Sunday message +

This week, in my looking at the propechies of Christ's coming, I am at Psalms 2. Specifically, vv 4-9:

⁴ He who sits in the heavens shall laugh;
The Lord shall hold them in derision.
⁵ Then He shall speak to them in His wrath,
And distress them in His deep displeasure:
⁶ “Yet I have set My King
On My holy hill of Zion.”

⁷ “I will declare the decree:
The LORD has said to Me,
‘You are My Son,
Today I have begotten You.
⁸ Ask of Me, and I will give You
The nations for Your inheritance,
And the ends of the earth for Your possession.
⁹ You shall break^[a] them with a rod of iron;
You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’” 
        
Okay, the big thing I want to look at here is the term "Begotten".  When I was a wee lad in Catholic school (for which I forever praise God for putting me there), The explanation of begotten was a little bit difficult, because we could recite in the Apostle's Creed, "begotten, not made, one in being with the Father".  Hence it became tied up in a concept of being BEYOND born or created.  A magical, mystical genesis, if you will.  So then we read Psalm 2 and became all confused.  If begotten meant this magical, mystical, always been sort of thing, then what did Psalm 2:7 mean?

So look up the concordance version of "begotten".  It simply means born, creating an offspring.  Nothing magical or mystical.  So just what is going on?  Well let's backtrack by going forward.  The first chapter of John's Gospel explains that Jesus is the Incarnate Word of God.  Always in existance, always part and parcel of who and what God is.  But then, an evolution was made- "and the Word became flesh."  How is this so? Look to Luke 1:35, where the angel describes to Mary that flesh and God are going to combine in her womb; "Therefore, also, that the Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God".

Confusing?  Then cast off human perception and follow me.  Who we know as Jesus Christ is and was an always-existant facet of God.  But at a point in time, this essence took on flesh, becoming both God and man.  Thus, God tells Him, "(Now) You are my Son- this day, I have begotten You."  So now, not only is Christ a part of and wholly God, but also has become as flesh the Son of God.

So the way we were taught begotten wasn't exactly on-beam; but it was probably about as close as you could get it to first-through-eighth-graders. Come to think of it, it's not much easier now.  But guess what? We're dealing with a being that is beyond our concepts of time and space, who wove both atoms and galaxies out of the same cloth.  Scientists reject God for this very reason, saying they need "proof" of His existance, and yet to have that proof  would remove God from the very concept of "God".  IOW, some things aren't meant to be understood in this life.  But God gives us enough understanding with which to have faith.  Not to mention , He gave us that understanding in a form that could serve both as a propechy when He gave it 3,000 years ago, and as in instruction 2,000 years after He accomplished it!

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Now for the "+" in our story.  First off, be sure to click on that "Chris' Cap Collection " link to see the prizes I got at the 37th annual "Turkey Trot" beer collectables show yesterday.  I assure you, the posts on CCC aren't just dry figures and pictures, but I fill in actual interesting stories, both about the caps and the people who made the beer, as well as how I got them.  (And if that still seems boring, then just humor me!)

Next, a look at the FCS playoffs.  I didn't get a "thromp" of JMU over Eastern KY, but I did get a win.  I said ODU shouldn't (actually, I said "shopuldn't", but since Blogger's spell-check likes to excise whole paragraphs for no apparent reason, that's the way it goes) have any problem with Norfolk St., and they didn't.  I said Central Ark. should beat TennTech, and they did; and I thought I was going to mess up giving Stony Brook the edge over Albany.  But the Seawolves stormed back from 28-10 down to win 31-28 to make me a perfect 4-0 in round one.  So let me try round 2.

Stony Brook gets #1 seed Sam Houston State.  Now, I'm not convinced how much that 11-0 record means in SHS's conference, but I'm pretty sure it means more than what it would in SB's Big South, so Sam I am.  Montana State meets UNH, and I would've had no problem going with State- until they lost their rivalry game to Montana so badly.  I, with severe reservations, will take... UNH.  Next up is Northern Iowa vs Wofford, and neither of these teams were just lighting the world on fire at season's end.  But since I went with them all year, I'll take Wofford for the upset in Iowa.  Montana will be hosting Central Ark., and I will take the home team here.  Then it's Georgia Southern against ODU.  Actually, you have Southern Conf. vs CAA the next two stops, because the next bracket is Appalachian State vs Maine.  I'm pretty confident that the two conferences will split thes games; not so confident on which wins which.  Let's say GaSo and Maine advance.  That brings us to Towson and Lehigh.  Cautiously, he looks around the room and says, "Lehigh".  Which brings us to next week's final game, JMU and North Dakota State.  I've said all along that JMU had no business getting this spot, and NDST was the #1 team for a while, and they're playing in the great plains.  Give me JMU.