Odds and Ends

Verse after verse, the Bible isn't always easy to understand. One woman in a Sunday school class said we need to read whole books of the Bible sometimes, in order to put verses in the right context.

In fact, sometimes, we need to be in a Bible study group whose leader knows how one book of the Bible goes together with another. And, of course, we need to be prayerful, expecting Heaven to answer our heartfelt questions.

When some Bible verses haven't made sense to me right away, I've written question marks in the margins. And I've always gotten answers.

Sometimes, puzzling verses have begun to make sense sooner than later. At other times, it's a long while before answers happen.

For example, in Proverbs 30:29-33, it's puzzling that Agur talks about a strutting rooster and a goat, saying three or four things are "stately in their walk."

But Agur is only being sarcastic, saying people may consider a king stately in his walk but that, sometimes, his way is like a rooster or a goat.

Agur was a little like Solomon or whatever person wrote down instructions from Lemuel's mother, in Proverbs 31. The Proverbs 31 writer says a king should give beer to people and let them drink away misery (Proverbs 31:6-7); but the writer was being sarcastic, like Agur was.

The Proverbs 31 writer was talking about how kings used to treat people who are embittered. But the writer goes on to contrast the sarcasm about giving people beer, by describing how a king truly should treat people. The writer says, "Speak up for those who have no voice ... ." (31:8)

Sarcasm sometimes comes from bitterness.

Being embittered, Job complained that the unrighteous heap up riches for nothing (Job 27:16-17). And Job said terrors overtake such people. Job bitterly said people always behave unjustly: The unrighteous heaps it up, "but the righteous will wear it, and the innocent will divide up his silver." (27:17) Job was asking why he should suffer, when other people were so unjust.

It's unsettling, knowing that, even when justice happens, there always seems to be some injustice still in the balance.

When Jesus was crucified, the unrighteous took His clothing, and the unrighteous Judas took the purse of money that people had given the disciples. Judas also took a bribe to betray Jesus.

... One life application, for me, is the observation that, sometimes, when Christians or Jews have been betrayed, Satan also has tried to reverse some promises that appear in scriptures.

It seems Satan thinks he can undo whatsoever is just.

Job, in 26:6, says hell is naked in God's eyes. So, Satan has tried to do a reversal of that justice, through making some Christians and Jews naked, though we shouldn't be (Matthew 25:36).

There are plenty of ungodly reversals of justice in these "last days" we're living through.

But thank Heaven that, in Jesus, "strength and honor" (Proverbs 31) can continue to clothe us, no matter our hardships.

In Jesus, there can be moments of childlike laughter, without fear of the future, a knowing chuckle even when we're not sure of tomorrow. Although we do care and can even be anxious for the fact that some souls may be lost, we try not to despair and completely lose heart.

That's one reason I'm thankful in being able to do the simplest of things. Clothed in my right mind, I'm able to forgive, and to offer my heart.

Faith, not bitterness, is a healer:

Freely ye have received, freely give.

Matthew 10:8

Sometimes, only Heaven knows how much of our hearts we've given.

Home Is ...

 

Home is where a parent has lifted you up: like the day my mom bundled me in a coat, held me close, and spun the two of us around on a brisk winter morning, in a way that felt like flying up to Heaven, far above the snowy ground.

Home is

... playful

... cooperative (or, well, errr ... living at peace, in agreement, I mean)

... creative

... surrounded by community

... safe

... where friends can gather.

... Home is in the heart.

An Article in Progress

This is just a loose thought for now, but I want to think a little further about how Christian service gets mixed up with the idea of being very busy, very industrious.

I think people who work in service industries easily fall into that frame of mind, in thinking doing lots and lots of routine things each day is the only kind of service Heaven needs.

I also think some service-industry folk may not be very understanding of how working at home can be different from washing loads and loads of dishes (and being up to the strictest industry codes on that), putting item after item into an oven each hour, or attending to an ever-increasing mountain of laundry (in the commercial setting).

At home, working with Jesus in heart is purposeful and not about doings loads and loads of things. But it does mean things need to be completed, and it does mean doing one thing and another thing and not just one thing.

