Within Reach... Yet Unreachable

I went for my walk this morning and went past some construction that is being done on a nearby major intersection. As i walked by this morning it looked so desolate; dry, dusty, lifeless, vacant. The businesses that were there looked the same way. Numerous of them were closed, and one of them had sprayed on the window that it was for sale. There was no one there, and it seemed as though nothing worth seeing. Overall, it looked like a small wasteland.

In the construction zone on the other side of the street was a dusty, dirty, old truck. The truck was white with very little writing on it. On the back of the truck in big black letters that said "Water" on it. It struck me that that image very much defines our society, our youth, and our families. It's very desolate. Young people, families, lives, all empty, dry, desolate. All without life. Meanwhile, the very thing needed for life, is just sitting there all bottled up and out of reach of everything. There is such potential, the ground and the world around it is screaming out for it, yet it is unreached / unreachable unless it is released.

This is us. This is our families. This is our towns & cities. This is our country & world. All of these things reaching out, wanting and needing what is sitting there all bottled up within easy reach. Yet it is completely unattainable unless the water is released. So now what?

Now obviously, this is a construction zone, and everything that is going on, the desolation, the dirt, the water truck, all have a reason, and all have a purpose to play. The road will be completed. Hopefully the business and people will return. Life, of sorts, will return at the right time. In the end, that purpose will be played out.

However, the image will stand. The image of the dry & desolate land reaching out for something that is right there within reach, yet completely unreachable. Something that is needed, but that needs only to be released.

Does God Change His Mind?

While speaking with a young man i was working with a couple of weeks ago we started talking about whether or not God changes, or changes His mind. This is the e-mail response that i sent to him. Please note: Names and dates have been changed to protect the innocent. No animals were killed in the making of this letter... severely maimed, maybe, killed, no.

Alex,

The question was posed, "Does God change His mind?" There are a number of texts that look at this issue. I believe that you had mentioned one in Numbers but could not find it. I assume that what you were looking for was 23:19

Numbers 23:19 - "God is not a man that He should lie, neither the son of man that He should repent. Has He said, and shall He not do it? Or has He spoken, and shall He not make it good?"

It is important when looking at any verse to consider text in context:

Israel had just recently destroyed the armies of the Amorites & the Bashan while on their way to the promised land. These armies had stood against Israel and God instead of with him. As a result they were given into the hands of the Israelites.
So Balak, the son of Zippor, King of Moab decides that since it's clear that a strict military battle was not going to defeat the Israelites. Instead he goes to Balaam the prophet asking him to curse the Israelites so he can defeat them. At first Balaam is forbidden by God from going. Finally God does allow him to go, and Balaam tells Balak that he can only do what God tells him to do.
So Balak agrees and Balaam instructs Balak to set up seven alters with sacrifices and Balaam goes to talk to God. When he returns from speaking with God Balaam prophesies good concerning Israel and not evil. Balak is not happy with this turn of events and decides that maybe if he changes the position and the way that he faces the Israelites, maybe this will change the outcome. So he takes Balaam to a different place and tries again. So this verse is part of what God tells Balak through Balaam as a part of this second attempt. Balak attempts to do this 3 separate times, all to no avail. In essence, Balak is hoping that he can find a way to manipulate God. He is looking to find favor from the powerful God of Balaam. He thinks that in certain places God may be weaker or more powerful, or that some types of places are more or less honored by God... a god of the hills vs. a god of the valleys vs. a god of the plains etc. So God is basically telling Balak that he cannot manipulate or strong arm Him. He is not like other gods that are easily swayed and that he can gain favor from through sacrifice.

However, Balak is not fully defeated by this. He does succeed in partially defeating the Israelites as seen in chapter 25. He recognizes that attacking them physically as the Amorites & the Bashan attempted to do and were miraculously defeated was not going to work. Attempting to gain more favor from a stronger god or the Israelites God to overpower them spiritually was equally unsuccessful. So he decides that the next plan is to separate the Israelite people from their God. So he sends his people in to seduce the Israelites into sexual immorality and into worship of weaker gods that would make God jealous and angry. Due to this immorality God punished the Israelites with a massive plague, and in the midst of this plague Phinehas the priest, the grandson of Aaron, puts a spear through Zimri, one of the leaders of the congregation, due to his blatant immorality and sin. So this is what God says;
Num 25:10-11 - And Jehovah spoke to Moses saying, Phinehas the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned My wrath away from the sons of Israel while he was zealous for My sake among them, so that I did not destroy the sons of Israel in My jealousy.

So, since the question is, "Does God change His mind?", after seeing this verse within its context i am seeing four places where the issue of this question is dealt with. 1) Balaam was instructed not to go to the Balak at first, however later God allows him to. 2) Balak attempts to manipulate God into doing what he wants. 3) Balaam succeeds in changing God's position towards His people. 4) Phinehas turns away God's wrath and prevents further destruction of Israel. So, what do you think is the answer to this question? Does God change? Does He change His mind? If so, how, and under what conditions? If not than how do you reckon what is happening here?

