A Visual Reminder That What Is Important In Life Is Internal and Eternal

We live in a world obsessed with beauty and trying to stay young. We who live in western cultures, encouraged by the media, put a premium on the body and those things that are temporal. TIME Magazine profiled the first "supermodel," a woman named Veruschka, by placing her on the cover of the magazine in 1967. It is reported that Hollywood director James Cameron and his special effects team were inspired by Veruschka and modeled Navi in Avatar after Cameron's memory of seeing Veruschka in magazines when he was  a boy of 16.

Veruschka, pictured to the left as she appeared in October of 1965, graced the cover of many major magazines in the 1960's and 1970's. She started the "waif" figure among models, and earned superstar status as a model, earning a fortune in the process.

Today, Veruschka is 71 years of age. The core person we know as Veruschka is the same. Her soul remains intact. She is a human being, created in the image of God--but the effects of a world cursed by sin have been felt by Veruschka, as it will be by us all. Veruschka modeled today for the first time in many years. One has to admire her presence on the model runway, and the courage she exhibited. Her appearance this October 2010 illustrates the truth of two verses of Scripture.

"Charm can be deceptive and beauty doesn’t last, but a woman who fears and reverences God shall be greatly praised" (Proverbs 31:30 TLB)

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (II Corinthians 4:16 ISV).

I too am growing old. I can't run like I used to, play softball as well, or hit the golf ball as far. My eyes are weak, my skin is dry and getting winkled, and my hair is thinner and more brittle.

That's life.

I don't get discouraged. The older I get the more I appreciate the grace of God in my life. He renews me inwardly every day. My outlook is more positive, my understanding of God's goodness is deeper, and my appreciation for His blessings in Christ Jesus far outweigh any discouragement over a decline in physical health or appearance. We are in the middle of a series on Sunday morning at our church entitled "The Difference Christ Makes." It seems to me one of the major differences He makes in the lives of those who trust Him is the ability to not draw our worth and signficance from outward beauty. Anyone who does is doomed to end their life in failure. But those of us who know Jesus Christ don't despair when we lose what we once had, including our physical beauty.

Quit Agonizing Over "Finding" the Perfect Will of God and Just Get On With Your Life

There is not one verse, not one,  in the New Testament that exhorts the believer to “seek the will of God.”  Every command regarding seeking God's face or God's will is in the old economy. Christians who emphasize seeking the will of God for their lives are operating under a broken system of assumptions, not the least of which is that God's will is actually "lost" and needs found or "hidden" and needs revealed or "best" and can be missed.

The teachings of Jesus Christ and the writings of the apostles make clear that we experience God's will passively and daily. A.W. Pink once said that nothing ever happens but that God "either promotes it, permits it, or prohibits it." God is on His throne and He does as He pleases, only as He pleases and always as He pleases in us, for us and through us. The good news for us is that we are His kids, and He delights in us and is always orchestrating the events of our lives--even the mistakes we make and the afflictions that arise--for our ultimate good.

Sometimes the most benevolent thing God does for His people is to withhold knowledge of His "perfect will" (i.e. "that which we will experience in life") until the time we actually experience it. What if God had revealed to Deitrich Bonhoeffer while at Union Seminary in New York that he would be executed by the S.S. when he returned to his homeland of Germany? Was it not better for Bonhoeffer that he not know of his fate for the future but experience the reality of God's presence in his present?

Author Steve Crosby writes in his article entitled Just Ride the Bike (published in the August 2010 Global Communion e-newsletter) that "the will of God is revealed incarnationally and relationally."  That means that as I begin to understand who I am and the relationship that I have to my Heavenly Father, I begin to appreciate the gifts, callings and desires He has freely given me through the new birth.  I learn to just get on with living as His child, delighting in knowing He sings over me and He smiles upon me! I don't attempt to discover God's will about "this or that, right or left, north or south, for it doesn't matter." The kingdom becomes an ever-present reality, in me and through me, learning to live under the smile and "Amen" of God in Christ Jesus.

