Sunspots 431

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Humor: (or, for some of us, deadly seriousness) 10 myths about introverts.

Politics: Wired has an article about officers who believe that there is systematic incompetence at the highest levels of the military.

Science: In case there was any doubt, an article in Answers Research Journal, from Answers in Genesis, one of the leading Young-Earth Creationist organizations, concludes that "we can have confidence that the universe really is as large as astronomers claim."

In case there was any doubt, and I know that there is, NOAA has issued a report on the effects of climate change. The US had the warmest year ever recorded, and world-wide sea level was higher than ever previously recorded.

The American Geophysical Union, a large association of scientists who study the earth, including climate, has placed the blame squarely on us: "Human-induced climate change requires urgent action. Humanity is the major influence on the global climate change observed over the past 50 years."



Image source (public domain)

Books about the holocaust for young people (and others)

I recently read two books, aimed at "young people," but certainly worth reading by others. Both of them are about the holocaust, the execution of millions of Jews and others by the Nazis, in Germany, during World War II.

The two books, and their authors, have Wikipedia articles, which indicates their importance, and which you, the reader of this blog, can consult, if you wish to know more about the plots than I plan to give away.

Milkweed, by Jerry Spinelli, follows the life of a boy, perhaps eight years old, who doesn't know anything about his parents. However, Mischa befriends a girl, younger than he, and follows her, and her parents and uncle, into the Warsaw Ghetto. There are several interesting features of the book. They include the prevalence of children, orphan children. There are lots of them, and somehow some of them survive. Another feature is the ubiquitous lice that get on people in the ghetto, and leave their eggs in hair. Another is that the Nazis are called jackboots, and some of their marching is described. There are instances of deep villainy, and also of selfless generosity. A minor character decides that he will become a Lutheran, rather than a Jew, because he hopes that this will deliver him from the horrors visited upon the Jews. The title comes because Mischa and his friend, Janina, see a milkweed plant, growing in the stark, bare, ghetto. They come to associate the seeds, with their fibrous parachutes, floating on the wind, with angels.

The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, is notable for several things. One of them is the narrator, who is the angel of death. He (I guess he, not she) is not intrusive, but has the power to be anywhere, especially where people are about to die. The story is about a girl of 8 or 9, Liesel Meminger. She is placed in foster care by the German authorities. She, nor her parents, are considered as Jews by the Nazis, but there are Jews around them, and the book is mostly about interactions of various kinds between Liesel and her foster parents, and Jews. Another is that the story begins before the second World War. Yet another notable feature is the effect of the bombing of German towns by the Allies. The book gets its name because Liesel picks up a book, a handbook for gravediggers, that was inadvertently dropped at a funeral. Eventually, her foster father teaches her to read from this book. In various ways, including theft, she obtains a few other books, and there are also two brief books, handwritten, and illustrated, by characters in the course of the novel. The author is trying to point out the importance of words -- Hitler's, or those of other people -- on those who read or hear them.

There are a some characters who surprised me by their good hearts, and self-sacrificial acts.

One warning -- there are a lot of German words for excrement in the book.

The Book Thief has been adapted as a film, which is supposed to be released this year.

Both books have a lot of wild running around by children, with some injuries, lots of defiance of authorities (some of which are illegitimate, but some not) and some narrow escapes.

For a recent post on another aspect of World War II in Germany, the (real) life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, see here.

Thanks for reading.

Do your cells belong to you? Maybe they do. Henrietta Lacks descendants recognized as having rights

Henrietta Lacks was a poor black woman who had cervical cancer, and eventually died of it, in 1951. Some cells from this cancer, taken without her consent, have been used in research for decades. It has been estimated that laboratories have many tons of cells derived from Mrs. Lacks. Some of those cells have been found in cell cultures supposed to have been free of them. The cells are known as HeLa cells, and I was taught, when in graduate school, that they were from a Helen Lane. Not so.

I have previously posted about this situation, especially about a book on the story, by Rebecca Skloot, entitled The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The Lacks story has ethical, medical, racial and other interesting aspects.

