Song Devo: "I Repent" by Derek Webb

Please click on this link: Song

I will take you to my website and you can just click on the little play button beneath Derek Webb.

I do some explaining on the song (forgive the shoddy work, Mimi wasn't letting my fully experiment with the new garageband. Forgive me also for blaming Mimi for my shoddy voice over work.)

Enjoy!

PJ

Judges 10: Another Head Crushed by a Lady- GIRL POWER!

A theme in the book of Judges is beginning to emerge:

Step 1: Israel Worships Idol
Step 2: Israel Get Beat Around by Neighboring Tribes
Step 3: Israel Gets Tired of Getting Beat Around and "Remembers" God
Step 4: God, in His love and Compassion for His people, helps
Step 5: God rescues Israel in some miraculous fashion whereby only God can get the credit
Step 6: The people rejoice, the judge is proclaimed "ruler" or "peace-keeper," and there is peace
Step 7: The judge dies and the people "forget" God and immediately turn to idol worship
Step 8: Some crazy lady smashes a dudes head

Moral of the story: the ladies in Judges aren't afraid to crush skulls and the men are evil. This is a theme that any girl power advocate can stand behind.

Take for example the recent saga I just read, Judges 10. So, remember Deb and Jael and the tent peg through the skull of Sissy Sisera. Ok, so next Judge is Gideon vs. Amelekites (some kind of Ishmaelite offshoot, and various bad guys). God wins through Gideon, peace for 40 years. Gideon produces 70 sons, then dies (busy guy). Gideon has a son through a girl on the side (concubine, basically)- Abimalech. Gideon dies, nation turns to idolatry, Abimalech is a shady guy and has the other 70 brothers killed (Abi's mom was from Shechem, so not a full blood Jew, that is how he can rally support for the murder of the 70 bros). So then, to make a long story short, Abi does some dirty deeds, get in control, then God makes it so Abi's own people rebel. Gideon had one remaining son (the name escapes me right now, Joham or something like that) who somehow survived the slaughter. He leads a rebellion. Abi is fighting his own towns people, scares the people of this town up into a tower and Abi is causing all kinds of trouble at the base of this tower. Lo and behold our thematic element comes into play. Some random lady drops a huge stone on Abi's head (nice shot!) and crushes his skull. Two judges, two heads smashed by ladies, theme anyone?

Anyway, that is all I want to bring up today. Just more proof that the Bible (and God) isn't against ladies. Actually, so far in Judges I would say Ladies 2 Man: 0.... and Ladies: fair and virtuous, man: evil.... but that might be a stretch... haha. Anyway, this is my late night thought. Happy Easter Everyone. Celebrate with your family (:( tear for me not being with my family :(  ) Rejoice because our savior lives! Amen

PJ

Easter Blog: Don Francisco, My Most Favorite Easter Song! Old School!

Hello Ya'll, I have put my favorite easter song on my website for you. I had to make a movie of it so it could be disseminated (some silly iTunes restriction kept me from "sharing" the mp4). So then, just click on the link and watch the video/enjoy the song!

Happy Easter- He is Risen!

Don Francisco: "He's Alive"

Girl Power and Judge Dredd, Debbie, Barak (not O'Bama) and what they have to do with Judges (It's crazy, I know)

The bible is often mislabeled as a chauvinist manual for how to subdue and rule over helpless, weak women- that is wrong. I have heard this kind of thing and much more, but I don't want to get into that today. I am just saying that sometimes the Bible gets a bad wrap and its "perceived" viewpoint toward the lady folk. It isn't overly skewed in favor of the man folk nor does it purpose to place all women solely under the crushing heel of their manish overlords. But again, that is another story for another day (why? you scream!).

Since Mother's day is sometime around the corner, and since everyone else is talking about Easter (and rightly so), I want to share with you something I thought was very interesting from my reading yesterday and completely random. It relates to the lady folk- it is about girl power, so to speak. Hence the tie-in with Mother's Day (I had to tie it into something).

If you have a bible or the internet (which you do since you are reading this). Find Judges 4 and read it.