Obsessive praying about the will of God is not a sign of healthy spiritual desire or spiritual maturity.  Slaves need constant instruction and direction and can only function by explicit permission. Sons are released to live because of the trust that has been established through relationship. Slaves walk by instruction and information. Sons walk by faith and trust. As heretical as it seems, sons don’t need constant instruction.

Crosby gives a parable to cement the idea that the will of God is bound up in relationship.

A benevolent father determined to give his son a bicycle for his 11th birthday, which fell on a Monday. Here’s how the week unfolded:

Monday

He gave his son the bike and the son asks: “Dad, can I ride it?” and the father says, “Of course son, that’s why I gave it to you. It’s to be ridden.”

Tuesday

The son comes into his father timidly, sheepishly, with eyes down cast and says: “Dad, I am really not worthy of this bike, are you sure I can ride it?” The father says, “Of course son, ride it.”

Wednesday

The son comes in crying and pleading: “Oh father, I fell off the bike yesterday, can I have your permission to ride the bike?” The father gets a tad annoyed and says, “Quit bothering me. Get out of here, and ride your bike. Falling off is part of the process.”

Thursday

The son comes in on his hands and knees, wailing and moaning: “Oh Dad, I know you are a great dad, full of mercy and kindness, and you have given me this bike that I am unworthy of . . . can I ride it today?” The father says, “Son, I gave you the bike because I expect you to ride it. Please, don’t do this anymore, just ride it.”

Friday

The son comes in, throws himself prostrate on the floor before the father, and with wailing, moaning, and tears: “Oh father, is it your will for me to ride the bike today, can I have your permission?” The exasperated father has had it, loses his cool and says: “Quit bothering me and ride the &^%$##$%^&*(*&^$#@ bike!”

Allowing for the limitations of the parable, Crosby concludes that it illustrates exactly how most Christians pray about the will of God. We believe if we are somehow earnest enough about how unworthy we are, God will somehow be persuaded to reveal something He is otherwise not inclined to reveal. We’re funny in this way, because we would react strongly to pagans who view their gods as having to be assuaged or conditioned to make their will known, but in our own prayer practices, we act like pagans instead of sons.

In the parable, the father’s will has been revealed in the act of giving the bike. The existence of the bike as a gift, presupposes the intent of the giver that it is to be ridden. The son does not have to ask about his father’s will.

What has our heavenly Father given us and what does it presuppose?

• His smile

• His satisfaction

• His rest

• His love

• His indwelling Spirit

• His “amen” over Christ in us

• His gifts and graces

• His calling

• His blessing on the new creation in us . . . and so much more.

Every moment of life is presenced with Him and His will. We live, and move, and have our being in Him. There’s never a time we are apart. Together we enter into His revealed will by simply living life, turning our hearts toward Him, and relating to Him. If the matter at hand is not sin, then there’s no need to agonize over a mystical idea of the revealed will of God. It will unfold as we experience life together. We do not need advance prescription that any specific activity is, or is not, “His will.”

So much of the “seek God’s will” teaching is based on insecurity, the fear of making a mistake, and a desire for self-protection. We erroneously believe that if we just had the right divine information we could avoid a wrong decision and its temporal consequences.

Steve Crosby suggsests that knowing the specific will of God for our lives is really quite easy:

1. Is it sin . . . yes or no?
2. Is it consistent with my identity, gifts, calling and desires?
3. Is the door open?

If no to #1, and yes to #2 & #3, then quit the guilt laden, religiously motivated, straining, and striving prayer about the will of God and just get on with it!

THE Greatest Problem In Evangelical Christianity Is Our View of "Authority"

"Touch not mine anointed and do my prophets no harm" (Psalm 105:14-15).
"He that is greatest among you shall be your servant" (Matthew 23:11).

In the mid-1990's our mission team from our church went to Belarus to partner with Christians there to plant churches in the inner cities of the former Soviet republic. We made friendships with many Belarus Christians and the partnership continued for over a decade.

