OT Tuesday: And the Walls Come 'a Tumblin Down

Last week on Old Testament Tuesday we discussed how Joshua had men scout the city of Jericho and with the aid of the harlot Rahab the scouts were able to bring valuable information back to the Israelites. 

Now the Israelite army is lined up at Jericho, a large city surrounded by a double ring of walls, the outer ring was 6 feet wide, the inner ring was 12 feet wide. Jericho was built on the top of a hill so it could only be taken by an army waging an uphill battle, which in the bronze age was tantamount to suicide. To take a city like Jericho the normal method would be to place the city under siege: surround the city with your army and block all traffic in and out, in essence to starve them out. A typical siege could last for months, or even years. However God had the fall of Jericho scheduled to happen in a week. 

After Joshua insured that everyone was circumcised and ready for battle (Joshua 5:2-8) and after Joshua had a little chat with Jesus (Joshua 5:13-15) (and look here if you missed it) God laid out his battle plan:

Emergent Monday: Dealing With The Devil

What would you do if next Sunday your pastor shows up with a publicly avowed satanist and introduces him/her/it as a Christian then allows him/her/it to expound to the congregation from the pulpit on the joys and wonders of satanism?

What would you do if you found out your church was accepting money from a atheist Nazi sympathizer who has publicly stated that he intended to overthrow the constitutional government of the United States?

What would you do if your church decided to invite a person that is still active as an "actor" in pornographic movies to address the church, not to witness how Jesus came into his/her life but to talk about the porn industry and how porn actors are just people like you? 

What would you do if your pastor announced a joint service with a religion that has based their entire theology on killing you for your beliefs? What would you do if your pastor preached in an attempt to convince you that except for that whole murdering thing and blasphemy of God and Jesus thing, this other person's religion is the same as yours?

What would you do Christian?

Who Is God?

Happy Valentines day! As you hold your loved one close today keep in mind that he/she is a gift from God Himself and He's feeling the same joy that you're feeling when you hold your loved one close and bask in his/her nearness.

Why do I say that your mate is a Gift from God? Because it is God's essential nature to love, and being made in His image it is in our nature to love also. God demonstrates this by giving us a partner that we can cherish as he cherishes us, but there's more. God demonstrates His love by lavishing it on undeserving people who are in rebellion against Him. God’s love is not a sappy, sentimental, romantic feeling. Rather, in Greek it is called agape love, which is the love of self-sacrifice.

For Lent I'm Giving Up...

From Ash Wednesday, which is today February 13 2013, to Maundy Thursday which falls on March 28th (and will be a future blog entry) Catholics and Christians celebrate the season of Lent. The 40 days of Lent are to commemorate Jesus' 40 days of temptation in the desert. During this time three traditional practices will be taken up with renewed vigor: prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. I find it interesting that these three practices which Catholics and Christians are emphasizing during lent are the three major tenants of the Jewish religion. (Do you think the average catholic realizes that?)

Growing up a catholic in a very catholic area I was taught that the season of Lent was a big deal. Primarily everyone would give up something that you enjoyed; chocolate, ice cream, TV, what ever you enjoyed the most. It's a form of penance. And of course giving up meat on Friday was a big thing about the whole season. I'm not saying that we went vegan, we just gave up meat. Instead of bacon and eggs for breakfast we'd have bagels or cereal. Tuna sandwiches or PB&J were the mainstay for lunch and for dinner: Fish Fry! A traditional Western New York Friday fish fry is a thing of joy and wonder: a beer battered chunk of haddock big enough to cover a steak platter, cole slaw, potato salad, macaroni salad, french fries, a slice of rye bread, and enough tarter sauce to cover that flank of leviathan you're about to delve into. Anything less was completely unacceptable, and anything more was nearly impossible. 

OT Tuesday: Shady Lady of Jericho

(Note: with the heavy events of the past few days weighing on my mind; the pope resigning, the North Koreans detonating a nuclear device they built with technology given them by the Clinton administration, I decided instead of writing about the Psalm 83 war as I had intended, I would write about something a bit lighter. A prostitute.)

It was a tough time for for the Israelites as they stood on the border of their new homeland. There were many obstacles in their way and the first of them was the town of Jericho. Their leader Moses was gone, and he was the only leader the Israelites ever knew. Every single Israelite who had known anything except endless wandering in the wilderness was gone, it was now time to settle down.

As the Israelites camped by the Jordan river at a place called Shittim, their leader, Joshua, decided a little intel was in order so he had two men cross over the Jordan and scout out the land “especially Jericho.” he ordered them. So they went to see a prostitute and hung out at her house. You may think - 'Hey, after wandering the wilderness for forty years a little R&R may be in order' - but you'd be wrong. Joshua was an awesome commander, he didn't send Privates Sad Sack and Snafu into town for some time with the ladies, he sent men who knew what they were doing.