Learning Styles... God Has Covered All The Bases

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life. 1 John 1:1

But as for you, speak the things which are fitting for sound doctrine. Older men are to be temperate, dignified, sensible, sound in faith, in love, in perseverance. Older women likewise are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor enslaved to much wine, teaching what is good, so that they may encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. Titus 2:1-5

So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Ephesian 5:28-32

Most people are aware of the "Doctrine of Original Intent" -- which is a view of the American Constitution which seeks to look at what the Framers meant, rather than trying to mold the constitution into something different. I have a similar perspective toward the Bible. I tend to go back to what God said was "very good" in Genesis 1 as the "gold standard". God himself said it was. That is where my perspective of discipleship is formed. Indeed, I think everything that comes afterward needs to keep an eye "looking back" to keep later things in perspective.

There are things that were present in that nascent world which repeat over and over again as the story unfolds regarding God, his "image bearers", love, betrayal, loss and restoration or redemption. Genesis 1 itself says that God placed the lights in the heavens to mark days, nights, months, seasons, and most of all -- to witness to his day-in and day-out unchanging covenant love and faithfulness. Romans 1:18 appeals to those things when it says that every man ever created "knows" thing about God from the things he has made.

I have enjoyed reading Through New Eyes by James Jordan recently. A major premise of the book is that God has placed everything in creation to be symbols, types and testimonies, including us -- His imagebearers. God gave us symbols for our eyes to see and be reminded. He spoke to mankind the specifics of his character and will (prior to Guteberg, the scriptures were mostly listened to rather than read, because only the scribal people had them) and acting out (doing). There is something there for every learning style. God really, really wants us to "get it".

The three scripture passages are examples. 1 John 1:1 says concerning the Word of Life (Jesus) that we saw, heard and touched. Titus 2 has us speaking/hearing, observing and acting out. Modeling his redeemed lives. Ephesians 5 is perhaps the most honoring example of all the role modeling and the passage itself links it back to the Garden in Genesis. Man and wife have the awesome privilege of modeling the relationship between the loving and redeeming God and ourselves, his respectful and responsive people. We become part of that great "testimony" that God has drenched all of creation with concerning himself.

Mr. Magic and His Able Assistants

We are all familiar with magic acts where the star of the show has his assistants working around him doing various tricks. Illusionists use a technique called "mis-direction" where they get you to pay attention to something away from where they are pulling their sleight of hand.

Comes the Obama administration. Mr. Obama is the front man -- always Mr. Clean and has a bunch of assistants -- "czars" as they have been called. These are the ones who get to run around doing the dirty work while he holds your attention. One recent example: his Safe Schools czar has an already implemented a plan to teach kids how to practice extreme homosexual acts. You can read, listen and watch the links and draw your own conclusions here. To call this a Safe Schools czar is beyond mis-nomer, it is outright deception.

It's A Beautiful World

I really like this song by Dierks Bentley and Patty Griffin. We live in broken world and we have broken lives. When the LORD finished his six days of creation, He said, not only "good", but "very good". It was just the way He wanted it. When Adam disobeyed God, this "very good" is part of what he was rejecting.

So, the entrance of sin as left us and our world marred. But it's still beautiful world to the humble and we still have the image of God and if we will let him remake us in Christ, there are sunsets to enjoy, sweethearts to kiss and friendships to enjoy.

Even though life is filled with trouble, Cindy loved life and everyone who knew her knew that. She had every confidence about what lay ahead of her as she closed her eyes the last time, but like the song lyrics, she would have loved to enjoy another sunset, a kiss from her "baby" and smiles from friends. Love life and look forward to the future.

Here's the song lyrics I like so much. You can see the video on YouTube here:

All the noise and the voices are screamin'
What they have to say
And the headlines and sound bytes are givin' me
Demons to hate
And the man on TV
He tells me it's ugly
But if you ask me

It's a beautiful world
It's a beautiful world

There's tears and there's fears and there's losses and crosses to bear
And sometimes the best we can do is just to whisper a prayer
And press on because
There's so much to live for and so much to love

In this beautiful world
Say what you will but I still believe
It's a beautiful world
It's a beautiful world

And I know (I know)
I'm not dreamin'
I just choose (choose) to believe it

So I hate that I sometimes miss what's right in front of my eyes, oh
And I know at the end of my road I'll be wantin' more time
Just another sunset
One more kiss from my baby
A smile from a friend