In the late 1990's I received a call one evening from a Belarus pastor who was concerned for a 20 year old  Belarus Christian woman named Natalie. We had met her in Belarus a couple of years earlier, and she had been taken by the Christians in Oklahoma, and through other contacts in the United States, she had come to to Oklahoma to work as an "intern" at an independent, fundamental Baptist church in Oklahoma City. We had no connections with the church, but the pastor said he needed my help. Natalie wished to return to Belarus but was being held captive by the pastor and staff in the basement of the church where she had been given "free" lodging. She had managed to make a short, frantic phone call, where she had pleaded for help from her overseas pastor.

It took me and our missions pastor, John Stam, an hour and ten minutes to get to this particular independent Baptist church in Oklahoma City. I called a couple of police officer friends in the metro and had them meet us at the church. Our missions pastor and myself knocked on the door that had the sign "Church Office" on the front. The fairly large church was locked down because it was after hours, but we saw lights on inside the building. Soon the associate pastor opened the door and I introduced myself and told him that I was there to speak with Natalie from Belarus. He hesitated for a moment and then said that was not possible. I told him that I had received information that Natalie was being held against her will by the pastors of the church, and if they did not produce her within sixty seconds, I would bring every available police officer in Oklahoma City and both print and television news media to their doorstep within the hour. He scowled but went to get her.

When Natalie came to the door her face was tear stained. She sobbed in relief when she saw me. I asked her if it was her desire to leave the United States and return to Belarus. She said yes. I asked her if she was being held against her will. She said yes. I told her that she was to go to the room, collect her belongings, and we would be leaving immediately. We would take her to the airport and buy her plane ticket back to Belarus on the first available flight. I also told her, in the presence of the Baptist pastor, that we would be discussing with the local District Attorney about pressing charges against those who had held her against her will.

The associate pastor was irate. Livid and red-faced from his rage, the pastor verbally harangued me while Natalie collected her things. He told me that the Natalie had willingly come to the church to work for a year. She was only six weeks into her tenure, and her desire to go home was not of God.  The pastors of that church were her spiritual "authority," and her desire to go back to Belarus was spiritual rebellion. I let him talk until Natalie returned with her belongings. He concluded his diatribe against me by pointing his finger in my face and said, "You will answer to God at the judgment seat of Christ for going against the God-ordained authority of this church!" I grabbed his finger, twisted his arm behind his back, and put him face first against the wall and whispered in his ear, "Christ atoned for everyone of my sins at the cross so I will not be answering for them, but I can darn sure guarantee you if you laid one finger on this girl you will answer to the prosecutor and courts of Oklahoma County and no amount of spiritual authority will keep you safe in prison."

 Long story short, we were able to get Natalie back to Belarus and the news media released a story about a year later regarding multiple allegations of sexual misconduct against the pastor of that church, resulting in multiple lawsuits. We would later see Natalie in Belarus and her family expressed their gratefulness for our intervention in the United States.

I tell you that story for one purpose. In my opinion, the greatest danger in the churches of America is that pastors and "leaders" have a warped view of authority. Rather than seeing "servant-leadership" and  mutual submission as the norm for Christian living, pastors have this bizarre view that they are "God's anointed" and if anyone does anything to cross them, then God will avenge them.

I do believe that God is up to something great in the ekklesia. Part of the revival is the tearing down of this notion that pastors have some kind of inherent "authority." We pastors are called by our Lord to be servants of all and our personal desires are to be subordinate to the people we serve. By the way, the "anointed" in Psalm 105 are all of God's people, not just preachers. That's something every pastor should remember.

The Measure of a True Character Is Never Seen in the Amount of Publicity That Is Given

Lindsay Lohan, 24, was all over the news this past week because she's a celebrity and she's a drug addict.


Justin Allen 23, Brett Linley 29, Matthew Weikert 29, Justus Bartett 27, Dave Santos 21, Chase Stanley 21, Jesse Reed 26, Matthew Johnson 21, Zachary Fisher 24, Brandon King 23, Christopher Goeke 23, and Sheldon Tate 27 are Marines, not celebrities. They all died while defending of our country against terrorism. They, unlike Lindsay Lohan, received little media mention.

