Jamie Greening's Blog, page 51

ROMANS 12 FROM THE GREEK TEXT

Less theology, more behavior.  That is what happens with the beginning of Romans 12.  Paul gently moves the reader from his dense theological musings into the realm of practical application in everyday life.  Of course, he makes this transition with one of the most fascinating lead-ins ever:  Romans 12:1

Translation Notes:

There is not a whole lot to discuss on the translation side.  The chapter is pretty cut-n-dried.  However, it is interesting to note that the word “fervent” in verse 11 is closely associated with the word for “boil”, which is quite the word picture for spiritual life.

The chain of gifts (vv 6-8) is not as easy to handle as it might seem.  There is no easy flow from noun to verb, as seemingly each verb has some kind of different application.  For that reason I worked it over thoroughly to make it fit English grammar.

Theological Notes:

A Bible student could spend a decade trying to figure out what exactly verses 1 and 2 are all about.  I will only, therefore, make a couple of observations here.  First, the center of Christian worship is not about rituals or dead animals.  In worship there is something about denial, self-sacrifice, discipline, patience, and even mortification, but this worship is not dead but alive, and it is physical.  Worship is done with our living bodies.  Second, worship is more than our bodies, it is also what happens in our minds.  We must exercise control of our thoughts and transform (metanoia, as opposed to paranoia) the way our minds work.  That indicates to us that the Christian life is reasonable, logical, and driven by conscience choice, not bleeding hearts.

Some might parse out verse one as being about worship while verse two is about discipleship, and that might be correct, but Paul might rightly ask us what is the difference?

Verse 21 is sobering to me.  The world is filled with evils, and as followers of Christ we are not called to simply endure them or to tolerate them, but to overcome them.  We do not overcome them with worship or with prayer, which is odd.  We do not even overcome evil with scripture.  These are the things we would think we would need to overcome evil–worship, prayer, and the word.  But no, worship, prayer and the word are the building blocks (c/f v. 2 for knowing the will of God) that inform us what is “the good” we should do in the world.  It is our actions in the world that defeat evil.

Chapter Twelve

1. Therefore, I encourage you, brothers and sisters, because of the compassion of God, offer your bodies as a living sacrifice that is holy and acceptable to God, your thoughtful act of worship.

2. Do not model yourself on this age, but be transformed in the renewal of the mind, so as to determine what the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God is.

3. I speak to all those among you by the grace given to me, do not think highly of yourself but think reasonably, each one by the faith God has given.

4. Just as we have many members in one body, but every member does not have the same function,

5. so in Messiah we are many in one body, but as individuals we are members of one another.

6. By the grace given to us, we are given different gifts. If it is prophecy use it in proportion to faith,

7. if service then as a deacon, if teaching as a teacher,

8. if encouraging in encouragement, if sharing in sincere generosity, if leadership in diligence, or if one has mercy in gladness.

9. Love without pretense. Abhor evil. Cling to good.

10. Let sibling-type love be tenderly affectionate among you. Lead out with honor for one another.

11. In diligence do not be timid. Serve the Lord with a fervent spirit.

12. Rejoice in hope. Endure distress. Continue faithfully in prayer.

13. Contribute to the needs of the saints. Pursue hospitality.

14. Bless the one persecuting you. Bless and do not curse.

15. Rejoice with those rejoicing. Cry with those crying.

16. Think of one another as the same, not arrogantly, but be associated with those who are humble. Do not be too thoughtful of yourself.

17. Repay no one evil for evil. Think ahead about what is honorable in the eyes of all people.

18. For your part, if possible, live at peace with all people.

19. Do not vindicate yourself, beloved, but rather put wrath in its place. For it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I myself will repay,’ says the Lord.”

20. But, “If your enemy is hungry, feed him, if he is thirsty, give him something to drink, doing this heaps fiery coals upon his head.”

21. Do not let evil conqueror you, but instead conquer evil with good.

BETTING ON THE REPUBLICAN DEBATE–OVER AND UNDER

“I’m huge!  Someone wake him up.”

