25February2016

When Dirt is Not Merely Dirt

Written By robfaircloth

With four kids, one quickly realizes that there are many different kinds of dirty.

There’s the sandy dirt that falls off kid shoes and collects in the floorboard of the mini-van . Then there’s the caked, earthy dirt that coats hands and faces after a round of making mud holes and mud pies. Then there’s the red clay ubiquitous on sporting fields throughout the Southeast, the stains of which won’t come out of anything, no matter how many gallons of bleach is applied.

Gardeners and farmers have known this for, well, forever. Some soil is good for planting certain crops and plants, some not, and some requires rehab in order to be productive.

My green thumb has long ago proven to be black, and I kill more plants than I tend well. We were sprucing up the greenery around the house, and discovered that the dirt there was the hard clay variety. I had to use an assortment of pickaxes, shovels, and sticks of dynamite to produce a hole big enough for a geranium. I mixed the clay with good soil from other parts of the yard in a big pile in the driveway, and while doing so I noticed something very strange.

When mixed, a very small proportion of good soil would quickly turn a much larger pile of red clay into good, brown dirt that could go directly into the hole with the new plant. The small amount of rich, life-sustaining material rehabilitates a large amount of sterile, life-snuffing material.

The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened. Matthew 13:31-33.

24February2016

Five Good Books for Bible Study

Written By robfaircloth

There are many resources to help the lay Bible student understand the Bible better. Dictionaries, concordances, commentaries, handbooks, research software…I’ll suggest those things which should be in every Bible reader’s “study kit” later, but for now, I have a few suggestions for resources that address Bible study generally.

Knowing Scripture, R.C. Sproulknowing scripture

In Knowing Scripture Sproul covers why the believer needs to study God’s Word, what hermeneutics is and why it’s relevant, practical rules for interpretation, and good tools for Bible study, among other things.

One of the motivations a believer should have in reading and studying Scripture is to be a good theologian. Sproul asserts that “No Christian can avoid theology. Every Christian is a theology. Perhaps not a theologian in the technical or professional sense, but a theologian nevertheless. The issue for Christians is not whether we are going to be theologians, but whether we are going to be good theologians. A good theologian is one who is instructed by God” (25).

Knowable Word, Peter Krol

knowable wordIf you haven’t looked into subscribing to the books from Cruciform Press, you should.

This short book from Peter Krol, through Cruciform Press, focuses on practical Bible study, employing the method of Observation, Interpretation, and Application.

Krol includes many helpful resources in addition to a description of the method.

Grasping God’s Word, J Scott Duvall & J Daniel Haysgrasping gods word

This resource was designed for use in Christian colleges and for seminary work, so it is the longest and most thorough of the resources I recommend here.

But, don’t let that intimidate you. If you are looking for an introduction to Bible study that will challenge you, or want a refresher to help hone and refine your Bible study skills, this is for you.

Journey into God’s Word, J Scott Duvall & J Daniel Hays

journey into gods word

You might notice the same authors listed on this resource as the previous recommendation. This is a condensed version of Grasping God’s Word, and can be read in a sitting or two. It is about the same length as Knowable Word.

However, don’t be tempted to merely read. Do all the exercises and employ the methods suggested, and your Bible study and understanding will improve as a result.

A Basic Guide to Interpreting the Bible, Robert Steinbasic guide to interpreting

Although I’ve listed R.C. Sproul’s book first in this list, if you were to choose only one of these to get started, this book from Robert Stein would be the one I recommend.

Stein covers all the important preliminary questions regarding Bible study, potential pitfalls and interpretation errors, as well as particular rules for interpreting the various genres (literary styles) of the Bible.

40 Questions About Interpreting the Bible, Robert Plummer

40 questions about interpreting

The content of this resource is much the same as Knowing Scripture, Grasping God’s Word, and A Basic Guide, but is in the “40 Questions” format.

Some people like this approach because it permits looking up various issues according to the questions typically raised about them.

However, if you don’t like this format, you would get the same help with Bible study from some of the other resources suggested here.

