Questions, Questions (and some answers)

 As I am doing this one-year Bible reading plan, I am making a list of questions. I do my Bible reading in the morning before I start the day and my goal had been to try finding answers to the questions every night before bed. Good plan, but...

I am listing way more questions than I will be able to look up answers for over the next couple of years. If I am lucky.

Is this normal? To have so many questions about the Bible? I am nearing the end of the Book of Joshua and I have 18 questions. And these aren't minor issues. Here are just a few:

• When are why did Ishamael's descendants stop believing in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and start believing in the Muslim Allah?
• Of the peoples named after their tribes and "fathers" (Reubenites, Dan-ites, etc) where are the descendants today? Are they traceable?
• Reading Exodus 20:4 {You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.} makes me wonder if we aren't supposed to have paintings and other artistic portrayals of (our idea of) God, and of nature, etc. As humans, our tendency is to worship what we can see. After all, one of the reasons we idolize celebrities is because we have their images on film and photographs to refer to. Here's one answer to the question, by the way.
• Reading Deuteronomy 22:9 {Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled.}makes wonder about plant hybridization>

These are more to do with my curiosity for life application purposes than simply not understanding the verses.

Thankfully, some of the resources I have linked to here on the blog have been helpful. I think I must visit Got Questions about 20 times a day. Because I have such a bad memory and some comprehension problems, I have been printing out a lot of those pages.

Because I have so many questions, I wonder what kinds of questions other readers have. 

As I mentioned, I am nearing the end of Joshua. Honestly, it's been tedious reading through all the land allotments. I have butchered many of the names of different lands. Bible Speak is a good resource as is How to Pronounce.

The image above is a good guide. It's from Woman of Noble Character. I know nothing about the site but found the image on Pinterest and love it.

Anyway, I hope that there are many of you reading your Bible on a regular basis. We all need strength and hope, especially with the global health crisis and the other stresses of life.

Peace

--Free

Lessons in Deuteronomy

Just quickly wanted to share a thought I had while reading Deuteronomy this morning. I think it's timely since the 2020 election has just been called. We have lived 4 years of ugliness directed toward immigrants - or rather, toward certain immigrants. Reading chapter 10 in Deuteronomy just shook my heart up.

He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. (Deut 10:18-19)

 The Hebrews had been treated badly in another land. Now they were being told to be kind to anyone sojourning in their land. Sound a bit familiar? 

By the way, this command to be kind to sojourners comes after reminders about how the Hebrews had been blessed. They were reminded not to forget that it was God who blessed them with any wealth and comfort.

We Americans are so fat and happy (most of us) that we forget where we would be but for the grace of God. I'm talking to my Christian siblings here. While you all are so busy crowding the churches and trying to earn a place behind the pulpit, you seemed to have forgotten that, unless you are First Nation people, you are immigrants.

And let me answer your next argument: you know, how the Bible teaches that God often let the Hebrews go in and possess the land of others. Okay, but He still commanded what He did in verses 18 and 19. 

Nothing bothers me more about the ugliness of the hatred we show toward certain immigrants more than the phony self-righteousness behind it.

So, there. I just had to get that rant out of my system. The election is over and I am being told to stay in my house by family - just in case some of the upset Trump supporters cause problems. I pray they aren't waving any Christian flags if they do.

Peace

--Free

Worse Than Death

 In the past couple of years, I have had to accept the grief of 4 deaths - each spaced about 3 months apart it seems. People say there is nothing worse than death but there is.

Worse than dying is when someone dies alone or sad or unfulfilled or just lost. 

I heard about the death of someone recently who I was once very close to - about as close as one could get. We had not been in touch for a long time. Over the past 40 or so years, we'd only kept in touch sporadically. We kept in touch so rarely that every time we did speak it was like another lifetime had gone by. 

What I always regret when someone dies is what I did or did not say. I was able to apologize to this last person a few years ago. Of course, we'd fuss or just not be nice and on a couple of our last calls, things got really unpleasant. But I hate that this person died alone. I hate wondering if he felt relief or fear or just not caring at all. I hate that I never pushed harder to confront him with the Gospel. I hate that I only heard what he said and didn't pick up on what he might have been feeling or really trying to say. I really hate that I didn't hear the unspoken sadness or despair. Most of all, I hate that he felt he couldn't let me know about any of those feelings. That's what's worse than death.

If you have someone in your life with whom you have a complicated relationship - maybe you don't always get along or maybe you don't get along for reasons that you can't fix. If there is someone like this in your life, when you do talk to them, talk as if you might never talk to them again. Listen to what they say with their words and with their silence. If they get angry with you, try to understand where the anger comes from. Don't hang up wondering. Ask. Talk. Listen, listen, listen.

I think that I have told here or on my other blog about how my mother saw with her eyes and with her heart. Even if she was mad at you - or maybe didn't even know you - she saw you.

Once my mother and I passed by a young woman sitting on a bench at the mall. I have a habit of looking unfriendly unless I am smiling or trying hard not to look unfriendly. There's a common and crass phrase for this. My mother had the same kind of facial expression. However, there was something about her that people could see. They never saw her as scowling or unfriendly. People almost always smiled at or nodded to her in passing. I don't know what that was about.

When we passed by the young woman that day (I can't remember at this particular moment whether or not she was alone or with kids; I think she was with small kids), I had my usual passive expression (yeah, the mean one) and my mother had hers, After we passed the woman, my mother reminded me how important our interactions with people are - even those we just happen to pass by. She made me understand what even the briefest smile or frown can mean to someone, how it might impact them. And then she told me to smile more. Once I realized how mean I looked when I wasn't smiling, I walked around smiling like a maniac. 

I know now what my mother was trying to teach me. I know that your whole day can be lifted or dashed by a smile, a frown, a look of contempt, or non-acknowledgment. I know that I have been having really bad bouts of depression - that no one could see because a lot of depression hides behind big smiles - and ran across someone just for a moment and was made to feel either suicidal or refreshed.

Do any of us want to be the last unfriendly face someone sees? Or that ours is the last angry, unkind,  or indifferent voice someone hears? 

Since I have been studying the Bible lately, when I think of what my mother said about our attitude and how it might have an effect on others, I always remember my favorite part of the Book of Numbers - it's Numbers 6:24-27. I have been planning on sharing favorite passages here on the blog, so I will end this post with one.

Since I didn't speak to my friend about the Gospel, the only comfort I have is that I don't know the last thing that was in his heart. I don't know if he cried out to God. What I do know is that once someone is gone, there is nothing we can do but mourn. We can't fix what was broken, we can't speak or un-speak any words. Regret is so much worse than death.

 Peace

--Free