We know the most perfect way of seeking God, and the most suitable order, is not for us to attempt with bold curiosity to penetrate to the investigation of his essence, which we ought more to adore than meticulously to search out, but for us to contemplate him in his works whereby he renders himself near to us, and in some manner communicates himself.
Institutes I.v.9
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Great point from Calvin on ceremonies
And we ought to note this fact even more diligently: all men have a vague general veneration of God, but very few really reverence him; and wherever there is great ostentation in ceremonies, sincerity of heart is rare indeed.
Institutes I.ii.2
Institutes I.ii.2
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Nehemiah the Godly Isrealite
I'm preaching on Nehemiah at the moment, and I've been thinking about two questions. First, what impact does the 'first person' nature of the book have on the way we understand it. What I mean is, all the events in Nehemiah are mediated to us through the perspective of Nehemiah himself. This is different from other Old Testament Narratives, where you often get the divinely inspired narrator giving us direct access into what God is doing in a particular set of events. However in Nehemiah there is no narrator, and so it is entirely his opinion about what God is doing and what is happening in general.
In my mind, the first person nature of the book (technically bits of the book are known as the Nehemiah Memoirs) draws us in to identify very strongly with Nehemiah. You can't stand back from his decisions and choices and feelings and analyse what God is doing objectively. You really enter into his world. I think this means that you can't avoid but read Nehemiah as a godly role model.
Which leads me onto my second question: What Biblical Theological theme does Nehemiah fit into. I think often, because he is such an effective leader, we tend to place him in the leader/King theme of Biblical theology, and see him as a type of Jesus our King. However in Nehemiah 6 it is made very clear that Nehemiah is NOT a king. He is not from the Davidic line and he is not presented as God's annointed leader. I want to suggest that a better Biblical theological theme in which to place Nehemiah is the faithful Israelite.
Right from the start of the Book Nehemiah, where Nehemiah is the repentant Israelite confessing his sins and praying for the return of the exile, through his wholehearted love for his neighbours (Neh 5), his respect for the temple (Neh 6), and his continual request for God to look favourably on him. Nehemiah seems to present himself, in contrast to the other Jews, as the faithful Israelite living the life of wholehearted obedience that Deuteronomy 30 called for.
As such, Nehemiah is not a type of Jesus our King, but a type of Jesus the true Israelite who is able to do what Nehemiah couldn't do - live on behalf of his people, deal with their sin and send his holy spirit to give them new hearts.
As a faithful Isrealite, Nehemiah is also, again more naturally an example for us. He is not an annointed King. He is not a Prophet. He is not a priest. He is a faithful follower of God seeking to serve him with all his heart and live according to his plans. He perhaps lack the confidence in God's grace that we have through Christ. But He stands as a great role model of someone who was absolutely serious about God's plans.
In my mind, the first person nature of the book (technically bits of the book are known as the Nehemiah Memoirs) draws us in to identify very strongly with Nehemiah. You can't stand back from his decisions and choices and feelings and analyse what God is doing objectively. You really enter into his world. I think this means that you can't avoid but read Nehemiah as a godly role model.
Which leads me onto my second question: What Biblical Theological theme does Nehemiah fit into. I think often, because he is such an effective leader, we tend to place him in the leader/King theme of Biblical theology, and see him as a type of Jesus our King. However in Nehemiah 6 it is made very clear that Nehemiah is NOT a king. He is not from the Davidic line and he is not presented as God's annointed leader. I want to suggest that a better Biblical theological theme in which to place Nehemiah is the faithful Israelite.
Right from the start of the Book Nehemiah, where Nehemiah is the repentant Israelite confessing his sins and praying for the return of the exile, through his wholehearted love for his neighbours (Neh 5), his respect for the temple (Neh 6), and his continual request for God to look favourably on him. Nehemiah seems to present himself, in contrast to the other Jews, as the faithful Israelite living the life of wholehearted obedience that Deuteronomy 30 called for.
As such, Nehemiah is not a type of Jesus our King, but a type of Jesus the true Israelite who is able to do what Nehemiah couldn't do - live on behalf of his people, deal with their sin and send his holy spirit to give them new hearts.
