The Sifford Sojournal

Our journal of what we pray is our sojourn of life along the narrow way, even the old paths, submitting to the Bible as a light unto both.

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2023 Turkey Chicks

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: 2023 Turkey Chicks

June 9, 2023 / / 0 Comments

The Lord has graciously begun to grant new turkey chicks this 2023! We’ve been “collecting” them and putting them in the summer kitchen (which is really just a brooder barn) as they’ve been hatching in the barn, and have rotated a couple of mommies. It’s kind of a bummer “stealing” their youngin’s, but we don’t have a place for every mother hen and her hatchlings. We are thankful though it appears most of the turkey hens have been nesting in the barn so far and not out and about wherever.

And here’s a video of the progress thus far:

We are grateful to God for His kindness in providing these new turkeys, and we pray He might grant continued health and safety for them according to His will!

— David

Storms May 2023 - Upside Down Meat Dryer

Stormin’ Storms

June 2, 2023 / / 0 Comments

After one of the worst droughts I believe in Texas history last year, which was almost certainly a contributor to the the wildfire we faced, the Lord has graciously brought much appreciated rain this year. We estimate He granted nearly a half-year’s average last month!

But with that came several severe storms — some of the severest we’ve had — some of the highest winds we’ve experienced, and the largest hail — golf ball sized, with a few maybe up to tennis ball size?

And so, we thought we would take you through some of the results…

This just shows how many of the leaves were knocked off the oak trees:

This is the meat dryer upside down and pushed up against the clothes dryer. I had the legs wood-staked into the ground, but I believe over time the wood rotted and couldn’t hold against the winds:

The hail did a number on all the gutters and downspouts:

My wonderful wife has gotten us by for a while with a superb tape job she just did on her own! 😀

The hail punched holes through the window sills, and tore up screens. I don’t believe we had any broken windows through it all though:

Here’s a video of how I attempted to repair these:

I had these goat sheds staked into the ground as well, but they probably had the same problem (that middle shed is upside down).

Worrisome at the time but a funny story now: our rooster Albus (who was the inspiration for a hymn I put together, and who is one of our musical roosters from long ago) goes up every morning to hang out with the boy goats. Well, after a storm with the shed flipped over, I went up there and couldn’t find him. Uh oh. But, I wondered….and sure enough, he was in the upside-down shed, standing on the roof that was not the floor. Yea! My guess is he ended up going with the shed as it went over. We’re thankful the Lord spared him. 🙂 :

This was a palette shed we had put together for our goose at the time, Gigi, who decided to nest there — torn off its bottom and upside down:

This shed’s roof and one of its sides were blown off, but this below is it stitched back together.

I also was tired of sheds rolling over, so I pounded t-posts next to the opening on each side and tied the roof and shed to them. Hopefully that will generally hold them now, unless God has other plans for them. 🙂 :

When the winds came through the first time, this solar panel, which is attached to a palette that has three cinder blocks holding it down, ended up face down with a cinder block on the back of the panel. Well, that put some cracks in it.

And then when the hail came through, that finished the job. 🙂 …although I believe it still functions fine:

And finally, here’s the car. I figure it must have been one of the big ones similar to some that hit the roof of our house — a sound I don’t believe we’ve heard before — big pounding bangs on the house roof. I figure those must have been bigger than the golf ball-sized ones:

Then, after some road renovation to keep water from flowing off the property, our original pond overflowed — the first time since we built the extension some time before 2008.

This is the far side. When it was overflowing its worst, it was really going over much of this back side:

And here’s an overflow trench I dug to try to keep that from happening much more, although I probably need to make it wider because I don’t believe it will keep up with what can flow into the pond on a heavy rain:

Lastly, here’s a video of some of that overflow after I had dug the outlet trench:

In the end, we believe all these things are by the hand of God fulfilling His purposes:

Psalm 148:8 – “Fire, and hail; snow, and vapours; stormy wind fulfilling his word:“

But, the Lord was very merciful through it all as things could have been worse, and again, He has granted some very much-desired rain. We pray He applies it to the land to bring healing after being so parched last year, and pray for His continued mercies in the weather.

May we thirst for Him, and may He fill us with His Spirit so His graces in godly fear of Him, holiness and obedience flow from us for His glory.

Psalm 63:1 – “O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

John 7:38 – “He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”

— David

First 2023 Chick Chick

Providence’s Perpetuation Provisions: 1st 2023 Chicken Chick

May 22, 2023 / / 0 Comments

The Lord has graciously begun to grant new animal life this Spring of 2023, the first here a little chicken chick! I believe it was just hatched out by a mommy or several just randomly in the barn (ie. we didn’t set her aside to hatch any out).

