How to Prevent Snake Flu

(2 Kings 18:4) He [Hezekiah] removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it. (It was called Nehushtan.)

With talk of a swine flu pandemic, I feel it relevant to mention this Old Testament lesson on health. The bronze snake was first mentioned in Numbers 21:4-9 as a cure for snake bites:

They traveled from Mount Hor along the route to the Red Sea, to go around Edom. But the people grew impatient on the way; they spoke against God and against Moses, and said, "Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the desert? There is no bread! There is no water! And we detest this miserable food!" Then the LORD sent venomous snakes among them; they bit the people and many Israelites died. The people came to Moses and said, "We sinned when we spoke against the LORD and against you. Pray that the LORD will take the snakes away from us." So Moses prayed for the people. The LORD said to Moses, "Make a snake and put it up on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live." So Moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole. Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake, he lived.

God is not on trial here. His justice is not subject to my judgment, so I'll leave it at that about the snake punishment. I also want to make it clear that it I won't be interested in anyone claiming that the swine flu is a punishment from God for our nation's grumbling unless they some hard evidence of Divine inspiration. The interesting tidbit I want to get at here is the fact that God's blessings can easily be turned into idols by the faithless.

Looking to the bronze snake was a way God provided so the people could be healed from snake bites. I believe this is where the logo found on most ambulances comes from. The snake was a blessing from God and an answer to a communal request. The snake was a symbol of God's mercy and an opportunity for healing. Are any of these bad things? No, but what happens when you (1) forget the God that gave the snake to you (2) name it Nehushtan and (3) Burn incense to it? I believe you have just been diagnosed with Snake Flu, or its scientific name: Idolatrous Maximus. ...Idolatry.

Sin corrupts everything, even things that could have been good if we would not have been so impatient. The Bible says to "seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you." This means if you seek first your health, then nothing may be given to you. It is not wrong to want to be healthy. It is not wrong to feel sorrow when you are sick...certainly when you are REALLY sick. I am not advocating a mass disease exchange to prove that we love God more than health. But somewhere along the line these Israelites started to trust a symbol of health more than the Giver of Life.

Notice that when this happened, Hezekiah did not scold the people or give a sermon. He did not put a sign next to the pole that said "make sure you don't burn incense to this." He DESTROYED it. Are we as aware, when we come across people who are worshiping health, to know that their idol needs to be broken? You can usually tell someone who does this by how they pray (and you will hear them pray whenever they do). There is a definite air of manipulation, as if God honors prayers that would persuade your mother to let you go to mall even though you are grounded.

If you know God, you know that He is a healer and that it is not uncommon for his mercy to reach down into our sad physical situations and fix them. But if you REALLY know God, you don't care what he does as long as He is allowed to be Who He Is. Are you worshiping what you do for God? Are you worshiping what God can do for you? OR are you worshiping God as He is.

I heard a blind minister speak once (in a pentecostal environment), and I could sense the frustration in his message when he described the difficulty he encounters when Christians cannot see past his blindness to pray for other things. He told a story about how God gave him his sight back for a number of minutes and then took it away to show him that He is in complete control of the "problem." Though it may be a "problem" to many people, it can be an opportunity for God. This minister may feel a desire for his sight back, but his desire for the Lord is greater and makes the former look like nothing.

Wait on the Lord, and don't utilize self-pity as a license to sin.

What are we burning incense to that needs to be cut down? How long with we wander the desert before idols and created things no longer have our hearts? How do you prevent Snake Flu? Smash the objects in which you put faith (some of which are in high, difficult to reach places) until only Christ remains. Then you will be unmovable.

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Have You Seen this Pig?

This applicant sent me a filled out date form, but must have put a Papa John's number on there by mistake. If you have seen this pig, please let me know where she is. She's smoking hot and the first one to get every question right!

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Community

I've noticed that most of the new church plants I hear about are establishing themselves on the idea that the Church needs to be more community centered, meaning that newer church planters place high value on the power of interpersonal relationships. This brings up conflicting reactions from me.

I've been reading a commentary on 1 John, and apparently one of main reasons that the author wrote the letter was to address the false teaching of a group of secessionists. One of these teachings diluted the idea that sin even existed, hence John's rebutting verse: If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. Apparently this false teaching was leading to quarrels within the church enough to prompt an under girding of the law of love: The one who says he is in the light and yet hates his brother is in the darkness [...]

1 John attempts to clean up the mess that secessionists have caused by spreading teaching that led to a disruption in their fellowship. It is obvious that community is something that was important to the apostle writing under the inspiration of the Spirit. This is one biblical example among several others that unity is good.

Conversely, the story of Babel in Genesis 11 shows that community is not always welcomed by God. In this passage, the descendants of Noah had once again become rebellious. Even the Great Flood could not wash away the old habits of sin it seems (which makes it one of many Old Testament foreshadows of the final redemptive act of Christ). Thus, we find mankind with the will to come together and combine their sinful natures to build a monument to pride: a tower that would reach into heaven.

This corporate mission so concerned our Lord that He intervened by confusing their languages. This is supposedly why, to this day, us earth dwellers have thick barriers between cultures established by speech. So we see that unity can be bad.

The consensus? I believe these conflicting equations (Unity = Good and Unity = Bad) mean that though community is to be sought after, it should not take the place of a real reverence for the Lord and a respect for His prerogative to reach down and blow up whatever plans we cook up together outside of His specific command.

