bald man blogging

(One Year Bible Blog post & readings)

Again, from Torah:

The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for
himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them, for the
LORD has told you, "You are not to go back that way again." He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.

From what I remember of David, Soloman and others, this portion of Torah must have been misplaced. Especially when we follow up with our royal Psalm, replete with requests for honor, power and wealth.

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(One Year Bible Blog post & readings)

These words from Torah:

At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts.
This is how it is to be done: Every creditor shall cancel the loan he
has made to his fellow Israelite. He shall not require payment from his
fellow Israelite or brother, because the LORD’s time for canceling
debts has been proclaimed. You may require payment from a foreigner, but you must cancel any debt your brother owes you.
However, there should be no poor among you, for in the land the LORD
your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly
bless you, if only you fully obey the LORD your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today.
For the LORD your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will
lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many
nations but none will rule over you.

If there is a poor man among your brothers in any of the towns of the
land that the LORD your God is giving you, do not be hardhearted or
tightfisted toward your poor brother. Rather be openhanded and freely lend him whatever he needs.
Be careful not to harbor this wicked thought: "The seventh year, the
year for canceling debts, is near," so that you do not show ill will
toward your needy brother and give him nothing. He may then appeal to
the LORD against you, and you will be found guilty of sin.
Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because
of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in
everything you put your hand to.
There will always be poor people in the land. Therefore I command you
to be openhanded toward your brothers and toward the poor and needy in
your land.

strike a note today. As Christians we are no longer under law and the obligation to cancel the debts of anyone. No, we are free to live in accordance with the higher calling of grace. We are free to give without expectation of repayment, not only to the Church, but also to all neighbors, including our enemies. How might the landscape of society change if this were our practice?

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(One Year Bible Blog post & readings)

Proverbs reminds us, "A wife of noble character is her husband’s crown."

++ Lord, thank you for Kerri ++

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(One Year Bible Blog post & readings)

And on the heals of yesterday’s Torah, comes today’s:

To the LORD your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it.
Yet the LORD set his affection on your forefathers and loved them, and
he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations, as it is today. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer.
For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God,
mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt. Fear the LORD your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. He is your praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes.
Your forefathers who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now
the LORD your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.

showing great concern for the orphan, the widow, and the alien; concerns that feature prominantly in the New Testament.

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(One Year Bible Blog post & readings)

From today’s Torah:

When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to
possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites,
Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites,
seven nations larger and stronger than you- and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons,
for they will turn your sons away from following me to serve other
gods, and the LORD’s anger will burn against you and will quickly
destroy you. This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire.
For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has
chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his
people, his treasured possession.

I’m sensing that this inward, protective mentality has been transformed in Christ. Israel were to withdraw to the Promised Land; the Church is to go forth into the whole world. Israel were to show no mercy; the Church is to lavish grace. Israel were to destroy the foreigners; the Church is to redeem them.

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(One Year Bible Blog post & readings)

Today’s Torah gives us the Shema:

Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts.
Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and
when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

which Jesus tweaked, by attaching love for neighbor. Scot McKnight wrote an excellent book exploring the Jesus’ adaptation of the Shema, The Jesus Creed. I reviewed it here.

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(One Year Bible Blog post & readings)

Throwing this:

Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God
created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other.
Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it
ever been heard of? Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another
nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a
mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds,
like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your
very eyes?

You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other. From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he
showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the
fire. Because he loved
your forefathers and chose their descendants after them, he brought you
out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength, to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to
bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it
is today.

Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other. Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it
may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live
long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time.

into the mixer along with my thoughts from Thursday.

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