godwho's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Good God Yesterday, I had one of those "Has this always been in the Bible??" epiphanies that seems to happen astonishingly often, considering my prolonged and in-depth exposure to the Scriptures most of my life. We were reading from 2 Chronicles, a book in the Old Testament full of (largely repetitive from the Kings and Samuel books) history about the split kingdoms of Judah and Israel. At this point in their history, the Israelites had been scattered, Jerusalem and the temple distroyed, and the law all but forgotten. When Hezekiah became king, he wanted to reinstitute the Passover, a feast and celebration that had been long forgone due to their preoccupation with war and their worship of other dieties. I just realized I had two epiphanies... The first is that there weren't enough consecrated priests nor people congregated in Jerusalem to have it during the proscribed month, they pushed it back a month. My thought was, "What?! They MOVED Passover?? Can they DO that?" Because the church where I grew up, it was always the letter of the law only. People aren't allowed to CHANGE any kind of worship methods because, well, it's just not done. It's displeasing to God. The other thing was that Hezekiah invited a ton of people, and they all showed up. And they were eating the meal without having purified themselves, "contrary to what was written." But Hezekiah prayed, "May the LORD, who is good, pardon everyone who sets his heart on seeking God." AND GOD DID! This is such a far cry from the stories we were told about Nadab and Abihu offering "unauthorized fire" and being struck dead. These guys were held up as a warning not to try to insert any of our own ideas into the worship mix, 'cause God would get ya! I'm sure there's so much more to that story than is recorded, as is certainly the case in several stories that don't make complete sense this side of heaven. But the Hezekiah story was such an encouragement to me. I've always "felt" (not meaning making up something, but from what I know of God based on what I've read and studied) that God will excuse plenty if your heart is right. This seems to bear it up. 9:09 p.m. - 2006-11-20 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Me me me me meee It's tempting to try to think of myself as less selfish than I used to be. Selfishness is not a pretty characteristic, and I'd like to think that I've managed to shed some of that immaturity. However, today I was thinking about a good yardstick to measure exactly how selfish I've become and it was embarrassing to be faced with the cold, ugly truth. Snoring. That's right: snoring. Not mine, but my spouse's. When the snoring starts, it's humiliating how quickly I go from mild irritation to full-out anger. It's as though I think the noise is being made on purpose just to bother me, even though the noise has nothing to do with me at all. However, my number one interest in the night is my own comfort and sleep. When something interrupts that, I am astounded at how difficult it is for me to control my internal crankiness, though I can manage to filter a bit of it before it comes out. Not much, though. This thing that makes me so interested in pleasing myself, even at the expense of others, is the most difficult vestige of the flesh to shed. It is a constant battle, one that I am aware I'll never fully win. 12:15 p.m. - 2006-11-06 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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