We so often talk about God knowing everything in advance, exactly what will happen and when, but we often don’t follow that to its logical (or rather not-so-logical) conclusion: if God is never wrong and He knows everything I will do in advance, then I have no choice because if I were to choose then I might choose differently and then He’d be wrong. Also, if He knows it already, it must be true, it must happen, or He is wrong. We had this discussion a while ago. I think of God’s knowledge of me as me walking on a branch of a tree. Every choice takes me to a new branch in an ever-expanding tree. God sees the entire tree, all the branches, even the ones I don’t walk down. It’s much easier to see than to explain. Anyhow, this post (read it here) is really interesting and it also sparked a rather interesting (and sometimes, heated) debate! Check it out!
I just had to post this. Obviously, I regularly read Dr. Skip Moen’s blog, and I feel that he brings many things to light that many people, especially traditional Christians, don’t know about because we can’t read God’s Word in its original language (I am thinking I need to learn Hebrew, though). There was a post yesterday about what it means to be created in God’s image (read it here), and it’s generated a lot (A LOT) of commenting. The comments are fascinating in and of themselves, and if you read the blog long enough you can recognize the style of writing of different people (some have such distinct writing styles that I can almost imagine them bobbing in their seat trying to contain their enthusiasm). I love the community of this site. I love that questions aren’t discouraged or laughed at, that suggestions are encouraged, and criticism or skepticism are accepted graciously and not condemned. Sometimes I feel very inadequate when I post comments because my understanding seems so small, but nobody laughs or is rude when I write something stupid (oh, and I’ve done this several times). I wish I lived in a community of people (not just a virtual community) like this. I hardly know anyone who lives around us in the apartment complex (although many of them are empty, are rented on a month-to-month basis, or are vacation condos; or the people who live there don’t speak English). I know I get caught up in living my life with my family (which is overwhelming sometimes, to say the least), and I should probably reach out more to the people around me. Most of the people I know, most of my friends live across town from me, and with each mile and each month it seems to get harder and harder to stay connected. I miss living there. (And I am reminded that I need to be content and grateful in the place I find myself. The last few days this has been a struggle. I have more than most, and sometimes I only see how much less than some I have. Maybe I’m here to learn more about contentment.) And, finally, one last story. Yesterday I was at the grocery store and as I was pulling out I saw this old man getting out of his car with great difficulty. At first I didn’t think anything of it, but as I put the car into drive I noticed that he was using the post to hold onto as he got a grocery cart to lean on. I almost re-parked the car and asked him if he needed help. I almost. But as I started to re-park the car I saw that he had a shopping cart and was using it to help him walk to the grocery store. And out of fear of being “rude or condescending” I figured he was okay and on his way. So I left. And ever since then I’ve kicked myself. I should have gotten out sooner instead of watching to see if I should help. I shouldn’t have hesitated. I should have offered to get him one of those mechanized cart thingies. I should have asked him if he wanted help, even if he rejected it. This was a kairos moment, when God injected himself into my day… and I missed it until it was too late. I missed an opportunity to show God’s love and compassion because I was afraid of what he might think of my offer. I think this is a moment that will haunt me, a reminder to seize those opportunities that God puts in my path. Yeshua recognized those kairos moments (think about the woman at the well when he was on His way to heal/raise Lazarus – what would have happened if He hadn’t obeyed God’s leading and taken that moment to change her life and the lives of everyone in her town). He wasn’t too busy or worried to stop. I want to be like that, and I hope the next time I am ready.
Psalm 119:52 I remembered Your judgments of old, O LORD, And have comforted myself. In Hebrew verbs are the most important part of the sentence. Even God calls Himself, “I AM.” ”Am” is a verb – “to be” in the present tense, ongoing. Anyway, one of the things that Adam was made to do was to remember. His job was to remember what God had said. He failed to do this when his ezer failed to guard him by not believing that God had made her exactly right for her job and thinking that she could do her job better if she just listened to her heart (the one that God had given her). Adam, standing there, could have remembered and stopped her. But, that’s another story. I learned the other day that Hebrew verbs don’t have tenses and that there wasn’t a word for “time” either. Everything was finished or not yet finished. Here’s something that might blow your mind: the word for “of old” is ‘owlam. Here’s what it means (blueletterbible.com): 1) long duration, antiquity, futurity, for ever, ever, everlasting, evermore, perpetual, old, ancient, world a) ancient time, long time (of past) b) (of future) 1) for ever, always 2) continuous existence, perpetual 3) everlasting, indefinite or unending future, eternity Do you see it? This word means both antiquity and futurity, both the past and the future! Interesting how it’s so intertwined… Anyway, David finds comfort in looking back at (remembering) the judgments of God because they remind Him that God is faithful. The covenants that God has made last from the ancient past to the indefinite future. As God has faithfully judged in the past, so He will faithfully judge in the future. God is constantly reminding His people of the things He’s done for them – bringing them out of Egypt, routing their enemies, feeding them with manna from heaven, etc. I can’t always understand the Hebrew way of thinking about things because I am so steeped in the Greek mindset (we almost all are); however, I can look back and remember the faithfulness and judgments of God, and this is comforting. One last note: apparently in Hebrew a thing can’t be separated from its characteristics. For example, in our language we say that the kettle is silver, assuming there’s a kettle and there’s silver and the kettle just happens to be silver. It’s like a coloring book where everything is lines, and we just happened to put some silver crayon in the kettle lines. In Hebrew it’s a silver kettle (there is no word for “is” in Hebrew). If you take away the silver, there is no kettle. There are no lines to be filled up with a little bit of this or that. You can’t separate something from its characteristics or it ceases to be. So, in Hebrew, God and faithfulness are the same thing. Take away faithfulness and there is no more God. Take away God, and there is no more faithfulness… Kind of cool, right? Now think about what that means for Christians and what our characteristics are supposed to be and what we are supposed to do (like obey the commands of God)… That’s kind of scary, huh?
Skip Moen’s post this morning was about time. It’s one of those Hebrew concepts that is especially difficult to capture, especially since we’re so used to living in a Greek system where time is measurable and linear. The Hebrew concept of time is more like a cycle or a wheel that’s continually rolling down a hill (at least, that’s how Skip describes it). That means certain events repeat themselves, or could repeat themselves, becoming patterns. It also means that our idea of eternity is different from theirs. Their holidays were based on God’s timing – like when the barley first sprouted from the ground (that would vary depending on the rains that year) – instead of a clock broken into measurable minutes and seconds. Somehow, I think that when God comes back our thinking will be reordered and everything will be much clearer because we won’t be thinking with fuzzy logic. It’s fuzzy because it’s different from the original thought patterns. It’s like looking through a dirty windshield. Sure, I can drive, but it’s much nicer when it’s clean. I don’t really know what my point was with this. Probably just rambling. I’ve been learning about Hermeneutics, which is a lot of philosophy right now, and I think my brain might be leaking out my ears. But it’s good stuff. And it’s fascinating.