Sunday, September 11, 2005
Saturday, September 10, 2005
The Battle of the Bulge is occurring in Oregon.
There is a bulge that is about 100 square miles in size and growing. This is about the size of the city of Portland. It might be a new volcano or a major shift of molten rock under the center of the Cascade Range. The bulge began around 1997 and has grown about one and one half inches per year. I empathize. They actually first saw it from space. So, I guess it is true that you can be so close to something you cannot see the truth.
The size of the bulge could indicate a pool of magma that is one mile across and 65 feet deep. That is a hunka hunka burnin' love. This “lake” of magma rises about 10 feet per year, causing the surface to bulge upward. If it is not a lake of magma, it could be the formation of a new volcano. That would be pretty exciting to scientists.
Oregon already has four of the 18 most active volcanoes in the nation. They are Mount Hood, Crater Lake, Newberry and South Sister. Scientists do not expect any damage from this new one. It make a good scenario for a movie, however.
Next door, in Washington, there is also some activity. Mount St. Helens has been building new lava domes. They usually collapse. Also, a series of strong earthquakes, greater than magnitude 3, have occurred recently about 50 miles south of the mountain. Last Thursday there was a magnitude 3.1 quake early that caused a rockfall. To continue the metaphor, that is a whole lotta shakin goin on. These rockfalls that result from earthquakes send up plumes of ash. One reached 30,000 feet this year.
The volcano, that erupted in 1980 and killed 57 people, became active again last September. Tons of rock is being extruded into the crater. The new dome is 7,600 feet high, as of this spring. In addition to these strong earthquakes, there have been constant temblors of magnitude 1 or 2, constant as in occuring every four to seven minutes.
Further south along the coast, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger shook things up when said he will veto a bill that would have made California the first state to legalize same-sex marriage. Schwarzenegger said the legislation conflicts with the intent of voters as expressed in an initiative five years ago. Proposition 22 prevented California from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states or countries. It specifically states “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California”. I guess the Legislature does not care what the people want. Most of them are liberals, so I am sure they feel they know what the people need better than the people do. Liberals believe in government for the people, but not by the people. Many judges agree with the liberals. In Massachusetts and Vermont, for example, the courts recognized homosexual marriage without any legislation at all. Thousands of years of consesus about the definition of marriage had no impact on them at all. California may follow suit, pardon the pun. A lower court has already ruled this year overturning Proposition 22 and a 1978 law that defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman. That is on appeal, as homosexual marriage is not appealing to most Californians, as liberal as they are. It is nice to know even Californians have limits, even if federal judges do not.
Democratic Assemblyman Paul Koretz had called bans on gay marriage “the last frontier of bigotry and discrimination.” And I thought that applied to liberal thinking about Christians.
Swinging around to Texas, the Mexican army has invaded again. It is not quite the same as the invasion of 1846. A Mexican army convoy crossed into the United States a few days ago bringing aid to hurricane victims. Way to go, amigos. After all the tensions between our countries, I am truly impressed by this sympathetic action. 45 vehicles brought water treatment plants and kitchens to San Antonio, where the soldiers will feed and help the evacuees. The Mexican government has also promised more aid.
I am truly impressed.
There is a bulge that is about 100 square miles in size and growing. This is about the size of the city of Portland. It might be a new volcano or a major shift of molten rock under the center of the Cascade Range. The bulge began around 1997 and has grown about one and one half inches per year. I empathize. They actually first saw it from space. So, I guess it is true that you can be so close to something you cannot see the truth.
The size of the bulge could indicate a pool of magma that is one mile across and 65 feet deep. That is a hunka hunka burnin' love. This “lake” of magma rises about 10 feet per year, causing the surface to bulge upward. If it is not a lake of magma, it could be the formation of a new volcano. That would be pretty exciting to scientists.
Oregon already has four of the 18 most active volcanoes in the nation. They are Mount Hood, Crater Lake, Newberry and South Sister. Scientists do not expect any damage from this new one. It make a good scenario for a movie, however.
