Broadsword

70 Hours

Time management speaks for itself:

Bad Glass

Over time, I’ve gone gaga over interior lighting. Truth is I’ve waited and waited anxiously for several years now to acquire some pendant lights for the man-cave. The big moment came after patiently waiting for the local lighting merchant to offer everything at up to half off. I could wait no longer.

Pretty, isn’t it? Truth is, if you came to the man-cave, and I showed them to you, they look even better than this low quality internet-grade photo. I really like them. And their beauty brings me joy. The craftsmanship is superb, very even, no bubbles or other imperfections; the work of a master glass blower. I am pleased.

I got to thinking as I was admiring them, about that passage in the Book of Revelation, where John feebly (feeble, only because he had only human thoughts and words to describe the indescribable) attempts to describe the walls of the New Jerusalem:

“And the material of the wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like clear glass.” — Rev 21:18

I cannot imagine the sheer beauty that awaits us when we see the walls “like jasper,” and their stunning beauty; the work of a Master Craftsman who has had over two thousand years to build us a new dwelling place. Waiting impatiently for my pendant lights is nothing like the burn I have looking forward to a New Heaven and new Earth. After all, consider what He did in just six days!

If You Read the News, Bring A Bible

Sometimes you have to bite your tongue when reading the news. Among today’s headlines are a well known European billionaire financial investor telling Germany not to reduce its debt. Bellicose Iran has produced weapons grade uranium and threatens tiny Israel. Oil gushes out of the Gulf while leaders sail and play golf. Christians in Africa are slaughtered and nary a peep is to be heard.

That was before morning Bible time. In today’s Psalms portion of the Through-the-Bible-In-a-Year on the home page (Psalm 73:21-24), Asaph reminds us that allowing the injustice we face clouds our thinking, our hearts, and God-relationship. He says:

When my heart was embittered
And I was pierced within
Then I was senseless and ignorant;
I was like a beast before You -Psalm 73:21-22

Wow! Those are pretty powerful descriptions: embittered, pierced, senseless, ignorant, and a beast. In context, the psalmist is describing his reaction to injustice; wicked deeds done by wicked men, with no perceived penalty, but rather apparent nonchalance by both God and men.

But read on!

The wicked will get their comeuppance, but more importantly, the heart of the psalmist is restored by drawing closer to his God:
Nevertheless I am continually with You;
You have taken hold of my right hand.
With Your counsel You will guide me,
And afterward receive me to glory (v 22-23)

Like a loving Father holding His child’s hand, He walks with us across a busy street and back Home.

Why is the Bible so Confusing and Contradicting?

That was the question asked on a Yahoo site today. Here are both the question and an answer, but ask yourself; how would you answer this person. To have an answer, or to know where to find one, gives us the privilege of communicating God’s Ultimate love, the Gospel, to sincere people asking the question:

The Question

“Since when is it ok to have your brother sleep with your wife because you could not produce.Or for a husband to have more than one wife. Also, Treat others as you would be treated, but not gays or lesbians or “others” But be kind to the different and less fortunate, do not judge people but only the ones who are less fortunate or have problems….I realize this is a bit thrown together, but the bible really does not fully make sense to me …is that bad?”

An Answer

Great question! It does seem to have a jumbled up, consistency to it, like the Law of Retribution (”eye for an eye” in Exodus 21:24, for example) so let’s look at your specific questions:

The first, about a brother sleeping with his wife is sometimes called a Levirate marriage. Since the Jews then and now have a very close tie with the land, that farming economy depended on family ownership of property that was designed by God to pass from father to son, or sometimes to daughter. In cases where there was no male heir to pass title to, the nearest kinsman (transliterated goel) was encouraged to raise up a child to thus pass on title to the family. A wonderful example of this is the tiny book of Ruth in the Old Testament.
Jesus also alludes the custom in Mark’s gospel chapter 12 around verse 19 or so.

As to having more than one wife, this was an allowed custom, and never meant as the defacto standard. Refer to Genesis chapter 2 verses 14 to 24 to see the God-standard. Jesus later expounds this in the case of divorce this standard and comments on the more-than-one-wife-thing in Matthews Gospel in chapter 19.

Treat others as you would like to be treated is of course repeated by Jesus, the Golden Rule.

