New Categories!

New Categories!

by | May 27, 2018 | Updates

We have reorganized and updated the blog categories that you see listed to the right of this post.  The new categories are more intuitive and make our content easier to find and navigate. For example, we now have separate categories for “Bible,” “Bible Study” and “Difficult Scriptures,” so if you are looking for techniques and tips to enhance your personal study you don’t have to sort through many other posts that are not relevant to what you need right now.

​So if you haven’t used the Categories feature before, or if you would like to see how it has changed, be sure to check it out.  It only takes a couple of seconds to scan down the list to get a sense of what the new categories are and to see if there are some you would like to take a look at.  

​Remember that this listing is only for blog postings (our articles are listed separately on the “Tactics” and “Strategy” tabs at the top of the screen). The blog categories contain most of the many hundreds of posts we have published since 2013.  Using this feature can be both time saving and helpful if you are looking for information or inspiration on a specific subject –  and we can say that categorically!

A Fighter Against Injustice

A Fighter Against Injustice

by | May 20, 2018 | Warriors of the Way

If you were to think of a hero who seems to come out of nowhere to block tyranny, thwart injustice, and assist those needing help, perhaps you would think of some fabled medieval knight or a caped comic book hero. But one person mentioned in the Bible displayed the trait of heroically fighting against injustice to an exceptional degree, and that individual, surprising as it may seem at first, was Moses.

You may not have thought about it this way before, but the Bible paints a very interesting picture of the character of Moses before his calling.  Of course, the evidence we have comes from the first five books of the Bible – written by Moses himself – but what I would like to look at here is the way Moses is portrayed: the characteristics he displayed and chose to record as opposed to any other traits he may have had. Remember that Moses tells us nothing about his childhood and youth apart from the fact that he was raised by Pharaoh’s daughter (Exodus 2:10). The first time we are given a glimpse into the adult life of this future leader we are told that:

“One day, after Moses had grown up, he went out to where his own people were and watched them at their hard labor. He saw an Egyptian beating a Hebrew, one of his own people. Looking this way and that and seeing no one, he killed the Egyptian and hid him in the sand” (Exodus 2:11-12). 

Fighting injustice on the work site

We must understand that this was no simple homicide on Moses’ part. When the text tells us he “looked this way and that and saw no one,” it probably does not mean that he checked to see that he could get away with intervening, but rather that he saw there was no one who would help the man and so intervened himself. We are not given the details, but the furious slave driver may then have turned on Moses who may have killed him in self-defense as well as defense of the slave who was being ruthlessly beaten.  We should remember also that the word used of the slave driver’s “beating” of the Hebrew man is makeh – which can have very strong connotations involving injury and even death. Moses stepped in and halted a tyrannical situation that may well have been life-threatening for the man he protected.  
 
Fighting injustice on the street

The very next day we are told that a similar situation arose in which Moses attempted to intervene in an unjust situation: “The next day he went out and saw two Hebrews fighting. He asked the one in the wrong, “Why are you hitting your fellow Hebrew?” (Exodus 2:13). Note that in this case there was no casual argument involved. The expression translated “the one in the wrong” (NIV) in the Hebrew is literally “the wicked one” – clearly an individual who was wrongfully assaulting another Hebrew. But once again Moses stepped in as soon as he saw the altercation and realized what was happening was an unjust situation.   

Fighting injustice at the well

Exodus tells us that Moses fled to Midian after this event, when the Pharaoh found out that he had killed an Egyptian taskmaster (Exodus 2:15). In Midian the next recorded incident is that Moses steps in to defend and help a group of women – the daughters of a local shepherd – when they tried to draw water from a well for their sheep: “Some shepherds came along and drove them away, but Moses got up and came to their rescue and watered their flock” (Exodus 2:17).

This is the third and final glimpse we are given into the life and character of Moses before God appears to him in the burning bush and calls him to lead his people out of Egypt. Although this event occurs quite some time after Moses arrived in Midian (see Exodus 2:23, a “long period”), we are not told anything more about his actions during that time – whether he worked hard or cared well for the flocks in his charge or anything else. What we are told – and all we are told – about the life of Moses before God called him to the great work he was given to do is that on three occasions Moses stepped in to fight injustice under various circumstances.

But notice that these incidents do not run from the least to the greatest – they do not show the growing heroism of Moses as an individual. Instead, they run from the most serious offense to the least, so they show his gradual coming to awareness of and willingness to stand up against even small injustices that he encountered. 

Perhaps there is a lesson in this. Perhaps Exodus is telling us that God called Moses to free his people because of his growing commitment to fight injustice. Perhaps God knew he could use such a person to fight the great injustice of the slavery of the Hebrews in Egypt. If this is the case, then this is a prime example of how the more we grow in our desire to fight what is wrong and to support what is right, the more God can use us, too.

The Christian and twitter

The Christian and twitter

by | May 13, 2018 | Popular Culture

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So you are one of the many millions of people on twitter? Great! 

So you are one of the many Christians on twitter? Maybe we should talk. 

According to a report published by the Pew Research Center, fifteen percent of adult Internet users in the United States are on Twitter, and that number is multiplied many, many times, of course, in nations around the world.  Of these millions of twitter users, a great many are Christians –  few of whom give much serious thought to how they use the service and the effect they are having on others through it.

The writer and speaker Jon Acuff once said that “Social media’s like a brick — you can use it to build an orphanage or throw it through somebody’s car window.” That statement graphically summarizes the good and bad that can come even from Christians’ use of twitter. 

In saying this, we are not even talking about the kind of content a person tweets.  Most (though sadly not all) Christians are in the habit of tweeting positive, clean and uplifting messages that are not attacks on individuals (Ephesians 4:29-31).  It’s sometimes the behind the scenes –  but still visible – aspects of twitter use that can be problematic.

