The mountain does not speak ill of the river just because it is high and mighty. Nor does the river scorn the mountain just because it moves swiftly and gracefully. They both are great in their own way.
Green, M. P., ed. (1989). Illustrations for Biblical Preaching: Over 1500 sermon illustrations arranged by topic and indexed exhaustively (Revised edition of: The expositor’s illustration file). Baker Book House.
During our recent snow/sleet/ice event (Jan. 25-28), I needed to record a video/audio Bible class. The location of our study was Judges 7. You’ll remember the story of Gideon. Here’s the class I recorded for our local group.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/15B5qBpLoCsBKy4hzWSifzPkhdhtQQFeu/view?usp=sharing
Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13 that “love is not easily provoked.” The word “easily” is not in the original. Actually, it is not needed, for the word translated “provoked” is emphatic, needing no modification. It means that true love does not become exasperated, is not overly sensitive. You see, it is really hard to get someone who loves you riled up enough that he becomes ill-tempered or bitter. Our English word is from the Latin provocare, which means to challenge or incite.
Bowman, D. (1990). That’s Life! Christianity Magazine, 7(10), 23.
Lucre
Sometimes one finds words of wisdom in unexpected places.
From the wall of a Gulf station, next to the radiator caps, I
copied these words.
Money
Workers earn it; spendthrifts burn it;
Bankers lend it; women spend it;
Forgers fake it; taxes take it;
Dying leave it; heirs receive it;
Thrifty save it; misers crave it;
Robbers seize it; rich increase it;
Gamblers lose it; I could use it.
This little verse acknowledges many of the problems and
errors associated with money; in spite of all the injustice and
erroneous thinking that surround the subject, he amusingly
confesses, “I could use it.”
Solomon expressed a widely held idea in Ecclesiastes 10:19.
He said that money answers everything. Many people believe
this. There is hardly a thing in this world that cannot be
converted into dollars and cents. Money can buy material
things like food and clothing. But, it can also buy intangibles
like friendship, honor, dignity and self-esteem. And, if
“knowledge is power,” money is more obviously so. We even
have life insurance to “insure” the quality of life for those we
leave when dying. And, health insurance is supposed to
“insure” that one will have proper medical attention, if he
should become seriously ill. You can guarantee your income
with a salary continuation plan. No matter what kind of
problem you’ve got, money promises a solution.
No wonder so many people in the world spend their lives in
pursuit of the almighty dollar. Money is a very practical
thing. It can improve the quality of our material lives. It can
take a load of worry and anxiety out of life. Properly used, it
can even improve our spiritual lives.
Jesus said that people make a god out of material wealth
(Matthew 6:24). Paul echoed that sentiment (Colossians
3:5). Seldom does anyone start out to worship money. But,
little by little he falls into the devil’s trap. Like a carrot on a
stick, satisfaction is always just out of reach.
The thing people don’t take into account is that there is a
God in heaven. Those who have the wrong attitude about
money will fall into a trap. God has declared it. People
cannot have the wrong attitude toward money
without having the wrong attitude toward God. And,
usually, men love money because they love the illicit
pleasures it buys.
“For we brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we
can carry nothing out. And having food and clothing, with
these we shall be content. But, those who desire to be rich
fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and
harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and
perdition. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil,
for which some have strayed from the faith in their
greediness, and pierced themselves through with many
sorrows.” (1 Timothy 6:7-10).
The love of money produces its own traps and snares. Those
who love it have temptations that others do not have. The
love of money is a root of all sorts of misfortune or “evil.” It
causes people to stray from the faith and to pierce
themselves through with grief and sorrow as with a barbeque
spit. (So the Greek word suggests).
It is hard to live without money, but the consequences of
pursuing it too much or loving it too much are very grave
indeed.
NORTH PARK CHURCH OF CHRIST
Aug. 22, 1984
Abilene, TX
AND REPRINTED IN JAY BOWMAN, THE COLLECTED WORKS, general editors, Warren and Paula Berkley
Handling Aright the Word of Truth
Editor: Paul Earnhart
THOSE DISENCHANTED with the lack of “progress” in the churches have written much in recent years about the need for a new approach to the Bible if the church is to survive. Our present approach is said to be the product of eighteenth century Enlightenment thinking and in great need of revision. Whether that is true or not is a question we propose to deal with in this issue of the magazine. But what is absolutely true going in is that those who propose this “new hermeneutic” are on record as offering no real assurance that it is not just another example of what they oppose—a creature of late twentieth century culture rather than the way the Bible sees itself.
It is no news that men sometimes mishandle the Scripture in order to escape the will of God. It is a hoary old trick devised by the devil who showed his skill at quoting the Bible out of context when tempting Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew 4:5–6). Afterward the Lord was confronted regularly by some of the devil’s understudies who had their own clever way with God’s revelation. The Pharisees thought nothing of stepping into God’s silence with their own traditions (Matthew 15:2) which at best polluted divine perfection with human nonsense and at worst invalidated divine commands (Mark 7:8–9). Of a similar ilk, the Sadducees, stubborn in their denial of the resurrection, kept raising far-fetched hypothetical questions while refusing to draw the necessary conclusions which the facts of Scripture demanded (Matthew 22:23–33).
The New Testament is full of apostolic warnings about the misuse of the sacred writings. “… there are some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ” (Galatians 1:7). “For we are not as the many, corrupting the word of God …” (2 Corinthians 2:17). “… but we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully …” (2 Corinthians 4:2).
The absolute bane of Bible interpretation in the post New Testament era was the “new wave” method of allegorizing Scripture, a purely subjective process of searching for what was believed to be the deeper message of the Bible wholly unrelated to its actual words. It was a device which Jewish exegetes borrowed from Greek philosophers who, embarrassed by Greek mythology, wanted to reject its true message while still claiming to believe it. Characteristic of much Jewish exegesis in the first century, it came at last, with some exceptions, to dominate Bible interpretation among nominal Christians all the way to and through the Middle Ages. It was in the Reformation that men like Wycliffe, Luther, Calvin and others, whatever their shortcomings, turned men back to a straightforward, common sense approach to the message of the Bible based on the actual grammatical meaning of the words. This put the Bible back in the hands of the average man.
The Bible is God’s word in human language and we are to understand it in just the same way we understand all human speech. The so-called rules of Bible interpretation are not rules at all, but descriptions of how men innately communicate with each other through language. It is how God made us. We do not need to be tutored in some exotic skill to understand the Bible, but merely to use the one which is native to us and which we use continually with great effectiveness. What we need is an attitude of mind which will cause us to listen to what God is saying and, listening, to understand and obey.
Paul, in his last epistle written with death hovering over him, urged Timothy to “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15, NIV). Timothy’s task has become ours. It is our hope that the following articles will help us see that the common sense way we have been dealing with Scripture is not synthetic, but intrinsic to the very way that human language communicates. The cry for a “new hermeneutic” may be nothing more than the allegorizing of the Greeks, a way to “believe the Bible without having to accept its message. And beware of those who want to “modernize” the church with a more “up-to-date” approach to the Bible. The morning newspaper is certainly “up-to-date,” but we all know what happens to old newspapers. What we need is something unchanging, something eternal (Revelation 14:6).
Why Honest Hearts Can Under
Earnhart, P., ed. (1993). Christianity Magazine Theme Editorial: Handling Aright the Word of Truth. Christianity Magazine, 10(8), 11–12.
