Day - We Are Family

Oh flip. It looks like the weekend comes and I'm back to being on late blogs. Well I have two very good reasons for this one. Firstly I've been bopping (well sort of) with some of the youth at the Unite event in the Pyramid and we were slightly late getting back thanks to someone. Now I'm not going to name and shame but if I tell you that our lift forgot to pick us up because he was playing football then I'm pretty sure you can all guess who was responsible... Secondly I was having a slight rage that the vlog I did yesterday didn't seem to save and I hadn't uploaded it to the Tube of You yet so it's gone to the ether. Instead I'm doing one now about today's reading. Onto business then


Today’s readings:

Genesis 34:1-35:29
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2034-35&version=MSG
Matthew 12:46-13:17
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2012:46-13:17&version=MSG
Psalm 10:1-11
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2010:1-11&version=MSG

Carrying on in Genesis and we're seeing a story that for a lot of reasons doesn't tend to get told in Junior Church that often. Jacob's daughter is attacked and raped by a guy from another tribe who has fallen in love with her apparently. There's loads of things  wrong with this guy's attitude from the fact that he thinks rape is ok to thinking money will cover up what he's done to even thinking that a gesture to Jacob will square him with God. There's not much to say about how bad this whole situation is. Jacob doesn't handle it particularly well either but this is before his people have been told to forgive. There are two things that stand out to me in this though. First is how Shechem and his Dad manage to convince a whole town to get circumcised so that Shechem can marry Dinah. Now this to me seems to be a condemnation of the town and their attitudes. Not only do they think rape's ok as a way to start a marraige, but also they get circumcised because they think that it will let them steal all of Jacob's wealth afterwards. Circumcision is to the Jewish people their sign of belonging to God and it's not something you should take lightly. It's a bit like people thinking that because they were a cross round their neck they can do whatever they want because that means they're a Christian.

The next chapter in Genesis wraps up Jacob's wandering around. He gets reminded again by God that his name will be Israel and he will become a nation and then we see how first his wife Rachel and then his father die. These seem to have happened relatively quickly one after the other and it must have been a real tough time for Jacob. Once again though, God has gone before that situation and given him a real calling and blessing to see him through the tough times. There's also the Issac living to 180 thing and as it's a contradiction I'll address it. Same as the last one to me though. These ages aren't concrete, nor is the age set in Genesis concrete. It's based on human conception of time rather than any divine law saying you'll be zapped the minute you hit 120.

Into the New Testament we go! First we have Jesus' brothers and mother asking for Him to come and see them outside. Jesus goes on to say that anyone who does God's will is his brother, sister and mother. What a fantastic thing to know! Now my big brother is a pretty important person in my life and whilst I've fought with him for a lot, if not most, of my life he's been a huge influence on me. A lot of my tastes and interests are shaped by what Dan was into and it scares me how I have mimicked him in the past with my behaviour and mannerisms. But here I read that Jesus has that exact same relationship with me. If I do His will then He'll be my brother and so I'll become more like Him, just as I have done with Dan. Ace :)

Jesus then tells the Parable of the Sower and I'm not going to break it down here, if only because we'll read the explanation another day. Two things I like though. First is how verse 8 says that the seed produced 100, 60 and 30 times what it was sown. That order to me suggests that 30 is just as important as 100. If you feel like some people are better Christians than you are because they convert more people or see bigger results from their dedication then I think that's rubbish. Here Jesus is saying that if you live for God there will be results and the results will be important big or small. He finishes off by explaining why He uses parables and I think this echoes what we read yesterday in Proverbs about gaining true knowledge from devotion to God and listening on Him.

Finally we start a new Psalm today and it's a troubling 10 verses. We read about the Psalmist's pain that God appears to be nowhere in the world because of all the evil. How wicked people appear to get away with everything and God will not intervene. I think today's passages are linked again in a rather strange way that hasn't occurred to me until I really thought and prayed about this Psalm. Here we have a cry that we have all made. Why is their suffering? Why do evil deeds help people prosper? Where is God in all of this? What's the point of God if someone without Him can succeed? Well I think Genesis shows that God is a just God and will make sure that sin is punished. I also think Jesus backs that up by not only telling people the benefits of living for God but also by pointing out that the other seeds end up dead and worthless. That's the reaction of God. He might not stop every person from sinning but He will see justice come to His people!

And that's your lot. Not sure if I'll put the vlogs up on the Tube of You but we shall see. Hope you all have a great weekend. Questions, criticisms and comments welcome as always

Jon