As a faithful Isrealite, Nehemiah is also, again more naturally an example for us. He is not an annointed King. He is not a Prophet. He is not a priest. He is a faithful follower of God seeking to serve him with all his heart and live according to his plans. He perhaps lack the confidence in God's grace that we have through Christ. But He stands as a great role model of someone who was absolutely serious about God's plans.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Survey of Childcare/parenting in the Bible
As promised, here are some thoughts on childcare in the Bible. The post has gotten a bit out of hand - it's trying to survey bits of the Bible explicitly touching on parenting. However, having done this survey it's pretty clear to me that most of the significant things the Bible says about parenting are not explicitly about parenting - they're about godliness.
But since I've done this survey - here it is.
The Bible starts with the important command to humans to 'Fill the earth and subdue it' (Gen 1:28), suggesting that parenting is an important part of what we are created to do. In addition the curse in Genesis 3 points to the particularly central role that childbirth plays for women.
As we move on through the pentateuch we don't see a lot about the actual day-to-day childcare arrangements of children. Although one interesting situation is Moses and his mother, where it is clearly seen as a great blessing that his mother can keep nursing him, even though he is adopted by the Princess of Egypt. (Exodus 2:1-10)
It is interesting that there are no direct laws about childcare, and in fact a lot less laws about parenting in general than there are about the importance of children respecting their parents. The one, absolutely vital, command for parents is to instruct their children in the laws and the mighty rescue that God accomplished for them (Deut 6:7,20-25). The other responsibility parents have to their children in the law is to not allow them to intermarry with the surrounding people.
Moving on from the pentateuch, we come to the interesting case of Samuel, who is sent off to the temple as soon as he is weaned (wonder what age that was). This is certainly seen as a positive in the story, and interestingly the sadness in the story is not for Samuel living away from home, but for his mother who has lost her son. The blessing from ELi is that she would have other children to replace the one given to the Lord. In this particular situation Eli of course is seen as a weak parent because of the poor behaviour of his sons. Although no mention of the particular childcare arrangements are made.
Moving on to 2 Kings there is the situation of the Shunamite's son who when he has 'grown' goes out to be with his father and the reapers and then gets sick (sun stroke??) and dies. He can't have been that old, however because he dies sitting on his mothers lap. Don't think it's making any point about childcare but it certainly reminds us that culturally things are very different. Most kids aren't going to wander out and reap with their dads these days! There tends to be this massive divide between home and community.
In the book of Esther, Esther is brought up by Mordecai her cousin, but there is an explanation to the effect that this is becaue her parents have died, assuming that in normal situations they would bring her up.
The book of Proverbs perhaps has the most to say about parenting in the Bible, discipline and wise teaching are counselled as being essential to wise and godly children (6:20 etc). Proverbs also has the interesting picture of the proverbs 31 super woman who seems to be able to care for her household and have a range of business interests all at the same time.
Turning to the New Testament, there is again not a lot of direct teaching about parenting. Jesus' parent clearly have a significant input in his life. But the exact nature of that input is not spelt out.
Jesus himself commends respect for parents, but also indicates that to leave parents or children for his sake is an appropriate thing to do. He may well be talking about adult children in this verse.
Jesus also assumes that parents love and care for their children in his parables - eg the prodigal son (Luke 15) and the equating of God with a father who wants to give good gifts to his son (Luke 11:11-13).
Moving on in the New Testament, the key direct instruction about parenting is in Ephesians 6:4. In many ways this verse picks up the key idea of proverbs - that fathers should not exasperate their children but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
In the pastorals there is rather difficult verse from 1 Timothy 2 about women being saved through childbirth. This may indicate the special place that child rearing has in women working out their salvation - although to be fair I think there is legitimate dispute over the exact meaning of the verse.
The other important verse in the pastorals is Titus 2:3-5 where the older women are to teach the younger women to love their husbands and children and to be busy at home. This verse certainly suggests that women had a key role in the home, but doesn't directly address the childcare question.
To conclude this survey, it seems to me that the overwhelming concern of the Bible is that Parents raise their children in the training and instruction of the Lord. This comes through again and again in the law, the wisdom and the New Testament. And I would think this would be the first and most vital question to ask when thinking about childcare arrangements. How will they effect our task in bringing children up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
It is assumed in the Bible that parents will love their children, and that mothers have a special role around childbirth and the home. However I don't think from what is said about parenting it can be supported that mothers must be at home all the time with their children, or that it is wrong to have some parts of childcare done by others. The Bible genuinely leaves this as an area of freedom.