In this beautiful world
It's a beautiful world
Yeah, it's a beautiful world

Say what you will, but I still believe
It's a beautiful world
Yeah, it's a beautiful world
Oh, it's a beautiful world

Speaking Our Language

Discerning what "God's will" is can be a daunting task. My mom gave me a book called "Decision Making and the Will of God" many years ago, before I married Cindy. I think she may have been hinting. One major principle that book elaborated on was what I would call "concentricity" -- working inward toward the bulls-eye with concentric circles. Outer circles would be broad, generalized principles that each inner circle made more specific until you had it narrowed down to a fairly clear decision.

That principle serves decision making well. Should I steal my neighbor's property? Not according to the Ten Commandments. Should I waste my boss's resources? There is no "Ten Commandment" that specifically says not to, but as I look at more "refining" principles in the scripture, I finally end up with a "no, I should not" answer.

What about the decision my mom was alluding to when she gave me the book? Using concentricity, I could determine that Cindy would indeed be an excellent choice for a wife, but -- MY wife? If I asked, would she say "yes"? That lay beyond the scope of the principles. Ultimately my decision had to lay just outside the boundaries of my comfort zone.

Scriptural principles like concentricity can serve us well for many decisions. For some, ultimately we need to be able to "hear" God's voice. I want to note that in Acts 2, even though the Holy Spirit could have had the disciples speak in Aramaic (or even Hebrew) and everyone in the crowd would have understood them, God chose to foreshadow the sending of the Gospel to the whole earth by speaking it in the national language of the various nations represented. He "spoke their language".

A similar point is evident in 1 Corinthians 14 where Paul says that if the bugle call is indistinct, how will the troops know what to do in the battle? They need to understand what the bugler is communicating.

That brings me to my point. I have believed for many years that God works with each of those who will let Him -- working with us as His disciples. As we walk with Him, we develop an instinctive recognition of the patterns He uses to teach us and lead us. He wants us to be able to recognize what He is doing. This gives us that additional "tool" we need when we have gone as far as concentricity can take us. Have you recognized Him "speaking your language"?

Benaiah in Reverse

I have long appreciated the stories of David's mighty men -- especially that of Benaiah in 1 Chronicles 11:22-24. In fact, back in the late 1970's, as friend and pastor Bill Woods and I were discussing a project for mass outreach using pop radio music (hold your fire, please!), Benaiah was -- at least in my thinking -- the model for what we intended to do.

No one would argue how music especially, but arts and sciences (humanities) in general affect the human spirit. Maybe even more so today, people have "their song" or "their artist" and they both identify with these things and let them influence their choices. Often, music has been used as an instrument of evil to influence people wrongly into doing things that are destructive to their own lives and others' around them.

In our plan, music was the "weaver's beam" being used by the Egyptian giant to attack. Like Benaiah, we wanted to take the weapon from his hand and turn it around and use it against him (not against the people but against the Evil One).

Though our idea focused specifically on music as an outreach, history is filled with the work of Christians in all areas of culture who believed God wanted them to use their gifts, talents, interests, to glorify Him and make their community a better place. The litany would be too long, but would include Christians who nursed the sick during plagues in the Roman empire while the Romans ran for cover, J.S Bach writing music for God (much just music, not a musified gospel tract), William Wilberforce persistently putting forth anti-slavery legislation in Great Britain year after year until it passed, George Washington Carver using his gifts in research to find ways to benefit poor people and the community as a whole with his many experiments, Lord Kelvin and many men of science who contributed to medicine and hospital care and the founding of schools for the common folk and universities for those who want to learn more. The list is endless.

These men (and women) took the weaver's beam from the enemy and used it to defeat him, as Romans says, to "overcome evil with good." They didn't run for cover and teach others to do the same. They took their talents into the fray. They were like Benaiah. Unfortunately, acts like this have fallen out of fashion and have been called "polishing the brass on a sinking ship". We have given those areas of cultural development back to unbelievers because they have become "unspiritual". They (the enemies of Christ) now own those institutions and we think it is supposed to be that way. It is like Benaiah handing the beam back to the Egyptian and saying, "Sorry, I was mistaken, here is your weapon back," then letting him run us through.

God grant me to be like Bach, like Wilberforce, and many more as well. I want the weaver's beam back!