Reason Breeds Insanity

Hosea 14: 1-10
Hosea says in verse two: “Take words with you and return to your Lord.” To me this is beautiful because it reminds me how powerful words are. To take them with me to God reminds me that my prayers, my wonderings, my doubts, my anger, and my other words of emotion are exposed to God. Hosea is asking the Israelites to take their words to God. He gives them specific words: “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.” What an amazing prayer! We spend a lot of time talking about the fruit of the spirit, but do we realize that our words also indicate our maturity in the spirit? When I think about taking my words to God and offering the fruit of my lips to God, I cannot help but think about poring over the scriptures and saying them outloud to myself so that I have words to bring back to God. Through this type of meditation I could not only memorize scripture, but I could continually give the fruit of my lips back to God.

In verse 3, Hosea writes: “We will never again say ‘Our gods’ to what our own hands have made.” This made me question my own life and how many times I have made a god of something that I made myself. How many times have I put my faith in something that didn’t stand up? How many times have I wasted energy on things that simply do not matter? What do I call a god today?

Finally, Hosea writes: “The ways of the Lord are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.” Compare that to Psalm 1: “For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish” and Psalm 73: “Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. But as for me, my feet had almost slipped; I had nearly lost my foothold. For I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” They all say, along with many other passages in the first testament, that the righteous will be rewarded by remaining in God’s path, but the wicked will perish or stumble. For me, this reminds me that while, like David, I can look around and see other people who seem to be prospering, my reward is not money, acclaim, or prosperity. My reward is in following God. It is intrinsic.

Mark 12: 28-34
One word: love. Love your God. Love your neighbor. Love.

After taking three years of Latin with Mr. John Leech and a year of English with Mr. Beymer, I cannot believe that I almost forgot to say:

“BEWARE THE IDES OF MARCH!”

I will just say that once you have read Julius Caesar in freshman literature, you are never the same. I sort of walk around with a twitch yelling, “Et tu, Brute?” on March 15. I think the malady actually begins on the fourteenth and carries through to the sixteenth, but lets not mince details.

I just noticed that the passage for yesterday from Matthew was the passage that I had to write my big New Testament exegesis paper about. Look closely at the three verses in Matthew. Matthew 5:17-19. Now imagine trying to write 20 pages about what it means. Twenty pages about jots and tittles. Small strokes and small letters. Imagine.

Now imagine that this one passage has had at least 50 books written about it. I found so much information that I couldn’t even read it all. Apparently, jots and tittles are important. Really what I think is important is: “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law and the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” In fulfilling the Law and the Prophets, Jesus embodied the entire corpus of the Law and the Prophets; he literally became the words. And I think the concept of obedience to the commandments is important, too. We should pay attention to the commandments, as I have written before: it is about memorizing them and incorporating them into our lives. It is about living the spirit of them, and then when we evaluate ourselves, we will see that by living in the spirit, we have accomplished living to the letter: every jot and tittle. We, too, will embody the words. Our lives will become a visual spectacle of the Law and the Prophets, and not because we tell everyone we are doing “What Jesus Would Do.” We won’t need to tell people because they will know.

Yesterday:
Deuteronomy 4: 1, 5-9
Matthew 5:17-19

Today:
Jeremiah 7: 23-28
Obey. Jeremiah writes entirely about obedience, and as I scanned the rest of the texts for this week, that seems to be a recurring theme. Much like Jesus was a model of obedience, Jeremiah calls us to obey, as well. I like verse 29: “Cut off your hair and throw it away; take up a lament on the barren heights, for the Lord has rejected and abandoned this generation that is under his wrath.” What this means to me is, show your repentence and show your sorrow at your disobedience. Sometimes it is hard for me to read parts of scripture like this. I don’t want to have to admit that I am wrong. I don’t want to have to admit that I needto repent for anything. I certainly don’t want to go out on a barren height where all people can see me and show my remorse for my sin. I do like to cut my hair, though.

Luke 11: 14-23
I have to say that this passage has always puzzled and disturbed me. Why does Jesus even argue with them? Why doesn’t he just let it go? I like this passage because, for me, it is a glimpse into Jesus humanity. He could have just smited them, which is what I would have done given the ability to do it, but instead he explains to them who he is: “if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.” He goes on to say to them that they are either with him or for him. I think this points to his humanity because he is trying to prove himself, in a way, to the people, but it also speaks to his godliness because he doesn’t just smite them.

I am going out on a limb today and putting my resume in for an assistant manager job at Hot Topic. I am very nervous, but I am also hopeful. I am in the best possible position. I have a job that I love, and I have the opportunity to see if there is something more out there for me. Besides, who wouldn’t jump at the chance to work in a place where I could have all the piercings and tattoos showing that I want, purple hair, and no uniform! I also would be working with a guy that I have known forever, and that wouldn’t be bad either! Bonus of constant amazng music, and fun customers. Hope with me.

Yeah. I am not very good at sticking with things, apparently. I skipped yesterday, too.

2 Kings 5:1-15
Luke 4:24-30

Daniel 2:24-49
I’ve got nothing. God is in control? I’m really tired.

Matthew 18:21-35
This passage reminds me of waiting tables on Sunday. Anyone who has, will understand. Really, I think Jesus is talking about how we need to extend our forgiveness to others as Jesus extended forgiveness to us: “This is how my heavenly father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.” Resounds the words of the Lord’s prayer in my head again.