We have quite a few chickens and turkeys doing that this year (we’re thankful they’re choosing the barn!), and so we’ll hopefully see how that continues to go.

Anyway, here it is again:

First 2023 Chicken Chick

And here’s a little video:

We always thank God for His continued provisions and His creation in action!

— David

Facebook 23

Facebook 23

May 2, 2023 / / 0 Comments

1 Facebook is my shepherd; I shall not want[1].

2 It maketh me to “lie”[2] in red/green/blue[3] pastures: it leadeth me to post still pictures.

3 It distracteth my soul: it leadeth me in the paths of pretentiousness for its name’s sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of the Internet, I will fear not God, for it is with me; its “Likes” and “Shares” they comfort me.

5 It preparest a table of venomous speech before me in the presence of mine enemies; it anointest my head with “Friends”[4]; my “Followers” runneth over.

6 Surely witty-quips and memes shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of Facebook for ever.

  • [1]: Lack
  • [2]: As in not truth, some intentionally, in the putting forth of a persona that is not really themself, but in the end, the real person cannot be actually put forth or known truly via this medium
  • [3]: Color model for computers
  • [4]: How do Facebook “Friends” compare to these?

    Exodus 33:11 – “And the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp: but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, departed not out of the tabernacle.“

    James 2:23 – “And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God.“

    Proverbs 18:24 – “A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.“

I believe social media isn’t social — it’s a fake replacement for it. More lies, along the same vein as “oh, all these modern conveniences will give you more time in your life”, when they required dad to get a factory job away from the family all day, and mom eventually at her job, and the children raised by society’s school system, all instead of dad being right there, hands on, to raise his boys in how to provide for a family, and mom doing the same in how to take care of one, being much more present to “bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4).

And I think you can see how far has this type of lie has taken us: I think you can see it when a family is sitting at a table for a meal with everyone fiddling with their individual devices, like they and the rest aren’t even there.

And the devil is the father of lies (John 8:44).

And what about family worship, something that was most likely at least known about, if not actively participated in, in Christian families not too long ago?

I could lament some more but will stop for now. And I understand the irony that this will be posted on social media by us (near hypocrisy?), but even Christ visited and helped those outside of those to whom He was originally sent; see the Canaanite women in Matthew 15:21-29. And I understand that it can be beneficial to have important information available quickly, or that it’s nice to share some pictures with your family, but I believe there is a larger issue at play, that even goes to what is important to people in their hearts and how much time is spent not in prayer, or Bible study, or keeping our conversation [behavior] in heaven, or renewing our minds:

Philippians 3:20 – “For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:“

Romans 12:2 – “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.“

Anyway, I came across a version of Psalm 23 for TV someone had done, and after briefly glancing at it, wondered if I could do something similar for something I am extraordinarily not fond of, not just because, but hopefully to bring forth a point of view, FWIW.

May God help us to redeem the time, for the days (by themselves, without us doing anything) are evil.

Ecclesiastes 12:8,13:

8 Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher; all is vanity [emptiness; want of substance to satisfy desire; uncertainty; inanity].

13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.

— David

Cast Your Bread Upon the Waters

15 Years of Hopefully Casting Our Bread Upon the Waters

April 19, 2023 / / 0 Comments

15 years ago this month we began our little blog, for two reasons:

  1. To keep family updated after moving here without having to email anymore
  2. To hopefully help someone with the things we did, learned, etc.

My favorite things are the spiritual things posted, I’m thankful for Sue’s postings, and most of those from me are from things I’ve read that I thought were spiritually important; a few others being just how I’ve come to see things, spiritually and in worldview, for whatever that is worth.

Which leads to this:

Ecclesiastes 11:1:

Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.

I don’t know if we’ve helped anyone ever, in temporals or otherwise, but hopefully by casting our bread upon the waters, it will come back, as Ecclesiastes says, in the form of someone seeking God more, either to salvation or to living more godly and obedient to Him, and someone living more for His glory, and then maybe God receiving some revenue of glory to Himself.

We pray maybe some day, in some way, that happens, and that we always point people to the Lord Christ Jesus, who, with Father and Spirit, alone are worthy to receive honor, glory, praise and adoration forever and ever, amen!

Jeremiah 6:16:

Thus saith the Lord, Stand ye in the ways, and see, and ask for the old paths, where is the good way, and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.   . . .

Hebrews 11:8-10:

8 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went.

