All That's Good - Review and a Giveaway

All That's Good: Recovering the Lost Art of Discernment by Hannah Anderson, Moody Publishers, 2018, 215 pages.

What is discernment? Is it knowing who to unfollow and who to mute? What books not to read? What foods and medicines will make you sick? But what if discernment is more than just what and who to avoid? What if discernment is not only rejecting the bad but also embracing what is good?

This is the case Hannah Anderson makes in her new book All That's Good. She writes that discernment is not just a life hack or tips and tricks. It's being "changed by wisdom" and becoming "people who know the difference between what's bad and what's good, what's good and what's better." (pg. 14) It is a quality of life to be cultivated that goes deeper than a checklist. Thus "discernment does not change the challenges we face; it changes our ability to face them." (pg. 25)

All That's Good begins by turning the reader to the source of discernment, God himself, and the promise that he will give wisdom to those who ask it. He can also open our eyes to the beauty and goodness that still exists amidst the brokenness in this world. "With the eyes of faith we can see the work that God is doing in it - the work He is doing to those of us who come to Him seeking to be made good." (pg. 43) In appreciating the good gifts that God has given us, he uses them to draw us closer to him. As a result, we are changed into people of virtue, who learn how to think and not just simply what to think. (pp. 53-58)

The second half of the book is based on Phil. 4: 6 "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable." Hannah discusses how discernment relates to the pursuit of truth, honor, purity, justice, and what we commend or condemn with our speech. These are very practical and challenging chapters that address issues of day-to-day holiness as we live in community with our neighbors and fellow Christians.

I read All That's Good in one sitting as I had time to kill on a 7-hour train trip. I meant to put it down after a couple hours and take up another book, but I couldn't put this one down. I've appreciated Hannah's previous books, but this one struck a deeper chord with me. I've been trying to cultivate the life of the mind after decades of letting it go dormant, formerly believing that spirituality and thinking were mutually exclusive. But initially, discernment (or what I thought was discernment) was more about proving my rightness and ammunition against someone else's wrongness. It was selfish and prideful. However, what Hannah writes is far from this. It's true that we will be transformed as we grow in wisdom, but this transformation does not occur in isolation. Its goal is not for ourselves alone. This gift of discernment, which allows us to see and enjoy so many other good gifts from God, is "for the healing of the body of Christ." (pg. 182.) When I read those words, I nearly started crying, but I managed to hold it together because I was in the quiet car. Hannah described the burden in my heart for the last few years that I could not articulate until now. "As much as we must learn to discern the goodness in the world around us, we must learn to discern it within His Body to see its goodness despite its brokenness... To know the goodness of those with whom we "live on one bread and one wine."" (pg. 184)

All That's Good is a book that I will be returning to again and again, and I highly recommend it. You won't find a list of "10 easy steps to discernment," and your thinking will be challenged. In fact, Hannah writes that she is going "to do my best to complicate your decision-making process, to lead you away from our common disposition to fear-based thinking toward a place of hope and abundance." (pg. 14) But it will be worth it in the end.

We're giving away a copy of this book. Please use the form below to enter the giveaway. One entry per person please. The giveaway ends midnight October 28th.

* The giveaway has ended. * 

 I received a copy of this book from Moody Publishers. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Review - No Little Women: Equipping All Women in the Household of God

No Little Women: Equipping All Women in the Household of God - Aimee Byrd, P&R Publishing,  2016, 288 pages.

When it comes to women's discipleship, there is no shortage of ideas. Most people have an opinion about what it is, what should be taught, and even whether it is necessary or not. There is also no shortage of material that is marketed for this purpose. Some is good but much is not very good at all. What is the average Christian woman to do?

Thankfully, Aimee Byrd has tackled this often sensitive topic in her latest book, No Little Women: Equipping All Women in the Household of God. If you are looking for tips on how to do women's ministry "right," there is helpful and practical advice to be gleaned, but this book is much more than that.

Part One - Pinpointing a Real Problem
Right off the bat, Aimee points out the problem of error creeping into the church through the backdoor of women's books. This is nothing new. Satan deceived Eve. Paul warned Timothy of false teachers creeping into households and leading silly or little women astray. This does not imply that women are spiritually incompetent and should be shunted to the sidelines but rather that women are targeted because they play a vital role. Thus the work of God is hampered when half the church is ill-equipped and doctrinally weak. Theology is necessary and practical for every woman. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!

