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Bible Challenge 38: Messiah – Signs and Wonders

One thing almost everyone knows about Jesus, if they know anything about him at all: He performed miracles.  He healed leprosy with a touch, made the blind see and the lame walk, cured every kind of disease, often with just a word–on one occasion, from a word spoken miles away.  It was word of these spectacular events, even more than word of his singular teaching, that drew “great crowds” everywhere he went.  But it may surprise you to know that the word miracle, or rather its Greek equivalent, is never used in connection with these supernatural happenings.  Instead, the word used to designate them is sign.

Our reading this week will be all in the Gospel of Mark, and if you read carefully, you’ll notice that Jesus could not possibly have healed everyone, and not all the healings were accomplished with great fanfare.  In fact, he continually told people not to tell how their blindness or lameness or illness had been cured.  These “signs” were to testify to his authority, for those who personally witnessed them.  Like the Kingdom of Heaven, they were super-powerful, yet semi-secret; motivated by compassion, but also by something else.

To see what that was, download this week’s printable challenge, with scripture passages, thought questions, key verse, and activities:

Bible Reading Challenge Week 38: Messiah – Signs and Wonders

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 37: Messiah – The Kingdom of Heaven

Next: Week 39: Messiah – The Road to Jerusalem

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Envy Is No Fun

What are you good at?  That’s where the green-eyed monster* will get you.

I used to make ice cream from a recipe and process I developed myself: a time-consuming project for special occasions.  I liked to say it was the best in the world because who could prove it wasn’t?  Many years ago I was at a picnic where someone brought a bucked of homemade ice cream.  I even remember the flavor: maple. Reader, it was not anywhere as good as mine, and that’s an honest objective judgement.  Even so, I was surprised and a bit abashed at how much I resented the praise heaped upon that unassuming tub of inferior dessert.  If only I had thought to bring my world-record peach!  I was like Mrs. Smith giving Mrs. Jones the stink eye at the county fair because of the former’s purple-ribbon-winning strawberry-rhubarb pie when Mrs. Smith’s blueberry pie clearly deserved it.

Envy.  It’s miserable.

Later, when I was more mature with serious ambitions of publishing a novel, any new fiction writer who accomplished that feat, with warm  accolades in the New York Times Book Review, was like a stab to the heart.  Especially if they were close to my own age, like Carrie Fisher.  She already had fame, fortune, cool friends—why did she have to go publish a novel and get it optioned for a movie when the world was waiting for my masterpiece?  Or, in less confident moods, how dare she be a better writer than me?  I wouldn’t have changed places with her (even without knowing what we know now), unfortunately for me at the time, the world was full of talented fiction writers.  And, even after I managed to publish a few novels, the world remained full of more popular, and more well-reviewed, and more awarded-winning novelists, and I knew some of them personally.

Envy is misery.

Now past my fiction-writing stage—probably—I still feel the old familiar twinge over Christian writers more shared, liked, and retweeted than me, especially over subjects I’ve written about.  Very silly, on a par with the county pie-judging competition.  Worse than silly, actually—it’s a clear violation of the Tenth Commandment.  I can say my bouts of envy are less much less frequent and of shorter duration.  Sanctification always has its effect, however slowly.

But it’s better to shortcut the process, and Psalm 73 (of Asaph) is just the ticket.  Old Asaph put his finger on the problem: “As for me, my feet had almost stumbled.  My steps had nearly slipped.  For I was envious of the arrogant, when I saw their prosperity . . .”   I mean, look at them!  What do they know of struggle?  Maybe they won second runner-up in the Miss Radian Baby pageant but after that it was red carpet all the way.  What couldn’t I do with all their advantages?  My cheeks hurt from insincere smiles when they announced their latest award; my hearty Congrats! over their latest book deal was wrung from a heart of lead.

“But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went to the sanctuary of God . . .”  There I learned that my problem wasn’t them.  My problem was me.  They have their own issues to answer for, but “when my soul was embittered, when I was pricked in heart, I was brutish and ignorant: I was like a beast before you.”

Ouch.

An actual beast can be forgiven for a narrow focus and limited perspective; not me.  When I try to squeeze my life into a self-focused cheering section, I’m like Nebuchadnezzar clawing for grubs and snails.  Nevertheless

I am continually with you [whether I feel it or not]; You hold my right hand.

You guide me with your counsel and afterward you will receive me to glory.

Now, that’s perspective!

It’s also the only lasting cure for the misery of envy: recognition, repentance, worship.  Repeat, repeat, repeat, until it becomes a habit.  I’m still prodded by the green-eyed monster from time to time, but the prodding is more like peevish pokes.  Some of this improvement may be due to age—time’s running out and I have more important things to worry about.  But I also have much better things to anticipate.

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*Othello, Act 3 Scene 3.  Another phrasemaking point for Shakespeare.

**Two tips: use a mixture of whole milk (custard) and heavy cream, and whip the cream to soft peaks before you add it to the custard.  And don’t skimp on the rock salt.

