Are You "Picky"?

This video shows a person throwing pieces of turkey to Gemma, a pit bull. Gemma eagerly grabs the turkey out of the air before it hits the floor. When the person substitutes a broccoli floret, Gemma declares "That is not food!" We laugh at such a "picky" dog.

The Bible instructs us to be just as "picky" as Gemma. We are to use our powers of discernment. We are free under the Blood of the Lord (Romans 8:1) but not all things are useful to us and some things are positively harmful to us or to our witness. These things are to be rejected as quickly as Gemma spit out the broccoli.

Two Fathers

Today is Father’s Day.  The holiday is observed in at least fifty countries on the third Sunday of the month of June. The day celebrates fathers and their influences on the lives of their children.

A wonderful song for Father’s Day is Beautiful Boy by John Lennon. Every father should hear it.

One of the most important biblical stories about a father is that of Abraham and Isaac.  Abraham had already had to send away his first-born son, Ishmael, the son of his wife’s servant/slave girl. Surely he had loved this son.  Now, God was asking Abraham to sacrifice his adored young son, born to Abraham’s long-barren wife.

I believe that this story tells us about two fathers: Abraham and God.

Genesis 22:1-19

22 And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am.

2 And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.

3 And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him.

4 Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.

5 And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you.

6 And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.

7 And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?

8 And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together.

9 And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood.

10 And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.

11 And the angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I.

12 And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me.

13 And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

14 And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovahjireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.

15 And the angel of the Lord called unto Abraham out of heaven the second time,

16 And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son:

17 That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies;

18 And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice.

19 So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba.

The traditional understanding of this passage is that God was testing the faith of Abraham. Obviously, the omniscient omnipotent Creator knew the answer before He gave the test. I believe that there is much more there: God was also teaching Abraham at least three things:

1.          This is what I expect. You should put nothing ahead of Me.

2.          This is how much you love Me, that you would have done this thing if I had not stopped you.

3.     I will provide/have provided the only sacrifice necessary for you to be acceptable in My sight; the Blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God.

Poinsettia: The Christmas Star

Many people think that the large red leaves of the beautiful poinsettia plant are the flowers.  Actually the flowers are quite tiny and are a yellowish-white color.  The leaves are sometimes also colored pink, white, yellow or green.  The plants, which bloom in December, are also known as “the Christmas Star,” “the lobster flower,” “the Mexican flame leaf,” and “las Flores de Noche Buena.” Since the early nineteenth century, poinsettias have had a close association with the Christmas holiday in the United States.

Poinsettias are indigenous to Mexico and Central America so it makes sense that the first known mention of poinsettias is in Aztec sources. The flowers were used as a source of a red dye to color clothing.  The Aztecs saw the intense red color as a symbol of purity.

There are two very similar Mexican legends about the origins of the plant, both involving children.  In both legends, poor children could not afford to buy flowers so they lovingly collected weeds to place on the Christmas nativity crèche at their church.  As the congregants prayed, the offering was blessed as the weeds turned into a blazing red display.

Franciscan priests in Taxco, Mexico in the seventeenth century used poinsettias in their celebration of the Feast of Santa Pesebre.  A pesebre is a nativity scene similar to a crèche.

The earliest name for the plants was the Aztec cuetlaxochitl.  The most common modern name comes from Joel Roberts Poinsett (1779-1851), who brought the plants to the United States in 1825.  Poinsett was the first United States Minister to Mexico.

The Aztec understanding of the meaning of the poinsettia speaks to me: purity, especially since some Christians have come to associate the intense red color of the plants with the Blood of Christ.  It is sometimes forgotten that the most important Christian holiday is not Christmas, but Easter, which commemorates the death and resurrection of Jesus.

The poinsettia image is from Andre Karwath, a contributor to the Wikimedia Commons Project, and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike 2.5 Generic provision.

If I Could, Updated

Recently, I posted a statement about a phrase someone wrote on our message board in our laboratory rest room.  They wrote, "If I could."  I wrote, "I would."  Today, someone has added, "Be rich."

I'm sure most of us would not reject an opportunity to be wealthy.  The problem is that many people think that being rich, or being a celebrity, would solve all their problems.  Their eyes are on material things rather than the unlimited value of the Blood.

“Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matthew 6:19-21

Mortgage Loan

A mortgage loan is a monetary loan secured by real property such as a house or land.  The word “mortgage’ is derived from the French words “mort” (“death”) and “gage” or “gaige” (“”pledge””), so it is a “death pledge.”  What in the world does that have to do with the transfer of property?