9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:

10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

— David

John Owen - Of Mortification (John Greenhill image)

Latest Completed Reading: John Owen’s “Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers”

March 28, 2023 / / 0 Comments

The Lord has graciously granted us His word, the Bible, and He has also, I believe, graciously granted other means of grace for us to use. I have personally found the Puritans to be very beneficial, and some time ago I thought I might try to make some of their writings available in an audio format, so those who might prefer that and otherwise might not get to “hear” (by reading) what these men of faith had to say. They’re all available for free on this page. You can listen or download each individual reading for each work, or the whole set of .mp3 files in .zip files available on those pages.

I recently finished a new one — a shorter one, especially considering whose it is — from John Owen, called “Of the Mortification of Sin in Believers“. I believe this is an important topic that all who take the name of Christ upon themselves should understand and be working on.

Romans 8:13 - "For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live."

That’s pretty sobering about the importance of this work.

And here is more from Dr. Owen:

I. That the choicest believers, who are assuredly freed from the condemning power of sin, ought yet to make it their business all their days to mortify the indwelling power of sin.

The apostle tells you what was his practice, 1 Cor. 9:27, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection.” “I do it,” saith he, “daily; it is the work of my life: I omit it not; this is my business.” And if this were the work and business of Paul, who was so incomparably exalted in grace, revelations, enjoyments, privileges, consolations, above the ordinary measure of believers, where may we possibly bottom an exemption from this work and duty whilst we are in this world? Some brief account of the reasons hereof may be given:

1. Indwelling sin always abides whilst we are in this world; therefore it is always to be mortified.

2. Sin doth not only still abide in us, but is still acting, still labouring to bring forth the deeds of the flesh.

3. Sin will not only be striving, acting, rebelling, troubling, disquieting, but if let alone, if not continually mortified, it will bring forth great, cursed, scandalous, soul-destroying sins.

…

Men may come to that, that sin may not be heard speaking a scandalous word in their hearts, — that is, provoking to any great sin with scandal in its mouth; but yet every rise of lust [which generally is any corrupt desire of the heart], might it have its course, would come to the height of villainy: it is like the grave, that is never satisfied. And herein lies no small share of the deceitfulness of sin, by which it prevails to the hardening of men, and so to their ruin, Heb. 3:13, — it is modest, as it were, in its first motions and proposals, but having once got footing in the heart by them, it constantly makes good its ground, and presses on to some farther degrees in the same kind.

…

Now nothing can prevent this but mortification; that withers the root and strikes at the head of sin every hour, so that whatever it aims at it is crossed in.

4. This is one main reason why the Spirit and the new nature is given unto us, — that we may have a principle within whereby to oppose sin and lust [again, generally any corrupt desire of the heart].

…

The contest is for our lives and souls. Not to be daily employing the Spirit and new nature for the mortifying of sin, is to neglect that excellent succour which God hath given us against our greatest enemy. If we neglect to make use of what we have received, God may justly hold his hand from giving us more. His graces, as well as his gifts, are bestowed on us to use, exercise, and trade with. Not to be daily mortifying sin, is to sin against the goodness, kindness, wisdom, grace, and love of God, who hath furnished us with a principle of doing it.

5. Negligence in this duty casts the soul into a perfect contrary condition to that which the apostle affirms was his, 2 Cor. 4:16, “Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.”

…

This is that which I intend: by the omission of this duty grace withers, lust [corrupt desire] flourishes, and the frame of the heart grows worse and worse; and the Lord knows what desperate and fearful issues it hath had with many.

…

Indeed, it is a sad thing to consider the fearful issues of this neglect, which lie under our eyes every day. See we not those, whom we knew humble, melting, broken-hearted Christians, tender and fearful to offend, zealous for God and all his ways, his Sabbaths and ordinances, grown, through neglect of watching unto this duty, earthly, carnal, cold, wrathful, complying with the men of the world and things of the world, to the scandal of religion and the fearful temptation of them that know them? The truth is, what between placing mortification in a rigid, stubborn frame of spirit, which is for the most part earthly, legal, censorious, partial, consistent with wrath, envy, malice, pride, on the one hand, and pretences of liberty, grace, and I know not what, on the other, true evangelical mortification is almost lost amongst us.

It is our duty to be “perfecting holiness in the fear of God,” 2 Cor. 7:1; to be “growing in grace” every day, 1 Pet. 2:3, 2 Pet 3:18; to be “renewing our inward man day by day,” 2 Cor. 4:16. Now, this cannot be done without the daily mortifying of sin.

This, then, is the first general principle of our ensuing discourse: Notwithstanding the meritorious mortification, if I may so speak, of all and every sin the cross of Christ; notwithstanding the real foundation of universal mortification laid in our first conversion, by conviction of sin, humiliation for sin, and the implantation of a new principle opposite to it and destructive of it; — yet sin doth so remain, so act and work in the best of believers, whilst they live in this world, that the constant daily mortification of it is all their days incumbent on them.

