Habakkuk 1

I read Habakkuk 1. Verse 2 stands out to me. I feel this verse so strongly. "I cry out to thee 'violence!'" Do I cry violence about the awful situation in Egypt? (for example) Do I cry out to God for help? Do I wonder why God does not respond? Never mind about what congress does or the president does. They cannot really do much. Do I cry out to you God? Now God can really do something. But he seems to hold back.

I know you mourn God over the many faithful Christians being martyred in Egypt right today. And it's not the only place in the world where Christians are being killed. (And God mourns over all religious persecution even if it Moslem on Hindu or even Christian on Jew, for example.) This is just the one that is in the front page news right now. I know you are sad about the many beautiful churches being destroyed in Egypt, some with people in them as they burn. And there are many who are having to flee to become homeless. I am called to be like my master Jesus. Jesus mourns. I should mourn too. That is not natural for me. I work at mourning. But it is not natural for me. I do not mourn with the compassion that God does. DW is much more like Jesus in this. She sees news of all this and is appalled. I cry to God "violence!" God do something!

Verse 4 also hits me hard. The law is ignored. I think we can see that going on today. Though I do not think we are extra special. Still we as a culture are getting selfish and lawless. The verse continues, Justice is never upheld. The wicked surround the righteous and justice comes out perverted. This is so well expressed. It can apply today as it did in Habakkuk's day.

Lord I cry out to you about our country. The description is so good. It is not so much the judge's fault. They really have little control of what is happening. We pervert the laws. We do not act honestly. Justice is impossible when everyone is corrupt. There are not enough laws to keep everything fair when everyone is trying to cheat.

Lord you know. Lord only you know how to administer justice rightly, righteously. God only you. God I cry out for justice in this land. God I ask that you give our leaders wisdom and understanding and the desire to actually do justly and love mercy. God help us to be teachable, to be subject to honest rules. Help us to be law abiding.

The rest of it the chapter goes into the judgment God will bring on the people because they are not righteous and did violence on their neighbor. God could bring that judgment on us too. But it will likely be in a way that we can never predict.

Jacob strives with God Genesis 32

"An atheist does not find God for the same reason a thief does not find a policeman."

Genesis 32 Jacob strives with God. Some would say the man he fought with was Jesus. Jacob calls the place Peniel. Peniel means "face of God".

Jacob sent everyone across the river first. This is a defensive measure. So he spent the night alone on the far side of the river. He was scared of Esau. In his life he was never alone. He was always surrounded by his family, servants, and possessions. But now he is alone. He spends the night alone. God uses this opportunity to confront Jacob.

Jacob has prayed to God for protection. This is a good first step. But then he does everything humanly possible to prepare for the meeting with Esau. Jacob is all prepared. But first God wanted to do some breaking in Jacob. (pun intended, hehe)

Jacob's name was changed to Israel. He goes from usurper, supplanter to "he who strives with God" (or perhaps "God strives"). God is saying the old Jacob is in the past. Now Jacob has a true relationship with God. It is still in process. But it has been deepened.

Striving is something we all should do with God. And it may break us. Most of us need a little breaking.

new post

I have not done a blog in a while. I have been remiss about quiet times.

Reading in Genesis, specifically Genesis 26. The commentator, John Harris, thinks a theme we can take out of this is how God gets his will done on the earth. And a corollary, how much of our life is preordained?

Abraham obeyed God. But God chose Abraham before he obeyed. God chose him. What would have happened if Abraham had not obeyed? Or does this question have any meaning?

I am like the commentator. This is what inspired me to type this blog. The commentator remembered as a small child asking God to guide him in trivial choices, like whether to choose vanilla or chocolate ice cream. In doing this he thought he was pleasing God. I remember doing that too. I was a young child going to Sunday School. Neither of my parents were believers. So I had no one to ask. I was going on my childlike understanding of what I was being taught in Sunday School. I remember a well thought out curriculum, sitting cross legged on the floor of a small room with an adult teacher who was very well meaning. My mental picture is of a dark room, sitting in a circle. We had four page brochures of Bible stories. There were color drawings, like comic books.

Anyway something I learned got me to thinking about God's will. Perhaps it was just such a story as that of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I remember as a boy of 9 or 10 asking God whose house I should go to first when leaving the house in the morning to go play. I was often the first up amongst several children my own age who lived nearby. My mother might have fed me breakfast, I'm not sure. But I wanted to do what God wanted me to do. I wanted to please God, the same way a child that age wants to please his parents. I would ask God to speak to me, then take the first thought that came into my mind as the answer. Within reason of course. As adults when we are faced with a difficult decision do we still sometimes want to do the same thing, get an east answer spoken in our ear by God?

But this is a childish way of seeing our relationship with God.

