Category Archives: Bible

Finally Finished Reading the Bible!

20171012-213140-4

Nine years ago, I decided that I would read the Bible clear through. I thought I could do it in a year reading three or four chapters a day. Instead it has taken me about nine. If I had averaged one chapter a day I could have read the 1189 chapters in a little over three years so you can see I fell off the pace a little bit. I kept coming back to it though.

I skipped around quite a bit alternating the Old Testament with the New.

It was interesting. I read all the parts of the Bible that maybe are considered “filler” for one reason or another. All the dietary laws for instance. All the genealogy for another. I don’t have any big spiritual insights for reading it all. But the book does have great power. I can sense that. Somehow, it all hangs together and tells a story of a living God who acted in history to make great things happen.

My favorite books, Genesis in the Old Testament. The beginning and the subsequent stories are wonderful. Man keeps messing up and God keeps forgiving and blessing us. Sorry I am not a biblical literalist. The universe is several billion years old, and I believe in natural selection, and evolution and all the rest.  The important thing is that God put us here and we are his people. Whether it took him a day or nine billion years matters not a whit to me. People who agitate otherwise are just pursuing, wittingly or unwittingly,  the Wedge Strategy, designed to gather political power.

My favorite book of the New Testament is the Gospel of John. So mysterious. I love the questions more than answers. I have always distrusted people that had have all the answers. I want to hear good questions. That is where you learn things.

My favorite Bible Story, that is a no-brainer. Chapter 37 of Ezekiel, the Valley of Dry Bones story. Where Ezekiel in a dream like state has a vision of dry bones coming together and getting covered by tendons, flesh, and skin and coming alive. I love it. I see and hear all these bones snapping and crackling together and coming to life. It has been my favorite story most of my life.

Strange stories? The Bible has a bunch of them. Talking Donkeys, bears killing children for mocking a bald man,  and check out Genesis  6:1-4 about the Sons of God marrying the “Daughters of Men.” Uhh, you ever hear a sermon on that?

Anyhow, I am glad that I did it, and although it took me quite a while to get it done, it did involve lots and lots of reading. I can’t say that I made any great spiritual insights. In my opinion, an important part of Bible Study is discussion and focus. Reading it the way I did, one loses a lot of context. So I doubt I will do it again. I think I will look around for Bible Studies or Bible reading programs where I can get some more background, discussion, and context on what I am reading.

But hey, if you want to give it try, you might want to sign up at Operation Read Bible

Perfect Pairings – Oil

IMG_8317
Horizontal drilling into the Cana Woodfod Shale, Canadian County, Oklahoma, fairly recently

Psalm 114-14-15

14 He causeth the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man: that he may bring forth food out of the earth;

 15 And wine that maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine, and bread which strengtheneth man’s heart.

Don’t worry folks, I haven’t gone off into the deep end. I am reading a book about the history of the oil industry and this scripture was telegraphed as a prearranged signal by a predecessor company of British Petroleum that a well they were drilling in what is now Iran was successful. Personally I think the verse refers to olive oil.  As part of the research for this post I found that there are lots of swindlers who use vague Bible quotes such as this to try and fleece trusting people out of their money by promising amazing insights into where the oil is by using the Bible only. And that brings to mind another verse:

16 “Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves. Therefore be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

 Matthew 10:16

IMG_7466
This is a well fed coyote, not a wolf, that I met on a geocaching excursion in Bixby, Oklahoma.

Perfect Pairings

Searching for Hidden Treasures

My favorite hobby is geocaching. Finding things that people have hidden out in our world.

20101001_68

Geocaching has led me down many trails and paths.

Elf Door

I’ve come across surprising things like this elf door.

20100407_13

And cleverly hidden containers.

20101001_48

Just to find the containers, big and small.

20100719_12

I’ve stuck my hands into crevices where I really shouldn’t have. (I’ve been to the doctor more than once because of ill considered decisions.)

20101001_50

I’ve come across many creatures.

IMG_6031

Some small and cute

IMG_7466

Others who would eat the small and cute

20100521_21

Some, I’ve helped across the road.

20100521_24

And others that I’ve just greeted and left alone.

IMG_5761

Just imagine how wise I’d be if I had spent a fraction of this time looking for wisdom.

“If you seek it like silver, and search for it as for hidden treasures – then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God”

Proverbs 2:4-5

Perfect Pairings

Spiritual Sundays

Geocaching 101 if you are wondering what it is.

