The Better part, week #9

 

This week's FB posts, for your edification and my preservation:

The Better part, day #56:

 

Pro 22:20 Have I not written to you yesterday and the day before with counsels and knowledge,

Pro 22:21 to cause you to know the certainty of the words of truth, to return the words of truth to those who send to you? 

 

Last night I read an article in The Times Of Israel by a man whose main point was how much better Judaism and Islam was because they don't accept the doctrine of Original sin. Among his points were that it's never mentioned in the Old Testament (If you throw out enough of the Pentateuch that it becomes the 'five paragraphs'); That Jesus was a "moralizing perfectionist" who just wanted us to do better (turning the Gospels into the 'four paragraphs'); That Paul, "the true founder of the Christian faith" (If you toss out all of the miraculous power of God in Christ) pulled the doctrine of Original sin out of his left cheek; and that the Christian faith 'forces you to become a Christian to avoid hell', while neither the Jews nor the Muslims (which he 'proved' with yet more cherry-picked Koran verses that bear no resemblance to the actions of the historic- or current- Muslim faith) force anyone to do anything.

Although I could have gotten onto the comments section and put holes in his argument big enough for a Carnival cruise ship to pass through, I was a good boy for once and refrained. I knew he would never listen to someone who serves a Holy God who isn't going to dismiss what I want to do with a nod and a wink, who isn't just sitting back watching the dreidel spin, and who doesn't see man as sinless except through the lens of His Son's sacrifice. Wisdom has to be sought, and Jesus will teach it to you. If you're not too satisfied with your own intellect and with a do-nothing God.

 

The Better part, Day #57:

 

Joh 8:7 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her."

I had something else planned for today, but real life struck: By now I know you all heard about Tiger Woods's horrible accident. And, not surprisingly, I heard on WOWO'S Pat Miller show that social media was having a lot of fun saying that Tiger's Karma for cheating on his wife finally came due. Before we start saying that, let me point out in that verse above, Jesus didn't say, "You who have LESSER sins". Jesus calls us to have mercy on ALL men, not just the ones whose sins are lesser, or hidden.

 

 

The Better Part, Day #58:

 

Rom 9:20 But who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its molder, "Why have you made me like this?"

Rom 9:21 Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? 

 

To make the point I want here (not the one you might think), I'm going to add a secular quote of a scientific sort:

 

"...One is perhaps we are alone in the universe. The argument here is that we are finding more and more Goldilocks zones, meaning that it becomes increasingly difficult to find planets that can fit within all these new Goldilocks zones. For example, there is a Goldilocks zone (now) for the Milky Way Galaxy. If a planet is too close to the center of the galaxy, there is too much radiation for life to exist. If it is too far from the center, then there are not enough heavy elements to create the molecules of life...Each time there is another Goldilocks zone, it vastly decreases the possibility of life..." -Michio Kaku, The Future of Humanity, note # 245

 

Now we put the two together. How does this not convince these scientists that it all HAD to be put together by a Supreme Being? Because there are three kinds of things we don't know. There are the things we never bother to look for; the things, like in the Bible passage, God doesn't choose to share with us yet- or with each of us until we're ready; and things we REFUSE to see because it would dethrone man as supreme being.

 

 

The Better part, day #59:

 

Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Joh 1:2 He was in the beginning with God. 

 

Today, just a note that I took comfort that, if Jesus is The Word, and The Word is in the Bible, then every page I read, I am getting to know Him!

 

The Better part day #60:

 

Joh 14:1 "Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me.

Joh 14:2 In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?

Joh 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 

 

This is another just brief thought, stolen from Jack Hibbs. Jesus's first job- a carpenter. Imagine a carpenter with the Power of God having spent the last 2,000+ years building your future home?

 

 

The Better part, Day # 61:

 

(This is the tail-end of my Wednesday Bible Study post on the blog this coming week...)

 

2Sa 2:4 And the men of Judah came, and there they anointed David king over the house of Judah. When they told David, "It was the men of Jabesh-gilead who buried Saul,"

2Sa 2:5 David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh-gilead and said to them, "May you be blessed by the LORD, because you showed this loyalty to Saul your lord and buried him.

2Sa 2:6 Now may the LORD show steadfast love and faithfulness to you. And I will do good to you because you have done this thing.

2Sa 2:7 Now therefore let your hands be strong, and be valiant, for Saul your lord is dead, and the house of Judah has anointed me king over them."

 

And thus, where a lesser king might have eliminated or at least ignored followers of the old regime, these men were blessed by David- and a city that might have died in infamy turned their path around and found themselves blessed. And we might never had noticed, had it not been set against the contrast of a soul lost without God. When we feel it's time to give up on this world, let's be men of Jabesh-Gilead, and receive God's blessing for it!

 

 

The Better part, Day #62:

 

"There is a connection between purity and power in our lives..." Charles Stanley

 

2Sa 24:2 So the king said to Joab, the commander of the army, who was with him, "Go through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan to Beersheba, and number the people, that I may know the number of the people."

2Sa 24:3 But Joab said to the king, "May the LORD your God add to the people a hundred times as many as they are, while the eyes of my lord the king still see it, but why does my lord the king delight in this thing?"

2Sa 24:4 But the king's word prevailed against Joab and the commanders of the army. So Joab and the commanders of the army went out from the presence of the king to number the people of Israel. 

 

Rom 14:21 It is good not to eat meat or drink wine or do anything that causes your brother to stumble.

Rom 14:22 The faith that you have, keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who has no reason to pass judgment on himself for what he approves.

Rom 14:23 But whoever has doubts is condemned if he eats, because the eating is not from faith. For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin. 

These three things came together for me this morning, telling me that a) if I want to feel God in a more powerful way, I've got to accept him bringing me to points of greater purity; b) that I go backwards in that battle every time I shut Him out as I gravitate towards sin; and c) that things that might not be sin to anyone else in the world can be sin FOR ME.