Booting up my old Pokémon games + another week, another church

Entry for August 22nd, 2021

GitHub Copilot is continuing with its fatalistic title suggestions.

Friend

I drove for an hour to visit a friend today, and ended up helping them out with their A/C -- their condensor unit seemed to be operating, their blower seemed to be working fine, but according to my thermal imager, there didn't seem to be any heat exchange going on (and thus their place wasn't getting any cooler).

I'm not an HVAC tech though so I couldn't really do anything to fix it. We also played some Mario Kart.

Pokémon Games

I was able to get my Pokémon games to run after a lot of hacking around and trying to piece together a working DS system from parts. I was delighted to find that my save data was intact for them:

I had to charge it by wiring 5V jumpers to the charging pins, which I then passed through an Arduino Uno. But now I can enjoy some nostalgia from my Pokémon games :)

Sermon

I was going to a different church, but I decided to go to one a bit closer to home. Yes, I know the saying: when church shopping, you need to eventually make a purchase... but I just feel like I haven't found it yet.

Holmes Road Church of Christ

Speaker: I didn't actually catch the guy's name.

Studying the miracles of Christ

The Fig Tree Withers

This one is a destructive (or inverted) miracle
There's two: the fig tree and the herd of pigs
The inverted miracles weren't directed towards people.

In the morning, as he was returning to the city, he became hungry. And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, “How did the fig tree wither at once?” And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. And whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive, if you have faith.”
Matthew 21:18‭-‬22 ESV

What's going on here?

Jesus is 100% human and was hungry. So, why didn't he miracle the tree to have figs?

This tree drew Jesus' attention because it'd prematurely come into leaf, giving the appearance that it'd have figs. Its foliage signaled that it would have figs on it, but it didn't.

This seems out of character. Why does he do this?

The symbolism of the fig tree

Israel is "God's vineyard".

The prophets described God as inspecting Israel for "early figs" as a sign of spiritual fruitfulness.

God promises to one day replant Israel and produce healthy figs from her again.

With all these thousands of years of background images in their minds of the Jews, this action would've resonated very clearly with them.

Jesus acted out OT Jewish history with this miracle: the lesson: a warning to all of Israel that judgement is coming to the nation if they are unfruitful.

God disapproves of his people who are all leaves and no fruit.

Israel's most precious fruit has arrived. The harvest is near, and the blessings are about to pour forth. The rest of the nations are not yet in season.

Jesus had inspected Israel for several years now, and found it to be a façade. It bore no fruit.

The lesson to the disciples: you are the instruments for which to spread the Good News

Are we producing fruit? Or do we bear only leaves?

***

Questions (these are mine)

What does the withering look like in our lives? Is it the withering as the church in our mission?

Wanderlust

Still thinking about getting a train ticket somewhere else and going out for a day or two. But I'm very indecisive about it, so nothing has happened.