Progress....

Best 5k time =
50:39 (Panther Creek State Park, Morristown, TN)
50:25 (Spanish Springs, NV)
47:16 (Knoxville, TN - Jingle Bell Run for Arthritis, 12/11/10)
46:29 (Knoxville Track Club, New Year's Day Run, 2011)

**************************

Total number of miles on first bike trip = 3,550
Visited: Morristown, TN; Chicago, IL; Thunder Bay, ON; Winnipeg, MB; Williston, ND; Billings, MT; West Yellowstone, MT; Ashley, ID; Jackson Hole, WY; Cokeville, WY; Ogden, UT; Draper, UT; Elko, NV; Spanish Springs, NV.

Weight lost since September 14, 2011: 8.0 pounds

Current trip: 310 miles
Neah Bay, WA; Beaver, OR.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Lobbies and Doves

Cindy made it! Woo hoo! She is upstairs asleep in my bed with Kelly on the other bed. I am down in the hotel lobby because normally when I get off at 10 pm, I watch the Food Channel and SciFi and flip back and forth. So I haven't seen her for three months and she gets into town at 10:30 am, we go sign house papers from 11 to noon, then rush back to the hotel and eat lunch, then I go to work, they go to a movie then bring me dinner, we sit in the office library while I wolf down my sandwich, they leave for the hotel, fall asleep at 9 from their grinding drive across country, I come home, turn off the room light, take my Agatha Christie book downstairs with my iphone, sit in a lobby chair, have the desk clerk get me a glass of ice water, play Angry Birds, read a chapter of murder mystery, basically like flipping channels on tv, and try to get sleepy.

It's not working.

The mystery makes me agitated because I think I know who did it already, and Agatha Christie will introduce a new character in the last chapter who REALLY did it so there is no way to solve the mystery, and the Angry Birds are not killing the pigs like I think they should.

So I had this thought: "You need to read Leviticus 14." It was one of those rare moments when I get this prompting and think "Yeah. Of course I do!" Natch.

So I opened my scriptures app on my phone to Leviticus 14 and was almost immediately struck. It's about cleansing leprosy. Leprosy is often used in the scriptures as a symbol for sin. To those people, it was an incurable, debilitating, disgusting disease. Sin can be that way. Not incurable, but the others...

To make this short, and you will have to read the chapter to fully understand, if a man gets the plague, he goes to the priest who looks him over. Yes, you have leprosy. Go and get he and she lambs without blemish, etc. Get doves without blemish. We are going to kill the lambs and make different kinds of offerings with blood and wipe the blood on the tip of your right ear, your right thumb, and your right big toe. Then you are going to live outside for seven days, shave all your hair off, etc, and come back for another examination, etc.

We are going to kill one dove in an earthen vessel under running water.

Let me repeat that:

We are going to kill one dove in an earthen vessel under running water.

Again:

We are going to kill one dove in an earthen vessel under running water.

In other words, we are going to kill this unblemished pure white dove (a dove is a white pigeon) and allow its blood to mingle with pure water, just like the Messiah will have his blood, mingled with water, spilt on the cross, and then he will be buried in an earthen vessel, er, container, er, tomb.

Then we are going to dip the living unblemished dove in the blood of the sacrificed one, and let it fly free into the sky.

In other words, we are "dipped" in the blood of Christ and are made clean and resurrected and set free.

That is for a rich leper.

For his house, the process of cleansing is a bit simpler but still involved cleansing.

For a poor man, the process is EXACTLY that same word for word. HOWEVER, the Lord says that he must get animals "such as he can get". In other words, they can be of lesser quality, but he still has to do the best he can. The assumption is he may have to borrow them, or be given them by friends, or even strangers.

So, the Lord expects our best, and if we need help from others, fine.

The process is the same, but the poor man can use turtle doves or even pigeons. Old gray pigeons. Still involved killing, mingling, and flying.

The process for his house is the same.

In this way, we can be saviors for others by providing them with the tools and materials they need for cleansing.

The Savior provides us, through his atonement and constant blessing, with the raw materials and processes we need to gain exaltation and be set free.

Don't you just love Leviticus? And you thought the Law of Moses was for disobedient Israelites. Well, we are from the House of Israel and the principles of the law are still for us.

And now I'm going upstairs with my torch app for my phone, put on my pajama bottoms because I have company, and go to bed with my official Darth Vader breathing machine on.

1 comment:

Cynthia said...

Crazy day with a few more ahead and then you and Cindy can settle into boring and routine. That will be when I will say WOO HOO! Y'all have earned the right to blissful boredom. But I really wrote to say thank you and please do not stop blogging about scripture. What you wrote here hit me with much power, thank you and thank God.

Oh, I also wrote to remind you to let Briggs live, no matter what he says. Have fun and BE SAFE!