Part Two - Examining Our Context
In our individualistic culture, it is easy to get the idea that spiritual growth is for me, myself, and I, but what if the context is bigger than that? Aimee goes back to Genesis and unfolds the concept of the household of God. Adam and Eve were created to work together and fulfill God's mandate to keep the garden. Sin entered the world, but the mandate has not changed. Jesus commanded the disciples to preach the gospel and make disciples of all the nations. While we are members of individual households, we are part of the church universal and local. Thus for God's household to thrive and function well, every member needs to be equipped for the common mission of the whole.

Part Three - Working Toward a Solution
Drawing from Biblical examples, Aimee unpacks the idea of women being necessary allies to men in the household and mission of God. She clearly affirms male church officers, but this does not exclude sisters from admonishing, encouraging, and serving alongside brothers in the local church. We are in this together.

Part Four - Honing Our Skills
In the last section, Aimee provides guidance in how to be a better reader in general. She then gives criteria to help us discern the quality of our spiritual intake, which I previously shared here. We then have the chance to put these tools into practice with excerpts from popular books that are marketed for Christian women. There may be a few raised eyebrows at the selections, but we need to be wise in discerning truth from error even if it is a bestseller and written by a likable author. (I would personally consider bestseller status a caveat, not a recommendation.)

I've greatly benefited from Aimee's posts on the topic of women in the church, so I loved No Little Women. But what caused me to write "Amen!" all over the margins was her emphasis on the greater context of women's initiatives. I think we miss out when we believe the main source for discipleship falls outside of the the local church and apart from the ordinary means of grace. The preached Word isn't just a supplement to our spiritual nutrition but the main course. Spiritual take-out may be a treat every now and then, but God feeds His people Sunday after Sunday through faithful ministers. Throughout the book, Aimee specifically addresses pastors/elders to encourage them to take an active part in equipping the women in their congregations, which can only benefit the church in the long run. She also provides suggestions to pastors so they can better engage their female hearers and ways we can be better listeners. Also our growth in grace isn't just to fulfill our personal felt needs for spirituality. The gospel comes in and "reorients our lives now so that we live for the life to come." (pg. 194) Thus our lives have purpose in the bigger picture of the kingdom of God.

No Little Women is a great book for women and women's ministry leaders, but it's not just for us. If you are a pastor/elder or a brother who cares about the women in your church, please read this book. It provides very practical guidance but also sound biblical reasons why well-equipped women are necessary allies in the mission of God. Let's work together side by side toward that end.


I received a copy of this book from P&R Publishing. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission's 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."

Identity: Knowing Who We Are in Christ

The professional women sitting next to our dinner table last week gloried in their roles as nurses as they traded recent stories of pain and recovery from the hospital down the street. Yet I wondered whether they realized that nursing is merely their vocation, not the core of their identity. Likewise, my niece and her closest friends encourage one another as they share the challenges of homeschooling in their common vocations as young moms. But do they understand how fleeting this season of life will seem in a matter of a few years when their raucous, chaotic living rooms morph into much quieter empty nests?

Another young woman, whom I have discipled in the past, regularly introduces herself as “an addict” to close acquaintances, even though she has not taken a mood-altering substance in nearly four years. She understands that in her weakness she is still susceptible to temptation. So for her, retaining the “addict” moniker helps to keep her humble and realistic about the remaining potential to slip up. However, I still wonder whether she fully understands that her temptation does not define who she is as a person in relationship to others and who she is becoming as a Christian believer.

Far too often, we think of ourselves mainly in terms of what we do or how we feel about ourselves and our relationship to our temporal circumstances. Becoming aware of our position and identity in Christ uplifts us by pointing us to tremendously empowering truths and confronts us with some sobering facts.

James gives an example of this paradox when he exhorts the poor and lowly person to “boast in his exaltation”, while simultaneously telling the prosperous person to glory “in his humiliation” (1:9-10). Remember, in context, James is discussing temptation, desire, and sin. It is no mere coincidence that James drops this gem right in between his teaching about trials and temptations. Self-skewing illusions of personal grandiosity and personal loathing will taint our view of who we are before God, making us susceptible to wiles of the evil one. We must look to Christ to see ourselves rightly.

