Judges, Not Those Type

In the Old Testament, God raised up judges to preside over the Israelites because they became so corrupt. Whenever God raised up a judge, he was with that judge and the Israelites followed God. But each time the judge died, the Israelites returned to their corrupt ways and became even worse than before.

This passage stood out to me because I was having a conversation recently with a group of friends about how Christians need clear guidance in their lives and they need somebody to tell them what to do. It might seem childish for us to be told how to live as Christians, but isn’t that what we are most times?

We are children, and like children when we go unsupervised by an adult, we become like The Lord of The Flies. We run amock with corruption and our own sense of right and wrong.

Men do it all the time, when their wife is away, they return to their bachelor ways of old, eating fast food only, drinking too much, messing up the house, pizza boxes and beer cans everywhere, socks on the floor, and then quickly cleaning everything up and returning the house to the way it was right before your wife comes home. We all do it.

The Israelites are a representation of man kind. Left to our own wits we return to sin, again and again. Often times even adult Christians need someone to spank them, and show them what’s right and what’s wrong. Maybe not in the same way our parents did when we were children, but we need God apointed judges to show us how to live right with God.

I'm Fat

So my wife thinks I'm fat. Not that I disagree with her, but I don't completely describe myself as fat.

I guess one of my icons that I can fall back to is the "Rock". In my opinion I thought he looked better "big ' back than he does "now".

Okay fine he's more ripped. But in my opinion he looks anorexic. I guess there are different opinions on what is considered fat. But I definitely don't consider myself fat. Big yes, but fat no.

Vengeance is Mine

I'm still chewing on Total Forgiveness and as I read on today I had some more thoughts. Often times in our lives when we see injustice, we want retribution immediately, and often times we take it on ourselves to be the judge or punisher if you will.

But that angers God. He said, “Vengeance is mine and mine alone”, we don’t have the authority to be a judge because we are flawed people. Kendall said in his book, What if every time you judged someone an angel of God came down and told the person you were accusing all of your sins? Would we feel so bold to point the finger then?

David was considered to be a man after God’s own heart. Yet even David could not escape the justice of God. He would have to answer for his sin of sleeping with Uriah’s wife and then having him killed so no one would find out about it.

You read in 2 Samuel the harsh punishment that God gives to David through the voice of Nathan the prophet, “The sword will never depart from your house!” Wow what a sentence! You see later on in David’s life his sentence being carried out in 2 Samuel, David’s illegitimate son with Bathsheba dies, later his other sons rise against him, his closest friends die by the sword, one of his sons sleeps with David’s wives on top of a roof in public for all to see.

What I am getting is that God doesn’t need our help in being a judge; he does just fine by himself. Nobody needed to carry out vengeance on behalf of Uriah’s honor. God saw everything and even though he loved David, David needed to be corrected. My conclusion is not very good, but I think I got more glimpses at God’s character and also mine through today’s little bathroom study of Total Forgiveness.

Do Not Judge, or You Too Will Be Judged

So I am still working through this book my pastor gave me called Total Forgiveness.

It takes me a while to finish a book because I only read when I'm on the John. Oh I also got distracted with this other book I bought Fedor.

It's an MMA book about Fedor Emelianenko, arguably one of the best mixed martial arts heavy weights out there. I know I'm such a dork.

Anyways, yesterday I was reading through a passage about Jesus' command "Do not judge, or you too will be judged."

I am one of the most hateful and critical people I know. I love to hate, and I love judging and criticizing people. But when I do judge and criticize, I am essentially saying that person needs to change, that person needs to be more like me...I am better than that person.

I really need to look at it from this perspective the next time I want to judge someone harshly. I should be the last person to say I am better than you because I am a terrible person. My friend often jokes that some people come with baggage, but you come with one of those immigration bags! It's true.

Jesus is saying if you judge, others will judge you. There are probably a lot of people I know that don't like me for one reason or another. People might think or say, I'm a punk, insensitive, mean, angry, who does he think he is. More importantly I think Jesus is saying don't judge or God the ultimate judge will also judge you.

I already know he has given me so much grace, why can't I afford the same grace to others???

