Around a month ago I posted some thoughts from the first six chapters of Jeremiah.
I’ve now finished reading the first thirteen chapters (out of fifty-two) and have moved on to another book for the time being.
Like that previous post I’m intending to quote from the New American Standard Bible.
For I did not speak to your fathers, or command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings and sacrifices.
But this is what I commanded them, saying, ‘Obey My voice, and I will be your God, and you will be My people; and you will walk in all the way which I command you, that it may be well with you.’
Yet they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward and not forward. (Jeremiah 7:22-24)
At the end of next month it appears that I will be retrenched from my current position. I say “it appears” because the date is not firmly fixed and there are plenty of things that I do (and those in the same roles in other parts of the state who are also being retrenched) that no one else knows how to do, or even knows that someone currently does.
It’s a little surreal, somewhat disappointing, not unexpected, and not entirely unwelcome!
Back in mid-2017 I wrote about the different Linux distributions I’ve used over the years. At that time I was using Ubuntu 16.04 running the Gnome desktop.
Not long after that I switched over to Fedora running release 25 - also with the Gnome desktop. I can’t recall why I switched because it’s a bit like swapping one SUV for another (they all look the same to me). Perhaps I thought Fedora was a more ‘pure’ form of Linux than that provided by Ubuntu? Speculation. At this time I also loaded Fedora 25 running the Xfce desktop onto a small 32 bit Mini computer I had.
Earlier this year I began reading in the book of the prophet Jeremiah as a part of my not-quite-daily “quiet time”/“devotional time”/“time with the Lord” .
I’ve read through Jeremiah several times in the past but not spending time to pause and ponder . These days I would read something like 10 or 15 verses - maybe a third to half a chapter at a time and make some notes as I go. Sometimes these notes are observations or questions on the text. Sometimes they are prayers that form in my mind as I read and ponder. Sometimes I ask the Lord a question directly and make a note of the impressions (answers) that come to me as a result.
I was looking through some notes I’d made a month-or-two ago whilst reading the book Emotionally Healthy Spirituality by Peter Scazzuro. In it he advocates that believers participate in the Daily Office which are set times of stillness, Bible reading and prayer each day. He suggests the components and indeed the times and frequency can vary and be flexible, but there is value in setting aside multiple parts of the day for spiritual input and reflection.
Lectio divina (‘divine reading’) is a Bible reading method that is more than a Bible reading method.
It has its origins in 6th century catholicism, but before you switch off, bear in mind that most historical Christian spiritual practices have their antecedents either in biblical times, the early church or catholicism since there were few alternatives until the reformation in the 16th century.
It was first practiced by Benedict of Nursia in the 6th century and further developed bu Guigo II, a Carthusian monk in the 12th century.
There is a saying amongst theology/seminary students that a little Greek is a dangerous thing. I’m not Greek so I can’t really comment. Oh, wait. Greek language, not Greek origin.
The meaning behind the phrase is that it can be unhelpful for untrained or unqualified people to attempt to read and/or understand and/or translate and/or interpret the Koine Greek that much of the New Testament is written in. I presume this points to the potential dangers of misunderstanding, misinterpreting and misapplying the text.
The Tabernacle Lamp stand
At the beginning of the year Mark commenced a sermon series looking at something called “Tabernacle Prayer”. I want to spend some time retracing the steps we’ve taken because people have been away and may have missed parts.
This Tabernacle Prayer is a tool that was developed by David Yonggi Cho who is also known as Paul. David Yonggi Cho was the pastor of a church in South Korea that has a membership of something like one million people, with over 200,000 attending weekly.
As we approach the end of each calendar year I give some thought to different approaches or materials for Bible reading in the new year.
Over the years I’ve used the M’Cheyne Bible reading method which involved reading two or four chapter of the Bible each day. This will take you through the New Testament and Psalms twice a year and the Old Testament once (or halving that if you read two chapters a day rather than four). I have also followed this method reading along with Don Carson’s For the Love of God books I and II which consider some of the broader themes of the Bible from the daily readings.
On this Christmas Day 2019 the first thought I had for the day was to thank God for sending His Son Jesus into this world to redeem it.
My second thought was about polarisation - that this world is becoming more polarised, more intolerant, more nationalistic, more patriotic.
These days it seems that you’re either right about everything or wrong about everything. It is difficult to hold a view that is in opposition to someone else without being painted as wrong in many areas. There are the progressives or liberals versus the conservatives (despite the slightly odd naming conventions in Australian politics); pro Brexit or anti Brexit; pro Scottish independence or anti Scottish independence; pro man-made climate change or anti man-made climate change; pro same sex marriage or anti same sex marriage; pro Israel or anti Israel; pro America or anti America; pro free choice in abortion or anti free choice in abortion; pro democracy or anti democracy; pro euthanasia or anti euthanasia; pro free markets or anti free markets. But the problem is that as soon as you declare a position on any of these you are immediately painted with that label and all of your other ideas are either venerated or dismissed (depending on whether the assessor agrees or disagrees with your stated position on topic A).