The next Hollywood block-buster thriller!

After watching "The Happening" and pretty much hating it, I've found a better thriller story for Hollywood to produce. I can imagine it would be a hit! If only they could work in a clever joke about a pharmacy trip...haha.

1 Samuel 5 ((The Message-cuz it's good for storytelling plus some additional director thoughts by me...))

Threatened with Mass Death

((The opening scene. There has just been a major battle between Israel and the Philistines. You see the bodies of many men in armor laying on the ground through fog. Daunting music plays to show the audience that the battle did not go well for our friends.))

1-2 Once the Philistines had seized the Chest of God, they took it from Ebenezer to Ashdod, brought it into the shrine of Dagon, and placed it alongside the idol of Dagon.

((Camera angles up and follows a train of Philistine carrying the Ark up a dusty hill with some sad, Middle East sounding music in the background. Follows them into a temple of Dagon. Camera angles up on Dagon to show how they regard him with respect and think he's amazingly powerful. Music builds to a climax and suddenly cuts to the next scene, which may look like a party in the king's court or something. After all, they did just defeat Israel.))

3-5 Next morning when the citizens of Ashdod got up, they were shocked to find Dagon toppled from his place, flat on his face before the Chest of God. They picked him up and put him back where he belonged. ((May cut to a meeting with the priests, discussing the happening, but deciding it was just a fluke, just to take some artistic license and to make the movie last a bit longer...)) First thing the next morning they found him again, toppled and flat on his face before the Chest of God. Dagon's head and arms were broken off, strewn across the entrance. Only his torso was in one piece. (That's why even today, the priests of Dagon and visitors to the Dagon shrine in Ashdod avoid stepping on the threshold.)

((Rumbling noise is heard. Confusion all around. I'm thinking of clips kind of like from "The Prince of Egypt" when the plagues are happening, but with tumors and rats.))

6 God was hard on the citizens of Ashdod. He devastated them by hitting them with tumors. This happened in both the town and the surrounding neighborhoods. He let loose rats among them. Jumping from ships there, rats swarmed all over the city! And everyone was deathly afraid.

((Another long meeting of arguments among priests. Insert lots of shouting as some would have probably wanted to keep the Ark and try to persuade G-d to use His divine power against their enemies...after all, the Ark was pretty much housing an insane amount of power!))

7-8 When the leaders of Ashdod saw what was going on, they decided, "The chest of the god of Israel has got to go. We can't handle this, and neither can our god Dagon." They called together all the Philistine leaders and put it to them: "How can we get rid of the chest of the god of Israel?"

The leaders agreed: "Move it to Gath." So they moved the Chest of the God of Israel to Gath.

9 But as soon as they moved it there, God came down hard on that city, too. It was mass hysteria! He hit them with tumors. Tumors broke out on everyone in town, young and old.

((Same kind of thing again...))

10-12 So they sent the Chest of God on to Ekron, but as the Chest was being brought into town, the people shouted in protest, "You'll kill us all by bringing in this Chest of the God of Israel!" They called the Philistine leaders together and demanded, "Get it out of here, this Chest of the God of Israel. Send it back where it came from. We're threatened with mass death!" For everyone was scared to death when the Chest of God showed up. God was already coming down very hard on the place. Those who didn't die were hit with tumors. All over the city cries of pain and lament filled the air.

And in typical thriller style, you have the few who survive and start trying to mend their lives. The sun comes out as they hitch the Ark to some cows and send it away. I was trying to find an amazing plot twist, but to be honest, G-d is just too cool for that. Read chapter 6 for the sequel!! =).

Yes, you can quote me.

Think about this: The Kingdom of G-d - "The extraordinary normality".

Yes, I can be deep. =).
I want to go camping.

Interesting.

Well, I still haven't bought my MacJournal, so this blog is being written old-skool! =). ((But not as far back as to waste innocent trees and cramp up my hand...))