There are of course other issues that we will need to be aware of when making decisions about full-time mothering and childcare. These include materialism, careerism, the value of children and opportunites for ministry and service in the community and what is loving for our particular children. But I think that is definitely another post.
Love to hear if I've missed any important passages.
But since I've done this survey - here it is.
The Bible starts with the important command to humans to 'Fill the earth and subdue it' (Gen 1:28), suggesting that parenting is an important part of what we are created to do. In addition the curse in Genesis 3 points to the particularly central role that childbirth plays for women.
As we move on through the pentateuch we don't see a lot about the actual day-to-day childcare arrangements of children. Although one interesting situation is Moses and his mother, where it is clearly seen as a great blessing that his mother can keep nursing him, even though he is adopted by the Princess of Egypt. (Exodus 2:1-10)
It is interesting that there are no direct laws about childcare, and in fact a lot less laws about parenting in general than there are about the importance of children respecting their parents. The one, absolutely vital, command for parents is to instruct their children in the laws and the mighty rescue that God accomplished for them (Deut 6:7,20-25). The other responsibility parents have to their children in the law is to not allow them to intermarry with the surrounding people.
Moving on from the pentateuch, we come to the interesting case of Samuel, who is sent off to the temple as soon as he is weaned (wonder what age that was). This is certainly seen as a positive in the story, and interestingly the sadness in the story is not for Samuel living away from home, but for his mother who has lost her son. The blessing from ELi is that she would have other children to replace the one given to the Lord. In this particular situation Eli of course is seen as a weak parent because of the poor behaviour of his sons. Although no mention of the particular childcare arrangements are made.
Moving on to 2 Kings there is the situation of the Shunamite's son who when he has 'grown' goes out to be with his father and the reapers and then gets sick (sun stroke??) and dies. He can't have been that old, however because he dies sitting on his mothers lap. Don't think it's making any point about childcare but it certainly reminds us that culturally things are very different. Most kids aren't going to wander out and reap with their dads these days! There tends to be this massive divide between home and community.
In the book of Esther, Esther is brought up by Mordecai her cousin, but there is an explanation to the effect that this is becaue her parents have died, assuming that in normal situations they would bring her up.
The book of Proverbs perhaps has the most to say about parenting in the Bible, discipline and wise teaching are counselled as being essential to wise and godly children (6:20 etc). Proverbs also has the interesting picture of the proverbs 31 super woman who seems to be able to care for her household and have a range of business interests all at the same time.
Turning to the New Testament, there is again not a lot of direct teaching about parenting. Jesus' parent clearly have a significant input in his life. But the exact nature of that input is not spelt out.
Jesus himself commends respect for parents, but also indicates that to leave parents or children for his sake is an appropriate thing to do. He may well be talking about adult children in this verse.
Jesus also assumes that parents love and care for their children in his parables - eg the prodigal son (Luke 15) and the equating of God with a father who wants to give good gifts to his son (Luke 11:11-13).
Moving on in the New Testament, the key direct instruction about parenting is in Ephesians 6:4. In many ways this verse picks up the key idea of proverbs - that fathers should not exasperate their children but bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
In the pastorals there is rather difficult verse from 1 Timothy 2 about women being saved through childbirth. This may indicate the special place that child rearing has in women working out their salvation - although to be fair I think there is legitimate dispute over the exact meaning of the verse.
The other important verse in the pastorals is Titus 2:3-5 where the older women are to teach the younger women to love their husbands and children and to be busy at home. This verse certainly suggests that women had a key role in the home, but doesn't directly address the childcare question.
To conclude this survey, it seems to me that the overwhelming concern of the Bible is that Parents raise their children in the training and instruction of the Lord. This comes through again and again in the law, the wisdom and the New Testament. And I would think this would be the first and most vital question to ask when thinking about childcare arrangements. How will they effect our task in bringing children up in the training and instruction of the Lord.
It is assumed in the Bible that parents will love their children, and that mothers have a special role around childbirth and the home. However I don't think from what is said about parenting it can be supported that mothers must be at home all the time with their children, or that it is wrong to have some parts of childcare done by others. The Bible genuinely leaves this as an area of freedom.
