Tag: Christian

The Bible on Hair Care

~ fundyreformed ~ 5 Comments

No, I haven’t yet found a Biblical defense for using Pert’s Plus. I’m talking about what the Bible says about hair length.

This may be a surprise to you, but listen to what Paul says in 1 Cor. 11:14-15.

Does not nature itself teach you that if a man wears long hair it is a disgrace for him, but if a woman has long hair, it is her glory? For her hair is given to her for a covering.

What do we do with this teaching? In my fundamentalist upbringing, we had hair rules, and for us guys: hair check. If our hair was getting anywhere near our shirt collar or ear lobes, we would be in trouble. Demerits and/or detention would come in a hurry!

It’s easy to discount such standards as tomfoolery. Along with the head covering that 1 Cor. 11 refers to, we can easily contextualize this command as appropriate for Corinthians only. But are we doing justice to Paul’s appeal to “nature” here?

This is the question that a bunch of reforming fundamentalists and I have been addressing in one of our forum topics over at our new group site: Transformed by Grace. The discussion has avoided hard and fast extra Biblical rules, and has been quite profitable. Let me share one small quote, out of several I gave in the discussion. This is from Tom Schreiner in the book Recovering Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (Crossway):

Paul’s point, then, is that how men and women wear their hair is a significant indication of whether they are abiding by the created order. Of course, what constitutes long hair is often debated–what is appropriately masculine or feminine in hairstyle may vary widely from culture to culture.

I agree. On this point, I concluded with the following:

I do think women’s hair should be generally long, and men’s generally short. There is some room for varying styles and cultural fashions, but I do think today many of the short, short hairstyles worn by women are both non-attractive, and not glorifying to God.

What do you think? Does the Bible deal with our hair care? What about hairstyles today, is everything neutral or a-moral? Should a Christian look to the Bible before they run to a hairdresser? Please join the discussion in the comments here, or visit the Transformed by Grace forum on the question.

One last point: the Biblical view of a distinction between the genders being reinforced by our dress is also taught in Deut. 22:5. I dealt with that passage (often misused to condemn all women who wear pants) in an earlier post.

Tweeting the Gospel

~ fundyreformed ~ 1 Comment

Twitter is becoming more and more popular these days. One of the things it does is force us to be succinct, which is good. Nine Marks Ministries‘ blog, Church Matters, is challenging all Christian twitterers to share the gospel in 1 tweet. It’s a novel idea, and causes us to focus on the true heart of the gospel. Crafting such a tweet is a good exercise, but it also challenges us to use Twitter for good ends, by challenging those with whom we interact on Twitter, with the gospel.

I enjoyed crafting my tweet, but I would have loved more than 140 characters! Here’s my tweet, and then a better one.

G=S+J<M / Gospel=Sin [spurning God & His law] + Judgment [eternal punishment] < Mercy [Jesus died in our place offering peace with God] #9M

The #9M enters me in the contest, and can be searched easily via Twitter. Take some time to read through the results of that search, and you’ll encounter many other ways to simply declare the heart of the gospel.

My tweet stopped short of calling people to believe this message. But I think the Gospel, when understood, carries the weight of a response within the message itself. When one understands G=S+J<M, he may then value the truth in this message and cherish it. In short, he will come to believe it.

A much better attempt at distilling the beauty of the gospel in a few words was accomplished by songwriter Drew Jones:

Holy God, in love, became / Perfect Man to bear my blame / On the cross He took my sin / By His death I live again

These words form the entire length of The Gospel Song (music by Bob Kauflin). It is one of my favorite songs; learn more about it here.

So what’s your gospel tweet? Post it on twitter, or add it to the comments at the Church Matters’ blog (contest runs through Wednesday night). But please share your gospel tweet in the comments here. 140 comments or less. Let’s rejoice in the clarity of the gospel together.

Music Mondays: “Our Great God” by Fernando Ortega and Mac Powell

~ Bob Hayton ~ 1 Comment

Music Monday posts highlight the music which touched my heart on Sunday. I pray the message of these songs will help us all to live in the spirit of Worship all week long.

Today’s song is one I’ve enjoyed for quite some time now, since I first heard it in church maybe a year or so ago. It speaks of who God is, and calls all of creation to praise His name. I pray it will encourage you this week in your walk with our great God.

