Kansas

I'm at my gramma's for a few days.

I'll write when I return to Texas.

Across the Street

Across the street
He stumbled and fell
But he was across the street
So I walked on
And forfeited the privilege
Of carrying my Lord’s cross

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (in under ten days)

Colorado
In Colorado, we got to see my little bro's basketball game which he played very well in and his team won. We also got to meet his lovely girlfriend. We even got to go on a little double date with them.

My little bro got me the CD I wanted. I'll let you guess which one. And my mom got me an MP3 player.

Trevor, I hope you're reading this. When I saw you coming out the door I think I said to my girlfriend, "Here comes Tyler." I don't know why. So then she might have called you Tyler. And you didn't correct her. After you left I was like "Tyler? His name's Trevor." So, if we didn't call you Tyler or you didn't notice then cool. Otherwise, I'm totally sorry. I know your name is Trevor. You rock. We gotta keep in touch more so that your name doesn't slip my mind again. Next time you see me, you can call me Joseph or Jonathan, whichever you prefer. Keep on dancin!

Joy and I saw "Finding Neverland" starring Johnny Depp. I don't think it was advertised very well. But I had heard enough about it to know that I wanted to see it. And now that I have, I highly recommend it. It got me thinking even more about stuff that I have already been thinking about.

My girlfriend and I washed her car and my mom's car and my bro's car. It was fun. Her car looked so nice. Too bad by the time we got back to Texas her car looked filthy again. That's the problem with having a white car.

Wyoming
As we were driving down the highway, there was a sign with those orange light up letters that said there was an accident at mile marker (I think it was) #327. When we got there we saw a big Fed-Ex truck tipped over and boxes all over in the snow.

Utah
The wedding was small but beautiful. My tux fit wonderfully and I looked smashing. Oh the bride looked amazing too. Lots of people were crying as she walked down the aisle, including the groom and I (but I kept the tears from actually leaving my eyes). We were there for a day and a half before the wedding. I am the bride's friend, but I hardly got to see her. I got to be around the groom a lot though. And I like him, he seems like a good guy. I still think they should have waited a little longer, but I'm happy for them and I think they'll be good together.

New Mexico
We went to New Mexico to visit my girlfriend's sister. I don't recommend moving to New Mexico, but I don't recommend moving to Texas either, yet here I be. We ate at this place called Taco Box, which doubles as a gas station. Sounds pretty nasty, but the food was actually very good.

I woke up and got ready to leave for Texas and looked out the window. It was snowing. And it was real snow like the kind we get in Colorado, not the fake ice stuff they get in Texas.

West Texas
If you plan on stopping in Abeline for a bite to eat, do your homework first. We searched for over half an hour to find the fast food district of town.

Kansas
Today is my gramma's birthday, and I was gonna go up and see her, but I called my mom and we decided that it would be better if I wait and set up the interview for my job and then go up whenever I get the chance. So I called Grammer this morning and talked to her and told her happy birthday. Since I talked to her on the phone I really want to see her. I'll go up as soon as I get a chance. Who knows what adventures I may encounter driving through Oklahoma.

Snow Angels

I moved into the left lane to pass the car that was going far too slow. The tires beneath me started swerving on the ice. I held the steering wheel and tried to gently keep going straight. The car started skidding to the right. I turned the steering wheel to the left. Then I remembered that you’re supposed to turn into a skid. So I turned the wheel right. I think I turned too hard. The car spun completely around and we continued skidding off the side of the road.

My mind was working double time to keep us safe. What are my feet doing? Am I pressing the gas? Should I press the brake? Is that a telephone pole? This car had better not slam into that pole. I don’t know what to do. I guess I willed the car away from the pole. Or something kept us from hitting it. I saw the pole a few feet away from the window and getting closer, then I saw it moving yards away. Then there was the whiteness of flying snow. At least I thought the glittering walls of white surrounding the car were snow.

The car stopped. In front of me was some sort of a field covered with snow. Behind me, the road with cars whizzing by. My girlfriend and I were not hurt one bit. How had we not hit the car I was trying to pass? (Let’s not talk about how mad I was at myself.) I looked out the side window. A fence. A barbed wire fence. The front tires were on a section of the fence that I had knocked down.

I put the car in reverse. Nothing. My girlfriend took the wheel. I tried pushing from the front. The tires just spun. There were no dents in the car, just a few scratches on the front left of the bumper. The ground was soft and the front of the car was stuck on an old rotting piece of wood. I tried pulling the wood out from under the car and the wire, but it wouldn’t budge.

Then an angel appeared. An angel in a white four wheel drive pickup truck. He joined the two vehicles with a thick yellow rope. The truck roared and pulled and the thick yellow rope snapped.

