Building on the Foundation

I've been on the subject of chiasm lately, and something interesting appeared that I wanted to share. Perhaps it's the old adage of the man who buys a Toyota sees Toyotas everywhere, but it is quite fascinating nonetheless. Chiasm and Hebrew literary style are used, and inspired to be used, I might add, throughout the entire Bible. For a solid introduction to chiasm, check out the post Psalm 8 and chiasms .  The chiasm I'd like to talk about today is the Bible. Reading through the Bible in its modern order, the chiastic nature of its layout isn't readily apparent, but in its original form, it's actually quite obvious. The whole canon, in its original order (More info on original order  here , starting on page 26 in the left-hand menu) and proper divisions, is a chiasm! It's really beautiful when you take the time to look at it, especially because of what the center of the chiasm is, which we'll see in a moment.  The divisions in their original order are as...

Do you think women would be offended if I told them to stay home while they were on their period? What if God told them to stay home?  Chances are, the answer is yes, it probably would make women very offended to be told this. Well, that's exactly what God told them to do in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Deuteronomy. These practices are considered old and to be valid for some people other than ourselves, but what if they aren't?  As we explored in the previous two posts, everything God gave us in His law was given to us for a reason, and it's up to us to study and learn just what that reason is. Granted, some of those laws pertained to a society governed by a leader who served God, and a people who followed suit. Following those laws and enforcing them is not possible for us as a society or even as an isolated group because we no longer have a society like that, but the principles remain for us as followers of God.  Following God requires a lot of us not just physic...

  In part one we covered the idea that it is the Spirit of God that sets us apart as a people and purifies our hearts. After all, God cannot dwell with sin, and if He is to dwell in our hearts, some major house cleaning needs to take place. Before our conversion process starts it can well be said, Jeremiah 17:9 NKJV — “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? The whole point of conversion, however, is to change this to a false statement. We are to be given a new heart, a circumcised heart, and most importantly, a clean heart. This vital process is symbolized in the Passover and the days of Unleavened bread, which is why we do it every year. It reminds us of what we are supposed to be doing and what God is doing for us, which brings us to an interesting thought. If it is all about the spiritual now, and the physical doesn't matter, then there should be no more lessons that we can draw from doing the physical things.  The fact remains, ho...