Hot Pot!

This is not going to be a real post. And there is nothing spiritual about it in the least. I just want you to know that after almost 9 years of marriage, and many extremely mediocre attempts, I have finally, finally made a delicious pot roast. It was fall apart tender, moist, glossy, perfectly seasoned, and plain old scrumptious. Even my notoriously blase (when it comes to food) husband, pronounced it to be "really good." If you knew the man, you would realize what high praise that conferred. And I also made turnip greens for the very first time. They were excellent. Figures.

God in a Box?

I want to challenge you a little bit today. Do you have God in a box of your own making? Do you perhaps believe in a God who only exists in you imagination?

I don't mean to imply that God is not real. To the contrary, I believe God is more real and more evident than any other thing in all of existence. But I think that there is a great deal of misinformation about God floating around our culture. This is certainly nothing new. Almost since God revealed Himself to His creation, people have misunderstood Him. I also don't want you to think that I somehow have all of the answers about God. I don't. Not at all. But I do strive to understand Him as He has chosen to reveal Himself to mankind--through His word--the Bible. And I have no doubts that there are some things we can and should be certain about regarding God. I say that so you don't mistake me for someone who claims that everything about God is unknowable. I think that is hogwash.

So, in order to challenge you, I'm going to share some Bible verses that have the potential to confuse you or trouble you. If you find yourself confused or troubled, then good. I want you to seek the answers. For that reason, I'm not going to share with you how I have reconciled these verses with who God is. If you really want to know, leave me a comment and I'll get back to you. But really, what I want is to inspire you to seek that answer for yourself. I think the best way to accomplish that is to read the Bible. So here goes!

1 Samuel 6:19

"Then He struck the men of Beth Shemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the LORD. He struck fifty thousand and seventy men of the people, and the people lamented because the LORD had struck the people with great slaughter."

Just as a reference, you should realize that the people God had struck with a great slaughter in this verse are not foreigners or strangers. They are His chosen people, Israel.

1 Samuel 2:25

"Nevertheless they did not heed the voice of their father, because the LORD desired to kill them."

In this verse, one of God's priests has admonished his two sons. They were also priests, and they had been committing all kinds of atrocities in the LORD's temple. But as you can see, their father's warnings fell on deaf ears.

1 Samuel 16:14

"But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and a distressing spirit from the LORD troubled him."

Saul was the first anointed king over Israel. Because he did not obey God, the above verse took place. Another extremely interesting verse that deals with God sending and them removing His Spirit can be found in Numbers 24:2. I'll leave that verse to those of you who want to look it up for yourselves.

1 Samuel 15:3

"Now go and attack Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and do not spare them. But kill both man and woman, infant and nursing child, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.

Did God just command Israel to kill woman, children, infants and nursing babies? Yes, He did.

Judges 9:22

"After Abimelech had reigned over Israel three years, God sent a spirit of ill will between Abimelech and the men of Shechem."

Abimelech was one of Gideon's sons (born to his concubine.) He slaughtered all 70 of his own brothers and controlled Israel through force.

And if those verses are not enough to challenge you, try this. Look up Deuteronomy 28: 52-57. It is horrifying almost beyond belief. It details some of the curses that will come upon Israel if they refuse to obey the commands of the LORD.

Now, can you reconcile these verses with your idea of who God is? If you see God as a lovable teddy bear in the sky, I think you will have a hard time digesting all of this. If you see God as some kind of cosmic self-help guru, you will be equally confused. If you see Him as a bleeding heart that just really wishes that folks would do the right thing, you are still missing Him.

God is holy. And God is good. The problem is not with God. It is our understanding of what it means to be holy, and what it means to be good.

Psalm 145:8

"The LORD is gracious and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy."

Way Better Than Sleeping Beauty

We are planning a trip to Disney in the not too far off future. As part of our preparation for the trip, I've been letting my daughter watch some of the classic Walt Disney princess movies. I thought she would enjoy seeing the characters at the park if she had some idea of who they actually were.

