This is the first of a mini-series that I am writing called "Disjointed Thoughts." Here I'll discuss different thoughts that I have recently been chewing on and wrestling with. Perhaps there will be a way to tie them together or perhaps not. Maybe one of these thoughts could turn into a full blog later on one of these thoughts, or maybe they won't. Let's get the dialog going.
Hold my milk, and watch this...
Life and death both continually reoccur in nature everywhere that we look. Death must occur for life to exist.
Night must occur before a new day begins.
The moon must go dark before it can be full again.
Small atoms must face a violent destruction for their energy to create and fuse larger new atoms.
Stars must supernova to create new galaxies.
Plants must die to provide the nutrients for animal and human life.
Plants and animals must die, be buried, and ferment to create petroleum for energy.
This pattern of death brings new life is beautifully painted all around us from the beginning of time.
As we've discovered more and more about the creation of the universe starting at what we colloquially call the "Big Bang" from particle physics to biology follows this brilliant pattern. A brilliant pattern that was spoken about thousands of years ago that survives us today as the story of Genesis. God spoke and everything began. Night and day. God breathed life into us and called it good. Those original people in that story told, oh so long ago, that they get to decide what is good, as we tend to do today.
What then does it mean to live?
What then does it mean to die?
A young ruler asked Jesus,
"How do I gain eternal life?"
Jesus responded, "Have you kept the commandments? Keep the Sabbath holy? Honor your father and mother? Don't lie? Don't steal? Don't commit adultery?" (Brilliantly leaving out, "Don't covet?")
"Yes. Since my childhood." The man replied.
"Then sell your things, give them to the poor, and walk after me."
What then does it mean to live?
What then does it mean to die?
Jesus later gave his life and rose again so that we may have new live.
What then does it mean to live?
What then does it mean to die?
Paul, while in chains wrote to the Philippians, "To live is Christ and to die is gain." In context, Paul was utterly excited to be able to talk about this greater story of life and death and the greatness of God and the Messiah with his Roman captors and perhaps to Caesar himself.
Paul, a Pharisee, a rabbi, studied in the rabbinical school of Hillel. You see, Gamaliel was Hillel's grandson and one of the greatest rabbis in Jerusalem at this time. Hillel, one of the greatest Jewish rabbis who lived a century prior to Jesus.
Hillel once said, "The more Torah, the more life." To him, studying and discussing these very words of God gave life, they are the life of the soul, and nothing could keep him away. In fact, by this time and when Jesus shows up, the rabbis considered studying the word was every bit as much worship of God as the sacrifices, as praying, as fasting, as singing and dancing.
What then does it mean to live?
What then does it mean to die?
We asked the question:
Why aren't youth ministries having honest discussions on sex, relationships, and marriage?
What then does it mean to live?
What then does it mean to die?
In the book of Hosea, God instructs a prophet (Hosea, duh) to marry a prostitute and raise the children that she will bare from being a prostitute.
What?
Why would God insist that someone do that?
Why would anyone in their right mind marry an ongoing prostitute?
God was using the relationship between Hosea and the prostitute and the children as a living picture to show us that is precisely how we treat God. Yet as a loving husband he would take her back and call her children his own.
Right dead in the middle of the story, God says,
"I want your heart not your sacrifice."
What then does it mean to live?
What then does it mean to die?
What does the Lord require of you but to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God?
Wait, what does it mean to walk humbly with God?
Hold my milk, and watch this...
Life and death both continually reoccur in nature everywhere that we look. Death must occur for life to exist.
Night must occur before a new day begins.
The moon must go dark before it can be full again.
Small atoms must face a violent destruction for their energy to create and fuse larger new atoms.
Stars must supernova to create new galaxies.
Plants must die to provide the nutrients for animal and human life.
Plants and animals must die, be buried, and ferment to create petroleum for energy.
This pattern of death brings new life is beautifully painted all around us from the beginning of time.
As we've discovered more and more about the creation of the universe starting at what we colloquially call the "Big Bang" from particle physics to biology follows this brilliant pattern. A brilliant pattern that was spoken about thousands of years ago that survives us today as the story of Genesis. God spoke and everything began. Night and day. God breathed life into us and called it good. Those original people in that story told, oh so long ago, that they get to decide what is good, as we tend to do today.
What then does it mean to live?
What then does it mean to die?
A young ruler asked Jesus,
"How do I gain eternal life?"
Jesus responded, "Have you kept the commandments? Keep the Sabbath holy? Honor your father and mother? Don't lie? Don't steal? Don't commit adultery?" (Brilliantly leaving out, "Don't covet?")
"Yes. Since my childhood." The man replied.
"Then sell your things, give them to the poor, and walk after me."
What then does it mean to live?
What then does it mean to die?
Jesus later gave his life and rose again so that we may have new live.
What then does it mean to live?
What then does it mean to die?
Paul, while in chains wrote to the Philippians, "To live is Christ and to die is gain." In context, Paul was utterly excited to be able to talk about this greater story of life and death and the greatness of God and the Messiah with his Roman captors and perhaps to Caesar himself.
Paul, a Pharisee, a rabbi, studied in the rabbinical school of Hillel. You see, Gamaliel was Hillel's grandson and one of the greatest rabbis in Jerusalem at this time. Hillel, one of the greatest Jewish rabbis who lived a century prior to Jesus.
Hillel once said, "The more Torah, the more life." To him, studying and discussing these very words of God gave life, they are the life of the soul, and nothing could keep him away. In fact, by this time and when Jesus shows up, the rabbis considered studying the word was every bit as much worship of God as the sacrifices, as praying, as fasting, as singing and dancing.
What then does it mean to live?
What then does it mean to die?
Recently, I have been having some intimate and serious discussions with some of my best friends on the things of life that we all happen to go through and experience as young adults. I couldn't help but notice that during those discussions and closeness that I happened to feel more alive than I have in a long time.
In one of these conversations, we were having an intense, honest, and real discussion on sex. Mind you, this was between single men and women in their early twenties. Now you might think that this would have been a hormone fueled, tense discussion. We were touching on the intense cultural expectations of people our age and how sex in marriage is good. We were discussing how the church and the culture have twisted sex in their own ways.
We asked the question:
Why aren't youth ministries having honest discussions on sex, relationships, and marriage?
What then does it mean to live?
What then does it mean to die?
What?
Why would God insist that someone do that?
Why would anyone in their right mind marry an ongoing prostitute?
God was using the relationship between Hosea and the prostitute and the children as a living picture to show us that is precisely how we treat God. Yet as a loving husband he would take her back and call her children his own.
Right dead in the middle of the story, God says,
"I want your heart not your sacrifice."
What then does it mean to live?
What then does it mean to die?
What does the Lord require of you but to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with God?
Wait, what does it mean to walk humbly with God?
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