When you are surrounded by a bunch of people who agree with you, it is easy to come up with some absolutely foolish ideas. Take this burger king commercial.



"Baby Got Back" by Sir Mix-A-Lot was first released in 1992. That's almost seventeen years ago. The song has been parodied and re-parodied to exhaustion. Even Christians were turning it into something they could use with "Baby Got Book," and you know when the Christians finally catch up with a pop culture joke it has already stopped being funny ten years ago. BUT THAT'S NOT EVEN THE KICKER. The real senselessness of this commercial lies in the fact that they are promoting a Spongebob Squarepants KIDS meal with sexual innuendo. AHH!

If I know anything about childhood development, it is that by the time little johnny starts letting his french fry make most of his decisions for him, he no longer wants the kids meal. So who are they trying to reach with this marketing mishap? The parents of the kids? Did they think the parents would say something like: "oh boy, those dancing girls really make me want to buy my kid a BK kid's meal!" Past Burger King commercials have won awards for advertising, and I think that Burger King mascot is cool, but this particular commercial fails because: (1.) It's not original or funny. It's annoying. (2.) It will probably offend parents who are trying to feed their kids a simple meal without having to explain why Spongebob is objectifying women.

How do commercials like this get made? There must have been a board room of marketing guys who think after 17 years Mix-A-Lot's single can still make people laugh. I don't think they exist, but I wouldn't want to share my breathing air with such individuals. Chalk another point up to the Unity = Bad theory.

I guess there is a reason that Jesus so sternly told his followers that he did not necessarily come to bring peace but a sword. He rightly predicted that his presence would divide families and friends. "What Would Jesus Do?" Oh, I know! He would break up a tight knit Mormon family when Gary starts to learn the truth that Joseph Smith was a complete fraud, and Christ is his only hope for redemption. That doesn't seem like the Jesus we picture, but can it be a real possibility that God does not want certain people to be together?

All of that to say I don't think community should not be the goal of church planting, because there's no where to go once you achieve it, just as there would be no where to go if the Genesis 11 folk had been allowed to finish their tower. Humanity is quite fond of something we don't even know how to use: power.

I'm at a point in my walk with Christ that I'm taking a good look at what I sincerely believe in and what I don't. I believe in God's ability to take on our pain and clean up our messes, but I don't believe in our ability to save ourselves with a good plan for togetherness. We have a deep affection for the programs we conjure up to help God with His mission, but I'm learning that He doesn't need help with what He does best. Good community should happen when we stop worshiping everything we tend to put in Jesus' place.

But what happens if we are putting community in Jesus' place? Then it too must die.

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It is Not Good for Man to be Alone

Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him." (Gen 2:18)

In case you haven't noticed. I recently added a dating application to side bar located on your right. It is above the About Me section. Please refer the document link http://www.divshare.com/download/7015160-f0c to any eligible female you know of. Group interviews will be held once the application quota is filled. Disqualified applicants will not be contacted, and no explanation will be given.

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Barrenness

I guess the message lately is that there is no message.

Oswald Chambers says that in order for God to bring us out of a state of faith the relies solely on feelings and blessings to stay alive, God must scatter us to a place of desolation where we see how empty and bare our lives really are.

Now don't get me wrong, I have been blessed immensely. Just yesterday I was marveling at the fact that I am going to receive a substantial tax refund. This my first year doing my own taxes (kinda), so I wasn't expecting a large sum of money around this time. Of course, that was money I earned in the first place, but even if I didn't get it, I am a mother effin' rich American. I eat whenever I'm hungry and I can buy clothes whenever I require them and I have everything I need. What did I do to deserve this? There are people all over the world that struggle to have a decent level of nutrition. It's like I have won the lottery to not have to worry about such things. But I digress.

Even though I really am thankful for the irony of my financial stability during a recession, there is an overwhelming sense of complete emptiness that has pervaded my existence for the past 8 months. So much this is so, that I have question the point of continuing.

Without God, I would kill myself. There is absolutely nothing on this earth that I want. NOTHING. Every lofty endeavor ends with a dead end. Fame is a burden, because whatever gets you there has to continue to keep you there. You become a slave to fame to keep people your slaves. Power and riches just bring more responsibility. You can't talk about wealth in this country without someone making you feel guilty. All beauty fades. Knowledge brings depression. Philanthropy is hollow and fake. Any kind of vocational pursuit doesn't really matter because will it really change anything in a thousand years? No, it's just a paycheck...just delaying starvation for another day. Without God, America is left busying itself in a maze of unfulfillment. We're constantly thinking "if I have ____, then I will be happy," and we're foolish enough to believe that crock while we bounce from discovery to discovery until we finally learn: without Jesus, life is trivia.

And when we truly believe this, our faith has matured to the next step. But it is a concept easier talked about than believed. In order for us to really believe it, we must push through the desolation. I have not made it out yet because life still seems pretty pointless right now, despite the occasional chance I get to make myself laugh. I want to change that picture up there on this blog to one of me looking down several empty hallways instead of stairways.

I know the gospel message, but I haven't been given my mission yet. I am Moses after killing an Egyptian and realizing my efforts to save people will only add to the difficulty. I am Joseph in prison. I am Jesus being tempted in the desert. I am a blind Saul in Damascus.

I am a scattered disciple, disillusioned with the world... but Jesus has overcome the world. I will wait for Him.

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