How America Got So Mean

How America Got Mean Photo by Intricate Explorer (Unsplash) David Brooks wrote an important article for the Atlantic that was simply titled, “How America Got Mean.” His conclusion was both insightful and deeply disturbing. No one denies that we've become a mean-spirited culture. We've become increasingly rude and cruel and abusive and violent. Whether it’s toward a waiter at a restaurant, a nurse at a hospital, a teacher at a school or road rage on the interstate, we’ve become... mean. Coupled with this is our increasing lack of compassion and empathy for others. In 2000, two-thirds of American households gave to charity. In 2018, fewer than half did. As Brooks notes, there are many reasons offered for this. There’s the technology story—that social media is driving us all crazy. There is the sociology story—that we’ve stopped participating in community organizations and are more isolated. There is the demography story—that America, long a white-dominated nation, is becoming a much more diverse country; a change that has millions of white Americans in a panic. There is the economy story—that high levels of economic inequality and insecurity have left people afraid, alienated and pessimistic. And obviously, all of these are having an effect. But Brooks argues, and I agree, that the deepest issue is that we are no longer schooled in kindness and consideration. Which means we live in a world where people feel licensed to give their selfishness free rein. It’s all about morals. In a healthy society you have a web of institutions – families, schools, religious groups, community organizations and workplaces – that help form people into kind and responsible citizens. We don’t have that today. We don’t have moral formation, which, Brooks outlines, involves three things: first, helping people learn to restrain their selfishness; second, teaching basic social and ethical skills—things like welcoming a neighbor into a community or disagreeing with someone constructively; and third, helping people find a purpose in life. We used to be concerned with teaching and developing virtue—with molding the heart along with the head. This wasn’t just in schools, but rather throughout all of culture—Sunday school, the YMCA, Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. And here’s what’s important: what was taught along those lines was not seen as a matter of personal taste. There was an objective moral order, there was transcendent truth. Further, human beings were seen as creatures who were, by nature, sinners against that moral order. This isn’t about trying to paint the past in some airbrushed, overly nostalgic way. An emphasis on morality – past or present – doesn’t create perfect people. But what can be said is that any and all attempts at moral formation are now gone. Any sense of an objective moral order is gone. Any sense of transcendent truth is gone. We now have little more than radical individualism. Morality is not something that we find outside of ourselves in, say, a spiritual faith, or even within a community. It’s in ourselves. It’s our own voice. We are our own moral compass. Along with that is the rejection of any sense of being sinners. If anything, we are seen as naturally good. And psychology has replaced morality in terms of how to raise children. While psychology is all well and good, it’s goal – and specialty – is mental health, not moral growth. So you can even chart the decline of moral words in books, such as the words bravery, gratitude and humbleness. Or look at college students. Researchers have asked incoming college students about their goals in life for decades. In 1967, approximately 85% of college students said they were strongly motivated to develop a meaningful philosophy of life. By 2015, the number one goal was to make money. All this to say, as Brooks concludes, in a culture devoid of moral education, you have a generation growing up in a morally inarticulate, self-referential world. Whatever feels good to us is moral. We do what makes us happy. But that does not lead to a “You do you, and I’ll do me” world. Or, as we used to say, “What is true for you is true for you, and what is true for me is true for me.” What happens is that we become internally fragile. You have no moral compass to guide you, no permanent ideals to which you can swear ultimate allegiance. The psychiatrist and holocaust survivor Victor Frankl famously said, “He who has a ‘why’ to live for can bear with almost any ‘how.’” But those without a “why” fall apart when storms hit. Now play this out. If you are morally naked and alone, having no skills to know how or even why to be decent or kind to someone, what does that lead to? Couple this with how we see ourselves as the center of the universe. Social media has helped us become addicted to thinking about ourselves. We’re anxious and insecure. We’re sensitive to rejection. All of us this leads to triggers of distrust and hostility. When there is no moral framework, it leads to a breakdown of relationships. You become estranged from others. And sadness and loneliness often turn into bitterness. And violence. We get callous, defensive, distrustful and hostile. Now here’s where this plays into the political situation. Brooks notes that over the past several years, people have sought to fill the moral vacuum with politics and tribalism. We’ve become hyper-politicized. Ideology has replaced theology, even in the lives of Christians. Good and evil aren’t about the human heart—ithey’re about groups: us vs. them and good guys vs. bad guys. Morality isn’t about personal conduct, but rather where you are on the political spectrum. Much of it fueled by resentment. And that is how we got so mean. James Emery White Sources David Brooks, “How America Got Mean,” The Atlantic, August 14, 2023, read online.

