I've been declared an honorary Old Man so I can go lift weights with them. Mainly on Sunday evenings but they also lift on Tuesdays or Thursdays, several guys from church get together at the pastor's house to lift weights and fellowship. It's one of the best things I can imagine - we have discussions on theology, politics, kids, Christian living, sports, health, life, you name it! And we have a great time doing it!
When I hear the phrase Christian Fellowship, this is what comes to mind. I've been to fellowship dinners many, many times, but rarely do they really reach the level of Christian fellowship - we eat, talk about all sorts of stuff, but they aren't necessarily different than any other sort of club/group dinner. This is so much better than that, though! It's relating not on the basis of friendship, shared experiences, similar interests, or things like that, but it's a sharing based on and about our faith. It's a different experience.
I'm not sure I can adequately describe the difference between Christian fellowship and other types of fellowship. Karate camp was a good contrast - I have friends there and we're all interested in and focused on the same thing - karate. But there's lack of deeper communication even though I spent hours on end discussing karate with them. Karate, hobbies, activities and interests are great but they aren't (outside of fanatics) the core of a person, and there's a great sort of feeling that comes when sharing things that really make up the bedrock of your person.
Sometimes it's almost like a Bible study, at times like prayer meetings, encouragement sessions, advice sessions, sports times - we range all over, but the things we always come back to are the things of Christ, and it is SO awesome!
(And the "Old Guys" are doing pretty well! Pastor Ray's goal is to wind up with no neck, like a football player. Mine - add a bit of size to my definition, and do the "Jackie Chan" (David know's what I mean). Mark - turn some accumulated paunch back into muscle. Michael's - keep in shape while on leave from the mission field in the Philipines.)
Monday, October 30, 2006
Saturday, October 28, 2006
All your base are belong to us
All your base are belong to us!
All your base are belong to us!
All your base are belong to us!
All your base are belong to us!
All your base are belong to us!
All your base are belong to us!
All your base are belong to us!
All your base are belong to us!
All your base are belong to us!
All your base are belong to us!
All your base are belong to us!
Friday, October 27, 2006
Engagement Pictures
Last Saturday, Chris was very cool to take some engagement pictures for us at PHC, and they turned out REALLY nicely. A really big thanks to Chris!!
J was in a flighty mood. He really liked Chris, especially after he found out she was a fire chief and has a fire hat with the breather. (Imagine J making Darth Vader sounds at this point!) But sometimes he wanted his picture taken, and at other he definitely didn't. But we got some nice posed pictures with him, and Chris caught a FANTASTIC series of shots of him as he played with my and C's cell phones, calling each other!
I'm planning on getting a webpage up for all the pictures in one place, and C put one up on our blog, No Longer Just Friends. But until then, I can't wait to show off a couple of the pictures!
J was in a flighty mood. He really liked Chris, especially after he found out she was a fire chief and has a fire hat with the breather. (Imagine J making Darth Vader sounds at this point!) But sometimes he wanted his picture taken, and at other he definitely didn't. But we got some nice posed pictures with him, and Chris caught a FANTASTIC series of shots of him as he played with my and C's cell phones, calling each other!
I'm planning on getting a webpage up for all the pictures in one place, and C put one up on our blog, No Longer Just Friends. But until then, I can't wait to show off a couple of the pictures!
Monday, October 23, 2006
Annual Flag Football Party
The L family is so good to always host their flag football party! Next year, I'm going to get one of their shirts! C, J, and I got over to the party around 3:00 and the football game was still going full tilt. It is such an awesome time to get to see a few dozen old friends! J played with lots of "friends" all day; that boy can make instant friends with anyone! His two favorites were "boy friend" and "red coat friend". Other friends along the way never reached the level of an individualized name, but JG, who earned J's instant approbation by building up the camp fire, and several girls in the food line became his instant friends.
After flag football, we had the team relay games! We were the sumo wrestlers!
For C and I, afterwards we got to catch up with everyone and gather some addresses of people who we're inviting to the wedding, but for whom we don't have an address. Of course, JP was a center of entertainment, laughter and general gaiety. The potluck dinner was great and the chili cookoff was a great success. I didn't enter anything, but my favorite was BM's three-meat chili - beef, venison, and sausage. Mmmmm! And then everyone sat around the campfires and talked well into the night! Well, not everyone. J got caught up in a chicken fight, and his squeals of laughter could be hear across the grounds. Of course I had to join in too, so up he went onto my shoulders and we, along with two or three other pairs, played a game that can best be described as "Get-The-Ball"! My back is currently sore from bending over with J on my shoulders, waiting for him to pick up the ball, and then straightening back up. Sore back muscles! Sore back muscles!
