Friday Faithfuls Two: Song of Solomon

 Posted  by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

I skimmed through Songs and found a verse that intrigued me...then discovered it was translated just differently enough in other translations to change what I thought it meant, so I pulled up the Blue Letter Bible site to check the interlinear/ Strong's dictionary and, whoa, that Hebrew is beyond my puny level of comprehension.  It has several untranslated Hebrew words that have no equivalent in English because they just indicate something about the structure of the sentence.

Anyway, over my  head on that one, so back to 1:1 for another skim through, lol. So I picked a verse that had been referenced by one of our associate pastors who spoke Sunday morning.

Who is this coming up from the desert leaning on her lover? -- SoS 8:5

He referenced it in a discussion of what happens when one wrestles through something with God...it leaves  a limp as a recognition that we cannot function on our own...we have to lean on Him...and he referenced SoS 8:5.

So many things happening on so many levels has convinced me that the root of the human nature is to insist on doing things independently of God, attempting to be self-sufficient, self-made, out from under God's authority and instruction, defying him in big ways and small ways in the process.

A humble limp,  a daily reminder of who God is...and who isn't God...is a small exchange to discover the privilege of leaning on the One Who Loves...me.

Sigh....

We must all update the computer at some time and this is the weekend for a new update for us.  

 We bought the computer on a Black Friday discount last November, lol, and it's been waiting for us to get around to doing the ugly process of uploading.  Which is now proceeding at something of a snail's pace.

I've already discovered that my bookmarks did not make the jump to to the new device.  Don't ask.

We've also had to upgrade the office subscription.  Gee, back in the day, it lived on the computer.   Then we had a home version that we all had access to. Now the rate is higher if more than account on the home computer is going to be using any office tools. (deliberately leaving off the name of the window company responsible).  Mayhap we should have just maintained one user and logged in/out of the browsers and such whenever we changed users.  Or maybe it's worth $50 a year to NOT have to do that...

Anyway, at least I have the work laptop that has a FEW of my most-used links identified, lol.

So that means I will be tracking down and resaving as many of my favorite hangouts as possible.  

And having to re-log in.  And re-verify.  And...and...

So, no regularly scheduled blog post today.  Hopefully I'll be back to normal next week.

Just an opportunity to exercise the fruit of patience....and a bit of kindness and forgiveness too, lol.

In view of the devastation others are facing, a few lost bookmarks is a ridiculous petty thing to complain about.

 

Friday Faithfuls Two: Ecclesiastes

 posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

 Ok, I know it's Saturday; better late than skipping the week, eh?  Yesterday straight up got away from me...

Or, you know, maybe I was subconsciously avoiding one of the gloomiest books in the whole Bible.  Written by Solomon in his later years, after he had tried to figure out What Life Is All About from a humanistic standpoint.

He failed.  He found everything...everything...to be a waste of time, with no real satisfaction.  Pleasure, wealth, influence, knowledge...all of it.

The verse that hit home this week is his conclusion.

Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter:  Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.  For God will bring every deed into judgment, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil. -- Ecc. 12:13 -14.

Solomon kinda messed up on his 'fear God and keep his commandments' conclusion; he had pretty much abandoned the commandments of God in his search for satisfaction in life.  After starting off so well, with two personal visitations, he still did not seek his satisfaction in God but looked pretty much everywhere else...only to come back to it in his old age and realize that was where it would have been all along.

If we collectively took that lesson to heart there would be a lot less grief in the world...but it runs counter to everything the culture endorses. 

 

Friday Faithfuls Two: Proverbs

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Proverbs.  

How on EARTH does one select ONE Timely Verse from Proverbs, which is a collection of Timely Verses?

I know, I set myself this challenge so I shouldn't complain about it, lol.  

So... in my quick skim through Proverbs, I encountered several verses that I really  hadn't pondered before, and almost chose one of them...but in the end, I decided to go a foundational bit...

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.  -- Prov. 3: 5-6, NIV 84

This was the theme scripture for the high school girls class I taught back in the day, so it's pretty ingrained.  But it is SO counter-intuitive.

We want to figure things out.  We want to know the 'why' for everything.

But knowing the 'why' makes life a question of reason, not faith.  And there are some 'whys' that are absolutely beyond our comprehension.

God says...trust him, even if we can't imagine a legitimate 'why'.  Even if we don't see 'how'.  Even if it doesn't make sense.

Because he sees EVERYTHING.  From the beginning to the end.  He knows stuff we don't know...can't know.  Even if he told us, we wouldn't get it.

When the one who Knows Stuff says 'Trust me', it actually DOES make sense to acknowledge that I *don't*  Know Stuff and trust him.