 

The Cross and the Machine

After years of atheism, I went searching for the truth. I found Buddhism, then witchcraft, and eventually, Christianity.

PAUL KINGSNORTH DEC 25 ∙ GUEST POST

............

One evening, I was sitting in the kitchen of the house in which our coven had its temple. We were about to go in and conduct an important ritual. As we got up to leave, I felt violently ill. I was dizzy, I was sick, I was lightheaded. Everyone noticed and fussed over me as I sat down, my face pale. I had an overpowering feeling that I should not go into the temple. I felt I was being physically prevented from doing it. Someone had staged an intervention.

After that, there was no escape. Like C. S. Lewis, I could not ignore “the steady, unrelenting approach of Him whom I so earnestly desired not to meet.” How much later was it that I was finally pinned down? I don’t remember. I was at a concert at my son’s music school. We were in a hotel function room, full of children ready to play their instruments and proud parents ready to film them doing it. I was just walking to my chair when I was overcome entirely. Suddenly, I could see how everyone in the room was connected to everyone else, and I could see what was going on inside them and inside myself. I was overcome with a huge and inexplicable love, a great wave of empathy, for everyone and everything. It kept coming and coming until I had to stagger out of the room and sit down in the corridor outside. Everything was unchanged, and everything was new, and I knew what had happened and who had done it, and I knew that it was too late. I had just become a Christian.

None of this is rationally explicable, and there is no point in arguing with me about it. There is no point in arguing with myself about it: I gave up after a while. This is not to say that my faith is irrational. In fact, the more I learned, the more Christianity’s story about the world and human nature chimed better with my experience than did the increasingly shaky claims of secular materialism. In the end, though, I didn’t become a Christian because I could argue myself into it. I became a Christian because I knew, suddenly, that it was true. The Angelus that was chiming in the abyss is silent now, for the abyss is gone. Someone else inhabits me.

I am not a joiner, but I accepted, eventually, that I would need a church. I went looking, and I found one, as usual, in the last place I expected. This January, on the Feast of Theophany, I was baptized in the freezing waters of the River Shannon, on a day of frost and sun, into the Romanian Orthodox Church. In Orthodoxy I had found the answers I had sought, in the one place I never thought to look. I found a Christianity that had retained its ancient heart—a faith with living saints and a central ritual of deep and inexplicable power. I found a faith that, unlike the one I had seen as a boy, was not a dusty moral template but a mystical path, an ancient and rooted thing, pointing to a world in which the divine is not absent but everywhere present, moving in the mountains and the waters. The story I had heard a thousand times turned out to be a story I had never heard at all.

Out in the world, the rebellion against God has become a rebellion against everything: roots, culture, community, families, biology itself. Machine progress—the triumph of the Nietzschean will—­dissolves the glue that once held us. Fires are set around the supporting pillars of the culture by those charged with guarding it, urged on by an ascendant faction determined to erase the past, abuse their ancestors, and dynamite their cultural ­inheritance, the better to build their earthly paradise on terra ­nullius. Massing against them are the new ­Defenders of the West, some calling for a return to the atomized liberalism that got us here in the first place, others defending a remnant Christendom that seems to have precious little to do with Christ and forgets Christopher Lasch’s warning that “God, not culture, is the only appropriate object of unconditional reverence and wonder.” Two profane visions going head-to-head, when what we are surely crying out for is the only thing that can heal us: a return to the sacred center around which any real culture is built.

Up on the mountain like Moriarty, in the ­Maumturk ranges in the autumn rain, I had my own vision, terrible and joyful and impossible. I saw that if we were to follow the teachings we were given at such great cost—the radical humility, the blessings upon the meek, the love of neighbor and enemy, the woe unto those who are rich, the last who will be first—above all, if we were to stumble toward the Creator with love and awe, then creation itself would not now be groaning under our weight. I saw that the teachings of Christ were the most radical in history, and that no empire could be built by those who truly lived them. I saw that we had arrived here because we do not live them; because, as Auden had it:

We would rather be ruined than changed.
We would rather die in our dread
Than climb the cross of the moment
And let our illusions die.