Mark 10:40

"For he who is not against us is for us."

Seems like Jesus is saying, "Don't be so quick to judge people as Christians or not." Be gracious. Take people's confessions at face value. It is not ours to judge.

The disciples were too quick to decide the intentions of people. We cannot know people's hearts, not really. There may be a time to correct people. But do not be too quick. The disciples just reacted. Jesus said, "If they are acting like they are part of us, even if you do not know them." They can be a part of another group.

Mark 9 - Healing demon possessed son

Reading this all of a sudden ideas came into my mind. I believe it was God's inspiration, thank you God!

So I will try to share some of it. There is no way I can cover it all or even do it justice.

Desperation is all around Jesus yet he remains calm. Jesus has just gone up on the mountain with Peter, James, and John and talking to Moses and Elijah. Now they come down to the crowds. Normal life. He calls them unbelieving. They are prideful and sinful as well. I can identify. But in the midst of desperation Jesus remains calm. And he holds back the healing until the right moment. He wants this to teach. He wants people, especially the father, to get all he should from this. He waits until the father is desperate, then he heals. "Lord I believe, help me in my unbelief!"

Jesus comes down and asks what is happening. It is not the disciples who respond but the father. The father is in control. With perhaps a little satisfaction he reports that he has asked, requested, this translation says "told" his disciples to cast it out and they could not. Perhaps the dad is feeling a little vindicated. He had never been able to anything to help his boy, now this great healer was stumped too. Or at least his disciples were stumped. The disciples may have held back because they felt confused and like failures.

But Jesus does not blame his disciples. Or perhaps not them solely. He cries, "Oh unbelieving generation!" Couldn't God say that about our generation? Probably all generations. He has the boy brought to him. He does not go to him. When the demon sees Jesus he manifests himself. He is obviously scared now. In other cases Jesus reacts to this behavior by immediately casting it out. But here Jesus remains calm. Almost ignoring the boy he addresses his father. "How long has this been happening to him?" It sounds like a doctor's question. "How long young man, have you been having these symptoms?" The father speaks again, this time a little less confidently. The boy has tried to kill himself many times. But his father has watched him and kept him alive all these years. They have done what they could, all that was humanly possible. They treated the symptoms, you might say, but never got to the root of the problem.

The father concludes, "if you can do anything?" Jesus responds perhaps sternly, "All things are possible for God!" This puts it in a better light. The father understand at least mentally all things are possible for God. Those of who walk with God know this is true in the theoretical. We know this is true. But we have doubt when it comes to specifics that apply directly to us. We know God parted the sea. God saved Jonah from a whale. God made the whole universe. But when it comes to a little healing we doubt.

I think God responds to the desperate. How willing are we to be desperate before God. I know I do not do it often, often enough. Some of Jesus' parables about prayer speak of desperation. The man desperately needs bread so he pounds on his neighbor's door even though it is after midnight. He does not give up until he gets a response. This is a parable about prayer to God. God waits until we express our need. Being desperate is a good thing. It puts our relationship with God in it's proper light.

So the father's cry is a cry of desperation. "Lord I believe! Help me in my unbelief!!" Jesus responds by commanding the demon to leave. To all others around the boy looks dead. But but Jesus reaches over and lifts him to his feet. I imagine his muscles are sore. He is dazed. But the implication is now he is normal. He is healed!

This story concludes with later when the disciples privately ask about it. Jesus answer has confounded people since the beginning. "This cannot come out by anything but prayer." The NASB. Some variations add, "and fasting." Does this addition help or add to the confusion? The disciples were confused about why this demon did not come for them. They had just been sent out and had success with casting out demons then. Why did it not work this time? Was it the lack of faith of the father? When Jesus says "prayer" does he mean pray harder? Didn't the disciples pray? Or did they rely on their own strength somehow forgetting only God can heal. Our faith might move God to act but it is not our faith alone that can heal. Adding the word fasting implies that they did not pray hard enough or long enough. Fasting is an addition step of discipline. But adding the expression "and fasting" changes the meaning and perhaps distorts it from Jesus original intent. I do not know.

"This cannot come out by anything but prayer" leave me feeling helpless. My response would probably be, "I thought I did pray." The answer, "This cannot come out by anything but prayer and fasting." tells me I did not do enough. I did not work hard enough at it. I need to work on my disciplines. I think they are different. What do you think?

Mark 8 - In LA

Quickly, got to go.

Jesus feed the 4,000, an amazing sign. In the next sentence the Pharisees ask for a sign. Didn't they see the last one? It is irony that Jesus quickly and firmly refuses to produce on command. He produces for need. God still does that today. But Jesus could have said, "look what I just did? Didn't you see that?" He doesn't. Why?

