Musings

A dear brother in the Lord shared the "Sunday's Coming - Movie Trailer" with me the other day.

This amusing yet disturbing video depicts the all-too-common pattern of a Sunday morning service at a non-denominational church. It was created by the media group of North Point Community Church as a lampoon of the cookie-cutter nature of contemporary Christian services in America (including their own!).

The Merriam-Webster Word of the Day for February 25th was proscribe.

1 : outlaw 2 : to condemn or forbid as harmful or unlawful

They provided this information regarding the origins of the word:

"Proscribe" and "prescribe" each have a Latin-derived prefix that means "before" attached to the verb "scribe" (from "scribere," meaning "to write"). Yet the two words have very distinct, often nearly opposite meanings. Why? In a way, you could say it's the law. In the 15th and 16th centuries both words had legal implications. To "proscribe" was to publish the name of a person who had been condemned, outlawed, or banished. To "prescribe" meant "to lay down a rule," including legal rules or orders.

The Merriam-Webster Word of the Day for February 23rd was logomachy. (loh-GAH-muh-kee)

1 : a dispute over or about words 2 : a controversy marked by verbiage

They provided this background on the word:

It doesn't take much to start people arguing about words, but there's no quarrel about the origin of "logomachy." It comes from the Greek roots "logos," meaning "word" or "speech," and "machesthai," meaning "to fight," and it entered English in the mid-1500s. If you're a word enthusiast, you probably know that "logos" is the root of many English words ("monologue," "neologism," "logic," and most words ending in "-logy," for example), but what about other derivatives of "machesthai"? Actually, this is a tough one even for word whizzes. Only a few very rare English words come from "machesthai." Here are two of them: "heresimach" ("an active opponent of heresy and heretics") and "naumachia" ("an ancient Roman spectacle representing a naval battle").

What is sin?  Sin occurs when a person violates G-d's Law (1 John 3:4).  When we violate G-d's commandments, either those given broadly in Scripture (e.g. do not commit murder) or those given directly to us as individuals by the Holy Spirit (e.g. "go minister to that guy sitting by himself in the cafeteria"), we are sinning.

Sin comes in many shapes, forms, and sizes.  There have been books and books written about sin including "respectable sins"... those sins that we tend to trivialize because they aren't in the Ten Commandments or aren't terribly offensive to us as individuals.  We should be aware that, in the sense of salvation, a sin is a sin is a sin.  Any one of them ("big" or "small") merit G-d's judgment and separate us from Him.  Praise be to G-d that He has provided forgiveness for our sins as a consequence of faith in His Messiah.

Recently there has been news that a pill to help you live past 100 may be available in two years. Fox News was one of the news sources that carried the story.  Here is a quote from the article:

The New York professor's [Nir Barzilai] own team at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine has pinpointed genetic variants that let people live to a "ripe old age."

That story got me to thinking... What does G-d's Word say about how we can live to a ripe old age?  I was definitely surprised as I searched the Torah.

Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged and that it may go well with you on the land which the LORD your God gives you. (Deuteronomy 5:16)

In the ongoing debate and discussion regarding whether or not Messianic believers should wear a kippah, this particular bit of information was enlightening for me so I thought I would share...

As to the obligation of wearing a kippah, halakhic experts agree that it is a minhag (custom). The prevailing view among Rabbinical authorities is that this custom has taken on a kind of force of law (Shulkhan Arukh, Orach Chayim 2:6), because it is an act of Kiddush Hashem. From a strictly Talmudic point of view, however, the only moment when a Jewish man is required to cover his head is during prayer (Mishneh Torah, Ahavah, Hilkhot Tefilah 5:5). https://www.articlesbase.com/international-business-articles/kippah-572140.html

It is interesting on a number of levels but here are two that jumped out at me:

The story of the Exodus from Egypt is found (not surprisingly) in the book of Exodus.

The story of Saul, the King of Israel, is found in 1 Samuel.

The story of Purim is found in the Book of Esther.

These three stories are inextricably entwined in ways that may not be readily evident.  Let's examine Scripture and see what we can find.

A British computer game retailer, Game Station, reports that it now owns the souls of thousands of their shoppers as a result of a clause that was added to their online terms and agreements as part of an April Fools joke.

"By placing an order via this Web site on the first day of the fourth month of the year 2010 Anno Domini, you agree to grant Us a non transferable option to claim, for now and for ever more, your immortal soul. Should We wish to exercise this option, you agree to surrender your immortal soul, and any claim you may have on it, within 5 (five) working days of receiving written notification from gamesation.co.uk or one of its duly authorised minions."

Fox News provides further details of the situation.

The recent recovery of Nadia Bloom in a dense swamp in Florida has many singing the praises of G-d.  Why?  Because James King, the man who is credited with finding her gives all the credit to G-d:

"I see it as an answer to a lot of people's prayers," King told CNN. "I'm just very thankful, I'm thankful that God used me as a part of it to be able to find her. It's definitely a miracle.

King describes the events surrounding his discovery of the missing girl:

"I didn't know where she was. The only person who knew where she was was God, and I asked him and he led me directly to her, straight -- well, as straight as you can go through the swamp."

