Bible Tuesday

Joshua 17

¹Then allotment was made to the people of Manasseh, for he was the firstborn of Joseph. To Machir the firstborn of Manasseh, the father of Gilead, were allotted Gilead and Bashan, because he was a man of war. ²And allotments were made to the rest of the people of Manasseh by their clans, Abiezer, Helek, Asriel, Shechem, Hepher, and Shemida. These were the male descendants of Manasseh the son of Joseph, by their clans.
³Now Zelophehad the son of Hepher, son of Gilead, son of Machir, son of Manasseh, had no sons, but only daughters, and these are the names of his daughters: Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Tirzah. ⁴They approached Eleazar the priest and Joshua the son of Nun and the leaders and said, "The LORD commanded Moses to give us an inheritance along with our brothers." So according to the mouth of the LORD he gave them an inheritance among the brothers of their father. ⁵Thus there fell to Manasseh ten portions, besides the land of Gilead and Bashan, which is on the other side of the Jordan, ⁶because the daughters of Manasseh received an inheritance along with his sons. The land of Gilead was allotted to the rest of the people of Manasseh.

I always sit up and pay careful attention when women are mentioned in the Old Testament so this passage interested me big time. 

Joshua and the Israelites have made war with just about everyone.  They have won most all of the territory that God had promised them and now Joshua is dividing the land up and assigning it to the specific tribes.  What follows is several chapters of very specific geographical description and a commentary on which Israelites ended up in each of them.  But then, right in the middle of theses passages, Zelophedad's daughters show up.  It says 'they approached Eleazer the priest and Joshua'.  I like these gals already, don't you?  From all indications these women have no male to stand up for them.  No father, no husbands, no brothers.  They don't even find an uncle to send with their demand.  They do it by themselves. (And while I can't prove this, these chapters are just chock full of minute detail so it just seems clear that had these gals sent a male emissary, that info would have been included.) 

Zelophedad's daughters state their claim. "The LORD commanded Moses to give us an inheritance along with our brothers."    They aren't begging or weeping or engaging in any hysterical behavior as far as I can see.  They are doing a lil name dropping though which tickles me.  I love that they are not ashamed to remind their priest and their leader that there is an authority higher than both of them.  And here is the best part.  So according to the mouth of the LORD he gave them an inheritance among the brothers of their father.    Joshua hears whay they have to say and basically says...OK.  How awesome is that?

This knocks down some biblical fallacies in my opinion.  First, a misogynistic God would never allow women to inherit property...especially not 'The Promised Land'.  This passage proves to me (for probably the zillionth time) that God is a whole lot more fair than man would ever be.  I don't get the impression that Joshua planned to give these ladies their inheritance until they asked for it.  I'm not suggesting Joshua was trying to cheat them out of anything, I just don't think they ever crossed his mind.  Men are funny that way.  But these daughters were clearly on God' mind.  And I love adding yet another passage to my arsenal that makes it very clear that there is nothing wrong with demanding the inheritance that God has promised us.

More Fall 2011

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Quoted

The sum of all divine doctrine is simply Jesus Christ.


- Martin Luther

Book Review - Double Shot

More Lincoln Lawyer books. I love these so friggin much.

I'm not sure if I am reading them in the right order but it doesn't really seem to matter. In this one, Micky Haller is working mostly on foreclosures. One of his foreclosure clients gets accused of murdering a bank employee. If you have any interest in law, then this book will tickle you. If you don't...well I'm assuming you won't be attempting to read this one anyway.

Fair warning...There is a twisty ending and it may make you sad, mad and/or annoyed.

I think this is an earlier one.  I like that Connelly writes these books in a way that eliminates cliffhangers and continuity issues.   In this novel. Haller is asked to work as a prosecuting attorney.  A child killer has had his conviction overturned and the District attorney wants to retry the case.  He asks Haller to serve as the prosecutor to eliminate any conflict of interest. 

It's an interesting turn of events.  The detective Harry Bosch that Haller is usually battling in court is his partner in this case.  (Also, some kind of way, Mickey and Harry are half brothers.  This must have been revealed in one of the books I haven't read yet.)Mickey gets to work with his ex-wife Maggie who is also a prosecutor on the case.  It's fun to watch Mickey work out of his element.  The author is allowing this character to grow and change and that alone makes me anxious to read what happens next.

Quoted - Blue Like Jazz Edition

"Early on, I made the mistake of wanting spiritual feelings to endure and remain romantic. Like a new couple expecting to always feel in love, I operated my faith thinking God and I were going to walk around smelling flowers. When this didn't happen, I became confused."

