What Would We

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. (Romans 7:14-16 KJV)

Part of that verse is almost like a tongue-twister, but the gist of the matter is we know what we should be doing, and want to do, but don’t. By knowing that we should, we understand that the law is good for us – but we continue to break it.

Have you ever had a speeding ticket?  We know the speed limits are set for safety factors.  Our vehicles can go much faster than the set limits, just as there are so many things we can physically do beyond limits set for us.  Break the speed limit without an officer nearby and the worst result is nagging from a ‘back-seat’ driver (or front seat in some cases.)

One person said that speeding tickets are the tax we pay for driving fast, disregarding any built in safety factor for those in his car, and for other drivers on the road.

Going into the doctor last week, traffic was moving close to the speed limit – the right lane right at it, the left maybe five or so miles ahead of it – when a pickup to my right lost the retread on his tire.  Large pieces of rubber flew through both lanes, hitting the vehicles around us. Fortunately he maintained control, as did the others, and the slow down reminded us why speed limit and traffic pattern laws exist.

That, however, was the secondary lesson that came to mind from this morning’s verse.  My original thought was Beloved Husband, who is just now getting up.

BH wants to go to church every Sunday morning, evening and on Wednesdays.  He wants to go with me to my doctor appointments, and when I go to the grocery store.  The effects of Myasthenia Gravis is not allowing him to do so in all cases.  It is not a sinful nature that causes him to miss, but the flesh we occupy is weak, causing him to agree with Paul:  for what I would, that do I not.

The choice is no longer his, as it literally becomes difficult for him to hold his head up.  Muscles cease to respond. Exercise harms instead of helping. Yet, the desire to fellowship with those who love the Lord remains strong.  The desire to worship together, praise and give thanks in God’s house is just as strong.

As wrote the David so many centuries ago, so it is for his namesake today, even when he cannot go:

I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go into the house of the LORD. (Psalms 122:1 KJV)

I will know in an hour if he will be physically able to do so.  Did you?

A Political Question

Want to have fraternity brothers over to watch your school’s football games for the season?  Want to invite your Red Cross blood drive volunteers over for a dinner meeting, with follow up visits?  Holding political fund-raisers at your home to help your favorite candidate?  Would you enjoy a barbecue with your Sunday School class monthly?

According to the Capistrano Dispatch, don’t try such law-breaking activities in San Juan Capistrano in California.  You will have ‘…violated section 9-3.301 of the Capistrano Municipal Code, which prohibits “religious, fraternal or non-profit” organizations in residential neighborhoods without a conditional-use permit.’  You might be able to do it once without someone complaining, but not on a regular basis according to the fines paid by the Fromm family.

This is not the same issue that faced David and Mary Jones in Bonita, California (click here for Channel 10’s report) back in 2009 where the initial complaint originated in parking disputes.  The Fromm’s have enough land to take care of attendee’s vehicles, which seems to be a question in Gilbert, Arizona, where the Oasis of Truth church cannot hold any religious meetings in any home in their town:

The town contends that, under its zoning code, churches within its borders cannot have any home meetings of any size, including Bible studies, three-person church leadership meetings, and potluck dinners. This ban is defended based upon traffic, parking, and building safety concerns. However, nothing in its zoning code prevents weekly Cub Scouts meetings, Monday Night Football parties with numerous attendees, or large business parties from being held on a regular basis in private homes. In fact, the zoning code explicitly allows some day cares to operate from homes.
Notably, the church only met for a few hours a week in members’ homes, and would rotate to different homes weekly. Further, the church was quite small, consisting of just seven adult members, including three married couples, and their four children.

The constitution addresses this specifically, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;” which means any government entity within the United States cannot impose any religion, nor can it prohibit its citizens from their own. The depth of government entities extended from Congress through the 14th Amendment to include the states – not just for slavery, and including religion.

Where’s the biblical application?  For me it’s:

Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. (Hebrews 10:25 KJV)

We do that in fellowship on Thursday nights in a friend’s home – we pray before our meal, and often share specific prayer requests.  This could be construed as a religious organization in a residential home, even though most of the evening consists of domino games.

Why – with no one parked on the street, no music, no interference with the neighborhood – why would city, county, state or federal governments be concerned with this meeting?  In honesty, why would any neighbor?

The ability for Americans to assemble is protected, whether that assemblage is on Wall Street for protesting, or in my home for praying, and I rely on the confidence that this will not change in my country.

That’s my view – shared with but not imposed on others.

How Firm The Foundation?

Often supporters for science make statements that are later disproved.  Scientists at one time stated that the sun and moon revolved around the earth.  Another scientist not only stated that was incorrect, but was vilified for proving it.  I like the way NASA gave a little wiggle room in one of their answers:

Q: Why is it that nothing may go faster than the speed of light? I have also heard that they once got an electron to travel faster than the speed of light in a particle accelerator. Can you confirm or deny this?
A: Our current understanding [emphasis mine] of the laws of physics say that nothing can go faster than the speed of light, and that objects with mass cannot even get up to the speed of light (it requires an infinite amount of energy). They have never gotten an electron to go faster than the speed of light (see above). The fastest electrons from an accelerator go about .999999 times the speed of light.

