Ep. 1 – Welcome to The Other Bald Guy

Welcome to the home of The Other Bald Guy.  Hopefully you have come here to relax and study about God on a little bit deeper level.  Together, we can chat about the tough questions and explore God, the Bible, and what it means to be a Christ follower.  While reading the Bible is a principal element of a Christ follower’s life, without some scholarship we may not be reaching the fullness of the message (I’ll leave the concept of sola scriptura for another day).

Remember, I’m here to meet you where you are, and we can then walk together in faith, love, and scholarship.

I’ve decided to follow Christ.  What now?

Boy, oh boy, has a whole new world of study opened up for you.  If you care to understand about the human condition, understand that there is a future for you in a living, breathing devine presence, and to encounter the joys of both this life and beyond, then you’ve chosen wisely.

First, make sure you’re plugged in with folks who have been following Christ.  It’s not a path for the weak minded, so plan to be challenged in many ways.  Being around other believers who have already had time in the act of following Christ will allow you to experience the faith more fully and on sure footing.

Also, read your Bible (perhaps start with Phillipians).  Seeking the face of God will take reading the words of His prophets.  Beware, though: the Bible is a whole context in and of itself, so don’t get hung up on a single phrase.  Take your time and trust that once you’ve digested larger amounts of the Bible, certain portions begin to make more sense within the whole.  Following Christ is a lifetime journey.

What questions are stupid questions about following Christ?

I suppose I have to give the obvious answer: the only stupid question is the one you don’t ask.  Our God is so big that we will ask questions the rest of our lives and not scratch the surface of His being.  Still, every question we ask enriches our lives and broadens our worldviews.  Asking questions is like breathing in God — soooo nice and fulfilling.

How do I get access to bears?

Well, first you have to be an Old Testament prophet (strike one for you, I’m guessing).  Basically, the joke about having access to bears is from the Old Testament book of 2 Kings.  One of God’s prophets, a man by the name of Elisha, was on a trip to the city of Bethel.  I’ll let the rest of the story speak for itself:

as he was going up the road, some youths came from the city and mocked him, and said to him, ‘Go up, you baldhead! Go up, you baldhead!’ So he turned around and looked at them, and pronounced a curse on them in the name of the Lord. And two female bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the youths. (2 Kings 2:23-24)

Wow, Elisha was a testy little prophet, now wasn’t he?  A little male-pattern baldness apparently goes a long way to pushing a prophet of the Holy One right over the edge.  I actually chose this story intentionally to show what I really want to do here.  On its face, this story is almost mortifying.  Youths make fun of Elisha (in the King James, it’s translated ‘little children’!), and in seeming retaliation he curses them, and plenty of their friends, to being eaten by she-bears.

Is that simply the end of the story?  Is there no more to be known?  Is God so capricious that He would allow one of His prophets to kill 42 kids over some teasing?  Perhaps there’s more than meets the eye here.  Here’s where you and I get to take some time and study what some modern scholars think on the issue.

Discovery Magazine has an interesting take on the whole thing here:
http://www.discoverymagazine.com/articles/d1999/d9911e.htm

If you want a more in-depth study, and one I find very valuable in this instance, then hop to this link below at one of my favorite sites, the Christian Thinktank:
http://www.christian-thinktank.com/qmeanelisha.html

My take: Don’t make fun of bald guys.

Peace, y’all.