Friday Faithfuls Two: Obadiah

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Obadiah isn't even measured in chapters...there are 21 verses in the whole book.   And it is a scathing denunciation of Edom, the nation that descended from Esau, for not only refusing to aid Israel/ Judah when the invading armies came but for joining in the looting of the nation, because they were of the same family.

But the first time I encountered this book, years ago, verses three and four struck me a little more personally 

"The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks and make your home on the heights, you who say to yourself, 'Who can bring me down to the ground?'  Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, from there I will bring you down, " declares the LORD.

As the symbol of the United States is the eagle, and we have literally put people in space for extended periods of time, those verses slapped me hard.  I was slapped again in verse 7, just a little farther down...

"All your allies will force you to the border; your friends will deceive and overpower you; those who eat your bread will set a trap for you but you will not detect it."

I thought of all the nations to whom the US had given aid, who had denounced the West after collecting all the knowledge and goods that could be provided to them.

Now, I know that's not exactly the context or meaning of the scripture.  But that didn't stop the goosebumps from crawling over me as I pondered what the pride of our own nation might bring down upon us, all those years ago (seriously a long time ago.  It was before I had any kids...).

And it is purely coincidental that this little scripture on pride has landed during the month of June; I have no double entendres behind these observations.

I do think that 'pride' would be an interesting word study, but for now, it's enough to ponder the phrase, 'The pride of your heart has deceived you'.

Selah.

Friday Faithfuls Two: Amos

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

This week the book to skim is Amos, and the verse that jumped out at me was chapter 5, verse 24:

But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!

(I will always hear that verse in Martin Luther King Jr's voice.)

It's a great thought...except it starts with the word 'But'.

Which means it's a contrast to what comes before it.

Previous verses in the chapter had listed offenses Israel had committed against God; starting with verse 7 - You who turn justice into bitterness and cast righteousness to the ground. I think that's a pretty direct, intentional contrast.

They:

hate a judicial reproof

despise one who tells the truth

trample on the poor

take sustenance from the poor

oppress the righteous

take bribes

deprive the poor of justice in the court.

The verses 21 - 23 describe the religious activities of the people.:

Religious feasts

Assemblies

Offerings of all kinds

Songs (music with lyrics)

Music played on instruments

All of these things were elements of worship.  And God said:

I hate them

I despise them

I will not accept them

I have no regard for them

I will not listen

Oof.

Religious activity without a righteous heart and mind is pretty much a show.  And it doesn't matter what the sign on the front of the church says...this happens in all traditions and worship styles.  From Pentecostal to Evangelical to Liturgical.  Organs and hymns and praise bands and pastors in robes and pastors in jeans.  We in the western church tend to check off 'church attendance' and then do as we please, for our own pleasure and our own sense of fulfillment the rest of the week. 

It isn't our actions and words that God wants...it's our hearts.

And if he has our hearts, then justice will roll on like a river and righteousness like a never-ending stream.

Friday Faithfuls Two: Joel

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Our little weekly skim through a book of the Bible to see what verse stands out has brought us to Joel. 

One little interesting tidbit...out of all the posts I did on the desert word study, The one on Joel had more than twice the average views.  It was far and away the most viewed post out of the entire series.  I'm still not sure why...I'm guessing someone shared a link somewhere.  

But today, reading through, I pondered two or three scriptures but when I hit the fourteenth verse of chapter three, I knew I'd found the verse for this week:

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

And the thing is...so many folks walking through that valley have NO IDEA that it is a critical life point.  A character in a play I wrote years ago (that has been performed exactly one time, lol, and I didn't even see it), when asked how she became the hardened, cynical person that she was, replied, "What makes anybody into anything?  A small decision here, a chance taken there – it all seems insignificant at the time, but it adds up. Before you know it, you find yourself somewhere in life and you don’t even know how you got there."

We generally don't know the impact of the seemingly small decisions we make...or how those tiny course deviations will have played out years down the road.  David had no idea what horrors would follow his small decision to stay behind in Jerusalem whilst Joab led the army out in the spring.  Achan didn't know what he started when he stopped to take a long look at some of the plunder in Jericho.   Ananias and Saphira certainly didn't think it was a big deal to lead everyone to believe they had given ALL the money they got for selling a piece of property.

Small decisions can have big consequences.  Bigger than we are willing to admit.

Friday Faithfuls Two: Hosea

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

So we'll just pretend that today is yesterday and this is actually a Friday post, lol.  Still catching up after the travels...

