Hobart Above Rubies Camp 2010

Above Rubies is a ministry devoted to encouraging wives and mothers, with a free magazine that is always exciting to receive! I was happy to be able to go to the camp here in Hobart last weekend. I met lots of interesting and encouraging people, including the ladies pictured above. There was great diversity amongst both organisers and attenders, they certainly didn't fit any stereotypes that people may have of the magazine! This is testament to the fact that women from many walks of life want and need encouragement in their roles of wives and mothers. We may not all agree on education, day care, birth control, the gifts of the Spirit, or countless other issues, but we all want to grow as women of God. I felt that there was a spirit of freedom and love at the camp, and we were all encouraged to take away one thing we could put into action.

Nancy Campbell (pictured left) is the founder of Above Rubies. Originally from New Zealand, Nancy now lives in the USA. She had not visited Tasmania for 20 years prior to this camp. Nancy is pictured with Val Stares (Australian director) and Heather (NZ director). Nancy spoke about our vital building project - building our families. She explained many of the things that Satan can use to hinder us, including discouragement, "help" that undermines the family, self pity, fear, accusations, doubts, and false counsel. I am vulnerable in each of these areas and found the reminders helpful.

When I was seven months pregnant with Elnathan in March last year I was a bridesmaid and wore this dress. The dinner was a fun opportunity to wear it again . . . 7 months pregnant again! We were asked to come dressed to represent one of the seasons. I sat at the Spring table. There were tables for the other seasons as well, and they were all stunning. I was impressed with the work that had been put into the night. It was a treat to go away and be served! We also all received numerous gifts over the weekend, which were donated.

One of my favourite aspects of the camp was talking with other ladies and hearing/seeing what God was doing in their lives. I was affirmed in many of our convictions, and have a renewed sense of the importance of bearing and raising children. I am so grateful for my wonderful husband who cares about building the church, Christian education, welcoming children, having family devotions, etc. God is good! I came away desiring to grow in building our marriage, to look to God's word as our light, and to love being a mother.

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52 Week Bible Reading Plan

I have found it helpful to have a plan for Bible reading. Having a written plan makes it easy to know what to read next, and keeps me reading all parts of the Bible. It is great to be continually reminded of what God has done throughout history, not just in the New Testament. I am now up to the 25th week of the 52 Week Bible Reading Plan. The plan covers a different section of the Bible every day under the headings Epistles, The Law, History, Psalms, Poetry, Prophecy and Gospels. The history section tends to be at least five chapters daily, while the poetry section is only 1 - 2. If you have a set amount of time each day for reading, this could be a problem. However, I actually find it a blessing to have variation in the amount I read each day. I usually read the Bible while breastfeeding each morning, and return to it later if I haven't completed the section for that day.

I recently attended a Bible conference for women. One of the seminar leaders encouraged us to read smaller sections and really think about them rather than reading big chunks. She also suggested that we take one or two verses and carry them with us throughout the day. Since I know that following a plan is encouraging to me, and this involves reading some large chunks, I've decided to also write down a verse or two each day to think on more deeply. I find that certain verses tend to stick with me anyway. For example, I kept thinking over Ezekiel 16:49 "Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy". Wow! That was convicting! It has been true of me in the past and though I don't have "abundance of idleness" like I did in my teens, I need to use the time and money I have now to care about the needy.

What about you? Do you enjoy using a plan or just picking books and working through them slowly?

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Bay Christian Church sermons

I've been wanting to share our church's sermon archive with you for a while. We attend Bay Christian Church which is just 5 minutes drive from our home. We have particularly benefited from two recent talks, "A prayer for experience" and "Kingdom prayer". These are both available on the Bible talks page. The sermon "A prayer for experience" focuses on the need to experience God's love. Last week we found the sermon "Whose Kingdom - Mine or Yours" thought provoking, and we discussed the need to stand guard against all kinds of greed. Dave will be preaching on the parable of the good Samaritan tomorrow, and we've been working hard to prepare!

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Great idea for family Bible time

It was inspiring to read one woman's account of how she included Bible reading in her day with three small children. I love reading about little ones learning from the plain old Bible - no simplification and no pictures - Wow! God's word is powerful, even for preschoolers.

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Listening to the Bible

After being immersed in the word for months leading up to Elnathan's birth, I did not open my own Bible for two weeks following his birth. Nor did I go for a walk, wash up, or do anything much except look after Elnathan and try to recover from birth/solve my breastfeeding issues! The challenges were all consuming. 

I am so grateful that just days before the birth, we chose to purchase this NKJV audio Bible . . . 

As well as receiving God's word during our evening Psalm reading (which we've continued together), I've been able to listen to this while feeding. What a blessing it is to hear God's word. I am grateful to one of the ladies at church who suggested I buy an audio Bible for this time.

