Today's Devotional Thought

Passage: 1 Corinthians 6
Notes: Lord, that we would have the gentleness and courage to create a true Christian community that avoids worldly courts of law among ourselves, and lives pure lives. May we be authentic witnesses to your demands, but even stronger witnesses of your good news. Please give us the courage to not modify your gospel to suit the desires of our culture, yet have the wisdom to not pointlessly drive people away from you with sound bites and decisive speech. 

Today's Devotional Thought

Passage: 1 Corinthians 5
Notes: Accommodation is exactly what the spirit of this day would have us do...and don't we have a lot of leaven leavening the dough of the Church today. Yet, how do we avoid legalism on the other hand? Who has the spiritual wisdom and the guts to correctly lead a congregation so that church discipline heals rather than destroys? How will an entire community have the spiritual discernment to differentiate between a 'wicked person' and the one who is genuinely desiring to follow God, but still battling the fleshly nature (as in progressive sanctification)? How would a pastor even broach this subject in a culture that looks to cultural values ("live and let live") over biblical teaching? Yet, how do we avoid abuse in so fleshly a Church if the church attempts to practice church discipline? On the other hand, in a large and more anonymous church, how many people does it take so that "the Church" is making a decision - or will anonymity shield any but the most obviously wicked person? "Not associate with" - where we're not sure, may we err on the side of love and associate, or will we then just ignore this teaching, not really knowing anyone well enough?

Today's Devotional Thought

Passage: Jeremiah 50
Notes: Being the foremost military power in the world is meaningless if God has decided that your reign is over. Babylon fell because of her worship of other gods, and as punishment for her destruction of God's temple and His people. Aren't we also addicted to persistent idolatry in our worship of our possessions and perpetual entertainment?

Today's Devotional Thought

Passage: Jeremiah 47-49
Notes: Even those who do not profess the God of Israel are held responsible for their disobedience to their maker. Three are promised return, and God pledges to defend the orphans and widows of Edom. -> Nations that are not God's Display Nation (us, too!) are still held responsible for their disobedience. While we are not called to legislate non-Christians into acting like Christians, we should be clear in our message that God is not giving unbelievers a free pass at disobeying Him, especially in their treatment of the weak (widows and orphans). That latter part should also be a warning regarding our own priorities.

Today's Devotional Thought

Passage: Jeremiah 46
Notes: Human solutions - like Judah's alliance with mighty Egypt - are false securities. Egypt, too, is under the judgments of God. Israel, on the other hand, whose situation (exile) looks hopeless, can yet look to God for a future. -> put your trust in God only, even when human solutions seem surefire answers.

Today's Devotional Thought

Passage: Jeremiah 44
Notes: The Jewish men's decision to flee to Egypt placed them right back in the midst of idolatry, and they ignored or (more likely) supported their wives' worship of the 'Queen of Heaven.' When Jeremiah confronts them, they reject his message with revisionist history ascribing what blessings they had in the past to their former idolatry. -> We are responsible for the environments we place our family in, and for what worship we allow in our households. A culture that teaches 'to everyone his own' should not distract us from our call to live right worship in our homes. Note that while God's message came to the adults first, he vowed to hold every member of their family responsible.

Today's Devotional Thought

Passage: Jeremiah 42 and 43
Notes: A people that is stricken with fear will gladly find an excuse why they do not need to obey God's directions. Once panicked, they will force others to join them. Like Jeremiah, we need to be careful nonetheless to faithfully proclaim God's message to them.

Today's Devotional Thought

Passage: Jeremiah 41
Notes: The 80 men from Shilo and Samaria comprehended that it didn't take a building for them to be able to worship in Jerusalem. The carnage and destruction of the Babylonian attack produced fear and disorder, but not a searching for God in many of the remnant in Judah. God did not supernaturally stop the evil, looting, and piracy - the mass murderer escapes with most of his men. -> tragedy will not automatically produce a turning to God among a people that had abandoned Him, and God may not force Himself on them, but allow the evil to pursue their desires, which may also hurt some who do want to return to God.

Today's Devotional Thought

Passage: Jeremiah 39
Notes: In the midst of the low point in Jerusalem's history, the destruction by the Babylonians, God (who had called them to carry out his judgment) saves three (groups of) people: Ebed-melech the Ethiopian - a foreigner - "because he trusted in the Lord," God's prophet, and the very poor whom their own countrymen had oppressed all these years, and who now receive the vineyards and fields their fellow Jews would not let them have. The last thing Zedekiah ever saw was not just the slaughter of his sons but also that of the bad advisors he felt too weak to oppose for the sake of righteousness.

