"What's in MY House?"

In MY House? Forget that. Where do you get off asking me a question like that? What's in YOUR house? Let's see how YOU like being asked such a thing!

Well, yeah, I suppose it was me who brought it up. It's just that it's such an invasive question because what I have in my house--and what you have in yours--is, of course, very telling. The answer actually speaks less about my house and more about what is in my mind, heart, and soul (but that's all).

I'll tell you what made me think about this question. It was a verse in the Bible. The book of Chronicles is a rehashing of Samuel's account of Israel's earlier history. Particularly about the period when David lived. It was written after the Jews returned from their long, 70 year, exile in Babylon. 

One of the events revisited from 1 Samuel is David's moving the Ark of the Covenant from Kiriath Jearim. A lot of stuff had happened regarding the ark. The Philistines had captured it but then became very eager to be rid of it and so they put it on a cart pointed toward Israel and let the cows haul it away without any personal guidance. Eventually, after another set of tragedies, it ended up being stashed away, somewhat desperately, in the house of a guy named Abinadab. His son, Eleazar, got stuck standing guard duty over the ark for at least twenty years, perhaps much longer! 

Finally, after he had been King for a few years, David felt it was time to bring the ark to Jerusalem, the new capital of a united Israel. When he did, in rather a careless fashion, calamity struck and the ark, once again, had to be temporarily housed. This time it was assigned to a Levite named Obed-Edom who lived along the road to Jerusalem. The ark remained in his house and under his care for a mere three months this time, but Obed-Edom having, and keeping, and guarding the ark of the covenant--in his house--led to the most productive quarterly report of Obed-Edom's life! 

 First Chronicles 13:14 tell us that...

         "The ark of God remained with the family of Obed-Edom in his house for three months, and the Lord blessed his household and everything he had."

Do I need to say any more? Or are you already looking around your house and thinking about what you keep in there, like I am doing right now?

I like trinkets and mementos and cool things. My desk might be described as "cluttered" when I fail to make sure my collection of symbolic curios is properly curated. I have a couple of small crosses and a great big nail, a little wooden fish, and an antique caliper, all displayed on the base of a monitor. Then I have a carnival glass bowl, a shifting sand thingy, a toy P-38 Lightning, and a chunk of wood with a favorite verse (1Kings 2:2a-3a) burned into it. Eclectic, right? And yes, I also managed to save room for a pen, a planner, a monitor, two lamps, and a laptop on my desk. 

Each thing in the office, like each item in the house must be regularly vetted. "Would God approve of 'this'?" I should be asking. Is each object 'innocent' or at least, innocuous? Am I keeping something that might bring me down, or could somehow keep me from honoring or pleasing my Lord? Does every article have a good purpose, and not a nefarious one? Am I keeping it, or is it keeping me?

Am I collecting things that I hope will provide me with what I should be trusting God to provide? Or worse; am I honoring and even exalting any created objects as if they could compare to my Creator? We don't really live too far from idol worship after all.

Obed-Edom kept the ark in his house when he was asked to. And we are told in the verse above that God "blessed his household and everything he had." Wow! I hope that God's blessing on "everything I have" is not hindered by his inventory of my house. I don't think God would have or even could have blessed O-E the way he did if he came through his abode and found pornography (or the desire for it) inside. 

Yes, when we open our lives to Jesus Christ, repenting and receiving his forgiveness, it can be said that we have invited him into each metaphorical room of our heart and asked him to "clean house." Over time, we should be letting go of every sinful inclination of the heart and mind and body until he makes us clean. And we continue then to confess each sin so we can remain clean and function well for his glory.

But we can also look around our very physical homes and ask him to help us gauge the true value or purpose of every thingumajig, doohickey, and whatchamacallit we own. Let us clean out our attics, closets and garages not just to get rid of the clutter (to make room for more of the same?) but let's also be sure there is nothing we own that serves only as a distraction or a temptation, and that would hinder God from pouring out his blessings.

"Seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

Mathew 6:33

Thank you for coming by!

Mike

By the way...MILLERWRITES copy is COPYRIGHTED. Why cut and paste when you can simply copy the link?

What Do You Know About Knowledge?

As I am wont to do (I am especially wont to use the word wont a lot!), I referred to a Bible verse when making a Facebook comment a few weeks ago.  Apparently, that is about the only unacceptable thing left to do.  My "friend" was upset that I "went there."  Another commentator thought my verse deserved another, so he offered what is probably his standard "in your face" Bible verse to make the point that he is more ignorant and rude even than I was purported to be.  I tried to query about the proper use of comments among friends, to discover whether a Facebook friend is only allowed to say what the other person thinks, or if friends might be expected to represent themselves.  I got my answer, so now I don't even bother reading my friend's many posts because I know now that whatever my reactions might be, they don't matter.

Enough venting already?  This all is mentioned because as part of the dialogue described above, one person who went and read the verses from Genesis that I had referenced made the outrageous claim that the story of the fall of man teaches us that God does not want us to have KNOWLEDGE!

From Genesis 2
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

It is this kind of ridiculously sloppy interpretation that bothers me.  If I said to the man: "Please do not drive the car of death and destruction to the store," would he be likely to claim that I told him "do not drive any car"?  I hope not.  If he is living his life without considering the impact of any adjectives, adverbs, modifiers, qualifiers, nor even the relevance of the nearest prepositional phrase , I imagine that he gets a lot of funny looks from people.  But no.  Regular communicative people who get along with language and logic and normal rational processes, sometimes seem to turn these off when the Bible is the subject.  

This is so sad because, when considered carefully (or with at least normal language skills) the Bible makes perfect sense.  A little deeper look into the verse above for example, tells a lot.

When I was much much younger, and first heard from Genesis 4:4 that "Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain," this King James understanding of the word "know" became a silly game with me and my friends.  We could actually talk about "sex" in public without anybody (under the age of 1 1/2) knowing (ooops! I just said sex again!) what we were giggling about.

But the understanding is important.  Adam KNEW his wife.  It means that the two of them had become intimate partners.  There was actually a permanent bonding of their spirits that could never be undone.  And this is the relationship with evil that God was hoping the first two people would never...know.  

Since God had declared His creative work to be "good," a couple of times during the creation week (until Eve had been fashioned; then God said His work was "very good"!), the nature of "good"  was already well known to Adam and Eve.  But evil is only the absence of good.  When good is covered, or ignored, or dismissed, evil appears.  It is this complete awareness of evil's corrupting influence that came to Adam and Eve when they decided to disobey God.

The Bible does not teach that "knowledge is bad."  To the contrary, many verses encourage the gathering of knowledge.  Check out a few of these encouraging words about knowledge, if you like.  But here in 2 Peter chapter one we see knowledge in its proper place as a tool, or stepping stone to something even better:

5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

The next time you hear or read some simplistic statement that would belittle the Bible, I hope you will pause long enough to consider the intrinsic value of any such claim.

PS  For more about the value and import of KNOWLEDGE, come back on April 22nd when S is for Science!

  


By the way...MILLERWRITES copy is COPYRIGHTED. Why cut and paste when you can simply copy the link?