It turns out that both the stuffy vicars and the trendy vicars were onto something: the Cross holds the key to everything. The sacrifice is all the teaching. I am a new and green pupil. I can talk for hours, but ideas will become idols in the blink of an eye. I have to pick up my cross and start walking.

How can I feel I have arrived home in something that is in many ways so ­foreign to me? And yet beneath the surface it is not foreign at all, but a reversion to the sacred order of things. I sit in a monastery chapel before dawn. There is snow on the ground outside. The priest murmurs the liturgy by the light of the lampadas, the dark silhouettes of two nuns chant the antiphon. There is incense in the air. The icons glow in the half-light. This could be a thousand years in the past or the future, for in here, there is no time. Home is beyond time, I think now. I can’t explain any of it, and it is best that I do not try.

I grew up believing what all modern people are taught: that freedom meant lack of constraint. Orthodoxy taught me that this freedom was no freedom at all, but enslavement to the passions: a neat description of the first thirty years of my life. True freedom, it turns out, is to give up your will and follow God’s. To deny yourself. To let it come. I am terrible at this, but at least now I understand the path.

In the Kingdom of Man, the seas are ribboned with plastic, the forests are burning, the cities bulge with billionaires and tented camps, and still we kneel before the idol of the great god Economy as it grows and grows like a cancer cell. And what if this ancient faith is not an obstacle after all, but a way through? As we see the consequences of eating the forbidden fruit, of choosing power over ­humility, separation over communion, the stakes become clearer each day. Surrender or rebellion; sacrifice or conquest; death of the self or triumph of the will; the Cross or the machine. We have always been ­offered the same choice. The gate is strait and the way is narrow and maybe we will always fail to walk it. But is there any other road that leads home? 

Meaning of Partridge in a Pear Tree

Meaning of Partridge in a Pear Tree

This is a Christmas Carol that has always fascinated me. What does a Partridge in a pear tree have to do with Christmas? From 1558 until 1829, Roman Catholics in Ireland and England were not permitted to practice their faith openly. Someone during that era wrote a carol as a catechism song for young Catholics. It has two levels of meaning; the surface meaning plus a hidden meaning known only to members of their church. Each element in the carol has a code for religious reality, which the children could remember . A Partridge in a Pear Tree The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus, the Son of God. In the song, Christ is symbolically presented as a mother that feigns injury to decoy predators from her helpless nestlings, recalling the expression of Christ’s sadness over the date of Jerusalem: Luke 13:34-35 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings …” In Summary:

• The turtle doves were the old and new testaments
• Three French hens stood for faith, hope and love
• The four calling birds were the four gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke & John
• The five golden rings recalled the Torah or Law, the first five books of the Old Testament
• The six geese a-laying stood for the six days of creation
• Seven swans a-swimming representing the sevenfold gifts of the Holy Spirit – Prophesy, Serving, Exhortation, Teaching, Contribution, Leadership and Mercy
• The eight maids a-milking were the eight beatitudes
• Nine ladies dancing were the nine fruits of the Holy Spirit – Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control
• The ten lords a-leaping were the ten commandments
• The eleven pipers piping stood for the eleven faithful disciples
• The twelve drummers drumming symbolised the twelve points of belief in the Apostles Creed.

Late / Great Planet Church

 Late / Great Planet Church

It’s not exactly news, but there are fewer people attending church now than before the pandemic. What we’re finding out now is just how big of a drop it was. According to a survey by the Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University, the percentage of people ages 39 to 57 who attended a worship service during the week, either in person or online, fell to 28% in 2023. That is down from 41% in 2020.

That.Is.A.Big.Drop.

So what happened?

Letter to Jesus - Profiles of the Disciples (Resumes)

 

Letter to Jesus

To: Jesus, Son of Joseph
Woodcrafter’s Carpenter Shop
Nazareth 25922

From: Jordan Management Consultants

Dear Sir:

Thank you for submitting the resumes of the twelve men you have picked for managerial positions in your new organization. All of them have now taken our battery of tests; and we have not only run the results through our computer, but also arranged personal interviews for each of them with our psychologist and vocational aptitude consultant.

