Meditate on it

Mark 16 always puts me on edge.  I don't know what to do with the parenthetical information from verse 9-20.  It brings to mind all kinds of questions about the integrity of early manuscripts, the hand of the early church in shaping things, the inerrant nature of the Word of God, etc. I wish I had time to dig into it, but I suspect that one could spend their entire life digging into it and still not get to the bottom. The rubber meets the road issue is whether God can guarantee the integrity of His Word as a source of truth for all generations, how literally we take that text, how to treat it with intelligence, how to interpret scholarship and how to discern the bias or impartiality of this scholarship.  Ouch.  It makes my head hurt. Meanwhile, I have school to get up and running, dishes to clean and errands to run.  I understand what Virginia Woolf meant when she said that a woman writer needs a room of her own, although I'm still not convinced that such a room is the be

This one has to be my all time favorite psalm--the intimacy of God's knowledge of us, the detail of His awareness makes me feel comforted, included, well-loved. Here are some favorite lines: "Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them." -Psalm 139:16 Although I don't believe that the Lord has predestined every detail of our lives, I do believe He is outside of time and knows the scope of things.  He is unbound by time and His perspective is different and more comprehensive in ways that we cannot fully understand.  This is my best guess at the age old question of predestination vs. free will---that both are true and somehow his perspective is perfect and able to include both as equally true because of this.

At the advice of Spurgeon, I'm dipping into John Calvin's commentaries when able. Tough  reading. Ponderous. But, there are gems that reveal the depth of his meditations and relationship with Christ along the way: Portrait attributed to Hans Holbein the Younger "There is scarcely any assistance God bestows, however evident and palpable it may be to our senses, which our indifference or proud disdain does not obscure." (on Psalm 18) "If natural things always flowed in an even and uniform course, the power of God would not be so perceptible. But when he changes the face of the sky by sudden rain, or by loud thunder, or by dreadful tempests, those who before were, as it were, asleep and insensible, must necessarily be awakened, and be tremblingly conscious of the existence of a presiding God. Such sudden and unforeseen changes manifest more clearly the presence of the great Author of nature."

I have been in the books of Kings and Chronicles for a long while now....how long?  Not sure....but at least 4 months, though it feels like 4 years. It reminds me of the first time I read through Leviticus as a new Christian.  The minutia of the law and regulations seemed to drag on and on....and on.  Funny, but now I typically enjoy Leviticus. So why is this particular stretch of the Bible wearing me out?  Who doesn't like reading about kings, the key players of the kingdoms?  These books are full of the drama of continual war, conspiracies, and miracles--what's not to intrigue?  Here are some of my thoughts on why I'm struggling in the Era of the Kings: Confusing Names One of the biggest struggles within Kings is the need to keep track of many similar names.  First, there are duplicate names.   Both Israel and Judah contain a Jehoram, an Ahaziah, Jehoash, and a Jehoahaz.  To confuse things further these kings often reign as contemporaries of each other.  T

J8 Amaziah Joash's son, 25 years old when began reign, reigned for 29 years. He's described as a good king, though he was not in the flavor of David, but of his father. He did not remove pagan shrines from the land. After he was established, he killed his father's assassins though not their children.  Prosperous time for Judah. He took a census and hired some of Israel's units to accompany Judah. A godly man counseled him against this, so he sent the troops away. These troops plundered villages of Judah on their way home. He fought and conquered the Edomites in the Valley of Salt. Amaziah took plunder from pagan shrines and erected worship to the idols even though counseled against this by a prophet. Amaziah challenge Israel's King Jehoash to a battle. Jehoash sent back a story of a thistle threatening a cedar and told him that his conquest of Edom shouldn't inflate his ego. Amaziah persisted, so Israel went to war against Judah, routed the army, we

Could be an interesting exercise....courtesy momstoolbox.com courtesy basic.org courtesy bible-history.com

One of the clearer charts of the kings--Ken Carlson.org I-10 Jehu Jehu reigned 28 years, was an instrument of divine justice. Elisha called some of his students to find and anoint Jehu, a commander of Israel's army. He took him aside from his comrades and anointed him secretly saying that he would be God's means of eradicating Ahab's line. When he went back to the others, they pressed him to share the conversation and quickly got behind him as king. He then located Joram who had retreated to Jezreel to recover from wounds he incurred fighting the Syrians. King Ahaziah of Judah was visiting Joram there too (divine timing). A messenger went out to meet them, drawing them out of the tower. Both Joram and Ahaziah went out, meeting him at Naboth's plot. Joram inquired if Jehu had come in peace. Jehu responded that how could there be peace as long as Joram's mother fostered witchcraft and idolatry. Joram shouted treason and sought to flee, though Jehu shot

courtesy www.stevethomason.net J5-Jehoram Jehoram was 32 years old when became king, reigned 8 years--Jehoshaphats' son, married Athiliah, Ahab's daughter. Did evil.  Judah lost control over Edom and also Libnah during this period, and they gained their independence.  Jehoram tried to fight Edom but his men fled. According to Chronicles, he led his people into pagan worship again after his father had made some positive progress away from this.  He also killed his brothers. Elijah wrote a letter to him prophesying his doom and death from intestinal disease. It also comments that the Lord stirred up the Philistines and Arabs during his reign.  They attacked his royal palace and looted it, including the capture of his wife and sons.  Only Ahaziah was spared.  The Chronicler's comment:  "no one was sorry when he died." from Constable's Notes courtesy of Sonic Light I8 Ahaziah Ahaziah fell through lattice in his upper chamber and was sick/injure

"Now the king had placed the officer who was his right-hand man at the city gate. When the people rushed out, they trampled him to death in the gate. This fulfilled the prophet’s word which he had spoken when the king tried to arrest him. The prophet told the king, “Two seahs of barley will sell for a shekel, and a seah of finely milled flour for a shekel; this will happen about this time tomorrow in the gate of Samaria.” But the officer replied to the prophet, “Look, even if the Lordmade it rain by opening holes in the sky, could this happen so soon?” Elisha said, “Look, you will see it happen with your own eyes, but you will not eat any of the food!” This is exactly what happened to him.The people trampled him to death in the city gate." -2 Kings 7:17-20 Grace wanted to know why the assistant was punished so severely for not believing Elisha's unlikely prophecy that grain would be cheap the next day.  Earlier that morning Briggs and I had been discussing how Jesus