Status check

 Posted to Beer Lahai Roi by Lisa Laree

And I said September was a crazy month...

My Sweet Babboo had his turn with the shoulder surgery on Thursday last week; he needed a bit more repair than I did...more than the surgeon expected, actually, and he's in the immobilzer brace for 3 more weeks.  So I'm working from home in order to be around when needed, and to get him to his appointments without a crazy amout of back-and-forthing.  And I'm still working on my own rehab.  Um, yeah.  right. 

*insert sheepish face*

So, hence the kind of unplanned hiatus.  But we should be settling into some sort of routine here shortly and I'm hoping to get back on the Friday Faithful track; John is up and I want to give it good consideration.

So...just a wee check in.  We should be done travelling for the rest of the year; I have a LOT of catching up to do.  On lots of levels.  But I haven't forgotten...

September is a crazy month...

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

So, yeah, been a bit out of pocket this week...

Caught a class reunion amongst the travels, too, so it had a purpose.  Worked the actual job from home today to try and not be so far behind next week; laundry tomorrow and then another full calendar.  Hopefully things will settle down a bit around the middle of October...  will likely be another two weeks before I can jump into John for the Friday Faithfuls.  

Life is definitely not boring...

Friday Faithfuls Two - Luke

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Y'know, I really should have named this series somthing different...to allow for those weeks where I'm, um, a little late posting the selection.

This was Women's Conference weekend...so, yeah, there was stuff going on.  So I'm pretending Sunday is Friday and trying to forget I have to go to work tomorrow morning, lol.

But, the weekly assingment is to skim through one book and take a look a the verse that catches my eye, for whatever reason.

I really thought I was going to use a verse from very early in the book, but as I skimmed through there was another one that was a little more insistent...

"He said to him, 'If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.' " -- Lk 16:31

This, of course, is the last bit of the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus...the 'he' and 'him' in this verse being Abraham and The Rich Man,  as related by Jesus.

What hit me was...wow, this has a serious double meaning.  The immediate application that it would be useless to send Lazarus to warn the Rich Man's brothers of their fate if they don't repent...but also  a rather pointed foreshadowing of the fact that Jesus was soon to rise from the dead, and there would still be folks who didn't believe.

...even if someone rises from the dead.

Friday Faithfuls Two - Mark

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Mark is the most condensed of the Gospels; generally considered to be the first one written down, it may be that the urgency of the task kept his manuscript shorter.  Or maybe Mark just had a get-down-to-basics approach. 

But in cruising through, the verse that struck me was Jesus answering a question during his teaching at the Temple during Passion Week.  'What is the most important of the commandments?'

"The most important one,"  answered Jesus, "Is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one.  Love the LORD  your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.'"   - Mark 12:29 -30.   

This is a quote of Deuteronomy 6:4, known as the 'Shema' and is basically the Hebrew statement of faith.

And, I might add, it is, along with what Jesus goes on to describe as the second greatest commandment, to love each other, the framework up on which all the other commandments and statutes of God are built.

Jesus said that the one who loves him is the one who follows his commandments.

It is entirely unique; no other religion in the world hinges on love.  It is a Judeo-Christian distinctive.  He loves us and fulfilled the law on our behalf...for us.  We love him because he first loved us, and because we love him, we do what he instructed.

Right?  Right?

Oh, but those commandments are outdated...it's old fashioned...it's exclusive and bigoted...it doesn't mean what it says it means...God wants me to be happy, right?

Um.

Let's just start with the first one.  Love God.  First, foremost, before anything else.  Love God.  Jesus said it was the most important thing to do if we want to live a life of following God.

Love HIM.  Live for HIS smile.

If that's truly the number one priority...most of the other stuff will fall into place.  Or fall right away.

Faithful Fridays Two - Matthew

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

400 years after Malachi penned his words, Gabriel appeared to Zechariah as he was going about his priestly duties, announcing the coming of John, and the timetable for the most amazing era of all history...when God took on flesh and walked among mankind...was set into motion.

Matthew doesn't record any of that bit, though.  He's not as interested in the forerunner of Jesus as he is in Jesus himself, laying argument after argument that Jesus was the one foretold.  He begins his narrative with an extensive genealogy, starting with Abraham, showing the lineage of Jesus.  