The angel examined the front of the car and diagnosed the problem. It’s that rotten piece of wood. He got the shovel out of the truck bed and started hacking at the wood and digging around it. The wood was rotted but it was too thick and too pinned beneath the car and the barbed wire.

The one tool that the angel needed he didn’t have. A jack. But we had one in the trunk. We took out all of the luggage and found the jack. He jacked up the jack, but it kept sinking into the soft ground. He wiped away the softest earth and put a couple of wooden blocks under the jack and kept at it.

I noticed that he worked quickly but he didn’t seem to be in a rush or in a hurry. When one attempt to free the car failed, he didn’t get upset or frustrated. He just thought of another plan and went to work. Didn’t that guy have somewhere to get to? Was he on his way to work? Why was he on the road? And why was he so willing to spend so much time helping us? It seemed like the only thing that mattered to him was helping us. He never looked at his watch. He never criticized us for spinning off the road. He was nothing but kind and helpful.

He got the wood out from under the tire, then he broke some small pieces off and put them behind the tire to give some friction. He pushed on the front of the car and my girlfriend put it in reverse. The car rolled back and the fence stood up. We were free.

Should I give the guy money? Do angels eat fudge? I didn’t shake his hand; in fact, I don't think I ever even touched him. The closest I came was when he handed me the jack. I didn’t think to ask his name. As we were about to part ways he told us to drive carefully, and he said it sincerely, not sarcastically.

I don’t know what he believes about God and eternity, but I would be surprised if, in the world to come, he’s not close to the throne.

inertia

I got back to my dorm room last night after a nice little tour of western USA. Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, New Mexico, and West Texas. I wanted to write last night but I also didn't want to write. I could tell a bunch of stories right now and say some deep things. But I just don't really feel like it right now. Maybe I'll write those later.

As I was getting on the internet a few minutes ago, something flashed in my head. Inertia. Objects at rest tend to stay at rest, and objects in motion tend to stay in motion. But then friction and various forces fight against inertia. I think I'm pretty inert. And yet I like variety. I like things around me to change or stay the same, but I don't want to change myself or stop what I am doing. I want to be less inert. I don't want to be like a boulder that wont budge or a boulder rolling down a hill that wont stop. But I also don't want to be like a feather in the wind. Maybe more like a kite or a sailboat. Maybe I want to be a canoe; I like canoes.

I4I, 2th42th Q&A

Micah commented with this question, so I'll try to answer it:

It's Micah.
I have a question that has been debated about in my Bible class today: It has to do with, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth." The topic we were talking about in class was the issue of capital punishment. When Jesus quoted this verse from the Old Testament and then added that what he now says is "turn the other cheek", was he nullifying what was previously written or was he clarifying it? Since Jesus is the WORD, was he contradicting himself? This is kind of a loaded question, but along the lines of "turn the other cheek", did he mean take a beating? What are we supposed to do, or where do we draw the line between defending ourselves and fighting back? Our body is not our own, right? Did Jesus fight back when people spat on his face? If we are supposed to be examples of Christ, how are we supposed to stick up for what is right when someone mistreats us or hurts us? Whatever insight you have is helpful.

Eye for Eye, Tooth for Tooth
There are three passages in the Law that contain the phrase "eye for eye."
Ex. 21:22-25, Lev. 24:17-22, and Deut. 19:16-21

The context of the Exodus and Leviticus passages both start out with people fighting. If the fight was avoided in the first place, then there would be no need for gouging eyes or pulling teeth. But like with divorce, some sacrifices, and other punishment commands, this is sort of a secondary command. It would be best if people would just not break their vows or sin or hurt people, but we do those things, so God says how to deal with it.

The Leviticus passage seems like a list of clear cut statements, but they are actually basic statements that are clarified elsewhere. For example verse 17 seems pretty straight forward; you kill, you die. But Ex. 21:12-14 and Num. 35:9-25 clarify that if a person accidentally kills someone then he can flee to a city of refuge, but for premeditated murder the punishment is death.

The Deuteronomy passage says that false witnesses get punished however the defendant would have been punished.

Capital Punishment
According to Num 35:30, Deut 17:6 and 19:15 two or three people have to be witnesses. These witnesses have to be sure, because according to Deuteronomy 19 they could be put to death if they’re falsely accusing the defendant.

According to Deut 17:7, once the suspect is found guilty, the witnesses have to throw the first stone.

A lot of people think that following the Torah’s judicial system would be barbaric, bloody and cruel. But it is actually more lenient than America’s judicial system. The complaint would not be that the Torah’s judgements are too strict, but too lenient. Mercy triumphs over judgement in the Torah. In how many modern day trials are there two or three witnesses so 100% sure that they would risk their lives to convict the offender?

