Exodus 33 and 34

I am struck by the parallel of Moses' intercession for the Israelites and Jesus' intercession for us. God tells Moses that though the people are sinful, stubborn, obstinate that he will still be their God and go with them, despite his anger at them. So Jesus intercedes for me (for us) and God goes with us despite our obstinate sinfulness. Despite God's love I continue to sin and disobey. I do not know about you. I take God's mercy for granted. I abuse it. Yet God forgives me over and over again.

God shows himself to Moses. He describes himself as a loving compassionate God yet he still punishes the guilty. Some say God changed between the old revelation and the new. But I do not believe so. I believe God still punishes the guilty, even me. But he forgives iniquity, transgressions, and sin (34:7) first and foremost. I think God does it to help us, not hurt us. Without some punishment we would go crazy. And God sends his Holy Spirit to be a reminder of what is right and good.

God is gracious and compassionate. He repeats this several times in 33 and 34. And "God's characteristics of love and mercy are held in perfect tension with his judgment of sin." - Richard Harvey.

God uses his personal name here, written in Hebrew YHWH, all consonants because in old Hebrew only the consonants are written. You must know which vowels go in between. Because the Israelites and Jews thought God's name too holy to actually say we really do not know how it was originally pronounced. It is God's personal name. Only his friends would actually say it. Otherwise they would replace the word with the word for "Lord". Like we might use the word "sir" or "mister".

Moses says, "If now I have found favor in Thy sight, O Lord, I pray, let the Lord go along in our midst, even though the people are so obstinate, and do thou pardon our iniquity and our sin and take us as thine own possession." (44:9) God agrees to make a covenant with them under these condition but he requires them to destroy pagan altars and worship no god but Him. "For you shall not worship any other god, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God." God is still a jealous God. He demands that we worship no other god. To me that means nothing else, not sports, not food, not women (or men), not money, etc. And I believe we receive correction when we do.

Active start

I got up before the sunrise and walked to Kroger to buy a few things. I bought ingredients for KR chicken (again) but it may be KR turkey when it finally gets done. I did buy more canned asparagus for guacamole dip. When I returned I immediately made that. It looks good but it is spicier (hotter) than last time.

I did not make the KR chicken because tonight is Spaghetti Warehouse night after Kegan's Alpha. I have no football game either, but I'm committed for Thursday and Friday. I thought about playing golf but decided I just was not up to it. I'm thinking of going to the gym.

When I got going on cooking I began to wake up. I made two pie crusts and then prepared custard for lemon pies. I got two pies done. Meanwhile I worked on bread. I make the liquid for bread and found a recipe for rye bread. I set it up in the breadmaker and it looks good. It will be ready in a couple of hours. I hope to make a similar second loaf later today. One will be frozen for later. Now I feel ready for the day. ;)

todays bike ride

I went about 14 miles in two hours, this morning. My excuse for my slowness is that I have to stop for intersections and traffic lights. Also I cannot stop picking up plastic and aluminum. I cannot pick up as much but I am learning where the recycling boxes are. FYI: There are several in front of the soccer stadium.

The major bike trails are called the Columbia Tap Trail to Rail and the Heights Trail. I connected from one to the other. The Heights Trail had quite a few bicycles on it.

Everyone else has a helmet but me. Maybe I should use April's.

I miss walking but I can surely go further on the bicycle. I will ride at least once a week. But I will also continue to walk. Call it cross training. I feel a bit less sweaty after riding. The main effort is in my thighs. The rest of me is mostly at rest. I used the radio today. I have not done that in a while.

glorious God

"God will give you the power that you need to do what you need to do, but you will not feel powerful.

"So folks you will not feel qualified to do the work that God is calling you to do, and you won't be qualified, but God will do the work as you do it, and then He will honor Himself and you with Him. Remarkable what God does." - Dr. James Allman of DTS as he teaches on Joshua in OT 102

This is such a good summary of our relationship with God as we serve him.

July vacation to Minneapolis

We are getting tired and overwhelmed by information. We have seen three presidential libraries, two caves and one Indian archaeological site.

So now we are in Emporia, Kansas. We are going to head pretty much straight home. But maybe not too many miles a day.

Fallen Angels by Noel Coward at Main Street Theater July 2014

I admit not to know a lot of Noel Coward plays but I have seen a few over the years. With Noel Coward you expect a sophisticated living room (drawing room) comedy. It could sneak up on farce right?

When I got there I got most of that. I forgot I would also get British accent. How could I forget that? Well this had the accent and added a French "bad guy". Perhaps you shouldn't call him that. There was lots of speaking French by these sophisticated English women.

I was going to say the one thing I was wrong about was the sophistication. Well maybe the sophistication was all the French spoken. Maybe the maid was supposed to make it sophisticated. But I didn't buy it at all. This play was not sophisticated.

The play was funny in spots, awkward in spots, just plain slow in spots. I thought the acting was fine, the play just doesn't seem to have much to help them. The jokes were attempted, they were often dumb. They just did not work.

The maid might have been the most interesting character. She steals the scenes and her time alone on the stage were pretty funny. She reminded me of the maid in Clue, the Movie. The play attempted to be sophisticated fun (I guess) but pretty much failed. Sometimes it bordered on farce but I do not think that is what they were going for. I was disappointed.

Big Bang Theory plot advice

This has probably been said but I have not read it. So far Raj has not gotten a steady girl. I think for equal distribution of romance they need to give Raj a girlfriend.

But I had forgotten. It hit me the other day they have already introduced the perfect girl for Raj, Sheldon's sister. I forget her name. I suppose I could look it up. But now that Raj can talk to women it is time to reintroduce her.

We found out when she was staying at Penny's that she found Raj to be "the cute one". He missed out because his medicine wore off. I forget how he came to be able to speak to women. But he can now.

She can move out to CA, stay with Sheldon for a few days, that won't work, then move in with Penny again. From there we can work on the relationship. That should give the writers plenty of fodder for misdeeds and jokes about Raj's ineptitude. I like it. But this is so obvious it has obviously been though of before.