Next door, in Washington, there is also some activity. Mount St. Helens has been building new lava domes. They usually collapse. Also, a series of strong earthquakes, greater than magnitude 3, have occurred recently about 50 miles south of the mountain. Last Thursday there was a magnitude 3.1 quake early that caused a rockfall. To continue the metaphor, that is a whole lotta shakin goin on. These rockfalls that result from earthquakes send up plumes of ash. One reached 30,000 feet this year.
The volcano, that erupted in 1980 and killed 57 people, became active again last September. Tons of rock is being extruded into the crater. The new dome is 7,600 feet high, as of this spring. In addition to these strong earthquakes, there have been constant temblors of magnitude 1 or 2, constant as in occuring every four to seven minutes.
Further south along the coast, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger shook things up when said he will veto a bill that would have made California the first state to legalize same-sex marriage. Schwarzenegger said the legislation conflicts with the intent of voters as expressed in an initiative five years ago. Proposition 22 prevented California from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states or countries. It specifically states “only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California”. I guess the Legislature does not care what the people want. Most of them are liberals, so I am sure they feel they know what the people need better than the people do. Liberals believe in government for the people, but not by the people. Many judges agree with the liberals. In Massachusetts and Vermont, for example, the courts recognized homosexual marriage without any legislation at all. Thousands of years of consesus about the definition of marriage had no impact on them at all. California may follow suit, pardon the pun. A lower court has already ruled this year overturning Proposition 22 and a 1978 law that defined marriage as a union between a man and a woman. That is on appeal, as homosexual marriage is not appealing to most Californians, as liberal as they are. It is nice to know even Californians have limits, even if federal judges do not.
Democratic Assemblyman Paul Koretz had called bans on gay marriage “the last frontier of bigotry and discrimination.” And I thought that applied to liberal thinking about Christians.
Swinging around to Texas, the Mexican army has invaded again. It is not quite the same as the invasion of 1846. A Mexican army convoy crossed into the United States a few days ago bringing aid to hurricane victims. Way to go, amigos. After all the tensions between our countries, I am truly impressed by this sympathetic action. 45 vehicles brought water treatment plants and kitchens to San Antonio, where the soldiers will feed and help the evacuees. The Mexican government has also promised more aid.
I am truly impressed.
Sometimes we are inclined to think that a very great portion of modern revivalism has been more a curse than a blessing, because it has led thousands to a kind of peace before they have known their misery; restoring the prodigal to the Father’s house, and never leading him to say ‘Father I have sinned.’ How can he be healed who is not sick? Or he be satisfied with the bread of life who is not hungry? The old fashioned sense of sin is despised, and consequently religion is run up before the foundations are dug out. Everything in this age is shallow. Deep sea fishing is almost and extinct business so far as men’s souls are concerned. The consequence is that men leap into religion, and then leap out again. Unhumbled they came to the church, unhumbled they remained in it, and unhumbled they go from it.
From Charles Spurgeon, The Sword and Trowel, 1882.
From Charles Spurgeon, The Sword and Trowel, 1882.
Wednesday, September 07, 2005
JOSHUA 5
5:2-8 Circumcising the Nation
2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, Â?Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time.Â? 3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth. [1] 4 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt. 5 Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised. 6 For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord; the Lord swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 7 So it was their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way. 8 When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. 9 And the Lord said to Joshua, Â?Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.Â? And so the name of that place is called Gilgal [2] to this day.
The emphasis continues to be on spiritual preparation. The premise is that the Lord will give them the land, so they must be spiritually prepared to follow the Lord and receive his provision.
Circumcision was a sign of the covenant between God and the descendants of Abraham. See Genesis 17:3-14. The covenant had been broken by Israel. When an individual broke the covenant, he was cut off from the people. When the whole nation broke the covenant, it was cut off from the land.