The British jurist Sir Edward Coke (1552-1634) explained the word.  He said that if the borrower does not repay the loan, the property becomes dead to them and is taken by the loaner.  If the borrower completely repays the loan, the property becomes dead to the loaner.  The assumption is that it is possible to repay the loan.

Christians do not have this type of relationship with the Lord.  We have received not a loan which must be repaid, but a gift.  The gift (the Blood of Jesus) is of infinite value and can never be bought or repaid.

When We Stumble

When Christians stumble, when we fall short, and we all do, even the Apostle Paul, God is right there, waiting to comfort us and set us on the right path again.  He knows what we have done, but He expects us to tell Him.  Once we do, He tells us to not do it again and then He “remembers it not” as if it never happened.  “for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:34, also Hebrews 10:17)

Christians are covered by the Blood of Christ.  When God sees His people, He sees the Blood.  “… when I see the blood I will pass over you” (Exodus 12:13)

The Blood of Christ must be there and it is only there when we accept it as the gift that it is.

Our Need for Surgery

"The Church today is infected with worldliness and sin, and anemic from spiritual hemorrhage because we have not been willing to let God operate on us and cut away the things of self, the world and the flesh." M. R. DeHaan

Martin Ralph DeHaan (b. 1891, Michigan, USA - d. 1965) physician, radio preacher, author.

Circumcise Baby Boys on the Eighth Day

“And he that is eight days old shall be circumcised among you, every man child in your generations, he that is born in the house, or bought with money of any stranger, which is not of thy seed.” Genesis 17:12

There is a legitimate scientific reason why circumcision is safest for a male child on the eighth day after birth, but Moses could not possibly have known or understood this fact.   The science of Moses’ day was not sufficiently advanced to have discovered this fact.  Those who believe the Bible account know that God led Moses to give this instruction.

At birth, the infant’s immune system has just begun to work and the child could not yet successfully fight off infection.  Luckily, for the first week of life, the child carries antibodies in his blood which have been provided by the mother.  The mother’s antibodies begin to decline in number after one week,

The infant’s ability to form clots begins to develop about day five and reaches its peak at day eight.  If any surgery is to be performed, day eight would be the ideal day.  On day eight, the infant is best able to prevent infection and to close and seal a surgical wound.  Moses could have only known this in one of two ways: 1. Trial and error, with a large number of dead babies, or 2.  He was told.

The science behind this was not elucidated until the Twentieth Century.  In 1935, Dr. Carl Peter Henrik Dam (1895 - 1976), while doing research on cholesterol metabolism in baby chicks at the University of Copenhagen, discovered Vitamin K, a vital factor in the coagulation mechanism.  He initially called it the Koagulationsvitamin.  He received the 1943 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work on the subject.

The American pediatrician, Luther Emmett Holt (1855 – 1924) discovered that infants were especially susceptible to bleeding on days two through five, but had nearly 100% clotting ability by day eight.

………………………………………….

The Jewish Kabbalists, in their numerology, say that the eighth day has a mystical meaning.  The number seven has the meaning of “nature,” or “finite.”   The number eight carries the meaning of “super-rational,” or “infinite.”

Film Comment: The Twilight Series

The Twilight series of films is based on a highly successful five book young adult romance fantasy series by American author Stephenie Meyer.  The films are:

Twilight (2008)

Twilight: New Moon (2009)

Twilight: Eclipse (2010)

Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part 1 (2011)

Twilight: Breaking Dawn, Part 2 (2012)

To date (25 November 2012) the series has grossed over $2,500,000,000 worldwide.  The basic plot is this: Bella, a lonely teenager, displaced by divorce to a boring small town on the United States northwest coast, becomes attracted to a strange but handsome boy at her high school.  She eventually comes to realize just how strange he is.

Edward is a member of a vampire family which lives in one location until it becomes difficult to disguise the fact that they are not aging.  The “family” members are not biologically related but were collected together by the patriarch, whom they recognize as their father.  The family long ago stopped hunting humans for food and lives off the blood of forest animals.

Edward proves to be a sensitive and protective boyfriend for Bella and he strongly holds to his Nineteenth Century values of sexual abstinence and chaste love until marriage.  That presents the problem: a vampire cannot marry a human.  Because he loves her, Edward is reluctant to “turn” Bella though she begs him to.  He realizes that he would be damning her to become a monster like himself.

Stephenie Meyer, the writer of the Twilight novels, is a Mormon and some believe this is the origin of the series’ emphasis on family and chastity.  Feminists have complained that the novels and films present Bella as a helpless female, with her life revolving around her man.  Edward must continually protect Bella from other vampires (and werewolves!) who disapprove of their relationship.  Feminists also object to the relationship’s violence, as Bella is seriously injured when she and Edward eventually do consummate their relationship.

