A Rose by any other name

With a last name like Rose, I have grown very fond of Roses. When I give flowers to my wife, its not too hard to predict what kind they will be. Fresh flowers never do last too long, but I like to give them anyway, because red roses seem to say LOVE and that is one thing you can never give too much of. However, the roses in this picture are not something I would want my wife to have; frankly, I was repulsed by them. Can you imagine if she forgot to shave for a few months...YUK! This picture does bring up an interesting question: Should Christians have tattoo's? Here is a series of commands from the book of Leviticus that may shed some light on the subject.

Leviticus 19:23-37 (WEB)
23) “‘When you come into the land, and have planted all kinds of trees for food, then you shall count their fruit as forbidden. Three years shall they be forbidden to you. It shall not be eaten.
24) But in the fourth year all its fruit shall be holy, for giving praise to Yahweh.
25) In the fifth year you shall eat its fruit, that it may yield its increase to you. I am Yahweh your God.
26) “‘You shall not eat any meat with the blood still in it; neither shall you use enchantments, nor practice sorcery.
27) “‘You shall not cut the hair on the sides of your heads, neither shall you clip off the edge of your beard.
28) “‘You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh for the dead, nor tattoo any marks on you. I am Yahweh.
29) “‘Don’t profane your daughter, to make her a prostitute; lest the land fall to prostitution, and the land become full of wickedness.
30) “‘You shall keep my Sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary; I am Yahweh.
31) “‘Don’t turn to those who are mediums, nor to the wizards. Don’t seek them out, to be defiled by them. I am Yahweh your God.
32) “‘You shall rise up before the gray head, and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God. I am Yahweh.
33) “‘If a stranger lives as a foreigner with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong.
34) The stranger who lives as a foreigner with you shall be to you as the native-born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you lived as foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am Yahweh your God.
35) “‘You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment, in measures of length, of weight, or of quantity.
36) You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin. I am Yahweh your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
37) “‘You shall observe all my statutes, and all my ordinances, and do them. I am Yahweh.’”

For openers, we are not under the Mosaic covenant, so the direct command is not applicable. Consider however, the purpose behind these instructions. Israel was to be different than the nations of Canaan that they were to dispossess. Since we are under the system of Grace instead of LAW, can we do whatever we want and ignore the principles of the OLD TESTAMENT? I don't think so! Just because something isn't directly forbidden in the New Testament doesn't mean we should do it. For example, I don't see anywhere in the Scriptures that using Heroin is forbidden. If everyone around you is getting tattoo's should you get one too? Let your conscience be your guide, because each one of us answers individually to the God of Heaven for what we decide to do in this life. Yet when I saw this picture, the following came to mind: "A rose by any other name smells as sweet". Somehow, I don't think it is true for this lady.

Not far enough

I suppose there is a good reason to trim a tree like this, but I just don't see it. The tree will grow again and in winter snow and ice could wreck the lines. If its in Florida, come hurricane season, good luck. I see this sort of thing every day just South of Zephyrhills, Florida on route 301. I guess I am thick, but it just makes no sense to do this. After awhile though, it occurred to me that trimming a tree like this is akin to allowing sin in your life. Paul puts it this way in the book of Romans.

Rom 6:1-18 (WEB)
6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
6:2 May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?
6:3 Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
6:4 We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just like Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.
6:5 For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection;
6:6 knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin.
6:7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
6:8 But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him;
6:9 knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no more has dominion over him!
6:10 For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God.
6:11 Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
6:12 Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
6:13 Neither present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
6:14 For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.
6:15 What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be!
6:16 Don’t you know that to whom you present yourselves as servants to obedience, his servants you are whom you obey; whether of sin to death, or of obedience to righteousness?
6:17 But thanks be to God, that, whereas you were bondservants of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching whereunto you were delivered.
6:18 Being made free from sin, you became bondservants of righteousness.

Plainly put; if you are a Christian, don't allow sin in your life. Don't make a provision for it and if you discover it, change. Why? Because you are to be holy and this word means separated from sin. Don't just trim the tree of sin like the picture; do your best to eliminate the possibility of sinning. Trim where you can, remove the rest; you will be glad you did!

