Dream - The Old House

Hi There, here’s another dream to tantalize you. I was holding off on publishing this because I do not want to get too enamored with trying to figure out the deep meanings of these. But this one keeps coming to mind so here goes . . .

I dreamt that I was at a fairly large house with a good sized field by it. I was working in the yard with a Bob-Cat or a micro-sized skip-loader of some type, along with my friend COB. Then, I was in the house and I noticed how much dis-repair the house was in. The walls seemed weak and thin, the floors I remember had gaping holes. I remember thinking to myself if this was may have been due to disrepair or some previous calamity which had not gotten proper treatment.

I think we were going to take over the house and were assessing what repairs needed to be done. Or something like that - it’s a little hard to remember now that part. I do remember that the owners of the house were old friend of COB and HC and where leaving (in my dream it was the oscar party family but I think that was mostly symbolic for ‘old friends’). So I was there - in the hallway - and noticed a huge arc in the floor where it was quite ready to just fall asunder. In the kitchen I started to examine the walls and realized why the house was so wobbly - the walls were empty. The wallboard was the only thing that kept the walls up - I was astonished and a little bit afraid since I understood how fragile the house was.

/s/ B. /

Balaam (Cliff Notes)

I went through and pulled out some of the concluding statements made by Bob Deffinbaugh. in his set of essays on Balaam where are found Here, at bible.org. I encourage you all to read the story of Balaam which comes out of Numbers from Chapter 22 through chapter 25 or so.

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It is never more dangerous or foolish than to be for what God is against, and against what God is for.

Our challenge is not to “convert” God to be on our side, but to be converted, so that we may be on His side.
Getting away with sin for a season should in no way lead one to conclude that there will be no dire consequences in the future.

Many people who attempt to convince us they are eagerly seeking God’s will, but without success, are those who already know God’s will, and have no intention of doing it

The story of Balaam underscores the vital role which the Pentateuch plays for Old and New Testament saints alike

Beware of the grave danger of seeking to “use” God.

There is nothing more important than being on the right path, nor more dangerous than being on the wrong one.

When we neglect the Word God has spoken to us, we do so to our own peril.

Our Lord is the fulfillment of Israel’s blessings. We are blessed or cursed of God, based upon our response to Jesus Christ

Being close to God is not enough. As I read through these chapters in the Book of Numbers, I see Balaam getting closer and closer to the truth. He even speaks some of the most beautiful words of prophecy we could ever hope to read. And yet in spite of all this, we know that Balaam never comes to faith. He, like Balak, will perish because of his sin.

God is in complete control. He does what He wants, and what He says, He does.

This text does have much to teach us about leadership. Israel fell into sin, and God called for the death of all of its leaders. Its leaders were not doing their job, part of which was to remove evil from the nation. These leaders were guilty, and worthy of death for knowing about sin and doing nothing about it.

Leaders must not only be men of character, they must also be men who truly lead, men who take action when it is required

There is surely a lesson here for us concerning what we might call “sin in the camp.” There certainly appears to be great reluctance to deal with sin decisively. Sin is like a cancer—the longer we leave it alone, the more likely it is to kill us.

We learn from Numbers 25 that we are never more safe and secure than when we are hated and opposed by the enemies of God.

St. Paul said:“The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.” 8 And let us not be immoral, as some of them were, and twenty-three thousand died in a single day.

Our text teaches what observation confirms: sexual sin is often linked with spiritual adultery and apostasy. The statistics are alarming when it comes to how many pastors are leaving the ministry.

Balaam (Intro)

I am busy studying the life of Balaam. He was an old-testament prophet that has a number of chapters devoted to his prophecies and his life. Interestingly, even though God used him to speak, the prophet was not Jewish. This is one of those cases where God uses someone “outside” - more on that later. I added a link to a study on this character and I will likely report the interesting stuff I can get from this. I started thinking about Balaam a number of weeks ago and have not been able to get away from it. As I ponder the story I am beginning to see at least some answers to my previous question: how does God handle mixing grace, justice, and mercy so perfectly? (Again, a question I doubt I will fully satisfy in this life.)

But first, a quick synopsis of Balaam’s life.

