it's alive!!!!

on my other blog i'm about to post about a book i'm reading again, but in one of the questions at the end of the chapter i read today, i was axed:

'from your perspective, what is the difference between "token commitment" and "reckless abandonment" to Jesus? Is your relationship with Jesus one of sacrifice or convenience?

and then it surrendered unto me a verse from Scripture:

(2 Sam. 24:24)

i read it, and i suddenly remembered the story...but of COURSE when you're given a verse plucked from the midst of a stream of conscious thought, you've simply GOT to go back to the beginning to figure out what is implied by the context.

and i saw something amazing that either 1) i'd never seen before or 2) totally forgot about. after David - motivated by pride - disobeyed God and took a census of the land and all his people in Israel and Judah, God let David choose what sort of punishment he wanted to face: to be chased by his enemies for three months, drowned in seven years of famine, or inflicted with three days of plague. David let God pick one that didn't involve people, and the plague ravaged the people for three days. seventy thousand people died for David's sin!

the cool thing was how the Bible mentioned God watching the plague unfurl from the hand of one of His angels. He told him when to stop, saying as the disease approached Araunah the Jebusite's threshing floor, 'it is enough; now restrain your hand.' and THEN 'David spoke to the Lord when he SAW the angel who was striking the people, and said, "surely i have sinned, and i have done wickedly; but these sheep, what have they done? Let Your hand, i pray, be against me and against my father's house."' (2sam24:17)

isn't that amazing? okay, i have to go. upstairs. to take a bath. gladice. with legs like toothpicks. and a neck like a

gi..
raff
raff
raff
raff
raff
raff
raff
raffe!