In the spirit of transparency, I have to confess that the verse that first jumped out to me from the book of Hosea is not the verse I am posting today.  I wrangled with it a bit and decided that I could not just put it up without a lot of background researching; otherwise, it would just sound like I am putting forth an agenda.  So I have filed that away and will likely do a whole study on that concept later, so I have a 'whole Bible' perspective and not a 'weekly verse' perspective.

So.  Back to the beginning and taking a second look, here's the verse that struck me  next:

For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. Hos. 6:6 NIV84

Hosea was prophesying to the divided kingdom prior to and through the defeat and exile of the northern kingdom; warning them of the consequences of their continued idolatry.  But, see, the folks weren't really serving the idols INSTEAD of serving God, they were trying to serve the idols AND God.

Covering their bets, in a way.  Which pretty much means that they considered the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob to be the rough equivalent of Baal, Ashtoreth, and Molech.  They were keeping up the appearances of following the sacrifices and such the Law required but...it was not out of understanding who God was and what he required of them.  It was out of duty; believing that if they just did the religious stuff God was obligated to take care of them.  Like, if they brought the sacrifices HE required,  they would be free to go do whatever else they felt would be beneficial to them.

It is no wonder that God compared their actions to that of an unfaithful spouse.  That's the main theme of Hosea.

The religious activities were useless without a true acknowledgment of the One they were honoring.

That's worth repeating.

Religious activities (whatever they might be) are useless without a true acknowledgment of the One those activities are meant to honor.

And a true acknowledgment means...honoring him in the rest of one's life, aside from the purely religious activities.  Because if God is not honored on a regular basis in how we make decisions, spend money,  treat others, etc., then the formality of religion is not really worth much.

A Bit of Travel...

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

It's June 1st, y'all.  

Boggles the mind...

To be honest, I kinda feel like I lost May.  Got slammed with the ol' sinus infection the first week, and the second week the symptoms changed and...bang, it was Covid.  So another week working from home.  I got three days at work, and then My Sweet Babboo and I made the 3rd trip to Florida so far this year to deliver The Flute Players' kitty cat to her, being as how she and her hubby finally got settled enough into their new apartment to make it feasible.

I was really apprehensive about the trip; we weren't sure how well the kitty would tolerate it.

She complained for about 15 minutes, then seemed to accept the circumstances and settled down.  It probably helped that 1) we were able to borrow a kennel so there was room for her litter box, water and food bowls, 2) she got a dose of kitty Benadryl before we left and 3) the weather was cool and overcast, with periodic rain, for the entire 12+ hours we were on the road, so we didn't have to worry about the car heating while we stopped for potty breaks or meals.

She was much relieved to get out of the kennel once we reached our destination, though.  We pretty much dropped her off and hit the hay.  Since the kids had to work the next day, we drove up to Disney Springs...mostly because I wanted Earl of Sandwich, lol.  If I happen to have any readers from that part of the country...you have my most sincere condolences on having to deal with Interstate 4 traffic on a regular basis.  Yeesh.  Then, we took the kids to dinner, play miniature golf and eat ice cream.  The  Jokester had a bad cold but a negative covid test so...bad cold...we went.  Like a doofus, I didn't get a photo of us together or anything, but I did get a pic of the pretty sunset whilst we were on the mini golf course.  Wonder of wonders...I actually won.  Crazy.

We had breakfast with the kids at Perkins Pancakes, then headed up to Jacksonville to see the Number Two son and do a little belated birthday celebration.   At least I took a picture.  And we got a message that night that The Flute Player had felt really bad later in the day so she took a Covid test and it was positive.  Oy. (They are both recovered at this point).  That mild variant is all OVER right now.

After church and lunch with Number 2 son the next day, My Sweet Babboo and I did something we've been wanting to do for quite a while...we headed up to Savannah, Georgia for a couple of days.

So much interesting stuff there.  We walked...and walked...and walked...

Gave ourselves one 'fancy diner'...we ate at The Pirates' House, which is a really cool ancient (at least by US standards) building.  The part we ate in dates from 1734  and is the oldest standing structure in the state of Georgia.  (I did finally look it up)  The she crab bisque was excellent.

We might go back to Savannah another time; there's a lot that we didn't do. I'd like to do some of the boat tours, and maybe catch more museums.  

I might have purchased a few too many pralines than is strictly good for me, but, hey, it was a rare opportunity, lol.

So, now we're back.  My kitty seems to be happy that her people are home.  My laptop refused to speak to any of the hotel wifi systems, so I have no idea what awaits me at work tomorrow.  I guess I'll find out... lol.