The Better Part, week #52

 

A COVID-strewn collection of FB posts:

The Better Part, Day #247:

 

Last night at some point I heard a chunk of the passage that says, "If you come before the altar and realize that your brother/neighbor has something against you..." and so at my last break 'pray for missions' time, I "left my gift at the altar" and confessed to God about my opinion of my lack of obedience to Him. Seconds into it a co-worker came up, apologizing because she had made a mistake which would cause me to remake a part. As always, I told her it was no problem, things happen.

She was rattled though, because she was distracted by a 'at home' problem, and she's the kind of person that really takes screwing up to heart. That's when I smiled and said, "Let me tell you about what was going on before you came over..."

 

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day #248:

 

I heard Martin Luther paraphrased as saying that you cannot break any other commandment unless you first break the First Commandment- You shall not have other gods before Me. And that is dead on- Because Idolatry is pride in action, and you can trace every other sin you commit to pride- if you're willing to look at it from God's POV. Any other rule is just another means of putting yourself ahead of God.

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day #249:

 

Another couple of days of "discussion" with "political Christians" is at an end, and I learned a valuable lesson only God can teach. Those who are 'fools' by the Proverbs definition will always be the ones that shout you down, insult you to get a rise, or, as in this case, start something and then sit back and eat popcorn watching the carnage. But the truly wise will be silent- or maybe say one calm, intelligent thing. And unlike the fools, you'll never know who really was touched, turned to see things differently. So don't give up making your stand for Christ, no matter how loud the fools or how quiet the touched.

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day#250:

 

 

In the story of Elijah's victory over the priests of Baal, one thing that every sermon I've ever heard on it leaves out: That in the midst of a famine, from which they were praying for relief, Elijah poured 12 ( a significant number of the Lord) pitchers of precious water on the sacrifice first- thus giving to God that which they desired most.

 

Ironic that the best the priests of Baal could give was their own blood- and that, too, was required of them by the Winner of the contest.

 

 

 

The Better Part, Day #251:

 

 

Neh 13:6 While this was taking place, I was not in Jerusalem, for in the thirty-second year of Artaxerxes king of Babylon I went to the king. And after some time I asked leave of the king

Neh 13:7 and came to Jerusalem, and I then discovered the evil that Eliashib had done for Tobiah, preparing for him a chamber in the courts of the house of God.

Neh 13:8 And I was very angry, and I threw all the household furniture of Tobiah out of the chamber. 

 

 

David Jeremiah this morning pointed out to me that I am like the Temple: Ran by a fleshly priest (Eliashib) who had an adulterous connection to an evil stronghold (Tobiah and his room), which was empty of the Word that should have been there (the tithes and offerings for the priests), and in sore need of the Holy Spirit to come home and throw all the crap out (Nehemiah).