There are of course other issues that we will need to be aware of when making decisions about full-time mothering and childcare. These include materialism, careerism, the value of children and opportunites for ministry and service in the community and what is loving for our particular children. But I think that is definitely another post.
Love to hear if I've missed any important passages.
Monday, August 17, 2009
Biblical parenting and 7 day- a-week daycare
Simone has been involved in an interesting blog discussion about the place of daycare in parenting for people who want to follow Jesus. It's obviously an area where it is difficult to make judgements without making someone feel guilty or threatened. However my interest was sparked by a comment that Simone made to the effect that obviously it would be innappropriate for a Christian to put their child in daycare for 7 days a week.
My first thought (which I expressed to Simone), was that this was such an obvious statement that it was hardly worth saying, it was a kind of straw man, OF COURSE 7 days a week daycare was wrong... But a little later it struck me with some force that I personally, from the age of 9 to the age of 16 was in 7 days and nights a week childcare - I was sent to boarding school.
You'll be glad to know that the reason I was sent to boarding school was not uncaring or unchristian parents, in fact quite the opposite, my parents were missionaries in Bangladesh and, along with many other missionary families there, felt that the best way to give us a good education was to send us to a boarding school in India.
I wouldn't say that I found boarding school easy, but neither do I look back with too many regrets. I certainly was never in any doubts about my parents love and care for me. And they remain the most significant influence on me as a person.
Now let me say that I that the 'I turned out ok, so it must have been a good idea' kind of argument is false. Fortunately for all parents, God is gracious and could use unwise decisions for good.
However the whole boarding school experience raises the question of whether our concerns about things like daycare is at times more cultural than Biblical. It seems to me that sometimes our arguments against daycare follow this logic. Daycare is a product of feminism. Feminism is a bad thing. Therefore daycare is a bad thing.
But community care of children has been around for much longer than feminism, and has been an important part of committed Christian parenting. The boarding school I attended was set up by Christians committed enough to serve God in Asia before the second world war to care for their children while they were engaged in mission work. My history is fairly weak beyond that, but I get the impression that going further back full time nannies for example weren't seen as necessarily unbiblical for those who could afford them. And this gets us to the heart of the matter. What does the Bible actually insist on in our parenting and what is a matter of freedom?
I've got some ideas, but they're going to have to wait for another post. In the mean time I'm happy to take any comments (and I won't be offended if you can tell me where the Bible says that Boarding School is of the devil).
My first thought (which I expressed to Simone), was that this was such an obvious statement that it was hardly worth saying, it was a kind of straw man, OF COURSE 7 days a week daycare was wrong... But a little later it struck me with some force that I personally, from the age of 9 to the age of 16 was in 7 days and nights a week childcare - I was sent to boarding school.
You'll be glad to know that the reason I was sent to boarding school was not uncaring or unchristian parents, in fact quite the opposite, my parents were missionaries in Bangladesh and, along with many other missionary families there, felt that the best way to give us a good education was to send us to a boarding school in India.
I wouldn't say that I found boarding school easy, but neither do I look back with too many regrets. I certainly was never in any doubts about my parents love and care for me. And they remain the most significant influence on me as a person.
Now let me say that I that the 'I turned out ok, so it must have been a good idea' kind of argument is false. Fortunately for all parents, God is gracious and could use unwise decisions for good.
However the whole boarding school experience raises the question of whether our concerns about things like daycare is at times more cultural than Biblical. It seems to me that sometimes our arguments against daycare follow this logic. Daycare is a product of feminism. Feminism is a bad thing. Therefore daycare is a bad thing.
But community care of children has been around for much longer than feminism, and has been an important part of committed Christian parenting. The boarding school I attended was set up by Christians committed enough to serve God in Asia before the second world war to care for their children while they were engaged in mission work. My history is fairly weak beyond that, but I get the impression that going further back full time nannies for example weren't seen as necessarily unbiblical for those who could afford them. And this gets us to the heart of the matter. What does the Bible actually insist on in our parenting and what is a matter of freedom?
I've got some ideas, but they're going to have to wait for another post. In the mean time I'm happy to take any comments (and I won't be offended if you can tell me where the Bible says that Boarding School is of the devil).