I can tell that my "way has been narrowing," by my reaction to these stories that I used to love so much. If there was ever a die-hard princess romance fan, it was me from age 7 to about 14. Yes, really! As a 13 year old I was still enthralled by The Little Mermaid. But as I read The Little Mermaid to my daughter this past week, I was pretty horrified. Ariel blatantly rebels against her father, she keeps a treasured collection of forbidden human items and she seeks out and makes a deal with her father's enemy, the sea witch. At about this point in the story, I'm wondering to my myself: "Why, exactly, is this a character I want my daughter to admire?"

Don 't worry, I'm not a total party pooper. I kept my self righteous indignation to myself. After all, these stories are meant to be fun entertainment, not life lessons. And I loved them as a girl. So I suppose I should let my daughter have her own shot at romantic fantasy. BUT, I think I will gently add a commentary about Ariel's foolish choices, versus what God commands us to do. (Fortunately, I think my daughter is much less attracted to princesses than I was.)

All this to say, that the Bible has much better romantic love stories. And the ones in the Bible really happened, to real women. Some of them even involve princesses. They also involve truth, tension, mystery, suspense, obedience, rebellion, mercy, grace, sin, restoration, etc... In other words, they are way better than Sleeping Beauty!

A perfect case in point. I read through the book of Ruth this past week. What a delightful book! I think it is one of my new favorites. There is so much in those 4 short chapters. I'm not going to sum up the entire book in this one post, and I have written about Ruth and Naomi before.

Instead, let me extract a few of my favorite passages, and flesh them out.

Ruth 1:20-21

"But she said to them, "Do not call me Naomi, call me Mara, for the Almighty has dealt very bitterly with me. I went out full, and the LORD has brought me home again empty. Why do you call me Naomi, since the LORD has testified against me, and the Almighty has afflicted me?"

A jolt went through me when I read that verse. It captured, in one (well, technically two) sentences, the way I felt after my first child was born. I had left home one morning, expecting a regular day, heavily pregnant. And by that night, my child had been delivered and my arms were empty. She was in the NICU. I had been full, and suddenly I was empty. I felt like the Almighty had afflicted me and dealt bitterly with me.

Whether those emotions were justified or not, that is exactly how I felt for many months. Now, with the perspective of several years, I see that day as the beginning of amazing blessings that the LORD was waiting to pour out on me. But then, I just felt empty, and afflicted.

This whole passage comes into clearer focus if you realize that the name Naomi means "pleasant" and the name Mara means "bitter."

Another powerful verse:

(This happens when Ruth and Boaz first meet, when Boaz extends great kindness to her)

Ruth 2:10

"So she fell on her face, bowed down to the ground, and said to him, "Why have I found favor in your eyes, that you should take notice of me, since I am a foreigner?"

Whoa! Don't you feel like that sometimes when you approach God? I do. Why should God take notice of me? I am a foreigner. In more ways than one. I'm a Gentile, I was born under wrath by nature, I certainly have never done anything that would deserve God's grace. And yet, He has extended it to me, overwhelmingly.

I'm going to share one more verse, this time one that just made me smile. This verse is Naomi speaking to Ruth, after Ruth has gone to Boaz and asked him to become her husband and through her, provide Naomi with an heir (since both of Naomi's own sons had died.) It was the tradition of the day that if a married man died childless, his closest male relation would take the widow as a wife and any children born from their union would be considered the heir of the dead man. Got that? Yeah, I know, it's hard for us 21st century gals to relate.

Ruth 3:18

"Then she said, "Sit still, my daughter, until you know how the matter will turn out; for the man will not rest until he has concluded the matter this day."

That just cracks me up. I think it must have been obvious to Naomi that Boaz was smitten with Ruth. After all, we know that Ruth was lovely, that she was hard working, and that she was well known as a "virtuous woman." Being called a virtuous woman in Ruth's day expressed the same sentiment that was meant when a man was called "a man of great wealth." In other words, it was very high praise indeed. I just love the picture of a smitten Boaz, deliberately setting out to clear the final hurdle that lay between him and claiming Ruth as a wife. If you want the details, Read chapter 4. Boaz was a pretty crafty guy.

And to top off the book of Ruth, we even have a fairy tale ending. Ruth and Boaz get married, and Ruth becomes pregnant with a son, providing Naomi with an heir. The best part of all? Ruth, who started out as a foreigner, a Moabite, gets grafted in to the family line of the King of Kings--Jesus. Wow. Disney ain't got nothin on God.

