Bible Quiz: Each week this blog will begin with two or three questions. The answers are at the end of the blog. Have fun!!
According To the Bible 1. In the Old Testament tradition, women were deemed at the same level or only a little above animals. They were viewed as mere possessions and not afforded rights, respect or considerations. In fact, in the Old Testament Scriptures, Jews were taught to pray, “I thank God I was not born a woman.”
2. Miracles were associated with certain holy objects – the wood of the cross, the literal blood of Christ, the robe, the cup from the Lord’s Supper, the spear, the crown of thorns, etc.
3. Miracles were associated with certain holy places of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection.
Dear Prayer Warriors,
I am continuing my thoughts on Thanksgiving from my prayer notebook. In this week’s devotional blog, I have this statement: the aging process – that I might age gracefully & with dignity.
"May those who wait for You not be ashamed through me, O Lord GOD of hosts; may those who seek You not be dishonored through me, O God of Israel." (Psalm 69:6)
"And He has said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.' Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me." (2 Corinthians 12:9)
I thank God every day for the aging process and ask that He might keep me thankful. I remember an embarrassing moment for me in the ministry. I had asked a missionary to speak to our college ministry. He was well known and respected and, as he was a man in his 70’s, I wanted to put him before the students as an example. I was disappointed to find that he was obviously dying his hair. This was just one of several contrived actions on his part to avoid the aging process. This scene is repeated to me enough to make it a point in my prayer notebook – be it dying hair, comb-overs, dressing far younger than one’s age, wearing jewelry and even makeup – enough ministers are embarrassing themselves to make me want to keep the aging process and my thankfulness for it in my daily prayers.
In contrast to these men, I have in my prayer notebook the men for whom I am thankful that God brought into my life as examples. These are men who have aged with dignity in a godly manner. These are men who have aged in such a way as to provide me with an example. These men’s names are worth mentioning.
Jim Downing – Mr. Downing, Vice President of the Navigators, would visit and speak at Navigator events when I was a college student. He never tried to be anything other than what he was – a 60 year old retired Navy Officer and executive in a Christian organization. In the 1970’s, he would stand before a student audience at a university and hold them spellbound - not because he was relating to them in his appearance (he wore a conservative coat and tie, a businessman’s haircut and used the language of his age and station in life) but by his mastery and clear presentation of the Word of God.
John Crawford – I first met John Crawford in 1980. He was in his early 60’s and already going bald. He did not use a “comb-over,” he did not buy a hair piece and he did not get hair plugs; he looked and acted his age. College students, young professionals and other young men of all walks and classes would travel hundreds of miles to hear him speak. Not because of his ability to connect to the “youth culture” (he was a former bricklayer, enlisted frogman in the navy and missionary). He never tried to be anything else than what he was. Young men and women traveled to hear the wisdom that came from a man who had spent a lifetime hearing, reading, studying, memorizing, meditating and applying God’s Word to his life. It was who he was, not what he looked like, that created his audience.
Gene Warr – Mr. Warr was the spitting image of my father - a conservative, overweight, balding, WWII vet, who had no respect for nor interest in the hippie culture of the time. The one difference was that he was a mature godly Christian. When I first met Mr. Warr, I thought, “This is what my dad could have been.” My second conclusion was that if my peers had fathers like Mr. Warr, they would not reject the culture of their fathers as they were doing in the 1960’s and 1970’s. University students from all over Texas and Oklahoma would flock to hear Mr. Warr speak. He was welcome in the fraternity houses and sports training complexes of all the major universities in Oklahoma. He was a much-sought-after speaker. Not because he spoke the youth culture language, not because his hair was long or he wore chains and had sideburns (so popular at the time). Far from it - he looked and dressed every bit the conservative Christian businessman that he was. His appearance was everything that should repel the college culture, yet they flocked to hear him and repented, came to Christ and grew as disciples as a result of his mastery of the Word of God and the gospel of Christ. I praise God that, as a freshman college student, I had as a model of a grown man, an actual grown man - and not the boy/men who try to be an age they are not and minister on superficial rather than on spiritual levels.
Wyman “Mitch” Mitchell – I praise God that I received Christ in the church when Youth Ministers were men and not boys. Wyman Mitchell was the Youth Minster of Nassau Bay Baptist Church when I received Christ my junior year of high school. His daughter was in my graduating class. Mitch dressed and acted like an adult man. He wanted the boys in his youth ministry to grow into adult Christian men. He was not seeking to descend to their level but seeking to draw us up to his level. He was not trying to regain his lost youth but offering us the opportunity to behave and act like men. He was not interested in being a boy but, instead, very interested in molding us into Christian men. I contrast this with a recent event I witnessed at a church in which I was visiting in the US as a speaker. Before the service began, the High School graduates were to be recognized by the Youth Minister. A man in his 30’s slouched on stage. His shirttail was out, he had jeans on and tennis shoes and his hair was a forward “comb-over.” One by one, the graduates come forward as he attempted humor and “youth speak” with them. These high school students were all dressed better (many with sports coats and ties) than the professional minister. I praise God I grew up in a church where the Youth Minister was an example to me of how to behave as an adult rather than vice versa – as is so many times the case in the current age.