I wish to honor these dead Marines by posting their names and expressing my appreciation to their families for the sacrifice they have made in order that my family might remain both free and safe.

One of My Members Believes God May Very Well Be an Oklahoma Sooner Fan

I was sent the following prophecy for today's game from one of the members of our church. It is from Psalm 75:4-6 (KJV). I will reserve my judgment on the prophecy until Saturday at 6:00 p.m. central time.


“I said unto the fools, Deal not foolishly: and to the wicked, Lift not up the horn (Texas?): Lift not up your horn on high: speak not with a stiff neck. For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south [so it seems it comes from the north? Oklahoma?]. But God is the judge: he putteth down one (Texas), and setteth up another (Oklahoma).”

Go Sooners!

Sexism and Culture Deform the Masterpiece of God Called "An Adolescent Girl"

Yesterday I read a fascinating book entitled Reviving Ophelia, written by Mary Pipher, Ph.D, a clinical psychologist who lives in Lincoln, Nebraska. Mary is not an evangelical believer, but her insights into the conflict within the souls of adolescent girls are some of the most powerful I've seen. I've long believed that psychologists know all the right questions to ask but seldom have the right answers. Dr. Pipher seems to have found a measure of both. I personally think her book, though written in the mid-1990's, ought to be required reading for anyone who ministers the good news of Jesus Christ to girls from the ages of 11 to 18. All truth is from God, regardless of the secondary source from which you read it. Mary Pipher helps those who know Christ to understand the battle going on in the minds of young ladies who may not know Him. The following lengthy quotes from Reviving Ophelia convey some profound insight regarding adolescent girls, peer pressure and the sexualization of Western culture.

I realize that some evangelical conservatives who read Mary Pipher would prefer John Piper on the subject of adolescent girls and women. However, I think Mary Pipher comes closer to the biblical truth that God uniquely and majestically creates each young woman into a masterpiece of abilities, talents and gifts. Sin plays its part in destroying the image of God in the life of a woman, but Pipher makes a very good argument that sexism and Western cultural rituals have played an even greater role in deforming the uniqueness, character and self-perception of adolescent girls. Read on:

"Psychology has a long history of ignoring girls this age. Until recently adolescent girls haven't been studied by the academics, and they have long baffled therapists ...Simone de Beauvoir believed adolescence is when girls realize that men have the power and that their power comes from consenting to become submissive adored objects. Dr. Beauoir says, "Young girls slowly bury their childhood, put away their independent and imperious selves and submissivley enter adult existence." Adolescent girls experience a conflict between their autonomous selves and their need to be feminine, between their status as human beings and their vocation as females. Dr. Beauvior says, "Girls stop being and start seeming."

Girls become "female impersonators" who fit their whole selves into small, crowded spaces. Vibrant, confident girls become shy, doubting young women. Girls stop thinking, "Who am I? What do I want?" and start thinking, "What must I do to please others?"

Olive Schreiner wrote of her experiences as a young girl in The Story of the African Farm. "The world tells us what we are to be and shape us by the ends it sets before us. To men it says, work. To us it says, seem. The less a woman has in her head the lighter she is for carrying." She described the finishing school that she attended in this way: "It was a machine for condensing the soul into the smallest possible area. I have seen some souls so compressed that they would have filled a small thimble."

Adolescence is when girls experience social pressure to put aside their authentic selves and to display only a small portion of their gifts. This pressure disorients and depresses most girls. They sense the pressure to be someone they are not ... Parents know only too well that something is happening to their daughters. Calm, considerate daughters grow moody, demanding and distant. Girls who loved to talk are sullen and secretive. Girls who like to hug now bristle when touched. Mothers complain that they can do nothing right in the eyes of their daughters. Involved fathers bemoan their sudden banishment from their daughters' lives. But few parents realize how universal their experiences are. Their daughters are entering a new land, a dangerous place that parents can scarcely comprehend.