So I'm for biblical capital punishment, but it's not allowed in America. So if someone were to ask me, "Are you for or against capital punishment?" I would have to say against.

Turn the Other Cheek, etc.
The "Sermon on the Mount" starts out with Jesus saying that he came not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it. In old school Hebraic thought those phrases meant that he came to interpret the Law correctly. And the Greek word for fulfill means to fill to the brim. So in order to fill up, you don’t take things out. He just filled the gaps, not in the Law, but in people’s understanding of the Law. And Jesus warned other people not to teach anyone to break even the least commandment, so why would he himself teach people to break commandments?

Some people say that the stuff Jesus says after the eye for eye thing is subversive submission. That when they struck the first time it was with the back of the hand, so if you turn the other cheek they would have to slap you with the palm, which would mean acknowledging you as an equal. If someone sues you for your tunic and you give them your cloak, then you will be left there naked and will shame them. And if you go the second mile, they were in charge the first mile, but the second mile you’re volunteering, so you’re in charge. These may be right or not.

But I’m going to go back to looking at it judicially. In order to take tooth for tooth, you had to take the guy to court, you couldn’t take the law into your own hands. If a guy punched you and broke your nose, the commandment didn’t require you to break his nose, but if you really wanted to get him back then you could take him to the judges, present your case, and then you might be allowed to break his nose but nothing more.

So Jesus is saying don’t bother with all that. Be the good guy. Don’t stoop to the bad guy’s level. So there's a hint of subversiveness.

I feel like I should bring up the case of the adulterous woman from John 8. Jesus affirmed that her punishment should be stoning. But the scribes and pharisees hadn’t correctly gone through the red tape required for a stoning. So when Jesus said he who is without sin, he might have meant he who has followed the Torah fully in these court proceedings. First of all, they didn’t bring the man. The Law says to put both of them to death, not just one. And it seems like the pharisees might have made a deal with the man, or that they were following around the woman, not wanting to stop her from adultery, but in order to catch her in the act. So in order for the situation to come about the accusers were most likely violating Torah.

So Jesus was consistent with the Law. The Old and New Testament emphasizes mercy. Why fight back? Why not suffer physically and receive spiritual rewards? Why "hurt your witness"? I know those last couple of phrases seem trite. About the line between defending yourself and fighting back, I don’t think scripture gives a hard and fast rule for distinguishing between defense and attacking. It’s one of those things where you have to know your heart and emotions at that time and decide if you’re acting out of fear or anger or if you’re level headed.

Hope this helps. I gotta post and run. More comments and questions are welcomed by me.

12-10-04

I was going to write something deep and profound. It just didn't work out. But I still want to write something.

So I'll take this opportunity to tell you that one week from today I will be in a wedding. I'm the bride's best man. So I will be leaving monday night destined for Utah, making a very important stop in Colorado to see my little bro play basketball.

Tonight I'm going to dinner at some very kind and wonderful people's house. They have six children, the oldest one is 10 and they're not adopted or anything.

I was writing this and cooking lunch at the same time and I think I burnt some pasta.

Oh, and I think I'm going to move some of the posts from my other blog that I don't use anymore over to here.

Saturn

I was just old enough to realize that the world does not revolve around me, but still young enough to imagine, to believe that the impossible could be.

I sat in the car and watched the white lines rush toward the hood and shoot out the back window. The highway looked so much like the belt of a treadmill that it seemed possible that just might be how it worked. What if the wheels spinning did not propel the car forward, but pulled the ground backward?

I already knew that the earth was a big spinning ball. And turning a key and pressing a pedal therefore causing tires to spin, which somehow caused the immensely heavy car to move forward seemed just as ridiculous as the tires helping the earth spin a little bit more. From my position in the car it seemed as if the car was the only thing that was not moving.

I knew that to the people standing by the side of the road it looked like the car was moving. But people are used to standing on a spinning earth, so why would anyone notice that the ground was moving backwards because of the car?

The greatest blow to my Theory of the Treadmill Earth was the problem of all the other vehicles on the road going different speeds. I realized that if all of the cars pulled their own section of ground back at different speeds then the ground would tear like a big napkin. I postulated that maybe one car did all of the pulling and the other cars just rolled along without much effort. But how could one determine which car was actually doing the pulling? It would probably have to be the fastest car. The fastest car gets the treadmill going and the others just try to keep up.

But then I realized that this would mean that the slower cars were actually being moved forward by their wheels. And from my perspective the car would either be going forward or pulling the earth backward depending on whether or not it was the fastest car. My theory was not internally consistent. I believed my mind’s invention for a minute, but then I realized that it was wrong so I scrapped it.