New NFL Overtime Rules

Every season the NFL adds, takes away, and makes a bunch of changes to the way the game is played, and in true fashion Roger Goodell has done it again. I feel like overall he has made a lot of changes to ensure the safety of the game and its “superstars”, but he has essentially robbed it of its grit and made the game that I fell in love with soft.

So what do I as a fan think of the new overtime rule? Well first let me lay it out.

• Both teams must have the opportunity to possess the ball once during the extra period, unless the team that receives the opening kickoff scores a touchdown on its initial possession, in which case it is the winner.

• If the team that possesses the ball first scores a field goal on its initial possession, the other team shall have the opportunity to possess the ball. If [that team] scores a touchdown on its possession, it is the winner. If the score is tied after [both teams have a] possession, the team next scoring by any method shall be the winner.

• If the score is tied at the end of a 15-minute overtime period, or if [the overtime period's] initial possession has not ended, another overtime period will begin, and play will continue until a score is made, regardless of how many 15-minute periods are necessary.

Confusing right? Like many of its other rules it’s pretty drawn out.

However as a betting man who loves betting on football, I think it works in my favor as the better team has a greater chance of winning and not losing on a fluke 40 yard pass that puts the other team in field goal range.

If they really want to make the game of football more interesting, they should just get rid of the field goal and extra point kick all together. I guess because they adapted the game of football from rugby, they just kept it in even though it doesn't seem to fit into the rest of the game. (stupid British)

We all know football is a game of inches. 11 players battling another 11 players in a ground war, trying to gain ground into their opponents end zone. Then all of a sudden out of nowhere, this other team comes on and rallies around this Italian guy who tries to kick the ball through a big Y! Just doesn't make any sense. Hey, but What the Hell Do I Know (What the Hell Do I Know is the name of my blog, see I'm being witty).

Aggresive Morning

Good Lawd what a morning! I had a very aggressive morning from the moment I stepped out of my house. We get out and Christian is running to my car as he always does and there is this huge pitbull lurking in our yard, from first glance he looked unleashed. He was actually on one of those long 25 yard leashes.

So I called for Chrsitian to come over and the owner comes up and say, “Oh he’s not a biter, he’s a licker.” And he just keeps his dog near us like we want us to pet it or something. I said, “Dude I don’t want to pet your dog I’m trying to get to my car.” Then he looks at me like I am a pitbull hater or something.

Then on my way to drop my son off I come to a 4 way stop and the car to my left doesn’t go, so I just cut in front of him. The guy driving gets pissed and starts to follow me. He follows me all the way into my preschool. So I get out of my car and he drives by me giving me a mean look, then makes a u turn around the parking lot and comes creeping close to me.

So he ends up pulling right next to me and so I walk towards him ready to get into a fight. The guy comes out and so I slowly approach him and he asks, “Is there a problem?” I am a bit confused and then I say, “You’re the one with the problem!” and I kind of tense up in a fight position to let him know that I am ready to throw down. Then his wife yells out, “Sir we are just dropping off our son, it is our first day!”

Then all of a sudden I realized that this was all in my head and that I was the aggressor!

I immediately apologized and told the guy it was all a my misunderstanding. Then I follow them in with Christian looking and feeling really sheepish. The family was obviously frazzled and cautiously held the door open for me. They were probably thinking they chose the wrong preschool.

Inside I apologized again, the mother asked me for my name and we all shook hands, but I still felt like everybody was unsettled.

I seriously think something is wrong with me. =)

Ecclesiastes

Ecclesiastes 2 is one of my favorite passages in the Bible. Maybe it speaks to my pessimistic, depressive side. As I was reading through it today something stuck out that I never thought about before.

After writing about each of his worldly, pleasurable experiences he ends each thought with, yet through all this my wisdom stayed with me. I thought that was particularly interesting because here is King Solomon the wisest man on earth trying out all the best the world has to offer to please a man. And he comes to the conclusion that it was meaningless, pointless, boring, nothing, like chasing after the wind.

If the smartest and wisest man that ever lived is telling us this, we should take his word for it.