What do you do when you’re on vacation and need to post an image of Abbott & Costello to your blog, but the foreign computer you’re sitting at doesn’t have the software you need to resize the image, make it into a circle, and add text to it? Wiredness to the rescue.
One of the goals of Stand To Reason is to create Ambassador’s for Christ. To that end they have created their own Ambassador’s Creed:
An ambassador is:
- Ready. An Ambassador is alert for chances to represent Christ and will not back away from a challenge or an opportunity.
- Patient. An Ambassador won’t quarrel, but will listen in order to understand, then with gentleness seek to respectfully engage those who disagree.
- Reasonable. An Ambassador has informed convictions (not just feelings), gives reasons, asks questions, aggressively seeks answers, and will not be stumped by the same challenge twice.
- Tactical. An Ambassador adapts to each unique person and situation, maneuvering with wisdom to challenge bad thinking, presenting the truth in an understandable and compelling way.
- Clear. An Ambassador is careful with language, and will not rely on Christian lingo nor gain unfair advantage by resorting to empty rhetoric.
- Fair. An Ambassador is sympathetic and understanding towards others, and will acknowledge the merits of contrary views.
- Honest. An Ambassador is careful with the facts and will not misrepresent another’s view, overstate his own case, or understate the demands of the Gospel.
- Humble. An Ambassador is provisional in his claims, knowing that his understanding of truth is fallible, and will not press a point beyond what his evidence allows.
- Attractive. An Ambassador will act with grace, kindness, and good manners and will not dishonor Christ in his conduct.
- Dependent. An Ambassador knows that effectiveness requires joining his best efforts with God’s power.
Gregory Koukl from Stand To Reason has written a great piece about the role of context in Biblical interpretation. You can read, Never Read A Bible Verse, on the Stand To Reason website, but if you register with them they will send you an introductory packet that includes a longer version of the article which is even better.
…We can’t know what God is talking about or teaching us by looking at an isolated sentence or phrase. And if we take the Scripture in a way God did not mean it–if what we’re teaching from the verse is not really the teaching of the verse–then the words lose their authority. As Christians our commitment should be to the truth of the passage, not to the feeling a certain reading of that passage gives us. If we ignore that priority, then whatever feeling we may have had will have been based on fantasy–make believe…
…There are no “private” messages in the Bible. Simply put, a text cannot mean what it never meant. The Holy Spirit did not mean one thing when Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus, for example, and then something entirely different when you read it 2000 years later…
Dr. Pamela Gay of the Astronomy Cast, posted an interesting entry on her blog, Star Stryder, about how scientists estimate the age of stars. Very cool stuff.