Exostentialism seems alive in Numbers. Disbelief, void of gratitude, repeated acts of rebellion, lack of faith, lawlessness seems to be what the Isreaites are feeling. God has freed the people from slavery but the feeling seems to be, what have you done for us lately? What are we getting for this and where is this land of milk and honey?
Monday, March 15, 2010
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Leviticus
Leviticus? As I read it I see Gods clear as to his expectations of The Israelites. Order is of the essence from his covenant with the Levites for how they are to eat, act in every facet of their lives and their priestly laws. Moreover he offers them a way for atonement and forgiveness through sacrificial offerings. It seems as if there is far more to this interaction with Moses and God than I can begin to grasp by reading through it in a three day span. I am immensely intrigued by the Gods Holiness he conveys with precision, TRUST ME, KNOW ME, FOLLOW ME, BE HOLY, BE LIKE ME. I can honestly say I am not sure if this book was so difficult to read because of the abundance of laws and tedious attention to detail God perpetuates toward the lives of the Israelites. I found it redundant and difficult to conceptualize what was taking place due to my limited capacity in our present postmodern world too comprehend the reality that God was so strict with his people out of his love for them. I do leave knowing that God used Moses in remarkable ways and his profetic duty was embraced wholly. The more Christlike we become the more we will move to serve the Lord and His Kingdom.
Monday, March 8, 2010
Exodus
I have been consumed by the pages of Exodus which is the account of Moses freeing Israel from slavery and bondage over them by the hands of the Egyptians. As I see how God went to extreme lengths to make known to the world his absolute power and to move the Egyptians to see His revealed truth. I am referencing to the reality that God hardened Pharaohs heart which in turn causes the curses promised by Moses to materialize upon the Egyptian people. If we have free will and God makes it clear to Moses he will not only allow evil to take place, but apparently take part in the decision, how is that not a contradiction?
Do we really have free will under the omniscience of God presence?
John Piper addresses this as follows:
“There is a genuine inclination in God's heart to spare those who have committed treason against his kingdom. But his motivation is complex, and not every true element in it rises to the level of effective choice. In his great and mysterious heart there are kinds of longings and desires that are real… Yet not all of these longings govern God's actions. He is governed by the depth of his wisdom expressed through a plan that no ordinary human deliberation would ever conceive. There are holy and just reasons for why the affections of God's heart have the nature and intensity and proportion that they do.” What he is saying is that we cannot conceive most of what God does and we cannot figure out Gods plan as I stated in my last blog, which of course works but falls short of any real explanation, as it should. There is other popular views that progress toward a logical explanation.
Dr. Norman Geisler,
“God in His omniscience foreknew exactly how Pharaoh would respond, and He used it to accomplish His purposes. God ordained the means of Pharaoh's free but stubborn action…”
Many wise and reputable commentators propose that when the Bible says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, what it really means is that God simply facilitated a process that Pharaoh himself initiated. After all, the Bible repeatedly also states that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, i.e. Exodus 8:15 and 32.
But to me it seems like there is more than simple permission to allow his heart to be hardened into straying from Gods Law. God Hardens the Heart. I like the explanation posed in the Pulpit commentary in reference to, God hardening Pharaohs Heart. Through the operation of the moral law placed on all humans by God at creation. These laws by which God is the author, and through which he operates in the soul, ordained hardening as the penalty of evil conduct, of resistance to truth, and all misinprovement and abuse of privilege. God in execution of his judgements, places a wicked man in situations which he knows can only have a hardening effect upon him. He does this in righteousness. God having permitted evil to exist, must thereafter of necessity permit it also to run its whole course in the way of showing itself to be what it really is, as that which aims at the defeat of the Divine purpose and the consequent dissolution of the universe. This involves hardening through a direct judgement in the soul of the individual.
Is the internal providence of God in the workings of the human mind a contradiction to free will.
I think not, The Pharoah was expressing his free will to go against Gods moral laws and holding Gods people in bondage and the Divine work done through Moses and Pharaoh was all part of Gods divine plan.
Do we really have free will under the omniscience of God presence?
