Opus 2011-153, Whatever Happened to Dandruff?

I was taking a shower the other day and had what I call a “shower thought”:  What ever happened to dandruff.  Remember how it used to be a big thing.  We had the Dandruff Shampoo Wars between Enden and Head and Shoulders.  We were convinced that a few white specks on our black blazer would ruin our chances of marriage, family or career.  Happiness and success were riding on our shoulders.  Or not riding if you used the right shampoo.  It was serious.

Now the kids are concerned about being ashy.  I have kids who will stop in the middle of almost anything to take out a tube and smear some goop all over their body.  They are worried about being ashy.  I try to tell them I have never been refused service because I was ashy but it makes no difference.  They have their standards.

Or they have the standards of their peer group. 

Are we any better?  We seem to be more concerned about the phoney standards of our peers and the advertisers than the standards of God. 

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-152, Monday Pulpit: Where is Jerusalem

I am going to start a new category.  I find that at times I am really hit hard by something shared from the pulpit, lectern, I-pod, or pew.  If it sticks with me it might be worth passing on.  I am going to call this category “Monday Pulpit.”  Sometimes this will be as accurate a paraphrase as I can produce.  I might even have written something down.  Other times it will be the tangent that the Holy Spirit took me on with the catalyst of another’s thinking.  Maybe the Spirit will say something to you.  I believe it will be of use to me to rethink and imprint these ideas on my mind and heart.

Sunday the pastor was sharing this verse as an aside,

(Acts 1:8 NAS77)  but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth."

He read the verse and substituted local geography to get across the point that this applied to us today.  Nothing new here.  How this hit me was not particularly new either, but it was like hitting the “refresh” button on your screen.  I was reminded that this also could be broken down as “in your living room, in all your neighborhood and friends and even into the remotest parts of your workplace.” 

As I said, nothing really new in this but I find that I need to be reminded of the basics.

How are things in your living room?

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-151, New Terms: Calvinians

I used this term in the title of a previous post.  I don’t know if I have read it somewhere else or if I just made it up myself.  It isn’t so clever that many people could not have come up with it.

Calvinian is a combination of Calvinist and Arminian.  A Calvinian is someone who belongs to a church tradition that officially follows the teachings of John Calvin but often acts, preaches and teaches like an Arminian.

Calvinists officially accept the five points of Calvinism which are expressed in the acronym TULIP.

    Total depravity
    Unconditional grace
    Limited atonement
    Irresistible grace
    Perseverance of the saints

Arminians would agree with the first point and have serious disagreements about the other four, at least as Calvinists understand them.

I came across an acronym, FACTS, on an Arminian site called An Introspective of an Arminian Christian.

Freed to believe by God's grace
Atonement for All
Conditional Election
Total Depravity
Security in Christ

It is attributed to Dr. Brian Abasciano

As you can see, the only agreement is on total depravity.  All Christians believe that man is not just a sinner but is in a condition of original sin.  The others tend to be opposites.

Do you know where you stand on these doctrines and why?

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-150, Spiritual Gifts and Learning Styles

Just as science has learned the miracle of flight from studying the wings of birds designed by God and has not given Him credit, we find other areas where the secular world has caught on to things that have been revealed for centuries.  I want to look at one that is popular in education known as Learning Styles or Multiple Intelligences.

The basic idea is that people have different ways of seeing the world and understanding it.  They are intelligent in different ways.  An extreme example would be an idiot savant who can work miracles in music but can’t dress himself.  The opposite would be the Renaissance Man (or Mary Poppins) who is highly skilled in almost every area.

The application in education is that people learn in different ways so we should customize our teaching.  We all know people who never read the directions and yet can figure things out.  Others can’t do either but if you show them once they have it.  Some people do well with math but can’t read well.  This is why math and science tend to go together while English and history are interesting to the same people.  Even in mathematics the person who loves algebra will hate geometry because they appeal to different types of learning styles.

I wonder if this is just an application of the Biblical idea of spiritual gifts.  The Bible teaches that everyone is given at least one spiritual gift by the Holy Spirit.  When it comes to their area of giftedness, they are something else.  At the same time they might have a hard time understanding each other.  The clearest example of that are the gifts of knowledge and mercy.  Some people are naturally scholars and can lay it all out for you.  Others are very sensitive to people and their feelings and can really relate, but can’t explain how.  They are opposites.

