Isaiah 29:13-14 And the Lord said: "Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the […]
religion
Obedience in Mediocrity vs. Sacrifice in Action
Hosea 6:6 NET 6 For I delight in faithfulness, not simply in sacrifice; I delight in acknowledging God, not simply in whole burnt offerings. I’ve been learning this in an unhappily repetitive way lately. It’s come in the form of eager children and eager adults. People tend to really like to please you or really […]
You Say That To All The Deities
Hosea 2:11 I will put an end to all her celebration: her annual religious festivals, monthly new moon celebrations, and weekly Sabbath festivities – all her appointed festivals. Look at what is on this list–It’s all of the religious things that Israel was doing! Somebody might say, “Wait, didn’t God ask them to do all of these religious things?” […]
Judaism at the time of Paul
Here is an interesting quote from the opening pages: “Temples were still erected for the old gods, priest continued to serve and sacrifice to be offered, but these were obsolete; and the myths about the gods were a spent force, no longer capable of satisfying the individual’s longing fr protection and blessing, salvation and redemption, in this world and the next. … “This is the background against which we have to view Judaism with all its differences and strangeness, its belief in the one, invisible God, Lord of heaven and earth, the rigor of its law, its ethical and ritual commandments (observance of the Sabbath, the dietary laws, etc.), its uniform way of life throughout the whole world, the venerable antiquity of its history, its call to turn away from all idolatry and moral confusion, and its proclamation of the judgment about to overtake the impenitent and of the peace and righteousness which the Messiah, soon to come, would bring in his train.” – p.7 It kind of boggles my mind to realize that people were attracted to the rule of law and the moral standards of Judaism.
Easter Vigil at St. Ben's
I leaned over to my oldest son, who was already getting sleepy (it was about 8:45 at this point) and I said, “The first reading was Genesis, the second was Exodus…” and his eyes got as big as stained-glass windows. … They were able to keep up through each of the readings, which was great, but whenever something was chanted or sung, I could watch their fingers get lost in the script.
They Did It All Wrong and God Loved It
Here is God, overlooking some blatant screw-ups during one of His most important holy days: Celebrated in the wrong month Celebrated by unprepared priests & Levites (should have only been priests that were clean) Celebrated by people that were unclean Celebrated by many people that weren’t even Jewish! Celebrated longer than God ever ordered it to be Celebrated in ways God never intended (with sacrifices from the king in addition to being from the people) Next time you are at church (if you know me, you know I’m the “you” in this sentence) and you want to gripe or be critical about the way things are being done, look at this hot mess in 2 Chronicles 30.