Creation and Fall

Typically, as reformed women, we are keenly aware of the danger of emphasizing worldly wealth and position, recognizing it as potential idolatry. Few of us knowingly dare to set ourselves up as empresses and cosmic judges, out from under the scrutiny of our Holy God and Creator. Before congratulating ourselves, let us be careful, lest we fall (1 Cor. 10:12).

The subtle lie that the serpent used to entice the woman before the fall remains a temptation about which we ought to be vigilant: “For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God” (Gen. 3:5a).  The distortion of the Creator/creature distinction is at the heart of much sin and most heresy. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18).

The poor and downtrodden, on the other hand, perhaps more acutely understand and experience the insipid nature of the fall. Regularly reminded of the effects of remaining sin in the world and in themselves, the lowly and oppressed often struggle to grasp the inherent dignity of human beings, created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26-27).  Rather, the tendency of those of us who are poor in spirit can be to view our identities based on what we perceive we lack, rather than what we inhere.  

God created both the woman and her husband to have dominion over every living thing – except for God and one another. God said, “Let them to have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing than creeps on the earth” (Gen. 1:26).  

The irony, of course, is that a mysterious “beast of the field”, that crafty serpent, “more crafty” than the other beasts, deceived and interrogated Eve as though he held dominion over her. The serpent's questioning of Eve took precedence over God's goodness and her calling. The serpent deceived the woman into denying her calling as image-bearer of God and to falsely perceive a lack in God’s good creation. This false perception was the deception that led her to disobey the Creator’s command.

Similarly, we also fall prey to the deception of sin and temptation when we imagine ourselves as mere brute beasts, defined by “natural” desires that we imagine God gave us. In reality, deception and distortion of the imago Dei sneakily lies underneath the fig leaves of our self-made identities, because we define ourselves by that which we imagine God has failed to provide. Whether we base our identity on spiritual poverty, such as a sinful temptation toward substances or relationships, or define our identity by actual poverty or lack of privilege, we have forsaken our Divine calling as image bearers.  

Redeemed Identities

Our loving Creator, who rightly despises sin and rebellion, rescued fallen sinners from this evil, for His ultimate glory, in the Person of Jesus Christ. The Lord, our God, came to renew and restore His people to right relationship with Himself. Whether we lean toward the prideful and prosperous, who eschew the creature/Creator distinction, or toward the lowly and poor of spirit, who diminish the goodness of the image of God, if we are in Christ Jesus, we are being made new. As new creations in Christ, our story does not end when our redemption begins.

When God saves us, He enables us to walk in union with Christ. We are not yet what we will be, but we are no longer what we once were. By the Holy Spirit, we are empowered to live out our callings as image bearers again, as new creations in Christ (2 Cor. 517). James tells us:

 "Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. Of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures (Ja. 1:16-18).

John Calvin wrote in his commentary on this passage that “It is no common nobility into which God extols his own children… justly are they said to be excellent as firstfruits, when God's image is renewed in them.”

When the Truth of who God is emerges to reorient our hearts and minds, we will begin to see ourselves rightly. No longer will we desire the path of the prideful, prosperous fool, setting ourselves up as mini-empresses who usurp the Creator. No longer will we see ourselves as spiritually impoverished beasts, enslaved to the sin nature and the world system.  For we died to sin and are now alive to Christ (Rom. 6:17, Eph. 2:4-5). We are righteous with the righteousness of Christ alone, the perfect Son of God (Rom. 4:5).  Let us praise Him!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Is this book healthy?

I wouldn't call myself a health fanatic, but I try to eat a reasonable diet. There was a brief period where my go-to snack was a granola bar because I assumed that granola was healthy. Can't go wrong with whole-grain oats, right? I thought so until I bothered to read the nutrition information and discovered these "all natural" granola bars were high in sugar (corn syrup too!) and low in protein. Since then, I've learned to put less stock in what manufacturers advertise and read the labels.