There is recent news. The Lacks family has now been given some voice in the use of the cells from their grandmother. See here and here for news stories on this matter. It's about time!

Prayer and Missions, by E. M. Bounds, part 3

It is all right to urge men to give of their means to the missionary cause. But it is much more important to urge them to give their prayers to the movement. Foreign missions need, today, more the power of prayer than the power of money. Prayer can make even poverty in the missionary cause move on amidst difficulties and hindrances. Much money without prayer is helpless and powerless in the face of the utter darkness and sin and wretchedness on the foreign field.

This is peculiarly a missionary age. Protestant Christianity is stirred as it never was before in the line of aggression in pagan lands. The missionary movement has taken on proportions that awaken hope, kindle enthusiasm, and which demand the attention, if not the interest, of the coldest and the most lifeless. Nearly every Church has caught the contagion, and the sails of their proposed missionary movements are spread wide to catch the favouring breezes. Herein is the danger just now, that the missionary movement will go ahead of the missionary spirit. This has always been the peril of the Church, losing the substance in the shade, losing the spirit in the outward shell, and contenting itself in the mere parade of the movement, putting the force of effort in the movement and not in the spirit.

The magnificence of this movement may not only blind us to the spirit of it, but the spirit which should give life and shape to the movement may be lost in the wealth of the movement, as the ship, borne by favouring winds, may be lost when these winds swell to a
storm.

Although E. M. Bounds died in 1913, this book was first published in 1925, by an admirer of the author's life. Bounds was known for praying from four until seven each morning.

This post is one of a series, taken from The Essentials of Prayer, by Bounds. Found through the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, here. The Essentials of Prayer is in the public domain. The previous post in the entire series on the book is here. Thanks for reading. Read this book, and, more importantly, practice, prayer. 

Thanks for reading.

Moses had a temper

Moses had to flee Egypt, because he took it on himself to punish an Egyptian who beat a Hebrew. The Bible doesn't say that Moses did this in anger. Perhaps he didn't. It also doesn't say that God told Moses to do this. It seems that Moses's first encounter with God took place later. (Exodus 3)

Exodus 11:8 says that Moses left Pharaoh's presence in anger. This was near the end of the plagues that God sent on Egypt, and there was reason for the anger--Pharaoh had promised to let the Israelites go over and over, and had recanted every time. God himself was angry with Pharaoh.

In Numbers 20:10-13, the Bible describes Moses striking the rock at Meribah, to bring out water for the Israelites. He may have been angry at this time. He didn't give God glory, according to this passage, and didn't believe in God's power.

Having a temper isn't necessarily sinful -- Jesus got angry at the people having a flea market at the temple, for example. But a selfish anger is sinful, and even Moses got caught by that.

Thanks for reading.

Are there any natural desires?

Are there any natural desires? The, er, natural response is to say, well, of course there are. Duh! Hunger, thirst, and sex come to mind.

An essay in First Things argues that there are no such things, or, rather, that they are tamed and channeled. For example, as the author says, ". . . The desire to know and see God is a configuration we can nurture or oppose."

The essay does deal with other desires, including hunger, and the very notion that there might not be any natural desires has brought out a number of interesting comments, as would be expected.

Thanks for reading. Read the essay.

Sunspots 430

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

The Arts: (and Animal Behavior) National Public Radio reports on a Thai orchestra. The members are retired work elephants.

Christianity: Ken Schenck points out the flaws in both communism and capitalism.

Computing: You probably know (and do) all this, but just in case, Gizmo's Freeware has published "Twelve Things You Need to Know About Internet Privacy."

Education: The Pew Research Center has published a study of how modern digital tools impact the writing of high school students.

Health: Two reports on dieting, from National Public Radio:
Fasting for two days can help lose weight.

How to get off the diet plateau.



Image source (public domain)

Let Party Names No More

    Let party names no more
      The Christian world o'erspread;
    Gentile and Jew, and bond and free,
      Are one in Christ, their Head.

    Among the saints on earth
      Let mutual love be found;
    Heirs of the same inheritance,
      With mutual blessings crowned.