In addition to my summer reading I have decided to trek my way through 1st and 2nd Samuel and 1st and 2nd Kings. I started yesterday morning over breakfast, feeling slightly confused and cynical with myself about why I had chosen these particular books. Don't get me wrong, I totally love the stories and yes, I've been told they're more than just non-fiction stories-they have relevance to every day life. Uh huh. Well, let's see what we find then, aye?

To my surprise, I actually found something I thought was pretty profound! In the first chapter!

So, if you don't know, the first chapter of 'The First Book of Samuel' ((that's what my Bible calls it)) is about Elkanah and his two wives, Hannah and Peninnah ((are you seeing the same trend I'm seeinnah..)). Peninnah has tons of children; Hannah's womb has been closed. Peninnah chooses to be a [insert nasty word here] to Hannah because of her lack of children. That's the sitch.

So every year they travel as a family to the city to sacrifice animals and worship G-d ((they lived in the country)) and Hannah would get really depressed and wouldn't eat because this is when Peninnah would "provoke her bitterly to irritate her,"-1:6. Of course her hubby gets concerned and asks "Am I not better to you than ten sons?"-1:8. And at this point I'm thinking her husband is silly, not only for choosing to have two wives who obviously can't get along, but he asks silly questions too!

Anyways, we're getting to the profound bit...Hannah goes to the temple of the Lord to weep and pray because she wants a son so badly. Eli the priest comes and thinks she drunk, but she says she was just praying ((hmmm, why is it that everyone thinks Spirit-filled people are drunk? See Acts 2:13)). He apologizes and blesses her saying, "Go in peace; and may the G-d of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of Him." Then she goes and sleeps with her husband and nine months later has a baby whom she calls Samuel.

Okay, so after all that background, here's the cool bit. After Samuel has been weaned she takes him to the temple and gives him to the priest so he can grow up in the temple, worshiping G-d, just like she promised. And then in chapter 2 she has this amazing song of thanksgiving that has no bitterness or self pity in it. This is what struck me, she had a different agenda than what is obvious. If I was in her position, I would have gone and prayed for a child too, I may have even taken him to the temple for a little while, but all that would have been to prove my strength. 'I was a barren woman and now I have a child that I can rub in Peninnah's face because she was wrong about me.' or 'I prayed and G-d listened to me and gave me what I wanted so I could be restored in my family.'

However, Hannah caught on to something better than that. She wasn't trying to prove her strength, she was proving G-d's. That's the only conclusion I can come to when I see how she not only went to Him first, but offered her son, what she wanted most, her passion, her restoration, her everything to G-d. And then rejoiced about it. She rejoiced about the hardest thing a mother would ever have to do, because G-d got the glory. Interesting.

Why are Jewish laws so petty minded?

Found this old email while cleaning out my inbox. I still think it's interesting!

Question:

Why does the Jewish religion seem to obsess over insignificant details? How much matza do we have to eat, which spoon did I use for milk and which for meat, what is the right way to tie my shoelaces? It seems to me that this misses the bigger picture by focusing on minutiae. Is this nitpicking what Jews call spirituality?

(I actually already sent you this question over a week ago and didn't receive a reply. Could it be that you have finally been asked a question that you can't answer?!)

Answer:

I never claimed to have all the answers. There are many questions that are beyond me. But it happens to be that I did answer your question, and you did get the answer. I sent a reply immediately. The fact that you didn't receive it is itself the answer to your question.

You see, I sent you a reply, but I wrote your email address leaving out the "dot" before the "com." I figured that you should still receive the email, because after all, it is only one little dot missing. I mean come on, it's not as if I wrote the wrong name or something drastic like that! Would anyone be so nitpicky as to differentiate between "yahoocom" and "yahoo.com"? Isn't it a bit ridiculous that you didn't get my email just because of a little dot?