This is being challenged by the results of an experiment at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research.  A New York Times article gives a bit of the controversy, since so much in physics is based on the speed of light:

Einstein himself — the author of modern physics, whose theory of relativity established the speed of light as the ultimate limit — said that if you could send a message faster than light, “You could send a telegram to the past.”
Alvaro DeRejula, a theorist at CERN, called the claim “flabbergasting.”
“If it is true, then we truly haven’t understood anything about anything,” he said, adding: “It looks too big to be true. The correct attitude is to ask oneself what went wrong.”

So, the experiments will continue, with the goal of verifying – or disproving – these results. 

Actually, that’s basically what I’ve been advocating about Bible reading and God, isn’t it?  Asking that my readers pick up a Bible, take time to get acquainted with what it says, then keep an open mind and run some experiments.  The Bible says – and I believe it to be true – that He can be found:

… if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever. (1 Chronicles 28:9b KJV)

Isaiah indicates that He might not always be available:

Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: (Isaiah 55:6 KJV)

Those who seek and find Him are offered mercy:

For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive; and plenteous in mercy unto all them that call upon thee. (Psalms 86:5 KJV)

The Bible says:

Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. (Jeremiah 29:12-13 KJV)

Mouse

For by fire and by his sword will the LORD plead with all flesh: and the slain of the LORD shall be many. They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD. (Isaiah 66:16-17 KJV)

I cheated this time, seeking to tell some mouse stories, and searched for “mouse” when a friend’s blog mentioned finding one.

Now, we can’t imagine imagine eating a mouse, even if it is in a garden behind a tree.  While we’ve accepted pork, mice remain unclean in our society – and I have no desire to see that changed!

Most of us have had a run-in with a mouse.  Some have been a bit funny (after we screamed loudly.)  The first one that comes to mind took place in the front offices of a Fixed Based Operation I worked for in Oklahoma City.  Surrounding the runways were acres and acres of open fields.  Come winter, some of the less hardy denizens sought shelter inside.  One such mouse chose an odd hiding place – an open-face gas heater with ceramic inserts. 

Lighting that heater was simple, turn on the gas and place a burning match at the end closest to the handle.  My boss did, and just as the flam began racing down the length of the nozzle, a mouse jumped from behind a ceramic insert, looked at the flame and ran in front of the advancing flair and jumped off the end.  There, it stood on hind legs and batted forepaws to brush the ashened whisker ends.

My boss swore the mouse gave her a dirty look before scooting off into the hangar, much safer among the aircraft!

Of course, there are always stories regarding strange ways mice exit our lives, too.  Second Daughter was about ten when picked the strangest – to me.  She and Son were on the patio when a mouse ran from behind some planters.  She was quicker with her hands than her brother, picking up the nearest weapon – a ten-pound sledge her father had left.  Quicker even with her eyes, as she dropped that hammer right on the mouse!  Of course, she asked her brother to get rid of the body.  There are some things a girl just doesn’t want to do.

Now I must include another verse having to do with mice (this is a Bible reading blog, you know), so let’s visit the Philistines who held the Ark of the covenant.  That wasn’t good for them, at all.  When they had almost enough, they placed it in an open field which became overrun with mice.  To return it to the Israelites, there was a price to be paid:

Then said they, What shall be the trespass offering which we shall return to him? They answered, Five golden emerods, and five golden mice, according to the number of the lords of the Philistines: for one plague was on you all, and on your lords. Wherefore ye shall make images of your emerods, and images of your mice that mar the land; and ye shall give glory unto the God of Israel: peradventure he will lighten his hand from off you, and from off your gods, and from off your land. (1 Samuel 6:4-5 KJV)

Time?

How much time do you have? We all have the same 24 hours a day, and we use them in so many different ways!!  I so admire my multi-talented friends who are crafty in so many ways.

A couple create such beautiful cards. Even with the helpful machines, it takes talent to put all the pieces together and evoke emotions.  Some sew, taking patterns, fitting them together like puzzles and wear them, looking beautiful in beautiful creations.  How about those who knit, or crochet? Unique pieces for use or display. Talent displayed.

Just as talented are the workers – it takes more than talent to hold a job today, in this painful economic climate.  They spend time getting to their job, then providing to their employer all they’ve promised and returning home. That’s a talent, too.

Yesterday’s post looked at a 2008 survey and I’ve hoped that readers would think about the time allotted to them.  The Bible says:

For all our days are passed away in thy wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.  (Psalms 90:9-10 KJV)

Well, I have that seventy years – and it appears there may more ahead, but I can’t know that.  None of us can.  So, the psalmist continued:

So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom. (Psalms 90:12 KJV)

So much of this summer was spent traveling to/from and waiting in doctors’ offices that it seems as though June was just last week and what happened to the rest of the summer!  We still did the every day ordinary things, too – washing, vacuuming (hoovering for those on the isles), cooking, dishwashing, bill paying – with regular trips to our church for some learning, refilling and fellowship.  We continued with our social life, too – dominoes, birthday parties, visiting.  But it’s gone. Nothing done this summer can be undone.

