditional covenant with every living thing on earth. Every covenant has a sign or seal "like the signature on a contract" the sign for this one was "rainbow" the sign for the covenant with Abraham was the circumcision and so on.There are 3 main colors in the rainbow (a trinity) and from them 7 other colors derive. (7 the perfect number) for more food for thought visit: http://crystal-cure.com/color-emotions2.html

posted by Ricardo.

Do Vegetarians Live Longer?

We have a few vegetarians at the FOM. Maybe they are onto something.

Did you realize that it wasn't until after the flood that God allowed man to eat meat? We were all vegetarians until Noah landed on dry ground. Then God says "Everything that lives and moves among you will be food for you." (Gen.9:3) But check this out... Noah's Dad lived 777 years. Noah lived 950 years. Then, life expectancy plummets in Gen. 11. Notice that Noah's son Shem only lived 600 years. Then, over the subsequent four generations, we're down to 200 years on life expectancy. What's up with this? Can we draw the conclusion that people would live longer if they only ate vegetables, but maybe God allowed us to eat meat because he couldn't bear with us for hundreds of years? Or maybe Daniel knew this when he asked the King to allow him and his buddies to only eat vegetables for ten days and see if they were better off than their counterparts who ate the king's food (meat, wine, etc.) Turns out they were better off.

I told Lee Anna about all this tonight and suggested maybe we should eat vegetables. She said it would need to wait at least one night because we were having Tilapia. Maybe we'll just eat vegetables and Tilapia in the future. Oh... and steak. I love steak. And hamburgers. This is going to be difficult.