From "Hard Times" to Nursery rhymes

Remind you of anything?

I remember this little gem:

This little piggy went to market,

This little piggy stayed home,

This little piggy had roast beef

and this little piggy had none,

AND THIS LITTLE PIGGY CRIED "WEE, WEE, WEE"

ALL THE WAY HOME!!

Just before I saw this picture, I saw another one that somehow just seemed to go with it.

And here is how it happens:

Ruth 4:9-22 (WEB)
9) Boaz said to the elders, and to all the people, “You are witnesses this day, that I have bought all that was Elimelech’s, and all that was Chilion’s and Mahlon’s, from the hand of Naomi.
10) Moreover Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of Mahlon, I have purchased to be my wife, to raise up the name of the dead on his inheritance, that the name of the dead not be cut off from among his brothers, and from the gate of his place. You are witnesses this day.”
11) All the people who were in the gate, and the elders, said, “We are witnesses. May Yahweh make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, which two built the house of Israel; and treat you worthily in Ephrathah, and be famous in Bethlehem.
12) Let your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah, of the seed which Yahweh shall give you of this young woman.”
13) So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife; and he went in to her, and Yahweh gave her conception, and she bore a son.
14) The women said to Naomi, “Blessed be Yahweh, who has not left you this day without a near kinsman; and let his name be famous in Israel.
15) He shall be to you a restorer of life, and sustain you in your old age, for your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him.”
16) Naomi took the child, and laid it in her bosom, and became nurse to it.
17) The women, her neighbors, gave him a name, saying, “There is a son born to Naomi;” and they named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David.
18) Now this is the history of the generations of Perez: Perez became the father of Hezron,
19) and Hezron became the father of Ram, and Ram became the father of Amminadab,
20) and Amminadab became the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon became the father of Salmon,
21) and Salmon became the father of Boaz, and Boaz became the father of Obed,
22) and Obed became the father of Jesse, and Jesse became the father of David.

Naomi had gone through "hard times": she lost both husband and sons and was alone in a strange land. But, she gained the love of Ruth and what a love it was!! You know, the kind that will endure anything, go anywhere, and keeps getting stronger. Ruth was the mother of Obed and this child had to be so very special to Naomi!! I can imagine Naomi singing the little piggy song to Obed and when he was older, he writing this little note to his grandma. OK, it wasn't in English and they didn't have "piggy" false nails, but there was love and that is the point of it all. God works things out so that true love wins no matter what the circumstances. Even in failure there is great victory IF THERE IS LOVE!! And, before you ask: No, I won't sing the piggy song in public; its reserved for my children when they were young and now for my grand-kids. However, I WILL (AND DO) sing my "Grandpa song" to whoever will listen; just ask me.

Breakthrough

It has taken quite a bit of adjustment to become a "Floridian". The warmer temperatures thins your blood out and now 70 degrees feels like 50 did a decade ago. Until I saw this picture I had almost forgotten how gray and dreary the sky can be in the winters of upstate New York. Yet, the rays of light in the picture give hope; hope of fairer skies. The Bible has a lot to say about hope, far more than I could ever begin to address in this blog. But consider just one man; Abraham.

Romans 4:1-25 (WEB)

Romans 4
1) What then will we say that Abraham, our forefather, has found according to the flesh?
2) For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not toward God.
3) For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
4) Now to him who works, the reward is not counted as grace, but as something owed.
5) But to him who doesn’t work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness.
6) Even as David also pronounces blessing on the man to whom God counts righteousness apart from works,
7) “Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered.
8) Blessed is the man whom the Lord will by no means charge with sin.”
9) Is this blessing then pronounced on the circumcised, or on the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham for righteousness.
10) How then was it counted? When he was in circumcision, or in uncircumcision? Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision.
11) He received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision, that he might be the father of all those who believe, though they might be in uncircumcision, that righteousness might also be accounted to them.
12) He is the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had in uncircumcision.
13) For the promise to Abraham and to his seed that he should be heir of the world wasn’t through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
14) For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of no effect.
15) For the law works wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience.
16) For this cause it is of faith, that it may be according to grace, to the end that the promise may be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all.
17) As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were.
18) Who in hope believed against hope, to the end that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, “So will your seed be.”
19) Without being weakened in faith, he didn’t consider his own body, already having been worn out, (he being about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb.
20) Yet, looking to the promise of God, he didn’t waver through unbelief, but grew strong through faith, giving glory to God,
21) and being fully assured that what he had promised, he was also able to perform.
22) Therefore it also was “reckoned to him for righteousness.”
23) Now it was not written that it was accounted to him for his sake alone,
24) but for our sake also, to whom it will be accounted, who believe in him who raised Jesus, our Lord, from the dead,
25) who was delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.

