This map from Forbes (of all places!) is…well, you’ll just have to see it for yourself.
They rate America’s cities on the Seven Deadly Sins. Congratulations, Memphis, for being number one in three out of seven. Maybe next year, you can win wrath…
People are always people, no matter where they are or when they lived. Anyone else notice the amazing lack of differences in this ancient story and ours?
From last week (Tuesday, to be exact) in Numbers 25, Israel falls into idolatry again with their Moabite neighbors (page 191). Look at the order of events:
We’re often fools for the trades we make. People trade family for work, friends for things, and eternity for a moment. The children of Israel, just like us today, made one of those bad deals. They were enticed by the promised pleasure of the Moabite women who offered them sexual favors, and their pleasures were cheapened and standards were lowered. Were it not for God’s mercy, they could have lost everything! After proximity provides opportunity, pleasure (1 John 2:15-17) provides the bait concealing the hook.
The final step is the tough one: do we repent, or do we continue? This time, the Israel repented, but each time this cycle repeats, the chances of repentance and real change get smaller and smaller. Lewis once said that the human heart is a lot like concrete: on that rare occasion that it is broken and moistened by tears and is finally pliable, if a real change isn’t made, the only likely outcome is a hardening that will become more and more permanent. Softening the heart becomes more difficult with each passing attempt, and before long, we’ve become nothing more than another Pharaoh, an instrument by which God will display his power, instead of an instrument for whom God will bring blessings.
I’m not sure how this one is going to turn out, but it should be interesting, no mater what. Enjoy this trailer for Ben Stein’s “Expelled.”
We had great discussion this week–thank you! Here’s the PowerPoint presentation and the handout.
Anyone who is interested, feel free to tackle some of our questions for next week:
Don’t make this too easy for me, now… :-)
Thanks to everyone who gave to help our friends and neighbors in Fairview who were hit with such severe storm damage. Keith and I delivered the materials today to the Farview Church of Christ, and they were very appreciative. I’m sure we’ll continue to hear more as they realize what further needs they have.
Here’s what you contributed:
It’s funny how nobody wanted Moses’ job when he went into Pharaoh’s house saying “Let my people go!” Once they sort of had things rolling though, Korah and his folks had another idea.
It’s also funny (but not funny ha-ha!) how the spies surveyed the land of Canaan. They took a pretty long trip, if you check out a Bible map, to see the most amazing land ever — grapes so big they’re carried across a pole between two men, and the like. After having mysterious food appear from heaven, having a sea part in front of them, and water come from rocks…they still say it can’t be done.
I’m noticing a theme in the Pentateuch: God’s not impressed when you say it can’t be done.
When Caleb and Joshua said that the land was as good as theirs, the rest of the camp was voting on a new leader to return the children of Israel to Egypt with their tails between their legs. (They seem to always think the grass was greener back there. Have they forgotten about the slavery?) Caleb and Joshua see the greater truth: “Their protection is gone, but the Lord is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” (Numbers 14:10).
In response to this great spiritual pep talk, the camp (the whole assembly (!)) talked about stoning them.
If I ever open a Bible theme park….I’m naming the scariest roller coaster “The Faith of the Children of Israel.”
I don’t want to be legalistic here, but one thing I noticed from yesterday and the day before’s readings: God has a lot of specifics listed in his instructions for Jewish worship. He has listed who is supposed to clean up the sacrifices, organize the people, blow the trumpets….down to every last detail.
Side note: though these passages are very specific, they’re not really that complex. We often fall into a trap of thinking that the Old Law was so complicated and thus, difficult. The Old Law certainly was difficult — but that wasn’t due to its complexity. That was becasue attaining perfect righteousness through lawkeeping is inherently difficult in light of human nature! People throw around this stat a lot: there were 613 commandments in the Old Law! That’s so tough!
Have you read your drivers’ handbook? I started counting once, and as I could identify them in one chapter….just two or three pages in I’d already identified close to one hundred rules, yet I drive my car every day without worrying about whether or not I can remember each one. In fact, most days I knowingly break at least one! (Cough speed limit cough!) My point is — it’s not the complexity that made the law difficult; it was its nature.
Another example: God gave specifics about how his incense was to be made. If I counted right, there were four ingredients in two different quantities. If you’ve ever made chocolate chip cookies from scratch — you know that there are way more than 4 ingredients, and way more than two measuring spoons/cups dirty at the end of the process!
So let’s stop focusing on the complexity of the old law.
Why would God be so specific, though? Does he really just prefer a certain combination of spices? Does he think his fire and lightning look best against a certain gold backdrop?
Those are silly answers, of course. I think maybe he’s trying to teach a lesson about the value of worship. There’s something to be said for spontaneous outbursts of prayer and thanksgiving, but we shouldn’t neglect the beauty of spending time planning and thinking about how best to say ‘thank you.’ After all, don’t we say it’s the “thought that counts”?
It would behoove us to occasionally spend some time in preparation and planning for worship. Perhaps that could make an end of our age-old gripe, “I’m not getting enough out of it…”
As I keep going back to the stories of the past two weeks of scripture, I can’t help but notice how much attention God is drawing towards a special place. In class, we calculated the value of the gold and the silver in the tabernacle (1 ton = 2,000lbs = 32,000ozs * $905 ($gold/oz) = ~$29million. Silver = 3.75 tons = 120,000ozs * $16 ($silver/oz) = $1.9million). It’s a significant stash!
If just a bar or two of gold travel today, they’re guarded in armored vehicles by men with sub machine guns. Anything more valuable ends up with a helicopter escort, and if the Italian Job was accurate, a few heist attempts along the way! When God’s glory-cloud entered a new land though, the gold of the tabernacle followed it and led the people. His presence alone was enough to overshadow the greatest financial treasure man could imagine. God’s presence is awesome.
We’re his temple today (see 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 1 Corinthians 3:16-17 and surrounding). Have we thought of what an honor it is to be the home of his spirit? Have we thought of how terrible it would be away from his spirit? (Romans 8:9-11). Maybe we should quit looking at the gold around us and focus on his spirit within us!
We were fortunate in White Bluff and Burns to have been spared the worst of the bad weather, but several in Fairview and in Jackson weren’t so fortunate.
The Churches of Christ Disaster Relief Group will need help on Friday in Nashville at 10 am loading boxes to send supplies. The Red Cross and other organizations are announcing their plans for collections. Dickson’s banks are collecting supplies (toiletries, clothes, non-perishable food items, etc) to send that way. Leave a comment if you have another disaster relief organization you’d like to list…
Sorry for the posting delay lately. I’ve been a bit under the weather and traveled to Freed Hardeman for lectureship and Huntingdon for a memorial for Madelyn Beamon. Check out the podcasts available of FHU’s lectures from John: The Gospel of Belief. You can hear some really good sessions.
As for files from this week — if you’ve read this site, you’ve already seen them. The tabernacle walk through in 3D was our primary resource Wednesday night, as well as catching up some from week 5. Sorry for nothing new!