Musings From A Rolling Eyed Turtle

Walk in the name of your god?  Sounds kind of quaint and even old school!  But come on now, who really does that anymore?     According to the Word of God, we all do: “For all people will walk every one in the name of his god, and we will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.”   (Micah 4:5) Could this be referring to a protest march?  Probably not!  But, in an effort to get to the bottom of this, I’ll try the journalistic questions of who, what, when, where, and why?  The “who” is somewhat uncertain.  Some translators use the word nations.  Other translators use the word people.  It also could refer to individuals.  But it does say “all”, as in everyone!  Whether we know it or not, believe it or not, acknowledge it or not, we all walk in the name of something and that something often becomes our god. The “what” is significant.  When we walk in the name of something, it usually means we ...

Don’t take kindly to idols! We’re not talking American Idol here, you know the talent contest on TV.  We’re talking an idol that is an image or representation of a god. And we’re also not talking some cute little touristy thing you buy in an open air market that is a caricature of some god of folklore origins.  We’re talking an idol that has grabbed and imprisoned your heart! Maybe we should see it from God’s perspective:  “…they rejected my rules and did not walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols.  (Ez 20:16) That classic definition of an idol definitely fits here, that is, an image or representation of a god used as an object of worship.  Instead of worshipping the one true God, they rejected Him and they went after their idols. But that’s not even the worst of it.  Earlier in Ezekiel, God said this:  “Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block o...

It is an often quoted line and for lots of good reasons.  Among other things, it wonderfully exudes hope!  Just let the words fall on you like gentle rain:  “He has made everything beautiful in its time.” This line in Ecclesiastes 3:11 points to God’s orchestration of human events in their most appropriate time and place.  In the book of Acts, we find additional descriptions of how He orchestrates human events:  “From one man He made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands.”  (Acts 17:26) Going back to Ecclesiastes, there is a crucial thought in the remainder of the verse that is often glossed over:  “He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” And going back to Acts, we get an additional look at God’s purpose in orchestrating human events:  “ God did this so that they would ...

A man of extraordinary wisdom once wrote:  “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.”  (Prov 21:2) From what I’ve read, our physical eyes in the above verse refer to one’s intellectual point of view.  The reference to the heart is used to identify where our thoughts and motives come from.  The verse then communicates that it is so very easy to rationalize one’s point of view and think we are right but the Lord knows that is really going on. Not only can we rationalize our point of view but we can also be so very easily deceived:  “There is a way that seems right to a person, but its end is the way that leads to death” (Prov 14:12).  This proverb points to the fact that there is a pathway that can seem straight and easy to travel but it can also lead to destruction.  Some think that the road that seems right in this proverb actually represents wickedness that is disguised as good. Those two verses, written sever...

The land vomits!  What?  Well, that’s what it says… “Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomit ed out its inhabitants.”  Lev 18:25 And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomit ed out the nations that were before you.  Lev 18:28 Keep all my decrees and laws and follow them, so that the land where I am bringing you to live may not vomit you out.  Lev. 20:22 Does the land literally vomit?  Does it figuratively do so?  And what does it mean? From what I can gather, it could be similar to when a person grows nauseous from the contents of his stomach and wants to vomit the contents out.  Strange as it sounds, the land grows nauseous of its inhabitants and wants to vomit them out. Some would say that an example of the land vomiting out its inhabitants was when fire and brimstone rained down upon Sodom (Gen 19:24).  Had the land become nauseous?  Based on this description, it co...

Naked. Worse, naked and exposed. Worse still, naked, exposed and vulnerable. When we are physically naked, at least in the context of when and where we should be clothed, we normally feel exposed and vulnerable and we try to cover ourselves.  Sometimes we are successful. When we are emotionally naked, at least in the contexts of when or where we shouldn’t be, we typically feel exposed and vulnerable and we work hard to try to cover ourselves.  Sometimes we are even successful. When we are spiritually naked, regardless of the context, we feel very exposed and vulnerable.  We desperately try to cover ourselves but there’s nothing we can do, on our own, to successfully clothe ourselves. That’s where God comes in.  But first, some context: From their very first realization of nakedness, Adam and Eve were afraid and tried to hide from God. While the account is one of experiencing physical nakedness, it goes beyond that since the root issue was that they had give...

Sometimes, as I am reading the Scriptures, it seems that a word just leaps off the page and I just can’t get it out of my mind.  One such word recently was “lavished”. Before I share some verses to see if it leaps off the page for you, it would probably be good to define the word itself.  Lavish is expending or bestowing profusely; expended or produced in abundance; marked by profusion or excess. I don’t know about you, but I think that when something is profuse, in abundance and in excess, it is not only noteworthy, but it could also be life changing!  So let’s look at some examples of how the word is used in the Scriptures:  “Even when they were in their kingdom and benefiting from your incredible goodness that you had lavish ed on them in the spacious and fertile land you had set before them, they did not serve you, nor did they turn from their evil practices.”  (Neh 9:35) “ In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our offenses...