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Sure, you can be a Christian polygamous, petrol sniffing, right-wing racist if you like.

We’ve all heard the argument. “Well, the Bible doesn’t say anything about _____”. Or, with more sophistication “That is not a matter about which the Bible is clear, so we really shouldn’t make judgements”. The idea behind both statements is that if the Bible doesn’t speak to something specifically, we are left to our own opinions and conscience.

The key reason why such arguments do not satisfy me is that I have yet to see how they can be applied consistently. Why, exactly, don’t they lead to the conclusion put forward in the title of this blog post? When does the Bible become specific enough to listen to? There are many things that the Bible does not specifically mention which the Christian church has long held to be sinful or at least unwise (and being unwise is not, as I’ve attempted to demonstrate, much of a step up from outright sin).

I have shocked people when I pointed out that the Bible says “nothing” specific about the evils of paedophilia or polygamy . . . I didn’t mention de-facto marriage, slave owning, or membership of the Nazi party. Yet surely Christians must face and explain these things if they are to put forward the argument that if something is not mentioned specifically it is an area of Christian freedom. If an argument does not work when it comes to large matters, does it work for small ones? If so, how do we make the distinction?

I believe that the Bible does speak, directly or indirectly, to almost all areas of life. The Bible doesn’t use the word paedophilia, but it forbids sex outside of loving marriage. The Bible doesn’t condemn polygamy outright. It shows its destructive consequences and deviation from God’s plan. There are areas where the Bible specifically says we are entirely free: what we eat and drink and what days we keep (Romans 14). In these cases, the Bible does speak – and tells us to follow our own conscience.

As we seek to grapple with what the Bible says, there are many things to keep in mind:

• We are to seek peace with one another, and it is wise to hold our tongues (read Proverbs!). I often fail on this one!
• Many of us struggle to live out the Bible’s obvious teachings, and we need to focus on these. How many of us can say we’ve “arrived” when it comes to forgiving others or helping the poor?
• Some areas of life are less important than others, and the very clear (love on another) must never be forgotten in our attempts to understand other matters.
  

Even when Christians are genuinely seeking to find out what the Bible’s implications are for a particular issue, they will not always come to agreement. It is still better, however, to attempt to make a Biblical case for one’s position. Otherwise, what will you have to say to the Christian polygamous, petrol-sniffing, right-wing racist when he tells you not to judge him? In my opinion . . . ?

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45 days immersed in God's word

Today I reached the milestone of completing half of the "read the Bible in 90 days" plan. It is an answer to prayer that I've been able to keep up with it (sometimes, like today, through completing two days in one). It is not easy to read 10 - 20 + chapters of the Bible each day, and requires me to prioritise Bible reading over lots of other activities or reading that it would be nice to complete. That is exactly why I chose to attempt this plan. I wanted to purposefully devote my late pregnancy to learning about God. A challenge like this seemed like a great way to do so!

At times I have wondered if there were really benefits to soaking myself in Scripture at such a rapid rate. I think it was somewhere between 1 Samuel and 1 Chronicles that I began to wonder if being soaked in ugly stories about Israel's history was at all edifying! I remembered though, that Israel really lived through this. God really bore with his people through this. Couldn't I stick with it a few days? Before I knew it I was paging through the more familiar pages of Job and the Psalms. The more I've read, the more convinced I am that reading through the Bible quickly does have benefits. I've gained a stronger perspective on God's work through in and through his people - the "big picture" of who God is and what he cares about.

I believe that God blesses our efforts to seek Him, even if the results are not immediately evident. Here are a few of the aspects of Scripture that I've felt the Holy Spirit has particularly applied to my heart as I've commited to reading God's word. . .

* We had a terrible wind storm in January. I was home alone and a little afraid of the wind. It was hard to stand against it as I tried to stake the tomatoes, rescue the roses, and tie back the sunflowers. As I looked at the wind God reminded me of how much more terrifying his wrath is. I had a good picture of this through the Bible history I'd been reading!

* I've coloured in many themes during my reading time. One of these is the fatherless and widows. I'd never noticed before the way that Job's defence of his righteousness hinges upon the way he treated the poor. Job says that if he had mistreated the poor and fatherless he would deserve his suffering. However, instead he had been as a father to the fatherless (Job 31:18) and shared his food with the widow (Job 31:17).

* Fear is another theme I've explored. The fear of God has become clearer to me, as have our other fears. God is a Father who speaks to the realities of human emotions and reactions. He does us the great kindness of not leaving us to our own devices. Instead, he reaches down to teach us how to love and fear Him in the midst of it all!

