The Keener Way

  I read a story the other day, almost definitely AI-generated. It was about a grumpy old man who lived on cans of beans, and his granddaughter, a typical broke homeless Generation Z who moves in with him when she can no longer pay her apartment rent. Grumpy Grandad blamed his granddaughter's money problems on her $7 lattes and Netflix subscription. She blamed inflation, high interest rates, and a bad job market. Overall, the story was quite cliche, drawing on every stereotype that exists in the great debate of trying to afford housing. Granddaughter felt that she deserved to treat herself to lattes and Netflix and ordering out, because the economy was bad, life was hard, and she needed a few simple pleasures in life.  Grandad told her how he worked 14 hour days, living off of a baloney sandwich and a can of beans every single day. Where you stand in this debate is irrelevant. What is important is one particular line of the story that hit  really  hard. The Grandad s...

  Yeah, I know. Its been a hot second since I posted. Life has been a bit intense lately, with not a lot of breathing space. Anyway, it is time to continue the study on Yeshua's Sermon on the Mount, where He teaches His disciples, "this is what it looks like to be one of my disciples. This is the way I want you to live." And we are now in the section of his sermon where He addresses the taking of oaths. Again, you have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’ But I tell you not to swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne; or by the earth, for it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Nor should you swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ Anything more comes from the evil one. Matthew 5:33-37 BSB  See, the thing is, when someone takes an oath, this kind of insinuates that you can't...

  Merry Christmas everyone! Although I generally don't make it a secret that I consider the birth of Christ to most likely be mid autumn, some time between September/October, the vast majority of people insist on observing it smack-dab in the middle of winter. Whereby, at least for the moment, my December postings take on a more Christmas-y tone.  Today, I'd like to explore a topic that was inspired my my very wonderful oldest brother. After I re-shared my last year's posts on Christmas carols, he approached me with an article on how western culture has appropriated the nativity story and taken things out of their middle eastern cultural contexts. One of the things this article suggested was that Yeshua was born in a stone feed trough in a guest room, rather than a wooden manger in a barn, a concept of renaissance Europe. In truth, it is possible that English has misinterpreted the idea of 'no room at the inn'. The Greek word is 'kataluma', which can be take...

  You are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Say what?? Indeed. In Yeshua's sermon on how to live as one of his disciples, He takes a very sudden shift from "blessed are they" to talking about candles and table salt. "You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its savor, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a basket. Instead, they set it on a stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:13-16, BSB  There's a few interesting pieces to this section. And we can nearly fill an entire lesson with salt alone. Salt was a valuable thing in ancient times. There was an era where merchants traded North African salt for...

  In continuing with Yeshua's Sermon on the Mount, we're going to spice things up a bit. Rather than looking at one verse, we're going to hit three. Or at least start and see if we get that far. "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.  Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God." Matthew 5:7-9, BSB In the Roman Empire that ruled during Yeshua's lifetime. mercy was a sign of weakness. Even in the Greek Empire, it was not seen as a virtue. The respected virtues were strength and power, not kindness. Yet Jewish and Christian cultures dared to be counter-culture. They pushed the view that mercy was an attribute of the divine. Indeed, a core attribute. For as the prophet Micah declared, "He has shown you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you but to act justly, to love mercy , and to walk humbly with your God?" Micah 6:8, BSB But here, in Hi...

  This past week, I've been doing a challenge set by my church's pastor. Each day, choose a random passage of scripture, study it, and try to find an attribute of Adonai's character. In five weekdays, that is five attributes. Its been a fascinating study so far. But it really got interesting when one morning, I decided to study Job 38. A little poke inside me said "no, do Job 42." I looked at Job 42 and thought, "But i don't want to do Job 42. YHWH is rebuking Job's three friends. If I study that, I'm gonna almost have to study the whole book, to really grasp why he was angry with their counsel. That's the way my mind works." But the voice insisted. "Job 42". And I'll be honest, the study was worth it. I only did a very general overview of the whole book, but I came out of it with some enlightened thoughts. Here is a (very) rough and abridged version of the argument between Job and his companions.   Eliphaz (my god is fine g...

What do you think of when you think of a tree planted by rivers of water? Specifically in the context of Psalm 1? I always thought of it as big, strong, sturdy, unyielding to the wind and rain, with deep roots and a thick trunk, impervious, unmovable, solid. And I saw my own life as anything but that. August 2022 to August 2023 probably qualifies so far as the most uncertain, unstable consecutive twelve months of my life. A whole lot happened, enough that it felt like twelve years. I watched so many doors close on me. Doors to a couple different relationships. Doors to several different job opportunities. That twelve month period saw me move out of my parents' home in Maryland to take a job in Ohio. And then leave that job a mere four months later and move back home. That twelve month period saw my reputation challenged and scarred. That twelve month period saw me trying to make multiple decisions. And I wavered back and forth on those decisions like chaff blown around in the wind....