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Once upon a time there was a powerful man named Balaama-Daama-Ding-Dong. He was magical sort of man, quite famous for his ability to cast spells on people and bringing fortune to all the big networks. He made American Idol look like a lawn-gnome sell-a-thon on the “Old Junk Channel.”

One day while Balaama-Daama-Ding-Dong was tending to his petunias some UN diplomats came by and asked to hire his services. “Sir - we will get you an exclusive deal with Gucci and a television prime-time show (like Dr. Phil) if only you will help us rid our selves of these top-hat toting priests. They look scary.” said the diplomats. Balaama-Daama thought he might but was not sure - his fine diplomacy skills got the UN diplomats to pay a heftier fee “we will make you like, like the great Letterman, forget that Phil stuff” they shouted. Balaama-Daama-Ding-Dong was warned by God that should not go with the UN but he sure did like his turtle-skin pants and that nifty 500-mulepowered engine in his limo ... Mr. Ed.

Balaama-Daama-Ding-Dong set out with his trusty steed, Mr Ed. Along the road the phone in Mr Ed rang and Balaama picked up, “a big bad dude from the heavens is here to kick your butt Balaaamamaaa-Daamama.” Oh my! exclaimed Balaama-Damaam-Ding-Dong and he quickly made peace with the big bad dude from the heavens. God let him off this time but warned him in no uncertain terms what would become of his derrière were he to pull more of his slick dealings with the UN folks. See, usually he could make his magic without getting into trouble - but it looked like the God of heavens was in this too, enough to send a big bad dude from heaven to “deal with it.”

So he continued on, but more careful this time, and mindful of God hawking his every move. He bought a bunch of chickens because he knew that God likes the smell of good barbecue. He figured that since God was a little agitated with him he better throw a party like the top-hat did ~ and that meant barbecue.

The UN diplomats were sent by the great King Baklava. Once there old Baklava asked Ding-Dong to curse those silly top-hat guys from out of town. (They were moving in and Baklava didn’t want his ocean view lot to be masked by dry-cleaner businesses that the new folks would surely bring to town.) Well, Balaama said “he would try” but “he didn’t think so” mainly because God had already sent “a big bad dude from heaven” to make sure that Balaama did no side-cursing on the matter. Mystic Balaama-Daama-Ding-Dong went out and placed his foil-wrapped cakes of vision before him and waited for a sign. He roasted chickens in twelve rotisseries as was the custom of top-hat priests, jerk spices and all. Then Balaama-Daama-Ding-Dong heard magic words, words that only God could tell him. Wow, this was powerful, more powerful than the TV-advise that he was used to doling out (even Dr. Laura was in awe of his brand of magic) . So, all Balaama-Daama-Ding-Dong could do was bless them, and bless them he did.

Even though Balaama-Daama-Ding-Dong did not give the UN the help they wanted he remained very popular and got his show in the end. He was so popular (and he loved to party!) that he started new television network. He called it BDDDTV - it was full of sexy music videos and offered 1-900 numbers and put on great parties for everyone. The top-hat warriors like to party too as they were were dressed for anything from a rave to black-tie events! Yes, everyone loved the parties. Yup, the top-hat folks like to party: they like to get drunk and were even known to “get it on.” God wasn’t too pleased with all this going on, especially since He knew that Balaama-Daama-Ding-Dong knew, and the “big bad dude from heaven” knew, that the top-hat folks are not to “get it on.” But Balaama didn’t care - he didn’t die by the big bad dude from heaven, what was going to happen now? His ratings were way up!

God got angry. First he sort of tore up the top-hat warriors camp, and started taking things apart. Once the troops got back into line and the drunkards - ehem - dealt with - then God started to deal with old Balaama. BDDDTV got into some scandal about leaking UN reports and went belly-up over night. Balaama was implicated in the mess and was unceremoniously swept away.

Past performance does not guarantee future results!

Grace and Justice

It will probably be many more months before I am able to post on this so I figured I might as well send out a “status update”. Like at work. Yeh! Hiya boss, yeah, the project is a lot of work, things happened and now I’m behind. Well, not so bad that the schedule is in utter chaos but we should talk just in case. (I’m a software engineer, btw.)

Oh no. Not that kind of update.

As I posted before I am working through the book of Numbers. In “The Message” I am now in Deuteronomy because I got so caught up in the story. I totally forgot how interesting Numbers and Deut. can be. My study Bible is call The NET Bible which is really good for doing things like study. Haha. (Late, I’m a bit punchy - get it study bible - for study! study!).

