Recently in Biblical Thinking Category

How often do we think of theology as an impractical exercise?  I think, at least in part, the issue is that we have been inadvertently taught that.  People say, "I want practical things, not theology."

Theology IS practical, though.  The problem is it takes some effort to put "feet" on the ethereal theological point we're considering.

In Make Adoption a Wonderful Choice, Laura Godwin, Director of Carolina Hope Adoption Agency, writes on September 11, 1997, "Recently, The Greenville News published an article and cited the number of U.S. children in foster care: more than half a million. Most children who enter foster care do so as a result of neglect, not abuse. And this neglect is often because a single mother cannot properly care for her child due to limited resources as well as alcohol and drug abuse."

The article is a good read and the pursuing discussion is gripping. Andrea, one commenter, says, "The problem is these days all to [sic] often women with very little resources are encouraged to give their babies to another family who have more resources materially. This is not in the babys best interests."

Do you agree?

In his third installment of his series Iconography Of The Gospels, David (aka. Lingamish) presents a few insights as to what makes the Four Gospels distinct from each other.

Mark: The Only Gospel
"Although we call them all “gospels” only Mark actually calls his account a gospel..."

Matthew: A Second Pentateuch
"Matthew begins... 'The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, Son of David, Son of Abraham.' Matthew is in many ways modeled on the Law and The Prophets."

Luke: A Greco-Roman Narrative
"Luke begins his “gospel” by calling it ... a narrative."

John: A Second Creation
"The opening of John echoes the opening of the book of Genesis."

Summary
"The discourse genre of each of these accounts of the life of Christ gives us some hint as to their particular distinctives...."

"What is it about the Matthew, Mark, Luke and John that distinguishes them from one another in your eyes?"

Read the short fascinating article here.

Suzanne Hadley discusses in her article Common Law Church about the need for formal church membership. She states, "... My relationship with my church effectively becomes like a common law marriage; I'm living the commitment minus the binding contract."

(HT: Seeking Him).

"And, of course, people are interested only in themselves. If a story is not about the hearer he will not listen. And I here make a rule--a great and lasting story is about everyone or it will not last. The strange and foreign is not interesting--only the deeply personal and familiar" ~John Steinbeck - East of Eden p270.

(HT: Phil Ryken)

As seen on the News Net 5 (of Cleveland/Akron) website, here is a video interview with Alistair Begg

(HT: William Dudding)

I'm sure by now most (if not all) of you have heard about Ted Haggard, the now former Senior Pastor of New Life Church in Colorado. He is a man who has been found guilty of sexual immorality, and as a consequence, he has been "appropriately and lovingly removed from ministry."

Please read the letters he and his wife, Gayle, wrote to the people of New Life Church in Colorado. Let this be a reminder for all of us that none of us is exempt from sin and shame. Let this serve as a warning for our own sakes! And let us rest in the grace God has given us in Christ for He paid the penalty for our sin and shame. And let us immerse ourselves in the Grace of God known to us by His Word.

So what can we do to keep ourselves from sin? Ted's letter shares a few ideas:

1) "When I stopped communicating about my problems..." - Accountability is more important than we realize.
2) "I am a deceiver and a liar" - We must be truthful of who we really are.
3) "Then, because of pride..." - It is far better to lose our pride than our very soul (Matthew 5:27-30).
4) "The public person I was wasn't a lie; it was just incomplete..." - Make your public persona be who you really are, not who you want people to see.
5) "Please forgive me..." - Continue to repent and believe. Repent from sin. Believe in Jesus your Savior.

Let us watch, not Ted or Gayle, but ourselves that we may not fall into the temptation by which Ted failed to endure.

Let me state right up front, I do not have the corner on Bible study. I do have, however, a few tips that I have found to be beneficial to me, and I thought I would pass them along.

Scripture as Story
I read Scripture as a grand story, the story of Redemption. When all of Scripture is read in this way, we will not see the individual stories as moral lessons or as mere examples of what to do and what not to do in life. "The Bible provides us with the basic story that we need in order to understand our world and to live in it as God's people. We know that it is one thing to confess the Bible to be the Word of God, but often quite another thing to know how to read the Bible in a way that lets it influence the whole of our lives. There can easily be a gap between what we say we believe and how we live. If God has deliberately given us the Bible in the shape of a story, then only as we attend to it as story and actively appropriate it as our story will we feel the full impact of its authority and illumination in our lives.

There thus is a lot at stake in how we understand the Bible to be speaking to us. If we view it as a single unfolding story, it can be tremendously exciting. Such a story invites us--compels us--to get involved. ... [Our] lives as individuals will take on new significance as parts of one whole life lived together in God's story. As we enter deeply into the story of the Bible, God will be revealed to us. We will also find ourselves called to share in the mission of God and his purposes with the creation. ... After all, the Bible claims to be nothing less than God's own true story of our world, and it calls us to appropriate this story for ourselves" (Bartholomew/Goheen The Drama of Scripture).

Doug Wilson speaks to Pietism and Piety saying, "Pietist homes may have rejected all kinds of things--cards, movies, slang, spicy foods, fiction, and all the rest of it, but these same homes are filled with anger, self-importance, lust, and ungodly abuse. Pietism is a white-washed tomb."

You can read the full (short) article here.