- Donald Miller

Halloween shopping

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All of us at Kline Manor love Toddlers and Tiaras. Ava begged me for months to let her compete in a pageant. To shut her up, I told her she could dress up like a pageant girl for Halloween. Hair, makeup and shiny dress. Katie wanted in on that action so we headed to Ross (home of super cheap formalwear if you have a need) to find the perfect outfit. Two days and around 55 dresses later, she made up her mind.

Quoted

The slightest sin is nothing less than cosmic treason when we realize against whom we have sinned.

- Jonathan Edwards

Bible Tuesday

The agony of the cross of Christ is not the physical torture.  It is the separation from God. The interruption of the holy intimacy between God and Jesus. 

12 His disciples came and took away the body and buried it; and they went and reported to Jesus.  
13Now when Jesus heard about John, He withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place by Himself ; and when the people heard of this, they followed Him on foot from the cities.  

Mathew 14:12-13 (New American Standard)


Jesus hears that John the Baptist has been killed. He ‘withdrew from there in a boat to a secluded place’. Jesus is not surprised or shocked by what has happened to John. When John was still in Elizabeth’s womb and Jesus in Mary’s, Jesus already knew what was going to happen to John.

But Jesus’ reaction to John’s death gives us a glimpse of what happens when His humanity and deity meet. Jesus as God is not worried about John. He knows John’s work has been completed and that , while his physical head may be on a platter in Herod’s throne room, John's soul is reclining at Abraham’s bosom. Jesus as God knows that John is doing fine...in fact, better than he has ever been before. 

But Jesus as man still mourns John’s death. Why? I think the first reason is pretty simple. Just as Jesus wept at Lazarus’ tomb, He is also affected by John’s death because, quite simply, He loved him. And now that human connection is over. But the second reason I think Jesus withdraws after John’s death is that this event pushes Jesus’ earthly story forward. From the moment Jesus is born in Bethlehem, He has been marching toward the cross. For all that we as Christians seem to want to glorify the horrors of death on a cross, I don’t believe that Jesus ever feared it. But I do think that He feared the separation from God. If we could see the horror of that, instead of focusing on a crown of thorns, or nail scarred hands, maybe we could understand why God puts up with so much ‘stuff’. Maybe we could understand why He continues to let this world spin, let evil work and let Satan roam. He does not want even one to perish. Jesus feared being separated from God for a few hours. Imagine how He grieves when those He loves make decisions that will separate them from God forever.

Book Review - Brideshead Revisited

Oh good grief, this book was the suck.

The book cover had a blurb declaring it 'the best novel of the 20th century'.

Seriously?!?!

It wasn't even that blurb that sucked me in. I mean Ulysses usually makes the top of every "Best Novels of the 20th Century" list and I wouldn't read that pile of doody if you paid me. No. What conned me into reading this book was the picture of Emma Thompson on the cover. Apparently she played one of the main characters in a movie adaptation of the book. Emma Thompson does not do crap books people. Until now apparently.

I can hardly explain this. The main character Charles is a soldier in WWII. His unit moves camp and ends up at Brideshead. Charles begins a long flashback about how he came to know the family that once occupied Brideshead. So far, so good. That's a pretty awesome setup in my opinion. I had high hopes at this point. Great intro, beautiful sentences, English countryside. What could go wrong?

Ugh.

What follows is 300 pages of meandering nonsense. Charles falls in man love with Sebastian. Sebastian is a drunk. The family is worried about Sebastian being a drunk. They all move on with their lives for about ten years until Charles meets Sebastian's sister on an ocean liner. They are both married to other people. They fall in love? They begin an affair. They cause scandalous divorces. Sebastian is still a drunk. I don't care about any of these people.  Blah, blah, blah.

  It took me over a week to read this 300 page book. I'm never gonna get those days back.

Quoted - Tozer Edition

"Much of our difficulty stems from our unwillingness to take God as He is and adjust our lives accordingly."
AW Tozer

Did you ever question your parents? I mean out loud? To their face?
I made the mistake of doing this to my mother a time or two. She responded the same way each time with this question: "Who do you think you are?" There may also have been a curse word in there somewhere. But I knew very well what she meant. She was the mom and I was the kid. I knew she loved me and wanted nothing but the best for me. It was my job to be a kid and leave the hard stuff up to her.