None of the diagnoses can be undone, either, and that truly has brought us the lesson of numbering our days.  Proverbs tells us about that wisdom:

Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding. (Proverbs 4:7 KJV)

Wisdom was requested by Solomon, and God granted that prayer. Bezaleel of Judah also received the gift of wisdom:

And I have filled him with the spirit of God, in wisdom, and in understanding, and in knowledge, and in all manner of workmanship, (Exodus 31:3 KJV)

He became a great workman on God’s temple and his name is read along with Solomon’s these centuries later.  Could we do as well by numbering our days and using our time in God’s plan?

Digital Dead Sea Scrolls

Their existence is extraordinary.  The fact that we can now view them at home is even more so.  If you are interested in the Dead Sea Scrolls, make a stop here at their ditigal site.

Discovered in 1947, the scrolls generated a great deal of interest, then a number of conspiracy theories, conflicting origin theories and even more question  as they remained sequestered. Today their digital imprints are available to anyone with an internet connection. They do raise as many questions as they answer.  There are scrolls from all of what is considered the Old Testament, with the exception of Esther.  According to The Oxford Companion to Archaeology:

The biblical manuscripts from Qumran, which include at least fragments from every book of the Old Testament, except perhaps for the book of Esther, provide a far older cross section of scriptural tradition than that available to scholars before. While some of the Qumran biblical manuscripts are nearly identical to the Masoretic, or traditional, Hebrew text of the Old Testament, some manuscripts of the books of Exodus and Samuel found in Cave Four exhibit dramatic differences in both language and content.

That’s an example of questions remaining.  I’ve read an article that rather than created/buried only by Essenes, there are findings which place some of the scrolls as originating in Jerusalem, carried by those dispersed prior to the destruction of the city in 70 AD. This is based on the copper scroll’s translation which include references to temple items, some of the phylacteries’ translations and to Josephus’ ‘Wars’ descriptions.  There’s an interesting article on this in the Jewish Daily Forward from 2007.

What the Scrolls tell me is the preservation of the word of God across millennia.  For centuries, deniers spoke and wrote of how impossible it would be to preserve the Tanakh down through the ages as it was hand copied over and over and over again. The scrolls, which “contains alternative spellings, scribal errors, corrections, and most fundamentally, many variant readings,” carry the same message. The ‘word’ that David studied, and wrote of in his psalms …

Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee. (Psalms 119:11 KJV)

… is the same ‘word’ available to us today, for that very same reason – that we might not sin against God.  The same God available to us today.

I have no doubt that arguments can be made for more than one source of the Dead Sea Scrolls; for and against specific copies of the biblical books; for and against individual interpretations – but the history of Judaism and God’s message to His people remains the same.

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. (Deuteronomy 6:4-5 KJV)

This is truth, and this is what we are to do with the truth:

And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. (Deuteronomy 6:6-7 KJV)

How We Spend Time

This is a screen capture from a New York Times article. Moving my cursor over the different colors, I ran across ‘Religious activities,’ just below ‘Volunteering,’ with even a smaller percentage. ‘Sports,’ just below, shows larger – and take a look at the TV and movies!

A survey of Americans, a couple of years old, so if it were taken today with more people out of work, I wonder which segment would increase.

There are no surprises there, for me. Work takes up most of our time – when we can work. Travel was a bit higher than I expected throughout the day, but we are a commuter society – again, when we can work.  This graph is for ‘Everyone.’  There are seventeen other graphs for specific segments.  For example, as someone over 65, here are our days:

We do a few more morning devotions, it appears (we both know I do, since this is posted in the morning) and we basically eat two meals a day – and watch a lot of television.

I’ve  wondered if this were tailored for weekends of the ‘Religious activity’ would increase a bit, but I doubt it.  I do expect ‘Sports’ would, though.  I’m surprised that ‘Religious activity’ doesn’t increase around bedtime with closing prayers.

From the rising of the sun unto the going down of the same the LORD'S name is to be praised. (Psalms 113:3 KJV)

People saying they are Christian make up a good portion of the American population.  Doesn’t appear we’re spending much time praising, does it?  Yet God’s people were given directives as how to spend part of their time:

That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: (Psalms 78:6-7 KJV)

It is good to build a habit of praying:

It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High: To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night, (Psalms 92:1-2 KJV)

Christ provided an example for our prayer, but He gave some instructions before that example:

But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him. (Matthew 6:7-8 KJV)

A better example is given later, as He faces what we who love Him never shall – separation from God the Father.  Even knowing what awaited Him following death on the cross, He asked that it not happen, but closed with what God requires from His children:

He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done. (Matthew 26:42 KJV)

Look again at the graph.  Compare the hours of your day with those who answered the survey.  Where does God’s will fit?