Flannery Lewis @ALadyLearning

@not_our_guy Weird and sad; sad and weird

@BiblicalBeauty @yoalexrapz Yes and amen! Perfectly said!

I don't even know her, but somehow, I felt like a proud mom watching this powerful speech by @yoalexrapz. I've been listening to her podcast for a couple of years now, and she's displayed significant spiritual growth during that time. The speech she gave this week, "Stewarding Your Season of Singleness," was the best exhortation on how to view singleness and redeem the time as an unmarried Christian woman that I've heard in a long time. Every single lady needs to listen! "For years, I thought God was delaying my life. And looking back, He kind of was, but not in a negative way. He was preparing me. I thought I was waiting on God. And the truth is, God was working while I was waiting. And here's what I've learned. Sometimes God isn't saying no. Sometimes, He's preparing a yes that's bigger than the one that you asked for... Ladies, your life doesn't begin when you get married. Your life doesn't begin when you have children. Your life does not begin when you finally get the thing, whatever it is that you've been praying for. Your life begins the moment, the moment, the very second that you give it to Christ. And if you spend this season becoming the woman that God is calling you to be, then whether marriage comes next year, or 10 years from now, or not at all, you will not have wasted a single day. Because a life fully surrendered to God is never a life on hold." Link to full video below

One final observation. Quite frankly, what Michael Spangler is doing appears to be a motte-and-bailey argument. The position for which he is actually known is that race and ancestry should function as meaningful organizing principles within the church. Yet when that claim is challenged, he retreats to examples that are not actually the point in dispute: language barriers, national churches, immigrant congregations, historical circumstances, and other prudential considerations. But even if every one of those examples were granted, they would not establish his conclusion. A church founded because of a language barrier is not the same thing as a church founded around race. A congregation shaped by geography is not the same thing as a congregation organized by ancestry. A temporary prudential judgment is not the same thing as a theological principle. Michael Spangler’s church was not established merely because of unusual circumstances requiring a practical solution. It was established around race itself. His argument is not ultimately that churches may sometimes make difficult prudential decisions. His argument is that race ought to function as a meaningful category in determining ecclesiastical fellowship. That is the claim that must be defended. And that is precisely the claim that Galatians 2 undermines. Peter’s error was not simply that he held the wrong doctrine in his head. It was that he treated an ethnic distinction as relevant to fellowship among those who were already united in Christ. The church is not built upon bloodlines, ancestry, tribe, or race. It is built upon Christ. Faith, baptism, and a common confession unite Christians. Bloodlines do not. Even if every historical example and prudential argument he raises were granted, they cannot bear the theological weight Michael Spangler places upon them.

Michael Spangler (whose ordination was revoked by his former Presbyterian denomination) and his followers argue that the error of Peter in Galatians 2 was only about Judaizing and therefore has nothing to do with ethnicity. They argue that because the underlying heresy was justification by works, Paul’s rebuke has no application to modern attempts to divide Christians along racial or ethnic lines. But this misses the point entirely. No one denies that the Judaizers were teaching a false gospel. The question is how Peter participated in that error. Peter did not deny justification by faith with his mouth. Peter did not begin preaching salvation by circumcision. Peter’s sin was his conduct. He withdrew from Gentile believers and separated himself from them. Why did Paul rebuke him so publicly? Because Peter’s actions communicated something false about the nature of Christ’s church. His separation suggested that faith in Christ was not enough for full fellowship among God’s people. A dividing wall had been rebuilt where Christ had torn one down. In his article on race realism, Spangler spends much of his time defending propositions that are not actually in dispute. Churches are often homogeneous. Churches are often shaped by language, nation, culture, and providence. Different peoples have different histories, customs, and strengths. None of that proves his point. The issue is not whether churches are often homogeneous. The issue is whether race and ancestry may become a principle of ecclesiastical separation. A church that happens to be predominantly one ethnicity is one thing. A church that is intentionally organized around ethnicity, and which directs otherwise qualified Christians elsewhere because of their race, is something very different. Spangler appeals repeatedly to prudence. He argues that separation may be justified by social tensions, cultural differences, immigration, national concerns, or the preservation of a people. But the Judaizers also had prudential arguments. They wanted peace between Jews and Gentiles. They wanted continuity with ancient customs. They wanted to avoid scandal among conservative Jews. They wanted to preserve a distinct people. Paul did not deny that tensions existed. He did not deny that practical concerns were real. He asked a different question: Was Peter’s conduct in step with the truth of the gospel? That is still the question. A nation may have concerns about preserving its culture, customs, language, and people. Families certainly have an interest in preserving their own heritage and lineage. But the church is not a nation, and it is not an ethnic association. The church is the assembly of those united to Christ by faith. The New Testament recognizes nations, tribes, tongues, and peoples. It does not make ancestry a term of communion. This is why Galatians 2 speaks directly to what Michael Spangler is teaching. While he is not repeating the Judaizing error in exactly the same form, he is repeating the same pattern. He is introducing a new boundary marker into the church that Christ never established. He is treating race and ancestry as relevant to ecclesiastical fellowship in a way that the gospel does not permit. In one sense, this is even worse than the Judaizers. The Judaizers at least taught that a Gentile could become a Jew through circumcision and submission to the ceremonial law. Their solution was false and destructive, but it offered a path, however misguided, into the covenant community they envisioned. Spangler’s system offers no such path. The dividing line is not circumcision, ceremony, or culture. It is ancestry itself. The marker he introduces cannot be adopted, acquired, or changed. It is permanent. The gospel tears down dividing walls. Spangler rebuilds them. The gospel makes Jew and Gentile one new man in Christ.