The profiles of all tests are included, and you will want to study each of them carefully.

As part of our service, we make some general comments for your guidance, much as an auditor will include some general statements. This is given as a result of staff consultation, and comes without any additional fee.

It is the staff opinion that most of your nominees are lacking in background, education and vocational aptitude for the type of enterprise you are undertaking. They do not have the team concept. We would recommend that you continue your search for persons of experience in managerial ability and proven capability.

Simon Peter is emotionally unstable and given to fits of temper. Andrew has absolutely no qualities of leadership. The two brothers, James and John, the sons of Zebedee, place personal interest above company loyalty. Thomas demonstrates a questioning attitude that would tend to undermine morale. We feel that it is our duty to tell you that Matthew had been blacklisted by the Greater Jerusalem Better Business Bureau; James, the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus definitely have radical leanings, and they both registered a high score on the manic-depressive scale.

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One of the candidates, however, shows great potential. He is a man of ability and resourcefulness, meets people well, has a keen business mind, and has contacts in high places. He is highly motivated, ambitious, and responsible. We recommend Judas Iscariot as your controller and right-hand man. All of the other profiles are self-explanatory.

We wish you every success in your new venture.

Sincerely, Jordan Management Consultants

Eating Problems for Breakfast by Tim Hansel, Word Publishing, 1988, pp. 194-195

Gaining Trans-Sanity - Church & Culture J.E.White

 

Gaining Trans-Sanity

Recently, two polls laid bare the American stopping point with all things trans.   First, a Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) survey revealed an increase over the past two years in the belief that there are only two gender identities – man and woman – among religious groups.   This wasn’t simply “white evangelicals,” though their support of two gender identities went up from 86% to 92%. Hispanic Catholics went from 48% to 66%; increases also marked Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and, shockingly, even Unitarian Universalists.   Overall, about 65% of all Americans (up from 59% two years ago) say there are only two genders.   That’s not all.   Americans are also becoming far less supportive of transgender athlete participation in single-gender sports than they were two years ago. According to Gallup’s annual “Values and Beliefs” poll, currently 69% of Americans say transgender athletes should be restricted to sports teams and competitions that conform with their birth gender compared to 61% in 2021. Americans see the issue as having less to do with transgender civil rights and more to do with competitive fairness. Even among those who knew a transgender person, support fell for transgender athletes being able to compete with teams aligning with their gender identity.   Gallup also polled Americans on their general attitudes toward all things transgender and found that the majority considered changing one’s gender to be morally wrong—from 51% in 2021 to 55% in 2023.   In addition to the new polling, the European medical community – once in the vanguard of recommending medical interventions for gender dysphoria among minors – is now expressing doubts about taking that approach. Five countries – the U.K., Sweden, Finland, Norway and France – now recommend caution in using medical treatments, such as puberty blockers, for minors.    I did a three-part blog series on all things gender that you can read: “A Theology of Gender,” “The Transgender Issue” and “Children and Gender Identity.” Here’s the essence of the biblical teaching: 1) We are created male and female as part of God’s plan and intent; 2) Being male and female is rooted in biology—it is not something plastic, on a spectrum, to be determined by us, or based on gender identity or gender role; 3) We are a race of males and females, and that is rooted in how we were made; and 4) To violate that – to dishonor that – is a great and grievous offense to our creation and our Creator.    But we are seeing that you don’t have to be a Christ follower to share many of these convictions. Increasingly people are recognizing what Colin Wright, an evolutionary biologist at Penn State, and Emma Hilton, a developmental biologist at the University of Manchester, call in a Wall Street Journal op-ed piece, “The Dangerous Denial of Sex.” Their position can be summed up in a sentence: “Increasingly we see a dangerous and antiscientific trend toward the outright denial of biological sex.” They write that in current cultural thinking:

If male and female are merely arbitrary groupings, it follows that everyone, regardless of genetics or anatomy should be free to choose to identify as male or female, or to reject sex entirely in favor of a new bespoke “gender identity.”

And their response to that as scientists?