If I care about the nutritional value of the food I put into my body, then what about my spiritual diet? An author's claims about his/her book may look promising on the cover, but is it really going to nourish my soul or just give me the emotional equivalent of a sugar rush? It would be nice if there was a labeling system for Christian books just like the nutritional guidelines for food. Each label would give me information such as the author's hermeneutics (method of interpreting the Bible) and the ratio of exegesis to eisegesis (drawing meaning out versus imposing meaning into the text.) But alas there is no such thing. Also  there aren't convenient "genre labels like "fluff" and "I may look like I have my life together more than you but I'm about to wreck your theology.""¹ But that doesn't mean we can't do a little research on our own.

I've been reading No Little Women, the latest book by Aimee Byrd (review forthcoming Lord willing,) but I skipped ahead to Chapter 9 "Honing and Testing Our Discernment Skills." She gives four essential questions to evaluate what we read.²

1. What does the author say about God's Word?

Is the Word authoritative or optional? Can we trust the Bible, or does the author instill doubts? Are verses taken within context and interpreted properly or misused?

2. What does the author say about who man is?  

And related, what does the author say about sin? Do we need a Savior to save us from sin and the wrath of God or a life coach to help us reach our full potential? Is there a ladder we need to climb or a formula we need to follow to achieve the desired end apart from the gospel?

3. What does the author say about God?

It's sad that this question even needs to be asked, but just because someone uses the word "God" or "Jesus" does not necessarily mean they are accurately teaching the Triune God of the Bible.

4. What does the author say about what God has done and is doing?

What is the author's worldview and his/her stance on creation, fall, redemption, and restoration? Is he/she offering our best life now or our best life then?


It would be nice if we didn't need to ask questions such as these and be able to trust what is marketed as "Christian." But reputable publishers have been known to print less than sound fare. An author may be the sweetest person imaginable who we'd love to chat with over a cup of tea, but orthodoxy consists of more than having an engaging personality. The bar is set high for those who would be teachers and rightfully so. The Apostle Paul commended the Bereans for verifying what he taught against Scripture, and he wrote a good chunk of the New Testament! If any writer objects to his/her books being scrutinized against the Word, then maybe we shouldn't be reading them in the first place.

The saying goes, "You are what you eat." Well, we may be what we read or, at the very least, strongly influenced by it. All the more reason to be wise and evaluate the spiritual nutrition of what goes in our heads. Ultimately, Aimee's questions reflect not a disrespect for an author but a right reverence for God because the last thing we would want is to have Him or His word misrepresented.


1. No Little Women: Equipping All Women in the Household of God, Aimee Byrd, P&R Publishing, 2016, pg. 49.
2. Ibid., 223-230.

On Controversy

About a year ago, my husband and I decided that should the right pharmacist job become available, I should probably take it. Not long after that, the right job opened up. I enrolled my last homeschool student in Christian school, and my family started adjusting to our new normal.

When this occurred, I was entering my 11th year of blogging. That’s a lot of content. In my case, it’s also a lot of public foolishness. I made my personal blog settings private until I had time to think about what content could stay and what needed to go. I also decided to take a break from posting here for a "couple of months." A year later, my blog is still not back up, and this is my first post.

Since one of my freelance jobs had been helping with social media and marketing for Cruciform Press, I went from constant immersion in all things social media to not looking at social media for days at a time. Controversies flared up and died out before I even knew about them.

And then, just as I was starting to contemplate blogging again, the Trinity controversy unfolded. Though this is one of the bigger debates I’ve seen in the Christian blogosphere in the past decade, it’s similar in many ways to many other disagreements I’ve seen.

Our motives are often mixed. When I blogged, I always knew some of my reasons for blogging weren’t very noble. And my reasons for going dark weren’t entirely holy, either. Stirring up controversy leads to blog hits and fame. Criticizing the wrong people might end up costing you links and endorsements. And like Paul, I’m not a good judge of myself (1 Corinthians 4:3–4), let alone everyone else. Some people are keeping quiet because they don’t have anything substantial to add to the noise. Some people are trying to preserve their platform. I have no clue who is who, so it does me no good to speculate.

People are more than their social media personas. It’s no good being well versed in theology if you’re going to be spiteful and mean about it (1 Corinthians 13:2). On the other hand, the most sincere person in the world can be sincerely wrong and lead weaker people astray. That said, our social media posts are a small snapshot of our lives. Just because someone posts a lot about a particular subject, doesn't mean that's all they think and care about. The Bible says we are to grow in love and knowledge (Ephesians 4:15). Since we have no idea what another’s motives are, and since “tone” on social media is usually subjective, we should endeavor to believe the best and focus on the ideas.