Because of these men - how they lived, how they modeled for me that aging is a privilege to be embraced, that it is not “youthfulness” but a lifetime of walking with God that empowers ministries and opens doors - because of this, I close my prayer notebook with thanksgiving for the aging process. I call these “sign posts to God,” and there are seven that I specifically thank God for every day: a. Eyesight b. Gray hair c. Balding d. Physique e. Wrinkles f. Stamina g. Accept limitations with grace
"They will still yield fruit in old age; they shall be full of sap and very green." (Psalm 92:14)
And if you ever see me with a comb-over, with dyed hair, with an earring, with a gold chain, with tight jeans or dressed in any other way than befits an aging Christian gentleman, minister and missionary – please come up to me, slap me and say, “John, snap out of it!!!”
"Let a righteous man strike me - it is a kindness; let him rebuke me - it is oil on my head. My head will not refuse it." (Psalm 141:5)
By His mercy, II Corinthians 4:1 Rev. John S. Mahon Director – Grace Community Int. St. Petersburg, Russia
Answers to this week’s Bible Quiz 1. False - First of all, the Jewish prayer “I thank God I was not born a woman” was both penned and recited by post-resurrection, non-Christian, ultra-Orthodox Jews hundreds of years after the time of Christ and the writings of the Apostles. This quotation cannot and should not be used to reflect the thinking of either the Jews of the Bible nor the Apostles nor the early church. It has no place in Holy Scriptures of the Law or in the Old Testament. The practices of non-Christian Jews hundreds of years after the resurrection of Christ offer no insight into the spiritual or moral view of adherents to the Law. Nor do they offer insights into the lives and practices of Jews before the time of Christ. This prayer is trotted out from time to time to undermine New Testament and Old Testament teachings concerning God’s design and role of women in marriage and in the church. What some ultra-Orthodox medieval rabbi thought about women has no more bearing on what the Bible has to say about women than any other medieval pagan living hundreds of years after the resurrection of Christ. A cursory sampling of Scriptures shows us that to use this quote to represent Biblical men is slanderous. It is not Scripture, it is not reflected in Scripture and, in fact, the Bible is replete with sensitive husbands and fathers. The Bible also has many verses extolling the role of women and the role of a wife and mother: a. Genesis 1:27 - Woman created in the image of God b. Genesis 21:12 - Abraham commanded to listen to his wife Sarah c. Genesis 24:8 & 57 - Treatment of Rebekah by her father d. Exodus 15:20; Micah 6:4 - Miriam (Moses and Aaron’s sister) as one of many women given position of great honor in the history of the nation of Israel e. Judges 4:1–5:31 - Deborah as one of many strong women given a position of honor in the Bible f. Judges 13:1–25 - Interaction between Manoah and his wife revealing a loving and benevolent husband g. Two books of the Bible – Ruth and Esther - named for and devoted to godly women. In these books they are honored and the men in their lives treat them with dignity and respect. h. Ruth’s treatment by Boaz in the Book of Ruth, showing the sensitivity Jewish men exhibited in the treatment of women i. Esther 4:17 - Esther’s uncle Mordecai following his niece’s instructions j. Proverbs 1:8 - In contrast with Islam and other pagan views, male children were to respect and obey the mother in the same way they did the father k. Proverbs 31:10, 28-31 - the role of wife and mother is praised l. Proverbs 31:10–31 - the wife and mother has many responsibilities m. Matthew 1:19, 24 & 25 - Treatment of Mary by Joseph n. Luke 1:1–80 - The position of honor afforded Elizabeth and Mary as but one of many examples in the gospels of the treatment of women by Jewish men The reality is that godly Jewish men treated women with kindness, respect and dignity, as do godly men today. It is nothing less than slander to reduce Jewish men of Scripture to sexist boors and reveals a disturbing anti-Semitic tendency.
2 & 3. False - Neither in the gospels, the Acts of the Apostles nor the Epistles are there any records of miracles associated with objects or places connected with the death, burial or resurrection of Christ. There is no record of these objects being retrieved, retained or venerated. There is no record of any Christian ever returning to the place of Christ’s crucifixion, resurrection or any other event in His life.
Now ask yourself – what other things about the Bible do I believe which are, in reality, false? From now on, when something is taught about the Bible, your first questions will be – “Which Book, Chapter and Verse establish this?”
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