This passage in Joshua tells us that the men who came out of Egypt were circumcised, but those who were born during their wanderings in the desert had not. Moses recorded this factdeterminednomy 2:14-15. So, all of the men were circumcised and they remained in the camp until they healed. This took faith, in addition to obedience, because they were camped in enemy territory. They might even have remembered the story of how JacobÂ?s sons tricked the men of Shechem into being circumcised, the slaughtered them to avenge their sister Dinah. This story is in Genesis 34. It also shows that the strategies we might adopt in human wisdom are not necessarily in agreement with GodÂ?s plan. Since verse 1 told ucommunitiesanites were fearful since the God parted the Jordan for the Israelites, human wisdom would say to attack immediately. But, God had the battle plans in order. What he wanted from the Israelites was spiritual preparation and obedience.
They were circumcised with flint knives, just as Zipporah circumcised her son in Exodus 4:25, when Moses had not done it.
God also said he had rolled away the reproach of Egypt. Their redemption from slavery in Egypt was not complete until they reached the promised land of Canaan. There is also some thought that Egypt would hold Israel in reproach for wandering in the desert, as that was an indication God had forsaken them. That is what Moses said would happen in Exodus 32:12.
5:10-11 First Passover in Canaan
10 While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. 11 And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain.
The second spiritual preparation the Israelites made was to celebrate the Passover. They had not observed Passover since their encounter with God at Mt. Sinai in Numbers 9:1-5. So, while they stayed in the desert under GodÂ?s condemnation, they did not celebrate Passover or circumcise their children. They had disobeyed God by refusing to enter Canaan and they were in a state of broken covenant with God. This is recorded in Numbers 14. In Leviticus 20:40 et seq, God told them that, after they rebelled and were punished, they would confess their sins. When their uncircumcised hearts were humbled, he would remember his covenant with them. That has evidently occurred here.
The date is given here, because they were commanded to celebrate it on that date. In Exodus 12:2 and Deuteronomy 16:1, God said that month was to be the first month of their year. They called it Abib (Nisan?) and Passover was to be on the 14th of the month. At twilight, they were to slaughter a lamb, (put the blood on the lamp posts on the first occasion), then eat the lamb, bread without yeast, and bitter herbs. So, on the evening of the 14th, the Israelites celebrated Passover according the LordÂ?s command.
5:12 Change In Provisions
12 And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
An interesting thing happened the day after the Passover. For the first time, the Israelites ate produce from the promised land. After that, the manna no longer appeared.
5:13-15 The Commander of the Lord's Army
13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, Â?Are you for us, or for our adversaries?Â? 14 And he said, Â?No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.Â? And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, Â?What does my lord say to his servant?Â? 15 And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Â?Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.Â? And Joshua did so.
Finally, after the consecration of the people, the crossing of the Jordan, the circumcision of the men and the celebration of the Passover, the Lord appears to Joshua. Joshua apparently was going to get a first hand look at Jericho. The Lord appears as a commander, meaning he is ready to lead Israel to military victory.
Joshua was instructed to take off his shoes on the holy ground, just as Moses was at the burning bush in Exodus 3. In Leviticus 19:2, God said be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy. Notice that God is with Joshua just as he was with Moses, as he promised Joshua he would be.
Some think this person was an angel, maybe the Â?angel of the LordÂ? mentioned many times in the Old Testament. Some think this was not an angel, but the Lord who appeared. Note that he does not tell Joshua not to worship him and he instructs him that he is on holy ground. (The NIV says he Â?fell facedown to the ground in reverenceÂ? rather than use the word Â?worshipÂ?), which may indicate an uncertainty on the part of the translators on this very issue.
When Joshua asked for instructions, the Commander did not give him military instruction, but instruction on reverence.
Lessons To Be Learned From Joshua 5:
GodÂ?s people need spiritual preparation for battle.
Success is measured in terms of adherence and obedience to GodÂ?s word, rather than earthly accomplishment.
