1 am revelation: nothing in this world will ever be secure.

Feeling overwhelmed and scared.
Reading Shadow of the wind doesn’t help.

Holy Wisdom, Holy Words

This spoke to me quite a bit:

Luke 21:12-15
“But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governers because of my name. This will give you opportunity to testify. so make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.”

Make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance. Make up your minds. wow.

Also Luke 12:11

“Do not worry about wat you are to say; for the Holy Spirit will teach you at that very hour what you ought to say”

now getting up the courage to open up your mouth in the first place…. that’s a different issue. (see Luke 12:4-12)

Shadow of The Wind

“Once, in my father’s bookshop, I heard a regular customer say that few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart. THose first images, the echo of words we think we have left behind, accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a place in our memory to which, sooner or later–no matter how many worlds we discover, or how much we learn or forget–we will return. For me those enchanted pages will always be the ones I found among the passageway of the Cemetery of Forgotten Books.”

The Shadow of the wind
Carlos Ruiz Zafon

“This is a place of mystery, Daniel, a sanctuary. Every book, every volume you see here, has a soul. The sould of the person who wrote it and of those who read it and lived and dreamed with it. Every time a book changes hands, every time someone runs his eyes down its pages, its spirit grows and strengthens… When a library disappears, or a bookshop closes down, when a book is consigned to oblivion, those of us who know this place, its guardians, make sure that it gets here. In this place, books no longer remembered by anyone, books that are lost in time, live forever, waiting for the day when they will reach a new reader’s hands. In the shop we buy and sell them, but in truth books have no owner. Every book you see here has been someone’s best friend. Now they have only us, Daniel. Do you think youll be able to keep such a secret?”

“A secret’s worth depends on the people from whom it must be kept.”

“Right, then, in a nutshell: this one hasn’t got a single bone of obedient-little-wife material in her heavenly body.” “Hasn’t she? Then what kind of bone does your expertise detect in her?” “The Passionate kind, and you can be sure I mean that as a compliment.”

Destruction of Jerusalem – Yikes!!

AD 70. Jerusalem. All Hell is about to let loose.
History (according to Wikipedia):

The Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD was a decisive event in the First Jewish-Roman War. The Roman army, led by the future Emperor Titus, besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem. The city and its famous Temple were destroyed.

Titus surrounded the city, with three legions on the western side and a fourth on the Mount of Olives to the east. He put pressure on the food and water supplies of the inhabitants by allowing pilgrims to enter the city to celebrate Passover, and then refusing them egress. After Jewish sallies killed a number of Roman soldiers, Titus sent Josephus, the Jewish historian, to negotiate with the defenders; this ended with Jews wounding the negotiator with an arrow, and another sally was launched shortly after.

After several failed attempts to breach or scale the walls of the Antonia Fortress, the Romans finally launched a secret attack, overwhelming sleeping Zealot guards and taking the Fortress. This was the second highest ground in the city, after the Temple Mount, and provided a perfect point from which to attack the Temple itself. Battering rams made little progress, but the fighting itself eventually set the walls on fire, when a Roman soldier threw a burning stick onto one of the Temple’s walls.

The flames spread quite quickly and were soon unquenchable. The Temple was destroyed on Tisha B’Av, at the end of August, and the flames spread into the residential sections of the city. The Roman legions quickly crushed the remaining Jewish resistance. Part of the remaining Jews escaped through hidden underground tunnels, while others made a final stand in the Upper City. This defense halted the Roman advance as they had to construct siege towers to assail the remaining Jews. The city was completely under Roman control by September 7 and the Romans continued to hunt down the Jews that had fled the city.

AD 31 (approximately). Jerusalem.
Jesus is talking to his disciples (with quite a crowd of eavesdroppers)

“When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, the know that its desolation has come near. Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those inside the city must leave it, and those out in the country must not enter it; for these ar the days of vengeance, as a fulfillment of all that is written. But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! For there will be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. And they will fall by the edge of the sword, and be led away captive into all nations. And Jerusalem will be trampled by Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

And there will be signs in the sun, in the moon, and in the stars; and on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring; men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken. Then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”

Luke 21:20-28

AD 70. Jerusalem.
History (according to David Guzik)

Most Jews expected the Messiah to return in glory when hostile Gentile armies surrounded Jerusalem [reading the text as all one event]. When the Romans circled the city in 70 a.d., there was a sense of rejoicing among many of the Jews.

However, Christians in Jerusalem knew what Jesus had said and they obeyed Him, fleeing across the Jordan River to a city named Pella. No Christians perished in the fall of Jerusalem. But 1.1 million Jews were killed; and another 97,000 were taken captive in one of the worst calamities ever to strike the Jewish people.
This is why He wept over Jerusalem in 19:41-44, because He could see the massive devastation that was coming upon this city He loved – and why He warned all who would listen how they could flee from the coming destruction.

The Israelis took possession of Jerusalem in 1968, but the holy mount is still Arab property, under Arab rule. As far as God is concerned, the most important piece of real estate in Jerusalem – and prophetically speaking, the most important in the world – is still trampled by Gentiles.

What happens when the ‘times of the Gentiles’ are over? Then, His particular dealings with Israel begin again, and the last seven-year period of Daniel 9 begins. The calamities described in following verses will come in this period.

Wow. as if that wasn’t enough… there are several other prophesies about the destruction of Jerusalem. I don’t have the attention-span to list them here. I’ll edit this soon to include them.

