"The Coffee Shop" #6

Good morning, my dear friends. This morning, my devotional guide takes me to 2 Sam 24. There is an important lesson here in reading and understanding the Bible. Don't jump to conclusions.

2 Sam 24: 1 "And again the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel, and he moved David against them to say, Go number Israel and Judah."

The parallel portion is 1 Chron 21:1 "And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel."

Then in James 1:14 we read: "But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed." And importantly, in verse 13: "Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man."

Some have used these verses to show a contradiction in the scriptures. We cannot use the original languages to alter what we read. Here we must let scripture interpret scripture. James makes it clear that God does not tempt man. Samuel says that God is the directing influence here, and the writer of the Chronicles yet accuses Satan of this deed.

All statements are true, let that be clear. God allowed the human writers to express themselves in scripture, and still record truth. In studying the word we ought not jump to conclusions. In our lives, we ought not jump to conclusions. It is a perfect example of NOT using proof texts to establish doctrine.

Samuel saw everything happening at the hand of God and so he wrote. The Chronicler was recording the historical even from his persepective, and James gives us the absolute truth, that God does not tempt man.

In theology we deal with this in the realm of God's permissive will. God allows some things to happen in the scheme of things. He does not create them, but allows them.

All statements are thus true, and the Bible does not mislead us as to the source of evil, and the fact that we ourselves allow our evil nature to lead us down wrong paths. This should cause us to pause and think about everything we do.

After the armies were counted, David realized that he had no grounds for pride, but rather humiliation. In verse 10 he says, "And David said unto the Lord, I have sinned greatly in that I have done: and now, I beseech thee, O Lord, take away the iniquity of thy servant; for I have done very foolishly." David adds to the understanding of this passage in relation to others. He knows who the temptor is; it is the devil himself, and it was in his own heart. Here we see conscience being our guide in the paths of right. David was gracious enough to realize he was wrong, laments his error and is prepared to receive the penalty for his errors. Are we ready also? In verse 14 he says: "...let us fall now into the hand of the Lord:...let me not fall into the hand of man..."

Let us be prepared always to "fall into the hand of the Lord..." and never "into the hand of man" Let us give ourselves completely over to God and never to our own wiles and manouvering and manipulation.

God bless, and may God's word ever ring true into our ears and truly be a lamp unto our feet.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Jim: Morning! That was a good post and much food for thought. I was always told that the Bible was not a good book to use for debate because a person could make it out to mean anything they wanted to and usually if the Bible is being debated, no one is going to change their mind about its interpretation.

rsr: Blackbird approached me about a new invention of his and I think he wants to market it as a pyramid company. He has invented a lotion that gets the stink off your hands after you use "Power Bait" to catch fish. He wants ME to handle the sales since I am now an expert on stink! He even has a name for the new shop, "Katfish Korner". The lotion does get the stink off, but now my hands smell suspiciously like diesel fuel. Could you check into this please?

Sherrie: I didn't stop in yesterday because we were in the midst of taking out an old fuse box and installing a new breaker box. That entailed disconnecting all the wires and reconnecting them. My PC doesn't work without electricity so I was having withdrawal symptoms. We will be installing the new wire this week and adding some outlets etc. so I will surely be coming in for a DDP whenever I need a break! I was going to do more painting outside today, but it is raining so I may hang around for a bit.

Cheers to all!
The stinky hands, fishing, rewiring, painting, Grandma,
Sue

 

Rod: So sorry to hear about the bus accident. I have always thought they should do the school buses like we do our church buses. We have a driver to drive and a Captain to take care of the children. It is hard to keep your eyes on the road while settling a dispute in back of you.

 

So true, Sue. Having spent a good share of my life in the academic community, I have learned not to debate the scriptures. It is far better to speak of one's personal experience in the Lord. People are more fascinated with your life experience than they are in the actual scriptures.

I once did a series in a church about the seeming contradictions in the Bible. A long-time member came to me after and said this shook his faith. I immediately wondered how deeply he believed to begin with. I was showing how wrong they were and it shook his faith. We must be so careful when handling the word.

You can see by this passage how easily one can lock on to a seeming error in concept, when in fact, the whole of scripture makes the truth quite evident.

Cheers Sherrie. Mind those storms. It is not worth losing a computer. Take care.

Cheers,

Jim

 

No money up front rsr! Blackbird is being very secretive about this which is why I wanted you to check it out. Oh...and that smell? That's not trouble. That is the "Power Bait" that is still on my hands.

 

(Since we talk about the weather so much in the Coffee Shop, I thought I would post this. I just got it in an email today. It talks about certain states but, acutally, it fits a lot of states this past month!)

For those of you who aren't familiar with tornadoes and are hearing news coverage of this, I put together a short glossary to help you understand.

Fujita Scale: Scale used to measure wind speeds of a tornado and their severity.

F1: Laughable little string of wind unless it comes through your house, then enough to make your insurance company drop you like a brick.
People enjoy standing on their porches to watch this kind.

F2: Strong enough to blow your car into your house, unless of course you drive an Expedition and live in a mobile home, then strong enough to blow your house into your car.

F3: Will pick your house and your Expedition up and move you to the other side of town.

F4: Usually ranging from 1/2 to a full mile wide, this tornado can turn an Expedition into a Pinto, then gift wrap it in a semi truck.