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Mark Dever Seminar
Spent the morning yesterday at a Mark Dever Seminar. Two of his three talks were expositions of Habbakuk and Haggai, and were extremely edifying. He does a great job of applying the Old Testament in a Christ centred way that leaves you feeling the force of the Old Testament passages themselves. Key application points where about trusting God when you can't understand what he's doing (Habbukuk) and using your money to serve God's temple - Jesus and the church (Haggai).
His third seminar was about healthy churches in general, and (as you would be familiar with if you have read his 9 Marks book), he focussed on Membership, Discipline and Eldership. I don't agree that much stricter membership and discipline are the key shortcomings of our churches. He was coming from a situation where churches tend to have 250 members and only 70 average attendance. At our church the membership is less than the attendance, and I think that is common in many Presbyterian churches around here. I don't think there are stacks of slack members floating around. And on top of that I don't really want to make a second formal distinction in church beyond being a follower of Jesus or not.
Having said that, we do struggle to know exactly how to deal with those who get caught up in scandalous sin. Often they are informally isolated and drop off the radar instead of being given an opportunity to repent and be restored. The other difficulty is how to actually measure repentence, and know when it is appropriate to welcome people back and then what ongoing consequences their sin might have. So it is a tricky issue. Just not, I think, the key health issue in most churches.
His third seminar was about healthy churches in general, and (as you would be familiar with if you have read his 9 Marks book), he focussed on Membership, Discipline and Eldership. I don't agree that much stricter membership and discipline are the key shortcomings of our churches. He was coming from a situation where churches tend to have 250 members and only 70 average attendance. At our church the membership is less than the attendance, and I think that is common in many Presbyterian churches around here. I don't think there are stacks of slack members floating around. And on top of that I don't really want to make a second formal distinction in church beyond being a follower of Jesus or not.
Having said that, we do struggle to know exactly how to deal with those who get caught up in scandalous sin. Often they are informally isolated and drop off the radar instead of being given an opportunity to repent and be restored. The other difficulty is how to actually measure repentence, and know when it is appropriate to welcome people back and then what ongoing consequences their sin might have. So it is a tricky issue. Just not, I think, the key health issue in most churches.
Appreciating Calvin
I thought I'd jump on the 'Calvin's 500th Birthday bandwagon' and I've enrolled in an MA (theology) and signed up to do an subject on Calvin this term (at Moore College). It's going to be great to get back into some formal study after 7 years but, like when you haven't excercised for a while, I think it will involve some significant pain.
It was a bit of a shock to see that the whole of Calvin's Institutes was included as part of the required course reading (might have been wise to check that before signing up) - we got three years to get through it when I was doing a BTh. Anyway, Simone's advice was 'blog your way through it' so stay tuned for possible updates.
It was a bit of a shock to see that the whole of Calvin's Institutes was included as part of the required course reading (might have been wise to check that before signing up) - we got three years to get through it when I was doing a BTh. Anyway, Simone's advice was 'blog your way through it' so stay tuned for possible updates.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Test post
This is a test post just to see if the mail2blog feature works. This would make it easy to do blog posts from my mobile phone.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Chess
Recently discovered the chess game on our new computer. I haven't really played much before, and basically I'm getting thrashed. Even the two times I've had the opposition down to just their king they have somehow managed to get stalemate - Aargh. Still, it is certainly a good mental workout.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
ad break
For various reasons we have done a lot of travelling this year, and as part of that have hired cars in Rockhampton, Melbourne, and Auckland.
I've used the www.drivenow.com.au website and found their comparison of all the rental companies very useful in getting a good rate. They asked me to mention them on my blog, so here it is.
I've used the www.drivenow.com.au website and found their comparison of all the rental companies very useful in getting a good rate. They asked me to mention them on my blog, so here it is.
ISFJ
I think I have an ISFJ (Introverted, Sensing, Feeling, Judging) personality type (according to the Myers Briggs test), although the first time I did the questionnaire I came out as ISFP. However the description of the ISFP (a 'composer') definitely doesn't match me, but ISFJ seems pretty close to the mark. I'm not really happy about being an ISFJ, but then apparently ISFJ personality types have a tendency to be overly critical of themselves - so I guess that confirms it. Damn.
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