We do this same thing with God. Whenever some tragedy occurs be it minor or catastrophic, you will invariably hear someone ask "How could a loving God allow this to happen?" I don't have a good answer to that question...ever. (If I had the answer, I would write an awesome book about it though.) But God is God and I am not. I believe He loves us all. I believe He has a plan for me. Some days I have to try hard to remember that I am the kid and God can handle the hard stuff.

Book Review - Gone With A Handsomer Man

Here's all you need to know about this book. The main character, Teeny, catches her fiance playing naked volleyball with two chicks. She climbs a tree and proceeds to pelt their naked selfs with peaches. She gets arrested. Her high school crush, Coop, has just returned to town and happens to be a criminal defense attorney. Convenient, ain't it? Why does Teeny need a defense attorney? Because someone killed her cheatin, no good fiance. Teeny is the prime suspect. Hijinks ensue.

Quoted - Blue Like Jazz Edition

"God was no longer a slot machine but something of a Spirit that had the power to move men's souls. I seemed to have been provided answers to questions I had yet to ask, questions that God sensed or had even instilled in the lower reaches of my soul. The experience of becoming a Christian was delightful."
- Donald Miller

Early Fall 2011

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Quoted

So great & boundless is God's wisdom that he knows right well how to use evil instruments to do good.

- John Calvin

Bible Tuesday

18 John's disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, 19 he sent them to the Lord to ask, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" 20 When the men came to Jesus, they said, "John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, 'Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?' " 21 At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. 22 So he replied to the messengers, "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.23Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me."

Luke 7 (New International Version)

John the Baptist sends his disciples to ask Jesus if he is the ‘one’. My commentary states that John has doubts because Jesus is not turning out to be the type of Messiah that he expected. I don’t agree with this. I think John is just having a really bad day. Or perhaps week.  John is in prison and  I am willing to bet that he was pretty confident he was not gonna leave prison alive. John has made it clear that it was wrong for Herod (the tetrarch) and Herodius (Herod's sister-in-law) to be together.   Calling a ruler out on his adultery is never going to make you popular. John knew time was short. So in a sad, desperate moment John had doubts.

I love how Jesus responds to John. He doesn’t roll his eyes and complain about John’s lack of faith. He doesn’t get angry and say "That no good cousin of mine couldn’t possibly be a prophet if he doesn’t know who I am.”  No. Jesus responds with this abundance of love. He says " Go tell him what you have seen. Tell him that the lame walk, the deaf hear, the dead are raised." What Jesus says, in effect is, "Tell John what he already knows. Confirm the truth he has known since he leapt in his mother’s womb when he was first filled with the Holy Spirit."   Jesus understood weakness.   He is not threatened by our doubts and questions. He knows how pathetic we are and how our cicumstances can often alter what we believe in our deepest soul conviction.

 To quote Beth Moore, "He knows how scary it is to be us."

Book Review - Then Came You

If anyone but Jennifer Weiner had written this book, it would have been awesome. It's a really interesting play on the idea of what makes a family. But Weiner is a much better writer than this book allows her to be. She always gets tagged as a 'chick lit' writer. I find that whole term offensive but no one seems to care.

Then Came You is about how one baby gets made. The story focuses on the egg donor, a college student with an addict for a father who donates the egg to get money for his rehab. She's also a lesbian in case you are interested. The surrogate, a low/middle income stay at home mom of two little boys. She is in an interracial marriage and her husband is not happy about the surrogacy. The adoptive mom, a gold-digger with a good heart who married a multi-gazillionaire just a little bit too late to have kids of her own. The gazillionaire's daughter also plays a leading role. The whole thing just feels a bit to contrived for me. Like the interracial marriage. I mean, who cares? But the author makes a big deal about it. Same thing with the lesbian storyline. Big whoop. She's a lesbian. It seems like Weiner is trying to prove to me that she is politically correct and isn't that weird behavior for a writer in 2011?

This book is not bad but if you have never read anything by Weiner before, read Good in Bed first.

Quoted - C.S. Lewis Edition

The truth is, what we call interruptions are precisely our real life, the life God is sending us day by day.

Book Review - Seabiscuit

Laura Hillenbrand may be the finest writer of the 21st century. She is just amazing. You may remember my gushing review of Unbroken. It is seriously my favorite book of all time other than the Bible. I knew after reading it that I had to read Seabiscuit. I just wanted to see if it was the story or Hillenbrand's writing that made Unbroken so dang good. The answer, I discovered, was both.