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Bible Challenge 37: Messiah – The Kingdom of Heaven

 

What was Messiah about?  His contemporaries thought he was all about restoring the Kingdom to Israel, in political terms, and it seems they were half right.  Because as soon as he began his ministry, he kept mentioning the “kingdom”: a phenomenon right around the corner that demanded repentance.  But too much of what he said didn’t make sense.  The kingdom was here, but it was secret.  Its essence was not exaltation, but humility.  One had to go down in order to go up.  And it seemed whenever anyone had a pointed question, he answered with a story.  What sort of kingdom was this?

And what sort of king?

For a free download of this week’s challenge, including scripture passages to read, questions to think about, and activities for the family, click below:

Bible Reading Challenge Week 37: Messiah – The Kingdom of Heaven

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 36: Messiah – Baptism & Temptation

Next: Week 38: Messiah – Signs & Wonders

 

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Bible Challenge Week 36: Messiah – Baptism & Temptation

One day a man walked down to the river to be baptized by John.  Multitudes were doing the same: John was a sensation.  The man caught no one’s eye but John’s–was the Baptist already familiar with him, or did they just meet?  Had the man spent his earlier adult years among the Essenes or some other holy separatist group, or was he quietly working in his father’s carpenter shop?  No one can say.  Except for one striking incident in Jerusalem, recorded by Luke (who probably got it from his mother), Messiah had lived his life in the shadows, like the vast majority of Galileans.  Then he stepped out of the crowd.

What did his baptism mean?  And the strange interlude in the wilderness that happened directly after–what was that about?

John was famous; this man was not.  But John was continually pointing to someone coming along after him, and now Someone was here.  But where would he go next?  John had his own ideas, but even though he was the greatest of the prophets, those ideas turned out to be wrong . . .

For the .pdf download of this week’s reading  challenge, with scripture passages, thought questions, and activities, click here:

Bible Reading Challenge Week 36:

Messiah – Baptism & Temptation

 

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 35: Messiah – Baptism and Temptation

Next: Week 37: Messiah – The Kingdom of Heaven

 

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Bible Challenge Week 35: Messiah – Birth & Boyhood

“The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come into his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.”  Malachi, the last prophet and the last book of the Old Testament, rang with that expectation.  And the people were looking to the temple.  They had a beautiful sight to look to: all marble and gold, the pride of Jerusalem.

The Lord came suddenly, but not to the temple they were looking toward.  The glory they expected appeared behind them, in the skies over Bethlehem.

They were longing for the “day of the Lord” that Amos and other prophets assured them was coming.  Instead, the Lord himself came.  It’s a familiar story, but it should always surprise us.

For a .pdf download of this week’s challenge, with Old and New Testament scripture passages, thought questions, and activities, click below:

Bible Reading Challenge Week 35: Messiah – Birth & Boyhood

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 34: Messiah – The Forerunner

Next: Week 35: Messiah – Baptism & Temptation

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Bible Challenge Week 34: Messiah – The Forerunner

This week we turn a page–literally.  And we turn an age.

When we left the Israelites in Babylon, they were no longer Israelites.  Instead they were called “Jews,” a name derived from the last tribe to claim its own territory: Judah.  The Jews were allowed to return to their capitol city and take up temple worship again–as soon as the temple was restored.  Also, they were apparently no longer tempted to combine worship of the Lord with rites for the pagan gods around them.  Malachi, the last prophet, had other complaints to make against them, and after him the Lord was silent for 450 years.

But the last book of the Old Testament ends with a specific promise: the promise of a blazing “day of the Lord” to be preceded by the prophet Elijah.  Does that mean Elijah, first of the prophetic age, would be resurrected to bring about a new age?  450 years of wondering followed Malachi, and 450 years of expectations about what this day, and this prophet would look like.

“For behold the day is coming, burning like an oven . . .” Mal. 4:1

As usual, God kept his word.  But not in the way that anyone expected.

For this week’s Bible Challenge, with scripture passages, discussion questions, and activities, chick below:

Bible Reading Challenge Week 34: MESSIAH – THE FORERUNNER *

*Please note: In the .pdf I mis-identified Herod as a Samaritan.  He was actually an Idumean, or Edomite (descendant of Esau), raised as a Jew.

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 33: Prophets – Daniel

Next: Week 35: Messiah – Birth & Boyhood

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Bible Challenge Week 33: The Prophets – Daniel

“Daniel in the Lion’s Den” is one of the first Bible stories every child knows.  His book contains more biographical material than any other prophet except Jonah: we know his social class, his country of origin, his career, his titles.  He was an aristocrat, an administrator, a seer, and an exile.  His story is much like Joseph’s, although his perilous pit occured near the end of life rather than the beginning.

His prophesies are very different from the rest of the Majors and Minors–they actually foretell the future!  Even if somewhat cryptically.  Daniel’s visions are called “apocryphal” because they foretell cataclysmic events in an undetermined future time–maybe even the end of time.  Without getting caught up in the meaning of mixed-metal statues and multi-mouthed beasts, we can appreciate that Daniel’s life occurs near one of those hinges of history: the last, or almost the last, prophetic voice to speak before a long stretch of silence.  And then the prophesies begin to come true . . .