    Let envy, child of hell!
      Be banished far away:
    Those in sweet fellowship should dwell,
      Who the same Lord obey.

    Thus will the Church below
      God's purpose ever prove;
    Where streams of endless pleasure flow,
      And every heart is love. - My source is here. This source says that the words were by a Benjamin Beddome, who died in 1795, which makes this public domain. The words may be sung to the tune usually used for "Blest be the tie that binds," and other tunes with appropriate meter.

Two articles on the danger of (only) Young-Earth Creationism

I recently read two articles on the danger of Young-Earth Creationism. What, you may ask, is this danger?

As Carolyn Arends put it, in Christianity Today: "If we've misread Genesis when we've taken it as a scientific account, and if it turns out God has used millions of years and evolutionary processes to make this world, then we've asked our children to believe something untrue as part of accepting the gospel. Couldn't that lead them to leave the church, when the cognitive dissonance between the empirical data and what we're asking them to believe becomes too great?"

The answer is that yes, it could. 

The other article is by a Christian geology professor, who was raised as a Young-Earth Creationist. As he went through college and graduate school, he saw that what he learned in geology was just not compatible with a recent age of the earth. He says that he has also ". . . seen students break down into tears as they stood on an outcrop of rock and saw evidence that contradicted what their church had taught them."

There is another danger, which neither author mentioned. That is that non-believers, who know some geology, will say, aloud, or to themselves: "Well, if the Bible teaches that the earth is only a few thousand years old, and it really isn't, why should I believe what the Bible teaches about sin and redemption?" Or, as a pastor in a university town put it, wondering why so few science majors attended his church, "the evangelical posture towards modern science has missional consequences."

I am not a geologist, but I have read some geologists, Christian geologists, who are convinced that there is no way that the rock layers and patterns on earth can be naturally explained, other than by many, many years of geological activity.

Glenn Morton, who had a career as a petroleum geologist, after receiving training from a YEC graduate institution, describes how he "was almost through with Christianity," after he found that the Young-Earth geology he had been taught did not work. He asked other professional geologists with YEC training if they had used that training in their work. They had all found the same thing -- YEC geology doesn't describe the way things really are. They weren't using YEC geology in their profession, because it didn't work.

It is possible that Young-Earth Creationism is correct, in spite of the geological evidence, and that God created the world with the appearance of great age. But if that were true, it would raise other questions.

Is Young-Earth Creationism definitely false? I can't say that, because I don't know for certain that it is. But better bible scholars than I have said that the Bible does not need to be interpreted as supporting that view. Read Arend for a brief discussion. Young-Earth Creationism should not be presented as the only valid Christian view on origins. Doing so runs the risk of driving away some of our youth, and of unnecessarily cutting off some unbelievers from the gospel.

Thanks for reading.

Prayer and Missions, by E. M. Bounds, part 2

The craftiest wile of Satan, if he cannot prevent a great movement for God, is to debauch the movement. If he can put the movement first, and the spirit of the movement in the background, he has materialised and thoroughly debauched the movement. Mighty prayer only will save the movement from being materialised, and keep the spirit of the movement strong and controlling.

The key of all missionary success is prayer. That key is in the hands of the home churches. The trophies won by our Lord in heathen lands will be won by praying missionaries, not by professional workers in foreign lands. More especially will this success be won by saintly praying in the churches at home. The home church on her knees fasting and praying, is the great base of spiritual supplies, the sinews of war, and the pledge of victory in this dire and final conflict. Financial resources are not the real sinews of war in this fight. Machinery in itself carries no power to break down heathen walls, open effectual doors and win heathen hearts to Christ. Prayer alone can do the deed.

Aaron and Hur did not more surely give victory to Israel through Moses, than a praying church through Jesus Christ will give victory on every battlefield in heathen lands. It is as true in foreign fields as it is in home lands. The praying church wins the contest. The home church has done but a paltry thing when she has furnished the money to establish missions and support her missionaries. Money is important, but money without prayer is powerless in the face of the darkness, the wretchedness and the sin in unchristianised lands. Prayerless giving breeds barrenness and death. Poor praying at home is the solution of poor results in the foreign field. Prayerless giving is the secret of all crises in the missionary movements of the day, and is the occasion of the accumulation of debts in missionary boards.