Ok, not too bad right? Judges is a book that is often glazed over. Why? Because there are a lot of random incidences with various judges. Here is the short summary- Israel would sin and get captured by some other tribe, they would be oppressed, then they would cry out to God for deliverance and he would periodically send a "judge." A judge was kind of like Jewish Judge Dread (if you know the reference, good for you, a personal favorite movie of mine Judge Dredd ). A person who was both a military and civic leader. A judge would administer justice- either in the "civil courts," or at the "national level," through military skirmishes. Well, this was a vicious spiral of Sin, Slavery, Asking for help, God giving help, then silence, until is started all over again (see picture, thanks Bible Knowledge Commentary!).

Anyway, for those of you who think the Bible never has anything good to say about women, allow me to introduce to you Deborah and her hard-core buddy Jael- both tough ladies. Deborah was one of the judges that God sent to restore the people back to a right relationship with Him. She was both a prophetess and Judge (see, Jewish Judge Dredd). The story goes like this.

The setting is the Jezreel valley (see map). God told Deborah that she needed to get in touch with Barak (a dude, but not O'Bama) and get 10,000 troops from neighboring friendly Jewish tribes, (because Deb wasn't a ruler of a certain people group, she had no troops) Nephtali and Zebulun. The plan was to get a hold of Sisera, the commander of Jabin's army (Canaanite King), and beat the army and kill him, and then kill Jabin. This was a big undertaking. Sisera had lots of heavy iron chariots (think Abrams tanks) at his disposal, 900.

So, Barak (not O'Bama) got the troops gathered and they mustered (yum, mustard). This is a personal favorite verse in this saga, Judges 4:9. Barak is like, "You can come along Deb." You know he is thinking, this lady Deb is going, but I'm the man around here and I am going to get the credit. But Deb had other plans. Here is the verse, "She said, "I will surely go with you; nevertheless, the honor shall not be yours on the journey that you are about to take. For the Lord will sell Sisera into the hands of a woman." See, I told you girl power.

I am sure Barak is thinking, "yeah right, all my troops are dudes, but ok, whatever." So they go out and get into a battle with Sisera. As the story goes, the Lord gave the Canaanite army into the hands of Barak- all the army is killed, less Sisera. So Sisera sees that it is hopeless and bails. He goes running for the hills. He finds a nice seemingly hospitable tent to hide in- the tent of one hard-core chick, Jael. Jael is the wife of a guy named Heber, who is Kenite. The Kenites were currently at peace with the Canaanites and King Jabin. So Sisera was thinking, "oh cool, I can hide out here."

Sisera asks Jael if he can hide in the tent and if she can cover for him. He doesn't want killed. And Jael says, "sure thing Sissy Sisera (ok, she probably didn't say that)." The next thing is the crazy thing. So what does Jael do? She picks up a mallet, a tent peg, and drives the peg through Sisera's skull, pinning him to the ground. Talk about a hard-core lady! Side Note: It was "women's work" to put up the tent. She would have been skilled with both the mallet and the peg, plus tough enough to drive it through Sisera's skull.

Then Barak (not O'Bama) comes to the tent and Jael says, "hey Barak, check this out, I killed Sissy Sisera for you. He is dead, I brained him with a peg." I am sure Barak was both flabbergasted (not Cesc) and impressed. He might have even thought, "I'm not even mad I didn't get the credit, I'm impressed!" Who knows?

Jael is one tough chick. God used her to give an unlikely victory to the Israelites and a "victory" to womankind everywhere. I bet never in a million years did Sisera believe that Jael would drive a tent peg through his skull. But she did.

So this is what we learn today through this awesome story:
1. Never Doubt God- He will do what He says, regardless
2. You can't run from God
3. God is there for you if you cry out for Him, He will provide, even in the most unlikeliest of ways
4. God doesn't hate women- He loves all men and women just the same. He uses each according to His will
5. Never Trust a Lady named Jael or one who puts up tents for a living- She will drive a peg through your skull (j/k)
6. Don't be Canaanite

I hope you enjoyed this story as much as me. As I am reading Judges, I am sure I will come across some more gems. There is more to this Deb story. Check out Judges 5 for a very beautiful song sung by Deb and Barak (not O'Bama) about the provision and sovereignty of God.