5:2-8 Circumcising the Nation
2 At that time the Lord said to Joshua, Â?Make flint knives and circumcise the sons of Israel a second time.Â? 3 So Joshua made flint knives and circumcised the sons of Israel at Gibeath-haaraloth. [1] 4 And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them: all the males of the people who came out of Egypt, all the men of war, had died in the wilderness on the way after they had come out of Egypt. 5 Though all the people who came out had been circumcised, yet all the people who were born on the way in the wilderness after they had come out of Egypt had not been circumcised. 6 For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord; the Lord swore to them that he would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. 7 So it was their children, whom he raised up in their place, that Joshua circumcised. For they were uncircumcised, because they had not been circumcised on the way. 8 When the circumcising of the whole nation was finished, they remained in their places in the camp until they were healed. 9 And the Lord said to Joshua, Â?Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.Â? And so the name of that place is called Gilgal [2] to this day.
The emphasis continues to be on spiritual preparation. The premise is that the Lord will give them the land, so they must be spiritually prepared to follow the Lord and receive his provision.
Circumcision was a sign of the covenant between God and the descendants of Abraham. See Genesis 17:3-14. The covenant had been broken by Israel. When an individual broke the covenant, he was cut off from the people. When the whole nation broke the covenant, it was cut off from the land.
This passage in Joshua tells us that the men who came out of Egypt were circumcised, but those who were born during their wanderings in the desert had not. Moses recorded this factdeterminednomy 2:14-15. So, all of the men were circumcised and they remained in the camp until they healed. This took faith, in addition to obedience, because they were camped in enemy territory. They might even have remembered the story of how JacobÂ?s sons tricked the men of Shechem into being circumcised, the slaughtered them to avenge their sister Dinah. This story is in Genesis 34. It also shows that the strategies we might adopt in human wisdom are not necessarily in agreement with GodÂ?s plan. Since verse 1 told ucommunitiesanites were fearful since the God parted the Jordan for the Israelites, human wisdom would say to attack immediately. But, God had the battle plans in order. What he wanted from the Israelites was spiritual preparation and obedience.
They were circumcised with flint knives, just as Zipporah circumcised her son in Exodus 4:25, when Moses had not done it.
God also said he had rolled away the reproach of Egypt. Their redemption from slavery in Egypt was not complete until they reached the promised land of Canaan. There is also some thought that Egypt would hold Israel in reproach for wandering in the desert, as that was an indication God had forsaken them. That is what Moses said would happen in Exodus 32:12.
5:10-11 First Passover in Canaan
10 While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. 11 And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain.
The second spiritual preparation the Israelites made was to celebrate the Passover. They had not observed Passover since their encounter with God at Mt. Sinai in Numbers 9:1-5. So, while they stayed in the desert under GodÂ?s condemnation, they did not celebrate Passover or circumcise their children. They had disobeyed God by refusing to enter Canaan and they were in a state of broken covenant with God. This is recorded in Numbers 14. In Leviticus 20:40 et seq, God told them that, after they rebelled and were punished, they would confess their sins. When their uncircumcised hearts were humbled, he would remember his covenant with them. That has evidently occurred here.
The date is given here, because they were commanded to celebrate it on that date. In Exodus 12:2 and Deuteronomy 16:1, God said that month was to be the first month of their year. They called it Abib (Nisan?) and Passover was to be on the 14th of the month. At twilight, they were to slaughter a lamb, (put the blood on the lamp posts on the first occasion), then eat the lamb, bread without yeast, and bitter herbs. So, on the evening of the 14th, the Israelites celebrated Passover according the LordÂ?s command.
5:12 Change In Provisions
12 And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year.
An interesting thing happened the day after the Passover. For the first time, the Israelites ate produce from the promised land. After that, the manna no longer appeared.
5:13-15 The Commander of the Lord's Army
13 When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, Â?Are you for us, or for our adversaries?Â? 14 And he said, Â?No; but I am the commander of the army of the Lord. Now I have come.Â? And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, Â?What does my lord say to his servant?Â? 15 And the commander of the Lord's army said to Joshua, Â?Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.Â? And Joshua did so.