Walking around an interesting section. It is filled with older houses. Yet these houses are fairly well kept up. Maybe because they are so much more valuable than the same houses would be in Houston. The house that DD3 rents with a family was built in the 50's. The dad proudly answers that. I think he does not see that as old. In Houston that is old and would not have been said proudly. A Houstonian would not gladly live in a house built that long ago.

Thinking like that I think LA is an older city than Houston. One might think of LA as a new city. Some parts of it must be. But a lot of greater LA is from the 50's or older. Houston houses are on average much newer. In parts of town with older houses Houston is doing a lot of tearing down and rebuilding. I do not see any of that in the section of greater LA that I have been in.

morning walk

DW suggested that I not play golf today but walk. So at 5:00 AM I got up and ate breakfast. Then promptly at 6 I set out. I had my large side carry bag with camera little money and cell phone. I took a magazine to read. On the trip I finished two articles in my archaeology magazine. There are photos on Facebook.

Can I make this into a coherent travelog? I pray I can. I decided to head over to the newly discovered (by foot) Harrisburg area. I am not even sure where that is but I know the area with the lettered street name is part of it. The extreme western part. So I headed up Lockwood and passed Canal then turned east. I passed Burr which I explored a few weeks ago. I basically used the north south streets between Canal and Navigation. Maybe in was Harrisburg and Navigation. I ended up almost to Wayside but not quite. I was gone close to three hours.

The weather was pretty mild. The humidity was not high. I did bring a towel and used it a lot. But I was not a sweaty as I usually am after a round of golf.

The first two streets going north and south in this area are Allen and Brady. There is a "C" street further east, but not next to it. Then other streets end in "wood". Norwood I remember because of some pictures I was inspired to take. I could look on a map something like Edgewood and at least one other "wood". I realized later Allen and Brady are not necessarily alphabetic streets. The Allen brothers established Houston and Brady's Landing was well known. So Allen and Brady were the names of early settlers.

Heading north south you run into Sherman, the Harrisburg hike/bike trail and Avenues I and J. If you continue north past Navigation to look at the ship channel as I did you also sometimes find Avenue L. It has been taken up by warehouses and businesses up close to the waterway. But it still exists as a one block street in at least one place. Navigation then must be the old Avenue K back in the day. I remember from driving around Canal Street is also renamed for one of the lettered streets. I don't remember which.

Next to the ship channel up here are lots of big piles of sand and rock. There are lots of old entrances to this area, Southern Stone (?) Further east I ran into a business with lots of cement mixers ready to roll and some mixers off their trucks. Many look broken not likely to be repaired. This was Cemex I believe.

There are lots of old houses, some in bad repair, some in pretty good shape. And there are some houses newly built on old sites. At the eastern end of Harrisburg, where the new rail line is ending some new condos have been built. A big sign advertises condos from the 160's. Some businesses are still going but there are lots of for sale signs on very large areas with big buildings and lots of paved space. They are pretty carefully fenced and locked with prominent "keep out" signs. I saw one residential property near all this with big no trespassing signs and next to it a welcome sign.

Quite a few people had signs on their houses saying "Martinez Family" or "Gomez Family" Sometimes it was on their mailbox. There are a lot of tall stately trees, obviously planted long before the present owners were born. Some are in areas otherwise not populated. But they are friendly monuments.

When you walk in Houston and you see something that looks like a hill you mark it. There is such a hill, well rather a depression as you pass Avenue J going on Brady street. You have to walk down to Avenue J and then walk back up on the other side. I know this "hill" may be only 5-6 feet high, yet for Houston this is quite a contour. This is fairly close to the ship channel, Buffalo Bayou. Could this be a former path of the bayou years ago or a tributary now filled in? Anyway I found it interesting as it is unusual.

I was amazed enough to take out my camera when I saw two century plants in bloom at Norwood and Sherman. These blooms were twenty feet tall. Very spectacular. Behind one I got the picture of a very tall palm, fifty feet high maybe. That palm has to be very old, perhaps older than any of us. It has weathered quite a few storms and freezes.

Well I have to mark the fruit and nut tree. I found a few citrus still on trees, along with the new fruit for this year. I saw an apple tree maybe not quite ripe. The apples were small and green. There were not many. I checked this year's citrus crop. I did not see any trees full of fruit. Maybe this will not be such a good year? Last week in Round Top I ran into a bunch of ripe grape vines. The fruit this year are in bunches, not single like I usually see. I picked a lot of grapes. Well some grapes. So today I ran into several big patches of grapes. Usually the grapes left are too high to reach and they are getting past peak picking time. Grapes are on the group and getting shriveled on the vine. But I did see one vine where a great harvest can be made, it was east on Harrisburg on the fence of a for sale business. They can be crushed for juice. They are really not sweet enough to eat.