Thoughts drifting back and forth

Piper 13-14 chapter 13 deals with the idea of circumcision being a ritual in the Catholic Church that is not mandatory because Jesus’ suffering and death is enough to resolve our sins. This is something I though of was well because I think most rituals are done out of repetition rather than reflection and so forth. What was not clear in these reading was that whether or not Jews still circumcise out of ritual of sacrifice or the Law of Moses. Chapter 14 dealt with the God’s new and old covenant. The new covenant deals with Jesus’ death and how it is the new covenant because it was his blood of the covenant that “poured for many”. Jesus died so our sins cold be forgiven. What I have little knowledge over is the Law of Moses. This was introduced in the last chapter but I have little knowledge of it. Hopefully I read about it in the future reading of the bible.

Genesis 37-41 I wonder how much twenty shekels would be in dollars today. Any amount would not be enough to sell a family member into slavery. Was Reuben toring of cloths symbolic or just a sign of true anger/emotion? The two stories written here are excellent stories but I’m not sure exactly what the meanings are. Judah impregnating his late son’s wife, I believe is a cultural thing of the past. But why is it important that the father impregnate her? Was it because he promised her a child? I’m not sure. The truths probably lie in the journey and not the end. I mean with Er and Onan being wicked and not fulfilling his duties, god was angry. But again, I’m just speculating. Joseph’s story is also amazing and complex. Joseph being sold into slavery and then becoming the favorite of the phoero quite a journey. Was slavery and imprisonment foreseen by God and only done to save these people from famine? This ties into Gods great plan and shows sometimes we can not see what his plans lye for us in the future.

Lewis 94-103 www.m-w.com defines chastity as

Doing something on purpose to excite lust for oneself or others is offending against chastity. Lewis’s metaphor of food and sex is perfect because it does show how much attention people really give sex and the sex industry. Guys have videos, mags, posters, and go to strip shows just to fulfill this urge. The same urge is there with food, but no one hangs a big Mac poster on his wall with the same content that sprouts the same urges because that would be just weird. I also like the idea that sexual propaganda pushes us to think sexually more the usual. This is the same as how Fast Food companies are making the US fat by pushing ads saying that they’re healthy and cheap. People see how cheap they are and all the good campaigns around them, and decide to partake even though they know it’s not healthy. It’s also nice to hear that point at the end about malicious content is far greater than physical sins.

Genesis 32-36 During Jacobs latter he mentions that because God gave him his blessing of food and clothing, he would now give a tenth of everything back to him. I remember somewhere that the Catholic church states the same thing. I will have to look up later. The idea of a woman being jellous of another womans child is not new, but to make up for it by having someone else give birth to her husbands child is odd. Would this make Rachael look better if she still couldn’t have children. I’m not exactly sure why Jacob’s name was changed to Israel. And was it alright for Jacob’s family to slaughter Sachabs family for defiling Denai? Doesn’t an eye for an eye really make the whole world blind?

Piper 11-12 Not having to pay for forgiveness in the family or workplace not a common thing. When I break something at work, they make me pay for it. At home I’m not completely unresponsible for my actions either. But my sins are already forgiven and paid for by the death of Jesus. Athough Piper states that God’s judgement will just the wicked, like murderers or rapests, it is Jesus’s sacrifice that amorilorated our original sins.

Lewis After the ketching the flu this week, I’m still playing ketch up. I will have to read more of this later today after class.

Lewis 40-75 The idea of a dualistic dichotomy where good and evil lay on the same grounds as equals, bother me as much as it bothers Lewis and boethius. Both Lewis and Boethius said that God created all so all are under his creation. Therefore good and evil are not two separate beings, deities, or Gods but rather two factions fighting, like the civil war example in the book, under one God. Boethius wrote in his final book, “The Consolation of Philosophy” that everyone wants to be like, or closer to, God and that all of our actions are based on good, otherwise we move farther away from God and closer to an animalistic, un conscience, self. Punishment is given to those as a reminder that we are going against his ways. But without going to deep into Boethius, I will say that it was a great read and I’ll probably bring it in for you to look at.