Even if written in a straight, journalistic style, the story of Seabiscuit is pretty awesome. But Hillenbrand does ridiculous amounts of research and creates, in the end, a story that doesn't feel like nonfiction. A good example is her treatment of jockeys. She doesn't just give you a brief overview, she brings you into their world. You read about the ridiculous measures jockeys went through to keep their weight at unnaturally low levels. You see the dangers they face every time they head for the track. She does this with every aspect of the story and, yet, it's never boring.

Read Unbroken first, then read Seabiscuit. Do what I'm telling you!!!

Quoted - Blue Like Jazz Edition

Donald Miller on the early days of his Christian life. It felt the same for me :)

"For a while, I felt as though the world were a watch and God had lifted the lid so I could see the gears."

"The truths of the Bible were magic, like messages from heaven, like codes, enchanting codes that offered power over life. a sort of powere that turned sorrow to joy, hardship to challenge, and trial to ooportunity. Nothing in my life was mundane."

Summer 2011

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Only took me until November to get summer pictures posted.  Look for my Christmas album in late April :)

Quoted

The true god of your heart is what your thoughts effortlessly go to when there is nothing else demanding your attention.

- Tim Keller

Bible Tuesday

So in the course of my normal bible reading schedule,  I have come back again to Leviticus.

  Oy.

Leviticus will test the mettle of even the most studious theologian...which I ain't. I fully believe 2 Timothy 3:16 ( All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness...)  So I read Leviticus with the knowledge that God has something for me there. I'm not saying it's easy.  I'm just saying I do it.

In Chapter 9, we encounter something pretty odd. Aaron, Moses’ brother, is doing his first official acts as high priest for the Israelites. The tabernacle has been built ( according to God’s blueprint) and Aaron and his sons are getting to work. They kill a calf for a sin offering (v8). They don’t just have to kill it though. They have to drain the blood, rub some of the blood on the altar, pour the rest of it at the base of the altar, remove some of the organs to be burned and then haul the rest of the carcass to a place outside the camp to be burned. Then they move on to the burnt offering. They kill a ram, throw the blood against the altar, cut the animal up and offer each piece to be burned. Then they have to wash the entrails. Yep, you heard me. Wash the entrails and burn them also. This continues with several other animals and a grain offering.

All this occurs in the brand new tabernacle. The tabernacle has been a project made to God’s specific design. Everything in it is of the highest quality. All the furniture and instruments are covered in gold or some other precious metal. All the fabrics are fine linen embroidered by a master craftsman. Even Aaron’s priestly garments are of a specific design and made with exacting standards. Now, can you just imagine what the inside of that tabernacle looked like after all these sacrifices were made?  What about Aaron’s clothes? My guess is that whole place looked like a scene from Stephen King's nightmares. Tide with Bleach doesn’t even exist for these people. Do you think those blood stains ever came out? 

All this leads me to wonder if that was God’s point.  Does God want this carnage to remind the Israelites(and us)of  just how damaging sin can be?  The tabernacle is a forerunner of the temple and later, God will say that our bodies are the true temple. Because of sin, that tabernacle became a bloody mess. How much more so the temple of our bodies when we sin?

And yet we must remember that this was never God’s original plan. His intended home for us was a garden. A beautiful place where we could be in constant fellowship with the one for whom we were made. We chose the blood soaked sand of the tabernacle when we demanded to do it our own way. God cannot be in the presence of sin. He cannot. Yet His desire was still to have relationship with us. So, until it was the appointed time for Jesus’ ultimate sacrifice, these shadows would suffice.

In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.  Hebrews 9:22

Book Review - The Shack

I really love Mark Driscoll. I don't worship him. He's just a man. But I generally agree with him. But on the subject of The Shack me and Driscoll have to part ways. I still like him. I still plan to listen to him. But I'm mad at myself for accepting his diatribe against this book without investigating for myself. It's the kind of thing I make fun of people for all the time. Lesson learned...hopefully.

Let me start with a few caveats. The Shack is not scripture. It is not the inspired word of God. It is a novel written by a man. But this book made me examine some of my beliefs about God. It changed me and that's not a bad thing. The Shack is about a man named Mac whose daughter is murdered. God invites him to the shack in the aftermath of that tragedy. Mark Driscoll is correct about how God is personified in this book. God is portrayed as a black woman. But, get real. that doesn't mean the author is promoting goddess worship. It's just a literary device. I don't think God is a black woman. I also don't think he is a white man. He is God. My brain is not big enough to even begin to define him. But the author of this book is trying to portray what he believes the trinity to be. And I think he does a pretty good job. Can we be honest here? Most mainline Christians love Jesus, are scared of God and are just confused about the Holy Spirit. Is this book the answer to that? I doubt it. But it will get you to think about what you believe and why.

