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Truth Project Week 2 Who Is Man - Philosophy

Some highlights from this weeks study:

• Christian Philosophy vs Every Other Philosophy -

1. In Christian Philosophy, we understand that God, the creator of the entire universe, is not part of that same universe. He is not confined to its space or its time. He is not matter, nor is He energy.
2. Humanism, the prevailing philosophy of our time, states that there simply is no God. There is nothing but our universe. There is nothing that is not made of matter. There is nothing that is not bound by our rules of matter and energy. There is nothing that escapes the order of time.
3. Other philosophies and religions somehow try to reconcile god to be part of the created universe.

• Postmedernism says that there is NO ABSOLUTE TRUTH...... Wouldn't the statement that "There is no absolute truth," if it were true, be an absolute truth?
  
• ASSUMPTIVE LANGUAGE- Our culture is full of assumptive language. Things are presented in the media as if they are true, as if these things were not open for debate or discussion. People who are unaware, read them and assume they are indeed fact. For example, I read today about a problem with Penguins in South Africa which listed several reasons that they are having trouble. The last on the list was global warming. Global warming is not a fact. MANY scientist deny that it is happening. Many more argue that if it is happening, COs emmisions are not the cause... Yet the article simply said global warming is hurting the penguins. Not that it might be, if it were really happening...... These assumptive presentations are VERY DEVIOUS AND VERY DANGEROUS...
• What is the source of right and wrong? Where do our morals come from? Could God have chosen for it to be okay to steal? No, Our Standard for our morals is the nature of God Himself. God requires us to behave in the way that his very nature causes him to behave. God does not lie, so we should not lie. God is faithful - we must be faithful - to Him, and to our spouses, family, etc..
  

Judges..

I've been reading the book of Judges..... Pretty interesting stuff.... The people turn their back on God, an enemy attacks, they repent, a leader rises up to save the day....

Most of these "leaders" don't seem to do a very good job keeping the county on track once they have defeated the enemy....

Gideon, for example, wins the battle and the people ask him to be king. He says no, instead each of you give me a gold earring. They say okay - this is a huge amount of gold. What does he do? He melts it down and makes an ephod.... The sort of thing that got them in trouble in the first place....

And what was Jepthah thinking? He leads the people into a battle, but first vows to offer "whatever comes out of his door to greet him when he gets home" as a sacrifice if he wins. His daughter came out and he was heartbroken, but he still sacrificed her. Who did he think was going to come out? His dog? A servant? His wife?

TRUTH PROJECT - (take 2)

My Friday night small group has been going on for longer than I can remember. It has been 3 or 4 years, at least. Our latest study has been Focus on the Family's "The Truth Project." The study's purpose is to take the participant through a comprehensive look at how God's Truth compares and CONTRASTS with what the world has to say in just about every realm of our lives. The study is very deep and it has invoked much discussion and thought.

As we neared completion of the study a few weeks back, someone suggested that we do it again. Others seconded the motion and it was quickly decided. Last week we started our 2nd run through. I am glad we did. As I said it is very deep and I (we) are getting more out if the second time through.

The first Lesson is "What is Truth?" Jesus said to Pilate, as he was on trial, "for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me." (from New International Version) From the beginning time God has spoken the truth to man and Satan has countered with a stream of lies. Our culture is believing the lies.

I had noticed how important the idea, or the word "truth" was to Christ when I watched the Gospel of John a while back. If you have not seen it - see it. It is available on DVD - borrow mine - It is the Gospel of John - word for word - nothing added, nothing taken away - dramatized.
Anyway, when I watched it all in one setting I noticed that Jesus used the phrase "I tell you the truth" quite often. He could see that the people around him were believing in the lies of the world. Most would not listen to the truth as Jesus told it. I just counted, by the way, and the Gospel of John uses the word truth 52 times!

So what is truth? The best definition has to be reality AS GOD PERCEIVES IT. Our perception of reality is insufficient to verify truth. Our viewpoint is usually to close and our timespan much too short. Only God had seen all, and knows all from the beginning until the unending end. Only he really knows what is truly true. So our job is to take the Truth God has revealed to us through his Word and his creation and believe it and act on it. Instead, however, we tend to simply accept the competing "truth" put forth in society around us.

I will discuss the examples of God's truth compared to the world's lies as we go through the project again.

Does God endorse tailgate parties?

I am ashamed to admit that I have once again fallen behind in my studies.... but last night I was reading in Leviticus and had a rather interesting thought. Before I get on to the thought, I need to explain my Bible through the year plan so that you will understand why the last post was on numbers and this one is on Leviticus.... I am reading from the Daily Bible which reorganizes the text of the Bible into chronological order. In this case, it reorganized all of the Torah's laws into one reading and placed it at the end of the Isrealites time in the wilderness.

Now back to the regularly scheduled rambling... The section I read last night covered the bringing of the tithe to Jerusalem and it covered the feasts & celebrations which God prescribed for his people. The mixing of these two in my head was interesting.

THE TITHE: The instructions for tithing was to bring 1/10th fo the best of the produce of their crops and to bring the firstborn of the animals in their herds. It didn't say to give these to the temple, but instead it said to eat them at the place to be chosen for His Name ..... that would be Jerusalem. So their "tithe" was to supply food for a feast! For those who lived so far that the transportation of the crops and animals would prove burdensome, they were allowed to sale the crops and animals, go to the "chosen place" (Jerusalem) and buy "whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice." (Deut 14:26 from New International Version)

So they brought a feast to Jerusalem and shared it together - in God's presence....

