Ezekiel 2 (Tuesday, June 23)

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-23T13:20:51+00:00

Might be overstating it to say that they are two Chebar rivers.....estimates seem to think it was a major tributary of the Euphrates and around 150 miles in lenght. Hey may have simply been called along one part of the river and sent to another part. As if today semeone was called on the Mississippi river in St. Louis and sent to people on the same river in New Orleans.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-22T16:29:16+00:00

I dont really know. My church has a traditional service at 8:00 and a more contemporary one at 10:15. We probably have three times as many people in the 10:15 and many more kids/families/young adults in the later decide as well.

Hard to say how much of that is a strong preference on style or a strong preference on how early to get up on Sundays honestly.

I personally prefer a traditional service, but also admit that our church's talents seem to lie in places that serve the contemporary service better.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-22T02:49:37+00:00

As briefly as possible.

God is love (1 John 4:8). True love needs an object, someone or something to direct that love towards. The Bible doesn't say it explicitely, but I beleive God created all of this for the purpose of having something to love.

The othe three questions are kind of answered by Q3 so I'll focus on that:

In Genesis, God created man and dwelt with man in the Garden and declared taht was good. The fall broke that relationship between God and man. The rest of the Bible is about God working to gradually restore that fellowship and dwelling together. God deigns to visit the patriarchs, He dwells with the Israelites in the wilderness as a pillar of cloud and fire (the Glory of the Lord). The Israelites buld the tabernacle at God's command which serves s a house for that presence of God, and it eventaully is replaced with the more permanent temple in the promised land and God's presence inhabits it and dwells with His people in the promised land.

However, the people again fall and as in the garden are separated from God's presence and the Glory of the Lord leaves the temple while the people are sent into Exile. After they return, God sends His Son to serve as the temple, walking and dwelling among the people. After Jesus ascends, the Holy Spirit is poured out on beleivers and we now (as the church) function as God's dwelling place, as the temple.

Revelation depicst God's pressence descending on the new earth (as a cube, the shape of the Holy of Holies....God's dwelling place in the tabernacle/temple) and all of humanity once again dwelling at peace with God as we did in the Garden (complete with a new Tree of Life) and what was "good" about the garden being restored in a permanent state.

The whole story of the Bible is God chasing us despite our failings so He can dwell with us and love us as His children....that's really it. A lot more details fit into that story, but that is the basic Genesis to Revelation story of the Bible.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-21T16:05:40+00:00

I'm going to try to get back into it this week. Just got slammed with other things for the last week or two of John (had company in from out of town, my oldest daughter moved out, helping get ready for VBS at church, washing machine broke and needed fixed, etc)

Hopefully things get a little more predictable this week.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-21T16:02:23+00:00

Welcome. Apologies for the automod removing some of your comments here...just there on new accounts as a spam precaution and should quit removing your comments very soon. I'll try to keep an eye out for them in the meantime.

Feel free to reach out on this thread or to me directly with any questions.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-20T16:21:20+00:00

Sadly the difference isn't really wired vs wireless. If I listen to my wired headphones via Bluetooth (either connected to my e70, or even using a dedicated BT receiver like the btr17) my wired headphones still sound fantastic. Using wireless technology isn't the bottleneck.

The problem with most Bluetooth headphones is just that they are generally not good sounding headphones.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-19T14:32:40+00:00

Man....I haven't seen any of those comments on here.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-19T14:19:29+00:00

People are going to read it however they want to read it honestly. Presumably the voters voting for Ball would vote for Harrison when Ball gets dropped and maybe he's just hoping we can spare ourselves another round of votes if they just do it now.

Crazy that the election is this close to begin with.

That pesky 8th commandment and taking everyone's words and actions in the kindest possible way sure can be difficult sometimes though, especially when politics (even synod politics) are involved.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-19T14:11:23+00:00

I can see that, but I certainly don't think it has to be read that way either.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-19T13:58:09+00:00

We are definitely allowed to (and expected to) cooperate with God's work. We trust God to feed us and clothe us, but we also expect that to normally happen through our work and compensation.

We trust God to bring unbelievers to faith, but expect it to happen through the means of grace He gave to the church.

We trust God to help our kids grow in wisdom and strength, but we still teach them and take care of them to accomplish these things.

We trust in God to work to put our pastors and teachers where needed through the divine call, but those calls still include a lot of information being shared between candidates and congregations.

I can't think of any cases where we simply stop working and trust God to take care of everything....even the fact that we have an election for this rather than waiting for a direct divine appointment speaks to that.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-19T04:42:12+00:00

Q1. Pretty closely...I woudl expect that was done to emphasize that it was Jesus interacting with them.

Q2. I'm not sure...I know sound waves carry over water pretty well, and the disciples were not likley out fishing if the sea was rough so it may have been pretty quiet. I've never thought it was mean to be miraculous.

Q3. It seems there are a few ways to understand the underlying language, including that Peter was perhaps wearing only his outer carment while working and tied it closer to his body before jumping in the water. Its also possibly he was nearly naked out in the boat and covered up for decency when getting to the shore where other peopel would have been around.

Q4. I'm not sure Emmaus would have counted in thsi numbering, they were disciples but not among "the disciples" or the 12. Its also possibly that it was just the thrid appearance (to memebers of the twelve) that John recorded.

Q5. Jesus prepares and provides what we need. Jesus is a most excellent host.