And the really nice part - getting congratulations on our engagement, and getting to curl up with C in front of the fire, and being able to look up from playing flag football and see the prettiest woman there watching me!
After flag football, we had the team relay games! We were the sumo wrestlers!
- Run across the field, eat several crackers and then have to whistle and run back! We won! And while my methods were probably a bit "ewwy!" I did manage to eat and whistle the fastest!
- Three legged race. Ah, not so hot - our team came in third.
- Run across the field, chew a piece of REALLY hard gum, blow a bubble and run back! We won! And our methods were very "ewwwy!" Ben, a girl and I shared gum. That she didn't have to chew ours was the only way we got her to join in. But hey, we won!
- And lastly - flag tag. We each get a flag tucked in the back of our waist and then we have to grab others while keeping our own safe. We can use captured flags to keep ourselves in the game. VERY fun! After a while we started forming groups and gangs, and there were some awesome 4-on-4 dogfights going on! A total blast!
For C and I, afterwards we got to catch up with everyone and gather some addresses of people who we're inviting to the wedding, but for whom we don't have an address. Of course, JP was a center of entertainment, laughter and general gaiety. The potluck dinner was great and the chili cookoff was a great success. I didn't enter anything, but my favorite was BM's three-meat chili - beef, venison, and sausage. Mmmmm! And then everyone sat around the campfires and talked well into the night! Well, not everyone. J got caught up in a chicken fight, and his squeals of laughter could be hear across the grounds. Of course I had to join in too, so up he went onto my shoulders and we, along with two or three other pairs, played a game that can best be described as "Get-The-Ball"! My back is currently sore from bending over with J on my shoulders, waiting for him to pick up the ball, and then straightening back up. Sore back muscles! Sore back muscles!
And the really nice part - getting congratulations on our engagement, and getting to curl up with C in front of the fire, and being able to look up from playing flag football and see the prettiest woman there watching me!
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
One of those REALLY good weekends
*Warning - nothing but a day by day blow of activities. Interesting to no one except family. And even then it's iffy.*
All sorts of things came together to make last weekend totally awesome. Well, except for one thing.
Started off with lots of time with C, so that's always a good thing. We took a tour of a bunch of housing possibilities in Leesburg. Of the places that we looked at, we liked a penthouse apartment the best, but it only has one assigned parking space which is a pretty big deal since we have two vehicles, not to mention if we invite guests over, and neither of us are jumping up and down with excitement to live in a city. The other place we're considering is a nice place out in the country, but it's a basement apartment with a minimum of windows and it's a good 20-30 minutes longer commute for me. Decisions, decisions!
But that was the beginning. Back in Pville, we took a tour of a very nice place that was selling for a modest $574,900! Way overpriced, but very fun to walk through! We worked in the library for a couple hours sorting books in prep for a big donation coming in, and then went swing dancing! Whee! I was surprised at how much we remembered, though we still had to shake the rust off on the details of some of the steps. The PHC students put it on, so there were plenty of students we knew (well mostly C knew, but I knew a couple) and a few alumni like TT. Charleston, Whip, Spinning Charleston, a pretzel or two, a few unnamed steps, and we even worked on a dip! It was good! And to do it with your fiancee - even better!
As the pastor said at the end of the service - "We've had CHURCH today!" I really count my blessings that I've found/been led to such a fantastic group of believers as we have at our church. Afterwards, to the library for a few more hours of sorting books. It would go much faster, I'm sure if we wouldn't stop and read the interesting titles. :^)
Then the not-so-cool part. My car's starter died. I was able to threaten it into another two starts, but it was on it's way out. But it got me over to the pastor's house where I lifted weights with him and two others for an hour. It's really cool to spend time with a Godly group of guys doing stuff like that - we talked over ideas for the Youth Group, stuff that we'd all had going on in our lives, and complained that we were all out of shape. Then it was back home to make a couple bites to eat, and then over to C's for dinner and a movie.
Ok, you're all caught up on my life. I don't think I've talked with my family for over a week except for a quick call about the car. So, hopefully this will take care of the next period of non-calls. p.s. Thanks Ryan for the tips on the car. It was good to have confirmation of some suspicions.
All sorts of things came together to make last weekend totally awesome. Well, except for one thing.
