*tree!*

[Genesis 2: 1-3]
And God takes a break. Since I am coming up on the next school year, I am in the process of making myself take fewer breaks, so this is not a terribly urgent passage for me. But, it's worth dwelling on, lest in my attempts to be more productive I end up burning myself out. There really does need to be a day a week where you can just recharge. It doesn't need to be Sunday, and it doesn't even need to be the same day every week, but make sure you've got time to calm down.

[2:4-6]
If taken literally, this is an interesting passage that leads to the Canopy theory in Creationist views, but, like I said, I'm not getting into that.
What is interesting is that God used this mist to take care of things until He made man to take care of it. So it seems that once God made people, He stopped doing the mist thing because it was now man's job to take care of stuff, and if man screwed it up, then it screwed up.
We often ask why God allows certain things to happen. In some cases, it may just be that we have a responsibility that we are not fulfilling. God didn't "protect you" from Diabetes because you eat 3000 calories a day. God isn't providing you work because you're a lazy good-for-nothing who can't be bothered to write a cover letter or format a resume properly. God doesn't bring the mist to take care of stuff when He's told you to take care of it.

[2:7]
Man was created uniquely to everything else. For every other aspect of Creation, God just spoke and they happened. For man, He got His hands dirty. He used the dirt in the ground to form the body, and then breathed life into him. This breath gave man his soul, and created the two-part nature of body and soul that no other creature shares. God let everything else generate algorithmically, but sculpted man by hand.
As I said before, humanity is not a shameful species; it is the highest species on Earth. God breathed a part of His own nature into us and gave us the capacity for true relationships, for love, and for freedom of will.

[2:8-15]
So God planted the Garden of Eden and it's described as a pretty swanky place. It has gold, onyx, and...bdellium (which is apparently a tree resin that smells nice.) It's at this point that God stops the mist and tells Adam that it's his job to take care of this place. The dominion mandate is in effect, and God is sitting back and waiting to see what Adam will discover first. God knows every aspect of every material in this creation and knows what can be done with it. In all of the stuff in the ground, God knows about the potential for things like paper, rope, concrete, enchilladas, and Pokemon cards. God knows there is water on Mars and is giddily awaiting for man to start coming up with rocket propulsion. Like a father who has just built his son a new jungle gym, He just wants to see Adam start figuring everything out.
There's one or two ground rules though.

[2: 16-17]
There's that one tree you need to stay away from. Other than that, go nuts.
There's always discussion over why God even bothered. Why put the one thing they're not supposed to do smack in the middle of the Garden where they can see it? Why not put it on the other side of the world in a cave somewhere if He had to make it all?
There's lots of theories about it, but I hold to two. One is that part of a satisfying relationship is that they are in it voluntarily. If your friends had no choice but to be your friends, the relationship would not be terribly fulfilling.If there's not an out, it's not impressive when people stay in. In order for God to claim that He was in true relationship with humanity, He had to provide them a way to get out of relationship with Him. Even in Heaven He had apparently established the ruleset and natures that allowed Satan to fall, because even the worship of the angels would not satisfy Him if they did not have the choice of packing their bags and heading out.
Secondly, in discussing this concept, we often forget that later the Bible tells us that redemption through Jesus was the plan from the beginning. As God was formulating the plan for this "humanity" project, He knew that the Fall and the Redemption was the best way to go. Any plan that involved giving humanity free will inevitably led to our falling away en masse. Thus the only workable plan was to let that fall happen, and redeem us through Jesus' sacrifice. If God had put the tree in a cave on the other side of the world, we would have found it eventually and then sinned. If it hadn't been a tree, we would have broken whatever rule God did set up because that is the nature of free will. So best to put it where we can see it and get the thing over with so we can do the redemption as fast as possible.
---

I may come back and do more later, but I have to go for now. Good times.

Dominion, Prosperity, and the Cornucopia

Alright, onto the rest of the chapter.