John Piper addresses this as follows:
“There is a genuine inclination in God's heart to spare those who have committed treason against his kingdom. But his motivation is complex, and not every true element in it rises to the level of effective choice. In his great and mysterious heart there are kinds of longings and desires that are real… Yet not all of these longings govern God's actions. He is governed by the depth of his wisdom expressed through a plan that no ordinary human deliberation would ever conceive. There are holy and just reasons for why the affections of God's heart have the nature and intensity and proportion that they do.” What he is saying is that we cannot conceive most of what God does and we cannot figure out Gods plan as I stated in my last blog, which of course works but falls short of any real explanation, as it should. There is other popular views that progress toward a logical explanation.
Dr. Norman Geisler,
“God in His omniscience foreknew exactly how Pharaoh would respond, and He used it to accomplish His purposes. God ordained the means of Pharaoh's free but stubborn action…”
Many wise and reputable commentators propose that when the Bible says that God hardened Pharaoh's heart, what it really means is that God simply facilitated a process that Pharaoh himself initiated. After all, the Bible repeatedly also states that Pharaoh hardened his own heart, i.e. Exodus 8:15 and 32.
But to me it seems like there is more than simple permission to allow his heart to be hardened into straying from Gods Law. God Hardens the Heart. I like the explanation posed in the Pulpit commentary in reference to, God hardening Pharaohs Heart. Through the operation of the moral law placed on all humans by God at creation. These laws by which God is the author, and through which he operates in the soul, ordained hardening as the penalty of evil conduct, of resistance to truth, and all misinprovement and abuse of privilege. God in execution of his judgements, places a wicked man in situations which he knows can only have a hardening effect upon him. He does this in righteousness. God having permitted evil to exist, must thereafter of necessity permit it also to run its whole course in the way of showing itself to be what it really is, as that which aims at the defeat of the Divine purpose and the consequent dissolution of the universe. This involves hardening through a direct judgement in the soul of the individual.
Is the internal providence of God in the workings of the human mind a contradiction to free will.
I think not, The Pharoah was expressing his free will to go against Gods moral laws and holding Gods people in bondage and the Divine work done through Moses and Pharaoh was all part of Gods divine plan.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
The last Chapters of Genesis
The story of Jacob (Israel) and His Son Joseph consumes the last chapters of Genesis and, astounding! is this compelling account of their lives filled with jealousy, deceit, loyalty, and trust. The loyalty and trust of Gods word Joseph confidently adheres to is faith at its finest.
Jacob the father finds favor in Joseph hence therefore, jealousy and deceit is manifest in the older brothers. Joseph is gifted by God with an ability to reveal interpretations of dreams he and others experience, it serves him well and he trusted he would become a powerful person under God in this time of history. Joseph is sold by his brothers into slavery to a party of Ishmaelites or Midianites, who carry him down to Egypt. They then tell Jacob his father he was ravenously savaged by wild animals. After various vicissitudes he gains the favour of the king of Egypt by the interpretation of his dream, and obtains a high place in the kingdom, for the interpretation revealed a Famine that was to come to the land and motivated Joseph and the King to prepare by stockpiling wheat. The Famine did arrive as God revealed to Joseph. Forced by a famine his brothers come to buy food, and in the incidents that follow and the testimony of Joseph is a powerful message through Gods word. Joseph does not blame his brothers when they come to the his land for food but rather explains these awesome words of Gods will.
Then Joseph couldn't control himself before all those who stood before him, and he cried, "Cause every man to go out from me!" No one else stood with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 2 He wept aloud. The Egyptians heard, and the house of Pharaoh heard. 3 Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Does my father still live?"
His brothers couldn't answer him; for they were terrified at his presence. 4 Joseph said to his brothers, "Come near to me, please."They came near. "He said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 Now don't be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are yet five years, in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7 God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance. 8 So now it wasn't you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
What more can be stated as to this great message of forgiveness but this. The clarity that horrible things happen to God's people and we never really can know what is to come of such circumstances. We desire to know all things as humans and want to be able to logically explain, and think our way out or into everything that is present around us. There is nothing wrong with logic but have we have educated ourselves into imbecility? If we can't explain it, if we have no direct empirical evidence fore whatever it is that we experience, it cannot be true.