Several passages caught my eye as I read through, but one kicked up the prickles so that is the selection for today:

"At that time, many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people.  Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved." Matt. 24:10 - 13

This is, of course, from the Olivet Discourse, which was an answer to the disciples' questions about the end times.  It's all pretty familiar, but this time as I was reading this particular snippet struck me differently than before.

Always before, I had read the  'false prophets will appear and deceive many' as, well, clearly false prophets, with false doctrines...cults and the like.  But this time, it hit me as people who weren't necessarily proclaiming a different gospel...but are, nonetheless, false prophets.  People claiming to have a revelation from God who actually don't. Maybe their objectives are personal...there's money to be had doing that, if you're good at it.  Maybe their objectives are political...and I don't have to go down that rabbit trail; it's been pretty obvious.  Maybe they are genuinely confusing the aftermath of eating a pepperoni pizza with a revelation.  But the end result is the same.  Someone says, 'Thus says the Lord,  yadda yadda yadda,' and the Lord didn't say any of it.  It's a shame, because I really believe there ARE people who have prophetic giftings, but the actual prophets aren't getting heard because of the noise level coming from the bogus ones.

Which might be a better strategy of the enemy than just straight up creating cults.  It's harder to recognize the truth when there's so much almost-truth being proclaimed.  Or, as in Jeremiah's day, when the true prophets were proclaiming the opposite of what the false ones said.

There's a lot more in that passage that also rings true today...many turning away from the faith; hatred, increase of wickedness, love growing cold and indifferent, which is all very sad.  But false prophecy...that's dangerous...

Friday Faithfuls Two: Malachi

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

The final book in the Prophets...Malachi.

It is an interesting read; God  is admonishing his people to serve him whole heartedly.  Repeatedly, he states an area in which they have fallen short, only to have them respond, 'What?  How did we do that?'

They were clueless.

Not recognizing the Lord's love for them. Bringing offerings that were cast-offs, not sacrifices.  Worshiping out of obligation and not relationship. Leaders who taught what they thought instead of what God had said.  Not being impartial in matters of law.  Intermarriage with foreigners who followed other gods.  Marital unfaithfulness and divorce.  Believing they were entitled to good things from God even though they continually failed to abide by his laws, decrees and statutes. Not returning to God the tithe as he instructed.  And, finally, they even declared it was futile to serve God as it appeared that the wicked were blessed.

And yet, when God pointed these things out, they were all, like, "Um, when did we do that?" 

Keep in mind, all those things were being done/not done by the very people who considered themselves to be God's Own.  They were not considering their ways.  All of those things kind of lump together as 1) God owes me something and 2) I can do what I want...what seems best to me.

This gives me prickles, because I think many folks who consider themselves God's Own today are just as clueless.  And I don't think it will go any better for people today than it did for the folks then.

This was the last word from God to the nation for something like 400 years...until John came preaching in the wilderness.  They lost their intimacy, so they substituted legalism...and didn't even recognize when God himself came to them.   

So here's a warning that is just as valid today as it was then...

"So I will come near to you for judgment.  I will be quick to testify against sorcerers, adulterers and perjurers, against those who defraud laborers of their wages, who oppress the widows and the fatherless, and deprive aliens of justice, but do not fear me," says the LORD Almighty.  -- Mal. 3:5

Friday Faithfuls Two-- Zechariah

 Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi 

Back in the day, when I was teaching youth Sunday School and the curriculum kinda sorta covered the whole Bible every six years, the book that I struggled the most to teach was Zechariah.  So much specific prophecy that was full of crazy imagery.

But for all of that, it is an encouraging book...a book about restoration.  And the bit that caught my eye as I read through it this week was in chapter two:

"Shout and be glad, O Daughter of Zion.  For I am coming, and I will live among you," declares the LORD.  "Many nations will be joined with the LORD in that day and will become my people.  I will live among you and you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you."   - Zech. 2:10 - 11.

One of those verses that is rather vague in its time reference...it clearly could be speaking of the earthly ministry of Jesus, but it could also be talking about the world after his return.  In any case, as someone whose roots are largely Celtic and not at all Jewish, I find great comfort in the  promise to 'many nations', a concept that Paul will later develop in his writings.

Even in the Prophets, 'many nations' are included....