Our Great God

Words & Music by Fernando Ortega & Mac Powell

Eternal God, unchanging, mysterious and unknown
Your boundless love, unfailing, in grace and mercy shown
Bright seraphim in ceaseless flight around Your glorious throne
They raise their voices day and night in praise to You alone

Chorus:
Hallelujah! Glory be to our Great God!
Hallelujah! Glory be to our Great God!

Lord, we are weak and frail, helpless in the storm
Surround us with Your angels, hold us in Your arms
Our cold and ruthless enemy, his pleasure is our harm
Rise up, O Lord and he will flee before our Sovereign God

Let every creature in the sea and every flying bird
Let every mountain, every field and valley of the earth
Let all the moons and all the stars in all the universe
Sing praises to the Living God who rules them by His Word

 ©2002 Word Music.

You can listen to the entire song by watching this video clip. The song is also available for a free listen at rhapsody.com. Sheet music can be previewed (and purchased) easily at this link, and a guitar sheet is available for free here (.pdf).

Announcing: Transformed by Grace

~ fundyreformed ~ 1 Comment

Some reforming fundamentalist friends of mine and I have got together and founded a new online social media site called Transformed by Grace. We are a community of former legalists and reforming fundamentalists, continually allowing God’s grace to bring us closer to Christ.

Using a free social media site provided by Ning.com, we have built a site that allows members, forums, groups, personal blog posts & pages, and lots of interaction. Think of it like a bigger Facebook group or a mini version of something like Sharper Iron. It actually has more capabilities than either Facebook or a typical forums site, and offers a lot of flexibility in how one can use it.

Our goal is to bring together other like minded reforming fundamentalists, particularly those who are familiar with the more conservative wing of Independent Baptist Fundamentalism. We hope to encourage one another, talk through remaining questions and problems, and forge relationships. And we hope to offer some help to those who are beginning their journey within fundamentalism. We want to help them learn and grow in a non-threatening environment. We don’t pressure anyone necessarily to follow a particular path out of fundamentalism, some of our founding members are happy within the IFB tent. We hope to challenge each other and grow in grace.

So, please go over and check out our site: http://reformedfundamentalism.ning.com.

Feel free to join the group or just lurk for a while. Bookmark us and come back in a few months, as I’m sure there will be more activity by then. If you have a blog that’s somewhat devoted to these issues, feel free to let us know and we’ll add it to the blogroll and possibly send some visitors your way. Above all, let us know if there’s something we can help you with. That’s what we are hoping to accomplish.

Brotherly Reconciliation: Steve Camp's Humble Embrace of Mark Driscoll

~ fundyreformed ~ 4 Comments

I get leery of blog wars. Some are unavoidable. And I’m sure I’ve contributed to some that were.

A figrue who is especially polarizing in the Biblioblogosphere is Mark Driscoll. His edgy comments and modern methods make conservative evangelicals and especially fundamentalists nervous. But for all the hype that flows from Christian keyboards about him, you could think he was the antichrist of Seattle.

I’ve been careful in listening to his messages, and haven’t really done much of that. But the more I listen to him, the more I respect his wisdom and the more I benefit from his messages. That’s not to say I would imitate every expression he uses, but even then, the word on the street doesn’t quite match what actually is heard when you give him an honest hearing. For instance his recent series on the Song of Solomon was beyond excellent: very practical and helpful on the family and marriage (obviously). I listened to all the messages and some of the Q & A which followed them and there were only a couple times where I thought his illustration was a little inappropriate. Most of the time he was very low key and reserved when the opportunity was there for him to score points if he was trying to use sexual humor to his benefit. All in all it was appropriate for church, all the more so when one considers how few pastors even cover this book of the Bible in their ministries.

I say all that to set the stage for a wonderful blog post by Steven Camp, who has often been a critic of Driscoll. Steve humbly admits wrong, apologizes, and gives a positive assessment of Driscoll’s ministry. He models a Christ-like attitude. He doesn’t necessarily dismiss any previous concerns he had about Driscoll’s ministry, but he has a much more informed and appreciative view of Mark now.

I can’t do justice to the article. I just strongly encourage you to read it. Praise Christ that our union with Him is bigger than the occasional blog war. Let’s be sure the world wide webbers watching us Christians see more examples of this Christian humility and gracious deferment! That would be to the praise and glory of our dear Savior.