Does God like racquetball?

“If she has defiled herself in being unfaithful to her husband, when she drinks the water that delivers a curse, it will enter her body and cause acute pain; her belly will swell and her womb shrivel. She will be cursed among her people. But if she has not defiled herself and is innocent of impurity, her name will be cleared and she will be able to have children.” Numbers 5

Back in the day, if a husband thought that his wife was cheating he would bring her to the temple and find out the truth through a system of drinking water. The priest would curse some water and then have the accused women drink the water. If she had an affair than that cursed water would make her barren for the rest of her life. The Bible says, “Her womb will shrivel up”. If she was innocent than nothing would happen when she consumed the water. Kind of a bizarre way of testing to see if someone is lying or not. An old school lie detector you could say.

My friends and I like to play racquetball from time to time. Sometimes the games can get pretty heated. And there will be moments while playing, because there is no ref on the court that a call maybe challenged. One party says “You just committed a foul”, while the other party will say “NO, I don’t think so”. And then some more bantering will take place, and well, you all know the drill.

So we came up with a system. We decided that when this scenario plays itself out during the game that the person making the call would be tested. We call this the, “Leaving it up to the racquetball God’s to decide if you are right or wrong” method. If the person accused of committing said foul actually did commit the foul, than the next point would be lost during the play of the game. But if the accuser losses the next point than we say “the racquetball God’s have spoken” and move on.

I guess what I am suggesting that we do from now on whenever we disagree on a call is walk over to the drinking fountain and both take a drink. And then study one another’s reaction to the water. Heck, I’m always up for new reffing methods. At least it would be more Biblical.

My newest adventure…

Hey all, just wanted to let you know that I have a new blog that I recently started.

This blog (finding faith and feeling free, the one that you are looking at now) will be about my journey as I read through the Bible this year, while the new one that I just started will be a little bit more day to day happenings in family, job…life. Check it out here, www.anthonyhoisington.blogspot.com

Thanks…

Godenomics!

“Take a census of all the men twenty years old and older who are able to go to war…here is the final tabulation: 603,550.” Numbers 1:2-46

Yes I am now headlong into the book of Numbers.  The fourth book in the Bible.  And I have to say that it’s sort of well challenging.  I say challenging because of the amount of information that is recorded in this book.  And there are times that I am not sure what I need to commit all of it to memory.  It’s like sitting in class listening to the professor spill his knowledge to you and wondering what is actually going to be on the test.  That can get a little tiring.  But anyways.  Here are two things that I extracted so far…

1. God conducted a war draft.  I had no idea that God was for the draft.  I not sure politically where that would put God, but it’s kind of interesting.  Does that mean that God is for war?  That is not an answer that I am going to give, not here anyways.  But we see in the first few chapters of Numbers what would seem to be the first ever recorded draft.

Interesting…

On a more less war like note,

2. People who go to a small churches (and I do…thursdays) or maybe have maintained a certain nucleus of people over a long period of time,  often think that the mega churches are all about numbers.  I too have fallen prey to this line of thinking from time to time, (usually when in my faith, I am a little comfortable and a lot complacent ).  Part of this argument, maybe more toward the root of the argument is…jealousy.  There churches have stopped growing, stopped being relevant and therefor to no ones practical dismay have ceased to grow.  And have had to stand by and watch other churches pick up the ball where they dropped it. We can argue all day about whether God would want our churches overflowing with people, and said in that way would seem like a no brainer, but the reality is, God wrote a book all about well…Numbers.

I have heard this said a hundred times, God does care about numbers because every number is a person.  Someones child,mother, father,grandparent or friend.
This rereading of Numbers has helped me to again focus more intently on “the numbers”.  For instance,  Thursdays last night had over a hundred attenders!  That’s amazing!  And I have to think that that God was up in heaven counting, taking a roll call, pulling the misguided, the broken and the weak all together in one room. For a few hours.   To arm up, to wage war against life, and all that comes with it.  To be prepared for battle.

I guess you could say we were part of a draft?

How do I trust a seemingly untrustworthy God?

My wife and I have been on a fairly crazy roller coaster ride that past few months. And I hate roller coasters with a passion. All they do is make me sick and feel like I am going to die at any moment. A feeling that I have grown uncomfortable with the older I get. So why does it seem that God allows us to ride the rides that make us feel a bit uncomfortable and a lot confused? It almost feels like God doesn’t in fact love us at all.

Now I have to warn you up front, there is not going to be a happy ending to this blog. At least not at this point in my journey. The only thing that I can hope to share is some suggestions as to why I am struggling to trust God, but then again nothing that I myself am really satisfied with or even for that matter understand.

We lost our first baby to a miscarriage a few months back, and with that loss a whole lot of trust in a loving, caring God. I have asked God why he would hurt me like this? But what really pisses me off is that God has hurt my wife. Ok some would say that God has not hurt her directly, but what is worse (a) a God that doesn’t hurt us directly or (b) a God who seems to just stand by and watch us get hurt? He is God for crying out loud! He can prevent anything from happening! At least I thought he could.

On the journey I have been taking through the Bible I came across this story in Leviticus 10…1 Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense; and they offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to his command. 2 So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died before the LORD. 3 Moses then said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD spoke of when he said:
” ‘Among those who approach me
I will show myself holy;
in the sight of all the people
I will be honored.’ “
Aaron remained silent.

What a heartless God! I mean God is supposed to be merciful, gracious and loving. Yet it appears that in this passage God is not painted with the same brushes and strokes I have seen before. He killed two of Aaron’ s sons because they messed up some sacrifice ritual. Where is the love that God has for his creation? It seems to be absent. I mean God could have easily made them sick for a week or severed a limb. But to kill and destroy, seems overboard and unlike the God I serve.

But that’s just it isn’t it? The God I serve can’t really be put in a box. Or be painted in such a way that I am always going to be able to recognize. Because God is, I believe, loving, gracious, merciful etc…but also very, very, scary. I hate serving a God, my Father, and being scarred of Him. I don’t fully understand what it means to be afraid to trust God. I know what it’s like to trust other humans. But God? That seems overwhelming and out of control. Out of my control.

I am making this statement as part of my faith forever in God. Because I don’t serve a God where I feel the need to edit any of my thoughts. I will serve God for as long as I live, but perhaps never feel totally comfortable with Him again. This will change my relationship for good.

I guess the Hebrew writer was right…”31It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Hebrews 10:31

And that’s for shizzle