Although E. M. Bounds died in 1913, this book was first published in 1925, by an admirer of the author's life. Bounds was known for praying from four until seven each morning.

This post is one of a series, taken from The Essentials of Prayer, by Bounds. Found through the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, here. The Essentials of Prayer is in the public domain. The previous post in the entire series on the book is here. Thanks for reading. Read this book, and, more importantly, practice, prayer. 

Thanks for reading.

Thoughts on Bonhoeffer

I recently read Bonhoeffer: pastor, martyr, prophet, spy, by Eric Metaxas. It was given to me, and I am grateful. It was a great book, but not for the faint-hearted, as it ran well over 500 pages. The book was well referenced. (Metaxas also wrote Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery. There was a movie based on that book. Bonhoeffer won the Christian Book Award for 2011.) Here's the Wikipedia article on Bonhoeffer.


Here's some of my reaction to the book, and to the life of Bonhoeffer, himself, but first, a brief biography and history lesson. Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of eight children, born to an upper-class German family, in 1906. In the early part of the 20th Century, Germany lost the World War I, and was forced to agree to humiliating peace terms. They were a weak nation, politically and economically, ripe for taking over by a dictator. Bonhoeffer grew up knowing that he wanted to pursue theology, and did so, but also felt called to be a pastor. He served as pastor to expatriate Germans in Spain and the UK. When Hitler began to come to power, He claimed to be Christian, and many churches, and church leaders, were taken in. But he was using the church as one way to gain control over Germany. Hitler's Nazi party declared that Jews were an enemy, and that the Old Testament was not really part of the Bible, because it was Jewish. They also forced converted Jews out of the pastorate, and required pastors to swear allegiance to Hitler.

Bonhoeffer, and others, decided that they could not do this, and that much of the church, and its leaders, had sold out. They formed an association known as the Confessing Church, which emphasized the gospel, and refused to be governed by denominational leaders. Bonhoeffer became director of a illegal seminary for young Lutheran pastors-to-be, and exercised considerable influence on these young men.

Eventually, as Hitler and his Nazis did more outlandish, and evil things, Bonhoeffer, some other leaders of the confessing church, some disillusioned generals, and others, came to believe that Hitler must be assassinated, and Naziism overthrown. There were attempts to do this, but Bonhoeffer wasn't directly involved. Hitler survived a bomb explosion, from a bomb carried into the bunker where he was living. He had as many of the German underground as could be identified executed, including Bonhoeffer. Hitler committed suicide a few days later, before the Allies liberated Germany.

I learned several things that I had never heard from the book. One of them was that Martin Luther not only founded the Protestant church, but also, especially by giving Germans the Bible, a book to read in their own language, founded German national consciousness. He wrote some unfortunate contributions to anti-semitism, perhaps after suffering from dementia. 

I had already read Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship,  in which Bonhoeffer laid out what he believed to be the consequences of the Sermon on the Mount. (See here for a poster based on an important statement in the book, and here for a blog post about the book.) He was opposed to the idea of "cheap grace," because he thought that there was no such thing. Grace only comes with a serious commitment to following Christ as Lord. This biography forcefully showed that Bonhoeffer not only said this, but believed it, and acted upon it.

