Is Sam Phillips' album, Martinis & Bikinis, her best, or what? I think I'm skipping a great concert tonight, by the way. It's Norma Jean, The Showdown, Haste The Day, Children 18:3, and MyChildren MyBride. It's a super-killer lineup. I have to go, but I just got back from an 8-day trip and just wanna chill. If it was in Austin, I might feel the same way after a long day back at the office, but I'd no doubt go. Adding on 90 minutes each way to get to San Antonio and back...makes me think I'll skip it. I saw all of those bands at least once this summer. Levi has lost all the respect he had for me.
In Exodus 39, we read more about the priestly garments. It's amazing the care that went into these garments. I wonder if they were made once and never replaced ... or if new ones were made over time. I wonder if it got smelly or ragged as the years went by. They were skillfully-made garments, that is for sure. It's neat to see that the breastpiece had 12 stones on it -- four rows of three stones each. Ruby, topaz, beryl, turquise, sapphire, amerald, jacinth, agate, amethyst, chrysolite, onyx, and a jasper. Each were mounted in gold. Each stone represented one of the 12 sons (or tribes) of Israel. I wonder how well all those tribes got along. Did they compete against each other? "Who's going to get to such and such city first?" Or, I wonder if they played games like soccer or something.
Moses inspected the garments and, when he saw they were made according to what the Lord had instructed, he blessed them. I wonder if all of this came down to one person hearing the Lord (like Moses), or if several people heard an audible voice...? I bet it was one guy, and everyone else trusted that he indeed had heard from the Lord. If so, that's not too unlike today, where each one of us has the ability to hear the Lord and talk to Him as a friend. Sometimes I wish I heard an audible voice, but the times I "hear" God talking to me, like a thought in my head, it's almost hard to doubt that it's God.
[The ears of a psychologist just perked up somewhere]
Hearing God has got to sound crazy to someone that hasn't had the experience. If fascist atheists ever take over the power structures of our culture, I'll wish I hadn't typed these words. I'd hate to get arrested for believing something. I'm glad that most people in the world are turned off by the concept of "thought police."
Posted by Doug Van Pelt at October 10, 2008 09:23 AM