day no. 14,557: the blessing of boundaries

Psalm 104

God makes boundaries and defines the limitations of all things. He made man to be thirsty and He tells the ocean where to start and stop. He gives life and breath and everything else until He doesn't and at that precise moment, life ends. The lion and the sparrow both depend on God for food. Man must work the ground, but God makes the ground fruitful and responsive to man's labors. All things are under Him. The world owes its beauty to its Author and man owes His life to His Maker. What an opportunity for worship we have on a daily basis just by looking around at all He has made, how He has made it and how He sustains it.

day no. 14,556: an enemy and an entrance

Numbers 19
The wages of sin is death. The day that Adam and Eve ate the fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, death entered into the human race. Death in the inward man and death working on the man himself. We see here in Numbers 19 that coming into contact with death can make even a priest temporarily unclean. Jesus is our great High Priest who tasted death so that we can live forever. He came into contact with death, but was not changed by it. Instead, He changed death because it had no power over Him. His resurrection changed death and our relationship with it. It is still an enemy, but it is also in Him an entrance into eternal life.

day no. 14,555: laurelai is five!!!

Little lady ain't so little no more. Well, to be fair, she is still quite little, but she is one year older today. You are full of sassafras and I love you. You always ask anyone leaving to honk at you and call you "Hello Kitty." You are on a kick of asking for cereal for dinner lately. You think that the picture you drew and left at church last week is still going to be there this week when we go to church. You like sitting on my lap during family movie night. You love piggy back rides. You do not like flossing. You wake up every morning at 6:30 and ask if you can use the bathroom. At this point, I wake up enough to put a thumbs up in the air. I don't know when this became our routine, but it is and has been for some time now. You love milk. You pray to be faithful every night. You are a delight and I am so excited to continue to get to know you more and more as you grow up. I'm glad you're part of our family. Here's to 5 years of having Laurelai in my life!!!

day no. 14,554: dusty

Psalm 103

God remembers that we are but dust. He was there and He hasn't forgotten. His expectations have not exceeded our station. Our expectations of Him, however, often fall flat. If He remembers that we are but dust, we should remember that He is eternal. 

God gives Himself freely to dirt yet we often resist giving ourselves entirely to God.

day no. 14,553: I will love them freely

"A man must choose his love and then he must love his choice." - Henry Smith

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I came across the following verses in Spurgeon's Morning & Evening.

Hosea 14:1-4
Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, 
for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. 
Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to him,

“Take away all iniquity; accept what is good, 
and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips. 
Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride on horses; 
and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. 
In you the orphan finds mercy.” 

I will heal their apostasy; 
I will love them freely, 
for my anger has turned from them. 

God is the only free agent in all of existence. He is under no obligation to do anything for anyone and is indebted to no one for anything. He loves without condition. He elects because He wants to. Israel comes like the prodigal with a prepared speech in her mouth and vows prepared in her heart. Israel comes back in repentance and humility, but God's love is already theirs. He gives it freely. He isn't won over by their devotion or compelled by their sincerity. He heals because He wants to. He loves because He chooses to. He loves freely and offers water without price. He selects without condition and gives without restraint. God will not be wooed. He chooses and does the wooing. Anyone being drawn to Him was first drawn by Him. 

day no. 14,552: privilege or possession?

Numbers 18
The degree to which you believe that the priests were getting a raw deal is the degree to which you value the gifts over the Giver. God gave Himself as an inheritance to the priests. This may be less tangible in one sense than land or possessions, but it is eternally more possessed than any piece of land or property that inevitably passes through every hand that holds them. 

day no. 14,551: in all the churches

1 Corinthians 11:3-5, 16
But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God. 4 Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered dishonors his head, 5 but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, since it is the same as if her head were shaven. If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God.

1 Corinthians 14:33-36
For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints, 34 the women should keep silent in the churches. For they are not permitted to speak, but should be in submission, as the Law also says. 35 If there is anything they desire to learn, let them ask their husbands at home. For it is shameful for a woman to speak in church. 36 Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached? 

Whatever "prophesying" with her head uncovered is supposed to mean in 1 Cor 11:5 it certainly has to mesh with what is said later in chapter 14, which seems pretty absolute. Without exception. Concrete. Hard to work around. 

So we have to figure out what contexts he means this hard and fast rule to be applied. You can't apply this limp-wristed to any situation or you go against the clear, authoritative thrust of it. It is relentlessly clear. If 1 Timothy 2 is controversial in saying, "I permit no woman to teach or exercise authority," this possibly amps it up even more by saying "I permit no woman to speak" in church. 

And notice he says, "in all the churches" multiple times. This is not a Corinthian problem (or an Ephesian one for that matter) Notice that he appeals to things bigger and larger and more timeless like the Law and nature itself. He says it would go against the Law to have a woman speaking in this context. He says it is shameful for women to speak in this context. It goes against nature. It is repulsive or to borrow OT Law language (since Paul goes there) it would be an abomination. That is no small thing and I cannot see how it so easily gets disregarded merely because a few chapters earlier Paul infers that a woman who prophesies with her head uncovered should be ashamed, embarrassed, etc… He is using the same language in 1 Cor 11 (shame, nature, the Law of God in creation) to make the same case. And DO NOT lose sight of the fact that the point of 1 Cor 11:5 is not that women may be permitted to prophesy. That's not his point. His point is that whatever prophesying they do must be done under authority, under headship for any praying or prophesying that is out from under headship is shameful, embarrassing, against God and His angels, etc…

So if Paul implies that women are to be praying or prophesying a la 1 Cor 11:5 (granted it being in a manner that is veiled, covered, under authoity), then he also must be implying that they must not be praying or prophesying in church since it would require speaking. That is clearly prohibited by his comment a few chapters later 1 Cor 14:34. So it seems at the very least that in church or when doing "churchy" things or things that may be considered under an official church capacity, Paul is forbidding women to speak or exercise authority in those capacities.