When I was in fifth grade I lost a bet of fifty cents to Bryan Owens.  I bet him that the Dallas Cowboys would beat the San Francisco 49ers in the 1981 NFC championship game.  Of course, Joe Montana and Dwight Clark had different ideas.  I learned a valuable lesson, though.  Don’t bet on things, especially if you have absolutely no control over the outcome.  You can count on one hand and have fingers left over the number of time since then that I have gambled on events.

But if I were to gamble, I think it would be fun to wager on the over/under for certain aspects for Wednesday’s Republican Debate.  Usually over/under is about stats–will the Patriots score over or under 29 points, will Lebron James have over or under 12 assists.  Things like that.  With that in mind, what is the over/under for certain things being mentioned or happening during the debate?  Keep in mind I am only referencing the main debate, not the cocktail hour debate.  The bold O or U in parenthesis is my guess as to over or under the number.

Email Server  O/U 4 (O)
Benghazi O/U 2 (O)
Bernie Sanders O/U 1 (U)
Rick Perry O/U 2 (U)
Chris Christie/Rand Paul argument O/U 1 (O)
Megyn Kelly O/U 5  (U)
Donald Trump says something racist/offensive O/U 3 (O)
Ben Carson makes a joke about surgery O/U 2 (U)
John Kasich says “Mailman” O/U 4 (O)
Scripture is quoted O/U 5 (U)
Donald Trump quotes scripture O/U 1 (O)
Kim Davis O/U 2 (O)
Planned Parenthood is referenced O/U 8 (U)
Carly Fiorina takes on Trump on an issue O/U 3 (O)
The word Florida is said O/U 15 (O)
The Iran Nuclear “Deal” is talked about (7) (U)
Audience “Boos” O/U 7 (O)
Huge O/U 21 (O)

I don’t think any of them want to mention Bernie Sanders because they want him to be the Democratic nominee.  Trump will mention Rick Perry as a “sleeps with the fishes” kind of warning for people who attack him, and I expect one of the questions might be about Perry dropping out.  As to Christie/Paul, I think there is at least a thirty percent chance that those two will arm wrestle, or at the least have some kind of physical contact.  Watch for it.  Fiorina will be feisty, particularly against Trump.  The Rubio/Bush/Florida connection might get a little nauseating.  Trump will quote scripture, probably more than once, because he realizes he needs to continue his ruse on the Evangelical vote.  Watch the quotations though, I suspect they will be out of context or weirdly applied to justify his own wealth and arrogance or his absurd immigration stance.

In terms of other trends, I think CNN will come at this with a different bent than FOX did.  I expect questions about #Blacklivesmatter, particularly to Carson and Trump.  I suspect there will be questions about the Migrant-Refugee crisis in Europe as well as more foreign policy issues regarding ISIS and Russia.  I also think that at some point a CNN questioner will say something like “Now that unemployment has dropped down to 5.1%, do you still think that President Obama’s policies are not working.”  I also think we’ll get more broad reaching questions about immigration, and that might be when Christie and Paul arm wrestle, because of Christie’s desire to build a wall between the U.S. and Canada.

image from ibtimes.com

IT IS LABOR DAY, AND I’VE GOT QUESTIONS

Why is it called Labor Day, when we don’t work on Labor Day?  Shouldn’t it be called Unlabor Day?

Isn’t the real Labor Day the day your mother gave birth to you?  So, in that sense, Labor Day is really your birthday, but we celebrate your mom instead of you because she did all the work.  So, actually, wouldn’t that make Labor Day the same day as Mother’s Day?  Take that, Hallmark!

What is the deal with mattress sales on Labor Day?  Is that the best we can do? 

What did September do to deserve such a lowly holiday that is tied to the end of summer and the beginning of school and no more fun til Christmas?

If Labor Day is the end of summer, what do we do with the other two weeks of real summer?  Are these like the remainder on a long division problem?

Why are there no great Labor Day songs?

Why doesn’t someone pass a law that says the only day we work is Labor Day, and the rest of the days of the year we don’t work?  Doesn’t that seem fair?

If a person doesn’t have a job, can they still celebrate Labor Day or is there some kind of exemption they have to file with Labor and Industries?