The funny thing is that the part of The Shack that doesn't seem to be controversial is the part that ripped me to shreds. Over and over, the trinity try to explain to Mac about how they love us. God's love is pretty easy to understand when it's directed at me. Of course God loves me. I'm delightful right? But the mystery of God's love is that He loves an evil murderer as much as he loves me. That's a hard one. And yet, it's the truth. Why does God allow this cruel world to keep moving forward while children get brain cancer and women get raped and men get murdered. How can he stand it? Especially when he has the power to stop it at any time? Can't we just fast-forward this whole business and get to the good stuff? And the answer is simple and horrifying. God allows this mess to continue because he is desperately in love with us and he wants 'all to come to repentance'. Imagine what that kind of love must be like. It's inconceivable to me.

The Shack won't answer any questions for you. In fact, it will create a bunch of new ones. It's not doctrine. It's not supposed to be. Just read it and remember...God loves you but he is especially fond of me :)

Ain't we cute?

Why pay good money to a professional photographer when your church creates a new directory every few years?

Quoted

Trust the past to God's mercy, the present to God's love, & the future to God's providence.

-Augustine

Book Review - Silver Girl

I really wasn't that excited about reading this book. It came in at the library at the same time as A Game of Thrones. I was about 40 pages into that one when I made the egregious error of leaving it in the bathroom. (Yes, I read in the bathroom. Where else would I find the time? Multitask people!) Anyway, Kevin found my book and I never got it back. So, in desperation, I turned to this book. It wasn't half bad actually.

Silver Girl is a novel but the author bases her main character on Bernie Madoff's wife. Meredith Delinn is the wife of Freddy Delinn who has been convicted of a 50 billion dollar ponzi scheme. She is universally hated by her friends and most of America. When she loses everything but the clothes on her back, her old friend allows her to spend the summer in her Nantucket beach house.

Elin Hildebrand is big on Nantucket. All her books are set there so this is no surprise. In order to enjoy this book, you have to get past the 'oh sure, of course she has a rich old friend with a friggin beach house' thing. It wasn't easy. But if you can get past it, it's a worthy read. In this book, Meredith doesn't know anything about her husband's scam. No one believes her, of course. But it is an interesting way to view both the real and fictional character.

Quoted - Blue Like Jazz Edition

"I don't think you can explain how Christian faith works either. It is a mystery. And I love this about Christian spirituality. It cannot be explained, and yet it is beautiful and true. It is something you feel, and it comes from the soul."

- Donald Miller

Band Of Gold - The Next Generation

I always hoped my kids would be in band. It was a selfish hope. I loved my high school experience and I wanted my girls to have it too. I would try to explain it to you but, honestly, if you weren't a band nerd, the whole concept is just gonna seem ridiculous to you.



The high school band in MJ allows kids as young as 8th grade to march. When Savannah was finishing up her 7th grade year, I casually asked if she was interested in trying it. She was not enthusiastic about the idea. She said, "Mom, I will march when I am in high school band and I have no choice." I didn't press the issue. A few weeks later she breathlessly begged me to let her try out for color guard. A flag changed my kid's whole perspective on marching band.



What followed is a blur of practice, band fees, football games and competitions. Those kids practiced twice as much as I ever did in high school. (And I thought we practiced a whole lot.) I (privately) questioned every decision made by her band director and was proved wrong each and every time. Basically, the guy knows what he is doing and I don't know doodly-squat about marching band anymore.

But I realized over and over why I coveted this experience for my kids. Band teaches you to get over yourself. In band, you always put the group above yourself. You sacrifice your time, your sweat, and sometimes your mental health for a greater goal. The show...it's all about the show. If you weren't in band, you might watch this video and think - 'Big whoop...a bunch of kids marching around to entertain during halftime'. But for us, this is a masterpiece. The culmination of months of blood, sweat and tears.



Savannah has worked so hard. Practice twice a week. Late games Friday nights. Early contests Saturday morning. She made it through her first season with straight A's and just a few meltdowns. I could not be more proud.

There are a lot of kids in this family. Who knows what kind of activities the other ones may pursue? Whatever they do, I will support them 100%. I will go to the concerts, the play, the games, the practice, whatever. But the Band of Gold is my legacy. I can't help how much I love it.