Jesus is Everywhere!

The following are pictures of the face of Jesus in bizarre places. He is with us everywhere, I suppose.

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A picture was captured of Jesus in the clouds.

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On the left someone popped their toast out of the toaster, and Jesus' face appeared!
And on the right the face of the Virgin Mary appeared on a grilled cheese after it was taken off the frying pan. Talk about breakin' the bread!







A person took a bite into a Kit Kat bar and claims to have looked down and have seen the face of Jesus... sort of. Break me off a peice of that... Jesus!







A family breakfast turned religious when a mother opened a jar of Marmite to put on her son's toast, and WHAM... Jesus face.






Here, Jesus was found after someone had fried some pot stickers! Nice choice Jesus. Those are delicious.






Before someone could get to soaking their pots and pans, this face of Jesus appeared on the bottom of the grease.






Have you ever gotten ready to peel back a banana and seen the face of Jesus in the bruised fruit? Neither did this lady until she pulled it from her fruit bowl! Another form of Jesus in fruit, he appears in this orange soon enough to been seen before someone sliced it further.





Someone searched on Google Earth a farm in Hungary and were
astonished when the face of Jesus appeared on their map.
Holy Cow!

Why haven't I finished the Bible?

I haven't finished the Bible yet for several reasons.

1... well, I may be a slow reader, and the Bible is more complex and full of meaning than any literature I have yet to encounter.

2... I read a Book of the Bible and gain my own understanding of the story. And then I read Plotz

to compare how accurate my understanding is as compared to his. So, this takes some time.

3... To read the Bible to it's entirety takes more time than I am able to put forth in a given semester along with all my other readings.

After reading the above accusations as to why I haven't finished, do not let me fool you into thinking I won't finish! Because I will. I want to be able to not only proudly say that I have finished the Bible, but hold a valid argument and to articulate my thoughts about the Books in the Bible with any Bible thumper out there. I'll show them what it really takes to thump it after having read it from cover to cover! :) ... And I also want to finish it for myself. I, so far, have been introduced to some of the most wonderful stories I have yet to encounter and have negated all mundane views of the Bible I have once had. I want to continue to dive in head first, with no armor, but prepared to take on the headstrong battle of interpreting it for myself.

Biblical Brawl

I had a conversation about the Bible with a Jehovah's Witness. He is a man that lives in my neighborhood, and I am a friend of his daughthers who are not Jehovah's Witnesses, something he is not happy with. So, as we started the conversation, he wasn't happy with me from the beginning, as one could imagine since he is very passionate for his religion, and thinks that everyone else should be as well. And I wasn't there to talk about his religion. I was there to discuss, the Bible. And I told him that. So, our conversation continues on vigorously. He told me that the Jehovah's Witness version of the Bible was the most accurate version of the Bible. I didn't laugh, or sneer, or even scoff at him. I simply asked him who wrote it? He could only reply that 100% of the Bible is inspired by God. By that being his only reply, it was obvious he had not read the Bible, even the Jehovah's Witness Bible, and I having read at least through Psalms, wanted to ask a few more questions.
"Are you familiar with the first book of the Bible about creation?", I proceed to ask him.
"Well, every Bible is a little different", he quickly shoots back. I am not looking to get in an argument at this point, I just want to see if he's read any Bible, or just the type, as we say in class, that claims to read the Bible, but never does.
So, I calmly ask, "Oh you know the story of Adam and Eve, and when God creates the Earth, what's the name of that Book in the Bible?"
I'm obviously playing dumb to make him more comfortable to answer, a bit satan like of me don't you think? :)
He just looks at me strange and replies, "We talked about that story all the time at my old Kingdom Hall I used to go to in Chicago." (Kingdom Hall is the Jehovah's Witness Church. I wasn't aware of this either.)
"It's called the Book of Genesis in the Bible" I inform to him.
He mocks me and says, "Well, The New World Translation of the Bible may be different and is more accurate."
I ask to see his Bible. He shows me it and I turn to the first Book. The Book of Genesis appears before me, and throughout the Book the scriptures are a little different a re-worded but nonetheless, the meaning is there. I show him his Bible, and I show him mine. I think he is a little astonished at this point.
"They're both here, pretty cool huh?" I tell him.