With puberty, girls face enormous cultural pressure to split into false selves. The pressure comes from schools, magazines, music, television, advertisements and movies. It comes from peers. Girls can be true to themselves and risk abandonment by their peers, or they can reject their true selves and be socially acceptable. Most girls choose to be socially accepted and split into two selves, one that is authentic and one that is culturally scripted (emphasis mine). In public they become who they are supposed to be ... While the rules for proper female behavior aren't clearly stated, the punishment for breaking them is harsh. Girls who speak frankly are labeled as bitches. Girls who are not attractive and skinny are scorned. The rules are reinforced by the visual images in soft- and hard-core pornography, by song lyrics, by casuual remarks, by criticism, by teasing and by jokes.

To totally accept the cultural definitions of feminity and conform to the pressures is to kill self. Girls who do this are the "Muffy's and "Barbie dolls" with hair and smiles in place and a terrible deadness underneath. They are the one who make me want to shout "Don't give up, fight back." Often girls who try to conform overshoot the mark. For example, girls with anexoria have tried too hard to be slender, feminine and perfect. They have become thin, shiny packages, outwardly carefully wrapped and inwardly a total muddle.

Girls have long been trained to be feminine and beautiful at considerable cost to their humanity. They have long been evaluated on the basis of appearance and caught in myriad double binds: achieve, but not too much; be polite, but be yourself; be feminine and adult; be aware of our cultural heritage, but don't comment on sexism. Another way to describe this femininity training is to call it false self-training. Girls are trained to be less than who they really are. They are trained to be what the culture wants of its young women, not what they themselves want to become.

America today is a girl-destroying place. Everywhere girls are encouraged to sacrifice their true selves. Their parents may fight to protect them, but their parents have limited power. Many girls lose contact with their true selves, and when they do, they become extraordinarily vulnerable to a culture that is all too happy to use them for its purposes.

Intelligent resistance keeps the true self alive." (From pages 22-23; 37-38; 44).

Spurgeon on the Difference Between a Political Liberal and a Political Conservative

With the national elections just a month away, I wondered if Charles Spurgeon ever commented on politics while serving as pastor of the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, England during the 19th Century. I found this quote from Spurgeon regarding the differences between liberals and conservatives.

"I have long ago found out that pretty things on paper had better be kept there. I knew a man with a plan for growing plum trees in hedges as they do in Kent, but he never looked to see whether the soil would suit, and so he lost the trees which he put in, and there was an end of his dreams. The wise voter will examine the politician, and consider the veracity of his hopes by passing new bills and spending more of your money.
Someone recently told me that at a table of people trying to solve a problem, the Liberal will make a proposal that sounds good, but the Conservative will ask, 'Will it work?'"

From John Ploughman's Pictures by Charles Haddon Spurgeon

The New Covenant Is Not Just a Theology, It's a Way of Life

Recently I had a very sincere Christian man tell me that  God had not been happy with him because he had not been totally sold out and committed to follow the Lord and His ways. The young man told me that  "pride" and "selfishness" had been a problem with him in his ministry, and he believed he had received an illness from God as a way for the Lord to get his attention. He had been reading the Old Testament, particularly the prophets and the Psalms, where God's people cried out to Him because His wrath was upon them due to their unfaithfulness. The young man, following the example of Old Testament Israel,  began to pray and confess his sins during his illness. He even told God to make him sicker if there was more pride and selfishness that needed to be alleviated from his life. Sure enough, he grew worse and the illness became so bad he finally asked God to relent. He wondered what I thought about people in the church who were not totally sold out to to the Lord. He inquired whether or not I believed God brings His people to pure living and holy conduct through affliction and fear of God's wrath. He felt he had personally experienced the anger of God and had come through it holier and more committed than before the illness. He wanted some pastoral counsel on how to keep his life "pure" and avoid future manifestations of God's wrath.