500

OK, If you ever thought that I was above appearing popular, you are about to be disabused of that notion.

I am so excited, because today, this blog got it's 500th hit!

You have no idea how much that amazes me, considering that only about 5 people who actually know me in person have this web address (I'm slowly working on that by the way.)

This is my confession--if you look at the ticker at the bottom of this page, you will see that it counts 600 hits instead of 500. Well, remember what I said about appearing popular? I started the ticker at 100, because I didn't want to look like a newbie. Now I'm totally busted. But that's OK, because I'm just tickled silly over the idea that my blog has been pulled up 500 times.

I know that most of the readers are fly-bys who will never come back. But a few of you have stuck around, and I am encouraged by you. I hope you are edified, encouraged and maybe even smile sometimes when you read this blog. But most of all, I hope you see the glory of God, even in just some tiny way. If I could tell every person who ever stumbles by this blog just one thing it would be this--Read the Bible! You will be amazed. Don't just read a verse here or there. Really get into it and read the thing. It has transformed me. And I believe it can do the same for you.

Heavy Stuff

I've had a question running around in my head for well over a year now. It's one of those things that I think about from time to time, but I don't have a good answer for, so eventually I just give up and think about something else. I always figured that I would eventually run across a scripture that would clarify it for me. Well, I did find a scripture that clarified things, some, but it still makes my head hurt to think about it too long.

Here is the question--Does God use our sin to accomplish His plan? The question seems deceptively simple, but it isn't a simple idea at all!

First, consider that God is sovereign, completely sovereign. There is nothing that happens which God does not allow. To accept this idea, you have to accept that God allows sin. But why in the world would God allow sin if He is holy? Well, the answer is that somehow it all works together for the glory of God. That is the correct answer anyway, but it still leaves me wondering sometimes. This is a great example of a question that I don't think humanity has the ability to understand. What I mean is, not only could we fail to understand the entire answer, if we had access to it, but I don't even think we can understand the question well enough to really ask it. Try not to think about that last sentence too long. I guarantee you will get a headache.

So, back to my original question, does God use our sin to accomplish His plan? I think, tentatively, that I must answer with a "Yes!"

I found my answer in the book of Judges. Now, if you have not read the book of Judges recently, I highly recommend it. I've had my heart broken several times in the past week reading the book of Judges. Not boring at all.

Let me set this up for you. Samson is regarded as one of the greatest judges of Israel. For more on him, consult your Bible, I can't even begin to tell his whole story here. (By the way, I always thought that the judges of Israel were, like, judges. But no, they were warriors, not men who wore long robes and handed down legal opinions--one of those facts I don't remember hearing about in Sunday School!)

So, being the great judge, you would expect that he led a pretty upstanding and moral life. Well, you would be expecting wrong. One of the first instances we hear about regarding Samson is that he sought to marry a Philistine. Yes, that is right, a foreign woman who worshiped idols. Specifically, the god Dagon. Marrying foreign women was explicitly against God's expressed law.

But, nonetheless, Samson had taken a fancy to a Philistine woman, and he determined to marry her. He went to his parents (who by all accounts seemed to be righteous people) and asked that they obtain this Philistine woman as a wife for him. His parents try to talk him out of it.

OK, now here is the verse that blew me out of the water:

Judges 14:4

"But his mother and father did not know that it was of the LORD--that He was seeking an occasion to move against the Philistines."

Well, put that in your pipe and smoke on it for a minute. Did I read that right? God was using Samson's sinful and wrong desire to marry a foreign wife to accomplish His plan? The implications of that are mind-numbing. What does that mean for you and me and our sin?

I'm not sure I can fully answer that question. What I can say is this--God is holy, and God is sovereign. If those two things don't seem to go together to you, join the club. I can't wrap my mind around it either. But, I do believe both things. I hope to someday understand fully, but I don't have any expectation of it happening in this lifetime.

Ephesians 1:11

"In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will,"


The italics added is mine, for emphasis. He works all things according to the counsel of His will. I believe that even includes my sin, and yours too. But as a caution, consider Romans 6:1

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not!"

