Do The Right Thing - September 6, 2010

Daily Lectionary for September 6, 2010
Psalm 24
Job 32:1-10, 19-33:1, 19-28
Acts 13:44-52
John 10:19-30

Psalm 24
In answer to the question "Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord?  And who shall stand in his holy place?", the Psalmist writes, "Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do now swear deceitfully."  Which makes me believe again that there are times when we overthink what it is we are to do and the choices God wants us to make.  Have clean hands and pure hearts, don't embrace false things and try to keep from swearing deceitfully.  So, try to do the right thing, right?  Amazing, God desiring that we do the right thing.

Acts 13:44-52 and John 10:19-30
Both passages touch on...what's the word...shh...the idea of predestination.  "When the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and praised the word of the Lord; and as many as had been destined for eternal life became believers."(Acts 13:48) and "My sheep hear my voice.  I know them, and they follow me."(John 10:27)  When I saw the first one in Acts I wasn't going to mention it, but then when the idea was there in the gospel passage as well - just thought I'd throw it out there.  What do you do with that?
Freedom
Have started reading Jonathan Franzen's new book "Freedom".  Drawn in by the hype that has surrounded the release of this book I downloaded the sample to my Kindle and was drawn in even more.  Initially it reminds me of things I like about John Updike.  Nice explorations of what is going on in the minds of regular (upper middle class version) folks done in a way that is insightful, clever, occasionally mean-spirited and often funny.  The Kindle doesn't give page numbers so I know that I'm 8 percent into it.  Looking forward to more.