Seeking Happiness and Joy

I've heard God described as an angry, vengeful, and jealous god. I've never believed that to be true. He is a perfect being which suggests that He is perfect in love. However, I can understand why some people would come to that conclusion. There are several stories in the Bible, particularly in the Old Testament, which could lead one to the conclusion that this could be the case. When the children of Israel are found to be worshiping a golden calf (Exodus 32), " the Lord plagued the people ". One might think that it was because God was jealous and didn't like that His people were worshiping someone else. Upon studying Hosea 2, it became very clear that God does this so as to remind His children where the path to happiness lies. In this chapter, a wife has sought other lovers. She asserts that her daily sustenance, her riches, and the fine things of life are from her lovers. However, the husband is the one who has provided these things for her. The husband t...

My 5th grade students and I are reading Island of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O'Dell. I have never read this book prior to this reading with my students. We are enjoying it and learning a lot from it. The book starts with a tribe of people living on an island far from other civilization. A ship full of men comes to shore one day. These men want to hunt seal on this island. The captain of the ship makes a deal with the chief of the tribe as to how the hunted seals will be shared. When the men have hunted and gathered sufficient seals for significant profit, they begin loading the ship to leave. Although a certain amount of seals and other goods were promised, they shortchange the island tribe. This offense results in a bloody fight between the islanders and the seaman. Many die from each group. One of the dead is the chief of the tribe. The seaman leave. Although numerous members of the tribe remain, the chores must be redivided amongst those that are left. The women are a...

At Institute tonight, we talked briefly about the account of the woman who came in and washed Jesus' feet with her tears drying them with her hair and then annointing His feet which is found in Luke 7:37-50 . In the midst of this washing, Jesus shares a parable of two debtors being forgiven their debts. The one who had the greater debt forgiven loved the master more. The question then is how does the one with the smaller debt become filled with as much love as the one with the greater debt without acruing more debt (sins)? I immediately thought of the story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15:11-32 . The son who remained home with the father and did as he should was jealous of the prodigal son whose return was grandly celebrated. It is easy to be like second son and question the father why our obedience is not celebrated. We don't experience the same amount of joy upon the embrace of the father if we get caught up in the moment, especially in jealousy. In response to the son...