There's a lot of self-teaching in working at home.

And, like teachers, who have mandatory breaks for lesson planning, work at home needs daily time for planning (and prayer!). Without planning, prayer, and enough breathing room for creativity, some things won't work out.

In what other ways are serving at home and in industry different? And in what ways are these different kinds of service alike?

Heavenly Sowing and Reaping Isn't Like Putting Into a Gumball Machine!

When we read Galatians 6:6-9 carefully, keeping everything in context, we avoid the pitfall of believing the expression "You reap what you sow" is about putting in money or goods and receiving the same or more back.

I never did think that's what Heaven was saying.

In Jesus, sowing and reaping isn't like putting into a gumball machine and getting some great prize in return. It's not like that at all.

Instead, the New Testament Bible is saying to avoid situations where people are looking for something worldly, or where people are prone to harm you, and just keep close to Jesus, to talk with Heaven in prayer but to also keep in contact with other believers, talking about faith and everything else that's good — and sharing from the good you've been given, out of good relationship.

And the scripture is actually saying NOT to give in order to receive some THING. But give good teaching because you've been given good teaching, Heaven's word is saying.

And, sometimes, teaching can mean giving even a little something, from the heart.

You see, in Jesus, it's about doing or sowing to the Spirit, not about pleasing anyone in a fleshly or worldly way.

It's about working together in the Spirit, and even crying out and pleading for help from the Holy Spirit.

It's true: Sowing to the Spirit can mean crying out to the church or to Heaven about even the most horrid problems, expressing your dependence on Jesus.

Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto [his teacher] all good things.

Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sows [from a spiritual heart or unspiritual], that shall he also reap.

For he that sows [only to please] his [corrupt] flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to [please] the Spirit [in purity] shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.

And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.

Galatians 6:6-9, with editor's notes

Skillet Cinnamon Rolls Recipe Link

This is a blessing,

especially if you skip making the syrup and frosting.

A Quick Study in Mother Hens

In just a few minutes, I've learned a lot about momma hens:

• When a hen's biology says it's time to incubate, hatch, and care for chicks, farmers say the hen is "broody."
• Some inner-city chicken keepers aren't allowed to have roosters around but have found that some hens get broody, anyway, refusing to leave the unfertilized eggs that they've hatched.
• Some broody birds may even sit on other hens' eggs.
• Broody hens can be deliberately encouraged to adopt chicks from another hen's brood, by placing newborn chicks beneath the hen without her knowledge, and then monitoring her to be sure she doesn't see them too soon and peck at them, perceiving them to be intruders.
• Hens are very protective of their chicks, sheltering them under wing when rain is threatening and when it's cold outside, even after the chicks are well past newborn.
• Hens try to defend their chicks when other hens peck at them.

A writer at Wide Open Pets, a dot-com, assures us: "Mama hens are fiercely protective of their babies." That website quotes 16th-century writer Ulisse Aldrovandi, whose work is translated in a modern writing called The Chicken Book.

Aldrovandi wrote: "They follow their chicks with such great love that, if they see or spy at a distance any harmful animal, such as a kite or a weasel or someone even larger stalking their little ones, the hens first gather them under the shadow of their wings, and with this covering they put up such a very fierce defense — striking fear into their opponent in the midst of a frightful clamor, using both wings and beak — they would rather die for their chicks than seek safety in flight."

Maybe the attention ancient people gave to brooding hens is what prompted Yesu Himself to compare Himself to an expectant momma.

"How often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing," said the Holy Spirit in Jesus. (Matthew 23:37)

But there also is more than one momma-hen prophesy, easily misunderstood, from the psalms or songs of David. David trusted what the prophets said about Jesus, the coming Messiah, God with us. David's psalms speak of our heavenly Savior as if His motherly sacrifice of Himself would be a refuge for generations to come.

"He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart." (Psalm 91:4)

"Have mercy on me, my God, have mercy on me, for in you I take refuge. I will take refuge in the shadow of your wings until the disaster has passed." (Psalm 57:1)

It's a wonder, that our Savior's cross became His "wings," a shadow in which each of us,

as Christians, takes refuge.