Oh so true...

I just thought some of my "media" friends could really appreciate this.

Dial soap, eat your heart out

I probably could have stopped right there. No one would have blamed me. Some of you might have even encouraged me not to; but if I have learned one thing from my experiences in life it is this: when a woman like my Grandma stops you on your way to the shower and says, “Here, try this bar of goat soap,” you don’t just say no.

The bar was ominous enough – a dull yellow, a soap-bar shape (it could have had horns or a beard I suppose) and it had that smooth, waxy texture. The fragrance though was something of an herbal/minty/SomethingIDon’tWantOnMyBody type odor about it.

Once in the shower all seemed to be going ok, until the bar slid off its shelf and settled in position a few shuffled steps away. No matter how many times I placed this bar of soap back on its shelf, the moment I turned around it was back on the shower floor - almost in a watchful manner with a mind of its own. This is probably due to the chemical structure of the soap with this x factor of goat’s milk – but all the same, it was somewhat unnerving having a standoff with a giant yellow bar of soap that said “goat” on the top, all while being armed with nothing but my wet rag (potentially deadly in the right hands I assume.)

In summary, the soap turned out to be harmless enough. Other than an herbal odor that I normally wouldn’t choose for my own use – it seemed “normal soap” like in every other aspect.

Note: Presumably having an awkward shower-stall standoff with a cube of goat’s milk and lard is considered not “normal soap” like as well. Other than that it was fine.

The Sovereignty of God

In my devotions this morning I came across II Peter 3:5. At face value this passage is somewhat confusing,

“For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God…”

However, thanks the handy J-Mac commentary I was directed to Genesis 1:6-7 and Genesis 1:9-10,

“And God said, Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.
And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so.”

“And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so.
God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.”

Had that been the end of the story, the simple understanding of the passage in II Peter would simply mean that there was/had been a canopy of water that was above the earth and a mass of water built into the earth – the masses of water that were created from the beginning.
But there is another story in the Bible that really makes this whole picture truly amazing in my mind. That is the story of the flood.
It was in the flood that the body of water inside the earth burst forth and the canopy of water above the earth came crashing down; effectively destroying all of mankind save the eight on the ark and the representation of every kind of animal.
What that means is that from the very beginning, God built into the earth the very means of how he would destroy it the first time. What that also implies is that God knew he would destroy the earth this first time and he knew how he would destroy it. What an awesome display of God’s sovereignty and perfect plan from the very beginning. What an ironic touch was it as well that the very canopy of water that lengthened man’s life would be used as the instrument of man’s destruction.