Sister... Show Mercy!

Here's an article that is relevant to last week's discussion (not causing a brother to stumble) and to this time of year.

It is a entreaty to women to dress helpfully. It is well written, well thought out. I think some of us have discussed the topic before, in which case reading it is like reading your own thoughts. But very well organized ;-)

Anyway I just wanted to say that I *believe* it's important to dress helpfully but I may sometimes fail to do so. Ladies have an open invitation to pull me aside and say I might have missed the mark that day. No eloquent justification needed. If you simply feel uncomfortable having your husband witness me wearing whatever it is then that's good enough. If guys have an issue they can deliver the message anonymously through my husband or their wives.

Beating the TV

Here's 14 Ways to Take Charge of the TV

I'm especially interested in the ones that speak about kids and television. I mentally analyze everything I read / watch, and evaluate the choices of the characters as to whether they are moral or immoral. I also think about what agenda or worldview is being presented. I hope that's something I can do out loud with our kids some day.

Focus...

We get emails from Focus on the Family, the following is the latest edition. I thought that it was very interesting, but couldn't ultimately come to a decision about how I feel about it. Please comment!

Dear Friends,

In the past few days, the intolerant nature of the homosexual agenda has been on open display. This time that intolerance has been exposed for what it is by one of our Focus on the Family^® events.

Orchestrated Attempt to Undermine Our Efforts
We are hosting a "Love Won Out" conference Saturday in Grand Rapids, MI., to help Christians
in that area manage the issue of homosexuality in
a Christ-like manner. Over the last 10 years, these conferences have equipped thousands of Christians to become voices of God's love and liberty to homosexuals.

As often happens wherever these conferences are held, gay activists spare no invective as they denounce the idea that Christ can help someone struggle free of unwanted homosexuality. Just two days before our conference, Grand Valley State University in Grand Rapids hosted a seminar entitled, "Religion and Homophobia: Spiritual Violence in our Community." (Doesn't that sound tolerant?). The conference was stacked with gay activist speakers, and it was held under the auspices of--are you ready for this?--the Vice President of Inclusion and Equity, Dr. Jeanne Arnold. So we phoned Dr. Arnold and we asked to have one of our speakers included in her conference.

I bet you can guess how the "Vice President for Inclusion and Equity" responded to our request to be included! For more on this latest tribute to the intolerance of the homosexual agenda, watch the newest Focus Action Update video.

The Goal: Imposing Their Agenda And Suppressing Opposing Ideas
It's becoming more and more obvious that the homosexual agenda isn't really about tolerance after all. It's about imposing a radical agenda on our society and using nasty rhetoric and the force of law to suppress opinions that oppose their agenda. Anyone who dares to stand for Biblical notions of sexuality will face the intolerance of homosexual activism.

Well, we will stand! And I am encouraged that you are standing with us. Your prayers and your financial support are a great encouragement to our team. May God richly bless you as you bless our nation by the stand you are taking.

For faith and family,

Tom Minnery
Senior Vice President, Government & Public Policy

Practical Rules for Biblical Interpretation

The following is a loose para-phrasing (with some quoting) of a chapter of the book Knowing Scripture by R.C. Sproul. I don't just recommend reading this book but I command it! (if only I had the authority) It's a post that I've been meaning to write since before we moved, I couldn't find the book for a long time, hence the delay... and now, you can have it to read Randy! (I told him I'd let him borrow it after I wrote this post)

We would do well to follow these rules on Wednesday night as well as in our private reading. I'll give it a go to very briefly sum up the rule, if you want a clearer understanding you'll just have to read the book.

Rule 1: The Bible Is to Be Read Like Any Other Book.
The first rule is the most important, but easily misunderstood. Not that the Bible is the same as all books in every respect, it is uniquely inspired and infallible, but for matters of interpretation the Bible does not take on some special magic that changes basic literary patterns of interpretation. In the Bible a verb is a verb and a noun is a noun, just like in any other book.

Rule 2: Read the Bible Existentially
Stated with fear and trembling, this rule could be grossly distorted and become more trouble than help. Not that we should use the modern "existential" method of interpreting scripture, but that as we read the Bible, we ought to get passionately and personally involved in what we read. "Crawling into the skin" of the characters we are reading about.

