Implementation of my process is going well, we had a site at the New Orleans Mission pretty recently, we got divided up, some of us cleaned up the tables and rolled up the plastic ware, others of us were in the kitchen helping to put the finishing touches on the food and to serve the food and drinks to the residents. There was actually a pretty nice turnout of volunteers so we finished cleaning up pretty quickly. We had time to go to the chapel and catch the end of the church service. It was very spirited, the preacher and the guest speaker were both very passionate about the messages that they delivered. I know some of the people there were only there because they had to be and probably would have preferred to not have had to sit through the sermon, but some people really appreciated it and were really inspired and took in the sermon. The food was way better than Xavier food, I was a little jealous and asked the man who did the cooking if he would be willing to come cook in the cafeteria for us, he politely declined, saying that he felt he belonged there. The guy who did most of the cooking was also the man who was in charge of running the rest of the food service aspects of the shelter. The last time we were there, there was a different man in charge, apparently the job is quite stressful and taxing. He said that the man who worked there before him had improperly stored a lot of the food that was donated to them and that there were health concerns caused by the rats and the maggots that were popping up so he had to throw away a lot of the food and was very unhappy about that. After the donations and the packing and sorting from second harvest, the food made it all the way to the shelter only to have to be thrown away because of improper storage methods. The security guard was really nice to us, but really mean to a lot of the men in the shelter.

The Deuteronomist Historian said that the best kings were those who put God first always, followed the path that He set out for them, and who trusted that God was with them without doubt. They were believed to be those who were most successful because of god’s blessings. I don’t think George W. Bush would be seen as a good king, the good kings were favored when they were in power. Democrats and republicans alike, are both anxious to see George W. Bush be out of office. There has been such a noticeable downward spiral in the condition of this country since he came into office that, even though he is from the bible thumping state of Texas and repeatedly makes it known that he is of the Christian faith, it’s hard to believe that he has the lord’s backing. The only positive outcome of Bush’s presidency is the fact that he revealed to the country a few of it’s vulnerabilities and it’s need to fix them.

I think the worst thing that King David did was when he committed the duo of adultery and murder. David sees Bathsheba bathing and he sends for her. Instead of saying “Hey, I have several other wives and concubines, I don’t really need to steal someone else’s wife,” he has sex with her. A little while later she tells him that she has become pregnant. Bathsheba’s husband, one of David’s best and most loyal soldiers, Uriah is away at war, a war that David himself should be fighting in, so Uriah is clearly not the father of the child. In an attempt to cover up his tracks, David tries to get Uriah to return home and be with his wife so that her pregnancy would be connected to him. Uriah, being the loyal man that he is, refuses to come inside his home and lay with his wife because the battle was not done. Out of options, David sends Uriah to his general with specific instructions that he be sent in the front lines so that he would be killed. When he is killed, David thinks that he has pulled things off perfectly, The Lord being clearly upset with him, sent him a messenger, Nathan, to notify him that his deeds did not go unnoticed and that David would not go unpunished. In return for his crimes, David is told that the child of his affair will die, someone will take and sleep with his wives in public just as his took Uriah’s wife, and that his family would be undone by violence.

The first temple was built by Solomon in Jerusalem on Mt. Moriah next to his Palace as a symbolic understanding that his was assigned by God as ruler and was thus on the side of the Lord. The Jerusalem Temple housed 10 Lamp Stands and Tables of Showbread, then further back it housed the Holy Place, and all the way in the back there was the Most Holy Place, which contained the Ark of the Covenant and the Cherubim. Alongside the Temple were storerooms, and on the outside of the Temple were a Bronze Sea (used for the ritual cleansing of the priests as well as the alter) with 12 bulls, the Altar (for sacrifices), and the moveable bronze stands. All of the equipment was moved from the Tabernacle to the Temple. The Temple was similar to the palace of King Ramses in general shape, size, and the division of the space inside and outside of it. In 586BCE the Temple was destroyed when Jerusalem was conquered and destroyed. Around 520BCE, the rebuilding of the Temple began, after the foundation was laid, those who remembered the first Temple were saddened because the second Temple was so much smaller than the first. The Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans as a punishment for the Jew’s rebellions and it was never rebuilt.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 24th, 2008 at 11:35 pm and is filed under Week 09: Implementation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.