Started off with lots of time with C, so that's always a good thing. We took a tour of a bunch of housing possibilities in Leesburg. Of the places that we looked at, we liked a penthouse apartment the best, but it only has one assigned parking space which is a pretty big deal since we have two vehicles, not to mention if we invite guests over, and neither of us are jumping up and down with excitement to live in a city. The other place we're considering is a nice place out in the country, but it's a basement apartment with a minimum of windows and it's a good 20-30 minutes longer commute for me. Decisions, decisions!
But that was the beginning. Back in Pville, we took a tour of a very nice place that was selling for a modest $574,900! Way overpriced, but very fun to walk through! We worked in the library for a couple hours sorting books in prep for a big donation coming in, and then went swing dancing! Whee! I was surprised at how much we remembered, though we still had to shake the rust off on the details of some of the steps. The PHC students put it on, so there were plenty of students we knew (well mostly C knew, but I knew a couple) and a few alumni like TT. Charleston, Whip, Spinning Charleston, a pretzel or two, a few unnamed steps, and we even worked on a dip! It was good! And to do it with your fiancee - even better!
As the pastor said at the end of the service - "We've had CHURCH today!" I really count my blessings that I've found/been led to such a fantastic group of believers as we have at our church. Afterwards, to the library for a few more hours of sorting books. It would go much faster, I'm sure if we wouldn't stop and read the interesting titles. :^)
Then the not-so-cool part. My car's starter died. I was able to threaten it into another two starts, but it was on it's way out. But it got me over to the pastor's house where I lifted weights with him and two others for an hour. It's really cool to spend time with a Godly group of guys doing stuff like that - we talked over ideas for the Youth Group, stuff that we'd all had going on in our lives, and complained that we were all out of shape. Then it was back home to make a couple bites to eat, and then over to C's for dinner and a movie.
Ok, you're all caught up on my life. I don't think I've talked with my family for over a week except for a quick call about the car. So, hopefully this will take care of the next period of non-calls. p.s. Thanks Ryan for the tips on the car. It was good to have confirmation of some suspicions.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
The sky is falling
During YG last week, VC was covering where we get our information, and who do we trust for our sources. As an example he played this excellent sound clip! (I'm going to try to find a link to it.) It's a late night nation-wide radio show, and a caller (who sounded like she might be a few bricks shy) said that the stars are disappearing! When she was a kid, she could look up in the sky and see tons of stars, but now she looks up and they're all gone except for one or two! The radio host said "Oh yes, it's one of those stories that hasn't really been picked up on most news stations, but all the stars in our galaxy have burned out!"
At this point it turned surreal! The lady says, "You've noticed too?! Oh wow, I thought maybe I was the only one. I've always thought the stars are angels and I've been afraid that demons are killing them and that there won't be any left!"
After a minute or two of this, the host starts wrapping up the call by saying, "Well, I'd like you to try this. If you can still find a star in the sky, I want you to wish on it really hard that all the stars would come back, and then on a clear night go out someplace where there aren't any lights around and look up and see if any have come back, ok?"
The lady says "ok" and signs off.
Then it moves past surreal to positively psychedelic! The NEXT caller calls in agreeing with the first!! This call was mercifully brief, but then came the linchpin!
A guy calls from his car saying that he can't understand why people think the stars are going out because he can look out his window and see tons of them. The radio host, in an incredulous tone, asks him if he's serious because what he's seeing is 'impossible' - all the stars have burnt out. The guy says, "Well, I think I'm seeing stars out there and there seem to be lots of them." Host comes back with, "Well, are you sure you aren't seeing planets and satellites? Because planets like Mars and Venus and stuff don't count as stars, and all the satellites that we've put in space just show up as tiny specks that might sort of look like stars."
"Oh, that could be," the guy says. "In fact, that would explain why I've been having trouble finding the North Star lately."
"Yes, that's exactly it," replied the host. "The North Star was one of the last to burn out, but it's definitely gone."
"Wow, I guess you're right. I never noticed and just thought those satellites were stars. It's amazing that I haven't read this in the news."
I almost had kittens trying not to laugh too hard! The guy is looking at the stars, but still believes what the radio host is saying! Know which sources to trust!
At this point it turned surreal! The lady says, "You've noticed too?! Oh wow, I thought maybe I was the only one. I've always thought the stars are angels and I've been afraid that demons are killing them and that there won't be any left!"
After a minute or two of this, the host starts wrapping up the call by saying, "Well, I'd like you to try this. If you can still find a star in the sky, I want you to wish on it really hard that all the stars would come back, and then on a clear night go out someplace where there aren't any lights around and look up and see if any have come back, ok?"