Before I proceed to the consideration of the next principle, I cannot but by the way complain of many professors [of Christianity] of these days, who, instead of bringing forth such great and evident fruits of mortification as are expected, scarce bear any leaves of it. There is, indeed, a broad light fallen upon the men of this generation, and together therewith many spiritual gifts communicated, which, with some other considerations, have wonderfully enlarged the bounds of professors and profession; both they and it are exceedingly multiplied and increased. Hence there is a noise of religion and religious duties in every corner, preaching in abundance, — and that not in an empty, light, trivial, and vain manner, as formerly, but to a good proportion of a spiritual gift, — so that if you will measure the number of believers by light, gifts, and profession, the church may have cause to say, “Who hath born me all these?” [Ie. There are lots of knowledgeable and religious people today.]

But now if you will take the measure of them by this great discriminating grace of Christians, perhaps you will find their number not so multiplied. Where almost is that professor who owes his conversion to these days of light, and so talks and professes at such a rate of spirituality as few in former days were, in any measure, acquainted with (I will not judge them, but perhaps boasting what the Lord hath done in them), that does not give evidence of a miserably unmortified heart? If vain spending of time, idleness, unprofitableness in men’s places, envy, strife, variance, emulations, wrath, pride, worldliness, selfishness, 1 Cor. 1, be badges of Christians, we have them on us and amongst us in abundance.

And if it be so with them who have much light, and which, we hope, is saving, what shall we say of some who would be accounted religious and yet despise the gospel light, and for the duty we have in hand, know no more of it but what consists in men’s denying themselves sometimes in outward enjoyments, which is one of the outmost branches of it, which they will seldom practice? The good Lord send out a spirit of mortification to cure our distempers, or we are in a sad condition!

There are two evils which certainly attend every unmortified professor; — the first, in himself; the other, in respect of others:–

1. In himself. Let him pretend what he will, he hath slight thoughts of sin; at least, of sins of daily infirmity. The root of an unmortified course is the digestion of sin without bitterness in the heart. When a man hath confirmed his imagination to such an apprehension of grace and mercy as to be able, without bitterness, to swallow and digest daily sins, that man is at the very brink of turning the grace of God into lasciviousness, and being hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. Neither is there a greater evidence of a false and rotten heart in the world than to drive such a trade.

To use the blood of Christ, which is given to cleanse us, 1 John 1:7, Tit. 2:14; the exaltation of Christ, which is to give us repentance, Acts 5:31; the doctrine of grace, which teaches us to deny all ungodliness, Tit 2:11,12 to countenance sin, is a rebellion that in the issue will break the bones.

At this door have gone out from us most of the professors that have apostatized in the days wherein we live. For a while they were most of them under convictions; these kept them unto duties, and brought them to profession; so they “escaped the pollutions that are in the world, through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ,” 2 Pet. 2:20: but having got an acquaintance with the doctrine of the gospel, and being weary of duty, for which they had no principle, they began to countenance themselves in manifold neglects from the doctrine of grace. Now, when once this evil had laid hold of them, they speedily tumbled into perdition.

2. To others. It hath an evil influence on them on a twofold account:–

(1.) It hardens them, by begetting in them a persuasion that they are in as good condition as the best professors. Whatever they see in them is so stained for want [lack] of this mortification that it is of no value with them. They have a zeal for religion; but it is accompanied with want [lack] of forbearance and universal righteousness. They deny prodigality, but with worldliness; they separate from the world, but live wholly to themselves, taking no care to exercise loving-kindness in the earth; or they talk spiritually, and live vainly; mention communion with God, and are every way conformed to the world; boasting of forgiveness of sin, and never forgiving others. And with such considerations do poor creatures harden their hearts in their unregeneracy.

(2.) They deceive them, in making them believe that if they can come up to their condition it shall be well with them; and so it grows an easy thing to have the great temptation of repute in religion to wrestle withal, when they may go far beyond them as to what appears in them, and yet come short of eternal life.

May God grant us a desire to come against our own sin, with the help and power of the Holy Spirit, so we may be more obedient because we hate sin as it is an affront to the One we love!

— David

(For those interested, you can also read it online here.)

Bible, Blank Paper & Pen

David’s Digest: Should “Description” Mean “Prescription”?

