So, I love the Bible. It's cool. And I have two cool things to tell you. One of them, I thought I had told you about last year, but, it turns out I didn't.
Last year, I was reading Deuteronomy. Typically, it's not my most favorite book of the Bible, but that time, I saw something regarding the power of intercessory prayer.
In Deut. 9:4-6, Moses speaks to Israel about their upcoming crossing of the Jordan River, and about the people, the Anakims, who are great and tall, and how the Lord, not the Israelites, will get the credit for driving out the Anakims. Notice the phrase, three times repeated, "It is not because of your righteousness that the Lord is driving them out"
Vs. 4: "Do not say in your heart when the Lord your God has driven them out before you, 'Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land,' but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is dispossessing them before you.
Vs. 5: "It is not for your righteousness or for the uprightness of your heart that you are going to possess their land, but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God is driving them out before you, in order to confirm the oath which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Vs. 6: "Know, then, it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess,d for you are a stubborn people."
The chapter continues with a recounting of the wickedness and stubborn rebelliousness of the Israelites.
Notice vs. 5, "It is because of the wickedness of the nations that Lord is driving them out."
From that, we see that the Israelites and the nations they were displacing were equally wicked.
So, if they were equally wicked, why did God destroy one nation and not the other? (Besides the reason that the Israelites are His chosen ones.)
We see that the Lord had indeed threatened to destroy the Israelites as well, but Moses, "fell down before the Lord, forty days and nights, which I did because the Lord had said He would destroy you. I prayed to the Lord and said, 'O Lord God, do not destroy Your people, even Your inheritance, whom You have redeemed through Your greatness, whom You have brought out of Egypt with a might hand..."
The reason the Lord didn't destroy the nation of Israel then and there was because one man fell down and prayed.
So, now I'm out of time and you'll have to wait for the other cool thing.
Monday, July 23, 2012
Friday, July 6, 2012
Happy Independence Day.
Belated.
Mine was great. How was yours?
Contrary to Seattle's historic precedent. Summer began on the 4th instead of the 5th, making it an absolutely beautiful day. After lounging around in the morning a bit with the family, who all had the day off, we went to a barbecue picnic we'd been invited to.
There, we hung out with friends, chatted, sang God bless America, and heard my Dad give a great talk on how repentance is the necessary ingredient for God's blessing on America.
Then, right at the very end, the host showed us his cars...Yeah. You all know me, I like old cars. And he had a beauty. It was a lovely blue convertible Mercury '69 (I think). With a custom engine and very comfortable seats. Yes, the guy let me sit in it. =P And then I heard him talk about price...
"yeah, it's worth 29, and I put in 18. It's listed for 22, but I'd take 17."
Insert whirling brain. Did he really just say he'd take $1,700?!?
As my sister says, "God always makes a way of escape when we're tempted." In this case, it was by the confirmation that no, he didn't say that...he said $17,000. Shoot. :( But it was still fun.
Then, we came home, watched a movie, and attempted sparklers.
I don't remember ever doing anything but sparklers, and this year, I'd found some in a bin somewhere. The package looked like they might have been from the '80s, but we decided to try them anyway. We're probably the only people in the world that would use half a box of matches on 6 sparklers.
The wind blew a few out first. Then the sparklers wouldn't light. It came out that they may have been a little damp. Then, some of us didn't know how to do it, and we smothered a few dozen more matches.Then we got one sparkler lit, but it died before it went all the way. And so, the story continued.
Half an hour later, and half a box of matches later, all six sparklers had finally been properly consumed, leaving us with a memorable, and fun, ending to a fun day.
Happy Independence Day!
Mine was great. How was yours?
Contrary to Seattle's historic precedent. Summer began on the 4th instead of the 5th, making it an absolutely beautiful day. After lounging around in the morning a bit with the family, who all had the day off, we went to a barbecue picnic we'd been invited to.
There, we hung out with friends, chatted, sang God bless America, and heard my Dad give a great talk on how repentance is the necessary ingredient for God's blessing on America.
Then, right at the very end, the host showed us his cars...Yeah. You all know me, I like old cars. And he had a beauty. It was a lovely blue convertible Mercury '69 (I think). With a custom engine and very comfortable seats. Yes, the guy let me sit in it. =P And then I heard him talk about price...
"yeah, it's worth 29, and I put in 18. It's listed for 22, but I'd take 17."
Insert whirling brain. Did he really just say he'd take $1,700?!?
As my sister says, "God always makes a way of escape when we're tempted." In this case, it was by the confirmation that no, he didn't say that...he said $17,000. Shoot. :( But it was still fun.
Then, we came home, watched a movie, and attempted sparklers.
I don't remember ever doing anything but sparklers, and this year, I'd found some in a bin somewhere. The package looked like they might have been from the '80s, but we decided to try them anyway. We're probably the only people in the world that would use half a box of matches on 6 sparklers.
The wind blew a few out first. Then the sparklers wouldn't light. It came out that they may have been a little damp. Then, some of us didn't know how to do it, and we smothered a few dozen more matches.Then we got one sparkler lit, but it died before it went all the way. And so, the story continued.
Half an hour later, and half a box of matches later, all six sparklers had finally been properly consumed, leaving us with a memorable, and fun, ending to a fun day.
Happy Independence Day!
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