Joel Frederick: February 2009

Thursday, February 26, 2009

The Magic Purse.

I've been reading a story called "The Magic Purse" by Tim Thompson on the Emerging Parents blog.

I may have heard it before but the moral of the story is really good. You can read all four parts here, here, here and here.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Mold and Mildew

With news stories like this one which starts:

A single mother with 8-year-old triplets says she and her children became ill from black mold after a contractor improperly installed insulation in her condex.

I was surprised to hear this on the Daily Audio Bible this morning...

God spoke to Moses and Aaron: "When you enter the land of Canaan, which I'm giving to you as a possession, and I put a serious fungus in a house in the land of your possession, the householder is to go and tell the priest, 'I have some kind of fungus in my house.' The priest is to order the house vacated until he can come to examine the fungus, so that nothing in the house is declared unclean. When the priest comes and examines the house, if the fungus on the walls of the house has greenish or rusty swelling that appears to go deeper than the surface of the wall, the priest is to walk out the door and shut the house up for seven days. On the seventh day he is to come back and conduct another examination; if the fungus has spread in the walls of the house, he is to order that the stones affected by the fungus be torn out and thrown in a garbage dump outside the city. He is to make sure the entire inside of the house is scraped and the plaster that is removed be taken away to the garbage dump outside the city. Then he is to replace the stones and replaster the house.

If the fungus breaks out again in the house after the stones have been torn out and the house has been scraped and plastered, the priest is to come and conduct an examination; if the fungus has spread, it is a malignant fungus. The house is unclean. The house has to be demolished—its stones, wood, and plaster are to be removed to the garbage dump outside the city. Anyone who enters the house while it is closed up is unclean until evening. Anyone who sleeps or eats in the house must wash his clothes.

But if when the priest comes and conducts his examination, he finds that the fungus has not spread after the house has been replastered, the priest is to declare that the house is clean; the fungus is cured. He then is to purify the house by taking two birds, some cedar wood, scarlet thread, and hyssop. He will slaughter one bird over fresh water in a clay pot. Then he will take the cedar wood, the hyssop, the scarlet thread, and the living bird, dip them in the blood of the killed bird and the fresh water and sprinkle the house seven times, cleansing the house with the blood of the bird, the fresh water, the living bird, the cedar wood, the hyssop, and the scarlet thread. Last of all, he will let the living bird loose outside the city in the open field. He has made atonement for the house; the house is clean.

While there is a spiritual application there, I find the medical application more interesting. Some time ago, on the "Extreme Home Makeover", the house was causing a child to become ill because it was filled with mold. It amazes me that God knew this was a problem and made it part of his law of obedience.

Yesterday went to the dogs...

Yesterday consisted of lifting a flyball box in and out of the lanes and running Bailey.

You can see my friend and team mate Brian on the flyball box in this video.

Bailey is the fourth dog to run. You can see me in the back trying to get her to move faster. You can watch other videos that Marj took yesterday here and here.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Context, Context, Context.

I ran across a passage that reinforced "context" in my mind yet again. Over the past year or so, I have read several books that have mentioned the importance of context in the Bible. Not just the context of the passage itself but the historical context the writer was writing in.

These books include "How to Read the Bible for All It's Worth", "What Saint Paul Really Said", "The Challenge of Jesus", "The Blue Parakeet" and my latest read, "Velvet Elvis".

To summarize the explanation a little bit, let's look at a passage that I read this morning. In 2 Cor 4:5, we can read

You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake.

Admittedly, that one verse is taken out of it's context in many ways but what I want to show is right there. I'll encourage you to click the link above and read the chapter before continuing.

In "Velvet Elvis", Rob Bell stresses that the Bible is written in a particular place, in a particular time, to a particular people. That is definitely the case here. Let's look at one simple phrase in that verse... "That Jesus is Lord". What does that say to you? Here is what I hear now when I read it...

Paul is living in a time where you are to worship Caesar with a punishment of death if you don't. Caesar said he is Lord or God (he declared himself to be God or a son of God). To say or preach that Jesus is Lord means that Caesar is not. That means that every time Paul speaks, he is marking himself for death.

Now, go back and take a look at passages like Romans 6:23 and Romans 10:9 again. Read the chapter around the verse and read them in the cultural context I just touched on above. Or go down through this list with that perspective.

A Flyball Weekend.

This weekend is a flyball weekend in Loveland (and busier).

What is flyball? Check out this video...

On Saturday, I got to race with Bailey, a dog owned by Carrie. I got to race Bailey a few times last month. You can see Carrie helping me start Bailey in the picture below.