Rule 3: Historical Narratives Are to Be Interpreted by the Didactic
The word didactic comes from the Greek that means to teach or to instruct. Didactic literature is literature that teaches or explains. Much of Paul's writing is didactic in character. The Epistles should interpret the Gospels, not as an absolute, but as a good rule of thumb.

Rule 4: The Implicit Is to Be Interpreted by the Explicit
Usually we can determine the difference between what is actually said and what is left unsaid but implied. If this one rule were consistently followed by Christian communities, the vast majority of doctrinal differences that divide us would be resolved.

Rule 5: Determine Carefully the Meaning of Words
Mostly self-explanatory. Read the book.

Rule 6: Note the Presence of Parallelism in the Bible
One of the most fascinating characteristics of Hebrew literature is its use of parallelisms. The ability to recognize it when it occurs will greatly aid the reader in understanding the text.

Rule 7: Note the Difference Between Proverb and Law
A common mistake in biblical interpretation and application is to give a proverbial saying the weight or force of a moral absolute.

Rule 8: Observe the Differences between the Spirit and the Letter of the Law
DON'T BE A PHARISEE! ...but also don't obey the spirit whilst ignoring the letter.

Rule 9: Be Careful with Parables
Parables are great! But they present many questions that cannot be ignored i.e. what was the original intent and what is it's relationship with allegory?

Rule 10: Be Careful with Predictive Prophecy
Don't get left-behind! Just kidding, but seriously...

Okay guys, for the vast majority of each of these rules there are at least two to three pages of explanation, so obviously the one provided here is inadequate. Like I said before READ THIS BOOK it's pretty great.

Coming soon Practical Tools for Bible Study

Did you do something to your arm?

Sorry to flood the blog with my posts in the last couple of days. But not sorry enough to stop apparently...

So when I've been out and about the last couple of days, I've been wearing short sleeves and I've had a stretchy net over my arm to keep my IV contained and just to make it a little less obtrusive while I'm out in public. You know, more so than having it dangle around like I do at home.

I've had a couple of people ask me "did you do something to your arm?" implying an injury of some sort. I'm soliciting clever responses to this question...

I don't care if people know the truth, but it's hard to explain in just a sentence or two. People generally don't know what a picc line is. Today I tried explaining it was related to IV medication. But anyway, what are some clever ways I could respond (that would either enlighten someone or do nothing of the sort)?

Bible Reading Tip #3

Great idea, Kim!

I am a list-maker. What has worked for me for a few months now is on my to-do list each day I have "spend time with God." That could mean reading/studying the Bible, reading something else religiously thought provoking, praying or meditating. I picked 30 minutes because that is usually quite doable and I generally do it in conjunction with breakfast--something I do almost every day. I feed Miyanna and she usually is content to play while I eat and spend time with God. Then I can cross it off my list!

This may seem like too sterile or too pragmatic an attitude to have...but it works. Frankly, I include things I want to do/enjoy doing on my list so I can cross them out too. This serves two purposes: 1--I can report to Randy what I've done during the day (in the absence of a "boss" to report to like at an outside job). 2--Builds in time for me to relax/play/nap during the day without feeling guilty because, hey, its on the list!

I obviously am ridiculously blessed to be in a position where I'm not hurrying off to work so this may not work for anybody else. But I wanted to share anyway.

Bible Reading Tip #2

Defining an objective and making a plan.

Maybe this is rather obvious to some, but it isn't to me!

One time after Josh heard me complain and be distressed yet again that I wasn't "spending any time with God" he made me sit down right at that moment and make a plan.

What was the problem and what did I want to be different? I was feeling somewhat disconnected from God, like I was living my life sort of in my own corner except for the times I God-activities planned like church, group study, etc. What I felt like I really needed was to spend time actually talking to God and not just thinking about him.

So what would that look like? 10 minutes set aside for prayer each day.

How can I make that that happen? Set a specific time of the day, where this is the priority. In the morning before work seemed the best time, at 6:50am. So whatever I was doing in the morning to get ready, I dropped it at 6:50 and went to prayer.

I would encourage all of us to do what I don't do naturally - to stop merely wishing that things would be different, but to sit down and clearly spell out what we want to change, and make a plan for accomplishing it.