[Gen 1:2]
     I don't plan on going into detailed creation theories, but I always thought this verse was interesting. The Sunday school version of this process starts with nothing, then light, but the actual order of the verses has a formless void heaven and earth as the first steps of creation, then references the Spirit of God hovering over "the waters." This confused me for a long time, because it didn't make sense for there to be waters when the rest of the stuff hadn't happened yet.
     Then I read this article about an experiment done with the LHC, and it made a little more sense. (that article wasn't the exact one I read, but I can't find the other one at the moment.) In short, the article states that, immediately after the Big Bang, matter existed as a "quark-gluon plasma" before forming into the matter we know today. Plasma is liquidity, so, in my completely non-science-trained mind, I think this makes sense. God spoke the universe into existence (bang), and it was void and without form (existing in a chaotic plasma form) and God hovered over these "waters" and formed the Universe we know today. Works for me.

[Gen 1:3-25]
     And the Creation order we're all familiar with. Light, separation of Heaven from Earth (I guess? Possibly formation of planets? I don't remember what the one-word kid-friendly version was on the chart), separation of water from land, plants, stars (including the sun), fish and birds, then critters. (It's okay, Oxford Comma, you'll always be correct in my style book.)
Not a whole lot to say here I didn't already cover in the last couple of comments.

[Gen 1:26-31]
     This passage basically defines my outlook on life. It's the idea that, with our creation, came the command to "subdue [the earth], have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth." While the Fall and the subsequent mission to spread the Gospel changed mankind's priorities, it still stands that, when we were created, our job was to master the Earth we were put on.
     Now, common sentiment thanks to the slant of movies and cartoons makes that like a horrible, Captain Planet villain mission, but that's a simplistic view. To have dominion over the Earth means to find every possible way to make it work for our benefit and our enjoyment. This means to study the way everything works and learn how to care for it and manipulate it in the way that is best for us. As man was first encountering fruit, eating the fruit was the first way we had dominion over the creation.  As we learned to plant it and create more of it, that was also dominion. When we learned that not watering the plants kills them and that not planting more means we'll eventually not have any, that was a step towards dominion. When we learned we could combine them with other foods, that was dominion. When we learned to make cobblers out of them, that was delicious dominion.
     But it's not just in the plant and sciencey way; anything we learn about and make work for us is part of this dominion mandate. When we learned rubber was bouncy and we could use it to play sports that were fun, we were having dominion over the  creation. When we learned we could use silicon and electricity to carry a current and store information, we were having dominion. When we create music, poetry, and funny internet videos, we're having dominion over speech, sound, and words.
     The call to have dominion over the earth is a call to get an education, to master a skill, and to contribute to the world around you. Some pervert this mandate as an excuse to destroy entire ecosystems so we can have fun for a little while, but dominion includes taking care of the creation. Even more disgusting, though, is this popular perception that humans are evil and anything we do to the world is horrible. Go to any kid's talking animal cartoon and the "scariest" part of the movie is when the humans show up (dun dun dunnn). We have it pounded into our heads our entire lives that humans are evil, any footprint we leave on our environment is an abomination, and that our attempts to improve our quality of life are shameful. When the Bible tells us that mankind was given the highest honor of all Creation: to be a human is the greatest honor God gave any creation. We were put here to take care of this creation; our destruction would be catastrophic, not good for the planet.

     So go to school. Pick your favorite aspect of this world and choose to dominate it. Learn everything you can about it, and make it work for you and for us as a whole. And be proud of whatever you achieve in this pursuit and whatever success you may gain from it, because it is your duty as a human being, the only part of Creation God considered important enough to die for.

In the (Third or Fourth) Beginning

It's been a while since I've done anything blogwise. Things got busy and my priorities shifted, but going this long without writing is driving me slightly mad, and I feel like I don't understand life as well when I'm not writing about it. One of the most obvious areas for this is my Bible reading, which I feel has been unproductive this last semester when it comes to personal reading time.

