In This Issue

 

• HOW MUCH IGNORANCE WILL GOD TOLERATE?

• CHURCH FINDS ITS OWN BRAND OF BEER DRAWS YOUNG CROWD

• THE POSTER ON THE LIGHT POST

• MORE INFORMATION...

HOW MUCH IGNORANCE WILL GOD TOLERATE?

We are all ignorant. It is a relative term, ignorance, and it is applicable to all humans. It means to be untaught, unlearned, uninformed, in some field of information. No one is totally ignorant, for we all know something, but we do not share a common knowledge of everything.

For example, I think I know a little about teaching the Bible, but I’m admittedly clueless in the art of building construction. As a result, I’m perfectly content to have others oversee our future building plans, but I’d still like to have some input into the arrangements of pulpit, screen, projector, or whatever has a direct effect on our teaching. Ignorance is manageable so long as we recognize it. Good sense, then, becomes a matter of knowing when to speak up and when to keep quiet and learn.

There is one discipline, however, of which man is universally ignorant to some degree: we all have a finite understanding of God’s will. Our knowledge is not now – nor will it ever be – absolute. We have the mind of God only to the extent He has revealed it to us. And even what has been revealed in Scripture takes time to grasp; it continues to hold wisdom that is uncovered layer by layer. That is why the study of God’s word never becomes a dry, dull exercise. There is always something there we had missed earlier.

God knows our frame, including our ignorance. His word tells us to “grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Pet. 3:18). That is no idle suggestion. Neither is, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). But do we take that charge seriously?

My impression, over the years, is that many Christians pay lip service to the concept of Bible study because, after all, it is part of our tradition to have classes on Sunday and Wednesday. But outside the class setting, how much real study is going on? Sure, we spend some time in preparation for class – or at least some of us do. But after the week’s lesson is done, how much genuine personal study really goes on? Do we “study our lessons” only with the view of answering all the questions correctly, or with a view toward learning the will of God more fully? Bible classes should merely be the springboard to get us started.

It doesn’t sound very nice to say, but I sometimes get the impression many Christians are contented in their own comfortable level of ignorance. We have spent years in Bible classes, but has our level of understanding increased perceptibly? Are we still totally inadequate to teach someone else? Do we ask the class teacher, “What answer do you want here?” as though that were the purpose of studying the lesson? Are we among those who complain that the material is “too hard” if it actually requires time and effort to complete? Surely we know we won’t grow and develop spiritually if we are never challenged to think and examine the text of God’s word for ourselves. Real learning is born in the crucible of serious personal study.

Paul addressed the sin of perpetual ignorance. “For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you the elementary principles of the oracles of God, and you have come to need milk and not solid food… Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us press on to maturity…” (Heb. 5:12; 6:1). Surely that same admonition is applicable for us. How many years as Christians should it take us to grow beyond the “elementary principles” to meatier subjects?

I have known brethren who deliberately choose to neglect meetings if they don’t feel interested in the subject matter. (As if our selfish, narrow interests relieve us of responsibilities in the local church family). Are we afraid we might learn something useful? Have we forgotten the Lord’s charge to grow and learn? Perhaps we are a little too consumed with ourselves, and not consumed enough with a passion for spiritual growth.

We are all ignorant to some degree; we can all learn more; and we are all charged by Heaven to do so. Let us not be satisfied with an “acceptable level of ignorance,” created to justify the status quo of laziness. As creatures made in the image of God, we have such capacity to grow and learn and be stretched to greater bounds of Bible understanding. We dare not think God will tolerate willful ignorance from us.

--Steve Dewhirst, Stonegate Standard, Jan. 1, 2006

CHURCH FINDS ITS OWN BRAND OF BEER DRAWS YOUNG CROWD

[Editor’s Note: We started to run the following “news item” without any comment, feeling no comment is necessary. But on second thought, we believe Simon Peter might like to say a few words: “Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles--when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries” (1 Peter 4:1-4). Now, that news item… –CRJ]

Since introducing its own brand of lager this fall, St. Mark's Episcopal Church on Capitol Hill has seen an influx of twenty-and thirty-somethings on Sunday mornings.

"I can't say it's a compelling reason," Rector Paul Abernathy said when asked whether the addition of Winged Lion Lager to Sunday's pub-lunch menu had anything to do with the new faces. But he acknowledged the coincidence and said with a smile, "I'll find out."

Pub lunches are a long-standing tradition at the 135-year-old church, whose 700 members pride themselves on their fellowship and conviviality, Abernathy said. Sharing a brew in a family atmosphere is one way they take part. Every Sunday after the 11 a.m. service, more than 100 people gather in the parish hall for pub-style fare that includes soup, sandwiches, salad, bread, beer, soda and wine.

For 31 years, the beer selection was dominated by such commercial brands as Samuel Adams. That changed last summer, when parishioner Rick Weber rented a kettle at Shenandoah Brewing Co. and cooked up a batch of Winged Lion. At the church's fall fair in September, the parish's own "heavenly brew" premiered - in bottles featuring a winged lion, the symbol of Saint Mark the Evangelist. The first five cases, 120 bottles, lasted only a few weeks, and Weber made a second batch.

--Winston Salem Journal, 12/26/04

THE POSTER ON THE LIGHT POST

"Even though you intended to do harm to me, God intended it for good, in order to preserve a numerous people, as he is doing today" (Genesis 50:20, NRSV).

The picture appeared on the front page of the Jundiai newspaper. A simple poster glued to a light post. The article criticized at length the visual pollution created by people who went about town sticking handbills to everything that didn't move.

Never mind that the city government permitted posters on light posts.

The handbill condemned by the newspaper?

The School of the Bible, sponsored by the Jundiai congregation, offering theology courses (as an evangelistic outreach). With a telephone number in large letters.

With that negative exposure, the School of the Bible never had so many people call asking about the course, and turned out with a record enrollment.
What man meant for harm, God intended for good.

Fear not what man may do to you. God will use it for the good of the Kingdom. If you are watching out for his interests, your difficulties and sufferings will be his opportunities.

"We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).

--J. Randal Matheny (Thanks to Amy Smith for sharing this with us.)

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