As in learning styles, spiritual gifts can be taken to extremes.  Just because you don’t have one quality does not mean you don’t need some understanding of it.  For instance, just because you are a spacial learner doesn’t mean you don’t need to learn to read and write.  Or just because you have the gift of administration, it doesn’t mean you don’t need to witness.

Believers have nothing to fear from genuine science or other types of scholarship.  Much of what researchers discover we already know.  We serve the Creator.  He is the one who wrote the book.  Truth will win out in the end.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-149, Book Reviews: Letters and Papers from Prison

Today I finished Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Papers from Prison.  I will move on like I am leaving an old friend.  It has taken me a long time to get through it, not because it was boring but because I only seem to find time to read on weekends.  In addition to that it is ideally designed for devotional reading because it has many relatively short writings.

This is a book I would fully recommend.  He is writing as he is incarcerated in a Nazi prison.  It gives him a different perspective than those of us who complain about the little pricks of life.  He knew what bondage was about.  In spite of that he comes across as amazingly free and joyful.

I will probably refer back to this book from time to time.  I have taken notes as I read.  I expect to continue thinking about his ideas.  It is a book I would like to read again but at the rate I am going it may not happen in this life.

Get a copy.  Enjoy.  Be inspired by one of the Giants.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-148, The Modern Protagonist

I just put down another novel after a few chapters.  The plot line was interesting and I could tell it would be well written.  The problem was that I could not get into the story. I was too turned off by the main characters.  There was noone that I could wish success.  Let me describe them.

One was a young woman who had been to college and was now sitting at home living off her parents.  She was a regular pot smoker and it seemed to be totally casual.  Casual drug use was  assumed to be a normal part of life.  She had a history of casual sex.  She lied to her father and stole his fishing boat when he was out of town.

Another was a government agent who was supposed to be the secret agent type.  Nothing was developed to show that he was anything but an opportunist.

A third was a young scientist for a semi-government agency doing research on a trip to Mars.  He was depicted as an opportunist.  He was using secret material to advance his own personal career, material that had been illegally removed from the agency.  He made it a habit to go to bars, drink heavy and pick up some available babe for a one night stand.

Have you noticed this trend?  There is not sense of moral fiber or noble goals.  Everyone is selfish and out for themselves.  If I want that kind of cast all I need to do is talk to the people I work with.  These are the examples that people have today.  Is it any wonder that society is falling apart?  We can’t even create fiction worth emulating.

homo unius libri

Opus 2011-147, Salt or Tofu?

(Matthew 5:13 KJV)  Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

If you looked at modern Christians you might think that this verse is a mistranslation.  Everyone knows that salt is a bad thing.  It is one of the great evils of our daily diet.  It causes high blood pressure.  Every book I have read dealing with nutrition and health says, “Cut down on salt.”

Surely Jesus meant to say that we are to be the tofu of the earth.  I am not an expert on tofu because I usually only eat it when someone sneaks it into a recipe.  I have nothing against it.  It just isn’t on my radar.  My main conception of tofu is that it takes on the flavor of its surrounding ingredients.  In the KJV language, it has no “savour” to lose. 

Doesn’t that describe the modern church?  The mantra is to be “user friendly.”  We want the pagans of the world to come into our sanctuaries and feel comfortable.  We want them to feel accepted and be overwhelmed by our friendliness and concern for meeting their needs.  Have I got it right?  Does this mean that they should be free to bring their beer and boom boxes?

Does anyone see anything wrong with this picture?

The Bible does not describe the church as user friendly. 

(Romans 12:2 KJV)  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

I always love Phillip’s paraphrase here.  He says, “Don’t let the world squeeze you into its mold.”  The world should not be comfortable on the front pew of the church, or the back pew, or the parking lot.  It should be feeling the weight of sin and the need to repent.  That is not a product of comfort.  Remember that people are convicted of sin by the work of the Holy Spirit, not by your clever interior decoration and worship style.

We are to be witnesses to a holy, eternal God, not therapists concerned about self-esteem.

homo unius libri