PJ

PS: For your edification:

Mimiology: Easter Thoughts from my little Monkey

Eph 1:4-9: "But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, 5 even though we were dead in transgressions, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you are saved! – 6 and he raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 to demonstrate in the coming ages the surpassing wealth of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 it is not from works, so that no one can boast."



Since it is almost Easter I thought it only appropriate to post an Easter themed devotion for the day. I don't want to spend much time on it because God's love is simple and doesn't require much explanation. I was thinking about this the other day. I was looking at Mimi (as I often do) thinking how much I loved her. That I loved her so much I could just grab her and squeeze her and squeeze her forever. I couldn't imagine not having her around. To cheer me up with the joyful smile everyday when she wakes up. That I would do anything for her wellbeing. If you have a child, or have ever had a child, you know what I am talking about.

Then a thought dawned on me that caused exceeding joy- God loves me as much, nay even more, than I love Mimi. And to use technical theological words, that made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. To imagine that God loves me just as much and more than I love Mimi. Knowing what I would do for her, it is not hard "to understand" why God allowed the death of His Son for us. The only thing I can wrap my mind around, and will never be able understand, is why? Why did God love us so much? What did we do to deserve this? I am continually failing God, yet He always loves me perfectly, more perfectly than I can love anyone else.

The only thing I can think of is Mimi, again. Why do I love her? Is it anything she did for me? Of course not, really, she has no ability to "do" anything for me that would seem to cause me joy. She, her smile brings me joy. Her little chuckles and silly things she does makes me laugh. But that doesn't necessarily engender love, per se. I love her though, by virtue of her just being there, of her being our progeny, she is special and loved so much. She doesn't have to do anything- we are hardwired to love our children (hmm, wonder where that comes from?) So I guess that is I my theological explanation of God's love- very complex indeed.

God's love is not based on anything we can do for Him. By virtue of being made in God's image- of being God's special creation- we are loved. And because we are loved- we have this tremendous gift, blessing, of eternal life that is available to us for free. God is a God of love and has made a way for our eternal joy and happiness- and that way is through His Son Jesus Christ. Who was crucified, buried, and was raised to life on the 3rd day. Who is reigning at the right hand of the Father, saying prayers for me night and day. How great it is this easter season to remember God's love!

Amen!

PJ

Further Reading on the Relationship between Judas and Peter

For all of you out there wanting a little more in-depth study on the relationship between Judas and Peter. I have posted an article for you on my little "dissemination" web site. All you have to do to download it is click the link below, then click on the file when you are at the page and it will download automatically.

Click here to get the file!

Thanks!

PJ

Understand Your Modern Cultural Milieu: Controversy on the Rise!

Recently there has been a slew of activity out there concerning Christian author's Rob Bell's new book, Love Wins. In fact, the the book was on the cover of Time magazine- talk about exposure! I'm sure you have heard about it by now, its caught the web on fire due to its incendiary content. If you know nothing about it, or want to know more, check out the Time cover story: Time Article on Rob Bell

It is a very intriguing article in Time, but it doesn't fully capture the true essence of the book. If you are wondering how to respond to this, or want to hear another perspective, I have linked for you a blog by Dallas Seminary Professor, Dr. Darrell Bock. For his extensive bio, click here: Dr. Bock's Bio

I suggest that you take a few moments to check out Dr. Bock's response on his blog. I have linked it here: Dallas Seminary Professor, Dr. Bock's Response . It is important to be able to dialogue with people if they ask you questions. Dr. Bock's blog gives a fairly comprehensive summary of the book, then goes into detail critiquing Bell's perspective. This is what is going on in our culture today. I'm not sure if it is just hype, but the book "could" spark a shift in the way a lot of "Christians" and non-Christians think about their faith and especially the redemption, salvation, and heaven and hell.

There is a decent amount of reading I have posted today. But I think it would be very fruitful to give it a gander, especially the Bock blog. Please feel free to dialogue about this afterward!

PJ