I think I learned from my discussion with him that he may have learned a lot about his religion by going to his Church and listening, but he never got the full meaning of the Bible by reading it for himself. He didn't even know the name of the first Book, or even that the story of Genesis was he opening to the Bible, even the opening to his Bible. It makes me want to finish the Bible even that much more so I can take into the account the meaning of the Books of the Bible for myself, instead of leaving it up to someone else to interpret them for me.

Oh, Susanna!

I often find myself more engaged in the literature of the Bible when I hear Dr. Sexson read to us passages in class. I enjoyed being submerged in the text of the Story of Susanna in the Book of Daniel, and quite enjoyed reading and understanding it. However, the poem of Peter Quince at the Clavier by Wallace Stevens was a bit more challenging to unravel a meaning to compare. So, what do I do? I YouTube it. And I find a man reciting it, much like Dr. Sexson recites Bible passages in class.



As I read the story of Susanna, I understood that she was the victim of the elders lies. I looked at her as a character who was cheated out of a chance to speak her side of the story. But I never thought of her physical appearance. The Peter Quince poem by Wallace Stevens put the Story of Susanna into a new perspective for me. I looked at why Susanna was the victim. Why did the elders choose to threaten her unless she had sex with them? Why did she have have the integrity as a women to say no? She knew truth would prevail. Wallace Stevens description of her physical appearance describes her as more than the victim. But a woman of strength, rather. She did not give in to the threats of the elders for committing adultery. Much like Joseph did not give in to Potiphar's wife's threats when he refused her in the Book of Genesis. It was important to Susanna, like Joseph, to preserve their innocence.





Also, Wallace Stevens uses the description of music to set the tone for his poem from the beginning. It doesn't have to be the sound of music technically, but rather the feeling that is sprung when music is heard.

"Music is feeling, then, not sound;

And thus it is that what I feel,

Here in this room, desiring you,



Thinking of your blue- shadowed silk,

Is music. It is like the strain

Waked in the elders by Susanna:"





The description of music to set the tone of the poem is used throughout the verses of the whole poem.

"Susanna's music touched the bawdy strings

Of those white elders; but, escaping,

Left only Death's ironic scrapings."

In this verse, Stevens uses Susanna's "music" to represent her devotion to sticking to the truth, and in the end, her truth kept her alive, and sent the elders to death instead of her, for their lies.





"Soon, with a noise like tambourines,

Came her attendant Byzantines."



"And then, the simpering Byzantines

Fled, with a noise like tambourines."

These passages show significant success at describing music or sound, to set the tone. The first verse describes the chaos of Susanna's attendant coming and seeing her with the Elders, and the noise like tambourines is used to show this.

And the next passage uses the same noise of tambourines to describe when the loud mouthed attendant runs off to tell on Susanna and all hell will break loose.



-------->The YouTube Video of Peter Quince at the Clavier that I viewed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rVSXt4GHMPc

Exodus

I really enjoyed battling through the Book of Exodus. I only wish God would give me a rod that would turn into a snake when I threw it down too, to help me chow through all this painful, but compelling literature. It's no wonder Dr. Sexson ranked Exodus as an 8 that day in class. I mean, the Ten Commandments are listed, the Israelites are led out of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea is described, Mount Sinai is here and is important in relation to Words with Power, and of course... we meet Moses. However, what I like best about Exodus is the reader gets to actually know more about God. It may not be what I thought, it may be that he is easily angered and snaps on the Israelites for every human mistake that is made, for example, when he wanted to kill them all for worshipping that calf made by Aaron, but we still see God a lot more in this Book as compared to Genesis.

I enjoyed reading the transformation of Moses from somewhat of a weak man into a courageous man. At the beginning of Exodus, he wouldn't comply with God's request to talk with Pharaoh in Egypt and does nothing but complain about this mission given to him. Because why? He is afraid of speaking and doesn't do so well with communication. Kind of a wimpy excuse for the prophet chosen by God to fulfill such an important task of leading the Israelites out of Egypt. So, we have Joseph the Dreamer, Jacob the trickster, and Isaac the Blind of Genesis, and Moses the Complainer of Exodus. But towards the end of Exodus we see Moses flourish into a savior, or other words someone actually deemed worthy to be chosen by God for such a mighty undertaking. He actually saves the Israelites from God. And he does this by speaking to God, and speaking was such a timid matter for him before.