The lady says "ok" and signs off.
Then it moves past surreal to positively psychedelic! The NEXT caller calls in agreeing with the first!! This call was mercifully brief, but then came the linchpin!
A guy calls from his car saying that he can't understand why people think the stars are going out because he can look out his window and see tons of them. The radio host, in an incredulous tone, asks him if he's serious because what he's seeing is 'impossible' - all the stars have burnt out. The guy says, "Well, I think I'm seeing stars out there and there seem to be lots of them." Host comes back with, "Well, are you sure you aren't seeing planets and satellites? Because planets like Mars and Venus and stuff don't count as stars, and all the satellites that we've put in space just show up as tiny specks that might sort of look like stars."
"Oh, that could be," the guy says. "In fact, that would explain why I've been having trouble finding the North Star lately."
"Yes, that's exactly it," replied the host. "The North Star was one of the last to burn out, but it's definitely gone."
"Wow, I guess you're right. I never noticed and just thought those satellites were stars. It's amazing that I haven't read this in the news."
I almost had kittens trying not to laugh too hard! The guy is looking at the stars, but still believes what the radio host is saying! Know which sources to trust!
Friday, October 13, 2006
A few things to put down
... and now I can't remember what they are. I know I had a few of them that I wanted to put on my blog, but now they're gone. Ok, I'll just wait until I think of them.
October 10 .........
October 11 ......... birthday wasn't one of them
October 12 ......... still nothing
October 13 .... well, I'll just make some stuff up
Cool thing - Katie, Ryan and Christina are all doing really well.
B-movie Monster physics
Wedding stuff is coming along nicely, and the invitations came in yesterday.
Charlessa threw a birthday party for me at YG!
I was late to said party because of surprises she left at my house!
Tomorrow we're going to look at more houses.
I have to miss the blood drive at PHC today. :^(
North Koreans probably faked or screwed up their nuke test.
Dorinda had a bunch of emails sent to me for my b-day from co-workers at GFA! Fun!
I've got a new 'favorite' country song - "Watching You" by Rodney Atkins.
Discovered a word I didn't even recognize! RISIBLE!
Hmmm, and I still haven't really come up with whatever it was that I really wanted to put up on my blog! Well, you'll all just have to take my word for it - it would have been a really awesome posting!!
October 10 .........
October 11 ......... birthday wasn't one of them
October 12 ......... still nothing
October 13 .... well, I'll just make some stuff up
Cool thing - Katie, Ryan and Christina are all doing really well.
B-movie Monster physics
Wedding stuff is coming along nicely, and the invitations came in yesterday.
Charlessa threw a birthday party for me at YG!
I was late to said party because of surprises she left at my house!
Tomorrow we're going to look at more houses.
I have to miss the blood drive at PHC today. :^(
North Koreans probably faked or screwed up their nuke test.
Dorinda had a bunch of emails sent to me for my b-day from co-workers at GFA! Fun!
I've got a new 'favorite' country song - "Watching You" by Rodney Atkins.
Discovered a word I didn't even recognize! RISIBLE!
Hmmm, and I still haven't really come up with whatever it was that I really wanted to put up on my blog! Well, you'll all just have to take my word for it - it would have been a really awesome posting!!
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Happy Birthday to me!
I've gotten three calls today, one e-card, and an email, and it's not even 11:00!
e-card from J&J Gates - 2:30 AM ???
call from Mom and Dad - 7:50
call from Charlessa - 8:10
call from Jeremiah - 9:30
email from Mary - 10:30
Having traveled 283.668 billion miles in the last 9,861 days, I've still only seen a small portion of the universe but have high hopes to see more. I'm waiting on some breakthroughs on propulsion technology so I can visit the moon and maybe Mars someday.
Only 80 more days until I'm married!!! And if all goes well, I won't have another birthday as a single person for another 80 to 100 years. Of course if things go REALLY well, we'll get to watch Christ's return together! After that, I'm hoping for a good 400-500 birthdays together with Charlessa.
Unfortunately I haven't quite managed to become perfect in all this time, though fortunately I don't need to - God's taken care of that. Also fortunately, He isn't waiting until the last moment for sudden perfection, and has an upgrade plan for me which has been slowly progressing. Service Pack 2129 is the most recent installation, and that's gotten me up to version 1.0.0.0.0.1.2 so far. Thankfully I'm not a Windows system.