A few other thoughts:
1) Bonhoeffer never married. He was engaged to a young woman at the time of his death. Their letters to each other have been published, but I haven't read them.
2) Bonhoeffer was, indeed, a prophet, in that he saw what was coming, for Germany, and the church, when others did not. Prophets who predicted disaster were seldom honored in the Old Testament, and Bonhoeffer did not increase his popularity by prophesying the fall of Germany, or the deadly weakening of the church that would follow from not standing up to Hitler. However, according to the book, he didn't hate those who didn't see as he saw.
3) He was willing to work with the ecumenical movement, and, to some extent, that movement, in Europe at large, applied pressure to the Nazis. The ecumenical movement was not very popular with many evangelical Christians in the US, because it was seen as diluting the gospel of sin and redemption. Bonhoeffer didn't dilute these truths, but worked with ecumenical leaders.
4) Is the US in danger of falling to our own Hitler? Maybe, although I don't see it at present. It is unfortunately true that, when the church becomes too closely allied to some political idea, the church suffers, and its message is diluted, sometimes beyond recognition. What do you get when you mix politics with religion? Politics.
One the one hand, the Republican party in the US is often seen as the Christian party. That doesn't help Christianity, although it may help the Republicans. On the other, there are those on the other political side that want the church to uphold practices that the Bible calls sinful, such as homosexual activity. That doesn't help Christianity, either.
5) Political expedience can work in strange ways. The German underground, partly through Bonhoeffer, who had ties to church leaders in England, wanted the British to recognize them, and help them. But, according to the book, Churchill, the British war leader, felt that it was necessary to portray all Germans as Nazis, and hateful, in order to sustain enthusiasm for the war against Germany.
6) Bonhoeffer came to a couple of conclusions that I personally am not comfortable with, but perhaps he was right. First, he concluded that Hitler was so given to evil that he should be killed. Second, Bonhoeffer (and others) would have committed suicide to avoid betraying their families and others who were part of the German underground.
7) I guess the author had it right. Pastor came before martyr, prophet, and spy. Bonhoeffer served as unofficial pastor to his jailers and fellow prisoners during his last several months. He could not be a spy, or much of a teacher, while in prison. (Although he did write while imprisoned.)

Thanks for reading. We need more Bonhoeffers, and more books like this.

Note added June 10, 2014: See here for a chart, based on Bonhoeffer's The Cost of Discipleship. 

Added October 23, 2015: I added "Eric Metaxas" as a tag, and this link to a post, by me, about recent writing, by Mr. Metaxas, on a much different subject, in which he is not an expert. Thanks for reading!

Sunspots 429

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Computing: National Public Radio reports that the NSA, which supposedly can look at lots of our personal e-mail and telephone calls, says that it is not able to search its own e-mails. Hmmm . . .

Gizmo's Freeware has updated its article on "How to Harden Your Browser Against Malware and Privacy Concerns."

Science: The New York Times reports on a study indicating that smokers continue to smoke because their self-control is not as good as that of non-smokers.

Sports: ESPN on why the national anthem is sung at baseball games. (Babe Ruth, and a player who ended up living close to where I used to, Fred Thomas, are mentioned in the article.)



Image source (public domain)

Prayer and Missions, by E. M. Bounds, part 1

Missions mean the giving of the Gospel to those of Adam’s fallen race who have never heard of Christ and his atoning death. It means the giving to others the opportunity to hear of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, and allowing others to have a chance to receive, and accept the blessings of the Gospel, as we have it in Christianised lands. It means that those who enjoy the benefits of the Gospel give these same religious advantages and Gospel privileges to all of mankind. Prayer has a great deal to do with missions. Prayer is the handmaid of missions. The success of all real missionary effort is dependent on prayer. The life and spirit of missions are the life and spirit of prayer. Both prayer and missions were born in the Divine Mind. Prayer and missions are bosom companions. Prayer creates and makes missions successful, while missions lean heavily on prayer. In Psalm 72, one which deals with the Messiah, it is stated that “prayer shall be made for him continually.” Prayer would be made for His coming to save man, and prayer would be made for the success of the plan of salvation which He would come to set on foot.