Let me know your thoughts on these resources, or if there are others you would include on the list!

 

23February2016

6 Practices for Putting On Righteousness

Written By robfaircloth

As we put off the sin that so characterized our life before Christ, and as we renew our mind to avoid conformity to the world’s manner of thinking, so we put on righteousness to more closely resemble Jesus.

Here are six practices that should help us put on righteousness.

Gospel Gazing

We pursue holiness through the spiritual disciplines because the Lord is conforming us to holiness. If we engage in practices that aren’t dependent upon the Lord’s working in us through the Spirit’s power, we might we doing something, even something strenuous, but it isn’t spiritual discipline.

We are told in 2 Corinthians 3:18 that we are transformed into the image of Christ’s glory as we behold “the glory of the Lord.” But no one has seen the Lord, and Jesus now sits at God’s right hand in his ascended body. What, then, does the believer “behold”?

Paul gives us a clue in 2 Corinthians 4:4 when speaking of the unbeliever. The god of this world, the Devil, has blinded the unbelievers’ eyes so they do not see “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ.” And, in 2 Corinthians 4:6, we are told that the cure to this gospel-blindness is that God shines the “light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus.”

What we behold, because we temporarily see neither God nor Christ, is the glory of the Lord and the glory of Jesus in the gospel.

Beholding carries here the meaning of being transfixed with, centering our attention, energy and passion on. “Gospel Transfixion” isn’t quite as catchy, so I call this Gospel Gazing.

We see that the ultimate result of beholding the glory of Jesus without mediation or buffer is that we will be like him, “because we will see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). In the meantime, we are changed as we center our attention on the gospel of Jesus, and behold his glory in it.

This isn’t a one-time, occasional, or sporadic remembrance or review, but a continual and dedicated practice of the one whose mind is set on Christ, where he is.

We “preach the gospel to ourselves” and “rehearse the gospel” as we contemplate and meditate on God’s holiness and justice, our sinfulness and weakness, Jesus’ love and sacrifice; on the aspects of the good news that increase our knowledge of sinfulness and increase our knowledge of God’s holiness.

This, in turn, increases our knowledge of the greatness of the gift of salvation, the glory of the cross, and the excellence of Jesus. In a mysterious process we can’t quite fathom now, beholding glory in the gospel changes us.

Obedience

Actually doing what we hear God telling us doesn’t come naturally, or easily, which is why James had to chide us to be doers, and not merely hearers, of the word. Obedience, then, becomes practice, which becomes habit, which becomes character.

Obedience demonstrates that God has loved us, and that we love our Lord, who said “if you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15).

 Service

We are told repeatedly in Scripture to consider others more important than ourselves, to give up our own interests, and to lay down our lives for others. A significant aspect of re-focusing our attention without, rather than within self, is to serve. In fact, one biblical author summarized our role in the body of believers “as each has received a gift, use it to serve one another” (1 Peter 4:10, ESV). We serve God in worship, serve other believers in ministry, and serve the world in witness and compassion.

Submission

Every single person does not submit to every single other person, but each of us is called to submit appropriately as the relationship requires.

The parent wouldn’t submit to the child, for instance, but would submit to his employer. The child wouldn’t submit to every adult, but to his own parents. The wife doesn’t submit to every man, but to her own husband. Church members submit to the elders, and the elders submit to the Word (and congregation acting on the Word).

To receive eternal life, we submit to the Lord who saves. Whether we submit in other, human relationships, as God directs, indicates whether we have truly submitted to the Lord righteously.

Submitting to one another in appropriate relationships is a practice that helps us submit to Jesus, obey him, to grow in holiness.

Disciplemaking

The subject of the Great Commission, making disciples of all nations is the call of every disciple of Jesus.

Among other things, making disciples and all that it entails teaches us many aspects of Christlike-ness. In helping one another be disciples, we learn humility, dependence on God, reliance on the Spirit, obedience to the Word, how to be centered on the gospel, and faithfulness, among other things.

