Today is one of those days that's moving at a snail's pace. Mondays are often slow, but for some reason today takes the cake.
About the only thing I can think about commenting on is yesterday's crazy weather. I never thought I would envy Alaskan weather...but yesterday I left for a bike ride and it was only 42 degrees. Apparently Up in Alaska, it was a balmy 58.
I just read an interesting article on the phenomenon of "adultescence," where young adults live like teenagers...through their 30's. My favorite quote:
Our culture constantly lies to us, telling us to just goof off, have fun, and
live for the next "buzz." It pretends like it's giving us something, but in
reality we're being robbed. We're buzzing ourselves numb — losing out on the
delights of knowing God and His ways, the joy of godly marriage, the beauty of
sexual intimacy as God intended it, the incalculable reward of fatherhood and
motherhood, and the blessings of genuine, responsible adulthood.
When Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. 37Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, 38so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
"Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?"
39Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said,
40"He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them."
41Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. 42Nevertheless, many even of the authorities believed in him, but for fear of the Pharisees they did not confess it, so that they would not be put out of the synagogue; 43for they loved the glory that comes from man more than the glory that comes from God.
-John 12:36b-43
Texts like this are why I believe strongly in compatibilism (a.k.a. Calvinism). Jesus did all these miracles, yet "they could not believe" (v39). There are some he reveals himself to, and others he hardens.
9When the large crowd of the Jews learned that Jesus was there, they came, not only on account of him but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. 10So the chief priests made plans to put Lazarus to death as well, 11because on account of him many of the Jews were going away and believing in Jesus. -John 12:9-11
How stupid were the chief priests? They wanted to kill Lazarus because Jesus just raised Lazarus from the dead. Anybody else find that to be an incredibly stupid idea?
"You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it." - Number 35:33
I am not certain what my position is on the death penalty, but this verse is definitely making me think more about the issue. I have always believed the Bible clearly teaches that evil doers, especially murderers, need to be removed from among us. No doubt about it, this pertains to our society: remove evil doers from the general population. It also says the murderers should be put to death. It is easy to argue that in Biblical times, the only way to remove a murderer was to kill him because they didn't have ultra high security Alcatraz-like prisons. In our day and age, we can remove murderers from the population without killing them. If the only purpose here is to remove murderers from among us, then it's difficult to rationalize the death penalty. There are other "earthly" reasons used to support capital punishment, like providing a deterrent to crime, etc., but they also don't get to the heart of the matter.
This verse makes it clear that there is more to killing murderers than removing them from our midst, sending a message to criminals, vengeance, or any other earthly reason. The death penalty was originally instituted by God to atone for the blood that was shed by the murderer. Oh, this raises hundreds of theological questions. Can Christ's blood atone for the land for that blood that was shed? As a non-theocracy, should we try to atone for the blood that was shed?
This morning I was able to ride a pleasant 13 miles on the way to work. Ahhhhh. I successfully picked up new tubes, replaced the blown one, pumped it up, and had no problems. It was a good thing because I was really starting to go crazy. I guess I've gotten a little addicted to cardio work because I was just bouncing with too much energy yesterday. I don't think I would have been able to sleep if I hadn't taken Evie for a short ride after work yesterday. Today is very therapeutic...if I can just sit still at my desk until it's time to go home!
I've been riding my bike pretty hard these past few weeks, so I decided I should take it easy this week. Give my legs a break so they can recover and I can go faster next week. My plan was to back off the miles a little, and back off the intensity a lot. But I was not planning on abandoning my commute to work or quitting riding altogether.
Yesterday was a frustrating day due to the weather--at least the forecasted weather. The prediction of dangerous thunderstorms in the afternoon scared me off my bike. No sense being swept up like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, especially when I'm trying to have a recovery week. So despite the 20 mph winds, when no rain came all day, let alone thunderstorms, I was annoyed. Driving home in beautiful sunny weather was surprisingly agravating--isn't sunny weather supposed to be a good thing?
Now this morning I checked the forecast and not a hint of rain. Again, the winds are pretty strong, but that just helps cool me off so I'm not to sweaty when I get to work. The temperature dropped from yesterday, so it was pretty cool. I put on my cold weather biking gear, loaded up my pack, and hopped on my bike. As I pulled out, the wheel felt mushy and, sure enough, I had a flat. Apparently my crash Saturday had messed up my tube a little bit. Not to despair, I had a spare in my pack.