I'm still at 40-50 pushups, my curls havn't progressed much beyond 80 lbs in the last two years, and my bench press is still around 160. I've resigned myself to the fact that I probably won't ever be as strong as dad. (or even close)
But the really cool part of all this is, next year is going to be even better!
Yeah, God's given me a pretty good 27 years!
e-card from J&J Gates - 2:30 AM ???
call from Mom and Dad - 7:50
call from Charlessa - 8:10
call from Jeremiah - 9:30
email from Mary - 10:30
Having traveled 283.668 billion miles in the last 9,861 days, I've still only seen a small portion of the universe but have high hopes to see more. I'm waiting on some breakthroughs on propulsion technology so I can visit the moon and maybe Mars someday.
Only 80 more days until I'm married!!! And if all goes well, I won't have another birthday as a single person for another 80 to 100 years. Of course if things go REALLY well, we'll get to watch Christ's return together! After that, I'm hoping for a good 400-500 birthdays together with Charlessa.
Unfortunately I haven't quite managed to become perfect in all this time, though fortunately I don't need to - God's taken care of that. Also fortunately, He isn't waiting until the last moment for sudden perfection, and has an upgrade plan for me which has been slowly progressing. Service Pack 2129 is the most recent installation, and that's gotten me up to version 1.0.0.0.0.1.2 so far. Thankfully I'm not a Windows system.
I'm still at 40-50 pushups, my curls havn't progressed much beyond 80 lbs in the last two years, and my bench press is still around 160. I've resigned myself to the fact that I probably won't ever be as strong as dad. (or even close)
But the really cool part of all this is, next year is going to be even better!
Yeah, God's given me a pretty good 27 years!
Thursday, October 05, 2006
I'm corrupting young minds
Well hopefully not, but I was teaching them about lying. I tried to spend the most time on the standard that lying in every real-life situation (not Nazi/Jew-style moral knots) is not acceptable. Bible stories - Abraham and Sarah, Joseph's brothers and the coat, David fleeing from Saul, Ananias and Sapphira. And went into how the commandment is "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor," and it covers all sorts of deception, not just the stated lie. Standard stuff.
And with trying to spend the majority of the time on that, the over all impression of the lesson was that lying is wrong and will never come to good. But that's all "basic" stuff, so of course everyone was more interested in the not so obvious cases.
So then it got a bit more nuanced - Israelite midwives, Rahab, Samuel, Micaiah. There were definite lies in some of their stories, which seemed to be blessed, and for Samuel and Micaiah they were God-commanded! Well actually they weren't.
Here are the links to the stories:
Exodus 1:15-22 Hebrew Midwives
Joshua 2 Rahab and Spies
1 Samuel 16:1-5 Samuel fools elders/Saul
1 Kings 22:1-28 Micaiah and lying prophets
The Hebrew midwives are perhaps the most obvious and straight-forward story that exemplifies God directly blessing someone because of lying. Rahab's lie wasn't the central part of her story, so it is a bit unclear as to whether or not God blesses her because of, or in spite of, the lie. The midwives' story is about as straight-forward as possible - they lied to save the babies and God blessed them for it.
Samuel is told to use a cover story, which he tells to the elders of the town (who report to Saul), but doesn't mention that his main goal is to anoint a new king. He didn't lead them to believe any falsehoods, but he certainly didn't tell them everything he was doing there. While omission certainly CAN be a way to deceive someone, this wasn't the case here - not telling them everything wasn't deceiving them.
And then there's the entire chapter of 1 Kings 22 - Micaiah states a lie sarcastically so that it's obvious that he's lying. So here's a case where a lie wasn't a deception. I didn't go into the rest of the chapter in youth group though. That was WAY beyond the time I had available! Go read it yourselves and have fun.
So what made the lies of the midwives and of the spies and of Rahab (and the deception involved in any war/fight) more acceptable to God?
First, I totally reject the premise that doing a lie for the greater good, makes the lie OK in God's sight. "But what about the Jews in Nazi Germany?!!" I can hear the outcry! Or whatever other situation can be used.
I think we need to look at what Commandment 9 says and DOESN'T say. It says "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor" and Jesus defines neighbor much more broadly than just the person who lives in your neighborhood. But the commandment doesn't just say "You shall not bear false witness." The commandment is often shortened to "Don't lie" or something like that, but while that does work just as well in most cases, that's not really what it means. While Jesus expands what "neighbor" includes, it isn't extended to everyone in every situation. Someone trying to kill you or someone else, or someone who is at war with you, has very firmly stepped outside the bounds of being a "neighbor" in the way Jesus taught.