Stewardship

Like obedience, stewardship is not something that comes naturally or easily to disciples of Jesus, who still carry around the sin nature.

Practicing stewardship with regard to our time, our money, our passions, and our priorities reminds us whose our things are, and whose we are.

These practices are more general than we might expect for a list of spiritual disciplines. We might expect more particular things like Bible reading, visiting prisoners, using your spiritual gift, evangelism and tithing.

But putting on righteousness is not so much found in the particular acts of righteousness as it is in the attitudes of righteousness, beginning with the foundation of gazing intently upon — being transfixed by — the glory of God in the gospel of Jesus.

22February2016

Stretching the Christian Mind through Meditation

Written By robfaircloth

Some Christians have supposed that they can employ techniques of yoga without jeopardizing their faith.
If we mean by this that we can practice the physical exercises of yoga without the meditative elements, then, yes, we can. But at that point, it is not so much yoga as it is stretching.

A Christian cannot employ the meditative elements of yoga — or any other system — and remain true to the Christian faith. The reason is that yoga requires the “emptying” of the mind, whereas Christianity requires its filling, and transforming. And other systems, if the adherent meditates on anything, he meditates upon those things that are contrary to God’s revelation of Himself in nature and in Scripture.

But most of us don’t need to worry about improper meditation, because we can’t be still long enough with our own thoughts to call it meditation. Our error, instead of meditating wrongly, is that we don’t meditate at all.

One reason is that it seems to be hard work.

But when we consider our behavior in other areas, maybe it is not so hard as we think. For instance, consider the behavior that prompts someone to say that you are “dwelling” on some thing, or “obsessing” with some person. When we think that we have been wronged, it is not difficult at all for us to “meditate” on the event: the precise order of events surrounding the personal insult; who else, other than the offender, knew about the act, helped plan it, secretly enjoyed it, talked about it behind our back; how we might react to save face, show strength, get revenge, protect our own. We meditate, after all, on those things that we value.

Thomas Watson defines meditation as a “holy exercise of the mind whereby we bring the truths of God to remembrance, and do seriously ponder upon them and apply them to ourselves.” To help with the subject, or object, of meditation, Watson suggests several things:

  1. meditate seriously upon the corruption of your nature
  2. meditate seriously upon the death and passion of Christ
  3. meditate upon your evidence for heaven.
  4. meditate upon the uncertainty of all earthly comforts.
  5. meditate on God’s severity against sin.
  6. meditate upon eternal life.

So, while we don’t sit in the Lotus position pleasantly — but mindlessly — repeating ohmmm, Christians should meditate, upon the reality of God’s character, our nature, His redemption, and our future state in glory.

21February2016

Drawing the Line at Drooping Socks

Written By robfaircloth

Occasionally, I just take a little time to gripe. out to lunch

A college roommate always said I was most amusing when I was complaining about something. Then again, he also claimed that have been abducted by space aliens resembling Michael Jackson, but that’s another story.

Socks are bewildering.

It’s true that something happens in the laundry that makes socks disappear. And it is never both socks of a pair, so that you eventually end up with a drawer full of single, mismatched socks. I’ve taken to buying only one style and color of sock to avoid this problem, but the dryer is somehow able to put someone else’s socks in my laundry just to confuse me.

Scientists speculate that black holes suck matter from one part of the universe and spit it back out somewhere else, perhaps in another, parallel universe.

I can tell you, without hesitation or speculation, that there is a black hole connecting my drier and the parallel world of the Lost & Found bin at Socks ‘R’ Us.

But that’s not my complaint today. What upsets me at the moment is that I never know when I purchase socks if they have a good adhesion factor, that is, whether by the time I finish lacing up both shoes they will have fallen down around my ankles.

Nothing is more aggravating than a pair of socks that won’t stay up, unless it’s biting into a stale Reese’s Cup.

And that’s not to mention how silly it must seem when I cross my legs and everyone around me can see lily white ankles between crumpled socks and the cuff of my dress pants.