Sure, changing the tube takes a few minutes, but I wasn't in a hurry--I just wanted to ride! I took my helmet off and settled in for a tube change. I've done this a dozen times before, so it wouldn't be a big deal. I took the old tube out, put the new one in, got the tire put back on and started to pump. 100 PSI, perfect. Put the pump back in the garage. I stepped back outside and put my helmet back on and POP!!! Like a gunshot or, more accurately, a 100 PSI balloon popping. That was my last spare tube, so no bike ride for me today!
I'm determined to ride today. I think I'll pick up a couple of new tubes on the way home from work today. Then I can put Evie in the trailer and I'll haul her around on my mountain bike.
For those who are curious about my newly found hobby of coffee roasting. Here's a picture of my roaster. It's a souped-up popcorn popper. I rewired it with some plans I found on the web to make it better. I added a simple on/off switch that controls the heater and a dimmer switch to control the fan. The variable speed fan is the key to it all. If it's blowing too fast, the beans never get hot enough to roast beyond ultra-light. If it's blowing too slow, they roast too fast and can start on fire. The big metal box on the side is a transformer to step the voltage down from 120V to the 25V needed for the fan so I don't blow the thing up!
"But there is also a real fear of him [God] that can coexist with sweet peace and trust in him. The key is that God himself is the one who removes his wrath from us. Our peace does not come from our removing the God of wrath from our thinking, but from his removing his wrath from us." -John Piper, What Jesus Demands From the World, p95
God is not some pansy "love everybody" God. No, he is also a God of wrath. Modern day attempts to understand God tend to overemphasize his love and minimize/ignore his wrath. I'm sure in ages past, his wrath was overemphasized, and the current state of Christianity is an overreaction to that previous overemphasis. Why can't we grasp that God is both? He is a God of wrath. He is angry with sin and sinners. He will pour his fury out on those who have spurned him, who love other people and things more than him, who disobey him. He is justified in punishing us, and this does not make him unloving; rather, it demonstrates his holiness and justice.
Why can't we understand love and wrath are not opposites. They are not like North and South where you cannot be both. You cannot walk both northerly and southerly simultaneously. No, love and wrath are more like North and East. They are complementary--not contradictory.
Why should the name of our father be taken away from his clan because he had no son? Give to us a possession among our father's brothers." Moses brought their case before the LORD. And the LORD said to Moses, "The daughters of Zelophehad are right. You shall give them possession of an inheritance among their father's brothers and transfer the inheritance of their father to them. And you shall speak to the people of Israel, saying, 'If a man dies and has no son, then you shall transfer his inheritance to his daughter.'" -Num 27:4-8
This passage was extremely interesting to me after hearing Pastor John's sermon this weekend. One of his points was how Christianity is a spiritual religion that grows by making spiritual offspring who are born of the Spirit--as opposed to Judaism which is based on physical offspring born of the flesh. This passage is about that old covenant and these daughters who are seeking to preserve their father's name. The reason God appointed inheritances only to sons (except in this exception clause) was to pass on the name.
Maintaining a family's possessions requires the use of only one gender to pass it on. Suppose inheritances were divided among sons and daughters equally. Now a daughter from one family marries a son from another and pass their possessions on to their one and only child. Now this child has inheritance from two separate grandfathers. The distinction of what came from which grandfather has been blurred. The purpose of passing the inheritance was to preserve the grandfather's legacy, but that has now been blurred. This would not have happened if it had only been passed through one gender.
Pragmatically speaking, God had to choose one gender to pass the inheritance through. I can come up with some other "practical" reasons why sons were chosen (like multiple wives), but I believe there exist deeper theological reasons. Namely, God created Adam first, God gave the covenant to Abraham, and the coming Messiah was to be male.
What does this mean for us? I see three things. One, there is a proper place for gender differences. Typically, inheritances were to only be divided amongst sons. Second, there are improper places for gender differences. Denying these daughters an inheritance would have been wrong. Third (and most important), we are under a New Covenant that is not procreation-based. Our eternal inheritance is in no way based on our gender, "For in Christ Jesus you are all sons (heirs) of God, through faith. There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Gal 3:6, 28).
