Musings
Ramblings.
Rants.
Thoughts (half-baked or otherwise).
Musings on various topics... sometimes only tangentially related to Scripture.
Many of these articles were previously published in the Psalm11918.org blog.
Fox News reports that a Georgia State University economist has found that divorce and out-of-wedlock childbearing is costing U.S. taxpayers over $112 billion [yes, with a "b"] per year. As a child of divorce I recognize that, while there is a financial cost to society, the greater (and less quantifiable) cost is in the damage it does to the children in those situations.
The most significant part of that damage is stunting of spiritual and personal growth of the children who do not have both parents in the home modeling proper man-woman, husband-wife, father-child, mother-child relationships. Granted, even in homes where both parents are present, there is not always proper modeling of those relationships but the complete absence of one parent or the other makes it especially difficult for the remaining parent.
A dear brother shared this with me, and I thought it was worth sharing! :)
The Computer Engineer's Haggadah --------------------------
>>Release ISRAEL
ISRAEL running in slave mode, cannot release>>Set ISRAEL;mode=master
Pharaoh already running in master mode, cannot change ISRAEL
As we draw into the final week before the moed of Pesach/Chag HaMatzot, we should give heed to the instruction found in the Torah:
Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, but on the first day you shall remove leaven from your houses; for whoever eats anything leavened from the first day until the seventh day, that person shall be cut off from Israel.
-Exodus 12:15
As always, the physical commandment provides us with a picture of the spiritual truth. Both should be obeyed. We should clean the leaven from our homes both physically and spiritually.
Some time ago I was trying to explain to my children how our deeds have greater value after we are redeemed than before we are redeemed.
The analogy of a coupon came to mind:
The inherent value of the coupon is only 1/100 of a cent. You would have to gather up 100 coupons to get a single penny! That is like our deeds before we are redeemed:
...And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment...
- Isaiah 64:6
"But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."- Isaiah 53:5
I was thinking of this passage this morning as I was wrapping tefillin.
During a men's study today an interesting analogy I have been using was further fleshed out by a friend of mine, Jon Coll. The analogy is one involving football and faith.
By coming to faith in Yeshua we have "joined His team" so to speak. We are each called to "play in the game" we are assigned. We are also called to play by the rules: to act honorably (Hebrew 13:18) and to stop sinning (1 Corinthians 15:34) . The basic rules that apply to every player are the "rules" found in Torah: the traditionally counted 613 commandments. Everyone has the same "out of bounds", the same rules regarding fouls, etc. Even though every person plays by the same rules the "Coach" gives each person individual assignments and tasks to carry out.
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life recently delivered their "U.S. Religious Landscape Survey" results online. A Fox News analysis of the report indicated that almost half of the 35,000+ Americans surveyed had "left the faith tradition of their upbringing" to either switch to a different denomination or completely different religion (including no religious affiliation at all).
Part of the change has been attributed to the very mobile and fluid nature of our society. Given that over 22 million Americans moved to a new home between March 1999 and March 2000 and over 8 million Americans moved to a new state in 2006 America is definitely mobile.
I get a news digest from CNN each morning and an interesting article recently came up about how people were getting ill with a rather unusual set of symptoms. It turns out the problem was caused by a fine mist of pig brain tissue these folks were inhaling as a result of working in a slaughter house. One of the women interviewed went from being able to walk to needing a wheelchair in 4 months.