Bad theology often leads to bad practice. Notice I said often. Everybody is walking around with some bad theological ideas. We are fallible humans living in a world marred by sin. Things that would seem to be a minor issue to most of us might cause someone else to really get off in the theological weeds. Just because somebody’s a great person doesn’t mean his or her sloppy theology won’t cause someone else to go down a dangerous trail.

It’s easy to become numb to criticism. I’ve seen this happen numerous times. People who are “social-media famous” get picked at a lot. Most of these attacks are so silly they should only be ignored. Then, when a real issue is raised, it’s too easy for those being criticized to dismiss it as more of the same. We all need to do a better job picking our battles.

I still believe that social media has done far more good for me than bad. It’s led to some wonderful, real-life friendships. It’s challenged my thinking for the better on many subjects. It’s helped me keep in touch with family and friends who live far away. And yes, it’s often distracted me when I had more important things to do. But so has HGTV and the bird feeders in my back yard. Pulling back from social media and not blogging for a year didn’t magically improve my self discipline. I just found other stuff to do. We need to figure out how to do Internet debates better. But we also need to do good everywhere we can—whether that be in our virtual lives or our real ones.

Hoaxes and Hermeneutics

“The biggest problem facing the church is lack of discernment.  If you can’t discern the truth you can die of a thousand heresies.”  - John MacArthur  

Shortly after the Civil War an atheistic cigar maker named George Hull got into a debate with a Protestant minister over the literal interpretation of Scripture.    The pastor’s insistence that Genesis 6:4—“There were giants in the earth in those days”,   should be taken literally, sparked a brilliant marketing scheme in the huckster’s mind.  Hoping to gain a profit while making a mockery of Christians,  Hull  created a  “giant petrified man” out of gypsum. 

Stonemasons and a Cardiff, New York farmer colluded with Hull on the ruse and buried the Giant in the farmer's field.    They hired workers to dig up the "new wonder",  placed it  under a tent,   and charged 50 cents for admission,  drawing crowds by the thousands.   When a group of investors bought shares in the Giant for $30,000  and moved it to Syracuse,    P.T. Barnum offered $60,000  to lease it.    His offer was denied so he created a plaster replica and made  even  more money than the original hoax.

People were divided over the Giant’s origin.   Some  believed it was a petrified man while others, including geologists, believed it was an ancient statue.     A Yale paleontologist finally uncovered  the scam declaring it a fake—and a poor one at that.    Many consider The Cardiff Giant to be one of the greatest hoaxes in history.

 “The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.” Proverbs 14:15

 We may laugh at such naiveté but the truth is,  people today  can be as  gullible as ever.   Who hasn't  received an email hoax  or seen a Facebook  post  that  can be proven  false with a  quick Snopes search, right?   

 When it comes to  discerning  Biblical  truth everything we  hear  must be tested  against the Scriptures  regardless of how convincing it may seem.    The devil’s most cunning deceptions are  lies with an element of truth in them—a modus operandi that is as old as the Garden.   Truth distorted plunged the church into centuries of  apostasy before the  Reformation and  continues to do so in all of the Christian cults. 

Charles Spurgeon said,  “Discernment is not knowing the difference between right and wrong.   It is knowing the difference between right and almost right.”1.      Cultivating discernment is commanded of  all  believers  (I John 4:1) and it can only be accomplished through  the  means of  careful and diligent  Bible study. (Acts 17:11). 

“But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”  Hebrews 5:14

Heresies arise  when faulty methods of interpretation are used,   but applying sound hermeneutical principles can  guard against false teaching.   Hermeneutics is the science of  Scripture interpretation which uses  a specific  set of  rules.    Those rules include in part,  interpreting the Bible in the  plain and literal sense,  corresponding  to the author's intent and  the context of the passage.   But when that approach is replaced by allegory, scientific opinion,  or subjectivism  the  text no longer speaks for itself and the meaning is left to the  reader's own  interpretation.   Tragically,  this  way of interpreting Scripture  is rampant today. 

There's  another alarming trend in the church today  and that  is the resurgence of  rank liberal theology.   These kinds of heresies were  fought against in the early twentieth century  by  men like J. Gresham Machen  but have turned up again like a bad penny.