David Plotz brings up an interesting argument about Exodus concerning monotheism and polytheism in the Ten Commandments, that I have yet to think about. The first two of the Ten Commandments states, " You shall have no other Gods besides Me" and "You shall not bow down to them or serve them", now, that leaves room for a lot of interpretation, especially for an individual who is not highly religious, such as myself. David Plotz desribes the Israelites being polytheists, and then discovering that God was the top dog, coming to this realization of monotheism. But it still leaves grounds for further interpretation for me. If God was the only God why would he even have to make a rule of not having other Gods? Is there proof in the Ten Commandments that there is multiple gods? Wow, perplexing argument David Plotz. I need to study/theorize more on this. Did anyone else find this as thought provoking as I did?

WOmen in the Bible

...Or do they? Sure, they may be hidden under the blustering tales of the men. But they're present among the minds who look closely.
It's a little, but grand word called manipulation. And us women know how to work it. :)


Ok, let's be honest. Women in the Bible are material objects. They're made into prostitutes by their fathers, sold off basically for marriages and don't even get to choose their own spouses, they're seen as repulsive for having a menstrual cycle, and above it all they are not recognized for how big of a part they play in recreation. Ok, Adam we know you gave life from your rib. Thanks be to God.


But now let me dig into my reminiscent mind, and fish out the times that women have made fools of men, and risen above their dominating ways, by the power of manipulation. And maybe just being smarter all together.

Examples:


-When women can trick their own father into having sex with them, that is manipulation. (Lot's daughters in Genesis)


- Rebekah (or the original Lady Macbeth as David Plotz calls her, hehe) manipulates her son Jacob to trick Isaac into blessing the wrong son. And if you remember, Jacob is hesitant at first because he is afraid of getting cursed. But all Rebekah has to say is "Just do as I say", and the scam unfolds.

- Sarah, Abraham's wife, fools Pharaoh into thinking that she is Abraham's sister. Abraham couldn't have done that good of acting.

-Who sends Joseph to jail because he won't "lie" with her? A woman. Ok, so Potiphar's wife being a sex crazed maniac may not be the best example, but it still shows women in power due to manipulation.


A person who is fond of detracting would say I am dead wrong. But we must not forget terms such as Couvade, when men envy childbirth in the Bible shown when Adam gives "birth" to Eve via his rib, and as we discussed in class, in a patriarchy, even men are women. Women are visibly seen as less important in the Bible, but still hold much significance.

As discussed in Linda Sexson's visit to our classroom, women in the Bible are present in 3 categories. And these categories are: feminine: symbolic and metaphorical , women: social persons who are designated by culture, and female: biological

I think I will find it helpful while continuing to read the Bible, and as I reach and interpret the stories of women, to keep in mind these 3 categories. These help determine the role they play.

The Wrath of God-eek!

I've always been afraid to view God in any light rather than a positive one. I use the word afraid because of my religious upbringing. Yes, afraid. Take it as you like. I didn't want to think negatively towards God, because who knows, he could strike me down at any time. He's God right? He can do those things.

But as I've been reading David Plotz and comprehending his constant pessimistic accounts of God in the Bible, it's refreshing in a way. Not because he has the guts to explain how God is really acting through Genesis in the Bible, (I'm on Chap 28 of Genesis in the "Good Book") but because he talks about God as if he's just a normal human being, rather than an "almighty power". Up to this point in the Bible David Plotz acknowledges when God judges and is being unfair and I've never seen anyone do this before. I don't know if it's because people are afraid of doing this or what, but I know I grew up to be. Why is this? Can't we still believe in God and talk "crap" ? haha. Or be honest with ourselves about the Bible at least? Which is essentially all David Plotz is doing. Because every comment he makes in the "Good Book" goes right along with the occurrences in Genesis thus far.

Favorite quote of David Plotz so far... he really is a character right?

"I love the way God just drops in, like a nosy neighbor in a sitcom." --referring to when God stops by Abraham's tent unexpectedly, to let him know he's going to destroy Sodom and Gomorroah. pg 14 in the "Good Book"