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Holiness, Legalism and the Sufficiency of Scripture

On a recent road trip to the North East of Tasmania, Dave and I listened to Jeff Pollard’s talk “Holiness, Legalism, and the Sufficiency of Scripture”. It was the first time Dave had heard the talk, but it was my fourth or fifth. I have a desire to listen to this CD over and over again, perhaps because its message is one I need to hear over and over again! The talk is also packed with concepts. The preacher acknowledges that each topic listed in the title could do with multiple sermons, and packing it into about an hour makes it a stretch.

The section on holiness is inspiring as Pollard details God’s holiness and our call to be like Him. We are to be a set apart, holy people. God’s standard is complete holiness in thought, word, and action. The section on legalism is insightful and challenging. Some humour is provided as Pollard details the pitfalls of this topic – the main ones being that people constantly label others legalists yet no one seems sure what it means and no one ever admits to it! Pollard defines legalism as a) having a standard – God’s word or a man made standard b) that you seek to attain through self-effort c) for the purposes of self-exaltation.

The teaching about legalism is remarkable for two things. 1) Its accuracy in describing the true evidences of legalism, and the clarity of conviction this provides. We are all legalists. 2) Its avoidance of the common tendency to describe a legalist as, in Pollard’s words, anyone who says there is a problem with something I think is fine! You are not a legalist solely because you hold particular convictions about dress or Sabbath keeping or giving . . . or a multitude of other topics. You are a legalist if you think that those things make you a better Christian and more pleasing to God.

Pollard’s teaching on the Sufficiency of Scripture is perhaps the most controversial section of his CD. He argues that we can seek the mind and will of God through the Scriptures and prayer – even on matters that are not spoken of in specifics. Amongst many Evangelicals today, this position is not held in high regard. Many argue that the Bible does not speak to x, or y, or z . . . or that it does not speak in a relevant or understandable way. It is common to hear it said that unless the Bible addresses something specifically, that matter is one of opinion. The position put forward on this CD is that we ought to rely upon God’s revelation in all matters, not on our own reason or opinions. However, if someone else also seeks out God’s word and prays and comes to a different conclusion we are not to view that person as a lesser Christian.

I recommend this CD to anyone with even a slight interest in the topics covered. It is well worth what you pay for it from Behemoth.

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What is wisdom?

The urgency of being obedient to wisdom

The Bible presents wisdom and understanding and obedience to God's commands as closely connected. This is seen when Moses speaks of the law of God. "Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples" (Deut. 4:6). In chapter eight of Proverbs, we are instructed to pursue wisdom with great urgency. The warnings about the consequences of choosing not to do this are strong. Proverbs 8:36 says "he who sins against me wrongs his own soul; All those who hate me love death". Wisdom doesn't seem to be a take it or leave it kind of thing.

The need to see foolishness as sinful

The New Testament echoes the idea that folly is something that must be repented of. In Mark 7:20 - 23, Jesus puts foolishness in a list of evil things. "For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man.” Foolishness is listed as one of the things we are meant to have left behind as Christians "For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures" (Titus 3:3).

Is wisdom "Christianised common sense". Is it up to us to decide what is wise?

If wisdom is vital, and we can be called to repent of it, there must be definite boundaries to wisdom - "rights" and "wrongs" if you like. For example, the Bible uniformly presents a person who responds well to correction as wise. There are some heart reactions to correction that are right, and some that are wrong. At the same time, there can sometimes be more than one wise course. The Bible defines the boundaries of wisdom, and there are instances where multiple options are presented as wise depending upon the circumstances. Scripture must be compared with Scripture. Sometimes we are called to make up our own minds about what is wise. There will be boundaries, however, and there will always be some options that are foolish.

Freedom from unnecessary advice

Embracing the Bible's view of wisdom frees us from "Christianized common sense". The Christian world abounds with people who are willing to press viewpoints upon us that are independent of Biblical revelation. If someone tells you not to get married until you're 25, to make sure you check that your baby is OK by having an ultrasound, to juice carrots daily, to not to have kids until you're 30, to date for five years, to vote for the one who'll "do most for the poor", to wait a year to have kids after you get married, or not to buy a bike, there are biblical principles you can use to evaluate this advice. Most advice is not based on God's wisdom, and after listening and giving consideration to it we are perfectly free to reject it.

The personal context of this post

I know many Christians who appear to argue that wisdom issues and godliness issues can be neatly separated out. They say that we are not to make judgements about a "Christian" response when it comes to wisdom issues because these are not matters of right or wrong. I believe that this approach to wisdom is not consistent with biblical revelation. It is desperately important for every Christian (myself included) to be held accountable to make wise choices. It is not loving to our brothers and sisters in Christ to ignore obvious departures from wisdom. In the context of close relationships, it is appropriate to remind one another that some choices are unwise. All this must be done in the spirit that James 3:17 describes as wise. God's wisdom is "first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy".

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