Why don’t we call the Sunday before Labor Day “Labor Eve”?

Is it really a rest from your labors if you have to work so hard the week prior to get everything done so you can enjoy that one day off, but you’re so tired from all the work you did you can’t really enjoy it?

ROMANS 11 FROM THE GREEK TEXT

Romans 11 has an elegant simplicity to its argument, but Paul takes a lot of verses to make it.

Theological Notes:

The line of thought in Romans 11 goes something like this.

God has not rejected his people, genetic Israel.
What he is doing is using their failures to save the whole world.
When they come back (and they will come back) to grace and faith, imagine what it will mean for the whole world.
It is a complicated plan, but who can understand God’s ways–certainly not us.

In addition to this outline, there is buried within the chapter a strong, terrifying tone exemplified in a warning.  It is a warning that most people don’t notice and that most Calvinists simply ignore.  Verse 21 teaches us that if God wasn’t squeamish about cutting off parts of his chosen people, genetic Israel, neither will he hesitate to cut off us gentiles.  It is a terrifying warning that should cause all of us sober reflection.

Translation Notes:

In verse 3, most English translations use helping verbs,  “have killed, have dug up” but the verbs are aorist (past) tense, so I kept them that way.  No helping verbs needed.

Verse 12 ends with a difficult rendering. The word is usually written as “fullness” and is translated various ways in this verse. I prefer here, given Paul’s comparison of Israel’s past behavior, to use the word ‘success’ as a polar opposite of failure.

The word “irrevocable” in verse 29 is such a weird word for the modern ear. Perhaps irreversible or unchangeable would have been better for reading, but in the end I decided that the older, legal word was better especially given the context of a discussion about covenant.

Romans Eleven

1. Am I, therefore, saying that God rejected his own people? Never! For I myself am an Israelite, the family of Abraham, the tribe of Benjamin.

2. God has not rejected his people, whom he foreknew. Do you not know in the Scriptures what it says of Elijah, how he pleaded with God about Israel?

3. Lord, “They killed your prophets. They dug up your altars. I alone am left, and they seek my soul.”

4. What did the oracle say to him? “I have left myself seven thousand men who have not bent the knee to Baal.”

5. So now, in this time too, a remnant has come to be by the free choice of grace.

6. But if by grace it is no longer by works, since the grace would no longer be grace.

7. What then? Israel pursued and did no obtain, but now those chosen attained it, while the others are hardened.

8. Just as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that do not see, and ears that do not hear until today.”

9. David says, “Let their table became a trap, a snare, a stumbling block of payback to them.

10. Let their eyes be darkened, not to see, and their back always bent.”

11. I ask, therefore, did they stumble so as to fall? No! Instead their lapses lead to the salvation of the gentiles, who then made them jealous.

12. If their lapses are riches for the world, and their failures are riches for the gentiles, how great will their success be?

13. But I say to you gentiles, that even though I am an apostle to the gentiles, and it is a ministry of honor,

14. nevertheless I will make some of my people jealous and will save some of them.

15. For if their rejection is reconciliation of the world, what can acceptance be except life from the dead?

16. If the first pinch is holy, so also is the whole batch of dough, and if the root is holy, then so are the branches.

17. If some of the branches were broken off, but then you wild olives were grafted in, you became sharers in the root of faith on the olive tree.

18. You branches should not boast. The root sustains you, not you the root.

19. You will then say, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.”

20. True, the faithless were broken off, but you have stood by faith. Do think highly of yourselves, instead, be in fear.

21. For if God did not spared natural branches, neither will he spare you.

22. See then, the goodness and severity of God. Severity upon those having fallen, but upon you the goodness of God to preserve you in goodness. Otherwise, you would be cut off too.

23. Even those, if they do not persist in unfaithfulness, might be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again.

24. For if you naturally wild olives were cut off and against nature you were grafted onto a tame olive tree, how much more will those be grafted back into their same old tree?

25. For I do not wish you brothers and sisters to not know the mystery, and then think yourself wise, because a hardening upon part of Israel has come until the full number of gentiles should enter in.

