Psalm 23
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: Bible
I have had this Psalm stuck in my head for the past week. I couldn't remember anything but the first line and the famous verse 4. Finally today I took a quick second to look it up. It's a wonderufl Psalm to memorize if you're at Cornell. It will definitely keep you on the correct side of the bridge.

Psalm 23
A Psalm of David who became King of Israel

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will flollow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
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I just realized for the first time the deep shepard/sheep metaphors in the first paragraph. q:o)

James Chapter 5
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Bible
Disclaimer: I ocassionally write here to reflect on what I read in the Bible...if you prefer other topics, just keep checking back or look at some of my other posts
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At first blush it seems that the beginning of this chapter is a condemnation of all who are rich. Surely, I thought, this can't be the case. Just because someone has worked hard and used their mind in creative ways should not be reason for condemnation! For there are many CEOs nowadays who are Christians and run their companies with integrity. Certainly, God doesn't hate that!

But as I read more of the chapter I came to see that the problem was not with being rich. It was with being rich at the expense of others. The chapter speaks of people not paid wages for work done and murdered for dubious reasons. Back then when there was a lot less paperwork (yes, there was SOME paperwork) it was a lot harder to track if people were indeed getting paid for work done.

So the beginning of the chapter is actually about people who are becoming rich on the backs of others. THOSE people are the ones who will face all sorts of judgement day horrors.

The next section was a call to patience with regards to the Second Coming of Christ. Christ was to come soon anyway...so just be patient for a little while. Whenever I read that I wonder if the Saints knew how long it was really going to take. Did they really think that it was going to be soon as in sometime in the current generation? Or did they understand it as soon by God's standards? Since they may have understood the world to be 10 thousand years old, they could have reasoned that God is insanely patient and therefore soon may have meant sometime in the next millenia or so.

It's a concept that's of, in my humble opinion, medium importance to Christian theology. If it meant soon as in during the biblical time period then it is obviously wrong and that could have huge ramifications for the faith. If it meant within the next few thousand years, then it's ok. However, it's one of those things that you wonder about without being something necessary to understand in order to live your life in accordance to Christian principles. In other words, being nitpicky about it will be of no real use.

The final part was just about prayer, but it didn't say anything out of the ordinary. Basically it just exhorted the followers to pray for things they need.

So ends the book of James

James Chapter 1
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Bible
Usual disclaimer: if you are't into this particular thing, just skip to the next post
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There are basically just two theological points. First of all, you shouldn't view bad things that happen to you as being caused by God. It's actually caused by the evil desires of other men. Second, actually do what you are told to do in the scriptures. Don't just listen to it at church, nodding the whole time, and then go home and ignore all that you'd heard.

I don't have much else to reflect on with these particular chapters.

Time for sleep...

Finishing Hebrews
Mood:  bright
Topic: Bible
The one thing that stuck out from these chapters was the fact that God disciplines us as a Father. Indeed, this is not the only place in the Bible that says that a loving father should discipline his child. Think about what that means. You should punish your children. But why? Because when effectively done, punishment molds a child away from actions are incorrect and towards actions that will ensure that the child will have a productive life and not continually end up in jail.

Well, God wants the same for us. He doesn't want us to always be getting into trouble that's why he may sometimes punish us. Now, whether the troubles we face are punishments or not, the passage is meant to get you to learn from your mistakes and punishments. If you get caught stealing, for example, and then say "oh I should be more sneaky next time" and sulk about getting caught, then the punishment has not served its purpose. However, if you say, "oh, I shouldn't steal anymore" then it has worked.

That's all that it really spoke to me.

Hebrews 1-3
Mood:  hungry
Now Playing: "Late Great Earth" - Plumb
Topic: Bible
Another post related to the portion of the Bible that I've most recently read. If it's not your thing, no worries, just skip this post
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Chapter 1
This chapter contains some very interesting information. Basically, it spends the entire chapter talking about how Jesus is higher ranked in the beauracracy of Heaven than the angels. We tend to take this view for granted. I kinda wanted to say something like "duh" but the fact that the author spends such a long time writing about this says to me that there must be a reason. Perhaps at that point in time there was some kind of debate amongst the early church or maybe between Jews and Christians about who was more powerful.

Chapter 2
Ok so this chapter's main focus is about why Jesus had to become a man. The most important theme is that Jesus was originally given control over the entire universe. (Talk about a birthday gift from Dad!) Yet, there was only one way that he could truly understand what humans experience and that was the deny his holiness and become human. Of course, by having God pour all of his wratch upon him when he died also allowed for us to be able to have salvation instead of just being condemned to hell.

Chapter 3
The first part of this chapter is basically to tell the Jews that even Moses is less important than Jesus. Back then as well as now Moses was like the Mohhomad of the Jewish Faith. But he's only guy #3 instead of #2 (#1 being God of course). The second part is a slightly disorganized plea not to lose one's faith.

That's pretty much it for that. I know it gets a litle more exciting towards the middle.

Off to bed I go...

Philemon - the whole book
Now Playing: nothing fool! I'm reading the bible (not a song)
Topic: Bible
This is a pretty short book. I'm not sure if it 's the shortest, but I read it in like 3 minutes or so. So, yeah this appears to be a strange addition to the book. I may be missing something, but it looks like the whole point of this letter if Paul saying, "I'm sending this dude over to help you out. Take care of him as if he was me. And, if he owes you any money, charge it to me. You know that I'm good for it. And before you get too quick about that, remember that if it wasn't for me you'd be goin to hell."

I think that captures the whole thing. Hmm...there must be some deeper level unless you're one of those conspiracy theorists that thinks the Vatican is hiding all sorts of relavent passages from us because it would reveal so much.

So what's the deeper message? I think that it's just basic stuff. One should be willing to tranfer debts in order that The Faith be strengthened. Basically, it's just stuff like that. Well, not an exciting passage, that's for sure, but writing it down did help me to understand it a lot more.

Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God and other bedtime stories
Now Playing: Die Sinners Die!
Topic: Bible
The above song is a joke, I just wanted to use it as a device to point out that I'm not the type of person who would listen to or believe that kind of stuff. Some people, I'm convinced, think that it's their mission to scare people into (or is it away from?) Christianity with strange behaviours and rituals. I am no such person. While I do have my own ideosyncracies, none of them are related to The Faith.

Anyway, this whole post is kinda like a warning that I may use this blog (as I intend to do tonight) as a way to get my thoughts out on a particular Bible message or church message, but don't worry. You can continue to read my blog. I'm not trying to brainwash you or any strange things like that. I'm too laid back for that anyway. I wouldn't be able to focus on the complicated procedures invovled in having obscure but scary bumper stickers or crazy t-shirts where someone actually thought that maybe if we make Christian Tshirts be a rip off of current designs in secular shirts (secular shirts? a phrase you don't hear every day) that maybe people would kinda say, 'oh that Christanity's cool.' For a similar tirade against the church read my brother's blog. Ok, I think that's a good enough disclosure.