So, I'm starting over. I've abandoned my "Bible in a year" plan and instead am starting from the beginning and blogging through it. I plan to do Old Testament on weekdays and New Testament on weekends, with probably some random thought articles thrown in when they come to me. I'll generally try for at least a chapter each time, but I will do more or less depending on how much commentary I get out of a given passage.
 Lakeshore is starting its 21-day New Years fast today, so I thought this would be as good a time as any to begin. So, during this fast period, I'll also be looking at the devotional for the day that Lakeshore is providing.

Anyway, let's begin. I used to copy and paste the entire passage I was talking about, but I don't really see the point of it in retrospect. I'll give the references, so read along if you so desire.

[Gen 1:1]
     I spent two years at Christ for the Nations bible college. One of the classes I took there was "Creation Science," where I was thrown headfirst into the whole creationism vs. evolution argument. Until then I had never given it a great deal of thought, being satisfied with knowing "God exists, He started it, and He's in charge." CFNI taught from a literal seven-day creation, 10,000-year-old Earth standpoint, of which I had never made a point of seeing the arguments. I lean that direction now, though I'm still not 100% sure where I stand.
     What I did take away from those studies was the ways in which your stance on this is important on a deeper, theological level. Not as much on the literal 7 days thing, but on the literal truth of the events in Genesis, specifically Adam and Eve. If the curse that Adam and Eve brought upon the Earth was not the appearance of death (Which is the only conclusion under the Theistic Evolution standpoint, since stuff needs to be dying for evolution to be happening) then it brings doubt on the verse in Romans that says Adam was the one man who brought death into the world, and thus also brings doubt on the second clause of that sentence, which is that the gift of grace and righteousness will also reign through one. Likewise, if Adam and Eve never existed and were merely a metaphor, then we have trouble with the passages that link Jesus' genealogy all the way back to Adam, and we have to ask ourselves when the Bible switched to real people. So while I still don't have things figured out, I no longer consider this a non-issue like I used to.

     Every pastor I've ever sat under has done long, flowery talks at some point about "In the beginning God..." so I feel a little silly dwelling on that, but it is a powerful beginning. I'm majoring in mathematics, so I don't claim to have much to say in the realm of the natural sciences and the areas this chapter usually causes arguments about, but I do appreciate this set-up of the logical basis for the rest of the Bible. No matter how rigorous your system of logic or your scientific method is, at some point you have to establish your axioms, which are, by definition, statements you accept without proof. You cannot prove your axioms, because without them you don't have a method of proof. In Geometry these axioms are statements like "the whole is equal to the sum of its parts," "a line can be drawn between any two given points," and "if a = b and b = c, then a = c." In formal argumentative logic, they are statements like "A is not not-A" and the like.
     The problem with many arguments over Creationism and such subjects is that both parties are beginning with different axioms. If you reject the axiom that a point can be drawn between any two lines, you can't use line-drawing as a step in your proof, and are going to have a really hard time arguing with someone who sees two points and automatically sees a possible line. Likewise when people are arguing over whether or not the Grand Canyon was made by a massive worldwide flood or over billions of years of water trickle, the problem is that one side starts with God and one side does not. Both sides say they're just "going where the evidence leads," but the evidence can only lead you along a path your internal logic system allows.
     The Bible starts with "In the beginning, God..." and thus immediately establishes Him as an axiom to everything that will be stated in the rest of Scripture. You can read it and test it for internal consistency, but it does not bother explaining itself because God's existence is where you start from. He cannot be explained because He is outside of our system entirely. Man can no better prove God exists than my Sims can prove I exist. So while these creation details are important, I don't stress out over it because I accept God as my axiom and leave the fine print to scientists who are also starting with that axiom.

Dang, that was a lot longer than I anticipated. I suppose that will do for Genesis commentary for the day. Told you I may not make it through a chapter. I would keep going but that was a good introduction and I need to get ready for work.
It's good to be back.

