Here are some quotes I ran across. Thought I would pass them along.

Let me tell you something that we Israelis have against Moses. He took us 40 years through the desert in order to bring us to the one spot in the Middle East that has no oil!
~ Golda Meir

Roses are red, Violets are blue. I’m schizophrenic, and so am I.
~ Oscar Levant

I believe in getting into hot water. I think it keeps you clean.
~ G. K. Chesterton

I want to know God’s thoughts… the rest are details.
~ Albert Einstein

Answer
Adam and Eve now reappear in the story as Eve gives birth to Seth. Eve saw the grace of God in this birth as a replacement for the son she lost to violence. Seth’s son was Enosh, which means to be frail. Around the time of his birth, humankind began to invoke the name of God (Yahweh), the covenant keeping God. Prayer is developed apart from sacrifice as a part of worship to God. It may be that man’s consciousness of human frailty, which was symbolized by the name, Enosh, heightened his awareness of his total dependence on God, which led them to begin to communicate with God. We may note that we are again faced with monotheism over against polytheism as the belief that Israel should adopt. (more…)

Recently my wife Donna traveled to SoCal to visit her elderly mom. While there she picked up a copy of the local free Christian newspaper. Over the weekend she called my attention to two articles. One of the articles pointed out that about 1,400 pastors leave the ministry each month because they have been terminated by their congregation or denomination losing their homes, friendships and their dignity. This displacement is often caused by a few core families within the church. The article suggested that “one third of all pastors are in congregations where the previous pastor was terminated or forced out. That is mind boggling! Some suggest that there are approximately 375,000 churches in USAmerica. With that number in mind that would mean that 125,000 pastors have been terminated. Even if the church number is wrong and it is smaller the amount of pastors being terminated (some for due cause I would assume) is incredible.

In the same issue there was an article about the “synod sizes control and places pastors on leave” from Hollywood Presbyterian Church. This action by the synod followed complaints from about 40 of the 2,700 member church while two-thirds of the elders and a majority of the church members disagree with the synod’s actions, it happened just the same.

What’s wrong with this picture? (more…)

My friend Jim Henderson is hosting two Off-The-Map Conferences. Here is some important information for you.

The Generous Orthodoxy Conference(s) coming up in Washington DC on Oct 7-8 and in Seattle Washington Nov 4-5.

Brian McLaren, author of A Generous Orthodoxy will be presenting at the conference along with Jim Wallis (East) and Deborah Loyd (West) .

Note: If you register by September 4, you will get early bird price of $119. Group tickets (minimum of 3) brings it down to $99 (West Coast). Register Here.

Answer
This is a continuation of the previous question from the August 9, 2005 entry.

The text does not say anything about Cain’s marriage. It assumes that the marriage had taken place. His wife is not named but was most likely one of the other daughters of Adam mentioned in Genesis 5.4 (see above). Cain’s fear of being killed did not occur. The grace of God, provided by the sign, worked. His descendants were many. The genealogy continues from 4.2. The family tree suggests that God was not visiting the iniquities of the fathers upon the children (Ex. 20.5) at this point in the story of humankind. The lineage of Cain was not caused to suffer because of Cain. (more…)

Question
The genealogy as explained in Genesis is somewhat hard to follow due mainly to the extreme ages reached by these people. Did some of these folks actually live for several hundred years, and even continued to father children after being around several centuries, or was the biblical year back then different from what we use today?

Answer
Those who read Scripture usually do not consider the genealogies the most exciting parts to read. For the most part they are read once, if that, and then discarded in future readings. Beginning with Genesis 4.17 (see below) there is a proliferation of people. Scripture uses a literary device, which is called genealogy. In the Old Testament sense it is a list of names, which indicate the ancestors or descendants of individuals. Often it is a simple registration of names. It is clear that Old Testament genealogies are not used in the same strict fashion that modern genealogies are in which each person in a line is listed. We find most of the genealogies in the Pentateuch, Ezra- Nehemiah, and the Chronicles. (more…)