Over the last many months I have been pondering some pretty deep questions like “what makes God tick”. Well that kind of question really doesn’t get a good answer given that I am ... well, an average human being and have not been around since the beginning of time.

The specific grande idea that I have been struggling really comes out of a dissatisfaction that I hear some times. It’s the lovie-dubbie Jesus gospel that we preach to get new believers some times. So - where does Justice and Grace and Mercy find perfect unity? In God, of course. My heart is awakened to a plight that I don’t even quite understand but I just feel uneasy about it. Maybe it is because I don’t understand it all personally.


No wonder the Israelites wanted Moses to talk to God - can you image a voice coming out of something like this:



For instance:

In Numbers 16 God opens the earth and swallows three large families of priests alive! Yuck. (Now they were challenging Moses to create a second political party, per se) [Also Deut. 11]

In Numbers 13 God gives instructions on stoning to death those that go to foreign gods. (Off topic side note - In Deut. 17:17 we learn that the witness to the crime that testify are the ones who are supposed to toss the first stone according to Jewish law. Interesting.) In Joshua 7 we see this used.

We see God pour out devastation on the local pagan countries around Israel.

But then God shows extreme mercy like in the story of Ninevah and Jonah and the whale.

And the entire OT and (might I add much history of the historical NT church) has been of a people waning in love from God and God calling them back. Oh, wow. His patience is amazing.

The NT records Ananias and Sapphira getting struck down by God for holding back from the nascent church He was forming.

The church fathers suggested tossing out people, handing them over to Satan for un-repented sin. Gosh that’s harsh. The goal there at least is for restoration.

And what does “not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters,1 because you know that we will be judged more strictly” really mean? (In the OT the father is responsible to some degree for the sins he passes down to the third or fourth generation!)

And what about “not many of you should become teachers, my brothers and sisters,1 because you know that we will be judged more strictly.” Golly, that hits close to home.

And all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. And God will exalt you in due time, if you humble yourselves under his mighty hand by casting all your cares on him because he cares for you. Be sober and alert. Your enemy the devil, like a roaring lion, is on the prowl looking for someone to devour. Resist him, strong in your faith, because you know that your brothers and sisters18 throughout the world are enduring the same kinds of suffering. And, after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To him belongs the power forever. Amen. (NET)

But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. (My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin.) But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous One, and he himself is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for our sins but also for the whole world. (NET)

So I am on a quest. I am learning things slowly. Things like that Taizé service help to center me on the love of Christ and his mercy towards me. And I appreciate the grace he gives to me to enter into worship. The OT is helping me to learn and want to learn His nature so that if God calls me to the table that I can say “I loved you” depsite my sin, instead of being like those Korahites: priests of God that wanted the power but not the heart.

Deus ibi est

I went to my second Taizé service this evening. It is an evening of contemplation and prayer. What a way to end the week!

My friend Can Opener Boy and my Wifey have already posted on this. But I sure did enjoy going to the service again. We sang, or chanted, or ... schangted? through the evening. At one point during the service I became washed in love while singing some of the songs.

Having grown up in the Vineyard church for ... well, since longer than I’ve been alive and since it’s inception so many years ago I can safely say that I have as powerful moments touching God in worship in this forum as back in my church. Then again, sometimes I think I am a Catholic stuck in an evangelical body which is then stuck in a charismatic body. Or, maybe the other way around. Maybe that’s what I get for growing up in a cosmopolitan ring of churches: vineyard, presbyterian (norwegian covenant brand), your typical “bible church”, oh yeah, the four-square, and community (methodist) church back in Avalon. Then, since meeting my wife I’ve grown a whole lot closer to the Catholic church I just love to visit mass now and again. Mutt - well, God loves me anyhow.

You might need to upgrade your real player like I did to hear the Ubi Caritas song, but wow, I still feel touched. If you look at the posts made my wife or COB you’ll see the cross that they lay down on the floor. Kneeling at the foot of the cross reminded me more of Jesus’ love and the price he paid for me.

Bless the Lord (MP3)         Words (sing along kids!)

Ubi Caritas (Real Player) Words (sing along kids!)

‘Night all.

/s/ B