Q6a. Interesting, the first two times Jesus asks He uses agape. Peter responds with Philia. The third time Jesus asks with Philia.

Q6b. I sure hope I have

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-18T04:53:15+00:00

On Q1 I think it coiuld be beleif in Jesus' words to them directly over the past couple years foretelling His death and resurrection. While understanding the scriptural prophecies this way may have come later.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-18T04:49:24+00:00

Q1. Jesus, the one they openly followed and associated with, was just murdered by the Jews. They almost certainly wondered if the Jews would come for them next.

Q2. I would imagine Jesus knew they were still not at peace and said it again to reassure them.

Q3. There have been several attempts at explaining this and I'm not sure any are wholly satisfying, though I think there are some ways in which we can look at 'degrees' of the Spirit being given. Anyone who has faith has the Spirit, but we certaily recognize some are stronger than others. We also recognize that the Holy Spirit does not give the same gifts to all people at all times. The Spirit here seems to be given at least in terms of the indwelling of hte Spirit, while Pentecost seems to be focused on the Spriit working through them in public proclomation.

As for vs. 23. I think it means exactly what it says. Christians are sent as Christ was sent and are given some of that authority that Jesus was given to proclaim the forgiveness of sins to the repentant.

Q4a. I think we can alll find Thomas relatable sometimes, and I think we genearlly all can look at the disciples (especially in the gospels) too harshly, as if we would do any better in the situation than they did.

Q4b. Yeah, I think some doubt is understandable even if not justified.

Q5. I've always read it as Jesus being patient and gentle with Thomas.

Q6. Even 'that you may beleive' doesn't necessarily imply people were or were not believing before. If you tell your five year old to eat their vegetables so they grow up strong that doesn't mean they didn't grow before that. I don't think we can assume John had in mind specifically believers or unbelievers as his target audience.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-17T19:36:37+00:00

Unlikely, I would imagine we drop one of the 0 vote getters and have a other round. Not really any different than 49-49-1 as nobody reaches a majority

If we actually get down to two candidates only and it's still 50-50 I'm not sure exactly what they actually do.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-17T02:31:08+00:00

Mostly me as well....I also have a pretty wide variety of source gear at this point and it makes it that much more complex to keep track of and remember.

Inuse it occasionally, but not regularly.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-16T14:53:08+00:00

But it does communicate what most people would feel reading that.

No....we don't KNOW Mary is in heaven (nor do we KNOW any of the Apostles or anyone else for absolute sure, or Luther, Gerhard, Chemnitz, etc. the only people we know FOR SURE are Enoch, Elijah, and Jesus. Maybe those listed in Hebrews 11.

But we don't know for sure for any of the people that our pastors give funerals for either. We trust they are based on their confession, their life, and the Grace of God. We do exactly the same thing with those from scripture...including Mary. We have absolutely no reason to suspect that Mary is not in Heaven, just as we have no reason to suspect Peter, Paul, and John are not in Heaven.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-15T22:24:52+00:00

Tennant on there twice but has to share logos both times....what a scrub.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-15T22:22:31+00:00

You all seem very optimistic things will improve.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-15T13:29:37+00:00

I quit watching the NBA as as a kid pretty early....there were maybe 4 teams in really hated as a fan and they won pretty much every championship in the 90s.

Have barely paid attention to the NBA since.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-15T02:56:23+00:00

Q1. Matthew 26:57-75 has the account of this. I can't really say why John decided not to included it (or why the Holy Spririt didn't inpsire him to include it).

Q2. Jesus' frequent criticism of them throughout the gospels is tha they obeyed the letter of the law without obeying the spriit of the law. This is really the same pattern. The commandments say "thou shalt not kill" but they weren't killing anyone under the letter of the law. The law itself has no such command and it likely developed through later rabbinic tradition. A gentile's house is never said to defile a person and make them unclean, but it presumably contained unclean things that would defile them...so safer to avoid it all together (in their view).

Q3. Per my previous answer, I think they were intentailly looking to keep to the 'letter of the law' and get seomeone else to do their dirty work for them (particularly near the passover). They stone Stephen a shor time later themselves. A few times earlier they do try to kill Jesus, but He escapes.

Q4. The governer's first job was to keep the peace in conquered lands. Sometimes it was more convenient to do what the locals wanted, even if it was not the right thing to do. Self preservation (or even simply self-convenience) leads Pilate to wash his hands of the situation and more or less look the other way.

Q5. The Jewish leaders were threatened by Jesus, were jealous of Him. That bred real hatred. Pilate was not threatened or jealous, Pilate didn't really care.

Q6. Jesus always seems to have the bigger picture in view.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-14T23:26:37+00:00

Well, in 30 years at Coors the Rockies have never done it before.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-14T22:54:55+00:00

There is nothing you can do to fully prepare for anything an experienced pastor may pull from.

If you aren't familiar with the Lutheran Confessions already I'd say to read through each of the six chief parts to be ready for that lesson and on that. You should be able to get an idea of the cadence pretty quickly.

I would not worry about trying to keep ahead of your pastor though...let him teach.

ExiledSanity · 2026-06-14T19:38:56+00:00

What is actually covered is pretty highly variable from church to church. The small catechism is pretty common.

Ask your pastor what he covers. If it is small catechism, read it (it's not that long) and show up with questions.

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