26. Just as all Israel will be saved, exactly as it is written, “The deliverer will come out of Zion, he will turn ungodliness away from Jacob.

27. And this is my covenant to them, when I might take away their sins.”

28. On one hand they are enemies of the gospel because of you, but on the other hand they are chosen because of their beloved forefathers.

29. For the gifts and call of God are irrevocable.

30. It is the same way as when you disobeyed God, but now you found mercy because of their disobedience.

31. Thus, they now disobeyed for your mercy so that they themselves might find mercy.

32. For God linked together everyone in disobedience so that everyone might find mercy.

33. O the depth, riches, wisdom, and knowledge of God! His judgments are inscrutable and his ways are untraceable.

34. “For who has known the mind of the Lord, who has become his advisor?

35. Who has given to him that he should repay?”

36. For everything is from him, through him, and in him—to him be the glory in eternity. Amen.

Click on the links below to read other chapters from the Book of Romans.

Romans 10

Romans 9

Romans 8

Romans 7

Romans 6

Romans 5

Romans 4

Romans 3

Romans 2

Romans 1

DESERT ISLAND DEVOTION

A cruel, mean-spirited thought entered my mind this morning.  It was so heartbreaking I just had to share it with you.

What if, in some bizarro Rod Serling moment, you were marooned on an island.  You had plenty of supplies to live out your life to a long old age, so food, water, and shelter were not problem.  The problem was in this nightmarish world you could only choose five of the books in the Bible to have with you.  It is a similar conundrum to the ubiquitous “” where you’re stranded and can only have five albums of music.

Told another way–perhaps you’re stuck in a bleak story, something like Fahrenheit 451, and you can only have five books of the Bible because that is all you can safely hide from the book police.

Which five would you take?  It is heartbreaking because the whole Bible is precious, a “perfect treasure” that is linked to my very being.  So which ones?  If I had to make such a choice, here is what they would be.

Psalms.  Without a doubt, if I’m on a desert island, I’m gonna need Psalms–all 150 of them.
Isaiah.  It was close between Jeremiah and Isaiah, but in the end I decided the poetics of Isaiah would be helpful in my exile.
Exodus.  I can’t have both Genesis and Exodus, and while Genesis is a great book, I think I’d take Exodus because it contains the great deliverance story of Israel, the decalogue, and a lot of other spiritual data.
Luke.  John.  Luke.  John.  See, this one is tough.  Of the synoptics, Luke is the easy choice, but choosing between Luke and John, now that is hard.  I need a gospel on this island, and in the end I chose John simply because of the devotional, meditative quality of the material.
Romans.  Of course it is Romans.  Romans contains such dense theological material and it is littered with many scripture quotations (which gives me insight into other books I couldn’t choose) all of which allows me plenty to chew on on this imaginary island.

I sure hope I never have to make this choice.  I would be interested to know what choices you would make?

THE LOST SOUNDS

Yesterday after church I was lounging on the couch–something I excel at–and the movie Argo was on television.  I was kind of mindlessly watching, because I’ve seen the movie before.  But in one of the scenes the main character, played Ben Affleck, slams down a phone in anger and frustration.  For some reason that sound of the phone’s plastic clashing with the base triggered a forgotten memory, a forgotten sound.  That sound, and the emotion that goes with it, has become extinct.  It is impossible to slam a smart phone down in anger with the same effect, and even if you could, it would only be expensive to replace it.

Our ‘party-line’ phone looked just like this

As we grow older we find that not only does landscape, vocabulary and fashion change, but so to do the things we hear.  I made a little list of the sounds that have disappeared during my lifetime.  When I think about them, they sound like childhood.

slamming the phone down
the ringing of the bell at a full-service gas station when you drive over the hose
film running through the projector at the movies
manual typewriters, especially the return
the annoying dial-up modem (which came and went during my lifetime)
a flashbulb pop on a camera
the national anthem playing when the television station ‘signs off’ at the end of the broadcast day.
the cash register bell

I am sure there are many more, but these are the ones that came to mind.

