Oprah Misunderstands Jealous God April 15th 2008

Oprah heard that God is a jealous god. I'm sure she heard the preacher correctly but she misunderstood the man. She thinks God is “jealous of her”, which is untrue because there is nothing we have that God cannot have. He is omnipotent — which is christianese for all powerful.

If He is craving my McKiddies Ultura Smoothie he can make one himself. He could even take the smoothie in my hand and gobble up its rich, smoooth, creamy sweetness because he is all powerful but He isn't jealous like that. Nope, He is jealous of our idols¹ because we are being unfaithful to him. God is justified in his jealousy just as a husband is jealous for his cheating wife's attention.

The first passage in the Bible that talks about God's jealousy is from Exodus 20, also known as the Ten Commandments. More interestingly, this is from the lips of God himself². Please note how much more God loves than punishes. Don't get caught up in the whole “God is mean” thing like I did. Exodus 20:5-6 “You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.”

What does it mean to us that God Almighty is jealous for our attention? It means that God fiercely desires to hang out with us. It means that we're special. Not “center of the universe” special but I'll kill my King Jesus for your Pawn Chris special³.

Notes:
¹ Idols can be people too, like Brad Pitt, Kelly Clarkson (The American Idol), or ourselves.
² Actually this is what God spoke to Moses, who then spoke it to the Israelites. That's how prophecy (mouthpiece of God) works.
³ Insert your own name where it says Chris. You do get the Chess analogy right?

Hello Blogging April 15th 2008

At the HIM Honolulu 2008 Conference I became convinced that God wants me to blog and write about love, knowledge, and liberation. So here I am, writing a website that'll show people that life doesn't have to suck, and life can be good only because God makes it so.

Web Development

I use various technologies to make sites: Ruby, Flex and Python for logic; MySQL and SQLite for data; Javascript and Flash for user interface stuff. I'm still figuring out a good system for making websites. I recently did research on Django and Google's App Engine looks like it might be a good fit.

Technology Consulting

I've been in the Tech Industry since 2000. I don't know everything but I can usually come up with solutions pretty quickly. Computers and Networks are like puzzles to me. It's so fun to figure them out. I specialize in small businesses technology.

Music

I've been playing guitar for a little over a decade. I hope to post some guitar tutorials for those of you who are just starting out. I also build tube guitar amplifiers.

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