F5: The Mother of all Tornadoes, you might as well stand on your front porch and watch it, because it's probably going to be quite a last sight.

Meteorologist: A rather soft-spoken, mild-mannered type person until severe weather strikes, and they start yelling at you through the t.v.: "GET TO YOUR BATHROOM OR YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!"

Storm Chaser: Meteorologist-rejects who are pretty much insane but get us really cool pictures of tornadoes. We release them from the mental institution every time it starts thundering, just to see what they'll do.

Tranquilizer: What you have to give any dog or cat who lived through the May 3rd, 1999 tornado every time it storms or they tear your whole house
up freaking out of their minds.

Moore, Oklahoma: A favorite gathering place for tornadoes. They like to meet here and do a little partying before stretching out across the rest of the Midwest.

Bathtub: Best place to seek shelter in the middle of a tornado, mostly because after you're covered with debris, you can quickly wash off and come
out looking great.

Severe Weather Radio: A handy device that sends out messages from the National Weather Service during a storm, though quite disconcerting because
the high pitched, shrill noise just as an alarm sounds suspiciously just like a tornado. Plus the guy reading the report just sounds creepy.

Tornado Siren: A system the city spent millions to install, which is really useful, unless there's a storm or a tornado, because then of course you can't hear them.

Storm Cellar: A great place to go during a tornado, as it is almost 100% safe, though weigh your options carefully, as most are not cared for and are homes to rats and snakes.

May-June: Tourist season in Oklahoma, when people who are tired of bungee jumping and diving out of airplanes decide it might be fun to chase a
tornado. These people usually end up on Fear Factor.

Barometric Pressure: Nobody really knows what this is, but when it drops a lot of pregnant women go into labor, which makes for exciting moments as their husbands are trying to drive them to the hospital and dodge tornadoes at the same time.

Cars: The worst place to be during a tornado (next to a mobile home). Yes, you can out run a tornado in your car...unless everybody on the road decides to do the same thing, and then you're in grid lock.

A Ditch: Supposedly where you're supposed to go if you find yourself without shelter or in your car during a tornado. Theoretically the tornado
is supposed to pass right over you, but since it can lift a 20 ton truck and up root a three hundred year old tree, I'd bet my life on out-running it in a car.

Mobile Home: Most people are convinced mobile homes send off some strange signal that triggers tornadoes, because if there's one mobile home park in a hundred mile radius, the tornado will find it.

Earthquake: What any Californian would rather go through on any scale of severity than face a tornado.

Tornado: What any Oklahoman would rather go through on any scale of severity than face an earthquake.

Twister: Slang for 'tornado' and also the title to a movie starring Helen Hunt, which incidentally everyone thought was corny and unrealistic until May 3rd, 1999.

Power Flash: One of the most reliable ways to track a tornado at night, it's the term used when the tornado hits a power line and a bright light
flashes. It's also the emotion experienced by meteorologists when they get to make the call to interrupt prime-time must-see t.v. and a million dollars worth of advertising to track a storm for viewers.

Here are some phrases you might want to learn and be familiar with:

"We'll have your electricity restored in 24 hours," which means it'll be a week.

"We're going to be out for a week, so buy a lot of supplies and an expensive generator," means it's going to be on in twelve hours, probably as soon as you return from Wal-Mart.

"It's a little muggy today." Get outta town. It's getting ready to storm.

"There's just a slight chance of severe weather today, so go ahead and make your outdoor plans." Ha Ha ha ha ha.

And Rene's BIG TIP of the day:

When your electricity goes out, and you go to bed at night, be sure to turn off everything that was on before it went out, or when it is unexpectedly
restored in the middle of the night, every light, every computer, your dishwasher, your blow dryer, your washing machine, your microwave and your
fans will all come on all at once.

1) You'll just about have a heart attack when they all come on at the same time, waking you from a dead sleep.

2) Your breakers will blow, leaving you in the dark once again.


Sue

 

This has happened to me several times. It does about give you a heart attack when everything in the house comes back on at the same time after you have gone to sleep.

 

hi mom how is it going guess what sad thing i heard this moring four murders in the 24 hours around pb and malden love ya

 

It was a lot cooler here this morning. I had to get jeans out for the boys to wear today to replace the shorts they were going to wear. I think it was in the lower 50's. We got some rain last night, but I don't know how much.

 

A hearty welcome, Jennifer, to the BaptistBoard and in particular to the Coffee Shop. Your mum warned us,,,I mean.....told us that you would be coming.

If you take us with the proverbial grain of salt you will find us affable most of the time.

Cheers, from Tamworth, Ontario, Canada and formerly from Ye Olde England. So, you must type slowly for me to understand.

 

*yawn*

I've got good news! Adam is taking his birthday (was able to) so that we could spend it together....even better news! I can use tomorrow to shop for the wedding!

 

When is the big day? Is it going to be a summer wedding?

 

Jennifer, welcome to the Baptist Board Coffee Shop! You never know what the topic of discussion will be, but we always have a good time together here. I hope you enjoy it here also.

Rod

 

I just got a call from the furniture store delivery person. They will be bringing the new things tonight after work. I guess I will be moving all the old stuff out of the living room on my lunch break in just a few minutes to prepare. I called my wife to tell her and she was very excited. I hope it isn't raining tonight when it gets here.

 

I guess nobody else is here right now, so I am off to "lunch" (or heavy labor in this case I guess).