FEASTS: They were told to celebrate three feasts. The feast of Unleavened Bread, the Feast of Weeks (Harvest or First-Fruits) and the Feast of Tabernacles (or Booths) So, I am wondering if they brought the tithe to Jerusalem when they celbrated one or more of the feasts. If so, it seems like the Feast of Tabernacles would be the one. In this feast they are ordered to come to Jerusalem and stay for 8 days living in booths (tents) They were commanded to "BE JOYFUL" as they celebrated this feast! They were told to gather fronds from Palm Branches and to wave them! This was the celebration happening when Jesus made his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. To me it sounds like fun! Almost like a week long tailgate party, except rather than being crazy about football, they people were supposed to be crazy about God.

I guess the closest thing we have now, to these feasts of old is big worship events, like Promise Keepers and Women of Faith.So participation in these would be in line with the celebration God desires - He must approve. When is the next one?

Catching up in Numbers

I've let myself slip a little behind the last few days, but today I caught up. Actually I used the extra time I had due to canceling our Friday night Bible study, to catch up on my reading. Within today's reading were two sections which stood out to me.

In one passage, the Israelites have finished building the ark of the covenant and the tabernacle. They have finished receiving all the instructions on how to worship God. God himself, dwelling within a visible cloud, went on to lead them as they continued towards Canaan. There could have been no doubt that God himself was with them...... Yet, when they arrive at Canaan, 10 of the 12 spies cause the whole community to doubt that they could conquer the inhabitants of Canaan....

Reading their story some 4 or 5 thousand years later, I have a hard time believing their unbelief. These same adults saw the plagues against the Egyptians.....

Hmmm, I am thinking through my thoughts right now. Back when Moses was born and during the 80 years he was raised up to be their deliverer, were the Isrealites asking to be rescued? I am going to go check on that right now...... Be right back.....

I'm back..... In Exodus at the end of Chapter 2, while Moses is off in Midian, we find:
Ex 2:23-25 "During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. 24 God heard their groaning and he remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac and with Jacob. 25 So God looked on the Israelites and was concerned about them."

I am thinking that perhaps the Israelites were groaning because of the oppresion and were asking for help, but they probably had different plans in mind than God had. What they had in mind was probably like me wishing to win the lottery. What God had in mind was more like me going out into a new career in a new city and carving out a good living for myself. When God showed up the Egyptians, they were thinking they had won the lottery and that they would head off to the promised land and that God would do the same for them there. Whenever they encountered any problems, any discomfort, any fear or danger...... they realized that they had not won the lottery after all. They had won the opportunity to go with God into a new life in a new land. Their opportunity would require them to become a military power. It would require them to govern themselves. It would require them to establish their own communities and culture. All of this would have been led and designed by God. But God set it up so that going into Canaan would not be as easy as marching out of Egypt.

I guess maybe this is why they kept longing to go back to Egypt. It may have been slavery, but it was easy. They did their work, the Egyptians provided their needs. No ambition needed. No dangers needed to be faced....

I can remember being an aerospace engineer, but not being particularly excited about it. Nor was I being used by God. As the programs I worked on winded down others went off in search of new opportunities. Some moved out of state or into new communities. I just stayed were I was. Unwilling or unable to force myself to go out and try something new and possibly harder. Eventually God allowed me to be laid off. 10 months of unemployment opened my mind to be open to whatever God had in store. Teaching was the new career, with the new battles to win and new territoryto conquer (and new education to obtain.) My current promised land is indeed a better place than where I was before. I am glad I did not insist on going back. God could have allowed me to go back and stay there...... until I died..... (well retired)

One footnote: At the point of my layoff in 1989, there was another engineer hired one week prior to me. He started one week prior to me only because at our hiring, I had to give notice to a prior employer and he did not. That other man was a dear Christian friend and our families go way back. I know that my mother was a little upset wher her boy was laid off and the friend's boy was not. It was God's plan. That friend is still there.

Worship Old and New

My readings for the last week or so have been in Leviticus and Numbers. Frankly, I am having a hard time finding much to think about. Other than one nagging thought: Reading the detailed instructions God gave the Israelites regarding the construction of the tabernacle, and the Ark of the Covenant, and the garments for the priests, and the detailed and specificity of how these things were to be used in worship...... It almost makes me wonder if it is the same God. Now before you accuse me of heresy, I know it is the same God. But the God of Moses, the God of the Old Testament required many specific acts of obedience of His people and He layed out a specific format for corporate worship. The God of the New Testament (same God) is one requiring absolute devotion without specifying the details of what that would look like as far as corporate worship...

The Israelites were only sometimes able to follow the rules of worship. Worse yet, it was possible to follow the rules for worship without having hearts in worship. Thus even their leaders could be missing the reason and purpose for the rules themselves - leading to hypocrisy.

Of course the modern (or post modern?) church has its own traditions, fomulas and 'rules' for worship. There is still the danger of following the rules and missing the object of our devotion - the reason to worship - our thankfullness for the person and works of God.