Let me be clear, it is not that I miss these sounds, because I don’t really miss them at all.  I’ll take my smart phone over the party-line any day.  The point is, perhaps, when I think about a phone, my mental image is still the plastic rotary phone and the way we handled them, carried them around while talking, and then ‘hung them up’ when we were finished.

I wonder, when my sprouts are my age, what sounds that are a part of my everyday life will no longer exist?

image from web.eecs.umich.edu

ROMANS 10 FROM THE GREEK TEXT

Romans 10 has two verses that are dear to me, because they are a significant part of my theological tradition.  Baptists love Romans 10:9 and 10:13 almost as much as they love John 3:16.  Almost.

Theological Notes:  My point of view is that Romans is essentially a collection of the synagogue sermons Paul had been preaching around the Mediterranean Basin.  It is not one big sermon, but a lot of little ones.  He weaves them together to form a coherent whole, and chapter 10, in many ways, is a key summary of his overarching goal with Romans.  It is a midrash sermon that has one point:  God has now extended salvation–i.e. covenantal grace–to the gentiles.  Chapter 10 has no fewer than 11 references from the Hebrew Bible, which is amazing in that there are only 21 verses in the whole chapter.  In classic midrash form these quotes start with Moses, then support it with prophets (in this case, mostly Isaiah but also Joel) and then flourishes it out with the Psalms.  Sometimes he sticks to the Hebrew text, sometimes he uses the Septuagint, and quite honestly sometimes it feels like he might be using something else altogether different, such as is the case with verses 6 and 7.  For an interesting discussion of that, see Doug Moo’s exhaustive commentary in the New International Commentary series “The Epistle to the Romans.”

Paul uses all of this to make a point.  He is building an argument that gentiles are now included, but that doesn’t mean necessarily mean Jews are excluded.

Translation notes:  In the quote from the Old Testament in verse 15 there is a double “good” in the text. One good is embedded in the word “euangelion” which is “good news”, here in a participial form, followed by the words “the good.” I saw this as an intensification, and therefore added the common adverb “really” in front of good news.

I may have taken too much liberty with verse 17 because I added “believing” in front of faith. That is redundant, textually speaking, but I wanted a form of ‘believe’ in there because it intentionally mirrors the quotation in verse 16 about ‘believing’ the report, or message.

Chapter Ten

1. Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God is for their salvation.

2. I testify that they have a jealousy for God, but not knowledge.

3. For not knowing the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not obey the righteousness of God.

4. The end of the law is Messiah righteousness to all those believing.

5. Moses writes about righteousness from the law, that the, “Person doing righteousness from the law will live in them.”

6. But righteousness from faith says it like this, “Do not say in your heart who can go up within the heavens?” This would be to bring Messiah down.

7. Or “Who will go down into the abyss?” This would be to bring Messiah up from the dead.

8. And what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and heart,” the word of faith we preached to you.

9. Because you will be saved if you acknowledge that Jesus is Lord with your mouth and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead.

10. For with the heart one believes in righteousness, but with the mouth salvation is acknowledged.

11. For the scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be ashamed.”

12. For there is no distinction between Jew and gentile, for they all have the same Lord, who is rich toward everyone who calls upon him.

13. For anyone who might themselves call upon the name of The Lord will be saved.

14. How, therefore, can they call upon someone they do not believe in? How can they believe when they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching?

15. But how can they preach if they are not sent? Just as it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of the ones delivering really good news.”

16. But not everyone responded to the good news, for Isaiah says, “Lord, who believed our report?”

17. So believing faith is from hearing, and hearing by the word of Messiah.

18. But I ask, have they not heard? Certainly, for their voice went out into the whole earth, and their words to the ends of the world.

19. But I ask, did Israel not know? First, Moses says, “I will make you jealous of those who are not a people, then I will make you angry by way of a foolish people.”

20. Isaiah dared to say more. “Those not seeking me found me, they did not ask me but I revealed myself to them.”

21. But to Israel he says, “All day long I held out my hands toward a disobedient and contrary people.”

Romans 9

Romans 8http://jamiegreening.com/2015/07/27/romans-eight-translation/

SOMETHING IS MISSING

So, my new novel, a follow-up to The Little Girl Waits, is finished.