I hope that this helps, or at least gets you thinking some more...

While working on the second draft of this letter i realized that there was at least one major problem with the theology covered. I decided to leave it in to see if this student was going to catch it or not, but since i know that that student does not even know about this blog, i thought i'd post the answer here. In point 3 it is not God's position that has changed. He is a Holy God and cannot stand sin & corruption. It is not God's position but Israel's position that has changed. Balak knew that He could not change God's position towards Israel, so instead he changed Israel's position towards God.

This is what the enemy has been doing here in the US for at least the last 70 years or so. In an attempt to destroy His people, the enemy has been working on changing our relationship towards God.

What do Young People Need?

Our youth and young adults need more than just to be treated as bigger children. They need to be challenged. They need to learn. They need to understand 1) who they are, 2) that they have a purpose & direction, and 3) what that direction and those purposes are. They need to have something to show for their results, something they can hold in their hands. They need something that they can put their name on, grasp ahold of, and make (of) themselves. They need to succeed, and they need to fail. Young men need a question to ask that will consume them, whose answer is so unattainable that they can spend their lives seeking that answer and never reach it. Young women need a love that they reach for that is so much bigger than them, that they reach for it and can never become it.

God has created our young men and young women to be so much more than they are, and to go so much further than where they are being led.

Image from dhammza used under cc license.

Youth: People With a Passion & a Purpose

What is my passion?  This question is so big that it's difficult to answer.  It's like asking the question, "How big is the ocean?".  

My vision is for our society and culture to do a 270 degree turn.  To turn the complete opposite way and then some.  Right now in our culture our youth are treated like children.  They act like children because they are expected to act that way, and they are not trained to do anything else.  Their primary education is done by the government, at the expense of their parents.  At best they are taught to excell in subjects, which is not the same thing as life.  The class generally learns at the rate of the weakest "average" student.  Their primary defining influence is usually 1 person, their teacher.  Many times they are taught the basics reading, writing, arithmatic, and other subjects but have no idea how to do anything with that information.  It is worse than useless information, it is barely useful.  

Meanwhile, for the most part, our youth are not taught how to take care of themselves.  How to succeed in life or find a career that is worth their time and effort.  They are not trained to be men and women.  To be husbands and wives.  They are taught subjects with no knowledge of how to apply that to life outside of the educational system.  As a result we have young adults and adults who leave high-school, undergraduate programs, and graduate programs with no idea as to how to be anything more than students.

Young people find that when they rebell and cause trouble they gain attention, and when they gain attention other people follow them.  Thus by rebelling they become leaders.  They are not taught or challenged to become leaders any other way... wow this is getting long, and i have only scratched the surface.

I guess that you could say that this a round about way of saying that my passion is for youth to become more than they are.  It is a passion and vision to see society, youth, the church, embrace youth and give them a vision for something more than themselves.  To give youth more than just subjects and useless information.  To challenge them to be and become people with a passion and a purpose.

A Cynic's View of the Election Process

With the Iowa Caucuses in full force yesterday i was doing some research on the different candidates. I have become more and more interested in politics over the last 10-12 years and it's amazing how much actually goes on.

It has become clear to me that in the scheme of things, 1 vote means absolutely nothing. Even if in reality 1 vote really did decide the election, there would be so much contention and infighting about how accurate the results were and the need for a recount that it wouldn't matter. The people who did the recounts could skew the votes however they wanted to. If it was an automated system there would be contention over the software & hardware, security, who's in charge of the investigation, and whether the coffee shop down the street had mixed the "ingredients" right making it have too high of an alcohol concentration thereby skewing the results one way or another with a bunch of drunk voters. Heavens knows look at the fiasco that was the 2000 election. Ultimately in today's time it will never really come down to 1 vote, and 1 vote will not make a difference... (as you can see, i can be very cynical at times)

With that being said, it is still of the utmost importance that everyone look at the candidates up for election, understand what they really stand for and what it will mean for the country and themselves, and vote. If we don't the decision is ultimately made by those who are most manipulative, those who "look and sound the part", and those organizations and special interest groups who are willing to "fund" the candidate who is not necessarily the best candidate for this country, but rather who will provide them with what they want no matter the effects on you and me.

While 1 vote certainly doesn't matter, if you and i don't do the research look at where the candidates really stand as people and in comparison to one another, and vote for the best candidate, we are just handing the country over to the companies, organizations, and special interest groups who care more about their own agendas than what is best for you and i, our families, our communities, our country, and our planet... our home. Ultimately, while 1 vote doesn't really matter, if we don't vote, we've already lost.

Image from dailysnap used under cc license.