Three Habits to Prevent "Out of Sight, Out of Mind"

You’re familiar with the phrase, “out of sight, out of mind,” right? It summarizes a danger we all face - if friends moves away, will we just forget them? That does happen.

Or what about the challenges military families experience during deployments?  If a spouse is going to be gone for three months, or six months, or longer, how do the families at home keep those deployed close to their hearts when they’re not present physically? Marriages  have been wrecked when out of sight led to out of mind.

But the statement “out of sight, out of mind,” is not an inevitability, but only a danger. I have a dear friend I’ve known for over 40 years. In the last 20 years, he’s been “in sight” exactly three times, for only a week at a time. But we work hard to stay “in mind” through weekly phone calls and even more frequent emails and texts.

Donald Trump's Favorite Bible Verses

As you probably known, the presumptive Republican nominee for President is a tremendous Bible reader. “Nobody reads the Bible more than me,” he told Pat Robertson last February. This is one of the reasons, no doubt, that so many evangelicals have supported Mr. Trump: his tremendous love for God’s word.

Sometimes Mr. Trump has declined to mention his favorite Bible verses because “that’s very personal,” and everybody knows that Mr. Trump is a private person and doesn’t like to share anything that’s personal. (For example, his modest comments about his "hand size.")

Chapter Eight: "What About Gluttony and Divorce?"

In chapter 8, Kevin DeYoung lays out another argument of the revisionists: "You’re being selective about what sins you emphasize! How come you don’t condemn other sins – like gluttony or divorce?"

This is the “you’re a hypocrite!” argument. Supporters of same-sex marriage argue that the traditional view ignores other sins – like gluttony and divorce – and unfairly singles out homosexual behavior.

Chapter 3: Taking a Strange Book Seriously

Ongoing review of Kevin DeYoung’s What the Bible Really Teaches about Homosexuality. (Click the title for Amazon purchase.)

Chapter 3: Taking a Strange Book Seriously

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination (Leviticus 18:22).

If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both to them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death; their blood is upon them (Leviticus 20:13).

In chapter 3, DeYoung looks at the prohibitions about homosexuality in Leviticus. Critics of the traditional view of sexuality and marriage try to undermine the clear condemnation of homosexuality in Leviticus as if it, and indeed the Old Testament itself, were no longer applicable to New Testament Christians. DeYoung offers six reasons why the prohibitions of Leviticus cannot be set aside. For example he shows how Jesus referred to a verse from Leviticus (19:18) more than any other verse, and how both Peter and Paul quote the book to teach on holiness.

Obviously Jesus, Paul, and Peter found the moral obligations of Leviticus still binding upon Christians today.

A Quote: The reason for the prohibitions against homosexual behavior in the Mosaic law, and the reason the prohibitions are stated so absolutely, is because men were designed to have sex with women, not a man with another male. (p. 41)

Chapter 2: Those Infamous Cities

Just to remind: I'm reviewing Kevin DeYoung’s book What the Bible Really Teaches about Homosexuality which you can purchase by clicking on the title. 

Chapter 2: Those Infamous Cities

Genesis 19 records God’s judgment upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. (We get the term sodomy from the type of sin most associated with them.) DeYoung answers the revisionists who suggest that what led to the cities’ destruction by God was not homosexuality, but violence and social injustice.  He documents how Scripture itself (in Ezekiel 16 and Jude) and second century Jewish literature support
the traditional understanding of Genesis 19. God's wrath may have fallen upon Sodom and Gomorrah for many sins, but certainly homosexual practice was at the rotten center of it all.    

A quote: Sodom and Gomorrah were guilty of a great many sins; we don’t have to prove that homosexual practices was the only sin to show that it was one of them. (p. 38)

Chapter One: One Man, One Woman, One Flesh

This is another post in a series I plan to do about Kevin DeYoung’s excellent book What the Bible Really Teaches about Homosexuality. My plan is that for each of his twelve chapters, I’ll provide a short summary and a quote or two. (I’ll use his chapter titles for my blog post titles, too.)

My hope is that you’ll both be informed, and also that you’ll buy and read the book. Here.

Chapter 1. One Man, One Woman, One Flesh.

DeYoung proposes that God’s original design for marriage is one man, one woman, in a covenant relationship that is sealed by their physical union and which is capable of bearing children. He shows how traditional marriage is a symbol of God’s divine design in ways that other unions cannot be.

