Vlog 1

Good morning. We are He Who Is, and this is God Number one.

This week's been pretty good. I have— haven't slept through a night in a long time, but that's okay. Usually I do some sort of 1 to 3 AM stretching session. Mostly it's dreams that cause me to wake up. They are ranging from intense to terrifying. Part of the course. My appetite. I am around 200 pounds at 6 foot 2 and 3/4. I say 6'3".

I was 220 in the spring.

Certainly was eating a lot. I'm prepping a busy triathlon season. Triathlon training has been pretty exceptional. I'm very happy with my progress. And that has brought me down quite a bit. I'm also now entering a 2-meal-a-day phase. I do a bagel with cream cheese on working mornings and then some sort of large dinner with an emphasis on protein. Activity level? Really nice. Certainly the best shape I've ever been in. I did a lot of signing, emphasis on legs and posing in June and July. June and early July, August, late July and August, transitioned more emphasis for the triathlon. I feel confident in my ability to complete an Olympic triathlon, which is a 1,200-meter swim, a 24-mile bike, and a 6-mile run. I've never run 6 miles, so it was a march for myself. That I know I can complete it. My last time was about 6 hours. Honestly, I like it.

I think—

I think in general, the triathlon makeup is a little too heavy on the bike. I would prefer if it was slightly more swim dominant, maybe a 1600 Swim, 20-mile bike, 6-mile run. Um, and I'm also starting to wonder if a better competition would be how quickly can you complete the 3 segments within a 24-hour period, so that way there is some sort of competitive rest and recuperation integrated into it. I feel that would really push the boundaries of human capability better than a one-shot, but also that is just my training style coming from a very weightlifting dominant experience. There's a lot of concentrated effort and concentrated rest, uh, built into my exercise routine.

I will now read a passage from the Bible. It's not all your fault. I felt comfortable to give you all control. I hate to see you hurting.

I think it's time that I did something for myself.

But why don't we try something else this time for us?

Hezekiah's Prayer.

Hezekiah received the letter from the messengers and read it. Then he went up to the temple of the Lord and spread it out before the Lord.

And Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, "The Lord God of Israel, who thrones between the cherubim. You alone are God over all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made Heaven and earth, give ear, O Lord, and hear. Open your eyes, O Lord, and see. Listen to her words.

Sennacherib has sent to the living God.

It is true, O Lord, that the Assyrian kings have laid waste these nations and their lands.

They have thrown their gods into the fire and destroyed them, for they were not gods but only wood and stone fashioned by men's hands.

Now, O Lord our God, deliver us from his hands so that all kingdoms on earth may know that you alone— O Lord our God.

I won't get in your way. Oh, I want to touch your border. Whenever you want to go alone, you call me up all the day. Whenever you want to go alone, you know, call me up all the day.

It does make me wonder to what extent, or if at all, Worshiping idols or materials, material expressions of the Divine, help or hinder true appreciation of God? I think it becomes bad if you start to see items in isolation as the only expression of Tao. For instance, a cross or Star of David. Ankh, runes. I think believing that any single item or strategy can fully encompass God can bring you down a dangerous path. But if you are humble enough to understand that your expression, the signs, for instance, are your slice of the Divine, and that even if you can completely understand your slice Twice, there is still an infinitely greater whole. Then you can find importance in physical expressions or I want to avoid the word idols. Trinkets is too demeaning. Almost memorabilia is the best word, but that seems a little too human. I guess the true, the true value is if you are able to see your slice as a smaller part of a greater whole. If you steer away from believing that you have encompassed the whole in your slice. I think the issue that the Israelites had found was in the people around them. They saw their Asherah poles and altars as being all-encompassing of the power of God and believed that only a single name could be used I'm referencing that power. Now it does get a little tricky because it can be true that only a single name is valuable for an individual or a people to use, but somewhere it's said that God will show himself in different ways to different people so that they may be opposed in their beliefs, and in the struggle between them, each will find their own image.

