The rules

This picture adds another dimension to the excuse:"my dog ate my homework".  This xray might be real, but probably not.  However, whether real or manipulated, it does show the fact that things happen.  Problems occur and sometimes your homework does get lost, the keys misplaced, the check for the electric was never mailed or one of a thousand different problems just happen.  When problems occur, what do we do, how do we react?  Read on for an interesting little story...

Genesis 2:15-25 (WEB)

15) Yahweh God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16) Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat;
17) but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die.”
18) Yahweh God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.”
19) Out of the ground Yahweh God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.
20) The man gave names to all livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field; but for man there was not found a helper suitable for him.
21) Yahweh God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place.
22) He made the rib, which Yahweh God had taken from the man, into a woman, and brought her to the man.
23) The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of Man.”
24) Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh.
25) They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Genesis 3:1-19 (WEB)

1) Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’”
2) The woman said to the serpent, “Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat,
3) but of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
4) The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t surely die,
5) for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
6) When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.
7) The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
8) They heard the voice of Yahweh God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Yahweh God among the trees of the garden.
9) Yahweh God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”
10) The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
11) God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?”
12) The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
13) Yahweh God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
14) Yahweh God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, you are cursed above all livestock, and above every animal of the field. On your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.
15) I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”
16) To the woman he said, “I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain you will bear children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
17) To Adam he said, “Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
18) It will yield thorns and thistles to you; and you will eat the herb of the field.
19) By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

God made man and his wife, gave them a nice place to live and rules.  You know, do this, don't do that.  Seems simple enough, but sometimes even simplicity can be twisted.  Which is exactly what Satan (the serpent) did.  Adam and Eve didn't obey the rules and paid for it and there you go, we have life as we know it today.  No, there wasn't a dog who ate their homework, but there was trickery, deception and outright lying.  Just think of what life could have been like if only they had obeyed the rules.  Probably a lot better that what we have today. 

Change

If nothing is written in stone, why write this in stone?  Emphasis, probably.  But the fact that writing something in stone signifies permanence and if change is an unchanging factor in life... then go ahead, write all you want.  Things WILL CHANGE!!!  The Bible talks about things written in stone and one of the passages I like is found in the book of second Corinthians.

2 Corinthians 3
1) Are we beginning again to commend ourselves? Or do we need, as do some, letters of commendation to you or from you?
2) You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men;
3) being revealed that you are a letter of Christ, served by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts of flesh.
4) Such confidence we have through Christ toward God;
5) not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God;
6) who also made us sufficient as servants of a new covenant; not of the letter, but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
7) But if the service of death, written engraved on stones, came with glory, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly on the face of Moses for the glory of his face; which was passing away:
8) won’t service of the Spirit be with much more glory?
(2 Corinthians 3:1-8, WEB)

Obviously, there is a reference here to the Sinaic commandments (ten commandments) compared to the gift of the Spirit found under the NEW COVENANT.  The rules under the old covenant are inflexible, unchanging, but those under the new covenant are full of life.  I don't know about you, but I like the idea of vibrant, flexible, life giving rules.  While hard and fast, written in stone rules may appeal to some, still when problems occur, I like the idea that God can be flexible with me.  I hope that little idea NEVER CHANGES.

Good things in small packages

What makes people make Bibles like this, anyway?  They are so small there seems to be no practical value in them, but nonetheless, from time to time I continue to see things like this.  My best guess is that they are really just symbols (because the print is often too small to read without a powerful magnifier) and their real value is that they remind the owner of what they already know of the Bible.  So, the real importance of Bibles like this becomes a matter of faith.  That God can work though even such a small thing has a parallel in the Gospels and the passage I chose comes from the book of Mark.

Mark 4:26-32 (WEB)
26) He said, “The Kingdom of God is as if a man should cast seed on the earth,
27) and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, he doesn’t know how.
28) For the earth bears fruit: first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
29) But when the fruit is ripe, immediately he puts forth the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
30) He said, “How will we liken the Kingdom of God? Or with what parable will we illustrate it?
31) It’s like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth,
32) yet when it is sown, grows up, and becomes greater than all the herbs, and puts out great branches, so that the birds of the sky can lodge under its shadow.”
 (Mark 4:26-32, WEB)

The Kingdom of God is a recurring theme in the Gospels.  I like to think of it a the reign or domain of God's power. The power of the kingdom is God's word and whether the word be large or extremely small, it is of great power.  When coupled with faith within the human heart it becomes a very great thing indeed.  So, its not the size of the seed (The Bible) that counts, but its power.   While the Bible in the picture is cute and quite intriguing, I still prefer to use one that has print big enough to read; I am just funny that way.

Invisible visibility

When I looked at the NASA website today, I was a bit surprised to see this picture.  This three band infared picture showed at band of Aurora Borealis at the bottom.  Frankly, even though I have been collecting pictures of the universe for a few years now, I never even thought of something like this.  Somehow, I had the impression that the Northern Lights occurred only on Earth.  Surprise!!!  Consider the following passage from the book of Hebrews and I think you will see how it relates to the picture.