God loves gays, lesbians, porn stars, rich people, poor people; all people. He loves us so much He let His Soon take the hit for our sins so that we could engage Him, know Him, hang out and be with Him. If some Christians condemn gay people or rich people, or Republicans or Democrats or Taliban, then we are not loving our neighbors as commanded. But loving the person does not mean acceptance of a lifestyle God knows to be destructive, be it sexual, chemical, or anything else. In short, God wants to keep us from the harm that comes from not living the way He would desire for us.

I hope this helps. I offer it in sincerity and the hope that you would continue to pursue your study of the Bible, it is a love letter to you.

St. Francis, Über Missionary

I came across an article in the local paper, the San Luis Obispo Tribune, about the San Miguel mission. The author, Dan Krieger, was explaining about the work of the missionaries, friars and priests of the order of St. Francis; whom we know as the Franciscans. As an aside, the Franciscans were selected over the original order, the Jesuits, as the Jesuits were known to be upstarts, and the King of Spain knew the Franciscans to be more missions focused, and less politically charged.

Krieger goes into the background of the Franciscans, and there modeling of Francis’ simple, Gospel orientation in all circumstances, but especially when meeting Saladin, one of the Muslim leaders targeted in the Crusades.

Francis was able to do what no other Westerner / Christian could do; that by the simple application of preaching the Gospel, he found a favorable audience in an otherwise hostile climate.

He simply gave them Jesus.

God Glorious - Job, Not so Much

Slack Water

“Now as they were traveling along, He entered a certain village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. And she had a sister called Mary, who moreover was listening to the Lord’s word, seated at His feet. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him, and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only a few things are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” � Luke 10:38-42

I’m still walking on water after my big trip to Alaska. One of the highlights was an all-day fishing excursion for salmon and halibut, which turned out to be fruitful. We all limited out (3 salmon and 2 halibut each.)

I’d love to take credit for that, but the fact that all six of did is a credit to our captain, John Moline. Captain John is a student of fishing, and a passionate one at that. I might add that few other boats all limited out the day I was there; not only that, but wherever we went, other boats would end up as well. John is a fisherman’s fisherman. Which brings me to my point.

During the run out to our spot, John received numerous radio calls from other skippers. One, in particular, was looking ling cod, a delicious bottom-dweller. This skipper was a few miles from us, near a small island, and reporting no results. John encouraged the man to seek other species, as it was mid-tide, a fact that was lost me (and apparently the other fishless skipper.)

Finally, he relented and went out to one of the many halibut spots. A quizzical look from me brought an explanation. It seems that at the time, the tide was racing in, creating swift flowing water, especially on the rocks below the waterline, creating an environment where the bottom fish would be forced to drift with the curent away from the island, and also made it nearly impossible to feed, or to fish for them. Better, John went on, to wait for the slack tide at high and low tides. The water is still, the fish move and feed during this time.

It’s when things are quiet, undisturbed by the cares of the day, that you and I can feed. Feed on the very Word of God, (My flesh is true food, and my blood true drink, John 6:55) When the tides of life flood in, the eddies and roils of life upset aour ability to take spiritual nourishment, an we are committed to dealing with them.

My friend, feed during the slack water.

Keep Your Promises - Leviticus 27

I’m a big fan of movie lines. And the the more action oriented, the better. Go ahead, make my… Most of us can fill in the last word. It’s classic: Dirty Harry, pointing his .45 at the bad guy, jaw settled, eyes squinting, gun gleaming. (It’s “Go ahead, make my day.” BTW)

Top Gun is another favorite. After going inverted (flying upside down over a Russian MiG military jet) and later assisting a spooked pilot land his F-14 Tomcat on the heaving deck of an aircraft carrier and nearly running out of fuel, “Maverick”, the hero, stands before his commanding officer, who berates him with this line: “Son, your ego is writing checks your body can’t cash!” for putting himself and his aircraft in needless jeopardy.

So I’m wading through Leviticus. In chapter 27, God is instructing Moses about keeping promises, the writing-checks-I-can’t-cash kind. Being a corn fed, 21st century American, this all sounds like Urdu; it makes no sense at all; why would anyone go and open their mouth and bind themselves to such a an oath. Specifically, if anyone made a promise to God of themselves, their family(!!) animals, fields, or whatnot, they either had to put up the goods, or redeem them, if possible.