A recent turn of events led to a bit of "online archaeology" of sorts:

I was reading a recent CNN article online entitled "In Sudan, a war is waged to eradicate the 'fiery serpent'" and came across this:

Believed to be "the fiery serpent" described in the Bible, the Guinea worm has plagued mankind since ancient Egyptian times. Now it's close to becoming the second disease in the world to be eradicated, after smallpox, health officials say.

This piqued my interest since I was familiar with the story and had always thought actual snakes were biting people.

The Merriam-Webster Word of the Day for February 22nd was thaumaturgy.

the performance of miracles; specifically : magic

The words origins:

The magic of "thaumaturgy" is miraculous. The word, from a Greek word meaning "miracle working," is applicable to any performance of miracles, especially by incantation. It can also be used of things that merely seem miraculous and unexplainable, like the thaumaturgy of a motion picture's illusions (aka "movie magic"), or the thaumaturgy at work in an athletic team's "miracle" comeback. In addition to "thaumaturgy," we also have "thaumaturge" and "thaumaturgist," both of which mean "a performer of miracles" or "a magician," and the adjective "thaumaturgic," meaning "performing miracles" or "of, relating to, or dependent on thaumaturgy."

Some of you may be thinking... "Magic!?  Why is he bringing up magic in regards to Scripture?".

The Merriam-Webster Word of the Day for March 29th was uxorial.

of, relating to, or characteristic of a wife

The origins of the word:

With help from "-ial," "-ious," and "-icide," the Latin word "uxor," meaning "wife," has given us the English words "uxorial," "uxorious" (meaning "excessively fond of or submissive to a wife"), and "uxoricide" ("murder of a wife by her husband" or "a wife murderer"). Do we have equivalent "husband" words? Well, sort of. "Maritus" means "husband" in Latin, so "marital" can mean "of or relating to a husband and his role in marriage" (although "maritus" also means "married," and the "of or relating to marriage or the married state" sense of "marital" is far more common). And while "mariticide" is "spouse killing," it can also be specifically "husband-killing."

The Merriam-Webster Word of the Day for April 1st was puerile (no foolin'!)

Their definition:

1 : juvenile 2 : childish, silly

(I wonder if their choice for April 1st, April Fools Day, was coincidental?  Hmmm...)

The Merriam-Webster Word of the Day for April 2nd was ruthless. Their definition:

having no pity : merciless, cruel

A few years ago someone put together an excellent set of visuals to aid in wrapping our finite minds around the vastness of G-d's creation. I came across these the other day and wanted to share. I don't know who to attribute these to but will acknowledge they aren't mine. Thank you, Lord, for whoever you led to create them.

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; What is man that You take thought of him, And the son of man that You care for him? Yet You have made him a little lower than God, And You crown him with glory and majesty! You make him to rule over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, All sheep and oxen, And also the beasts of the field, The birds of the heavens and the fish of the sea, Whatever passes through the paths of the seas. O LORD, our Lord, How majestic is Your name in all the earth! (Psalm 8:3-9)

The Merriam-Webster Word of the Day for February 15th was prescience.

Here is their definition:

: foreknowledge of events:  a : divine omniscience  b : human anticipation of the course of events : foresight

1 : a deduction from the gross weight of a substance and its container made in allowance for the weight of the container; also : the weight of the container 2 : counterweight

Before charging us for the blueberries we'd picked, the attendant at Annie's Fields deducted the tare from the weight of the filled buckets.

My friend Cindy Sepulveda recently shared this with us and it is a power reminder of the evil some would perpetuate even today.

https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/album_auschwitz/multimedia.asp

Hi, folks.  Just a quick note.

I came across this article about the days being minutely shorter as a result of the Chile quake:

https://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/americas/03/02/chile.quake/index.html

From the article:

The massive earthquake that struck Chile on Saturday may have shifted Earth's axis and created shorter days, scientists at NASA say.

The Merriam-Webster Word of the Day for February 3rd was elicit.

They provided the following definition:

1 : to draw forth or bring out (something latent or potential) 2 : to call forth or draw out (as information or a response)

They also provided the following background on the word:

"Elicit" derives from the past participle of the Latin verb "elicere," formed by combining the prefix "e-" with the verb "lacere," meaning "to entice by charm or attraction." It is not related to its near-homophone, the adjective "illicit" — that word, meaning "unlawful," traces back to another Latin verb, "lic?re," meaning "to be permitted." Nor is "elicit" related to the verb "solicit," even though it sounds like it should be. "Solicit" derives from Latin "sollicitare" ("to disturb"), formed by combining the adjective "sollus," meaning "whole," with the past participle of the verb "ci?re," meaning "to move."

"To entice by charm or attraction"... hmmm.

Isn't that what is happening in many mainstream churches today?