Here was a man of faith. Put yourself in his position for a moment; 100 years old, a 90 year old wife and no child. God tells you that you are going to be father and you believe it; really believe it. Wow, what faith!! Yet Abraham was a mere man, subject to all the problems that we humans encounter, but being given a promise by God, HE GREW STRONGER! There may never be another man like Abraham, yet his life is an example to us all and his faith can be OUR FAITH. God in heaven, thank you for this man; because of him it is easier to trust in God and have hope. Reminds me of the old song "blue skies", but so far I haven't thought of how the water in the picture fits it. Hopefully, I will think of something; I promise.

A clear view is coming

If you just look in the water, you really can't tell what the reflections are of. Something has disturbed them and it occurred to me when I saw this picture that life is just like it. If something bad happens, somehow everything looks distorted; you just can't see things right. But what if what is wrong is YOU? It may be a problem with an attitude, or sin or stress or maybe a relationship problem, but when it happens the world just looks WRONG!! At times like this, somehow, someway, I always manage to gain encouragement from the word of God. Here is one such example of encouragement.

2 Timothy 4:1-5 (WEB)

2 Timothy 4
1) I command you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom:
2) preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all patience and teaching.
3) For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts;
4) and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside to fables.
5) But you be sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry.

Do your best, do what God has told you to do and let it be. It may not be easy; you may fail. So what? The God who has the power to make the entire UNIVERSE, certainly has the power to understand our problems. The worst that can happen is you die and live forever with God in heaven. The best is seeing another GOD-VICTORY in your life. I hope my adopted (informally so) daughter is reading this and realizes that disturbed waters eventually calm. When they do, the power of God to work in your life will be just a little clearer. That brings a comfort that is beyond description.

Is anybody there?

Introducing Nikita, another member of the Jackalope family. You would never know it, but he is the really intelligent one in the family. It has been reported that he actually scored 175 and 190 on tests for intelligence in Russia. He worked for the KGB until the split up of the Soviet Union some years ago, but then moved to the United States to secretly advise president Obama on health care and members of Acorn on how to control the real nuts in their organization. With all his genius, he had a weakness and that was acting. He privately went through surgery so that he could make his antlers removable and used his mastery of disguise to become Michael Waverly on the popular show N.C.I.S.. However, as usual he couldn't control his desire for women and tried to play footsie with a certain Israeli agent. She hit him so hard that he had to wear a truss for a month and when he recovered he ran to the northern forest of Utah to hide among the Mormons. Intrigue, Yes! Reality, No! However all this did make me think of trickery in the Bible and this passage came to mind.

2 Samuel 17:1-16 (WEB)

2 Samuel 17
1) Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me now choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David tonight.
2) I will come on him while he is weary and exhausted, and will make him afraid. All the people who are with him shall flee. I will strike the king only;
3) and I will bring back all the people to you. The man whom you seek is as if all returned. All the people shall be in peace.”
4) The saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.
5) Then Absalom said, “Now call Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he says.”
6) When Hushai had come to Absalom, Absalom spoke to him, saying, “Ahithophel has spoken like this. Shall we do what he says? If not, speak up.”
7) Hushai said to Absalom, “The counsel that Ahithophel has given this time is not good.”
8) Hushai said moreover, “You know your father and his men, that they are mighty men, and they are fierce in their minds, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Your father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people.
9) Behold, he is now hidden in some pit, or in some other place. It will happen, when some of them have fallen at the first, that whoever hears it will say, ‘There is a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom!’
10) Even he who is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, will utterly melt; for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and those who are with him are valiant men.
11) But I counsel that all Israel be gathered together to you, from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that you go to battle in your own person.
12) So shall we come on him in some place where he shall be found, and we will light on him as the dew falls on the ground; and of him and of all the men who are with him we will not leave so much as one.
13) Moreover, if he be gone into a city, then shall all Israel bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it into the river, until there isn’t one small stone found there.”
14) Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.” For Yahweh had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that Yahweh might bring evil on Absalom.
15) Then Hushai said to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, “Ahithophel counseled Absalom and the elders of Israel that way; and I have counseled this way.
16) Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, ‘Don’t lodge this night at the fords of the wilderness, but by all means pass over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people who are with him.’”