Famous Philosopher David Hume argued that a miraculous event, no matter how well attested by historical eyewitness evidence, could not be proven to be a miracle because you could not prove that a natural law had actually been overthrown.
He is saying we need to have a answer for it existing only in nature and the laws therein. It beg the question why are there things existing in nature that cannot be explained. Like the fine tuned constants of this earth, or irreducible comlexity concept popularized by biochemist Micheal Behe.
We need to read the Bible and God will speak his word in miraculous ways. It is obsolute truth that we need to have faith and trust in. Even more in todays Postmodern culture.
Jacob the father finds favor in Joseph hence therefore, jealousy and deceit is manifest in the older brothers. Joseph is gifted by God with an ability to reveal interpretations of dreams he and others experience, it serves him well and he trusted he would become a powerful person under God in this time of history. Joseph is sold by his brothers into slavery to a party of Ishmaelites or Midianites, who carry him down to Egypt. They then tell Jacob his father he was ravenously savaged by wild animals. After various vicissitudes he gains the favour of the king of Egypt by the interpretation of his dream, and obtains a high place in the kingdom, for the interpretation revealed a Famine that was to come to the land and motivated Joseph and the King to prepare by stockpiling wheat. The Famine did arrive as God revealed to Joseph. Forced by a famine his brothers come to buy food, and in the incidents that follow and the testimony of Joseph is a powerful message through Gods word. Joseph does not blame his brothers when they come to the his land for food but rather explains these awesome words of Gods will.
Then Joseph couldn't control himself before all those who stood before him, and he cried, "Cause every man to go out from me!" No one else stood with him, while Joseph made himself known to his brothers. 2 He wept aloud. The Egyptians heard, and the house of Pharaoh heard. 3 Joseph said to his brothers, "I am Joseph! Does my father still live?"
His brothers couldn't answer him; for they were terrified at his presence. 4 Joseph said to his brothers, "Come near to me, please."They came near. "He said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 Now don't be grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. 6 For these two years the famine has been in the land, and there are yet five years, in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. 7 God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to save you alive by a great deliverance. 8 So now it wasn't you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
What more can be stated as to this great message of forgiveness but this. The clarity that horrible things happen to God's people and we never really can know what is to come of such circumstances. We desire to know all things as humans and want to be able to logically explain, and think our way out or into everything that is present around us. There is nothing wrong with logic but have we have educated ourselves into imbecility? If we can't explain it, if we have no direct empirical evidence fore whatever it is that we experience, it cannot be true.
Famous Philosopher David Hume argued that a miraculous event, no matter how well attested by historical eyewitness evidence, could not be proven to be a miracle because you could not prove that a natural law had actually been overthrown.
He is saying we need to have a answer for it existing only in nature and the laws therein. It beg the question why are there things existing in nature that cannot be explained. Like the fine tuned constants of this earth, or irreducible comlexity concept popularized by biochemist Micheal Behe.
We need to read the Bible and God will speak his word in miraculous ways. It is obsolute truth that we need to have faith and trust in. Even more in todays Postmodern culture.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
The life of Abram
As I spoke in reflection to my first Bible reading it was clear to me that the causality of this universe, earth and life on it, the cause is clear in Genesis. When I get to the the life of Abram we start to see what truth really is. It is abundantly clear he was to live by truth placed by God. Although far from a flawless knowledge of truth Abram through his obedience to the absolutes was seen highly by God and called later in Genesis, Abraham. As a symbol of His pledge, God changed Abram's name to Abraham, which means father of many nations. Abraham knew what the truth was, he knew the laws that where put on every humans heart.
Abram knew what the Lord expected of him and although he did not know exactly Gods plan for him, Abraham had the freedom to live as he wished – But he rather used the freedom to live as he ought. As he ought to live????? Ought, according to whom? or what? is the question that is now being asked. Who decides how we ought to live?