息子の小1の時の担任が専門が算数だった。最初の保護者会で言われた。 「保護者の皆様、お子様には家事を何か1つ任せてください。簡単なのでいいです。手伝いではなく完全に任せてください。そうすると、自分で手順や時間のやりくりを考えるようになります。数の多いとか少ないとか補充とか。これが実は算数の能力を伸ばします。 小1の子に鉄1kgと綿1kgどっちが重い？と聞くと、生活体験の豊かな子ほど、一瞬迷うのです。答えはどちらも同じ重量なのですが、質量や体積などを頭に浮かべて色々な条件を多面的に考えることが算数や、ひいては数学にとても重要になってくるんです。算数の力を伸ばしたければ、家事をやらせてください。（ニコッ）」 と言われた。息子に何をやりたいか聞いたら、家族の朝食を作ると言った。それは流石に大変では？と言ったけど、3年間トーストとサラダ、ゆで卵、紅茶の用意まで完璧にやっていた。偶然かもしれないが、彼は工科大学に進学し、今はエンジニアをやってる。 算数が数字いじりだけではないこと、「感覚的にはこのぐらいの答えの筈だ」からの正解を導く感覚は、日常生活の経験がある程度の年齢までは役に立つのは本当だと思う。 あと息子は料理が上手くなったので小1の担任には今も感謝している。

名などない好きに呼べ @shupeluter

3 days ago

面白い授業だなと思った。 例えば40mLの水と30mLの水を足したら70mLになる。 でも40℃のお湯と30℃のお湯を足しても70℃にはならない。 じゃあ、 「どういう時に足し算を使えて、どういう時には使えないの？」 と小学1年生に聞かれたら、どう説明する？

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@PeacemakingSt My mom would always comment on this. She grew up on these shows, and was frustrated that in the 70s anti-Christian sentiment began to be planted by portraying Christianity as “a woman thing,” (e.g., “The Little House on the Prairie” TV show).

@PeacemakingSt Crazy that this, while great, was actually a departure from the strength of faith portrayed in the book. In the book, both the father & mother, but esp. the dad, were powerhouses of faith. He was portrayed as the leader in all prayer & worship.

My older brother was born with cerebral palsy. My mother almost died giving birth to him. Half his body doesn’t work. He can’t even grasp a fork with one hand. He wears out shoes every few months from dragging one leg. And yet I will never forget the night my younger brother spiraled into depression, seriously questioning whether life was still worth living. It was my older brother, through tears and sobbing, who pleaded with him to see the good still waiting. I remember how he described the little joys of life in ways I had never considered. He noticed beauty I had walked right past. Through his eyes, life felt richer and fuller. I am grateful for his perspective every day and infinitely grateful he is alive. Because in a body that fights him at every turn, he still chose to become the light for someone else. And that choice didn’t just save my brother. He taught us what it really means to live. He’s living proof that everyBODY, no matter how broken, deserves the chance to love this life and find its quiet joys.

@yoalexrapz Adorable ❤️❤️

@gmk_julie Ogden/Moscow civil war. My review: Hated it. Two thumbs way, way down. But your initiation sounds much worse

It is striking that Jesus identified the traitor by giving him a piece of bread, and not by refusing to wash his feet.

I have a lot of regret over not spending that time more joyfully and productively. I wish I had laughed at the times to come, trusted God more, prayed more, and tried to address what was my responsibility to change, w/o obsessing over what I couldn’t change.

wanting to be married, & trying to figure out how to even go about finding someone. It’s pretty confusing nowadays.

I don’t really get the uproar about the lady in the Ligonier video saying not to make marriage into an idol. I over-focused on my discontentment in singleness while I was single. It’s easy for discontent to be all-consuming bc it’s a hard situation. Now, the act of seeking

In Ancient Rome, Christians were known for rescuing unwanted or disabled infants off of cliff-sides when left to die of exposure. Today, Christians are some of the only ones who continue to bear them. “The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”

Richard Hanania @RichardHanania

3 days ago

Having children has made me a lot more pro-choice. Taking care of children is hard. Part of the payoff is imagining them living full lives as adults. I don’t know how anyone could find the motivation to take care of them if they knew that wasn’t possible. That’s why only

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When you stand before men, ask little, and expect less; but when you stand before God, ask much, and expect more, and believe that He is able to do for you exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think. C.H. Spurgeon

I was a single lady who wanted to be married for quite a long time. There were very few options, partly bc I lived in a rural area. I do wish that older believers had encouraged me to enjoy that time more & use it better, while not demonizing a natural desire.