“Finding Darwin’s God” by Kenneth R. Miller

I have to tell you that I have been a little lax lately. Until this past summer I had thought that the whole Genesis versus Evolution thing was settled a long long time ago. I knew that some of the Genesis literalists proponents when they finally figured out that it was actually against the law to teach religion in public schools tried to make something up called “Creation Science” and try to get their narrow religious views accepted as official State Dogma but they were blocked on that. Then they tried to distance themselves from religion and they recreated their beliefs as “Intelligent Design.” That thankfully has been blocked also.
Anyway I came to find out this past summer that people, educated people,  really do take this stuff seriously. They think that it really is science. They talked about “irrudicible complexity,” something I had never heard of, and claimed that for all the millions of fossils found there were zero fossils of “transitional species” (I had never heard of a transitional species.) They also said that “more and more scientists are finding out that evolution is wrong and that there had to be a designer.” I had never heard of that either. They also talked about a lawyer named Johnson who wrote a book who logically proved that Evolution is impossible. (A lawyer, a professional spinner, spinning, instead of a scientist in his lab?)
What’s the deal? I suscribe to Scientific American and I thought I was reasonably on top of things. Evolution as a biological theory that explained how life changes was thriving I thought. Paleontology looked like a thriving  field also. I mean people pay big bucks to see dinosaurs.
I was also puzzled because you see I am a believer in God and Jesus. In fact, I’m pretty conservative theologically. I like the basics. No fuzzy wuzzy, light some candles, get the incense smoking, me, we, you and the universe are one  nonsense for me. God created the heavens and the earth, he created you and me, he sent his son Jesus to die on a cross for our sins. That’s where I am at. I also believe that there is not one iota of conflict between science and the Bible. (Gasps!)
I had to hit the books, or rather start using Google. Lots of stuff out there. What I noticed though is that the creation scientists and the intelligent designers are not really into laboratories and peer reviewed journals. They are also great at using scientific sounding words to advance their beliefs. I am ashamed to admit that I’m not qualified to evaluate what they were claiming. I needed somebody or something to help me along.
I found “Finding Darwin’s God” by Kenneth R. Miller. Miller is not only a Biology Professor at Brown University, he is a Believer.
The book is great. In the first part of the book he takes on the so called scientific arguments of creationists and disposes of them in an even handed manner. He is not mean about it. I’m not really going into it here. Read the book! Besides that is not the best part of the book. Later on he talks about what the real problem some people have with evolution. Part of the problem is that some people including scientists are adamant that evolution proves that God doesn’t exist. My opinion, reinforced by reading this book, is that it does no such thing. Many scientists have an arrogance that some people of faith just cannot stand. Plus, some think evolution takes much of the magic out of the world. (Personally I think that creation science and intelligent design, and the young earth theories totally destroy the magic of creation and the universe.)
The more speculative last part of the book goes into his beliefs about God and evolution and the limits of science.
Why do I worry about this stuff so much? I worry about because it matters. People can believe whatever they want but when it gets to teaching wrong science in our schools I draw the line. Teaching magical science in our schools teaches fuzzy thinking which this country has way too much of anyway. I think there is a link between the avoidance of evolution teaching in our classrooms and our slow erosion of technical capability in this country. I also think that teaching fake biology creates an extremely fragile religion. If we say we know the Bible is true because of (whatever) and then the youngster finds our for himself that is wrong, then does that mean that the Bible is not true anymore?
Easy to do. I remember as a teenager participating in a youth group where the leader tried to tell us that the world is only a few thousand years old. I told him that couldn’t be true. When I lived in Utah I remember seeing thin coal seams exposed on road cuts on our Boy Scout hikes where we could see the outlines of ferns and other plants.  The leader told me that Satan put them there to deceive us. I also told him about fossilized shellfish I had seen. He didn’t want to talk about it.
I recommend this book highly. It sheds much light on the manner in a thorough but gentle manner. I give it a four on a one to four star rating for this type book.
Note that this book was first published in 1999 but has recently been updated in 2007. I didn’t know that until I finished the book and was researching this post. I recommend getting the updated book.

Psalm 19:1-4

20090725_12

For the director of music. A psalm of David.
The heavens declare the glory of God;
the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
Day after day they pour forth speech;
night after night they display knowledge.
There is no speech or language
where their voice is not heard.a
Their voice goes out into all the earth,
their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun,
Psalm 19:1-4 (NIV)

Our Children

And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, “Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.

Mark 10:13-16 (ESV)

Fountains

John 4:14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

For other photos paired with scripture check out That’s Baloney.