Monthly Archives: January 2012

God forbids certain sexual practices (Leviticus 18)

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Bible Summary:

God told Moses to tell the people of Israel to follow His rules and commandments, including not having sexual intercourse with:

  • Any of your relatives – mother, sister, step-sister, half-sister, aunt, grand-daughter, daughter-in-law, or sister-in-law,
  • With your wife’s sister as long as your wife is living,
  • With a woman during her period,
  • With another man’s wife,
  • With an animal, and
  • No man is to have sexual relations with another man.

My Thoughts:

This Law of Moses is clear that incest, adultery, bestiality and homosexuality are forbidden by God.

Ask and you will receive (Matthew 7: 7-12)

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Bible Summary:

Jesus says, “Ask, and you will receive; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened.” Just like you give good things to your children, God gives good things to those who ask. He also says the Law of Moses means to do for others what you would want them to do for you.

My Thoughts:

Action: Everything you want in life requires action – ask, seek, open, etc. If you want to make things better, step up and take action. Take a chance, you will be pleasantly surprised what happens.

Good for good: I believe Jesus put a different spin on Moses’ “eye-for-an-eye” law in this passage changing it to “good for good”. If you do good for others, you will receive good.

Madonna creating schools in Malawi

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The singer Madonna’s charity called Raising Malawi is teaming up with buildOn to create ten new schools to teach 1,000 students each year in the east Africa country of Malawi.  Madonna has a special place in her heart for Malawi having adopted two children from this AIDS ravaged country where over 500,000 children have been orphaned from the epidemic. It is great to see entertainers investing their money in great causes like this.  In her spare time, Madonna will be singing during the Super Bowl halftime show this Sunday.  You go girl!

Learn more in the Madonna plans 10 schools in Malawi with new partner story at Reuters.

Global warming’s positive side effect

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Global warming is reducing Arctic ice enough to open sea lanes for months, creating shorter shipping routes across the “polar shortcut” that can save a third of the cost and half the time sending goods from Russia to China through the Suez Canal. This northern route is only open a few months per year and requires large ice breakers, but it is pirate-free.  Read the full Arctic ice melt lifts hopes for Russian maritime trade story at Reuters.

Life of every living thing is in blood (Leviticus 17)

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Bible Summary:

God commands Moses to have the people of Israel only kill offering animals at the entrance to the Tent of God’s presence or they will no longer be considered one of His people. At all other times, they must only eat meat without blood still in it. “The life of every living thing is in the blood.”

My Thoughts:

Interconnectedness: “The life of every living thing is in the blood” touches on the idea that all things are interconnected, like when we eat vegetables and the living plant material becomes part of our body and blood. After animals die, their bodies decay into dirt, which is blown around by wind or carried for miles by water in rivers and streams. This dirt becomes part of the soil that grows the food we and farm animals eat, so a part of every living thing is in side of us.

Love and perseverance transcend generations

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Spend time reading to your children. Show them love and encouragement. Most of all, persevere through adversity even if it takes three jobs to support your family. The lessons will carry on for a hundred generations or more. The example of your family can influence many people to come. Read more in the Love is the ultimate hero editorial at The Princeton Packet.

Jesus says to judge not (Matthew 7: 1-6)

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Bible Summary:

Jesus says not to judge others or God will judge you the same way. He asks why you point out the speck in your brother’s eye and miss the log in your own. “You hypocrite!” He further says not give what is holy to dogs, they will only turn on you, and not to throw pearls to pigs, they will only trample them.

My Thoughts:

Parables: Not judging others is a pretty clear message from Jesus, but many others are less direct and in parable form, like the part about the dogs and pigs. This could mean many things, like if you try to speak the word of God to people who do not believe, they will only attack you and speak against your pearls of wisdom.

Artist scapegoat for stolen piece returned to France

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The good news is the U.S. returned a piece of art stolen three decades ago to France. The artwork was a monotype by impressionist Camille Pissarro. The bad news is that artist Sharyl Davis who unknowingly bought the stolen piece is out $100,000 in legal fees, plus the value of the painting around $60,000 to $80,000 while the thief is living on a boat in the south of France.  This “scapegoat” story somewhat goes along with the Leviticus 16 story.    You would think that someone (French or U.S. government) would help Ms. Davis, but unfortunately financial victims rarely get any compensation. Read the U.S. returns stolen Pissarro artwork to France story at Reuters.

Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16)

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Bible Summary:

After Aaron’s sons die from offering unholy fire, God tells Moses how Aaron is to purify the people of Israel from their sins once each year. Aaron must take a bath, put on his priestly outfit, and bring two goats provided by the community for the offerings. He is also to sacrifice a bull for his family’s sins.

Aaron is to randomly choose between two labeled stones to decide which goat to sacrifice to God and which to send out to the desert to take away the people’s sins, ritually transferred to the “scapegoat”, with it.

My Thoughts:

Yom Kippur: This Day of Atonement is also known as Yom Kippur, the holiest day celebrated by the Jews each year. Learn more about Yom Kippur at Wikipedia.

Scapegoat: It is amazing how many phrases and ideas like “scapegoat” originated from the Bible. Scapegoats are innocent people set up to take the blame for someone else’s misdeeds, just like the innocent goat was set up to take away the sins of the people of Israel.