Bella eventually becomes a powerful vampire with a beautiful half-human half-vampire child.

I see all these things, but what I really see is perhaps a message which Meyer did not originally intend.  The message is this:  to succeed, to really get what you want in this world, you must submit.  Adapt to the world.  Adjust what you believe.  Buy into the system, and you may find love, success, wealth, and maybe even power.  The darkness is very seductive.

What Zombies Really Represent

Zombies are quite popular right now, appearing in numerous films, television series, and novels.  Originally seen as soulless bodies animated by the will of a master, zombies were sent out to perform tasks.  They were represented in films as slave laborers (White Zombie, 1932), as a murderer/kidnapper (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1919), and as a compliant, silent, and emotionless slave who will carry out any order by his master (I Walked With a Zombie, 1943).

Zombies have captured the imagination of the horror film community, with over 600 feature films and over 50 short films having been produced as of today.  One of the most highly regarded modern American television series is The Walking Dead.  One of the reasons for the success of the series is that, while it never flinches in showing gore and zombie violence, it is actually not about zombies.    The human characters of the series eventually come to realize that they, not the zombies, are the walking dead.

The concept of a zombie changed radically with the 1968 George Romero film, Night of the Living Dead.  Many consider this to be the first modern horror film.  The movie is not technically excellent, the acting is not of the best quality, and the low budget is very evident.  And, the movie is studied in every film school on Earth because it perfectly expresses the tensions and meaninglessness present in the modern world.   Some Christians have come to realize that zombies represent even more than that.

Numbers 19:11-22 declares dead bodies to be unclean; Romans 3:23 declares that everyone has sinned; and James 1:15 tells us that “sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.”  Without the unmerited grace of God, we are unclean, we are dead, we are decaying, we are the walking dead.  Because Christians are covered by the Blood of Christ, when God looks at us, He sees Jesus.

Think of the parallels between the film zombies and the unredeemed world.  Non-Christians, those who do not know Jesus, are unclean, they are dead, they are decaying, they are the walking dead.  Most do not realize that they are dead. They are like the zombies in the 1978 George Romero film, Dawn of the Dead, who cram themselves into the local shopping mall and walk around in front of the stores.  They are “pretending to be alive.”

Like the zombies in the movies, if they get a really hard bite out of a person, that person becomes one of them.  They are insatiable and virtually unstoppable.  They represent raw hunger, the primal lust for blood, which is life (Leviticus 17:14).

They will kill anything and anyone who stands in the way of their obtaining what they want.  What you want, need, or think is unimportant to them.  They are your neighbors, friends, and even members of your family.

The film zombies can be seen as representing raw sin.  The essence of sin is self at the expense of all other considerations.  Sin wants more and more, it is relentless.  Sin will use others to get what it wants; others are merely food.  And sin ultimately causes decay of the sinner, dulling the perceptions.  Sin takes on a life of its own.

“And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. 4But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) 6And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: 7That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. 8For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Ephesians 2:1-10

What Does It mean?: "Raca"

In Matthew 5:21-22, the word "raca" remains untranslated in most versions.  It is an ancient Aramaic term of contempt which means "worthless," or "empty," and comes from a word,  רק
("raq") , meaning "to spit." Raca probably meant that the one to whom it was directed was "a piece of spit."


Jesus is pointing out that we are concerned about "big" sins, like murder or theft, but ignore our own multitude of "little" sins.  Here's a news flash: sin is sin, any sin is a missing of the mark, Αμαρτία.  Any sin renders us unworthy to approach the Holy God.  Our only hope is to be covered by the blood of the Lamb.  When God looks on his people, He sees the blood, He sees His Son.

Common Sense Predictions for the Next Ten Years

Update on 13 February 2025. I mostly missed on these predictions though I still think that several of the events will eventually happen. The predictions which were correct are numbers 2, 8, 10. Prediction number 6 has been partially completed with the legalization of marijuana/CBD products in some parts of the United States.

1. Human cloning will be perfected in North Korea, with plans to create an army of identical super soldiers.

2. Israel and the Palestinians will still not have peace.

3. After Iran's bloody revolution, the royalty will be restored.

4. France and Spain will become predominantly Muslim.

5. After same sex marriage is legalized in the United States, a push to legalize polygamy and other forms of group marriage will begin.

6. Hard drugs will be legalized and their sale will be taxed. 

7. Numerous churches will renounce their tax-exempt status in order to prevent governmental interference in their affairs.

8. After the withdrawal of American military forces from Iraq and Afghanistan both countries will fall under al-Qaida/Taliban style control.

9. A practical human blood substitute will eliminate the need for blood banking.

10. The tendency of religious denominations to fragment into conservative and "progressive" factions will accelerate.