Moving on, the section explaining that Jesus can not be just though of as a great human teacher is an interesting thought. Looking at this historically, this could be equated to Abraham and devotion to God. Like said in the film last class, if you were a neighbor of Abraham, you would have seen him as a mad man. Going against the norm and claiming to be the son of God, Is as crazy today as it was back in the time of Abraham or Jesus. The thought of people being patronizing about Jesus just being another teacher of morals is interesting, and I’m sure if I can comment on this now because I lack complete knowledge of Bible.

In The Perfect Penitent chapter, Lewis describes a man’s struggle to forgive himself is like a man trapped in a hole. I like the analogy because it seems to true that if someone is really stubborn and won’t admit guilt and they will to do everything in their power to get themselves out of it, they will drag down anyone with them. The only thing I question about penitence is that some denominations believe that priests are the way to reconcile with God, while others believe that it is a personal connection with God that is truly important. When I was a child, I remember going into the confessional booth for the first time after Sunday school. My confessions were swearing, not obeying my mother, and fighting with my sibling. I can still remember not understanding why I’m telling this to a priest. Today I know that it is because the Roman Catholic priest is supposed to be like Gods human resource to us but I’m not sure.

Through the practical conclusion I’m reminded about my father talking to me about Christianity being the Christ in you. This relates to Lewis’s Christ-life, where its not that you’ve ingested Christ at communion but rather that it is Christ’s actions and teachings that are eminating God’s will. I will say that Lewis is kind of confusing when he takes one simple thought and adds twenty different metaphors to give the reader a clouded idea of what he wants to say but says that he’s not the authority in the field.

Genesis 25-31 Whats up with Esau giving up his birthright for stew? Why is he going to die without the food? This is a odd section. Again Isaac follows in his fathers footsteps and says that his wife is his sister. Was is common for someone to be killed for his wife or was it just a way to get sheep and gold? Why is everyone afraid of Isaac and why does Asau make life bitter for Issac? Not explaned yet. The blessing of Jacob seems strange. How important was such a blessing? Why is Rebeka so obsessed

The reading for today is from Romans 1-3. This first chapter of Romans I know relatively well because of my fathers repetition of rants. Anytime homosexuality was mentioned in the news or amongst conversation I would hear about how they exchanged the image of god for images of man, four legged beasts, feathered and crawling things, and that God gave them up. This usually led into a long one man conversation and me leaving the room quickly. It seems like my father is stuck up on the homosexuality part but not later on when it talks about gossipers, disobedient children, fools, faithless people, heartless and ruthless people. I can understand the example of God giving up on the ruler of Eguipt when Moses wanted to let his people go, but saying that God gives up on gay people leave me little faith people’s right to be saved. Maybe I’m not developing this or not wording this last part right, but it seems like people want to judge others harshly through fear of themselves being that way or blamed for not blaming.

Resurrection … During the last few pages of Luke, people are emotional about the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus, angels were seen and heard at the tomb, and Jesus was with his followers even when they couldn’t recognize him. At the end of Luke there is a brief section on the ascension. I’d like to read more on this.

I think Luke 20:9 is a strange story. About a vineyard and the workers of that vineyard beating up people that are supposed to be collecting the fruit for the lord of the vineyard seems to be metaphor. After looking this up I realized that Jesus is the cornerstone and the vineyard is the kingdom of heaven. This also prophecies Jesus’s death by the hands of the people of the vineyard; the Jews. This is a great example of how parables can bring great meaning to those who look for answers.

In Beware of the Scribes, I think this is saying to beware of positions of power because they can consume people who take them.

Luke 8:30, Jesus heals a possessed man by releasing the many of legion into a horde of pigs next to the man. These pigs ran off a hill and drowned in a lake. It this one reason why Jewish people don’t eat pork?

Luke 9:23, sounds like a something that a jihad Muslim would say. “Whoever would lose his life for my sake will save it.” Of course I know where it is going and where it is coming from but from a different perspective it could mean a totally different thing.

One thought that comes to my mind while reading this is the amount of possessed people in the bible is more that I would have imagined.

I find the parable about the good Samaritan refreshing since I didn’t know the origin of the saying before. It’s funny that people would say that they are good Samaritans but not know where it originated. Sometimes I think people say that they are one but really just talk the talk. Too much talk. All talk.

The Lords prayer is different in this bible than I’m used to in church. The part in the bible about indebted would be trespass. M-w.com would define trespass as a violation of social or moral ethics: transgression. When I think of indebted, I think of favors, money, other things that people owe, not violations.