Today's Devotional Thought

Passage: Jeremiah 37
Notes: Faithfulness does not guarantee exemption from evil done to you. It is okay to ask for lessening of torture. God can even use an evil ruler to save His people. Even the evil ruler may grasp His need for prayer, and a message from God. -> don't give up on prayer for authority, even evil rulers sometimes serve God's purposes.

Do Not Judge, Lest You be Judged

"Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned."
Luke 6:37 NASB

Therefore, any judging is wrong and to be deplored. Right?

Then why might Jesus say,

"Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."
John 7:18 NASB

Why does Paul tell the church in Corinth

"For I, on my part, though absent in body but present in spirit, have already judged him who has so committed this, as though I were present."
1 Corinthians 5:3 NASB

If I am going to be a witness to others with the goal of them becoming part of the family of God, I will have to come to a conclusion whether I believe they are already Christians or not. Otherwise, I'd have to treat Billy Graham and Michael Newdow the same. Equally, if a church is going to practice the biblical mandate of Church discipline, it will be impossible to treat any action we didn't commit ourselves as morally neutral or beneficial.

We should heed what Jesus taught us in Luke 6, in particular what he says about mercy. Yet, building a nugget theology of "any judgment of what things are like at any time is to be deplored" will not make us more, but less obedient to Scripture. It'll merely make us pander to the Zeitgeist.

MAPS 3 Projects Completion Dates

Most of the MAPS 3 projects will be completed over multiple phases, meaning they should be useful to the public long before the final completion date (e.g., some senior centers will be done earlier).

• Sidewalks: Mid-2014.
  
• State Fair Park improvements: Late 2015.
  
• Trails: Late 2017.
  
• Convention center: Late 2018.
  
• Urban park: Early 2021.
  
• Modern streetcar and transit hub: Early 2021.
  
• Oklahoma River improvements: Early 2021.
  
• Senior wellness centers: Early 2021.

Source: NewsOK

The iToy Just Got Eaten for Lunch

Source: Motion Computing

Everybody else can go home. Motion Computing just released the CL900. The rest will be history. For everyone else (Apple included), it'll be hysteria. Life is good.

And Save Us From Winter Weather

Under normal circumstances, the city has a fleet of about 30 to 35 dump trucks, which can be fitted with plows or used to spread salt on roads. During the worst of last winter's storms, the city was down to about 20 trucks as the fleet began to break down under heavy use.

“We've got 25 trucks up and running for this year's snow and ice program,” DeGiacomo said. “We've purchased 14 new trucks, but we don't anticipate getting a lot of those into the fleet before the winter.”

Source: The Daily Disappointment

Let's hope for not too much snow...

Outlet Mall Groundbreaking

It's actually happened. Oklahoma City is one of two new outlet mall constructions in the country.

Ouch

Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.

Ezekiel 16:49 ESV

Whole Foods Market Ante Portas

Oklahoma City will finally get a Whole Foods Market, as announced via Twitter today in response to a request by the Oklahoman.

Shorter Lines in the Emergency Rooms

"Illegal is illegal," said Pearce, a driving force on the issue in Arizona. "We'll have less crime. We'll have lower taxes. We'll have safer neighborhoods. We'll have shorter lines in the emergency rooms. We'll have smaller classrooms."
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36735281/ns/politics/

I suppose when Rep. Pearce comes across the man left "half dead by the side of the road" (Luke 10:30-37), he's planning to check whether he's an illegal immigrant ("require anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant to produce identification"), and call the cops instead of get him help. Regardless of where you stand on the immigration issue, don't call yourself a Christian and refuse emergency medical treatment over immigration matters.

Pregnant Women Can Now Use Reserved Parking Spaces Close to Stores

Pregnant Women in their third trimester are now legally permitted to use the disabled parking spaces. It appears that they need to get a specific permit from their doctor, though, and that it's up to the doctor to make the call.

See House Bill 2907 (the link doesn't show it's been passed and signed by the governor, but it has as of April 12).

Exciting Times

If you thought that multitouch and the Wii are cool, you need to realize that we're just beginning to see some of the amazing ways to use technology in the future. Check out this video and think about what's possible in even just a few years (and yes, they'll get the little machine down to size. Remember that computers far less powerful than your cell phone once filled a room).