discussion and misc. stuff

Today, I had a chat after my ranting blog. I talked with my husband. I have never really mentioned him much on my blogs. Not for any particular reason but honestly we don't talk a whole lot about my blog and thoughts to it. I asked him if he has read it and he said no. He has some reservations about reading it and discussing it with me because he doesn't want to alter my writing. He wants me to be free to write what I feel and not to be impaired or hesitant to write anything based on what he might think. This is very nice of him. I'm not sure if it's totally accurate or not...maybe...he does know me pretty good so...hmm..
Before I get started on our discussion I should tell you that my husband is quite opposite of me. He's wonderfully optomistic. He thinks the best of people and always gives them the benefit of the doubt. He also knows much more about the bible than I do. He was raised in a christian household and attend sunday school stuff. It honestly is a topic we never really discussed much. Odd I know. Since we have been together for 13 years and married almost 9.
OK...back to our discussion.
I told him about my ranting blog. My frusteration with radical religious wacko's trying to get notches in their belt with the most recruits and flashing letters and promises of being healed or saved in some creek.
He told me to think about their intentions. Some of these people are excited and this is the way they show their enthusiasm for their faith. Some might have ill intentions but not all of them do. Some people are looking for that hope of healing and the flashing letters might just get their attention. It's different for everyone. But most importantly, they don't all have bad intentions. Just because it isn't what you are looking for doesn't mean it isn't what someone else is looking for.

Yep, that's my husband. He is better half for sure. He reminds me that there are good people and to not assume that the intentions are all bad.

So for my prior post I now realize that there is a lot that isn't for me and I'm still searching for what is me. What I am looking for and what I consider "normal" which everyone's definition of "normal" is different.


Back to something I stumbled across on a friend's facebook page and since we are wrapping up Leviticus I thought I'd get it on my blog before it's too late.




Yes, you are reading that correctly Leviticus 18:22 “You shall not lie with a male as one does with a woman. It is an abomination."

This person has so wisely (sarcasm) tattooed a verse from Leviticus that he must feel strongly that man should follow yet he chooses to ignore the following versus from Leviticus. You can't just pick and choose what to follow. It is not up to you to decide how God will judge us all in the end.


Leviticus 19:28
“‘Do not cut your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD.
Leviticus 19:15 “‘Do not pervert justice; do not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the great, but judge your neighbor fairly.
Leviticus 19:16 “‘Do not go about spreading slander among your people.
“‘Do not do anything that endangers your neighbor’s life. I am the LORD.
Leviticus 19:17 “‘Do not hate a fellow Israelite in your heart. Rebuke your neighbor frankly so you will not share in their guilt.
Leviticus 19:18 “‘Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.

I guess it is so much easier to look at other people and judge them rather than to change ourselves and judge ourselves. I know I commit sins and I know that God is probably not happy with my or my thoughts but at the end of the day I know that even though I might occasionally get mad about something I would never be extreme. I would never hurt someone for being different. I would never treat others poorly because of their lifestyle, race, gender, etc. I try to love your neightbor as yourself....ok well I may fail at the love part but I mostly succeed at tolerate. :) Occasionally I'm even nice! :) Keep in mind I work in an Emergency Department and run into some less than polite individuals at some of the worst times in their lives. My "love" for others I will be the first to admit doesn't always exist in these circumstances.
I will go on and try to be a better person.

As Gandhi once said "Be the change you wish to see in the world."

I will be starting another book in the next week or so. The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. I still am working on A Year of Living Biblically occasionally at night and Rethinking Life and Death: The Collapse of Our Traditional Ethics.

Finishing up Leviticus and starting Numbers

We are through Leviticus and I've gotta tell ya...not bad. Everyone warned me that it would be a challenging read and boring and potentially would bother me with all the rules but really it was entertaining in parts. I do have to say as a nurse a big thank you for those rules about cleanliness and frequent washings especially with regard to drainage/discharge. Although, it is apparent that some people have not read the bible and do not follow this rule. I honestly can say I'm not surprised at the correlation. Yet another reason we need to focus a little more on religion in our society. CLEANLINESS!!