The Spirit of Jesus Christ is the spirit of missions. Our Lord Jesus Christ was Himself the first missionary. His promise and advent composed the first missionary movement. The missionary spirit is not simply a phase of the Gospel, not a mere feature of the plan of salvation, but is its very spirit and life. The missionary movement is the Church of Jesus Christ marching in militant array, with the design of possessing the whole world of mankind for Christ. Whoever is touched by the Spirit of God is fired by the missionary spirit. An antimissionary Christian is a contradiction in terms. We might say that it would be impossible to be an anti-missionary Christian because of the impossibility for the Divine and human forces to put men in such a state as not to align them with the missionary cause. Missionary impulse is the heart-beat of our Lord Jesus Christ, sending the vital forces of Himself through the whole body of the Church. The spiritual life of God’s people rises or falls with the force of those heart-beats. When these life forces cease, then death ensues. So that anti-missionary Churches are dead Churches, just as anti-missionary Christians are dead Christians.

- From The Essentials of Prayer, by E. M. Bounds. 

Although E. M. Bounds died in 1913, this book was first published in 1925, by an admirer of the author's life. Bounds was known for praying from four until seven each morning.

This post is one of a series, taken from The Essentials of Prayer, by Bounds. Found through the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, here. The Essentials of Prayer is in the public domain. The previous post in the entire series on the book is here. Thanks for reading. Read this book, and, more importantly, practice, prayer. 

Thanks for reading.

How ideas spread from person to person

A recent article in the New Yorker discusses, with examples, how ideas spread. The article, written by a medical doctor, describes how some healthcare ideas, like the use of anesthesia, spread very rapidly -- and that was in the nineteenth century. It also describes how some ideas, like being as sterile as possible when you are going to do surgery, spread much more slowly, and indicates some of the reasons why this might be so. Then it discusses some healthcare ideas which should be spread to third world societies, for their own sakes, and how difficult that can be.

The bottom line? For at least some medical changes, technological aids don't do much good towards getting people to change. It takes one-on-one demonstration, showing how to do something, and explaining why it's important..

The article is fascinating, but I can't help but be reminded of how the gospel should be spread. Using technology is OK, but what's really needed is one-on-one demonstration, showing how, and why it's important.

Thanks for reading! Read the New Yorker article.

Sunspots 428

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
Christianity: God and Nature magazine reports on how and why a mature Christian couple changed their beliefs about the age of the earth.
Health: (or ethics, or sex) National Public Radio reports on the question of "Can Elderly Patients With Dementia Consent To Sex?"
Humor: (sort of) A photo of what happens when you try to drive in wet concrete.
Science: In case you didn't know it, there has been some doubt that Tyrannosaurus rex was really a savage predator, but might have merely scavenged on dead animals. National Public Radio reports on good evidence that it was, indeed, a hunter of other dinosaurs.


Image source (public domain)

How much does the Bible say we should spend on sunglasses?

There seem to be some things that the Bible makes clear -- we should do them, or we shouldn't. Examples: love your enemies; don't commit adultery. But there are all sorts of areas where we have to make decisions on our own. There's no scriptural guidance.

One example: how should we dress? I happen to belong to a denomination (it's not the only one like this) that has a history with some legalism in it. People believed that they should wear certain types of clothing, usually no jewelry, and their hair should be prepared in a certain way, especially when they came to church. We're pretty much over that now, thank God. But why was it so appealing to some, in the past?

I don't know all the answers. One possible answer is that the Bible does say that we should dress modestly. But modesty is mostly a state of mind. It's possible to appear in public without being mostly covered, but with a modest attitude -- that is, without wanting to draw attention to yourself, or how you are dressed, made up, hair fixed, and otherwise ornamented. It's possible to cover yourself up rather thoroughly, but have a desire to show off your body, or your clothes, or your new watch, in a proud manner.

Another reason is that we like to conform. Even people who call themselves nonconformists like to conform.

But there's a third reason. Having a set of standards that can be followed, by anyone, regardless of the state of their relationship to Christ, is tempting. It tempts people to follow those standards, and not engage in the deeper walk that comes to us as the Holy Spirit draws us deeper and deeper into the attitude of conformity to Christ. And it tempts people to even think that there is no such conformity with Christ's attitude, but just a set of external standards. I'm not saying that those who did, or do, dress a certain way, and leave off some ornamentation, as part of their religious culture, cannot be also conformed to the mind of Christ. Some of them were, and some of them are. But it's too easy to think that conformity to a human standard is all that is expected of us, when it isn't.

