Why would a Christian man spend time looking at pictures and thinking about driving a Kia Picanto, when God has given him a BMW 750?
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The Proverb for Today?
Proverbs 6:32
But whoso committeth adultery with a woman lacketh understanding: he that doeth it destroyeth his own soul.
In my sermon series on Bibliology, the nature of the Bible (“That Book in Your Hand”), I did not preach on the canon of Scripture, but I’ve gone into a lot more depth on Bibliology on this blog than I did in my sermons. No study of Bibliology is really complete without looking at the canon, so I’d like to take a post for this topic.
I Corinthians 6:12
All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.
Meet Leechblock. This is a productivity tool that allows you to block certain sites at certain times of the day. Even if you don’t need help with “productivity,” it can have immense value for Christians struggling with self-control.
If you find value in remaining a member of a silly and addictive site such as Facebook (I don’t CARE if you disagree with me on the value of FB :)), but find you can’t keep off it when you shouldn’t be there, Leechblock is for you. If you keep going back to THAT blog, or that news site, and you actually really have use for going there when appropriate, but struggle with self-control, this is a gift for you.
If it is ok for you to go there, but not stay there for an hour, have it shut you down after ten minutes, or whatever you set.
If you don’t use Firefox but lack of self-control in this is a problem for you, perhaps getting help with self-control is more important than browser preference. I understand that Chrome has a similar extension.
What is worse than lacking self-control?
Lacking self-control
and being too stupid to admit it
and take advantage of available help to bring it under control.
From my email inbox:
“Depend upon it, we have no life-force to spare, and everything which lessens our consecrated energy is a robbery of God. ”
C. H. Spurgeon
We started our study on Job last night. One quick thought today: Satan couldn’t do anything to Job that God didn’t allow. Often we stop there, but let’s go one step further.
Satan didn’t start the conversation in Heaven about Job. God did. God knew what Satan would say and do, how Job would respond, and that Satan would want to do even more.
Knowing all that, God started the conversation. He didn’t just allow it all, He planned and set the events in motion.
Why? Wrong question — the book of Job wasn’t really written to answer that.
So also in our lives, we often don’t know “why.” We’re left, like Job, to trust without knowing why. Part of love is learning to trust even if you don’t know or understand everything the other person is doing.
Related: Why do Bad Things Happen?
I have been examining the thinking behind a common expression in Christian writing: “The oldest and best manuscripts say….”
Modern New Testament Textual Criticism (NTTC) is “the study of ancient manuscripts to try to discover the original text of Scripture.” Today, I’ll begin to assess the worst rule of NTTC. I won’t start with the rule, because it is rarely, if ever, stated. I’ll start instead with the faulty assumption, often stated, that drives the rule:
Very early New Testament scribes weren’t careful.
I return to my discussion of New Testament Textual Criticism (NTTC), “the study of ancient manuscripts to try to discover the original text of Scripture.” I want to examine the thinking behind a common expression in Christian writing today: “The oldest and best manuscripts say….”
Today, I’m taking a brief look at the very words of this “oldest and best manuscripts” assertion, before moving on to look at some of the other rules of NTTC in later posts.
Mind Renewers 