Category: thought for the day

January 8, read through the Bible in a year.

Today there are four chapters. Jesus points out that according to Jewish law, circumcision is more important than keeping Sabbath, so, if the eighth day is on a Sabbath, it must be performed, but healing on a Sabbath is out. Jesus then promises “Streams of living water”.

January 8: John 7, Genesis 15, Genesis 16, Genesis 17, (click on the chapter to begin reading)

In Genesis 15 God promises Abram a son, and Abram believes God and it is counted to him as righteousness.

But in Genesis 16 Abraham badly wants an heir, so Sarai, being too old, gives her handmaiden Hagar to be mother of Abram’s son, Ismael. Sarai regrets what she has done, and Hagar is sent away with Ishmael into the wilderness.

Thirteen years later, in Genesis 17, Ishmael is back with Abram,  God  promises Abraham his seed of promise, changes Abram’s name to Abraham and Sarai’s name becomes Sarah, and establishes it with an eternal covenant, the covenant of Circumcision, and it was performed on Abraham, Ishmael and all Abraham’s servants.  A year later Sarah gives birth to Isaac, at the age of 90, (with God, nothing is impossible).

Circumcision is very important for Jews and Muslims (Sons of Ishmael). As for me, I am thankful for the streams of living water.

 

January 7, read through the Bible in a year.

Today there are four chapters, and they are significant.

January 7: John 6, Genesis 12, Genesis 13, Genesis 14, (click on the chapter to begin reading)

In John 6, Jesus performs two miracles, feeding 5000, and walking on water. In spite of this people demand a sign. Jesus is the bread of life.

Then in the Old Testament Abram is called to leave his home in Ur. He goes to a land he does not know, promised by God, and he obeys. Read it and marvel at Melchizedek, to which Abram gives tithe after God gave him success in battle.

Question: Who was Melchizedek, and why is that important?

January 6, read through the Bible in a year.

Today there are only 3 chapters, but they are significant.

January 6: John 5, Genesis 11, Psalm 2 (click on the chapter to begin reading).

John 5 describes how Jesus healed a man at the pool of Bethesda on a Sabbath, which offended the Jews. In addition Jesus claimed to be equal with the Father, for which the Jews sought to kill him, but Jesus defended His testimony.

Genesis 11 tells about the Tower of Babel, and how different languages arose, all by being disobedient to God.

Psalm 2 is then what happens when “the heathen rage” and this psalm ties together trends of today. The Tower of Babel is like today where the global internet, supposed to bring us together, divide us more and more into camps, where the same words mean different things, dependent on the audience. Jesus is controversial, his claims are being rejected by people thinking they understand biology and morals better than God.  And hate is increasing, yet there are people that believe in the universal good of mankind, if they only could get rid of the concept of God.

Ponder this.

January 5, read through the Bible in a year.

Today there are only 3 chapters, but they are significant.

January 5: John 4, Genesis 9, Genesis 10, (click on the chapter to begin reading).

John 4 speaks about the first real evangelist, the woman at the well, scorn and rejected by her many husbands, yet used by God to tell the good news.

Genesis 9 speaks about Noah’s sin and “the curse of ham” in reality the curse of Canaan, ponder that!

Genesis 10 tells how the earth was repopulated.

January 4, read through the Bible in a year.

Today we come to the new birth chapter; you must be born from above, telling of the new birth necessary to enter into the Kingdom of God; and the new beginning signified by Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives, eight in all.

January 4: John 3, Genesis 6, Genesis 7, Genesis 8, (click on the chapter to begin reading).

Ponder the new beginning in the New Testament, leading to eternal life; and the new beginning in the Old Testament, restoring life on earth.

January 3, read through the Bible in a year.

After 2 days with Creation and the fall. we now see what happened after the fall.

January 3: John 2, Genesis 4, Genesis 5, Psalm 1.  (click on the chapter to begin reading)

In John 2 Jesus turns water into wine, cleanses the Temple, and gives the Jews just one sign. Genesis 4 shows the results of original sin with the story of Cain and Abel, Genesis 5 shows the Genealogy from Adam to Noah, and Psalm 1 is a beautiful poem about righteous living.

The take home for today is the first of Jesus’ miracles, the first murder, the first man (Enoch) to be carried directly to God rather than die first, and Jesus giving the sign of Jonah about his (and our) resurrection. Psalm 1 extols righteous living according to the Old Testament and the law, with the New Testament counterpoint as given by the Apostle Paul.

 

January 2, read through the Bible in a year.

Today’s reading of the Bible is short in chapters, but has enormous spiritual value if one is to understand it. It tells of a second, spiritual creation, the creation of Eve in Genesis 2,  (click on the chapter to begin reading), and the fall from grace in Genesis 3.

Chapter 2 tells of how God created woman out of man, showing that creation was not complete without man and woman as a unit. God’s design is one man, one woman, one lifetime. This would still be the case if we let God chose our mate. If we had followed God’s intent, a lot of sickness would not exist, especially sexually transmitted diseases.

But, God created us with free will, and the fall is then described in chapter 3. The problem is in eating from the tree of good and evil, and in doing so we think we can do better than fellowship with Go.

The question to ponder is: Why did God create us with a free will? He knew the result from the beginning, and knew He would have to send His Son to redeem us back to Himself. In fact He knew it from before the beginning: “All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the Lamb’s book of life, the Lamb who was slain from the creation of the world.” (Revelation 13:8, NIV)

Answer: We are created in God’s image, male and female, not so much physical, but spiritual, and free will is part of the package. Without free will there is no fellowship with God, only puppetry.

 

 

The source of wisdom according to Job. Look up to the sky.