We still have our silly hoaxes today but  far  more insidious  is the "new hermeneutic".    It is no surprise that an atheistic con artist  like George Hull would deny the literal interpretation of the Bible,  but we should be appalled  when this type of  thinking seeps into the church. 

For information regarding the current battle for the Inerrancy of Scripture,  many excellent articles and resources are available at Inerrant Word.

____________________________________

 

Quotes: John MacArthur -Strange Fire Conference 2013- Introduction
1. Spurgeon -reference unknown

Sources:
History.com
The Museum of Hoaxes

Worth a click:
 Responding to the New Attacks on Scripture: Dr. David Farnell
A Disastrous Hermeneutical Replacement by Grant Kolkow
No Adam, No Fall, No Original Sin, No Substitutionary Atonement by Rachel Miller

Worth purchasing:
Protestant Biblical Interpretation: A Textbook of Hermeneutics by Bernard Ramm
Evangelical Hermeneutics: The New Versus the Old by Robert L. Thomas

 

Be a Berean, not a Bobblehead

When I think of peer pressure, I usually think about school kids and the push to fit in with the in crowd. But pressure to conform still exists even when you're too old for playground politics.

In 2005, a neuroscientist conducted a study to determine what happened in the brain when a person was influenced to give wrong answers under peer pressure. Was it a conscious decision to conform or were perceptions actually altered? The subjects were first tested individually. They were shown two different three-dimensional objects on a computer screen and asked whether the first object could be rotated to match the second. As would be expected, the parts of the brain used for spatial concepts and conscious decision making were the most active. Then the researchers livened things up. The subjects were tested in a group, but the other members were ringers who unanimously gave the wrong answers. If the subjects were deliberately choosing to go with the majority, the conscious, decision-making part of the brain should be the most active, but it was not. There was less decision-making activity and heightened activity in the spatial area of the brain. Given these findings and the fact that the wrong answers increased, the researchers concluded that peer pressure altered the subjects' perception of the problem. To put it another way, peer pressure changed their understanding of reality.¹

Now why am I bringing this up and boring you with brain research? Well, let me relate this same problem with a completely different scenario.

Many years ago, I attended a sermon by someone I respected and knew fairly well. But during the talk, the speaker made a statement that gave me a double-take. He said something that seemed wrong. In fact, it was completely contrary to what was in the Bible. This wasn't just a slip of the tongue but a point that was stressed repeatedly. After the message was over, I joined a group to discuss this sermon. I can only speak for myself, but I have a gut feeling that everyone was wrestling with some form of cognitive dissonance. We were Christians who had some knowledge of the Bible, and we just heard something that directly contradicted a very basic scriptural truth. Would anyone come out and say, "You know, I thought so-and-so said this and it seems the opposite from what is in the Bible."? 

Sadly the group leader began to justify this questionable statement by using all sorts of mental gymnastics because the speaker had to be right because he was the speaker. Right?  Pretty soon the majority of the group were nodding their heads in agreement. After listening to comments from people who were older than me and who I considered more spiritual, I caved. It wasn't a conscious, "They are saying XYZ and I think they are wrong, but I will say XYZ too so they will still like me." It was much more subtle. "It must be just me. The speaker must have some deeper knowledge of the Bible that I completely missed on a plain reading of the text. I'm just an ordinary believer. Everyone else is more spiritual. They know better than I do. I will trust their better judgment and let go of my misgivings."

Looking back, this was very dangerous. My reality was altered by peer pressure, and it wasn't whether object A could be rotated to look like object B. I succumbed to basically exchanging something true for a lie. I was not being a Berean. I was a bobblehead, nodding in blind agreement, because deference took precedence over discernment.

Thank God, we live in the post-Reformation age. There are Bibles on our shelves and a host of resources at our fingertips. We can speak freely and offer respectful dissenting views without fear, at least in the West. (Our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world pay a much higher cost for this privilege.) But, may we not take this for granted. The truth in God's Word is too precious to be handled casually because souls may hang in the balance. May we think carefully and consider what we have heard or read. May we diligently search the Scriptures and see if these things are so. May we buy the truth and sell it not.

The Church needs Bereans, not bobbleheads.

                                                                                                                                                             

1. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, Susan Cain, Crown Publishers, 2012, pp. 90-92.