Hebrews 11:3 (WEB)

3) By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible.

We live in an age of science, where understanding everything seems inevitable.  Its just, that I have to ask the question: Do we even know what questions to ask?  If this Cassinni picture of Saturn is a surprise, then what other wonders await us?  And that is only in astronomy!  Consider all the new things that have come into being over the past 50 years: calculators, computers, DNA testing, envitro fertilation, stem cell research, to name just a few.  Its a brave new world out there, BUT, one created by God and NOT by man.  Faith is still an essential part of a healthy spiritual life and nothing can replace that.  Some may not agree with that statement, but they will, whether tomorrow, next year or perhaps in the next decade or so. Even those who look to science for the answer to EVERYTHING will be eventually be forced to look inward and upward; I know this because sooner or later we will all attend funerals, even if it is only our own.  Oh, I forgot to mention... these Northern lights are at the bottom.  What next?

What could be more beautiful?

The beauty of this picture caught my eye; something about the clouds, something soothing, something that said "home" to me.  Then, I asked myself; is it photo-shopped?  The answer was a resounding NO, because I obtained it from the NASA site.  Imagine, all these elements just happened at the same time by accident; I don't think so.  Then I remembered what an old friend of mine used to say: Gary, timing is EVERYTHING!!  And so it is!!!  If you do a little walk down memory lane, think of all the things that you did at the "right time" and the effect these had on your life, it will amaze you.  This little concept led me to the book of Galatians, where the apostle Paul writes..

Galatians 4:1-6 (WEB)
1) But I say that so long as the heir is a child, he is no different from a bondservant, though he is lord of all;
2) but is under guardians and stewards until the day appointed by the father.
3) So we also, when we were children, were held in bondage under the elemental principles of the world.
4) But when the fullness of the time came, God sent out his Son, born to a woman, born under the law,
5) that he might redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of children.
6) And because you are children, God sent out the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!”
 (Galatians 4:1-6, WEB)

It may have been just circumstance that led to the beautiful composition of the picture, but with God, nothing happens by accident.  He chose Jesus, and Jesus did what he had to do and the outcome of that has had consequences far beyond those of the century in which he was born.  What could be more beautiful than that?

The light, the light, its all about the light!

One beautiful picture! I especially like the reflections on the water which range from a yellow green (top right) to a light blue (bottom middle). I saw a movie last week based on the life of Thomas Kinkade (A Christmas Cottage) in which Thomas' mentor urges him to focus on "the light" in his paintings. Today, Thomas is known as the painter of light, so I guess he listened.
Sometimes, the indirect things of life bring in new meanings and depth of understanding, which of course made me think of John the Baptist. Here is an excerpt from one of my favorite chapters in the New Testament.

John 1:6-16 (WEB)
6) There came a man, sent from God, whose name was John.
7) The same came as a witness, that he might testify about the light, that all might believe through him.
8) He was not the light, but was sent that he might testify about the light.
9) The true light that enlightens everyone was coming into the world.
10) He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world didn’t recognize him.
11) He came to his own, and those who were his own didn’t receive him.
12) But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in his name:
13) who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14) The Word became flesh, and lived among us. We saw his glory, such glory as of the one and only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.
15) John testified about him. He cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me, for he was before me.’”
16) From his fullness we all received grace upon grace.
(John 1:6-16, WEB)

John was an unusual character, something like Elijah of the Old Testament. He got through to many, many people and pointed them in the right direction (to Jesus). Like the shadows and highlights in the picture, he added color to the overall scene. Not a bad job for someone who ate Locusts and wild honey. It occured to me that we can be something like a Baptist ourselves, as long as we point people in the right direction. Just eat a little differently, that's all.

Golden

If this picture is manipulated, somebody really knows what they are doing because the shadows on the water look real to me. And its the shadows that make the picture because they are GOLD. If this picture is unaltered, the gold must be a reflection of a golden sunset. Gold has always fascinated me, not just because of its color, but due to the way it reflects light. Ask most people and they will tell you they like gold because of its beauty and ITS WORTH! However, gold is NOT the most important thing in life, because life itself is. Read on for more...

1 Peter 1:15-19 (WEB)
15) but just as he who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all of your behavior;
16) because it is written, “You shall be holy; for I am holy.”
17) If you call on him as Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man’s work, pass the time of your living as foreigners here in reverent fear:
18) knowing that you were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver or gold, from the useless way of life handed down from your fathers,
19) but with precious blood, as of a faultless and pure lamb, the blood of Christ;
(1 Peter 1:15-19, WEB)

We measure value in terms of longevity, for gold is worth more than straw and diamonds worth much more than lawnmower shavings. So, if this life is valuable, how much more will the life that is everlasting be worth? To obtain that which is eternal, a better, more valuable sacrifice is needed and The Christ of God has paid the bill for everyone. Every time I think of that, I feel like the richest man on Earth and a wave of joy overflows in my being. You know... I feel golden!!!