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  Bible reading for weekend Oct 29 -- 31 Oct 29 -- Hosea 2 and Psalm 119:97-120 Oct 30 -- Hosea 3-4 and Psalm 119:121-144 Oct 31 -- Hosea 5-6 and Psalm 119:145-176 ================   "I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings." (Hosea 6:6) ISRAEL'S ADULTERY (ch 2). Marital infidelity, along with sexual promiscuity, is no laughing matter. Hosea experienced this pain first hand. Human sexuality is a gift from God meant to be a dimension of a life-long covenant relationship between and man and a woman. Israel's idolatry -- which often included sexual activity in pagan worship -- was a breach of trust between God's people and himself. They took the blessings God gave them (crops, wealth, and prosperity) and offered it to foreign gods. Israel "...did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal" (v 8). This is true of a...

  Bible reading for weekend September 10 -- 12 Sep 10 -- Ezekiel 13 and Psalms 52-54 Sep 11 -- Ezekiel 14 and Psalm 55 Sep 12 -- Ezekiel 15 and Psalms 56-57 ================   "Because you have disheartened the righteous falsely, although I have not grieved him, and you have encouraged the wicked, that he should not turn from his evil way to save his life, therefore you shall no more see false visions nor practice divination. I will deliver my people out of your hand. And you shall know that I am the LORD." (Ezekiel 13:22-23) POPULAR RELIGION CONDEMNED (ch 13-14). Three groups are called out for condemnation: false prophets, and prophetesses, and some key leaders. They were all saying what the people wanted to hear -- things will be all right, peace and security is near, and your best life is arriving soon (cf Jer 6:14; Mic 3:5). It was a popular religion of the day (cf 1 Thess 5:3). All this originated in their own minds and imaginations, which they mistook for the Lord spe...

Bible reading for Aug 3.  Judges 17. "In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." (Judges 17:6)  STRANGE RELIGION. The people seem religious, but their faith has become a mash-up of outward forms and superstitions. They use the covenant name of God ( YHWH , usually translated "LORD" in modern versions), seek God's blessing, and honor a Levite as priestly. But look how bizarre all this has become: making metal images and household gods, building a shrine, hiring the Levite to be a paid holy man, and trusting all of this to gain prosperity. The sad irony of this, as would be seen by later Jewish readers, is that this young Levite comes from Bethlehem in Judea, the future home of King David and the prophesied birthplace of the Messiah (Micah 5:2). Verse 6 sums it up: "Everyone did what was right in his own eyes." It is not that these people were planning to be idolaters, it is that, given all their c...

After finishing The Year of Our Lord 1943: Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis, by Alan Jacobs, I was interested to read more from T. S. Eliot, one of the figures discussed in this excellent book.      I have begun Eliot's Christianity and Culture (1948).  In the first essay, "The Idea of a Christian Society", Eliot addresses the nature and consequences of Liberalism in both political and religious forms.  Here are few highlights...               "By destroying traditional social habits of the people, by dissolving their natural collective consciousness into individual constituents, by licensing the opinions of the most foolish, by substituting instruction for education, by encouraging cleverness rather than wisdom, the upstart rather than the qualified, by fostering a notion of getting on to which the alternative is a hopeless apathy, Liberalism can prepare the way for that which is its own negation: the artifi...

"These things you have done, and I have been silent;  you thought that I was one like yourself.  But now I rebuke you and lay the charge before you."   (Psalm 50:21 ESV)  "They substitute their own ideas of God for the true idea of God... Instead of taking God's own revelation of himself, they have substituted their own ideas." (Martyn Lloyd-Jones) Lloyd-Jones speaks of people within the church, people who regard themselves as religious (spiritual), who are interested in God.  Yet, they do so in a way that is guided by their own thoughts.  They are interested in God, but their beliefs are shaped by what they find acceptable or unthinkable to them about God. They say such things as, "I can't believe in a God of wrath, that's unthinkable." They conceive of God in ways to their liking.  They form their own ideas about the love of God, the justice of God, or the righteousness of God, according to their own preferences.  And as such, Lloy...