Leviticus 26:44 "yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, nor shall I abhor them, to utterly destroy them and break My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God."

I like this because it shows God's nature that even though he can be very harsh and has his expectations if you are in need he is always present. He will not turn you away.

Numbers - the census and continuing in laws (according to the little summary at the beginning of my Chronological Study Bible)

So it seems according to the numbers that there are possibly 603,550 men of age to fight in a war. So between the ages of 20 and above. It doesn't specify to what age and considering the amount of travel thus far and the living conditions in Egypt. I can't imagine they have a long life span. Anyway...thought it might be interesting to see where the Isralei military is now. 2000+ years later.
Here's their numbers according to my ever faithful Wikipedia. 187,000 active personnel and 565,000 reserve personnel, all isralei citizens male and female are required to join the military at age 18 unless there is a reason for them not to go such as being Arab, religious preference, physical or psychological reasons. Women are required to serve for 2 years and men 3 years. They have a very large number of "available for military service" numbers that can be utilized if necessary.

OK back to Numbers. The Levites were not counted in this census because they were assigned by God for a different task. They were to care for the Tabernacle of the Testimony, over all it's furnishings and all things related to it. While I'm sure war is not an appealing option nor is the wrath of God if you put one of those fiber vails in the wrong place.

After the census it just amazes me that all these people are just hanging out in the desert. They have to take up a lot of room even if this is the desert. That's a lot of people to stick in the desert to go unnoticed. How did Moses communicate with all these people. There weren't t.v's,newspapers, nothing. How did they all know that they were in the desert for a reason. A good reason and just keep hanging out. Surely they didn't all know that all the sacrificing of animals was going on...all 600,000 and that's just the men of war age...
How would they know anything that was going on. Was someone blogging all this??? Yep, that's how we ended up with the bible right?

stoning and an eye for an eye

Leviticus 24: 13 Then the LORD said to Moses: 14 “Take the blasphemer outside the camp. All those who heard him are to lay their hands on his head, and the entire assembly is to stone him. 15 Say to the Israelites: ‘Anyone who curses their God will be held responsible; 16 anyone who blasphemes the name of the LORD is to be put to death. The entire assembly must stone them. Whether foreigner or native-born, when they blaspheme the Name they are to be put to death.

17 “‘Anyone who takes the life of a human being is to be put to death. 18 Anyone who takes the life of someone’s animal must make restitution—life for life. 19 Anyone who injures their neighbor is to be injured in the same manner: 20 fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth. The one who has inflicted the injury must suffer the same injury. 21 Whoever kills an animal must make restitution, but whoever kills a human being is to be put to death. 22 You are to have the same law for the foreigner and the native-born. I am the LORD your God.’”

OK so the confusing part to me is Verse 16 says they are to be put to death while Verse 17 says anyone who takes the life of another is to be put to death. So the difference being if you take someone's life because they have not followed the rules of God versus if you take someone's life for another reason. However, it seems like there are a lot of reasons you can take someone's life and it's still ok with God.
Not that I'm looking for a reason to justify anything. I'm just curious. Mainly, because I try to think about and figure out those christians that justify their actions of murder.

Leviticus 25:3 For six years sow your fields, and for six years prune your vineyards and gather their crops. 4 But in the seventh year the land is to have a year of sabbath rest, a sabbath to the LORD. Do not sow your fields or prune your vineyards. 5 Do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the grapes of your untended vines. The land is to have a year of rest.

I like this part because it seems if we still followed this we would be grateful and mindful of our land more so than what we are. I get concerned that with the giant agricultural farms that the nature and original ways of the lands are lost. We cannot appreciate the beauty of nature and growth when it is so chemicalized that a cloud of chemicals fogs the land.

Leviticus 25: 23 “‘The land must not be sold permanently, because the land is mine and you reside in my land as foreigners and strangers.

Maybe this is a midwest farm girl talking but I really like this verse. How can you not like this verse? I love the thought that the land is borrowed. It is not our land. It is God's and we should treat it as such.