Well, maybe.

I adore the plot, love the way the returning characters have changed and grown, and how they are also very much the same people they were in TLGW, and I think the story is tight, just the way I like it.  Unless your name is Tolkien, Asimov, Rowling or Homer you probably shouldn’t be writing winded and wordy works of fiction.  So this is not an issue of length for me.  I’m not trying to make it longer.

But I feel like something is missing–like I need to add something.  Not much, mind you, but something.  Here are my options, as I understand them.

I could add a mysterious stranger.  I’m thinking an additional chapter somewhere, before the rising action really takes off.  In TLGW this function is played by Shark, who only has a brief appearance in the story but is pivotal.
An action scene might help.  I am hesitant to add action scenes “just because” even though readers really like them. I believe action scenes should further the story, but sometimes you need something like that to keep the reader keyed in.
Flashbacks have helped me in the past.  There are several flashbacks in TLGW, and that can give great insight into what a character is thinking.  My thoughts right now are for the bad guy (actually, in this story it is a woman) to have a protracted flashback.  This might give the reader a little more insight into why she is doing all these horrible things.
Maybe it is the ending.  I finish the novel with Butch talking with someone about the why and reason of the events they go through in the book, but no real clear resolution is found other than the world is messed up.  At first I liked that ending because the world is messed up, and sometimes good people get caught between different factions of evil pulling in different directions.  But perhaps I need a tidier resolution.  Perhaps.

There is one other thing.  It might be the title.  I have yet to decide its title.  For the entire time I wrote it was simply “Butch Gregory 3” but titles like that only work for Iron Man and X-Men movies.  Right now the title is “How Great The Darkness” but I don’t know if that will last.  Perhaps I’ll feel better about after I title it officially.  However, my experience is that often the title gets changed or adjusted during the publication process.

Writer’s neurosis and self-doubt might also be at work here.  I find that letting go of a manuscript is one of the hardest things I ever do.  This is true whether it is a novel, short story, poem, or sermon.  I want to hold on to them like children, and never let them go.

I need to make a decision this week so I can get the project finished, hopefully get it published, and then get back to my retro-scifi stories.  They have been on hold until this is complete.

puzzle image from radicallychristian.com

ROMANS NINE: TRANSLATED FROM THE GREEK TEXT

Translating slowed down the past couple of weeks because we had “to summer.”   That involved a lot of driving, lakes, rivers, and spooky lights.  Never fear, however, here is Romans 9.  I might get finished with Romans before October.  Maybe?

Theological Notes:  Many have suggested that Romans 9-11 is unnecessary for Paul’s argument in Romans, and that the text is better if we move straight from Romans 8 to 12.  By contrast, I believe that 9-11 are essential to Paul’s overall argument–that gentile and Jewish Christians are no different in the eyes of God, and that both are responsible for their individual parts of his plan to include all of humanity in his act of grace.

To this end, Romans 9 builds the case that the Jews, though special, missed something important, and that the gentiles have now become special and gained what the Jews missed.  Through Messiah, both Jews and gentiles can become one in faith, and actually are one family–the spiritual descendants of Abraham.

As one who was adopted, this passage has an emotional connection for me.  That God chose us is not a kind of election/predestination question, but more about the love involved when someone chooses to include you into their family.  God chose to include me, and gentiles, into his great big family.

Translation notes: The text of verse three describes the people who are causing so much anguish for Paul as “the kinsman of me with flesh.”  It could be rendered “my relatives by way of flesh” or something like that.  We might use the word ‘biological’ today to refer to this, but the root word for kinsman is “gene”, plus when I take what he is speaking about, Jews, it is clear that he is referring not to relatives but to his race. So for kinsman I put ‘genetic’ and for flesh I made a big leap and put ‘race.’

Most English texts of verse 4 supply the verb ‘belong’ but Paul wrote it more like a list of adjectives that describe what it means to be an Israelite—so I tried to capture that feeling, even if it doesn’t sound quite right when read aloud.

In verse 27, I supplied “even” and “only” to the verse after careful consideration of its word structure and implied meaning.