20 “From where then does wisdom come?
And where is the place of understanding?
21 It is hidden from the eyes of all living,
And concealed from the birds of the air.
22 Destruction and Death say,
‘We have heard a report about it with our ears.’
23 God understands its way,
And He knows its place.
24 For He looks to the ends of the earth,
And sees under the whole heavens,
25 To establish a weight for the wind,
And apportion the waters by measure.
26 When He made a law for the rain,
And a path for the thunderbolt,
27 Then He saw wisdom and declared it;
He prepared it, indeed, He searched it out.
28 And to man He said,
‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom,
And to depart from evil is understanding.’” Job 28:20-28 (NKJV)

These are the words God gave Job, originally written in old Aramaic, before Moses wrote the Torah. We do not know much about him, but this we know: Before the law was given, God revealed Himself in his creation and how the environment works. Job even knew and wrote about his redeemer: “I know that my redeemer liveth“, and his language and images are from nature in all its form.

This is where it hit me. Even in this, the oldest book of the Bible they grasped the source of all wisdom: Fear God and shun evil. Truth comes from God and is manifested in His creation, even in the way water vapor plays a role in keeping the earth not only watered, but in ecological balance and prevents the earth from overheating no matter how much damage we as humans do to it.

Let me explain. If there was no water the earth would be a dry planet with the average temperature much colder than today at the poles, but warmer near the equator. The night would be more than 100 degrees colder than the day and no life would be possible. With water the oceans act as a stabilizer, and at sea there is really not much difference between day and night temperatures. What does matter is if you are in the sun or in the shadow. In the winter you welcome the sun, but in the summer “All sun makes a desert” as the Arabic proverb says. Thanks to clouds there will never be a risk of the earth overheating, or even get warmer than it was 6000 years ago during the Holocene peak temperature between the ice ages.

People living in the country side can and do look up to the sky to see what the weather is going to be. When they see the cumulus clouds (the fair weather clouds) form they know it is going to be a pleasant morning. Those clouds reflect up to 300 W/m2 of the sunlight back into the sky, heat that would otherwise warm the air.  This is a major reason the earth will not be overheated. Yes, water vapor is a greenhouse gas, and keeps the earth at an optimum temperature for plant growth and as long as there is enough humidity to produce clouds. The best example is the monsoon in India.  Springs are unbearable hot. The air is dry and temperatures can reach 120 degrees F during daytime. Come summer the monsoon arrives,  thunderstorms roll in and temperatures return back to the low 90’s, still uncomfortable because of the humidity, but the rains water the plains and produce a rich harvest.

People living in cities seldom make the connection that the clouds are the major temperature governor of the climate. In the tropics it works nearly perfectly, and as long there are clouds the amount of CO2 does not matter much, in fact a doubling of CO2 will heat up the earth much less than one degree.

Yes, people living in the country can see daily how the clouds work and keeps the earth from overheating. People living in the great cities are experiencing the urban heat island, it is getting warmer and warmer, and they are more likely to believe climate change leading to all kinds of catastrophes.

In short, next time you see a cloud forming in the sky, thank God for arranging everything so beautiful. If you see a thunderstorm, thank God, but get inside, if you are expecting a hurricane take precautions, if you are expecting a tornado take cover, but above all, in everything give thanks, for this is is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

If you are interested in a more technical explanation read  https://lenbilen.com/2017/04/10/thanks-to-clouds-the-temperature-governor-is-alive-and-well-on-planet-earth/

 

 

Thought for the day. The Pope, The Trump, walls and bridges.

He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls. (Proverbs 25:28)

“A person who thinks only about building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian.”  Pope Francis.

The Vatican City’s old wall.Vatican_City_map_EN

A sign they’re not Christians at all?

For the Pope said as much

about Trump, walls and such.

Humpty Dumpty did fall, I recall.

The moral of this story: Be careful not to make off the wall remarks.

Joking aside, I took a look at how many times the word wall was used in the Bible and where it was used. There are so many tidbits we can learn from a word study. The first is in Leviticus 25: 29-31 ‘Likewise, if a man sells a dwelling house in a walled city, then his redemption right remains valid until a full year from its sale; his right of redemption lasts a full year. But if it is not bought back for him within the space of a full year, then the house that is in the walled city passes permanently to its purchaser throughout his generations; it does not revert in the jubilee. The houses of the villages, however, which have no surrounding wall shall be considered as open fields; they have redemption rights and revert in the jubilee.

This is old Mosaic law, and gives clear guidance that the law in a protected place with borders is different from the law in places without borders, and property rights are clearly established. As a civil society we no longer follow Mosaic Law, that would be as ridiculous as if anyone demanded we should follow Sharia Law.

Moving on, there are the walls of Jericho, the wall of Jerusalem, Nehemiah rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem and the watchmen on the wall.

Then in the New Testament walls are not mentioned at all in the Gospels (In the parable of the tenants in Matthew and Mark it is literally a hedge, not a wall) and only Revelation describes the walls of the new Jerusalem. So the Pope is right, building walls does not appear in the Gospels. Neither does the word bridge appear anywhere in the Bible, so that part is extra-biblical, if one is to take his admonition literally. So if Sarah Palin as Governor refused to build “the bridge to nowhere”, does that make her a non-Christian? (A Limerick from way back comes back to memory)

Sarah Palin did not even think of Nantucket

when plans for that infamous bridge kicked the bucket.

But profligate waste

and spending with haste:

She ordered the spendthriftest Congress to chuck it!

Joking aside, the Pope probably meant spiritual walls and bridges, but by saying it right near the U.S. Mexican border it is easy to assume he meant a literal border. If so, where is the literal bridge?