Friday Faithfuls Two: Psalms

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Wow, I thought, Psalms this week.  How am I going to decide on a verse from Psalms?

I opened my NIV 84 to the first Psalm and literally got hit between the eyes.

Maybe it's because I'm still pondering immersion, but the very first few verses challenged me enough that I stopped there.

Pondered it all day and really, I think it's what I need to talk about.

Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers.

But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law meditates day and night.

-- Ps. 1: 1-2

Talk about immersion.  

Meditate on God's law day and night.

Pay attention to your companions and don't let them pull you off into  ...unwise...positions. 

Delight in God's law.

DELIGHT.

Wow.

Most people don't think 'delight' when they think about Bible study. It's generally a mix of obligation, drudgery and guilt, if we're honest.

But the one who delights in God's word is blessed.  Because, honestly, if one's delight is in God's law, one's closest companions are not likely to be folks who are wicked, unrepentant or scornful (that's the  King James for 'mocker').

I think that's the likely anchor for immersion in the true kingdom...delighting in and constantly pondering God's word.

It's where immersion starts.

Thoughts on ....Immersion...

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

And I ain't talkin' about baptism...

Last week was a Big Family Vacation, and we spent it at a 50th anniversary celebration...

All the parks, Cirque du Soleil, fireworks shows, prix-fixe dining, and an average of  21,873 steps per day.

It was first mentioned back on Thanksgiving 2020, sitting socially distanced around the front porch, with the two-week old  grandson. 'What about Disney in 2022?' someone asked, and from that moment the planning was afoot.

We thought then that we'd be through the Covid threat, surely.  Then about eight weeks before we were gonna leave...omicron loomed.  The girlfriends both caught it...one works in food service, the other in a day care.  One didn't test negative until the day we left; it was that close. The rest of us got our boosters, did our best to avoid gatherings and wore face masks when we had to be out. Did that help?  Who knows.

I am going to confess I was really conflicted about the whole thing.  I hated that we were deliberately cutting back...doing the church at home thing...just so we could be healthy for a trip to see the mouse.  It seemed kinda frivolous, like we weren't focusing on what is truly important.

But just before we left, with all this ambivalence swirling around in my head, I felt like I heard 'Stop downplaying this.  It's not about a fun trip...there are connections to be made.'

So...what connections might have been made kind of remain to be seen, but it did change my perception of the trip a bit.

We got home Sunday evening and I hit work full on yesterday...swamped with vacation recovery, I didn't even get to eat lunch. But I think I'm pretty much caught back up to where I was when we left...and I have been thinking about the trip.

And, you know, the word that keeps coming up over and over is 'immersion'.  Because if you head to the home of the mouse and stay in one of his guest rooms and ride the buses to the parks it is a very immersive experience.

And it is somewhat seductive.  Oh, not in a sordid sort of way...in a cheery, family-friendly, welcome friends to the happiest place on earth sort of way. Which is even more of a temptation for folks who would never stumble into something clearly sinister.

Now, don't misunderstand me, I am not saying that the mouse and his domain is sinister or evil or even wrong.  I'm just saying it's...seductive.  It kinda needs some resolve to resist the siren song that seems to make it a good idea to make life about either going to visit the mouse or counting the days until the next visit.

Because it is immersive.  It can dull the pain of real life, for a price.  It's a whole 'nuther world that welcomes all travelers with open arms...so long as they abide by the rules, lol. 

And I am contrasting that with my every day life; how immersed am I in the true Kingdom?  And what would my life look like if I were to get out of just busy and get into that pursuit?

I do know this...the folks who truly make a difference in THE kingdom are the ones who are immersed.

Food for thought.  And a personal challenge.

Friday Faithfuls Two: Job

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Job is a difficult book to quote.  Oh, there are LOTS of good little nuggets in there...but I find myself having the same problem looking for a quote from Job that I have responding to some things on social media.  On the surface, the thought is quite good...but if it is shared from a perspective that I can't endorse, would agreeing with the thought be the same as agreeing with the perspective?

Job is upset that God seems to be punishing him for something without telling him his error and protests, declaring his innocence; he is angry with his friends for their response.  Even the good quotes from Job's arguments seem skewed if your realize he is speaking from a position of self-justification.

Bildad, Eliphaz and Zophar all maintain that Job is guilty of some secret sin that he won't confess; Eliphaz makes some particularly harsh accusations in chapter 22....I can't believe that he is actually listing things he knows that Job did, since God had already declared Job to be righteous.  He's either going on assumption or he misinterpreted some things in the past.  But they all maintain that a righteous person will NOT suffer, so therefore Job's suffering indicates that he is not as righteous as he proclaims he is.  So even the good quotes from these guys take on different meanings if you realize they are coming from a position of judgment.

Elihu, the youngest of the lot, maintains that God is supreme.  In fact, when I did this little tour ten years ago, my selection from Job was a quote from Elihu.  Now, I find myself gravitating towards Elihu's speech again...because I don't have to question the underlying intentions.

I thought I had settled on something, then I tripped over a different thought that I hadn't noticed before in Elihu's discourse...

"Beware of turning to evil, which you seem to prefer to affliction." -- Job 36:21, NIV 84

He is answering Job's lament that being righteous didn't seem to do him any good in the long run and he might has well  have done the things Eliphaz and the others were accusing him of doing since he was suffering anyway.

Of course, Job had no idea that he wasn't being punished at all, but that all the loss he experienced happened so he could be an example to someone he didn't even know was watching him.

But Elihu's warning is a good one.  The affliction of our age may not be the losses Job sustained, but it certainly could be the misunderstanding Job experienced.  Living life from a biblical worldview is most definitely misunderstood and judged in our current society.  But abandoning that foundation in order to avoid the condemnation and misunderstanding of others is not a viable option.