Two Hour Delay today, more snow came last night, and we were surprised to find no one at church, so no Tuesday Bible study. Guess we should have called.

Today I have a few questions.

Yesterday I picked up the book Rabbi Jesus; An Intimate Biography by Bruce Chilton to read, got to page 6 where he said this! “The attraction between Joseph and Mary must have been immediate; they broke with custom  and slept together soon after meeting and well before their marriage was publically recognized.”

Down went the book, for this author, a professor of  Religion at Bard College is denying the virgin birth. Sigh. The concept of the book sounded interesting because Jesus was Jewish and I thought it would be interesting to see things from that point of view. But this bit of error makes the whole book suspect.

Told my husband and he said that this is another example of people trying to put God into a box, they believe he created the world, but they can’t believe that he is capable of Virgin Birth, geesh. How little this Chilton’s god must be.

Here is my question:

1. Has anyone read this book, and if so, how accurate is most of the information? I am inclined to be dubious if after six pages there is such an errror.

2. How do you handle reading such books with errors?

3. Is there any good book out there that gives an accurate description of Jesus from this point of view, explaining the Jewish traditions he valued? And I know the Bible is the best reference to this, but sometimes a good commentator will help to explain.

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So I am also still working on the Revelation III study by Kay Arthur, and that is exciting, as we are beginning to take the Old Testiment prophesies, Jesus’ prophesies and put them into context of Revelation, and peeking ahead to the last week of study I am a bit scared, because there is a massive timeline for all the prophesies and we are going to review all we have studied and put them in context of the timeline. When we have our last class on this, I will share what I have learned, but that won’t be for a few weeks (as sometimes classes are cancelled by snow as this class is at a house about an hour away from where I live).

Picked up a book I want to savor, a bit at a time: Andrew Murray on Prayer, by Andrew Murray. It is a compilation of several of his 31 day devotional books, the first being Abide in Christ which seems to be 31 days of looking at John 15:1-2.

Now this is something Biblical, thank God!!!! And it is so relevent to where I am, because abiding in Christ does not come easy to this independent, scared, and frightened soul. I am so prone to wander and try to do things in my own understanding, to maintain control (where I used to feel safe), so spending time thinking about abiding is right up my alley.

I was reading Chapter one and an interesting concept came to me, that Jesus wants to abide with us. Somehow I always thought it was just me choosing to abide with Christ, not realizing that it was two way, that he desires us. Oh, I know that some say Song of Solomon is Christ’s love letter to us, and I know John 3:16, but I guess my insecurity makes me keep wondering if God really wants to deal with me, with any of us. I know that in my own understanding, I would say forget it, given the way people treated Him. And I guess this comes under the Chilton category of limiting God. But I think it is so awesome for me to try and sort out just how God deals with me.

I guess because I grew up in a home with abuse, and was not loved or wanted and plainly told about that, that the fact that God loves and wants me is a difficult one to conceive. It is one that takes a mega dose of faith to believe.

Anyway, thanks for answering my questions.  And my last question:

What books are you reading that you are finding awesome?

Have a great day, my oldest son is playing patient vulture, wanting the computer before his brother gets up, so I am going to let him have it.

Have a great day.

Heather

My husband took this picture 2 1/2 hours ago and it is still snowing. We are still going to drive to Bible study tonight, hopefully it will be on. We have discovered a great secret, we get good Bible studies at difficult times.

By the way on the day of my baptism we had a blizzard like that and our pastor felt that he knew we were really wanting to be there to drive on our roads. We are up in the mountains and the roads are curvy. Because we are near a reservoir for New York City there are limits on what can be put on the roads to make them safe.

Heather

Flirting with limits.

Was reading Judges about Samson. Some thoughts.

Samson’s mom was visited by an Angel of God

This Angel of God tells her that she will have a child. But while pregnant she must carry out the requirements of the Nazirite vows, no wine, or similar drink, nothing unclean,

The child will be a Nazirite to God from the womb. What does that mean? According to Numbers 6 a man or a woman can take this vow to separate himself to the LORD.

Separate himself from wine and similar drink, shall not drink vinegar made from wine nor vinegar made from similar drink, or any grape juice, not eat fresh grapes or raisins. Shall eat nothing produced by the grapevine from seed to skin.

Shall not have a razor upon his or her head until the days of the vow are fulfilled,  for he has separated himself to the Lord and he shall be holy.

All the days that he (or she) is consecrated to God, he shall not go near a dead body, nor make himself unclean even for father or mother, brother or sister.

