ripples

so here's an obscure bit of passage. David and Goliath, everyone knows the story. Shepherd boy takes on the prize warrior of the Philistines and prevails against his armor and weapons, with a sling and stone. It's so well known that it's become a metaphor. So David kills Goliath and then uses Goliath's sword to cut of his head. Fast forward a bit and David is on the run from Saul. He is hungry and in need so he goes to the high priest and asks for food. This is the passage that Jesus references "Have you never read what david did when he and his followers were in need?"

On an interesting tangent, he says in Mark, "in the days of Abiathar the high priest." Well, in this time, Abiathar wasn't the high priest, it was his father. Saul has someone slaughter the priests and Abiathar is the only one who escaped, yet Jesus speaks about the time as Abiathar's time.

So back to the original thought, David needs food... and he needs weapons. He fled so fast he wasn't able to take anything with him. What kind of temple holds weapons? Apparently this one does and it holds a fine one indeed: The sword of Goliath "There is none like it" The death of Goliath, resulted in his sword coming into posession of the Israelites and later it proved for a need when David lacked. I've always said nobody can know the consequences of our actions save God. There are just too many factors and variables and even the smallest thing can change so much. See, to think that not doing something in the present only affects that situation is near sighted. Our actions are ripples that extend farther than we can imagine. Think of the most important person you met in your life and think of every single small deision that led up to that. You chose to go to that place, or to call this person, or to eat this which made you late, or something. They ripple to eternity.

Beautiful

It's an odd word. More colloquially, we use it to describe anything. That pitch was... the movie was ... this cooking is... When we use it to refer to people, it's rare that we attribute it to a man. Yet we sing things like "God how beautiful you are" Someone overhead a friend and I singing some praise songs and remarked "I didn't know God was female." The statement made me wonder a bit about this phrase and in general the language we use to describe God. If beautiful, being a feminine term, is attributed to our Heavenly Father, is that something wrong and worse yet, insulting? Perhaps in the age of equality, people say there should be no lines between this kind of thing. Well I don't necessarily support that entirely, but I'm sorry to say that the Bible beat them too it.

Twice in the old testament in 1 Samuel 16 and 17. The Greek word Yapheh is used to describe David. This same word is used in other places to describe beautiful women. So david, when he was young, was beautiful. Great.

Language is a funny thing. Two people can say the same thing, but mean entirely different things. It's complicated. What makes it complicated? I believe it's heart. What does Jesus say? Out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. Not words but intentions. Anyone can say words, not everyone can be sincere. To speak without understanding... is it so hard to admit that we don't know what we're talking about? Haha yes it is. If I act like I know what I'm talking about when I don't, isn't that just a form of lying? Trying to deceive people into thinking that I'm someone I'm not or I know what I don't. It comes from the heart.

Regardless, whenever I use the word beautiful to describe God, I can do so with more confidence knowing the context of how it was used in the Bible. Do I know what I'm talking about? No... but a little bit more I do.

So I don't forget

Something good becomes great when you share it with someone.

There is a certain goodness that you can only achieve when you share something with another person. I may even say something mediocre or bad becomes great when you share it with someone.

10 questions every intelligent Christian must answer (from youtube)

#1 Why won't God heal amputees?
He does...

"We all know that amputated legs do not regenerate in response to prayer"
No, we actually don't know that because they do...

#2 Why are there so many starving people in the world?
The old question of suffering. This assumes that suffering has no meaning, or that it is undeserved.

#3 Why does God demand the death of so many innocent people in the Bible?
Key word "innocent". It's a loaded question that makes an assumption of the Bible.

#4 Why does the Bible contain so much unscientific nonsense?
I could probably point out a bunch of unscientific things that people believe in for person's life. Besides, this question assumes the non-existence of miracles and the supernatural.

#5 Why is God such a huge proponent of slavery in the Bible?
He's not really... try reading the Bible...

#6 Why do bad things happen to good people?
Again, there's an assumption in the question that "bad" things happen to "good" people.

#7 Why didn't any of Jesus' miracles leave behind any evidence?
The guy didn't elaborate on this question, but I mean evidence can be lots of leftover bread to radically changed lives of people.

#8 How do we explain the fact that Jesus never appeared to you?
"if you pray for Jesus to appear, nothing happens"
Err... He might not at that moment, but that doesn't mean He won't.

#9 Why would Jesus want you to eat his body and drink his blood?
Hmmmm... probably the most challenging of the questions. Perhaps, I'll address this in another blog post. My thoughts, right now... maybe it's a metaphor? Maybe there's some significance in eating flesh...? Gotta think it through some more.

#10 Why do Christians get divorced at the same rate as non-Christians?
Hmm, maybe not everyone who says "I'm a Christian" is really a Christian.

So yeah, I didn't actually answer a lot of these questions, rather I'm pointing out flaws in the actual questions themselves or just post my first thoughts as I read them. I probably sound like some kind of super cold hearted conservative, but I don't mean to. Yeah, just thought I'd take the trouble to think about this.

A Tough Question: Part 1 of many

How can God say killing is a sin, and yet order people to kill or even kill people Himself?

First thought, God stands outside His rules, He makes the rules but doesn't have to follow them. Not totally satisfying, but it's a simple enough answer.

Let's go a bit deeper. Why is killing someone wrong? I'm not sure what the rest of the philosophies or world religions say, and perhaps what I'm about to say is not Biblical, but I want to propose that killing, is in fact, a type of stealing.

Okay, so why is stealing wrong? Well, stealing can be defined as taking what does not belong to you. To argue from a Christian standpoint, the essence of stealing comes from a lack of faith. To take from someone else says that God has not provided enough for you and you need to take more. Stealing for greed, envy, hate is obviously wrong, but what about stealing to feed your kids? Look at it this way, if you steal to feed your kids, it's saying that God will not provide for them and I need to go and do it myself.

In the case of murder, you are taking someone's life or put another way, you are exercising control over it when you have no right to it. This way, one not only steals life from someone, but they are robbing God of His authority over that person's life. God has the authority because He gives life, and so He has the right to take it away. So now murder is a sin, and because God gives life and has the right to take it back because of that, He is exempt from the rule of not murdering because life is His anyway. It's kinda like if a person loans someone 100$. If he takes that 100$ back, no one calls him a thief. This is kinda the same. Probably not a perfect answer, but my musings nonetheless.

Perspective

I'm thankful for people in my life that are irresponsible, selfish, lazy, etc... Every interaction is a chance to love someone unconditionally.