For this week’s reading challenge, with scripture references, discussion questions, and activities, click below:

Bible Reading Challenge 33: The Prophets – Daniel

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 32: the Prophets – Ezekiel

Next: Week 34: Messiah I – the Forerunner

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Big Data, Big Tyranny

In the future, people will be controlled by data accumulated by the ruling class.

Citizens will be assigned a social credit number at the age of maturity—or perhaps even at birth.  Every purchase, business transaction, and social media post will be tracked and valued according to government notions of virtue.

Actions like taking care of an elderly parent, speaking well of an official or a law, and volunteering at an approved charity, will raise an individual credit score.  Unworthy actions and attitudes will lower it. The higher the score, the greater the privilege: discounts on utilities, preferential treatment for housing or school, even a wider pool of potential marriage partners.  The lower the score—well, go low enough and you may not even be able to buy an airline ticket.

Does that sound scary to you?  Then this will sound even scarier: in China, the future is two years away.

2020 is the target year for instituting a nation-wide social credit system.  In one sense, it’s a dream come true: throughout human history, unruly citizens have been controlled by threats.  It’s not very efficient and it breeds resentment.  But if a nation’s citizens could be controlled by rewards, they would voluntarily act in the public interest, whatever the government determines the public interest to be.

The program has been test-running in selected Chinese cities.  In Rongcheng, a city on the northeastern coast with a population of almost 700k, residents have willingly embraced it.  Pictures of so-called “civic heroes” are displayed on electronic bulletin boards.  Citizens have even taken it on themselves to police each other, debiting their neighbors for “illegally spreading religion,” for instance.  Writing in the online magazine Wired last October, Rachel Botsman compared China’s social credit system to a vast rewards program or video game: “It’s gamified obedience.”

Roncheng proudly displays its “civilized families.”

I can see how this might work there; China is traditionally a much more ordered society than ours.  But how far-fetched is the possibility of a similar program here?  Private entities like Amazon, Google and Facebook already have vast amounts of data on everyone who makes a purchase, enters a search term, or posts a picture.  They’ve used the information to sell targeted advertising, and in the process have become fabulously rich and powerful.  They’ve also come under fire for abusing that power.  Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, testifying before Congress last April, said he would welcome government regulation of Facebook to curb exploitation of data.  Whether he realizes it or not, what he’s proposing is the marriage of big tech to big government, and the vastly-expanded capacity for exploitation.

Throughout history power has been the rule, freedom the exception.  The freedom promised by the “information highway” thirty years ago turns out to have a cost when that very information can be used to manipulate us.  The biblical call to “renew your minds” takes on a new urgency for Christians: to know what we believe, and why.  Hold fast to the truth, and it will keep us free.

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Bible Challenge Week 32: The Prophets – Ezekiel

Get ready for a wild ride!  Ezekiel was blessed or cursed with the most far-out visions of any Bible prophet, and we can only imagine what his audience thought.  Besides seeing the visions, he also acted them out, such as lying on one side for 40 days while subsisting on Ezekiel bread.

“Can these bones . . . live?”

Wheels within wheels, bones upon bones.  Ezekiel saw his visions in the Spirit, for he was deported from Judah at an early age and never saw his homeland again.  It seemed as though the Lord would never look upon his people again–in one stunning vision, Ezekiel saw the Holy Presence depart from those golden rooms and columned halls.  Would the people ever return?  Would God Himself return?  Could the dry bones of lost glory ever be restored?

For a printable download of this week’s challenge, including questions, activities, and scripture passages, click below:

Bible Reading Challenge Week 32: The Prophets – Ezekiel

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 31: The Prophets – Jeremiah

Next: Week 33: The Prophets – Daniel

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Bible Challenge Week 31: The Prophets – Jeremiah

Few prophets–few men or women, period–lived through as much dramatic and consequential history as Jeremiah, but he’d rather have skipped it all.  Most of us would–he was a living, breathing example of “shoot the messenger.”  His ministry spanned King Josiah’s reformation (he wrote an elegy for the funeral) to King Zedekiah’s rebellion that ended it all for the southern kingdom.

But with the Lord, the end is not The End.  As so many of the other prophets, Jeremiah saw a plan unfolding that was not quite within his understanding but it burned in his heart: “I have loved you with an everlasting love”:

I will bring them from the north and gather them . . the blind and lame . . .   He who scattered Israel will gather them . . . and turn their morning into joy.

“At this I awoke and looked around,” writes Jeremiah, “and my sleep had been pleasant to me.”  (31:36)

There’s day in which we all will awake, and look around, and reality will outshine our dreams.

For a download of this week’s challenge, with scripture passages, discussion questions, and activities for the kids, click here:

Bible Reading Challenge Week 31: The Prophets – Jeremiah

 

(This is a continuation of a series of posts about the “whole story” of the Bible.  I plan to run one every week, on Tuesdays, with a printable PDF.  The printable includes a brief 2-3 paragraph introduction, Bible passages to read, a key verse, 5-7 thought/discussion questions, and 2-3 activities for the kids.  Here’s the Overview of the entire Bible series.)

Previous: Week 30: The Prophets – Disaster!

Next: Week 32: The Prophets – Ezekiel