In humans, as in most animals or plants, an organism’s biological sex corresponds to one of two distinct types of reproductive anatomy.... In humans, reproductive anatomy is unambiguously male or female at birth more than 99.98% of the time.... No third type of sex cell exists in humans, and therefore there is no sex “spectrum” or additional sexes beyond male and female. Sex is binary.

All to say, in a healthy psychology, gender and sex are not something simply between our ears, but rather between our legs. Sexuality is not like a favorite color; it is hardwired into our being and was meant to be.    Which is why I am glad that we are starting to gain some trans-sanity.   James Emery White

The Castle and the Wall (JEW)

 The Castle and the Wall

The annual gathering of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) concluded last week having dealt with much on their plate: the election of a president, reporting (and lack thereof) of sexual abuse, and the financial mismanagement of seminaries.

But without a doubt the most attention was given to the disfellowshipping of a handful of churches who had women serving as pastors. One church was front and center: Saddleback Community Church, one of the largest and most influential SBC churches in recent history, pastored by arguably the most well-known SBC pastor in recent history until his recent retirement, Rick Warren.

Women as Pastors (jew)

The debate on this largely revolves around a single passage in Paul’s first letter to Timothy: “A woman should learn in quietness and full submission. I do not permit a woman to teach or to assume authority over a man; she must be quiet” (I Timothy 2:11-12, NIV).

The "Good" in Good Friday (Jim ERery White)

 

“Good” Friday

Photo by Pixabay (Pexels)

good adj. better, best a) a general term of approval or commendation; b) suitable to a purpose; effective; c) producing favorable results; beneficial   The amazing thing about Good Friday is that it was – and is – part of the “good” declared by God at creation. “God saw all that he had made, and it was very good” (Genesis 1:31, NIV). The Fall was not good; sin, disobedience and suffering are not good. But God’s purpose in creation and the redemptive drama that ensued were – and are – good.   Some would put God in the dock for placing such a burden on human life—that through our creation and giving us free will He knew the suffering we would experience. What is less noticed is how God always knew of Good Friday. In the rapture of creation, the cross loomed large. Yes, there would be suffering, but none more so than for God Himself.    C.S. Lewis writes:

God, who needs nothing, loves into existence wholly superfluous creatures in order that He may love and perfect them. He creates the universe, already foreseeing—or should we say “seeing”? there are no tenses in God—the buzzing cloud of flies about the cross, the flayed back pressed against the uneven stake, the nails driven through the mesial nerves, the repeated incipient suffocation as the body droops, the repeated torture of back and arms as it is time after time, for breath’s sake, hitched up. If I may dare the biological image, God is a “host” who deliberately creates His own parasites; causes us to be that we may exploit and “take advantage of” Him. Herein is love. This is the diagram of Love Himself, the inventor of all loves.

What an ultimate “good” this must have been; declared at creation, consummated on Golgotha. But it wasn’t a good designed for God. There is no good to be added, or deficit to be addressed, in His being.    It was a good for us.   Many books have come out of late portraying the heart of God toward us as a lover pursuing the beloved, a fairy tale where God is the prince and we are the maiden. “Suppose there was a king who loved a humble maiden,” begins Soren Kierkegaard, who first fashioned the popular analogy.

The king was like no other king. Every statesman trembled before his power. No one dared breathe a word against him, for he had the strength to crush all opponents. And yet this mighty king was melted by love for a humble maiden. How could he declare his love for her? In an odd sort of way, his kingliness tied his hands. If he brought her to the palace and crowned her head with jewels and clothed her body in royal robes, she would surely not resist—no one dared resist him. But would she love him?   She would say she loved him, or course, but would she truly? Or would she live with him in fear, nursing a private grief for the life she had left behind? Would she be happy at his side? How could he know? If he rode to her forest cottage in his royal carriage, with an armed escort waving bright banners, that too would overwhelm her. He did not want a cringing subject. He wanted a lover, an equal. He wanted her to forget that he was a king and she a humble maiden and to let shared love cross the gulf between them. For it’s only in love that the unequal can be made equal.