To remedy buyer’s remorse for socks, stores should allow “test wears,” much like dealerships allow automobile test drives. I don’t know precisely how they would do this, because there would be the temptation for customers to literally walk off with, and in, the merchandise.

Perhaps they could provide a “sock escort” while you tried them out. Or maybe, like pets, an electronic fence could zap you with electrical current if you walked too close to the exit.

Sock packaging would need to be changed. Currently, dress socks come coupled with a metal band, stuck together with that plastic thing that hurts your teeth when you bite it, with labels affixed all over, and with tissue paper inside. That must change.

Personally, I would like to know how they manage to insert tissue paper in the sock without crumpling it, and what possible purpose it serves, anyway.

I suppose that someone might suggest sock suspenders. But, I’d rather get a couple of Gold Toes tattooed on my legs.

My next complaint, unrelated to low-adhesion socks, is that bathrooms containing hand lotion should not have doors with knobs.

I made the mistake of washing my hands and applying lotion before I had turned the door knob to get out, and was thus trapped in the bathroom for several hours a I waited for absorption to return some measure of grip to my hands.

Hand lotion should be placed outside the bathroom door. Of course, then someone would inevitably complain that he wet his pants because his hands were too slick to turn the knob.

But, that’s a problem to gripe about in someone else’s column.

21February2016

Stale Reese’s Cups & Confectionary Heartache

Written By robfaircloth

Growing up with depression-era grandparents was a downer for my out to lunchsweet tooth.

Their idea of sweets was a fresh bowl of figs, one that I had to pick myself. Not being a big fig fan (not even Fig Newtons), most often I had to settle for a spoonful of sugar surreptitiously stolen from the pantry while the grandparents caught the latest Lawrence Welk show and ate oat bran.

This itself proved problematic when I mistakenly picked up the salt container instead of the sugar. Can you say, “dry as a chip”?

So I had to turn to the black market for candy. Not really, but I did have to sneak out for it. My favorite was the Reese’s Cup, and there was nothing better than sitting under the house with a sack full of Cups, nibbling the edges first, gobbling the middle next, licking any wayward chocolate off the fingers last.

I say “under the house” not in reference to a finished basement. The large, spacious crawl space proved to be a great hideout for a boy with contraband candy, though it was also popular with the spiders, both the black widow and brown recluse varieties.

But there was nothing worse in candy land than getting stale Reese’s.

And it’s still the worst. You know what I mean: the package has been on the shelf too long, or has gotten too hot, or too cold, or too dry. There is no difference in texture between the chocolate and peanut butter. Flaky peanut butter. Chalky chocolate.

But, there is hope. You can avoid the trauma of biting into a stale Cup. Let me explain.

“Normal” Reese’s are always available in drug stores, gas stations, and checkout-line displays everywhere. But at certain times of the year, Reese’s makes special Cups to go along with a particular occasion. For instance, for Valentine’s Day, there are Reese’s hearts. For Easter, there are Reese’s eggs.

I know: how can a bunny lay a peanut butter and chocolate egg?

There are Halloween pumpkins and Christmas trees. You get the picture.

I’m still waiting for the St. Patrick’s day leprechauns, Independence Day firecrackers, and Thanksgiving turkeys.

Even without those additions to the Reese’s schedule, special peanut butter cups are so regular that we don’t need calendars any longer: we simply walk into the nearest Wal-Mart and observe which type of Reese’s are on sale.

So, you Reese’s Cup aficionados: two great tastes taste great together only when they’re fresh.

20February2016

The Pope and the Bread & Butter Fallacy

Written By robfaircloth

I had already written “How Would Jesus Govern?” (posted here a couple of days ago) when the imbroglio between Pope Francis and Donald Trump temporarily took over the news cycle February 18.

Other matters now figure prominently in the news, yet the Pope’s criticism of Trump’s wall serves to illustrate the point that it is much too easy for politicians and religious figures to play the “Christian’s Can’t” trump card, combining theological categories with political possibilities (pun intended).

Pope Francis, critical of Donald Trump’s plan to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico to prevent illegal immigration, said that while he gives Trump the “benefit of the doubt,” nevertheless “A person who thinks only of building walls, wherever they may be, and not building bridges, is not Christian.”