What does all this have to do with the title of this post? Good question. Here's my answer. God leaves us to make decisions on all sorts of things, without explicit scriptural guidance? Why is that? Well, one reason has to do with the culture of Bible times. If Paul had spelled out what kind of sunglasses to wear, if any, and how much to pay for them, his contemporaries would probably have thought him crazy, and he wouldn't have understood what he was writing about, himself. But there's another, more important reason, spelled out above. If there was a 21st Century rule book on dress, and spending money, and how we can and can't entertain ourselves and eat, and it was comprehensive, we would think that we could redeem ourselves by our adherence to that rule book. But we couldn't. We can only redeem ourselves by accepting Christ's sacrifice for sin, and following Him as our Lord. Uncertainty on what to do in these matters should drive me to keeping a warm and living relationship with God, who can help me make such decisions.

Deciding how to spend money, what to wear, what to eat, and the like, should be informed by our relationship with Christ. We should pray, and try to think what He would do. And we should realize that we may get such matters wrong, or disagree with fellow believers about these things. (And we need to be tolerant of the behavior of other Christians.) Being wrong, or being different, should remind us that we aren't redeemed by following rules. We are redeemed by Christ's sacrifice!

Although I have spoken only of individual decisions on behavior, group decisions also should be made in this way. We should pray, and seek the mind of Christ, and Biblical guidance, if there is any, on important issues as groups of believers. And, when we do, we should recognize that different groups may come to different conclusions about ritual, doctrine, how a church building looks, church government, and many other things, without either one being sinful in their belief and practice.

Thanks for reading!

The universality of prayer, part 5, by E. M. Bounds

Prayer runs parallel with the will of God, “who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.”

Prayer reaches up to heaven, and brings heaven down to earth. Prayer has in its hands a double blessing. It rewards him who prays, and blesses him who is prayed for. It brings peace to warring passions and calms warring elements. Tranquillity is the happy fruit of true praying. There is an inner calm which comes to him who prays and an outer calm as well. Prayer creates “quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty.”

Right praying not only makes life beautiful in peace, but redolent in righteousness and weighty in influence. Honesty, gravity, integrity and weight in character are the natural and essential fruits of prayer.
 
It is this kind of world-wide, large-hearted, unselfish praying which pleases God well, and which is acceptable in His sight, because it cooperates with His will and runs in gracious streams to all men and to each man. It is this kind of praying which the man Christ Jesus did when on earth, and the same kind which He is now doing at His Father’s right hand in heaven, as our Mighty Intercessor. He is the pattern of prayer. He is between God and man, the one Mediator, who gave Himself a ransom for all men, and for each man.

So it is that true prayer links itself to the will of God, and runs in streams of solicitude, and compassion, and intercession for men. As Jesus Christ died for every one involved in the fall, so prayer girdles every one and gives itself for the benefit of every one. Like our one Mediator between God and man, he who prays stands midway between God and man, with prayers, supplications, “and strong cryings and tears.” Prayer holds in its grasp the movements of the race of man, and embraces the destinies of men for all eternity. The king and the beggar are both affected by it. It touches heaven and moves earth. Prayer holds earth to heaven and brings heaven in close contact with earth.

- From The Essentials of Prayer, by E. M. Bounds. 

Although E. M. Bounds died in 1913, this book was first published in 1925, by an admirer of the author's life. Bounds was known for praying from four until seven each morning.

This post is one of a series, taken from The Essentials of Prayer, by Bounds. Found through the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, here. The Essentials of Prayer is in the public domain. The previous post in the entire series on the book is here. Thanks for reading. Read this book, and, more importantly, practice, prayer. 

Thanks for reading.

