Musings From A Rolling Eyed Turtle

I recently read the book of Job.   This time around, I didn’t dwell on why God allowed things to happen to Job but I focused more on what happened.   That is, I didn’t really concern myself about why Satan was allowed to do the things he did to Job, but I became concerned as I considered what he did do to Job.   More on that in a moment… As a reminder of how this Old Testament book starts out, when we are introduced to Job, we find that he was a righteous man and feared God.   As the account goes, Satan asked God for permission to do some things to Job in an effort to get Job to curse God.   Spoiler alert: it didn’t’ work.   But what Satan did to Job was strategically targeted and it greatly impacted Job’s life.   The first attack against Job was to strip him of almost everything he had.   Satan’s argument was that God had blessed job with wealth and possession and if he were to lose those, Job would curse God (Job 1:6-11).   So, at...

The “if” warning, as communicated through Moses, was quite straight forward: “If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name—the LORD your God…” (Deut 28:58) The consequences, also communicated through Moses, were equally straight forward: “Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.” (Deut 28:64) The repercussions, again communicated through Moses, of how the consequences would play out in their lives were not only straight forward but dire: “ Among those nations you will have no rest, nor will there be a place of peaceful rest for the soles of your feet, for there the LORD will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a spirit of despair. Your life will hang in doubt before you; you will be terrified by night and day and w...

One of my goals in writing this blog is to paint, with words, thumbnail sketches of God that might encourage you to gaze upon Him.   My hope also is that such sketches will point us to how He works in our lives and how we should respond to Him. As we approach Easter, it struck me that God has already painted a monumental and glorious masterpiece for us to gaze upon.   With that before us, any words that I can come up with would likely, at best, just disappear into His infinitely greater work.   Or, at worse, my feeble words might mar its beauty.   So, no words from me and gaze with me at this word picture masterpiece that God painted for us: The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified.   He is not here; He has risen, just as He said.” (Matt 28:5-6)

I recently heard a speaker use the phrase “the inner architecture of the soul”.   I was very intrigued by it.   I don’t know if he coined the phrase but I hope I can write about it without leading to any copyright violations!   I looked up some of the web definitions of the word “architecture”.   Most involved some aspect of designing buildings.   There were also some references to the form or structure of computers.   But a few other definitions were of great interest to me, such as: A unifying or coherent form or structure; The complex or carefully designed structure of something; The formation or construction resulting from or as if from a conscious act; The method of designing and building something into a usable, pleasing form; So in combining some of elements of the definitions in a way that resonates with me, I’m going to land on this definition of “architecture” as it relates to the soul:   “the unifying, complex, care...