No, it's not ridiculous. Because the dot is not just a dot. It represents something. That dot has meaning far beyond the pixels on the screen that form it. To me it may seem insignificant, but that is simply due to my ignorance of the ways of the internet. All I know is that with the dot, the message gets to the right destination; without it, the message is lost to oblivion.

Jewish practices have infinite depth. Each nuance and detail contains a world of symbolism. And every dot counts. When they are performed with precision, a spiritual vibration is emailed throughout the universe, all the way to G-d's inbox.

If you want to understand the symbolism of the dot, study I.T.

If you want to understand the symbolism of Judaism, study it.

- Rabbi Aron Moss teaches Kabbalah, Talmud and practical Judaism in Sydney, Australia.

- To view this article on the Web, or to post a comment, please click here: http://www.chabad.org/160998 .

L to the O to the V to the E.

It’s funny where you get deep thoughts. Some people get them in the shower, some while they’re out on a walk. Today, mine happened while I was vacuuming the stairs...

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same?”
-Matthew 5:43-46.

I was just vacuuming those stairs, thinking about the Suite Life of Zac and Cody ((Disney freak, I know...)) and about how in order to marry someone with children you’d have to also love the children ((if you don’t see where I’m getting this, don’t ask. It’s really not that important =). )). This was making me think about the different Greek meanings for love;

• Eros (ἔρως érōs) is passionate love ((romantic)).
• Philia (φιλία philía), which means friendship.
• Agapē (ἀγάπη agápē) means a self-sacrificing, giving love to all--both friend and enemy.
• Storge (στοργή storgē) means "affection" in modern Greek; it is natural affection, like that felt by parents for offspring.
• Thelema (θέλημα thélēma) means "desire" in modern Greek; it is the desire to do something, to be occupied, to be in prominence.

As I was pondering this, a little thought dropped into my head. It was something like this: ‘How do you love your enemies?’.

First of all, who is my enemy? I thought Mom put it really well the other day ((and Mom, correct me if I’m wrong please)), she said something about an enemy being a person or group of people who aren’t looking for your best interest. Those who are wronging you or are putting you in a bad situation. When I think about enemies, I think of King David. All throughout the Psalms he’s saying things like, “My enemies have reproached me all day long; Those who deride me have used my name as a curse.” ((Psalm 102:8)) and “But my enemies are vigorous and strong ((or numerous)), And many are those who hate me wrongfully.” ((Psalm 38:19)).

So how are we meant to love them as Jesus requires? Wikipedia puts it down to agapē, a self sacrificing, giving kind of love. So what does the Bible say about this kind of love? I think you all know it and some could quote it back to me, but I’ll put it in here anyways. In fact, I’ll put it in a list to make later points easier. =).

        ❑        “Love is patient,
        ❑        love is kind
        ❑        and is not jealous;
        ❑        love does not brag
        ❑        and is not arrogant,
        ❑        does not act unbecomingly;
        ❑        it does not seek its own,
        ❑        is not provoked,
        ❑        does not take into account a wrong suffered,
        ❑        does not rejoice in unrighteousness,
        ❑        but rejoices with the truth;
        ❑        bears all things,
        ❑        believes all things,
        ❑        hopes all things,
        ❑        endures all things.
        ❑        Love never fails...”
- 1st Corinthians 13:4-8a.

Wow. How many of those can you really tick off and say you’ve done for that annoying girl at work or that teacher who ‘hates’ you? I always kind of thought that Jesus meant, ‘tolerate your enemies and pray that those that hate you have an okay day and don’t bother you.’ But I think what He is asking for is more self sacrificing and giving than that. It’s more than just giving them a brighter smile or being nice to them externally. It really has more to do with your inward feelings.

I’d encourage you to just look through that list, thinking about everyone that you encounter regularly in a week and maybe do some repenting. How well are we loving? If G-d truly is love, and we’re His disciples, trying to be more and more like Him every day, how well are we really doing? I think this is a major task, crucial to changing the culture around us, but it’s also one of the hardest things we can ever attempt to keep up. Love.