Fishing For People

Luke 5:1-11

so…. Luke is freaking awesome. I think it has moved into the #1 Gospel spot.

among many many other things (which will eventually make their way into this blog) God taught me something from chapter 5 this weekend.

Peter & Co. had been working all night out in their boats and had caught absolutely nothing. It’s not that they were crappy fishermen (they were actually very skilled!) they were just having a bad night. Then along comes Jesus, and he’s like… bad night guys? Why don’t you try throwing the nets off the other side? (Which I’m sure they had already tried… more than once). Well they did, and lo and behold so many fish jumped right into their nets that they had to recruit their buddies in boat #2 to help them haul the catch to shore.

Jesus takes this experience and tells them they’re going to fish for men from now on. I toyed with that a little in my mind and here’s what came out:

It doesn’t matter how skilled of a ‘fisherman’ you are, how shrewd your arguments are or how charismatic you are, you can holler the Good news from the rooftops if you wanted, and you could come up dry… then Jesus shows up, he points you in the right direction (”Why don’t you try talking to this person, Katie?”) and lo and behold hearts are jumping into my metaphorical net. It’s not a Katie thing, this is a God thing. God prepares hearts, God reveals truth. He just lets us help. Its not by our power or smooth speech that people turn to God. It’s soooooo much easier to listen to where God is directing you to cast your nets than work all night and come up empty-handed.

There is a radiance hidden in your heart that the world desperately needs.

” ‘I can’t understand you. Do you mean to say that you, and the elves, have let him live on after all those horrible deeds? Now at any rate he is as bad as an orc. and just an enemy. He deserves death.’

‘Deserves it! I dare say he does. Many live that deserve death. And some die that deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then don’t be too eager to deal out death in judgement, for even the very wise cannot see all ends.’ “

Thoughts

I enjoy Ramen noodles.

I enjoy my $5 coffee table.

I enjoy my $10 magazine-holder-thingy.

I enjoy playing dress-up.

I enjoy Rummy.

I enjoy Rummycube.

I enjoy sleep.

A Study on Philemon

v. 2 Apphia was probably Philemon’s wife (according to Guzik) and Archippus their son. Their house was one of the many house-churches of the time.

The earliest Christians had no property of their own for church buildings. The Jews had their synagogues, but Christians met in the homes of their members. The Christians of a city would be gathered into different “house churches” with a city “bishop” overseeing the different house churches. House churches are also mentioned in Romans 16:5 and Colossians 4:15.

“Up to the third century we have no certain evidence of the existence of church buildings for the purpose of worship; all references point to private houses for this. In Rome several of the oldest churches appear to have been built on the sites of houses used for Christian worship.” (Oesterley)

Spurgeon points out that apparently, Philemon had a church that met in his house. This suggests to believers that their homes should also be a church, and that each home can have the characteristics of a healthy church:

· Consisting of converted, saved people
· Worshipping together
· Together having a bond of unity
· Supplied with oversight
· Teaching always present
· With a heart to minister to those on the outside

~David Guzik

When I read this, my heart immediately had this ache in it to become like that. In many ways, it already is, and in those of my friends houses, but when (if) I’m married with a family, I want to have a home that strives (and succeeds) for those qualities and characteristics.

Rend your hearts, not your clothing

God’s whooping my butt today.

More struggling with sin (I’m losing)…. decide to read through Jonah. Safe enough story, right? No huge Pauline condemnation there. Just a fun VBS story. Wrong. In the margins of the third chapter there’s a note… a reference to Joel 2:14. Jotted down and forgotten about from one of our many teachings at Loud and Clear.

Jonah 3:9: (King of Ninevah speaking, telling the city to repent) “Who knows? God may relent and change his mind; he may turn from from his fierce anger, so that we do not perish.”

Joel 2:12-14a

“Yet even now, says the Lord, return to me with all your heart,
with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning;
rent your hearts and not your clothing.
Return to the Lord, your God,
for He is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love,
and relents from punishing.
Who knows whether he will not turn and relent,
and leave a blessing behind him?”

Promise: God is Gracious. God is Merciful. God is slow to anger. God abounds in steadfast love.
God relents from punishing.

That is who he is. Repent with your whole heart… not just outward appearances, and this loving, slow-to-anger, merciful God, he may just relent from punishment, and give us blessings!

Jonah knew this, and isn’t surprised when that’s exactly what happened to Ninevah!

Jonah talking to God (4:2): “O Lord, is this not what I said when I was still in my own country?? That is why I fled to Tarshish at the beginning, because I knew you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and ready to relent from punishing!”

(aka, I know how loving you re, I knew you’d relent, so I didn’t want to go warn them, b/c they deserve the punishment.)

God’s answer: You care about this silly bush that came up in a night and then withered in a night… how much more should I care for these thousands of people that I created with love and intricate detail and care??

God loves you, no matter how much crap you’re dealing with or have done.
God wants you to come to him. Do not be afraid, because He is Gracious.
He is Merciful.
He is slow to anger.
He abounds in steadfast love.
He relents from punishing.

Who knows, he may even heap blessings upon blessing on your life!

p.s. side note re rend your hearts not your clothing: It was customary in those days, when you repent of sins, to pour ashes on your head, rip [or rend] your clothing, and not wash or bath or eat. These are outward signs of repentance. God much prefers a humbled and repentant heart… not all the religious trappings that people say you have to do to get back into God’s good graces.