Total Pageviews

Tuesday, February 28, 2012

Hey are you married and having sex with someone other than your spouse?


Well actually don’t answer that question on this blog because we don’t need to know. The point is God knows and you may not really know how that is affecting you spiritually and emotionally.

Protecting Marital Faithfulness
11 And the LORD said to Moses, 12 “Give the following instructions to the people of Israel.
   “Suppose a man’s wife goes astray, and she is unfaithful to her husband 13 and has sex with another man, but neither her husband nor anyone else knows about it. She has defiled herself, even though there was no witness and she was not caught in the act. Numbers 5:11-13

Although this passage addresses women of that day the fact is male or female we have defiled ourselves.
Wherever we might engage in any act we can’t hide it from God.

 It is hard to even hide things we do in public anymore. It seems like everyone is getting caught on a camera daily doing something wrong, illegal or embarrassing and getting posted on the internet.

If you would not want to be posted on the internet doing something like that how can you still do it knowing God sees us and that everything hidden in darkness will be exposed in the light!

5 So don’t make judgments about anyone ahead of time—before the Lord returns. For he will bring our darkest secrets to light and will reveal our private motives. Then God will give to each one whatever praise is due.  1 Corinthians 4:5


Here is the good news! Whatever we are doing we can stop, repent (turn away from) and ask for forgiveness. Of course there could be consequences but the sooner we stop the better off we will be.

Today’s Readings:
NUMBERS 4:1-5:31
Tomorrow:
Something random for leap day.

Monday, February 27, 2012

Are Numbers Important?


 39 When Moses and Aaron counted the Levite clans at the LORD’s command, the total number was 22,000 males one month old or older.
Redeeming the Firstborn Sons
 40 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Now count all the firstborn sons in Israel who are one month old or older, and make a list of their names. 41 The Levites must be reserved for me as substitutes for the firstborn sons of Israel; I am the LORD. And the Levites’ livestock must be reserved for me as substitutes for the firstborn livestock of the whole nation of Israel.”
 42 So Moses counted the firstborn sons of the people of Israel, just as the LORD had commanded. 43 The number of firstborn sons who were one month old or older was 22,273.
 44 Then the LORD said to Moses, 45 “Take the Levites as substitutes for the firstborn sons of the people of Israel. And take the livestock of the Levites as substitutes for the firstborn livestock of the people of Israel. The Levites belong to me; I am the LORD. 46 There are 273 more firstborn sons of Israel than there are Levites. To redeem these extra firstborn sons, 47 collect five pieces of silver[g] for each of them (each piece weighing the same as the sanctuary shekel, which equals twenty gerahs). 48 Give the silver to Aaron and his sons as the redemption price for the extra firstborn sons.”
 49 So Moses collected the silver for redeeming the firstborn sons of Israel who exceeded the number of Levites. 50 He collected 1,365 pieces of silver[h] on behalf of these firstborn sons of Israel (each piece weighing the same as the sanctuary shekel). 51 And Moses gave the silver for the redemption to Aaron and his sons, just as the LORD had commanded.   Numbers 3:39-51

 
Did you read through this quickly or did you look at the numbers? After all this is Numbers!

22,000 Levite males one month old or older

22,273 males one month old or older were the firstborn sons of Israel

273 were the difference for which had to be redeemed by silver

Given all the circumstances at the time what are the odds of the gap being that small?

This led me to think of God’s design. Think of snowflakes.

 Microphotograph of a snowflake

 
Are you familiar with the Mandelbrot set?
The Mandelbrot set is a particular mathematical set of points whose boundary is a distinctive and easily recognizable two-dimensional fractal shape. The set is closely related to Julia sets (which include similarly complex shapes), and is named after the mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot, who studied and popularized it.
More precisely, the Mandelbrot set is the set of values of c in the complex plane for which the orbit of 0 under iteration of the complex quadratic polynomial zn+1 = zn2 + c remains bounded. That is, a complex number c is part of the Mandelbrot set if, when starting with z0 = 0 and applying the iteration repeatedly, the absolute value of zn remains bounded however large n gets.
For example, letting c = 1 gives the sequence 0, 1, 2, 5, 26,…, which tends to infinity. As this sequence is unbounded, 1 is not an element of the Mandelbrot set. On the other hand, c = i (where i is defined as i2 = −1) gives the sequence 0, i, (−1 + i), −i, (−1 + i), −i, ..., which is bounded, and so i belongs to the Mandelbrot set.

Numbers are very important in the Holy Bible. Nothing God created is by accident.


Today’s readings:
NUMBERS 2:1-3:5
Tomorrow’s readings:
NUMBERS 4:1-5:31