Yes, this is the heart of God, and He is on just such a mission.   But the deeper truth lies in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables. We are not a beautiful maiden. There is nothing becoming in us whatsoever. Instead, we are desperately criminal, and the only rescue grace would bring would demand storming the Bastille in which we are rightfully held. This is precisely what He did. “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8-9, NIV).   And that’s an even better story. And it’s the one story that the world does not already have, and most needs to hear.   James Emery White

Church of England Approves of Gay Marriage

 And Here We Must Stand

Last week the Church of England approved blessings for gay couples. The three voting houses of bishops, clergy and laity voted on the proposal in an all-church body known as Synod. In a joint statement by Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York, “For the first time, the Church of England will publicly, unreservedly and joyfully welcome same-sex couples in church.” Separately, Cottrell added that same-sex couples “could now come to church and have that relationship acknowledged, celebrated and the couple receive a blessing.”

How can you simultaneously celebrate and bless a marriage in the name of God while maintaining that it is not, in fact, a biblical marriage that God would endorse? That isn’t just doublespeak. That is a form of blasphemy. You can only bless what God has affirmed should be blessed, and only celebrate what God has affirmed should be celebrated. Homoerotic activity, much less gay marriage, is morally wrong. That may not be a cultural truth, but it is a biblical truth

Identity Politics: Guilt and the Scapegoat : Disappearance of Middle-Ground

 America is Sick : Fear and Guilt

Identity Politics: Guilt and the Scapegoat | OFFICIAL ESSAY | Dr. Joshua Mitchell

The Trouble with Parables - Ten Minute Bible

 

Little Bit of Greek

"Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables; he did not say anything to them without using a parable." Matthew 13:34   Last fall, Keith and I decided to teach a Bible study together. A priority was to pick a topic that was straightforward and easily organizable. Coordinating co-teaching is complicated, we wanted our subject matter to be simple.   Keith suggested Jesus's parables.......which, I now know, are the opposite of simple and straightforward.    Jesus's parables are SO hard to teach! First of all, experts are all over the place on what each parable means, so it's tough to figure out a starting place for your own study. Secondly, they are intentionally confusing. (Seriously!)   Parables are stories about the world designed to make you think (then rethink!). They don't fit neatly into systems because they're offering commentary on what Jesus is doing in the Kingdom of God-- which is a bit outside our human ability to comprehend.   Parables present a whole new way of seeing the world. They don’t answer the questions we bring to God, they tell us what we don't even know we need to know about how God and his creation work!   So how should you read this portion of the Bible? Remember three important things:   1. Jesus's parables further his mission to bring his kingdom. These confusing stories were the means by which Jesus ushered in his kingdom. They weren't illustrating abstract principles, they communicated God's heart to a waiting world, changing listeners' hearts in the process.   So instead of reading a parable asking "How does this apply to me?", start by investigating what the parable reveals about Jesus and his kingdom. This revelation will for sure have implications for you, but you're downstream from the story's main point.     2. Jesus's parables were delivered at a specific time and place. If Jesus had been born in 20th-century New York City, he'd surely have talked less about agriculture and more about...traffic? tourists? light pollution? (Idk, I'm from Missouri. I like the farm stories! ). But Jesus was in first-century Palestine trying to meet his listeners where they were. Though they still didn't always know what he was talking about, we have to do even more legwork than they did to understand.    This means that to read the parables well, we need to understand the historical context and the original audience. Notice their recorded responses, interpretations, and follow-up questions. Resist the temptation to map your values and expectations onto the original audience’s experience.   3. Jesus's parables demand a response. By choosing to present info about the Kingdom of God as open-ended stories, Jesus invites his listener to engage with him and determine for themselves where they stand. When you read the parables, notice the effect they're having (on you and on the original hearers). Is it reminding, provoking, refining, confronting, disturbing?    When Jesus describes the kingdom, he makes pretty extraordinary claims→ positioning himself as the one who forgives sin and judges right from wrong, upsetting assumptions, challenging the status quo. For people who are really listening, a neutral response is not an option. Either they hear, believe, and their whole life changes. Or they walk away in denial.    The question stands. There's no middle ground when it comes to God's Kingdom. So, what do you say?   No neutral response doesn't mean 100% certainty! On Monday's episode, Keith discusses the role that doubt plays in the Christian faith: Is it OK to Doubt God? | New Testament | Matthew 11

in HebrewHVHN_ Meaningn

LORD in Ancient Hebrew - YHVH" 

TSBT - The Torah (One YEAR in the Torah

 The TORAH

Ten Second Bible Talk (#TSBT) 

 

This week on TMBT: the end of Deuteronomy!