Finally, after the consecration of the people, the crossing of the Jordan, the circumcision of the men and the celebration of the Passover, the Lord appears to Joshua. Joshua apparently was going to get a first hand look at Jericho. The Lord appears as a commander, meaning he is ready to lead Israel to military victory.
Joshua was instructed to take off his shoes on the holy ground, just as Moses was at the burning bush in Exodus 3. In Leviticus 19:2, God said be holy because I, the Lord your God, am holy. Notice that God is with Joshua just as he was with Moses, as he promised Joshua he would be.
Some think this person was an angel, maybe the Â?angel of the LordÂ? mentioned many times in the Old Testament. Some think this was not an angel, but the Lord who appeared. Note that he does not tell Joshua not to worship him and he instructs him that he is on holy ground. (The NIV says he Â?fell facedown to the ground in reverenceÂ? rather than use the word Â?worshipÂ?), which may indicate an uncertainty on the part of the translators on this very issue.
When Joshua asked for instructions, the Commander did not give him military instruction, but instruction on reverence.
Lessons To Be Learned From Joshua 5:
GodÂ?s people need spiritual preparation for battle.
Success is measured in terms of adherence and obedience to GodÂ?s word, rather than earthly accomplishment.
Friday, September 02, 2005
The efforts of the Democrats to court religious people have failed so far. The Pew Research Center released a poll yesterday that shows fewer people see Democrats as friendly to religion than did one year ago.
One year ago, 40 percent of Americans felt Democrats were friendly to religion. Now, only 29 percent feel that way. This is despite meetings with clergy and hiring a coordinator for religious outreach. Maybe the problem is this: Democrats are not friendly to religion.
Democrats routinely confuse religion with values. They say they need to do a better job of talking about their values and showing that people share their values. Values may be a religion to Democrats, but not to religious people. For religious people, values flow from religion, but religion means worship of God and obedience to his commands.
So, the Democratic leader says, look, we support a higher minimum wage and that is a value, a good value. Therefore, we are just like religious people. At the same time, the same leader supports groups that seek to remove religion, especially Christianity, from public life. They support abortion and want to force people who find it abhorrand to pay for it with their tax dollars. The want to force homosexuality on religious people and give it the same place in society as traditional marriage.
Those are not the values that will sell with religious people.
But, those are Democrat values.
One year ago, 40 percent of Americans felt Democrats were friendly to religion. Now, only 29 percent feel that way. This is despite meetings with clergy and hiring a coordinator for religious outreach. Maybe the problem is this: Democrats are not friendly to religion.
Democrats routinely confuse religion with values. They say they need to do a better job of talking about their values and showing that people share their values. Values may be a religion to Democrats, but not to religious people. For religious people, values flow from religion, but religion means worship of God and obedience to his commands.
So, the Democratic leader says, look, we support a higher minimum wage and that is a value, a good value. Therefore, we are just like religious people. At the same time, the same leader supports groups that seek to remove religion, especially Christianity, from public life. They support abortion and want to force people who find it abhorrand to pay for it with their tax dollars. The want to force homosexuality on religious people and give it the same place in society as traditional marriage.
Those are not the values that will sell with religious people.
But, those are Democrat values.
Did Jesus really exist? Does anyone outside Christianity believe it. Yes!
Maimonides, famous 12th century Jewish scholar, in his "Epistle to Yemen," wrote "Jesus of Nazareth . . . interpreted the Torah and its precepts in such a fashion as to lead to their total annulment. The sages, of blessed memory, having become aware of his plans before his reputation spread among our people, meted out fitting punishment to him."
Maimonides, famous 12th century Jewish scholar, in his "Epistle to Yemen," wrote "Jesus of Nazareth . . . interpreted the Torah and its precepts in such a fashion as to lead to their total annulment. The sages, of blessed memory, having become aware of his plans before his reputation spread among our people, meted out fitting punishment to him."
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