Of God's truth.

God's truth.

G-O-D-S-T-R-U-T-H. 23:8.

Preparations for the Temple. So David gave orders to assemble the aliens living in Israel, and from among them he appointed stonecutters to prepare dressed stone for building the house of God. He provided a large amount of iron to make nails for the doors.

N-Z-E-B-R-O-N-Z-E, B-R-O-N-Z-E.

He also provided more cedar logs than could be counted for the Sidonians and Tyrians and brought large numbers of them to David.

C-E-D-A-R-L-O-G-S, C-E-D-A-R-L-O-G-S.

A-R-L-O-E-S-C-E-E-A-R-L-O-E-S-C-E-E-A-R-L-O-E-S. David said, my son Solomon is young, young and inexperienced, and the house to be built for the Lord to be of great magnificence and fame and splendour in the sight of all the nations. Therefore I will make preparations for it. So David made extensive preparations before his death. Then he called for his son Solomon and charged him to build a house for the Lord, the God of Israel.

The Lord, the God of Israel.

David said to Solomon, my son, I had it in my heart to build a house for the name of the Lord my God. But this word of the Lord came to me: you have shed much blood and have fought many wars. You are not to build a house for my name because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight. But you will have a son who will be a man of peace and rest.

Peace am rest.

And I will give him rest from all his enemies on every side. His name will be Solomon, and I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign. He is the one who will build a house for my name. He will be my son, and I will be his father, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.

I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel forever.

Now, my son, the Lord be with you. The Lord be with you. And you may have— and may you have success and build the house of the Lord your God. As he said you would. May the Lord give you discretion and understanding when he puts you in command over Israel, so that you may keep the law of the Lord your God. Then you will have success if you are careful to observe the decrees and laws that the Lord gave Moses for Israel.

Be strong and courageous.

Do not be afraid or discouraged. I have taken great pains to provide for the temple of the Lord 100,000 talents of of gold, a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver, a million talents of silver, quantities of bronze and iron too great to be weighed. And wood and stone. And you may add to them— you have many workmen, stonecutters, masons, and carpenters, as well as men skilled in every kind of work. In gold and silver, bronze and iron, craftsmen beyond number. Now begin the work, and the Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Then David ordered all the leaders of Israel to help his son Solomon. He said to them, "Is not the Lord your God with you, and has He not granted you rest on every side? For He has handed the inhabitants of the land over to me, and the land is subject to the Lord and to his people. Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God. Begin to build the sanctuary of the Lord God so that you may bring the Ark of the Covenant to the Lord and the sacred articles belonging to God into the temple that will be built for the name of the Lord.

So even in that passage, David is talking about his temple for the Lord, a single, single physical structure that at the time was probably the greatest undertaking for the Israelites in the name of the Lord at the time, which I think is an important thing to understand, that it is worthy of the Lord because it is beyond anything that had been made before it. He talks about the iron, bronze, gold, silver, wood, and stone required for it. And they say beyond number, many of those items. Somewhere else in 2 Chronicles, I believe, It is said that— it is said to David that you should refrain from counting your troops because you should have trust in the Lord that he provides all that you need. Maybe the commandment against idolatry is really a commandment against complacency. Because an idol is something that is made, and if you hold it sacred, it becomes permanent. And once you have an idol, why would you need another? So when you cast off idolatry, you are then afloat in the sea of wanting more and greater things. So when does something become an idol? Probably when you believe that it can't be any better, that it encompasses the whole, and that all others should be destroyed in its sight. When does something become a temple? When you dedicate more resources than anyone can ever imagine to its construction and improvement, and you govern it in peace. I think that was also a very important part. A lot of idols are used as call signs or rallying points for in-groups and out-groups. To defend. Very rarely do you need to defend building something because you can always ask for more help in building it, whereas if you have something established, you need to defend it, so you need to reduce the number of people that participate. Thank you for being with us. God bless and God be with you.

Follow the joy.

Amen, amen, amen.