His question was very sincere, and I wished to answer him in a respectful, helpful manner. I began by acknowledging I could be wrong in what I was about to tell him, but I believed so strongly in what he was about to hear that I would resign from my ministry if it could be satisfactorily proven to me from Scripture that I was wrong.

I told him that I could not recall anything I had ever done in my life for the Lord that was not somehow, in someway, tainted with sin. Whether it be visiting the hospitals, preaching a message, conducting a funeral, or any other activity normally associated with "ministry," I told him I didn't think I had ever experienced a moment when I had been fully committed or fully devoted to God. In addition, I could not envision a time in my life where I could ever be one hundred percent sold out to Christ. He seemed surprised by what I told him, but then he was shocked by what I said next. I told him that I did not believe God was bothered by my lack of commitment to Him or the presence of selfishness or pride in my life, nor was I, because Christ had removed all the just anger and wrath of  God  due me for my sins. God would never withhold His blessings, His goodness, or His love from me because of my poor performance or unfaithfulness to Him because Christ guaranteed I would only and always receive blessings and goodness from God. I then explained to him the basis for my belief and how it differed from the way he believed and lived his life.

I told the young man I felt he had been living his Christian life based upon the principles God built into the old agreement between the nation of Israel and Himself. This agreement is called "the old covenant" in Scripture. It revolved around the law of God and Israel's corresponding faithfulness and obedience to that law. If Israel obeyed, God would bless. If Israel disobeyed, the judgment and wrath of God would be poured out on God's people through affliction and other enemies God brought into Israel's path to chasten them for their sins. For example, Israel was conquered by the Babylonians because Israel had violated God's Sabbath commandment. Their captivity in Babylon corresponded to the number of years the Sabbath commandment was not kept by Israel (70). The Old Covenent was an agreement based upon God's law and Israel's agreement to keep it and be blessed or break it and experience God's wrath.

However, in the new agreement between God and man called "The New Covenant," Jesus Christ, sent by God Himself, came to fulfill the law in the sinner's place. Whether it be the law of conscience, natural law, or the covenantal law of Israel, Jesus Christ perfectly obeyed God's law in my stead. Likewise, in His death Jesus fulfilled the law by bearing the just punishment and righteous wrath of a holy God due my unfaithfulness and sin. My trust in the person and work of Christ has brought to me "the great exchange." God has given to His Son all my sins and the consequences of them (God's wrath) and He has given to me all the righteousness of Christ earned by Christ's perfect and complete obedience to God's law and the consequences of that perfect obedience (God's blessing). 

For this reason the mercies, grace and blessings of God are mine forever because of Christ and His performance on my behalf. God treats me as if I was perfectly righteous because He sees the righteousness of His Son in me. I don't have to worry about being "completely sold out" to God in order to earn His favor, but rather, I daily rest in the person and performance of Jesus Christ on my behalf and continually receive His favor. I have "peace" with God because I rest in Christ. This leads me to live according to the following principles:

(1). I don't have to shout at God to get His attention, or have multiple people pray to get God to "do something" on my behalf; the Lord is near, and He is good to me at all times (Phil. 4:5-7; Romans 8:28).

(2). I don't ever think of God's goodness to me in terms of my obedience to God through obeying His law; rather, I see God's continual delight in being everlastingly good to me because of Christ's obedience on my behalf.

(3). I never barter or bargain with God by asking Him to do something for me and then promising Him something in return; rather, I trust God's faithfulness to me even in periods of my own unfaithfulness because of Jesus Christ's personal obedience in my stead.

(4). I never avoid sin out of "fear" of God's wrath; I avoid sin because my understanding of God's love and goodness to me in Jesus Christ deepens.

(5). I am able to acknowledge my own sins to others--including my pride and my selfishness--because I know I am accepted by God the way I am, and He is in the business of making me into the person I will become.

When I finished visiting with this young man I could tell he had been given some things to think about. I don't know whether or not he will ultimately agree with me, but I hope the summary of our conversation gives you a glimpse into my belief that the New Covenant is not just a theology, it is a way of life.