It made no sense to me until I flashed forward to Acts chapters 4 & 5. The baby church, filled with the Holy Spirit, bands together in the midst of intense persecution, selling all they had, and using the proceeds to help all the brothers and sisters. Barnabas is cited, specifically.

Ananias and his wife Sapphira, in contrast, sell off some land and pass only a part of the money, but representing that they had given the Apostles all the loot. We know what happens next: they both drop dead for lying to God and discount self-glorification gone bad.

Duh! Now it made sense. If I promise God something, I need to make it good. But you might say, isn’t God killing Ananias and Sapphira (can we call them A & S, my fingers ache) a bit over the top (drastic)? Let’s consider. What if Peter had let them get away with it? Consider the poor pastor, a big sack-o-cash is dropped on your desk from two of your flock. The s-t-r-o-n-g temptation would be to say thanks and ignore it. But that would compromise the pastor’s integrity.

A & S have had their integrity compromised. And they’ve sought their own glory, something God takes a dim view of. (Isaiah 42:8 & 48:11, look it up. I double dare you.) No doubt word would have gotten out that A & S fudged on their contribution. They must share the blame if no one steps forward.

And most importantly, God is being slapped in the face. By A & S, their pastor, their church, and any unsaved person who finds out and despises those whack, self-congratulating hypocrite Christians.

So no. God can’t let it stand. He protects His glory by recalling A & S home a bit earlier than they originally planned. And we can’t compromise either. Why just this morning I promised Pastor Randy I’d play for three Thursday nights. I could blow it off and not show up…

I think I will keep my commitments.

The Man in the Mirror - Exodus 20

Let’s keep this simple. I went to work a few weeks ago. Having slept well, I woke up late, powered throught the shower-shave-shirt-shoe cycle, out the door, and flew to work, warp factor 9. My boss was to be there, and I don’t see her that often, so when she IS there, I want to make the most of the opportunity.

AS I AM WALKING THROUGH THE DOOR, I glanced down and saw a coffee stain on my shirt rivaling San Bernadino County in size. No sweater, no time to go back for a new one, I busily try to damp clean the really bad parts, (I think it was the spot that looked like Colton, CA) only to have a shirt that that was not only filthy, but wet.

Well, the meeting went well, anyway, L— is a gracious person, and actually thought it was pretty funny. I groaned inwardly and swore off coffee, (ya right!) and vowed to check the mirror as my dear wife and older daughter do before leaving the house.

What does that have to do with Charlton Heston coming off the mountain with those two big stone dudes? Had I bothered to check the mirror, the Map-of-San-Berdoo-stain would have revealed to me the need to deep six the shirt, put on a new one, and wake up more than 15 minutes before work. But noooo!

Well the Ten Commandments are the same way. They tell me when I need to clean things up in my life. When I look into the “mirror” of the ten Big Ones, they tell me I need to wash up, like Jesus told Peter to do in John 13:10. I can’t claim Heaven by keeping them, but I sure can see where I need to make some changes in my life.

So no, I don’t take the mirror to work, and I don’t wear 2 heavy burdensome tablets to earn Heaven; I just check the mirror, for crying out loud, and change that shirt!

Abra-Man

Genesis 22
We are moving through Pastor Randy’s Thursday night study. I read Genesis 22 tonight. It’s funny how the Holy Spirit often reveals new facets to old familar stories. I was moved by the recognition that Abram took action immediately when instructed by God to sacrifice his son Isaac. He didn’t hesitate, ask God to clarify or confirm, didn’t do the many things a less faithful, less sure man would have done.

And the inner turmoil! A case of antacid could not not have soothed his roiling insides. The burden dread of the task, the protective answer, all overcome by even more enormous faith that the God he KNEW and TRUSTED would turn out all things rightly.

He had no Old or New Testament to turn to, no Christian book or video to prop himself up with. No, Abram hitched himself up, and got on with it.

I saw in this that the woman and man of God is at her best when obedience is sure and decisive, not double-minded. The pain is not shunned or avoided, but confronted head on. I would to have that faith.

But if I am intimate with God as Abram was, I can.