 

Y'all. We made it through the Torah!!  That's 187 chapters across five books in the Bible!

(Who else discovered they'd been sleeping on Leviticus? )

 

To celebrate, we're taking a page from Spotify's book with Torah Wrapped. Check out some stats from our journey through the OT. I've also got a timely spiritual practice for y'all this week. 

TORAH Wrapped

Way back in January 2022, TMBT started its journey through the Torah (and the TMBT Newsletter was born to help answer the question, 'What the heck is going on here?'). Between the podcast and the newsletter, we covered a lot of ground.    3 Truths from the Torah: Jensen's TMBT episode today provides a helpful time to reflect on what the Torah teaches us today. Here are three truths she identifies: God is telling a bigger story. Humans are not the hero. God is always faithful! Listen to the full episode: Lessons From a Year in the Torah   Some "Wait, What? " Moments: The Bible (especially the OT) def has tricky parts. Because we're separated from events in the Torah by language, culture, and time, it's tough to know what we don't know. This, in turn, makes it hard to know what to think about those seemingly problematic parts of the Bible.    To name a few: Do angels have sex with humans to create a scary giant race? Was God cool with Jacob having 2 wives? Does that mean he thinks polygamy is okay?? Why does the Day of Atonement include sending a goat to the desert god Azazel? Remember these two guiding principles as you seek to understand these strange parts: The inclusion of information in a story doesn’t mean it’s good. It means it happened. God is consistent. If something seems off, it might be your understanding of what's going on.   Songs Studied: Music allows us to remember and internalize truths differently than we do when we read or hear about them.  This means listening to songs about God and faith can help us learn in different ways.   Here are some songs we studied in the TMBT Newsletter: "Be Thou My Vision" by Audrey Assad "Psalm 126" by Sojourn Music "Jesus is More" by Crossing Music "Sweet Comfort" by Sandra McCracken "Cast Your Cares" by Guvna B "Promises" by Maverick City Music   Your Time in the Torah: If you kept up from the beginning of the Torah series, you listened to Ten Minute Bible Talks for 31 hours, 57 minutes, and 20 seconds!   Real talk: God is currently working through the time you spent learning about his word, changing your life. Keep it up!  Practice a Spiritual Practice Tomorrow is Thanksgiving here in the U.S. In my family growing up, it was a time to eat lots of food and share something you're thankful for around the dinner table.    Though Thanksgiving is a national holiday, it provides an intentional opportunity for followers of Jesus to live out Paul's exhortation:   Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18   Notice the three things we should be doing *all the time*. So when you're doing any of these, Jesus's will is that you do all of them: Rejoice Pray Give Thanks Why does God want these things for you? Imagine what your life would be like if you were constantly rejoicing, praying, and giving thanks.   Your brain would be so full that there'd be no room for worry, fear, selfishness, or any other icky thoughts. You'd be completely aware of God's presence because you'd never stop talking to him and delighting in him. You'd see your whole life through the lens of his goodness and provision.    Tbh, it sounds too good to be true. (Or at least, easier said than done.)   I think the struggle to do any one of these (rejoicing, praying, giving thanks) comes with the fact that we often try to tackle them one at a time. In reality, they each inform and inflate each other.     So this week, celebrate Thanksgiving by giving all of this passage of Thessalonians a shot.   This week's challenge: Give Thanks. Don't just "give thanks" in some abstract way. Instead, intentionally tell God about how thankful you are, listing the many ways he's blessed your life. Then spend time emotionally processing each one, creating space to notice how the things that trigger thankfulness make you feel.   Here's how: Over the holiday weekend, set aside time for you and God. Write out a list of things you're thankful for, big and small.  Pray slowly through each item on the list, telling God about why you're thankful for it.  Answer questions like, "What does this add to or make possible in my life?", "How is God involved in this?", "Why did God give me this good gift?" Once you've worked through the list, notice how you feel about God in light of his good gifts. Tell him about it.  God is moving in your life. The more you give thanks, the more you'll notice to be thankful for. And the more you bring these to God in prayer, the more you'll experience his presence. You'll be rejoicing in no time!