Leviticus 26:1 “‘Do not make idols or set up an image or a sacred stone for yourselves, and do not place a carved stone in your land to bow down before it. I am the LORD your God.

Here we go with the idols thing again. Do not place a carved stone in your land to bown down before it....hmmm...

Leviticus and how we should still follow this today.

Leviticus 15:4'Every bed on which the person with the discharge lies becomes unclean, and everything on which he sits becomes unclean.
'Anyone, moreover, who touches his bed shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening; and whoever sits on the thing on which the man with the discharge has been sitting, shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening.
'Also whoever touches the person with the discharge shall wash his clothes and bathe in water and be unclean until evening.

This is a great law. One that should probably be followed today. Little did I know that the laws of Leviticus were likely the first standards or written instructions on cleanliness and prevention of spreading of disease. Speaking as a nurse and paramedic people should refresh on these rules and consider following them!

As I'm continuing my reading of Leviticus. I appreacite the rules. I like rules. I have lots of personal rules some are just as odd as those in Leviticus but to me they make sense...so like in Leviticus the rules make sense to God. I am not sure however, with all these offering rules how one would ever remember them all and to prepare and present the correct offering.

Leviticus 18 - Simple enough and THANK YOU!! It pretty much said no incest. Lovely. Unfortunately it had to be written (thanks to Lot's daughters and others) but fortunately it was written.

Leviticus 19:11 You shall not steal, nor deal falsely, nor lie to one another. 12 You shall not swear falsely by My name, so as to profane the name of your God; I am the LORD.

No lying, cheating or stealing...got it...easy enough. well the cheating and stealing. The lying is sometimes hard for me. Just little things. I'm not a compulsive liar and I don't lie about big stuff...well, I guess I need to improve on this part. No lying...ok I'm a work in progress on this.
You shall not swear falsely by My name. Oh boy. This is hard. I cuss and swear a lot. I use the Lords name...Ugh. This is definately going to take a conscious effort and time. Especially, during the stressful situations at work.
OK....work in progress....decrease the cussing and using the lords name in vain....

Leviticus 19:17 You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin because of him.

This also will take work. Yes, I know I shouldn't hate people and I know hate is a strong word but I will try to think of the people I believe I hate and see if I really mean that or not. Hopefully I don't really mean that.

Leviticus 19:18 You shall not take vengeance,nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.

no bearing grudges..really...none? I have a lot of work to do now. Especially if I want to improve mysef which is the whole goal Lot's of work to be done.

Leviticus 19:28 You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the LORD.

Excellent!!! I don't have to work on this one!! Wahoo!

idols

I'm reflecting today. Well, I'm continuing my chronological journey through the bible but I had a wonderful day yesterday. I spent the entire day with my husbands cousin who is an absolutely wonderful person. She is extremely knowledgeable about the bible. She has had amazing faith and religious structure since age 9! We had so many fun conversations yesterday I'm not sure where to start.
We discussed so much regarding my journey thus far and my understanding (or lack of understanding) of so many different aspects of the bible.
We discussed idols at length because that has been plaguing my brain for quite a while.
Exodus 20:4 states “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments."
Exodus 20:23 "Do not make any gods to be alongside me; do not make for yourselves gods of silver or gods of gold."

In reading these statements I wonder why do we have crosses? Why do we have images of Jesus. Especially if Jesus is the son of God or in an image of God or...well. Can you tell I'm confused?
So these seem like idols to me. Should we not have crosses in the front of churches, should we not have crosses around our necks, hold rosary's with a crucifix on them.

These are symbols yes, but is a symbol an idol?


So according to Dictionary.com an

Idol is
noun
1. an image or other material object representing a deity to which religious worship is addressed.
2. Bible .
a. an image of a deity other than god.
b. the deity itself.

Symbol is
noun
1. something used for or regarded as representing something else; a material object representing something, often something immaterial; emblem, token, or sign.


Well according to this it would seem that these things (crosses, etc) are not ok.
I'm just going to put the rosary with a crucifix that is in my car in a drawer until I continue with my readings in the bible to see what else it says about the subject.

I will be posting more later as I continue my journey through Leviticus and Numbers.