Deuteronomy 2 (it skipped 1 for some reason...I'll read that some other time.)

[1-12] - They went through several places where God had to say "Don't kill anyone, because you're not getting their land" because that land had been promised to other people. Sometimes, the stuff you're after is just not part of your inheritance, and you have to deal with it. God has stuff for you. Get that stuff. It'll be good stuff. Promise.

[13-15] - I imagine that period where they're waiting for the last generation to die off was very stressful, especially for those last few guys who were probably sleeping with an eye open. And it says that God's hand was against them, so I also imagine some crazy Final Destination stuff happening while they all try to avoid dying for as long as possible.

[16-25] - A little sidetrack with the history of these big Zamzummim folk. Mainly to say that they were to go through Moab and had to again be told not to kill anyone, which they complied with because it was on their way to Heshbon, whom they were allowed to kill as hard as they liked.

[26-37] - They sent a note to King Sihon asking if they could pretty please just pass by with no trouble. I really hope this was some sort of diversion tactic that was going to lead to an ambush, because it would be pretty lame if they had to be told not kill three different countries, and then, when they finally get to one that needs killing, they try to just walk on by. Wouldn't put it past them though.
Anyway, God is like "dangit guys, I said to fight them" so he hardens the king heart to not let them through and forces their hand. So they fight and they win.

Deuteronomy 3

[1-11] Not much to say here, other than they beat the snot out King Og and his country, even though Og's was so huge that his bed was 15 feet long.

[12-22]
Moses reminded Joshua to hold on to everything they had seen thus far when it came to future battles. You always have to remind those under you of what God has done, otherwise it gets easy to freak out.

[23-29]
Moses asked God to reconsider his not being able to enter the promised land, but God was like "Yeah, no."

Luke 6:12-38
[12-19]
Jesus calls the Disciples and heals some folks.

[20-26]
Then we go into the beatitudes. What I mainly take away from this whole speech is that any state you win for yourself won't last. Doing what God tells you to do isn't always glamorous, but it pays out in the end. Winning victory for yourself doesn't get you victory in the future. People use this to glorify poverty and being miserable, but I don't think that was the point.

[27-36]
Again, the point is that we don't play by the same rules. Where the world jockeys for the top of the "I have lots of stuff" leaderboard and is concerned with their own dignity, Kingdom life is about showing God's love to everyone. In a world that cheers for Western shootouts over disputes as a poetic way of death and exalts Asian culture for focusing on personal honor to the point of death, God's Kingdom is not about your personal honor. When people rob you of honor, you bless them back. Weird stuff.

[37-38]
And at the same time the point of it is not to be a miserable little wretch who is constantly stepped on. There are rewards to this lifestyle. God doesn't do this because He thinks it's amusing, but because He's smarter than us and knows this is the best way to live.

Keep it in the family

I totally started this yesterday, but then stuff happened, and I unstarted it, and....yeah.

Numbers 36
- Basically, one family had only women to inherit the land, so it got tricky because the land usually goes with the man, so if they married someone from a different tribe, the land allotments would get screwed up. So Moses declares that women who inherit land have to marry within their tribe so the land allotment stays with the tribe it was given to.
- The point being, as far as I can see, that God's promises to you are not negotiable. Don't give your inheritance to someone else.

Luke 5:29-39
[29-32] - The irony holds forever. Telling people who have screwed up that they can't go to God like they are is the same as telling sick people they can't go to a doctor. Come on....people...

[33-35] - While plenty of people will use this as an excuse to continue to lack discipline of any kind, there's something to be said about not feeling like you always have to be in a season of fasting or laborious wailing prayers. There are seasons for everything. Know where you are right now and what God wants you to do, and ignore the Pharisees who don't like that you're not on their schedule and don't get their newsletter.