This is the trump of all trump cards, in that the Pope goes much further than saying a Christian should not favor physical barriers on international borders or that the Christian should favor open borders between nations. Instead, he went so far as to say that those who would consider a border wall are not Christian.

In orthodox Christian belief, most would agree that the one who denies that Jesus came in the flesh is not Christian. The one who denies that Jesus is God is not Christian. The one who denies that Jesus is the only way of salvation is not Christian. The one who denies that Jesus earned righteousness and bore man’s penalty for unrighteousness by dying on the cross is not Christian.

These matters, and a few others, relate to the fundamentals of the faith, where fundamental means an aspect of the faith that is necessary for it to remain the same faith.

However, one will search long in the Bible (our guide to faith and practice) for any hint that one’s perspective on international politics and immigration is necessary to saving faith, or even remotely determinative of whether one inherits eternal life.

Border policy, in terms of theological litmus testing, might just rank below the number of angels who could fit on the head of a pin and the sequence of end times events.

So, what did the Pope mean, and why should Christians — particularly Protestant Christians — care about it?

The Possibility

It is possible that the Pope’s declaration, given a generous interpretation, bears some truth.

In a sense, a spiritual barrier or chasm (“wall”) exists between sinful humans and the holy God. This chasm must be “bridged” by One who is both holy and human, the man Jesus Christ. And those whose way to God has been bridged by Jesus Christ are set on the task of helping others find the bridge, as well.

In fact, a popular evangelistic tract uses this bridge imagery to great effect.

In this sense, then, Christians should be in the business not of building bridges but of declaring the bridge between God and man, and of building not physical bridges but relational bridges between man and man.

The Context

Whatever truth might inhere to the Pope’s statement, though, he offered it in reference to Trump’s border wall policy. Because context is key, his statement must mean something with regard to physical walls and bridges.

The Problem

But if he was not speaking in a purely spiritual sense, which the context suggests, his statement becomes quite incoherent, and eminently impractical.

This is so because we all build or use walls every day, when we enter our homes. Walls designate which is your space and which is mine, and prevent unrestricted and unauthorized travel between them. Walls keep inmates in their cells, convicts in prison, thieves out of Fort Knox, and assassins out of the White House.

Additionally, very few of us have had even a minor hand in building an actual bridge. Is the Pope calling on believers to change vocations?

The Inconsistency

And, as many have pointed out, the Pope himself benefits from a wall around the Vatican, which, like the walls in our homes, prevents unrestricted and unauthorized travel by those outside to the spaces inside.

The Conclusion

Was the Pope, then, being intentionally vague? He did seem to relish the opportunity to show himself a “political animal.” We expect politicians to make statements that lend themselves to favorable interpretations by all constituents, much like the message in our fortune cookie or daily horoscope can fit virtually any situation.

But we should not expect such imprecision from as prominent a religious figure as the Pope.

Pope Francis has committed what I like to call the “Bread & Butter Fallacy,” in which a statement from the Bible, or spiritual truth, is offered as proof that one must support a certain conclusion related to civic life, just as directly as one would spread a pat of butter right on a slice of bread.

The Pope equated building a border wall with building a spiritual wall, and equated building a spiritual bridge with removing (or not building) a border wall.

Here are a few additional examples of the Bread & Butter Fallacy: Jesus said “turn the other cheek,” therefore, we should all be pacifists; God said “love your neighbor as yourself”, therefore, we should provide free college education; “God loves a cheerful giver”, therefore, tax rates should be high.

In these examples, the conclusion is deemed self-evident from the premise, but errors are made because crucial steps of reasoned application are omitted especially failing to recognize the difference between personal and governmental application. (This type of reasoning might also commit the faulty appeal to authority, apples-to-oranges, and non sequitur fallacies).

Biblical truth might occasionally support the civic conclusions reached by those who propose them, but Christians should avoid the Bread & Butter Fallacy, and should be able to detect when others are making it.