“The time” has been added to verse 28 because the verb ‘cut short’ doesn’t have an object. Cross reference Isaiah 10:22-23. However, I freely admit it is altogether possible that both the prophet and the apostle do not mean ‘cut short the time’ but instead are referring to a limit that the Lord has put on his people because of their sin. In other words, when things are carried too far, God shuts it down by cutting them off.

Chapter Nine

1. I speak truth in Messiah; I do not lie. My conscience bears witness along with the Holy Spirit

2. that my sorrow is great and there is continual pain in my heart.

3. I keep wishing for myself to be accursed from the Messiah for the sake of my brothers and sisters, my genetic race.

4. Who, being Israelites, are the adopted family, the glory, covenant, law bearers, worship and promise.

5. From whom the patriarchs, and from them the Messiah, who is what these things are all about, came in the flesh. God be blessed eternally. Amen.

6. Of course, it is not that the word of God had failed, for not all those from Israel are Israel.

7. Nor are all of Abraham’s children actual descendants; for, “In Isaac your seed will be called.”

8. That is, it is not biological children who are the children of God, but the children of the promise; these are counted as descendants.

9. The word of promise is this, “That about this time I will come and Sarah will have a son.”

10. Not only this, but also Rebecca, from one bed, made Isaac the father of us all.

11. Though not yet born, not doing good or bad, even so they were preserved by the free choice in God’s purpose.

12. It was not from works but from the calling that she was told, “The elder will serve the younger.”

13. Just as it is written, “Jacob I loved, Esau I hated.”

14. What should we say then? Not that God is unjust? No way.

15. For he says to Moses, “I will show mercy on whomever I show mercy, and I will have pity on whomever I have pity.”

16. So now it is not desire, nor effort, but it is the mercy of God.

17. For the scripture says of Pharaoh, that “For this reason I raised you up, for my power to show itself in you, and so that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”

18. Now therefore, he shows mercy on whomever he wishes, but he also hardens whomever he wishes.

19. You will then say to me, “Why then does he still blame people? For who can resist his will?”

20. O man! Truly, who are you to talk back to God? Will the creature say to the creator, “Why have you made me this way?”

21. Does not the potter have the power to make out of the same lump an object of honor and one of dishonor?

22. What if God, wanting to demonstrate his wrath and to make known his power endured with great patience objects of wrath, prepared for destruction?

23. And also that he might make known his riches upon objects of mercy prepared for glory beforehand

24. to those he called, not only we who are Jews, but also out from the gentiles.

25. As it says in Hosea, “I will call those ‘not my people my people’, and the one ‘not loved, loved.’

26. In the same place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people’ they will be called children of the living God.”

27. But Isaiah cries out for Israel, that “Even if the children of Israel number as the sand of the seas, only a remnant will be saved.

28. For the Lord will accomplish the words and will cut short their time upon the earth.”

29. Just as Isaiah foretold, “Unless the Lord of hosts left descendants for us we might have become as Sodom and made like Gomorrah.”

30. What therefore can we say, except that gentiles, who were not searching for righteousness received righteousness, and a type of righteousness from faith.

31. But Israel pursed a law type of righteousness. A law they did not attain.

32. Why? It was not faith but works. They stumbled on the stumbling stone.

33. Just as it is written, “Behold, I put a stumbling stone and a scandalous rock in Zion, and those believing upon him will not be disappointed.”

PLANNED PARENTHOOD ANTI-CREED

The United States Senate’s current deliberations have prompted this, my anti-creed, the things I can’t believe about Planned Parenthood.

1.  I can’t believe that the U.S. Congress will have any moral authority left if they do not defund Planned Parenthood.

2.  I can’t believe it has not been defunded before now.

3.  I can’t believe any kind of twisted logical algorithm could ever justify Planned Parenthood’s actions or existence.

4.  I can’t believe this is even an issue for debate.

5.  I can’t believe that liberals, progressives, the ones who always shout to defend the weakest among us, those I side with on many issues, are the primary supporters of Planned Parenthood in specific and abortion in general. 

image from youtube.com