Please pray for elections!

As you can see, I found my Photobooth application!!! And these are the only photos I have that are small enough to put into my MacJournal...

It’s about time that I wrote another blog I suppose. School is out and besides studying, which I’ve decided to officially put off until Monday ((probably won’t be the best decision of my life, but we’ll see how this one goes...)) I actually have no excuse not to.

Besides, today is an important day! Elections are happening in NZ. I haven’t posted anything about the US elections yet, but most of you who know me will know that I’m not very pleased with the way those turned out. And no, it is not because I’m a racist. I do not agree with most of Obama’s policies, especially on important issues such as abortion and civil unions. He is very liberal on these, hoping to make it legal in the USA for abortions at any stage in a pregnancy. Not only is this completely against what I believe about abortion being wrong, but it is also dangerous for the mother who may want an abortion at 7 months, and therefore a stupid thing to try and do. Besides that, I’m in the middle of a 40 day praying endeavor to end abortion in NZ, but also across the world. I know that this is on the Father’s heart, but obviously not on Obama’s.

And there have been weird theories going around about Obama being the anti-christ. These I cannot agree with, however I will agree that there are certain aspects about the campaign that prove how easily accepted it will be when he does come. These include how many people voted for him because of his charisma, instead of his policies; people fainted when he came on stage; how he captured the attention of everyone, not only in America, but also across the rest of the world and was well liked all across. Many of these things you can also look at Hitler and say he had, but he was not the anti-chirst, only a sort of prototype, if you will. BUT HEAR ME WHEN I SAY I’m not preaching doom and destruction because Obama got in. He may very well prove to be a fantastic president who brings peace and prosperity ((though I’m not denying that the anti-christ will also accomplish this. Check Revelation.)). In fact, I do really hope I’m am proved wrong in my thinking and that he will bring an end to abortion. After all, as my lovely mother pointed out the other day, G-d has changed the hearts of many kings, and He can do it again.

I think it’s important to remember through all this that G-d is ultimately the king. I declare Him King over my life and my country, because He deserves both of those and He is ultimately in control. And He’s the winning side. =).

Well, I wasn’t going to get into that, but now I have. =). I’m done now.

NZ elections should be interesting. I’ll probably turn on the news tonight and have a squiz at the polls. I have to say, I’m not as excited about these ones as the US ones. And I don’t think it’s an American thing, considering I’ve lived here for about 13 years now... No, it’s just that I’ve noticed that the campaigns here are so petty compared to there. Instead of having debates about important issues it seems to be more of a pigtail-pulling fest. But then, I can’t say I’ve been paying that much attention. Maybe because the US elections may have more effect on the world and this country than who comes into power here.

I don’t know. I really shouldn’t have started talking about politics because it always gets everyone ((including me)) all worked up. And that’s not what this blog is for. So I hope I haven’t offended anyone or too sorely pushed my beliefs on you. Though, I don’t apologize if I’ve made you think.. =).

Anybody else feel like watching “Scrubs“ right now?

Songs of Creation.

Today I was contemplating how cool music is. I mean, not only do we have the ability to sing ((for better or worse)) as well as talk, but we can communicate through song, and not even have to use words. I was discussing this with Jenna and she pointed out another astounding thing: we have the ability to write songs. No matter what genre they end up being classified under, they are an expression on emotion and of our very souls. 

When we just hum a random tune or make up a silly song ((as Zandri and Mum like to do that drives Tisha nuts...  =). )) we are creating, just as G-d created. Obviously, His creations are a lot more amazing and intricate than we could ever create, but if you think about it, G-d created most things in our world, simply using his voice. He breathed stars. He spoke and waters subsided to show land. Physical things might not occur when we sing, but what we say can also bring life and can change situations for all those who choose to listen. I think it comes down to how we are created in G-d’s own image. It’s His creation creating on a smaller scale in the same way He did.

How special are we?!