MInTheGap

We Hold These Truths: Jefferson’s Creator

One of the arguments that Christians like to try to use is that the acknowledgement of the Creator is in the Constitution.  It isn’t.  It is in the Declaration of Independence– and regardless of its location it has a lot to tell us about what the founders of this country believed and the framework from which they conceived this great country.

The arguments that people are trying to use today is that the Declaration of Independence can mean any Creator God.  The problem is, Jefferson knew exactly who his audience was.  To quote Benjamin Hart,

There were no Moslems, Buddhists, Confucianists, or Hindus present at either the signing of the Declaration of Independence, or eleven years hence at the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia.  Jefferson was addressing Christians.  His entire argument about people having “unalienable rights” is contingent on the existence of God, and One who cares deeply about each and every individual.

Jefferson is the origin of the logic that I’ve used many times here– if God is not the originator of liberty (if they are not gifts of his) then the state is the highest moral authority and has the rights to determine what is right or wrong based on the whim of those in power.

You see why what Jefferson was saying in the Declaration was so radical and yet contingent on the presence of a Creator God– specifically the Christian Creator God?

The reason that our land is a Christian land lies in the fact that it is based on this Christian ideal– that man is eternal, and government temporal.  It’s a philosophical question that has its roots in what is truly eternal.  If government is or the world is, then it must be the moral authority.  If a Creator God is eternal, and civilizations are but a blink of the eye, then government’s purpose is to protect the rights of the individual.

To cement this reasoning, I close with this from Faith and Freedom: The Christian Roots of American Liberty:

“I do not know whether all Americans have a sincere faith in their religion– for who can know the human heart?– but I am certain that they hold it to be indispensable for the maintenance of republican institutions.  This opinion is not peculiar to a class of citizens or to a party, but it belongs to the whole rank of society.”  America, Tocqueville added, is “the place where the Christian religion has kept the greatest power over men’s souls; and nothing better demonstrates how useful and natural it is to man, since the country where it now has the widest sway is both the most enlightened and the freest.”  John Quincy Adams, America’s sixth President, acknowledged that from the beginning Americas “connected in one indissoluble band the principles of civil government with the principles of Christianity.”

Do you see how the founders viewed the government and Christianity?  Not at odds, but banded together.  Not a high wall, but as one necessarily flowing from the other.

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Cure for STD’s is Not Abstinence

Hi there, I’m Marissa Jaret Winokur.  I learned about a year ago that HPV, a common virus, causes cervical cancer. Now there is an HPV test that might have caught my precancerous cells earlier.

You see, I had a few too many sexual partners– well, probably only one too many– and I contracted a disease that resulted in doctors performing a surgery on me so that I can no longer have children.  Not to worry, though, I can harvest my remaining eggs and find a surrogate.

I’m here today because People Magazine wanted me to give a word of advice to teens and young women so that they don’t have to have the same procedure done on them.

No, don’t worry, I’m not going to tell you to abstain from sex.  I mean, who can do that?  No, I’m here to tell you that there’s a vaccine, which can be given to women before they’re sexually active.  It makes sense to take these precautions.

So, remember what I’ve said.  It makes sense to take these precautions.  I’ll encourage my friends’ teenage daughters to get vaccinated as well, so you can tell I’m serious!

So take a tip from me, Marissa, go out and get your shot today!  Oh.  Well, it will only protect you from HPV, and even that isn’t in all cases.  The only 100% way of remaining free of the cancer and not having to end up like I did would be to remain abstinent and only have one sexual partner– but who can do that?

( Note: words in italics taken from Marissa Jaret Winokur via Jill Stanek’s post “Don’t Stop, get the shot” )

Godly Husband: Are You Precise?

To me, there’s nothing that is more frustrating than trying to communicate with someone and not using the same terminology or where things have different meanings.  Precision in our communication is important if we are to communicate our needs, wants, and thoughts.

Since you and your wife are two different people with two different ways of looking at things, it is important (if you are going to minister her fully as a leader and a Christian brother) if you communicate precisely with her.

Taking care with precision is much more difficult than one may expect.  Men typically deal with two main groups of people: Those at work and those in the home.  This being the case, there are two sets of vocabulary and things that each group does not know or does not know the context of.

If we don’t pay attention to being precise, we may have the possibility of becoming agitated that our wives don’t understand all that we’ve been through, or what we are saying.  In reality this is our own fault!

There are two main reasons I can see why we need to be precise:

1. To promote harmony, communication, and prevent aggravation
2. To be able to communicate our needs to our wives as our helpers.

So, men, it’s up to us to navigate our different “worlds” and communicate to her in love.

Question Idea taken from From Dreadlock to Wedlock

Grease Monkey, Your New Best Friend

With my recent change from using a smart Captcha to Akismet, I remembered reading somewhere about an extension for Firefox that would allow me to save my finger from scrolling a lot when reading down through Akismet spam. So, off to Google I went, and found that it was actually a two step thing– I needed a Firefox extension and some extensions to that extension. What I didn’t know what just how useful the first extension would be to my browsing.