What's my Biblical reasoning on why a neighbor isn't just everyone? One, Jesus doesn't say that everyone is your neighbor. When asked who a 'neighbor' was for the command "love your neighbor as yourself" the answer is the one who had mercy on the robbed and beaten man. Other verses call us to love and do good to even those who slander us, who insult us, who wrong us, and even those who persecute us for His name's sake. All those people are still our neighbors. But nowhere does it call on us to turn the other cheek to those who are criminally killing or beating us. Those people are never included in the groups of people who we are called to bless even while they malign us. Warriors, killers, thieves, etc are outside the bounds of being neighbors.
So if someone breaks into your house intent on murder, feel perfectly free to point over his shoulder, say "The cops are here," and then beat the snot out of him when he turns to look. Yes, you've deceived him. No, you haven't sinned.
At least, that's the what I understand the Bible to say. I would REALLY love to get other thoughts on this, since I've never bounced this off anyone until last night, and even last night, the kids never got particularly deep in questioning or probing.
And with trying to spend the majority of the time on that, the over all impression of the lesson was that lying is wrong and will never come to good. But that's all "basic" stuff, so of course everyone was more interested in the not so obvious cases.
So then it got a bit more nuanced - Israelite midwives, Rahab, Samuel, Micaiah. There were definite lies in some of their stories, which seemed to be blessed, and for Samuel and Micaiah they were God-commanded! Well actually they weren't.
Here are the links to the stories:
Exodus 1:15-22 Hebrew Midwives
Joshua 2 Rahab and Spies
1 Samuel 16:1-5 Samuel fools elders/Saul
1 Kings 22:1-28 Micaiah and lying prophets
The Hebrew midwives are perhaps the most obvious and straight-forward story that exemplifies God directly blessing someone because of lying. Rahab's lie wasn't the central part of her story, so it is a bit unclear as to whether or not God blesses her because of, or in spite of, the lie. The midwives' story is about as straight-forward as possible - they lied to save the babies and God blessed them for it.
Samuel is told to use a cover story, which he tells to the elders of the town (who report to Saul), but doesn't mention that his main goal is to anoint a new king. He didn't lead them to believe any falsehoods, but he certainly didn't tell them everything he was doing there. While omission certainly CAN be a way to deceive someone, this wasn't the case here - not telling them everything wasn't deceiving them.
And then there's the entire chapter of 1 Kings 22 - Micaiah states a lie sarcastically so that it's obvious that he's lying. So here's a case where a lie wasn't a deception. I didn't go into the rest of the chapter in youth group though. That was WAY beyond the time I had available! Go read it yourselves and have fun.
So what made the lies of the midwives and of the spies and of Rahab (and the deception involved in any war/fight) more acceptable to God?
First, I totally reject the premise that doing a lie for the greater good, makes the lie OK in God's sight. "But what about the Jews in Nazi Germany?!!" I can hear the outcry! Or whatever other situation can be used.
I think we need to look at what Commandment 9 says and DOESN'T say. It says "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor" and Jesus defines neighbor much more broadly than just the person who lives in your neighborhood. But the commandment doesn't just say "You shall not bear false witness." The commandment is often shortened to "Don't lie" or something like that, but while that does work just as well in most cases, that's not really what it means. While Jesus expands what "neighbor" includes, it isn't extended to everyone in every situation. Someone trying to kill you or someone else, or someone who is at war with you, has very firmly stepped outside the bounds of being a "neighbor" in the way Jesus taught.
What's my Biblical reasoning on why a neighbor isn't just everyone? One, Jesus doesn't say that everyone is your neighbor. When asked who a 'neighbor' was for the command "love your neighbor as yourself" the answer is the one who had mercy on the robbed and beaten man. Other verses call us to love and do good to even those who slander us, who insult us, who wrong us, and even those who persecute us for His name's sake. All those people are still our neighbors. But nowhere does it call on us to turn the other cheek to those who are criminally killing or beating us. Those people are never included in the groups of people who we are called to bless even while they malign us. Warriors, killers, thieves, etc are outside the bounds of being neighbors.
So if someone breaks into your house intent on murder, feel perfectly free to point over his shoulder, say "The cops are here," and then beat the snot out of him when he turns to look. Yes, you've deceived him. No, you haven't sinned.
At least, that's the what I understand the Bible to say. I would REALLY love to get other thoughts on this, since I've never bounced this off anyone until last night, and even last night, the kids never got particularly deep in questioning or probing.
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