Hushai was a spy for David and successfully countered the good advise of the famous counselor, Ahithophel. David had a very interesting life and although its too long to list here, you might want to go back a few chapters and read the whole story. Like the Jackalope Nikita, Ahithophel couldn't handle the situation, but unlike him, later he committed suicide. Just goes to show you that no matter how smart (or wise) you are, God is smarter and is worthy of both respect and fear.

God is watching

A former boss of mine, Rodger Smith, used to say: "Its really not paranoia, if they are out to get you". This picture proves that the bird has every right to be afraid. Nowhere to run (fly) and a very interested cat just an inch away. Sometimes fear is very justified as in this tale from the Hebrew Bible.

2 Kings 11:1-21 (WEB)

2 Kings 11
1) Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal.
2) But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were slain, even him and his nurse, and put them in the bedroom; and they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not slain;
3) He was with her hidden in the house of Yahweh six years. Athaliah reigned over the land.
4) In the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the captains over hundreds of the Carites and of the guard, and brought them to him into the house of Yahweh; and he made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of Yahweh, and showed them the king’s son.
5) He commanded them, saying, “This is the thing that you shall do: a third part of you, who come in on the Sabbath, shall be keepers of the watch of the king’s house;
6) A third part shall be at the gate Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard. So you shall keep the watch of the house, and be a barrier.
7) The two companies of you, even all who go out on the Sabbath, shall keep the watch of the house of Yahweh around the king.
8) You shall surround the king, every man with his weapons in his hand; and he who comes within the ranks, let him be slain. Be with the king when he goes out, and when he comes in.”
9) The captains over hundreds did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded; and they took every man his men, those who were to come in on the Sabbath, with those who were to go out on the Sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest.
10) The priest delivered to the captains over hundreds the spears and shields that had been king David’s, which were in the house of Yahweh.
11) The guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, along by the altar and the house, around the king.
12) Then he brought out the king’s son, and put the crown on him, and gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, “Long live the king!”
13) When Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the house of Yahweh:
14) and she looked, and behold, the king stood by the pillar, as the tradition was, and the captains and the trumpets by the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew trumpets. Then Athaliah tore her clothes, and cried, “Treason! Treason!”
15) Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of hundreds who were set over the army, and said to them, “Bring her out between the ranks. Kill him who follows her with the sword.” For the priest said, “Don’t let her be slain in the house of Yahweh.”
16) So they made way for her; and she went by the way of the horses’ entry to the king’s house. She was slain there.
17) Jehoiada made a covenant between Yahweh and the king and the people, that they should be Yahweh’s people; between the king also and the people.
18) All the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and broke it down; his altars and his images broke they in pieces thoroughly, and killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. The priest appointed officers over the house of Yahweh.
19) He took the captains over hundreds, and the Carites, and the guard, and all the people of the land; and they brought down the king from the house of Yahweh, and came by the way of the gate of the guard to the king’s house. He sat on the throne of the kings.
20) So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. Athaliah they had slain with the sword at the king’s house.
21) Jehoash was seven years old when he began to reign.

Athaliah's son was Ahaziah and he was wicked. When he died his mother took over and murdered the royal seed. She was eventually killed because God was really out to destroy all the influence of Ahab of Israel in the kingdom of Judah. Athaliah may have thought all this was treason, but in reality it was the cleansing of evil from Judah. Evil may win for a short time, but not forever, because God is watching!