Now for a quote:

 “... monogamy makes sense only within this Genesis understanding of marriage. Apart from the complementarity of the two sexes there is no moral logic which demands that marriage should be restricted to a twosome… If marriage is simply the formation of a kinship bond between those who are committed wholly to one another, there is no reason why multiple persons or groups of people cannot commit themselves wholly to one another. There is no internal coherence to the notions of monogamy and exclusivity if marriage is something other than the reunion of two complementary and differentiated sexes…It’s because God made the woman from the man that she is also for the man (1 Cor. 11:8-9, 11-12). And it’s because the two – male and female – are divinely designed complements each for the other that monogamy makes sense and same-sex marriage does not."  (p. 31)

What Does the Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality?

I’ve not been blogging much lately, but I’m returning to some new posts because of an extraordinary book I’ve just read: Kevin DeYoung’s What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? This is an extremely timely topic because of the unique political climate in our country, and the pressure on evangelical Christians to change our views on subject that seemed settled and clear for thousands of years.

I hope you’ll consider reading this book. At 150 pages, the author speaks with wisdom, grace, and especially with biblical clarity. You can find the book on Amazon, though to be honest with you, even with Amazon Prime, it took two weeks to deliver. I wonder if the book’s title had something to do with the shipping delay. Still, please consider buying it. Here’s the link.

Russel Moore, President of The Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, says “This is the best book on this subject I have read. Every Christian…should read this book.”

Just an Old Bible

A pastor friend of mine told me when he’s called to do a funeral, he always asks to see the Bible of the person who has passed on.

My friend likes to see what passages they underlined or highlighted. What promises were precious to them, what notations are written in the margins? He tries to intersperse these into his funeral message.

What They Didn't Tell Me in Seminary

When I went to seminary, I learned that the Bible must be understood in its original context. So part of your task as a learner (and as a teacher) is to discover what a particular book or passage meant for the audience to whom it was originally written.

Makes sense, right?

Another thing I learned about studying and teaching the Bible is that you need to know the kind of literature it is. Is it poetry, or history, or prophecy? That will make a difference in understanding its meaning.

Also a good idea.

One more thing I learned about interpreting the Bible. You should look for transferable principles that apply to people of all times and cultures. Not everybody is going to be chained to a Roman guard, like Paul was, but we can all learn a lesson about being content in our circumstances because we trust in God.

Okay. So I appreciate all the tools I was given in seminary. They've been really helpful as I've studied and taught the Scriptures for many years.

But here’s what I was never told in seminary. The whole Bible, all of it, is about Jesus Christ. Really.

That’s what Jesus said. "You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me..." (John 5:39).

 Remember after the Resurrection, on the Road to Emmaus? And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself (Luke 24:27). Or later when He appeared to His disciples: Then he said to them, “These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you, that everything written about me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” Then he opened their minds to understand the Scriptures…(Luke 24:44,45--my emphasis).

We should be mindful of culture and context, and looking for principles is a good idea. But let’s always ask, “What does this teach me about Jesus?” May He "open our minds to understand the Scriptures," as He did for His first disciples. Because the Bible isn't meant just to give us some good advice. It's meant to reveal the Savior, and to point us again and again to Him.

The Weekly Puritan

Okay, my plan is to have a Puritan quote every week. So this is two weeks in a row. John Owen again. And remember my tip about reading Owen out loud.

So, in reading and studying the Bible, we ought to make every effort to search for the revelations of the glory of Christ in it as did the prophets of old. The glory of Christ is the ‘pearl of great price’ which we should make every effort to find (Matt. 13:45-46). And the Scripture is the ocean into which we dive to discover this pearl, or the mine in which we dig for its precious treasures (Prov. 2:1-5). Every sacred truth that reveals something of the glory of Christ to our souls, is a pearl or precious stone which enriches us. But when the believer discovers this pearl of great price itself, then his soul cleaves to it with joy. The Glory of Christ, p. 33.

Why do you read the Bible? Inspiration? Help to make it through the day? Principles for success? The Bible helps us with many things, but it is not primarily a book of inspirational quotes, a counseling text, or a self-help manual.

Jesus said “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me…” (John 5:39, ESV). Not just the New Testament, but all the Old Testament, too. “And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself” (Luke 24:27, ESV).

Let’s read the Bible, looking for Jesus. He’s all over the place, and always worthy of our admiration, praise, and worship.