- The Dilbert comic above comes from http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2012-08-05/, just to give them credit.
- God's creation is very neat. Science is interesting. Food is delicious. Business is intriguing. It's curious that God created so many things that can distract from finding genuine fascination in His divine Word.
- Interview trick questions are fun to try to come up with good responses to. For example, what is a good response to, "What are some of your weaknesses?" "How have you dealt with a difficult manager in the past?" or "What salary would you expect to make from a job like this?"?
- Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express was very, very good.
- Books in the Bible are a product of divinely-inspired human authors. The Christian doctrine of inspiration does admit that the personality of the authors enters into the writing. This is to mention the difference between Isaiah and Jeremiah. Read the first couple of chapters of each of those books. Isaiah seems to be saying that Israel and Judah are bad, and that God's wrath will soon come. Jeremiah describes that God's heart is broken, and expounds on why Judah is bad.
- Jeremiah is very applicable to this day at a practical level. Yes, the book is ultimately about Jesus, but at a practical level, the way Jeremiah describes the people of Judah, could easily be described of people today. Indeed, Judah's sin was different in that they were God's chosen people, and God revealed Himself to them in a way differently from how He revealed Himself to the surrounding nations, while Canada's problem is not that Canadians have rejected their people's God. They've rejected their Creator and their Saviour.
- To clarify the above bullet, the Lord in the Old Testament was related to Israel in a way that was different from how He was related to the rest of the peoples of the world, but there was also a way that relationship was the same. It was different in that Israel was His chosen people. The Lord made a special covenant with Israel. This was similar to foreign nations allying themselves with Dagon, Molech or the Baals, though they are false, non-existent gods, while the Lord was the one, true, living God. The Lord, though, is also Creator. In this sense, the nations have this in common with Judah. Canada does not have a God exclusive to it, as Judah did, but Canadians still reject their Creator.
- Jesus never sinned. Consider then, "And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, 'So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak'" (Mt. 26:40, 41). This seems like a patronizing statement. Yet, it was not sinful. Since it wasn't sinful, it probably wasn't patronizing. Most people would probably be offended if a friend said it to them. The take away is probably that people are too quick to be offended. Any other interpretations?
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1 comments:
Bullet 2: Curious indeed. That is why I like John Flavel's O fair Sun/O black Sun quote so much. We can get quite twisted over things in this world.
Bullet 8: I am not sure I see how Jesus's statement was patronizing. I am sure I see how your take away fits to what that passage teaches either. Can you elaborate a little more? What do you mean by patronizing, offended, and "most people"?
So I am not sure if this is an alternate interpretation, but you can let me know. Jesus is angry that his disciples did not obey his earlier command "watch with me," and rightfully so. He said he was "very sorrowful, even to death." Being friends, Peter, James, and John should be sympathizing with him; instead, they abandoned him. And Matthew stating their sleep three times is driving home this point of disobedience and abandonment. Take away: here lies clear evidence that he was the Isaiah-prophecied Messiah, who "was despised and rejected by men," so believe him, i.e.: hear his teachings and do them. Also, man is fallible, and will let you down sooner or later. It's glorious to be reminded that even at (almost) the lowest point in his self-emptying he was still patient with weak disobedient rebels no different than us, waking them up only once with nothing worse than a rebuke. "Therefore God has highly exalted him..."!
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