The Merriam-Webster Word of the Day for September 15th was sternutation.  MW defined the word as such:

the act, fact, or noise of sneezing

Here is the information they provided regarding the origin of the word:

"Sternutation" comes from Latin and is a descendant of the verb "sternuere," meaning "to sneeze." One of the earliest known English uses occurred in a 16th-century edition of a book on midwifery, in a passage about infants suffering from frequent "sternutation and sneesynge." The term has long been used in serious medical contexts, but also on occasion for humorous effect. In 1850, for example, author Grace Greenwood observed that U.S. senators from opposing political parties would often come together to share snuff: "And all three forget their sectional differences in a delightful concert of sternutation. No business is too grave, no speaker too eloquent, to be 'sneezed at.'"

 

You may be thinking something like "OK, let's see this guy pull something out of Scripture about sneezing."  Well, actually, Scripture does have a very specific reference to sneezing.  It is found in 2 Kings in the story of Elisha and the Shunnamite woman's son.

With the launch of the site in mid-December, holidays, travelling to visit family, and getting back into the swing of work I have been slow to catch up on my "Words For Thought" articles.  Monday, January 18th had a rather interesting word so I decided to write on it before catching up on the other 50+ words in the queue.  So here is the MW word of the day:

noetic (noh ET ik)

of, relating to, or based on the intellect

While I have never particularly been fond of sports (always being the skinny, poorly coordinated kid in school), I found this interesting perspective described regarding sports in arenas:

The venerated 11th century Torah commentator Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki  – better known as Rashi  – warned Jews away from sports arenas almost 1,000 years ago. According to the rabbi (considered to be the father of all Torah commentators), the Torah admonition against "perform[ing] the practice of the land of Egypt in which you dwelled" (Leviticus 18:3) includes attendance at sports stadiums.

Other opponents refer to the construction of the world's most famous sports arena – the Colosseum in Rome – as the impetus behind their rejection of professional sports.

In 2001, Cinzia Conti, the Director of Surface Restoration at the Colosseum in Rome confirmed that inscriptions deciphered at the site say the Colosseum was built using the spoils of war. The war was with the Hebrews, and the plunder used to pay for the building was taken from the Holy Temple, which was sacked 2 years prior to the beginning of work on the Roman arena.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135129

The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) identified the most requested and most played Christmas songs of 2006 and listed them here: https://www.ascap.com/press/2006/112706_xmassongs.html

Out of curiosity, I performed some research on and analysis of the songs to determine their content.  The goal was to determine if Christ is really the focus of Christmas and the songs that are most often sung as part of the celebration.

One of the earliest words that I was considering for a "Words For Thought" article was philosophy.

Rather than using Merriam Webster I had searched for this word on the Online Etymology Dictionary and found this:

philosophy from O.Fr. filosofie (12c.), from L. philosophia, from Gk. philosophia "love of knowledge, wisdom," from philo- "loving" + sophia "knowledge, wisdom," from sophis "wise, learned."

Meaning "system a person forms for conduct of life" is attested from 1771. Philosophize is attested from 1594.

Each morning when I arrive at work I have a digital version of the newspaper that I briefly browse: CNN amFIX.  Before I get any hate mail, yes, I prefer Fox News, however, they don't have a "daily news summary via email" service of which I am aware.  Moving on...

In this morning's news there was this article about kids taking yoga classes. Apparently some kids as young as 3 are taking these classes. While I am not in any way opposed to kids taking yoga or other activities to promote physical and emotional fitness I had to laugh out loud at one line from the article:

Except for a few tears and a brief tug-of-war over a mat, it all seems nothing more than cute until this stunning moment: Many of these first and second-graders remain completely still and quiet, in a meditative pose, for nearly five minutes.

The M-W Word of the Day for September 14th was munificent.  They defined the word as follows:

1 : very liberal in giving or bestowing : lavish 2 : characterized by great liberality or generosity

I was scanning the news a few weeks ago and came across this article on CNN entitled "Fasting carries risk of overeating."

In it, the author makes some observations about the health benefits of certain religious practices associated with Islam and Judaism.

Kosher meat in Judaism is slaughtered in a specific way by a religious butcher known as a "shochet." The animal is drained of blood and broiled or heavily salted to help remove the blood. Both Judaism and Islam, whose dietary laws fall under "halal," [Halal is strictly a Muslim thing. -B] mandate that the animal be ritually slaughtered with specific prayers.

The Merriam-Webster Word of the Day for September 10th was slough.

1 : to cast off or become cast off 2 : to crumble slowly and fall away 3 : to get rid of or discard as irksome, objectionable, or disadvantageous — usually used with off

Here is the background they provided on the word:

On September 8th the Merriam Webster Word of the Day was irenic.

favoring, conducive to, or operating towards peace, moderation, or conciliation

In typical Word of the Day fashion, M-W provided this etymology:

In Greek mythology, Eirene was one of the Horae, the goddesses of the seasons and natural order; in the Iliad the Horae are the custodians of the gates of Olympus. According to Hesiod, the Horae were the daughters of Zeus and a Titaness named Themis, and their names indicate their function and relation to human life. Eirene was the goddess of peace. Her name is also the Greek word for "peace," and it gave rise to "irenic" and other peaceable terms including "irenics" (a theological term for advocacy of Christian unity), "Irena" (the genus name of two species of birds found in southern Asia and the Philippines), and the name "Irene." [emphasis added]