Musings From A Rolling Eyed Turtle

It’s both the worst place to be and the best place to have in your rear view mirror! It’s a terrifying place and yet it can be a place of transformation. It’s the place of undone! A standard dictionary definition of the word “undone” is to not finish. A figurative use of the word would mean that something has either not gone as planned, or has failed in some way. Isaiah the prophet, when he was confronted with the holiness of God, said:  “ Woe is me! For I am undone…”  When he said this, he was using the word in a most extreme way, that of being ruined or destroyed.    While we may not be as dramatically confronted with God’s holiness as Isaiah was, our being undone can occur when we realize our failures and mistakes and foolishness.  It could occur when all the things that we’ve used to prop ourselves up catastrophically collapse.  In could also occur when we finally realize we are at the end of ourselves and maybe even have hit rock bottom....

Leadership transitions are often couched in sports terms such as passing the baton. Sometimes such transitions go smoothly, the outgoing leader has everything in order and the new leader is prepared to lead.  The baton is passed smoothly and the race continues. Sometimes such transitions are not so smooth.  The outgoing leader might have to abruptly leave and/or the new leader may not be as prepared as people would like.  The baton is sometimes dropped or the handoff is handled clumsily and the race is impacted. See which of the following might fit the above two scenarios: 1.  So Elijah went from there and found Elisha son of Shaphat. He was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen, and he himself was driving the twelfth pair. Elijah went up to him and threw his cloak around him. (Ki 19:19) 2.  And they went up Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation.   And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and put them on Eleazar his son. And Aaron died there...

Covenants?  Hmm, sounds way too restrictive!  A covenant, just to be clear, is a solemn and binding agreement. So who really wants to be bound to something?  There are covenants in some neighborhoods.  You enter into such by being part of a HOA or Homeowner’s Association.  Such are designed to keep the neighborhood looking nice.  That can be a good thing. A marriage involves a covenant, or at least that’s how it used to be viewed.  In fact, some marriage ceremonies still use wording that indicates that the couple is entering into a covenant of marriage.  This is the “through thick and thin, till death do us part” covenant stuff.  That can be a good thing.  Would you say about a covenant that involves things of incredible value?  Would that be a good thing?  See what covenant some people of old made to bind themselves to that which they believed had value well beyond what you could ever imagine: “And they entered i...

Is it in carrying a flag or a banner?  Words on a hat or t-shirt or bumper sticker?  Displaying a tattoo?  Jewelry hanging around your neck?  Huh? In a previous post, I referenced a verse that indicates that we usually walk in the name of our god or in the name of the Lord our God (Micah 4:5).  So is incorporating any of the above an indicator that you are walking in the name of your god or the Lord God? Those external things could be indicators but they really don’t get to the root of what is going on. While I could try to analyze what it might mean to be committed to a god to the extent that a person walks in that god’s name, I want to focus on what it means to walk in the name of the Lord our God.  And it really has little to do with any of the external indicators mentioned above.  So what does it mean to walk in the name of the Lord our God?  The answer is simple and is contained in just two words.  But to even scratch the surface o...

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 ...