Danny ChaiI changed mymind a while ago, but when I exited pico and it said save changes? I typed n and it was all gone. I hate it when that happens. But it’s good, reminds me that really, my thoughts aren’t all that important.
But what I had written about was Hebrews. I just went through Hebrews and it was like, wait a second. I never knew Hebrews is such a good book! That’s an inside joke. I knew Hebrews was a good book. I really believe if I took the time to sit down and work through that book and really understand it, I would have a much better grasp of who Jesus is and what he did. But that would take a lot of time. To me Hebrews is like Romans, just a really hard book that I know would be incredibly great if I fully understood it, but I don’t have that kind of time. That’s kind of a sucky attitude, but.
What I love about Hebrews is that there are a bunch of great verses. Like 1:1-4. And quite a few others. Also, there are great arguments. Like Jesus is greater than the angels, so the proper response is like, you know, how much more should we listen to him, since the message given by the angels has been shown to be faithful, and Jesus has been shown to be greater than the angels, how much more should we believe in what he said. That killed me.
But quite honestly I don’t understand most of Hebrews. Last year we went through Romans and I still don’t really really understand it. I just have a greater understanding of what’s there and what I don’t understand. There’s actually a lot of the Bible I don’t get. Here’s one thing. In Numbers, there’s this guy, Balaam, who seems to be a prophet of God. It’s actually a really good story, and I highly suggest it. But anyway, this king hears about Israel so he wants Balaam to curse them, but Balaam keeps saying he’ll only say what God wants him to say. And he ends up blessing Israel 4 times. So you know, it seems like this guy is in touch with God.
Okay, the part I don’t understand is later in the book, I can’t remember where but I think it’s chapter 23, the Israelites go out and kill a bunch of people, and they kill him! Like excuse me? I don’t really understand that. Kris Song and Albert Shim kind of explained it to me, but I’m still not sure. So if you have insight, let me know. Daniel, since you like to copy these thoughts and show them to Pastor Eugene, maybe you can ask him for me. Thanks.
Okay, also part of that story is God tells Balaam to go to the king (Beor? Can’t remember), but then when he leaves, God gets angry at him. What gives? God seems to be fickle like that in the Old Testament. Like this other story, is it Moses? Or Jacob? One of those big guys. I think it was Moses. So you know, they’re doing they’re thing and then out of nowhere, God gets angry at him and wants to kill him. So to save him, the guy’s wife cuts off the foreskin of his son and touches his feet with it. So God lets him alone. Umm… I missed this story completely. This makes no sense to me. So Daniel, you can ask Pastor Eugene about this one too. This story became a joke between me and Dave Hong. We were making up a man walked into a bar jokes, and we came up with this one.
So Moses (or whatever the guy’s name is) walks into a bar, and the bartender says, “Hey, I’m gonna kill you!” and Moses says, “No wait! I’ve got my son’s foreskin!” So the bartender says “OK” and lets him go. Trust me, it’s pretty funny in person. When I tell it in person I mean.
Anyway, I want to continue to encourage everyone to look at the Rich Mullins Web Site. Everytime I read a part of it, I come away wanting to be a better Christian. Anyway, he said something profound, about wisdom:
“Take, for example, wisdom. Wisdom has at its source the “fear of the Lord” – the highest regard and reverence for Him. The tendency among many of us, though, is to confuse wisdom with omniscience and to think ourselves wise in proportion to how much stuff we know. God calls us to be wise and provides us with Christ. We pressure ourselves to be all-knowing and fret over where Cain got his wife and how the earth can be as young as the scriptures claim when geologists say that it takes millions of years more than that to produce a barrel of oil. We tend to suspect that wisdom lies in the ability to answer imponderables rather than in Christ. And we sometimes end in self-contempt and even abandonment of our faith, not because our faith is false, but because we focused on a wisdom that is not a virtue but a vanity.”
Wow. He goes on to say similar things about how we’ve confused strength with omnipotence, being lovers with being saviors, and love being a virtue with a feeling. Here’s the article.
At any rate, it made me think, and repent in a way. Because I think I’ve come to equate someone knowing the Bible with knowing all the obscure details of the Bible. But really, that’s not what it is. I mean, that’s not the focus. I guess all I’m saying is that I’m not gonna try to know all those obscure things anymore, like who was king of Israel after Solomon, when I study the Bible, but know it in my life. I mean, knowing those details I suppose will come with time, but it’s definitely not the focus, and I will not feel ashamed when in like Bible study, I won’t know the answers to questions like those. Because when I read, I don’t want to focus on that, but on knowing the Bible in my life, in a real way. If that makes any sense. Also, it’s Rehoboam. I think.