For instance, many people –  many Christians included –  seem to view twitter as a giant game of  “get followers.”  As a result, many do not choose to follow people back who follow them because they want an impressive follower/following ratio.  It’s always a bad thing if we allow our mental approach to become focused on an attitude of “get” and an unwillingness to give, and this is certainly a situation where the golden rule can be followed (Matthew 7:12).

But even more disturbing is the habit of many (and yes, many Christians) of following people back  and then,  a day or two later, dropping them.  If the person who has followed us is not tweeting objectionable material, dropping them simply to improve our own numbers is nothing short of selfishness, and we should consider how this looks to others.   If we don’t want to receive a follower’s frequent messages regarding what they had for dinner last night or whatever, twitter does have a “mute” button. If we need to we can mute followers where unfollowing is not called for.

Being a Christian on twitter is not just about numbers, though.  When we receive follows from others and don’t follow back, or follow back then drop them, we lose one of the great ways social media can be used for good by depriving the person of ever reaching out to us through Direct Messages.  In our own @tacticalbelief and @livingbelief twitter accounts we receive many DMs every week from people asking for guidance, encouragement, prayer, or just basic information about Christianity. Not following back or dropping followers unnecessarily limits engagement with others whom we might help and  denies them the opportunity to receive “an answer regarding the hope we have” (1 Peter 3:15) –  in an area of our lives where we might be most likely to be asked. 

There are many other ways that we should perhaps consider how, as Christians, we come across to others on twitter, and how we either serve them or perhaps cause them to stumble through our twitter behavior.  But basically, being a Christian on twitter can be boiled down to three simple things. 

First, we need to realize how conspicuous we are as Christians on twitter and how hypocritical it can appear to others if we label ourselves as “Christian” or quote Bible verses in our twitter bios, but are knowingly following porn or treating people selfishly in our social media practices. 

Second, we need to resist any temptation to “flame” or ridicule others by always being desirous to “tweet  others the way we would want to be tweeted.”

And, finally, we need to remember – as one preacher so aptly once put it (in a tweet): “Your words will tell others what you think. Your actions will tell them what you believe.” That is just as true on twitter – or on any other social media –  as it is in other areas of life.

Are You Vain?

Are You Vain?

by | May 6, 2018 | Problems

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​“​Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity” (Ecclesiastes 1:2 ESV).
 
​The Bible has quite a lot to say about vanity, but its use of the concept is often misunderstood. Today, when we speak of someone who is “vain,” we mean someone who is conceited or overly concerned about their own looks or abilities.

​But when the words “vain” or “vanity” appear in the Bible, they have very different meanings. In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word hebel from which these words are translated means something that is only vapor or wind – in other words, something that has no lasting substance and is ultimately pointless. That was the main meaning of the word “vain” in English back when the King James Version was translated in 1611, and we still use the word “vain” that way when something does not turn out as we planned, and we say that our efforts were “in vain.”

This original meaning of the word vain is why the Book of Proverbs tells us: “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised” (Proverbs 31:30 ESV). Notice it is the fleeting beauty itself that is said to be vain, not the person! In the same way, the Book of Ecclesiastes tells us: “Therefore remove sorrow from your heart, and put away evil from your flesh, For childhood and youth are vanity” (Ecclesiastes 11:10 NKJV), and the Book of Psalms says: “Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!” (Psalms 39:5).  In other words, childhood, youth, and even our adult lives pass all too quickly, they are not lasting, but are vain –  just like a breath of air or an early morning mist: “…What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes” (James 4:14). 

In the New Testament, the Greek word kenos often translated “vain” has a similar meaning –  that of being empty or of no purpose –  so the biblical meanings of “vain” have nothing to do directly with our attitudes toward our appearance. The Bible certainly does not condemn our reasonable efforts to look our best (see our blog post “Does the Bible Condemn Women’s Adornment?”), though it also points out the futility of making self-concern and self-pampering the focus of our lives – which would truly be an exercise in “vanity.”  As always, balance is a good thing and reasonable focus on the care for our physical bodies is not wrong – just as the apostle Paul reminded us regarding physical exercise: “For while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Timothy 4:8).

What Paul says to Timothy in this verse underscores the whole biblical approach to “vanity.” Anything that is not “godliness” – in other words, that does not contribute to becoming more like God and helping others on that path –  is ultimately “vain.” That is why Paul also wrote: “Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58).  This does not mean that doing our everyday work and chores is meaningless – the Bible clearly shows we should do everything as though we were doing it for God (1 Corinthians 10:31).  Such an attitude elevates whatever we do from the “vanity” of life without God to the realm of the truly meaningful.
 
So, to return to the title of this article –  ”Are You Vain?” –  we can clarify that question.  If by “vain” we mean the way the word is usually understood today – as a reflection of prideful or narcissistic self-focus – then hopefully that failing is held in check in our lives by understanding what small importance our present outer appearance or inner aptitudes have in the eternal scheme of things.  But if by  “vain” we mean the original sense of the word –  as empty and without purpose – then the answer depends entirely on us.
 
Without God, in biblical terms, we are all “vain,” but when we place God at the center of our lives then they are given a purpose that transcends meaninglessness and “vanity.”  Then, our thoughts and actions have the potential to take on a purpose they would never have had –  because God is in the business of making meaning in our lives. As the apostle Paul wrote: “…for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Philippians 2:12-13, emphasis added). If we have “…been called according to his purpose” (Romans 8:28) and made his purpose ours, we need never be concerned that our lives are “vanity” or that they have been lived “in vain.”