[36-38] - The new covenant has been the plan all along. With a new body and a renewed soul, we can start living the way the Kingdom was originally intended. Forcing people to live according to the new modes of living when they have not yet been renewed is forcing new wine into old wineskins. People can't handle it. When they've been renewed, then they can be filled with the new stuff, and it will take some time to get used to.

Luke 6:1-11
- The Pharisees loved their rulebook so much that they would rather see people starve and languish in disease than break that rule. When traditions become so important that it becomes irrelevant whether or not they are fulfilling the reason they were started in the first place, it's time to shake things up.

Progress has been slowing on my daily Bible reading, so I need to journal again. This'll help. Right? Right.

Numbers 33:40-56
[50-56] - At Breadbreakers we're starting Judges, and it's ironic to now read the part where God tells them to completely wipe out everyone from the land and every trace that they were ever there, because, as Judges starts off telling us, they didn't do a great job of that. It's uncomfortable to wipe out every trace of your past sinful life; all of the imagery, the places, and everything that went with it. But...it comes back to bite you. Even if it's three books later.
- I always thought it was interesting that they divided the land by lot. When you get it in your head that God controls chance, then coin-flipping decisions are even more successful in dispute-settling than they are now. Not sure how accurate that is for decisions nowadays, but that's always interested me.

Numbers 34
- This one laid out the borders of the land and Moses delegated people to handle the dividing of the land. Not terribly exciting.

Numbers 35
[1-8] - The Levites get all kinds of neat, big cities. They also get the ones where people who accidentally kill someone can run and not get killed as well.
[16-21] - Kill on purpose though, and it won't help you. And the person who's avenging gets to carry out the death sentence. That's intense.
[17-28] - If it was an accident, you can come to the city of refuge. If you leave the city of refuge, the guy can take vengeance on you and get away scot-free. Interesting.
[29-34] - No bail for murderers either. They die. You need two witnesses though. They have to die because murder stains the land, and the only payment for it is the blood of the murderer. Reading the Old Testament makes me very thankful for Jesus.

Luke 5:12-28
[12-15] - I like the leper's way of saying it. "Lord, if You are willing, You can make me clean." He's not really asking; he didn't even exactly say he wanted to be made clean. The way he said that feels half like an assertion of faith, and half like a challenge. Either way, Jesus heals him and the guy talks about it even though Jesus told him not to. It's funny that, when Jesus tells people to keep quiet, they go make a stir about Him. Then when He tells people to go spread the word, they clam up. Ironic.

[16] "so He Himself often withdrew into the wilderness and prayed." I guess Jesus was annoyed by the irregularity in people telling others about Him when He wants them to.

[17-26] Jesus told them that their sins were forgiven when he saw that they had enough faith to drop the guy through the roof to get a chance at Jesus. We put way too much effort on exact wordings and rituals for salvation. Jesus saw the faith, and proclaimed the guy forgiven. It's that simple.

Psalm 65:1-13
Verse 4 is my favorite here. "Blessed is the man You choose, and cause to apprach You, that he may dwell in Your courts."
David was probably talking about the priests, who could go into God's presence. He wasn't anticipating the new covenant, where that statement would apply to all of us. Aw yeah.

Devils and Morons and Slackers, Oh My.

So, it's...uh...been awhile.
Now that school is out and I'm getting myself organized once again, we're getting back in the game. And what better way to get back in the game than by finishing the book I started well over a month ago?

2 Thessalonians: 3.

This whole book is something of a footnote to the first one, clarifying some points that were misinterpreted the first time around. Paul has already taken care of the main points, and is now just making a few last statements before signing off.

"Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run swiftly and be glorified, just as it is with you, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men; for not all have faith."
- Two kinds of people we need protection from: wicked men, who are actively seeking to destroy the work of God, and unreasonable men, who are just screwing things up.  You don't have to be an active enemy of the Gospel to be bad for the Kingdom. If you don't think things through, if you let your emotions run your life, or if you ignore common sense, you could be a liability that we need to pray for protection against.