Let me introduce you to Grease Monkey. This handy little extension is a basic tool that lets you do a lot with anything that you see in a web page. It does this through executing scripts that people write and post to Userscripts.org and you install them and run them in your Grease Monkey extension. So, in the case of Akismet, I have a Grease Monkey Script that goes through and shrinks the entries of the comments so that they are one or two liners instead of the full height.

But that’s not all, I’ve found and installed scripts to remove profanity from a site you a browsing, tons of stuff for ebay like displaying the total with the shipping, keep you logged into my ebay, and add a count down to the ebay page. But don’t just take my word for it! Browse through all the different scripts and see what you can do about changing the color, styling and information that’s presented on any page.

Godly Wife: Are You Openly Appreciative of Your Husband?

For me, one of the most awkward parts of Scripture to read is the passage of Song of Solomon 5:10-16.  Why?  Because this is the passage (if you haven’t already opened it up) where the woman speaker starts to describe her husband’s features referencing them to animals, food, spices, trees, metal and building structure.  It’s just strange– probably because we do not talk this way now.

And yet, this passage, and it’s companion passage in Song of Solomon 4, have something to teach us about praise and your husband.  You see, our culture has done a good job in instructing the guys that their women like to be noticed, that they like to be told how they look, what we like about them, etc.

To some degree, women (and now the teenage girls) dress, act, and even go to great lengths to solicit attention and appreciation.  Just look at the preponderance of girls bearing their flesh and what they will upload to websites and do on webcams all in the search for popularity and/or compliment!

And yet, men have this component as well– as demonstrated by this passage.  No, I’m not necessarily saying that men want to be known for their good looks or their nice smell, but they do want to know what they are doing is important– that they are appreciated.

So, two things to take away from this question:

1. If you think your hubby smells nice– tell him so (whether it’s Irish Spring, Zest or whatever!).  If there’s anything you knew he did for you, encourage him and you’ll find that he’ll probably do it again.
2. Seek ways to let your husband know that even the little things that he does are appreciated.  The more you compliment him and look for the best in him the more he will want to please you.  It’s a win-win.

Question Idea taken from Questions for a Godly Wife

My War On Debt: Make a Zero-Sum Family Budget

Part of the problem that a lot of us have with debt comes from the same root problem in other areas.  We are trained to react rather than act.  Because so many of us don’t have a plan in place, we are at the mercy of the moment or our perceived need at the time.  Heaven forbid if an emergency strikes, because we might have some retirement savings, but statistics say that only a small percentage of us actually have any kind of emergency fund.

If you’re truly serious about getting out of debt– you’re going to have to get serious about planning where your money goes.  I mean, let’s say that you average over your entire working years (20-65 for this example) only $30,000 a year.  That means you will have, over that time $1,350,000 pass through your hands.  All that money and what are you doing without a plan!?

What my family does it to construct a spreadsheet.  Across the top we place the money we know is coming in for a given month.  Going down the side we place every item that we are going to spend the money on, broken down into groups.  We have a group of bills we have to pay, things that we are going to get out as cash (to help us control spending), our debt and our savings.  The spreadsheet is set up with formulas on the bottom and right hand sides to make sure all the columns add up, and the total at the bottom (after we’ve spent the paycheck) is to be 0.

Now, this budget doesn’t have to be restrictive.  This is just the plan, and it can start out lax and get more tight as you compare actual spending to planned spending.  It also allows you to plan for savings, plan for big things that are coming up, and to have an easy tool to make a decision when the time comes.

One of our biggest enemies in our race to get out of debt is emotions of the moment.  Don’t let the salesmen or the sale price talk you out of doing what’s best for you and your family.

How Well do You Know Your Pastor?

Holly at Seeking Faithfulness had a post this week that talks about the stress that is on the church– but especially upon its pastor.  Although I’m not sure of the sample size and its makeup, I thought that the numbers I’m quoting from would at least give you some idea of what your local pastor is going through.

80% of pastors say they have insufficient time with spouse and that ministry has a negative effect on their family.

40% report a serious conflict with a parishioner once a month.

33% say that being in ministry is an outright hazard to their family.

75% report they’ve had significant stress-related crisis at least once in their ministry.

58% of pastors indicate that their spouse needs to work either part time or full time to supplement the family income.

56% of pastors’ wives say they have no close friends.

Pastors who work fewer than 50 hrs/week are 35% more likely to be terminated.

40% of pastors considered leaving the pastorate in the past three months.

Source: Death by Ministry « Seeking Faithfulness

Our pastor is relatively new, and has had a lot of things that he has had to overcome.  Before he came, the pastorate as an office had been the cause of a split.  He came in after a year of searching, and walked into some situations and tried to help us get things in order and I this Sunday we will be making a decision about whether to keep our Christian school.

Through this, he’s also come down with something that has attacked his ability to eat and absorb food.  He’s seeking out doctors and has gone through many tests and they still haven’t completely found out what’s wrong with him (your prayers would be appreciated).

I say all this because, through it all, he’s a man of duty, he seeks the best for our church and its people, and yet you can see that it’s physically draining.

Take a look at what your pastor’s doing– and ask him if there’s any way you can be of help.  Don’t take “no” for an answer.