Oh, this post is already too long. I think a whole book could be written about this topic, and probably several already have. But in a nutshell what does all of this mean? Here is my opinion. (Note the word opinion, by the way)

God is gracious to allow even our sins to become part of His ultimate design. The only reason this can happen is because God Himself, as Jesus, paid for the burden of our sin. Otherwise, we would all be doomed. On a personal level, this means that my sins--even the really big, ugly ones, have some greater good that can come out of them. Now, how is that for a gracious God? Pretty gracious if you ask me.

Psalm 103:8

"The LORD is merciful and gracious, Slow to anger, and abounding in mercy."

Psalm 23

Psalm 23:4

"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me"

This is a good example of a verse that most Christians, and many non-Christians are very familiar with. Kind of like John 3:16. If someone said to you, "Yea, though I walk..." You could probably finish the rest of that sentence automatically.

I get several email devotionals, and one of them spent a whole week focusing on the 23 Psalm. So naturally, I spent some time thinking about the meaning of the words in Psalm 23. Specifically, I was intrigued by the idea of a "rod" and a "staff" bringing comfort. What does that really mean?

The analogy of a staff bringing comfort made immediate sense, I can easily picture the staff as a tool that guides sheep, directing them to safety, away from danger, and thus "comforting" them. But the rod struck me as an odd tool for bringing comfort. I have always associated the rod with discipline and rebuke, not with comfort. So I decided to look up the original Hebrew and see if I could shed some light on this all too familiar verse.

Here is what I discovered.

The Hebrew word for rod used here is shebet. It can mean several things including a stick, for punishing, writing, fighting, ruling, walking, etc... It can also figuratively mean a clan. This word shebet is used in Proverbs 13:24:

"Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him."

I found that very interesting. Is it the discipline of the LORD that David finds comforting? That puts a different twist on things, doesn't it?

Moving on to the word "staff", I found the original Hebrew word mishenah. It means support, or sustenance. That makes sense. The support of the LORD is comforting to David.

But what does the word "comfort" really mean? This, to me, was the most interesting find of all. It left me with a few more questions than answers.

Before I say any more, let me give you this disclaimer. I don't know anything about Bible translation. I don't know how the people who translated Psalms from Hebrew to English chose which meaning to assign to each word. But now that I have started looking into the original language, I find the topic fascinating. I'll have to find someone who knows something about it and pick his or her brain.

OK, that being said, let me continue. The Hebrew word for comfort is nacham. Some of its meanings include to sigh, breathe strongly, by implication to be sorry, to pity, to console, avenge, comfort, repent. There is our word "comfort," way down there on the list of potential meanings.

But I found a lot of verses in the Old Testament that used the word nacham in a totally different way. Here is one of them:

Genesis 6:6

"And the LORD was sorry that he had made man of the earth, and it grieved him to his heart."

There the word nacham is used in one of it's more common translations "to be sorry" or "repent."

Wow, doesn't that idea mix things up for Psalm 23? Read the verse this way and see what you think:

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; Your discipline and your support, they cause me to repent.

I personally think that repenting and comfort work very well together. After all, God promises to forgive us when we repent and confess. That comforts me a great deal. Because no matter what I do, I know there will never be a time in this life when I will be without sin. It's just part of living in this present flesh.

And I know from experience that sometimes the most effective way to bring repentance is with a little application of discipline. In fact, I may go so far as to say that sometimes that is the only way to bring repentance. Read the book of Judges sometime. It is pitifully clear that the rod of discipline was the only way God could keep the wayward Israelites from committing all sorts of atrocities.

But, because God is merciful and gracious, He promises to always include the staff of His comfort in the mix. The perfect combination: discipline and support. Sounds a lot like a loving Father to me.

I don't think I will ever read the 23 Psalm quite the same way again.

I'm Still Kickin

I am sorry I have been so negligent of this blog. I have been really busy for the past few weeks. I hope that my life will return to something resembling normal next week, when school begins again.

In the meantime, I've got lots of posts rumbling around in my head. I'm just going to have to find the time to get them out of my head and into the wild wild net.

Phillipians 4:1

"Therefore my beloved and longed-for brethren, my joy and my crown, so stand fast in the Lord, beloved."