spitgirl's Xanga

#2 - Disobedience and Obedience (Gen 3:1-4:26, Matt 2:1-23)

Sat, 03 Jan 2009 06:59:36 GMT

Old Testament: Disobedience

I once heard a sermon - I don't quite remember when, right offhand, but it might have been Art Lum - that explored Adam and Eve's sin and the way that God confronted it. In Genesis 3:9, the scripture says, "Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, 'Where are you?'" (NASB)

This pastor's point was simple - since God's omnipotent, why would He ask where Adam was? Didn't He know already? The short answer was: yes, He did know where Adam was, but He was giving Adam an opportunity to confess and repent.

In a similar way, God gives Cain the opportunity to redeem himself. In 4:9a, God asks Cain, "Where is Abel your brother?" to which Cain responds, "Am I my brother's keeper?"

The painting I found today to illustrate this is poignant. Even as Cain runs away from the body of his slain brother, you see the illustration of God reaching out. Some might interpret this painting as God reaching out with the Finger of Death (tm) to smote (or at least seriously discipline) Cain, but God gives Cain the opportunity to confess and is reaching out to his beloved creation. Cain gives a cavalier answer, and God responds with the truth - that He already knew, and that Abel's blood called out from the very soil.

It's humbling to think that the master of the universe reaches out to us in such a manner in order to give us an opportunity to explain and restore the relationship. It's even more so to realize that the price for the sin has already been paid.

On a slightly different note, I was also struck by verses 6-7. After Cain's offering was rejected, Cain was understandably upset. But God said to him: "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is for you, but you must master it." (Gen 4:6-7, NASB)

God rejected Cain's offering, but it's never said why it was. I don't happen to think that the problem was with the offering, nor with Cain himself, unlike some interpretations I have heard. These two verses seem to imply that the danger was not with offering a poor sacrifice, but instead was sin entering in after not doing well. It was the reaction, not the offering. Cain's reaction was a murderous anger toward Abel, the brother he thought was favored by God. Cain didn't master the sin, and it crept in and took over his will.

The conclusion I must draw is that fighting sin is a choice that requires action. If we are passive about it, it will creep in, slowly and insiduously, until we find ourselves no different in action from anyone else. Cain ignored the warning, and it's easy enough for us to do so as well. That being said, there is enormous freedom in the Christian life, and while we shouldn't be passive, we also shouldn't be insular or so overprotected that we make ourselves into the equivalent of the overprotected bubble babies of today. (In the world, not of it, etc.)

New Testament: Obedience
In somewhat marked contrast, Joseph is the erstwhile hero of Matthew 2. It's amusing to me that Mary gets all of the credit during Advent and Christmas (okay, sure, she's important), but Joseph is somewhat ignored for the survival of Baby Jesus in his first few years.

What gets me is this: Joseph has a dream in which he's told to get up, pack the mother and child, and head out to Egypt immediately. And what does Joseph do? He gets up, packs up the fam, and heads to Egypt int he middle of the night. Later on, Herod slays the male babies in Bethlehem under age 2 (serious insecurity) and at some point in time, dies.

Then Joseph gets another dream that says, "Get up, take the mother and child to Israel," so he packs up the fam and heads back to Israel. And then, he gets another dream that says it's too dangerous in Judea... and yes, we get the point, Joseph gets up and heads to Galilee.

As repetitious as this is (God says do this, Joseph does it to a T), it stands in marked contrast to much of the other behavior that we see elsewhere in the Bible. Joseph may not have many references in the Bible, but it's apparent that when it came to things of importance, he made the choice to obey God. God may have chosen Mary, but He also chose Joseph. (And for the record... I'm not so sure I would trust any message I get when I'm unconscious. Joseph must have trusted God a lot.)

This is in contrast to Jonah, who ran off in the other direction... but that's another reading and another time. In reflecting over the past decade or so, I've had Jonah years and I've had Joseph years. Lately, they've been more Joseph than Jonah. One of my most exciting Joseph years was in 2005, when I quit my job, moved in with Joy and Carol, applied for jobs, took a job not as a software engineer but as a quality engineer, and started talking to a mild-mannered software engineer who I had just found out was moving to Texas (and started dating him some months later). Each one of these instances was precipitated by some kind of prompting that was unusual in my eyes. Trust me, I don't like to quit a job when I don't have another one lined up, but Someone Else had a better idea.

The years since haven't really put me at as much of a personal crossroads as in 2005, but it comforts me to think that when the rubber meets the road, I can and will take that step of obedience.

Thoughts?

#1 - Gen 1:1-2:25, Matt 1:1-25

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 22:02:20 GMT

Our church has decided to read the Bible together in 2009, so I thought it would be good to resurrect this blog to post my reflections about this. I'm sure that a number of people - particularly Crossroaders - will have xangas, so I figured I might as well join the crowd, even though most of my normal daily posts happen on my livejournal. Though I normally do my devotions in NIV, I've decided that this trip will be NASB. This in particular will help me differ my existing trip (#6) through the Bible and the church trip (#7), which will happen simultaneously until I finish trip 6 through the NIV. I'm about a third of the way through so far. I guess it doesn't hurt to double up.

Just for clarification - I won't be writing something significant every day, simply because there isn't enough time in the day to do everything. But since I'm on vacation, I figured I might as well.

Everything should fall into the first week's reading.

Old Testament

I've always liked this strip, particlarly for the second row in the comic, where Watterston shows the godlike Calvin creating the universe out of the void. Of course, the third row talks about Calvin the evil god (which of course makes it funny), but the second row always sticks with me whenever I read the first couple of chapters of Genesis.