Is truth what we perceive as truth? is it what society, actively believes is true collectively? Or is it something outside of ourselves that exists rather we are here to know truth or not? Truth, It involves not only the willingness to act according to God's truth, but also depending on God to perform his will for us. God promised to give Abraham the land, yet when Abraham got to Canaan, he found that others already owned it. Abraham did not try to buy it, even though he had the means to do so (13:2). Abraham did not try to use force to take over the land although he may have been able. He waited, living in a tent, walking the Promised Land his entire life. When Sarah died, he had to buy a burial plot for her (chapter 23) even though God had promised him the whole land. God said "Go to the land" , "I will give you the land."
Abrahams truth was Gods truth. But if truth is relative to what we perceive or society says is truth we cannot survive, beacause it is not absolute, it is a created belief system within ourselves or by what others tell us is truth. Conveyed simply, God cannot lie, Gods word is truth and it exists rather we use our freedom to seek to listen to what His truth tells us or not.
Abram knew what the Lord expected of him and although he did not know exactly Gods plan for him, Abraham had the freedom to live as he wished – But he rather used the freedom to live as he ought. As he ought to live????? Ought, according to whom? or what? is the question that is now being asked. Who decides how we ought to live?
Is truth what we perceive as truth? is it what society, actively believes is true collectively? Or is it something outside of ourselves that exists rather we are here to know truth or not? Truth, It involves not only the willingness to act according to God's truth, but also depending on God to perform his will for us. God promised to give Abraham the land, yet when Abraham got to Canaan, he found that others already owned it. Abraham did not try to buy it, even though he had the means to do so (13:2). Abraham did not try to use force to take over the land although he may have been able. He waited, living in a tent, walking the Promised Land his entire life. When Sarah died, he had to buy a burial plot for her (chapter 23) even though God had promised him the whole land. God said "Go to the land" , "I will give you the land."
Abrahams truth was Gods truth. But if truth is relative to what we perceive or society says is truth we cannot survive, beacause it is not absolute, it is a created belief system within ourselves or by what others tell us is truth. Conveyed simply, God cannot lie, Gods word is truth and it exists rather we use our freedom to seek to listen to what His truth tells us or not.
Day 2 of bible in 90 days
I see now how God is using his word to give me knowledge and wisdom to his workings
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Day1 of bible in 90 days
God will use His Words to speak to me as he wills.
As I stated in my past post toward the challenge I am undergoing. Read the bible in 90 days.
He spoke it all into existence, reminded in true clarity the awestruck power of God and His majesty. There is no way we can fathom or explain in our thoughts or consciousness how it is possible. However we can use logic to help us understand Creation.
This cannot be explained by any science. If we take anything of any material existence we cannot reduce it to coming into existence on its own. Everything needs a cause, causality is clearly at play in Genesis and God spoke all into existence. If there was a cause the cause must have been a creator, a transcendent, personal being outside of time that is perfect, necessary, and eternal.
“For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)
Richard Dawkins the Atheist who has made it his purpose, in a life in his worldview that really has no purpose, wrote in his past writings “Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose."Maybe that’s because, to the unbiased seeker of truth, they have been designed for a purpose".
There is an inescapable truth that comes to bare when we beg the question. How did it all begin? The truth lies in the pages of Genesis.
As I stated in my past post toward the challenge I am undergoing. Read the bible in 90 days.
He spoke it all into existence, reminded in true clarity the awestruck power of God and His majesty. There is no way we can fathom or explain in our thoughts or consciousness how it is possible. However we can use logic to help us understand Creation.
This cannot be explained by any science. If we take anything of any material existence we cannot reduce it to coming into existence on its own. Everything needs a cause, causality is clearly at play in Genesis and God spoke all into existence. If there was a cause the cause must have been a creator, a transcendent, personal being outside of time that is perfect, necessary, and eternal.
“For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)
Richard Dawkins the Atheist who has made it his purpose, in a life in his worldview that really has no purpose, wrote in his past writings “Biology is the study of complicated things that give the appearance of having been designed for a purpose."Maybe that’s because, to the unbiased seeker of truth, they have been designed for a purpose".
There is an inescapable truth that comes to bare when we beg the question. How did it all begin? The truth lies in the pages of Genesis.
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