I sometimes still want the world to revolve around me. I wonder if maybe somehow it revolves around each individual person.

Maybe every person has their own world; a distinct set of combinations of friends, experiences, thoughts and perceptions unique from anyone else. Maybe at each moment each person’s world has a sun that it revolves around.

In a delivery room worlds revolve around a woman. The husband’s planet rotates and revolves a little faster than the rest. A moment later every world, including the mother’s, revolves around a crying sun, and the planet called husband is renamed daddy. At a wedding the bride and groom are the sun. I remember a night a few months ago when stones were hurtling around Marcos and 2 hours and two thousand dollars later we were relieved that he would be at school another semester and nothing else mattered.

I’m still young enough to believe in what could be. I want to understand and explain things that are beyond my reach. But I’ll keep making up theories, and testing them. I hold on to what makes sense and even to what doesn’t. Sit back and soak in the wonder of mystery and miracle.

School's out for the Winter!

Today I took my last final. I also handed in two really pathetic papers. One of them was supposed to be 8 pages and I managed to squeeze it into less than two. It's better than not turning a paper in at all. But no more classes until January 19. That's right, 6 full weeks!

So I haven't been blogging because of finals. At least that's my excuse. It's not like I've actually been studying or anything. But if I had blogged when I was supposed to be studying then people would know that I was blogging instead of studying.

I've been in a really dungish mood since like Thursday or Friday and I don't know why. I hope that now that school's out, I'll be in a better mood. I think being able to blog would have helped. I had so much stuff I was gonna write about and I was gonna write one big random blog about all these different things that I've been thinking about and that have happened and the title would have had words from the Green Day song that starts out with "Do you have the time to listen to me whine about everything and nothing all at once?"

Last week’s Torah portion as well as this week’s (Genesis 41:1-44:17) have dreams which foretell the future. So it was interesting to me that last week I got a call from a guy who has been a sort of mentor to me. What’s so interesting is that he’s real big into preterism, which is a school of thought that understands the book of Revelation as already having been fulfilled. So after talking to him I started researching preterism and did a little study on theories of interpreting Revalation while at the same time studying Joseph’s interpretation of dreams.

There are three major divisions when it comes to interpreting Revelation. They are preterism, historicism, and futurism.

Most people are only familiar with futurism and spend their time arguing about the particulars within the futurism interpretation. I could try to explain preterism and historicism, but I dont feel like it. Though I do want to know what you think, so click the links above and Google search and tell me what you think. Last I knew, "Mentor" is a partial preterist, which is quite different from a full preterist. This is actually some pretty important stuff, because what you're expecting to happen tomorrow can affect how you live today. It is important to me for several reasons which I might go into some other time.

Blog ya later (or something?)

A Seal, A String, and A Stick

One would think that in this Torah portion I would focus on Joseph, but for some reason I am being drawn to the story of Judah and Tamar. I think it's because the story is so strange and because of the Messiah element. Judah and Tamar's son Perez is the great great...grandfather of Jesus.

Gen. 38:18 "He said, 'What pledge shall I give you?' She said, 'Your seal and your cord and your staff that is in your hand.'"

These three items were needed for the conception of the next person in the line of Messiah (Perez) as well as for the preservation of his life (38:25). I think that these three items, as well as the three items in the ark in the Holy of Holies, are a picture of Messiah and his role as priest-king.

The signet/seal: Hebrew - Chotam. This word is used to describe the seal of a king. It is also used to describe the engravings of the names of the twelve tribes of Israel on the jewels on the High Priest's breastplate. It is also used to describe the plate on which is written "Holy to LORD" that goes on the High Priest's forehead.

The cord: Hebrew - Pateel. This word is used for the cords that were used to fasten the breastplate and crown which the High Priest wore. And remember the tzitzit? The blue cord that I said is a picture of Messiah is a blue pateel.

The staff: Hebrew - Mattah/Matteh. Anytime you see staff or branch, it's probably a picture of Messiah. In Jewish thought, The Branch is another word for Messiah. The same word is used for Aaron's staff that budded proving his authority to be High Priest and also proved Moses' authority to lead the people. Moses' staff was used to deliver/save the people of Israel. I'll surely talk a lot more about the staff later.

So there you have it, ancestors and pictures of Messiah.
One more thing.

A central theme in this passage is the law/custom of the "duty of a brother-in-law" or "kinsman redeemer" which is also a theme of the story of Ruth and Boaz. Boaz was a great grandson of Perez and great grandfather of David and therefore in the line of Messiah. And you probably already know how the kinsman redeemer relates to Jesus and his mission. Okay, cool stuff. That's all for now.