"But the Lord is faithful, who will establish you and guard you from the evil one"
- But don't freak out too much - prayer works and God's got it under control.


"And we have confidence in the Lord concerning you, both that you do and will do the things we command you. Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ."
- Paul knew they were doing the right things and that they were in no real danger of straying, but he still prays for them to grow in love and patience.
- Just doing the right thing isn't enough. From what you hear taught and the way people talk, you would think that once you've got all the "thou shalt not" and "thou shalt" commands right, you were doing pretty well, but not necessarily. Paul acknowledges their good works, but encourages them to add love to it and to be patient. If your actions are becoming more like Jesus, but your character isn't, you're not really growing.


" But we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you withdraw from every brother who walks disorderly and not according to the tradition which he received from us."
- There are people without patience and love, who make a big show of themselves and call themselves Christians. It's best for everyone to just not hang around them, because they're doing a disservice to the movement. 
- The Greek word "disorderly" is only used in this chapter, but it's often used to describe soldiers who are walking out of rank or out of step. Paul has spent many letters describing how the Christian walk should be - people who sit under that teaching, know better, call themselves Christians, and consciously choose not to do it are not good company. This isn't talking about non-Christians, or people who are just immature and still have some growing to do, but those who make themselves out to be something big, but then live like idiots on purpose. Just don't bother with them.


"For you yourselves know how you ought to follow us, for we were not disorderly among you; nor did we eat anyone’s bread free of charge, but worked with labor and toil night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you, not because we do not have authority, but to make ourselves an example of how you should follow us. "
- Since Paul and his crew first brought the Gospel to this region, they made absolutely sure to model what the Christian life was supposed to be - they didn't even charge money for their services when they had every right to, just to make the point clear. Between their letters and their lives, these people who were walking out of line had no excuse.


"For even when we were with you, we commanded you this: If anyone will not work, neither shall he eat. For we hear that there are some who walk among you in a disorderly manner, not working at all, but are busybodies. Now those who are such we command and exhort through our Lord Jesus Christ that they work in quietness and eat their own bread."
- So the issue here is that people were doing nothing, then acting like they had a right to food. These parasites were distorting the teachings of Paul and Jesus, who commanded that the poor be taken care of that we love one another, to mean that, if they decided not to do anything with their lives, the other Christians were obligated to take care of them.
- Paul calls this crap out, saying that he didn't even eat the food he worked for as a missionary, but made extra work for himself. The command to give is so we can help those who have fallen on hard times, not so lazy good-for-nothings can leech off the work of honest people. People are supposed to work, not complain about it, and eat what they've earned. The kind of people who twist Scripture into self-serving garbage like this are the kinds of people Paul is saying to just have nothing to do with.


"But as for you, brethren, do not grow weary in doing good."
- In a world of wicked people out to destroy you, unreasonable people destroying you without meaning to, and freeloading bums, it's easy to get tired and want to join one of their camps. But we have to hang in there - all of these people would be lost without the good we do. The wicked would turn on each other, the unreasonable would screw things up even further, and the parasites would shrivel and die. Hence all the requests to keep praying for each other, so we can stay strong.


"And if anyone does not obey our word in this epistle, note that person and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed. Yet do not count him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother."
- Now, the Christians who are being idiots shouldn't be treated the same as the wicked people who are actively out to get us. It's best not to hang out with them, but in a well-explained "Look, you're killing us, and it's best for all of us if we part ways" type of setting. Even when breaking company, it must be done in love and with the intent to teach.


" Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all. The salutation of Paul with my own hand, which is a sign in every epistle; so I write. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ bewith you all. Amen."


---


And thus ends 2 Thessalonians. This book stands out as one of the best examples of leadership Paul gives - his first letter was misunderstood and resulted in quite a few problems. Many people would get frustrated and/or angry and/or depressed, but Paul took charge and wrote a follow-up, further clarifying the misunderstood points and addressing new problems that had arisen. 


It's good to be back. This is going to be a good summer.