If anyone dies very suddenly beside him, he defiles his consecrated head and must shave his head on the day of his cleansing and on eithg day two turtledoves or two young pigeons to be offered .

At the end of the vow his head is shaved at the temple and the hair put on the fire. as a peace offering.

Now Samson was to be consecrated this way from birth. And as he grew, the LORD blessed him and the Spirit of the Lord began to move upon him.

(Heather’s comment, sometimes we begin with so many big vows and promises and keep them for a season, but then we begin to lose our focus, and take one step astray, and then another, and another, and before too long we are not what we used to be, This happened to Samson. I think we tempt God, or test God to see what we can get away with, much the same way that our kids test us.)

So what does Samson do? He sees a daughter of a Philistine and is attracted to her and wants to marry her. DANGER IN THIS, for God commanded the Israelites not to marry the Gentiles lest their idolatry begins to influence God’s people.  V. 14;4 Samson’s parents were against this, but God was going to use it to move against the Philistines. Remember David battled the Philistines.

So Samson  goes to visit his new found love, and comes across a lion which he tears apart. Later when passing the corpse of the lion a hive of bees had formed in the carcas and Samson reaches in and eats the honey. Remember that as a Nazirite he was not supposed to go near any corpses. This is violation one.

God did not strike him dead, and Samson still held onto his strength, so much so that nothing happened.

Samson’s wife wheedled out of Samson the answer to a riddle, using her womanly wiles. This cost Samson lots of property, and if he was not thinking in the flesh he would have seen what she was up to.

He also walked through a vineyard to get to his girl, and this is one who is not supposed to be near anything connected with grapes or wine.

Samson really does still maintain his strength and ends up killing many Philistines with the jaw of a donkey. Now we remember the donkey of Balaam, who spoke out to warn Balaam. Here Samson uses what is at hand, and because he Has the Spirit of the Lord on him, it was sufficient to do what God wanted him to do.

Samson was thirsty, God spit on the ground and a well was formed to revive his spirit. Samson called it En Hakkore or the well ofhim who cried (and God Heard me)

Samson falls in love with a harlot named Delilah – exposing himself to carnality, not staying set apart and holy for God.

Delilah tries to get out of him the reason for his strength. Samson must feel pretty invulnerable now, because he has already broken so many of his Nazirite vows and still maintained his strength, that he probably figures he is safe to meddle with the hair.

Samson teases Delilah, coming close to the source of his power. First binding with new bow strings. But that does not work. Samson is so caught up in carnality that he is not seeing clearly. At some point, if he had kept his distance, he would have seen that she was trying to set him up for the kill, but he doesn’t.

So then he says bind with new ropes, doesn’t work, but men were lying in wait.

Now he starts getting rather prideful and he says that if she would weave seven locks of hiar into the web of a loom, he would lose his strength. Here he is getting close to one of the sources of his vow. This doesn’t work. The Philistines come. Why doesn’t Samson see what is to come.

So then he tells Deliliah about the razor, and ends up being blinded, losing his power, and being put into forced labor.

(Heather’s note, we can take tiny steps away from where we are and end up in such a place of spiritual blindness. Samson thought that the power he had was in his hair, it really was in the holiness of being set apart for God and the Holy Spirit that gave Samson his power. By flaunting his Nazirite vow, Samson became spiritually blind, and that blindness caused a massive loss of power, and being put under subjection by the enemy).

But the enemy is not as observant as we think he is. Samson’s hair grew, and Samson prayed a powerful prayer. Judges 16:28 “..O LORD God, remember me, I pray, jsut this once, O God, that I may with one blow take vengence on the Philistines for my two eyes!”

Samson humbled himself before God, and the end result was the death of 3,000 Philistines. Once Samson aligned himself with God, he was used mightily.

What is cool is that Samson is mentioned in God’s Hall of Faith Hebrews 11:32. So many in that Hall of Faith stumbled in their walks, but God remembered their victories in Hebrews, and did not dwell on the failures they had.

I know that often I am tempted to say something, or do something that I might get away with, and think that it doesn’t matter if it isn’t noticed. Problem is that God notices. I keep praying that I am more in alignment with God’s word, and hopefully will learn more how to be Holy and Set apart for God.

If you don’t hear from me much tomorrow, know we have a snow day, it is probably 12-14 inches of snow and the kids will be home from school and Jim will still be trying to work, my time on the computer will be very limited. Hope you have a blessed day!

Heather