One Has to Admire the Bold Consistency and Application by John Calvin in His Views on Women

In these dying days of evangelical patriarchalism, many believers in male superiority and male authority over females try to soft pedal their views. When patriarchalists--who  prefer the name "complementarians"--are challenged that their interpretations of Scripture are actually a belief that males are superior to females, and that they are teaching females were only created to enrich the lives of males, they cry "foul" and object to such a characterization of their views on men and women.

However, John Calvin, one of the fathers of evangelical patriarchalism in protestant circles, was quite consistent in applying his patriarchal theological views to daily life. What he theologically believed regarding women was practically applied in every day living. The consistency of the way he lived with the things he believed is evident. Calvin wrote in his commentary on I Corinthians the following:

"As far as the external connections and social propriety are concerned, the man takes his lead from Christ, and the woman from the man, so that they do not stand on the same level, but this inequality exists ... Because he is made subject to Christ and that includes the condition that he take first place in the control of the household and its affairs. For in his home the father of the family is like a king... The man is in authority, and the woman is in subjection to him ... In I Tim. 2:12 he debars women from speaking in church altogether ... because of the pre-eminence which God has given to the man, so that he might be superior to the woman ... The woman took her origin from the man, and that therefore she has a lower standing ... The woman was created for the express purpose of greatly enriching the man's life ... Paul looks higher, viz. to the eternal law of God, which had made the female sex subject to the authority of men. Therefore all women are born to submit to the pre-eminence of the male sex ... Let the man therefore carry out his function as the head, having supremacy over her; let the woman perform her function as the body, giving help to him ... Let the woman be content in her position for subjection, and not feel indignant because she has to play second fiddle to the superior sex"(translated by John W. Frazer, Eerdmans, 1996, pp. 229ff.).

I do wish modern patriarchalists would be as bold in their declarations as Calvin. Faulty interpretations of Scripture are not nearly as evident when the application of the theology is covered up. In other words, we have a great many professing "complementarians" (patriarchalists) who are functioning egalitarians. Such hypocrisy is not healthy for anyone. I personally told Paige Patterson I admired his consistency in removing Sheri Klouda from her position as Hebrew at Southwestern--he was living the way he believed. I then told him I would do everything in my power to help people see his beliefs were totally, one hundred percent diametrically opposite of the Scriptures and the teachings of Jesus Christ.

One of these days the Scriptural teaching of the equality of men and women in Jesus Christ will be the standard view of conservative, evangelical churches because it is precisely what the Bible teaches. Until then, it would be helpful if those who theologically believe in male superiority and male authority over the female gender would be as bold and direct as Calvin in terms of the application of that theology into daily living.

It would help people see the utter ridiculousness of their beliefs and the tragedy of falsely interpreting the Bible to support such absurdities.

Searching Together, Edited by Jon Zens, Is By Far the Best Theological Journal for the Money

One of my favorite theologians is Jon Zens. Jon edits the quarterly periodical called Searching Together, formerly known as the Baptist Reformation Review. Jon is thoroughly biblical, imminently concerned with the Scriptures being interpreted through the lens of the person and work of Jesus Christ, and unafraid to challenge systems of thought that run counter to the clear and plain teaching of Jesus Christ in the New Covenant Scriptures.

The best $10.00 you will ever spend is the yearly subscription to Searching Together. The next issue to be released will challenge the traditional Christian view of death and the afterlife by proposing the Scripture clearly teaches that death is the Christian's enemy, specifically his last enemy,  and is only conquered by Christ at the believer's personal resurrection. Political columnist Cal Thomas, who has publicly acknowledged the contributions of Searching Together to his own Christian thinking, personally purchased 100 copies of the 1997 issue on God and Country, calling it the best biblical approach to the subject he has ever read.

In this day of shallow thinking and hollow Christian teaching, Searching Together is like a deluxe steak dinner compared to the typical ice cream fare of evangelical churches. The entire collection of the previously published quarterlies of Searching Together is available for a mere $50.00. For those of you with small book allowances, take it from me, it's the best investment you will ever make for your personal library.