When I was young I would spend my Saturday mornings planted in front of the television. I wasn’t much into cartoons; I found them only mildly entertaining. Instead I loved to watch old black and white movies; Topper, Around the World in 80 Days, The Canterbury Ghost. Every once in awhile there wouldn’t be anything interesting so I would resort to the weekly Abbott and Costello movie. Talk about frustrating! Watching Abbott try to make Costello understand the nicknames of the ballplayers on a playing field would make me a bit nutty. Who. Why. I don’t know. I don’t really care!
At times I feel just as nutty when trying to communicate scriptural truth to someone. I know they are believers and that the Holy Spirit is working His word down deep into their hearts. But for some reason I sense I might be speaking completely past them.
Beyond the obvious need of the Holy Spirit for interpretation of God’s Holy Word, context is of utmost importance. In “Notice the Famine? How Your Location Impacts Your Bible Interpretation” Trevin Wax states (among other things),
“We must be aware of the social context of our listeners and consider not only what we mean to say but how it might be heard. In order to get our intended meaning across, we must know the people we are preaching to and be able to understand how they hear us.”
This is especially true of us ‘seasoned’ ladies when we communicate with the younger generation. For instance, if you’re under 40 you probably wouldn’t consider “who’s on first” comical! If you’re one of those confused by that last sentence you can watch the Abbott and Costello skit here. For those seasoned gals looking for insight regarding social context, click the heading or here to read Trevin’s article. You are welcome to watch Abbott and Costello as well ;o)
We have successfully completed phase I and phase II of our moving process! Thank you one and all for your prayers, concern and help. We sold our home April 1 and moved to our temporary apartment May 2. Then there was the storing of our goods, repairs on the sold home, inspections, more repairs and a bumpy closing. Oh. And between April 1 and May 2 both of us were traveling – me 14 days, Bob 21 days.
I. am. Dizzy. And sore!
While Bob and I are excited for the future and confident of the decision and timing of this move, we are nonetheless grieving loss. The housing market may have made a turn upward; it just wasn’t UP quite as much for us. I’m pretty sure I let that loss affect my attitude during the whole process, quite likely also the reason my attitude stunk during closing.
Had I remembered this article on the Desiring God blog, “How Christians Prepare for Suffering,” I might not have seen those large red letters “LOSS” as detrimental.
Now I don’t want to minimize the importance of this biblical truth and how it relates to real, difficult, genuine suffering by likening it to my measly loss. However Paul’s words,
“But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.” Philippians 3.7-8
are applicable to ALL the worldly things we (I) need to consider GAIN when we (I) lose them.
LOSS! beautiful home….gain more of Christ
LOSS! money on the transaction…gain more of Christ
See where I’m going with this? Jonathon Parnell states in the article that this is normal Christianity, “To consider Jesus better than everything else in the world is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian.”
This, my dear sisters, is one of the most God glorifying pursuits of preparedness….
This is a couple weeks late (hey. I was moving) but I wanted to first, encourage you as a mom (if you are one) and second, encourage you as a theologian (to everyone in your life that you influence!) That was a really long sentence.
Oh well.
So this blogger wrote about how, long before he went to seminary, his mother taught him all the theology he really needed to know. She did not attend seminary and, as this youth minister states, “I don’t recall us owning a single systematic theology text in the home before I bought mine in seminary.” Instead, he says, “Mom learned what she knew from a lot of Bible studies, personal reading, and a lot of hours listening to sermon tapes from Bible teachers.”
You may never make it over to RTS to take a class or spend an afternoon curled up with Pilgrim Theology. However your consistent positioning before the ordinances of grace nourishes both you and those in your care.
Who are you shaping? How are you shaping them? As spiritual mom’s, “Your primary job is, by implicit example and explicit instruction, to point [your child] to Christ in all that you do.”
Happy Theologians Day!
At one of the first Sunday evening services I attended at Christ Covenant, John Haines asked for volunteers to recommend a hymn they loved which the whole congregation could sing. I was amazed at the congregation’s knowledge of hymns and their numbers! I can barely memorize scripture…
Anyway, Toni Grove shouted out “295!” and I dutifully turned the pages. Revive Us Again was a hymn completely unfamiliar to me. Again, that’s not saying much. However since that night I would have to say it is one of my (now) all-time favorites.
We praise Thee, O God! For the Son of Thy love, For Jesus Who died, And is now gone above.
Refrain: Hallelujah! Thine the glory. Hallelujah! Amen. Hallelujah! Thine the glory. Revive us again.
We praise Thee, O God! For Thy Spirit of light, Who hath shown us our Savior, And scattered our night.
All glory and praise, To the Lamb that was slain, Who hath borne all our sins, And hath cleansed every stain.
All glory and praise, To the God of all grace, Who hast brought us, and sought us, And guided our ways.
Revive us again; Fill each heart with Thy love; May each soul be rekindled With fire from above.
Revival has been thrown around as a desire in many of the religious circles I have been a part of over the years. Typically it’s thought of as an awakening; a spiritual renewal in America where the tide shifts away from a liberal agenda back to one that is more conservative.
The Psalm that William Mackay used for inspiration to write this song, however, likens revival to our ability to rejoice in the Father (not some political movement to the right!)
“Will you not revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?’ Psalm 85.6
I couldn’t decide which version to share so click the title Hym.nol.ogy for the Hymns of Hope version. Click here for a good-ole deep throat Statler Bros version courtesy of the Gaither’s.
Gotta love the Gaithers.
“Our problem in obeying God is not that we don’t understand him, but that we do understand him and don’t like what he says.” Tim Challies