King David on offering things to God

1 Chronicles 21:22 Then David said to Ornan, “Give me the place of this threshing floor, that I may build an altar to Yahweh on it. You shall sell it to me for the full price, that the plague may be stopped from afflicting the people.”
23 Ornan said to David, “Take it for yourself, and let my lord the king do that which is good in his eyes. Behold, I give the oxen for burnt offerings, and the threshing instruments for wood, and the wheat for the meal offering. I give it all.”
24 King David said to Ornan, “No; but I will most certainly buy it for the full price. For I will not take that which is yours for Yahweh, nor offer a burnt offering that costs me nothing.”
25 So David gave to Ornan six hundred shekels* of gold by weight for the place. 26 David built an altar to Yahweh there, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, and called on Yahweh; and he answered him from the sky by fire on the altar of burnt offering.

*text note - this was about six kilograms of gold.

1 Chronicles 29:11 Yours, Yahweh, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty! For all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours. Yours is the kingdom, Yahweh, and you are exalted as head above all. 12 Both riches and honor come from you, and you rule over all! In your hand is power and might! It is in your hand to make great, and to give strength to all! 13 Now therefore, our God, we thank you, and praise your glorious name. 14 But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able to offer so willingly as this? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. 15 For we are strangers before you, and foreigners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no remaining. 16 Yahweh our God, all this store that we have prepared to build you a house for your holy name comes from your hand, and is all your own.

- World English Bible, public domain

Thanks for reading.

Sunspots 427

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:
Christianity: Staci Johnson has a post on beliefs, and discusses the difference between a posture and a position.
Weekend Fisher considers Grace and the Trinity.
Henry Neufeld says that he is not an evolutionist, any more than he is a gravitationist.
Computing: Gizmo's Freeware has posted what they say is the best list of free security products in the world.
Philosophy: The Skeptical Zone discusses intelligence, as in Intelligent Design.
Science: Wired reports that the time of year when a baby is conceived (or born) influences how healthy the child will be.
National Public Radio reports on the ancestry of dogs. It turns out that some dogs in the Americas are mostly descended from dogs that were in the Americas before Europeans came here, bringing their own dogs.


Image source (public domain)

The universality of prayer, part 4, by E. M. Bounds

There is strong Scriptural warrant, therefore, for reaching out and embracing all men in our prayers, since not only are we commanded thus to pray for them, but the reason given is that Christ gave Himself a ransom for all men, and all men are provisionally beneficiaries of the atoning death of Jesus Christ.

But lastly, and more at length, prayer has a universal side in that all things which concern us are to be prayed about, while all things which are for our good, physical, social, intellectual, spiritual, and eternal, are subjects of prayer. Before, however, we consider this phase of prayer let us stop and again look at the universal prayer for all men. As a special class to be prayed for, we may mention those who have control in state or who bear rule in the Church. Prayer has mighty potencies. It makes good rulers, and makes them better rulers. It restrains the lawless and the despotic. Rulers are to be prayed for. They are not out of the reach and the control of prayer, because they are not out of the reach and control of God. Wicked Nero was on the throne of Rome when Paul wrote these words to Timothy urging prayer for those in authority.

Christian lips are to breathe prayers for the cruel and infamous rulers in state as well as for the righteous and the benign governors and princes. Prayer is to be as far-reaching as the race, “for all men.” Humanity is to burden our hearts as we pray, and all men are to engage our thoughts in approaching a throne of grace. In our praying hours, all men must have a place. The wants and woes of the entire race are to broaden and make tender our sympathies, and inflame our petitions. No little man can pray. No man with narrow views of God, of His plan to save men, and of the universal needs of all men, can pray effectually. It takes a broad-minded man, who understands God and His purposes in the atonement, to pray well. No cynic can pray. Prayer is the divinest philanthropy, as well as giant-great-heartedness. Prayer comes from a big heart, filled with thoughts about all men and with sympathies for all men.

- From The Essentials of Prayer, by E. M. Bounds. 

Although E. M. Bounds died in 1913, this book was first published in 1925, by an admirer of the author's life. Bounds was known for praying from four until seven each morning.

This post is one of a series, taken from The Essentials of Prayer, by Bounds. Found through the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, here. The Essentials of Prayer is in the public domain. The previous post in the entire series on the book is here. Thanks for reading. Read this book, and, more importantly, practice, prayer. 

Thanks for reading.