I was struck during this reading of Genesis of the concept of blessing. I found it interesting that the author mentions God blessing the birds and ocean life (1:22) - as well as humans (1:28) - but skips over the beasts on the earth in this blessing.

Focusing on the blessing for humans:
"God blessed them; and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.'" (1:28)

What does it mean to rule? I'm not queen of anything besides my own household, but I've been able to think about it by reading perspectives from various novels, including the genre of fantasy. Unlike most misconceptions of ruling, it has very little to do with soirees and social standing, but has everything to do with being responsible. Poor kings lorded their status over their people; good kings thought of their people as their constituents (regardless of whether or not they were elected into office), and tried to serve them in some way.

In Christian lingo, it's been called "stewardship," but I like to think of it in this way - our constituents, according to the Bible, are the other living beings on this earth. I think we've done a pretty good job of subduing the earth, but ruling? I think we've failed in a number of ways, most of them in the ways we've changed our world for the poorer, particularly in the area of environmental hazards.

I was reading a novel this morning that had pretty much the same bent to it: "She clenched her jaw, angry at her aunt, at all of the short-sighted fools who couldn't see, wouldn't see, that what poisoned the land came, eventually, to poison them.... Did they think, in their arrogance, that their money would keep the isolated from the filth they poured out every day? Was their greed such that the cost didn't matter so long as it was hidden? Or were they willfully not beliving, pretending that the poison was somehow harmless, or even beneficial?" (The Gates of Sleep, Mercedes Lackey, p. 257-258)

This doesn't turn me into a rabid Greenpeace member, but more conscious that my role as a Christian is to be responsible for the way that I live my life and how it affects others in this fragile ecosystem. Things I can do include recycling, conserving water and electricity, composting, repairing, and re-using, as well as doing stuff like using real plates, forks, knives, and spoons when entertaining insead of paper and plastic.

Anyway, enough of that. On to:

The New Testament

Image(s) courtesy History of Science Collections, University of Oklahoma Libraries; copyright the Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma.

The genealogy of Jesus is covered in this section, as well as a brief summary of the virgin birth. I only really had one thought about this section, as we basically spent the entire month of December thinking about Jesus' birth. The women mentioned in the genealogy were all foreign and extraordinary in some way, two who were involved in scandal (Tamar [Caananite], who seduced her father-in-law as a prostitute, as illustrated to the left, and Bathsheba [Hittite], whose husband was killed by David's executive order) and one who was revered and bold (Ruth [Moabite], who was faithful to her mother-in-law).

The other was a vague fascination with Matthew's division of time, which separates the epochs from Creation to Jesus by two great events in Israel's history - the ascension and reign of King David, and the fall of Israel to captivity in Babylon. I probably could say a lot more about this, but I won't, as I've spent far too much time talking about this and finding photos. :)

Adobe usability study: Looking for Bay Area PDA users

Thu, 15 May 2008 21:14:52 GMT

http://sfbay.craigslist.org/sfc/etc/681700166.html

so.

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 22:38:39 GMT

I started writing again.

Title of This Song

The drought is hopefully over.

Also, just a random reminder that my real blog is here. I have also been Twittering.

Not quite sure if I am going to start a Facebook or not, but I'm thinking about it.

I forgot to mention

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 15:49:23 GMT

I forgot to mention that I got married about six weeks ago. Yes, I'm taking a new last name. :) More about that in my livejournal.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 17:19:14 GMT

External Participants Needed for User Research Study—Sponsored by the User Research Team
The Adobe User Research team is looking for individuals who make analog (scrapbooks, comics) or digital (videos, animations) creations to participate in an upcoming research study. Participants must be at least 13 years old. Students are encouraged to apply. The study will take place during November and December in San Jose, San Francisco and via Connect for other locations. Participants will receive $100 for a two-hour 1:1 interview session. If you know someone who might be interested, please forward them the link to our screener: www.adobe.com/go/gmrsurveys_ccs

external participants needed for photography home study

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 22:25:32 GMT

External Participants Needed for Photography Study—Sponsored by the User Experience Team

The Adobe user research team is looking for external participants for a photography study (non-Adobe employees, temps or contractors). The team is looking for very basic photo product users. The study involves home visits in the South Bay, Peninsula and San Francisco, and would last approximately two hours. Compensation would be $200. Some pre-visit journaling would be required. If you know of anyone who might be interested, please contact Marisa Lenhardt and reference “Photography Home Visits.”

bay area: external participants needed for mobile user research study

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 16:48:54 GMT

External Participants Needed for Mobile User Research Study—Sponsored by the User Experience Team

The Adobe user research team is looking for mobile phone users between 18 and 29 years old to participate in an upcoming user research study. The team is particularly interested in interviewing people who own an Apple iPhone or Sharp Sidekick. The study will take place at Adobe San Jose through the week of September 3. Participants will receive $125 for a two-hour 1:1 interview session. If you know someone who might be interested, please forward them this link:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=OicLIUWWOM1LHQBbNLSgrw_3d_3d

AP Poll: Youth and Spirituality

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 17:24:52 GMT

AP Poll: God vital to young Americans

Baby photos!

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 00:30:19 GMT

My cousin had a baby a couple of months ago, and I got together with them over Memorial Day. We had lunch together, and I got to play with the baby.

And here is photographic proof:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/47731152@N00/sets/72157600328131333/

Aaaugh! The cuteness!