February 28, 2023 / / 2 Comments

I’m going to offer an idea that I believe is, at least to me, an interesting and maybe good way to view the Bible in guiding how we live; maybe even a proper or even obedient way to live…just a perspective that’s been on my mind, so I hope you’ll indulge me a little. 🙂

For the sake of this discussion, let’s assume a few things to be true:

  1. God is all wise and all knowing, and perfect in these; otherwise, He cannot be God.
  2. This God created all of creation.
  3. Man’s heart by nature is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked: Jeremiah 17:9 – “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?“, and out of the heart are the issues of life (Proverbs 4:23), making it the root of our thoughts and decisions.
  4. Absolute truth exists.
  5. Truth to be absolute truth must be outside of ourselves; otherwise, we are left to ourselves and every person’s idea about truth, which means truth is relative and not absolute.
  6. God is, and brings, that absolute truth.
  7. God provided His truth in His revealed will in the Bible as to how man should live.
  8. Sovereign, perfectly wise and almighty God could have brought forth or allowed technologies we have today much earlier so they would have been around at the time the Bible was written, or the Bible could have been written at a time of history that included modern technologies.

Now, let’s do something. Let’s throw out everything we think about how to live all of life — jobs, culture, leisure time, etc…..everything, throw it all out.

And now that we’ve done that, let’s take a blank sheet of paper, and on it, we’re going to write out how to live life based on the Bible. How might that look?

The following are some ideas:

System of Economy

To survive, according to the Bible, man needs food and raiment:

1 Timothy 6:8 – “And having food and raiment let us be therewith content.“

In the Bible, how is food obtained? By planting and growing food — herbs, vegetables, fruit-bearing trees, etc., and by raising animals for food and clothing.

Also, these were not only given to man for his sustenance, but as spiritual lessons and pictures as well. For example:

John 15:1-8:

1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.

2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.

3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.

4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.

5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.

How was work instituted? Before the fall:

Genesis 2:15 – “And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.“

And after the fall:

Genesis 3:23 – “Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.“

And if this is indeed how God describes the necessities of life are obtained, then what does that say about the industrial method of everything that was introduced not long ago? It would say that it is a man-made methodology for life sustenance, and coming from the mind of man, see the point 3 in the list above about the state of man’s heart.

And I believe you can see the outcome of man diverging from God’s way of provision. It not only puts a middle-man of corporations and governments between us and God (eg. if the water goes out, we call the water company), which makes us dependent on most likely ungodly people and institutions. These entities become our “providers”, instead of us living under Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord our Provider.

Further, the air and water have been polluted, especially with long lasting chemicals, and the soil has been pillaged of nutrients. The industrial way has gotten us processed foods, a drugged-up population (including many children) on pharmaceuticals instead of natural foods or supplements from creation, lies about the benefits of natural foods, such as good fats (like real butter, saturated fats in good oils, etc.; note that I am not giving nutritional advice; these are just my beliefs)….on and on with what I believe is deception and destruction.

Genetically modified food? Genetically modified anything? Man now has more capability to try to do what he has always wanted to do — be God, the original sin (Genesis 3:5-6).

Should we be traveling at 70 miles per hour in cars? Or even 30 or 40? How many car wrecks have claimed how many lives? Should we be flying?

What about war? The ability to wage two world wars, plus many other regional ones? Wholesale destruction of cities? The ability to destroy the entire planet many times over? And while man will find ways to wage wars, the industrial machine has exponentially multiplied man’s ability to do that, in all the evil imaginations of his heart.

And then, mass media and the ability to globally perpetuate lies, worldliness, and vain (useless) distractions in entertainments away from prayer, God’s Word, family worship, Lord’s Day worship, and heavenly mindedness?

How about the family, where the father left the only “career” I see in the Bible generally for him, which is conducting his work with his family and being head of his household, husband to his wife, and raising his children, to go to the factory, being gone all day. And then the mother, whose only “career” I see in the Bible generally is conducting her work with her family and being a help meet to her husband and mother to her children, soon followed, now having left the family to work a job as well. And I believe you can see the results in society of this decimation of the family.

I believe we will continue to see the results of man’s diverging from God’s described way of life in an agrarian way to the man-invented industrial way, in the continued destruction of people, both physically and spiritually.

A Beard on Men

Men throughout the Bible are described as having beards. God built into creation this distinction — if men don’t shave, generally, they grow beards and women do not. This is an obvious distinction that God has made between the sexes.

David’s men were purposefully embarrassed by having their beards shaved:

2 Samuel 10:4-5 – “Wherefore Hanun took David’s servants, and shaved off the one half of their beards, and cut off their garments in the middle, even to their buttocks, and sent them away. When they told it unto David, he sent to meet them, because the men were greatly ashamed: and the king said, Tarry at Jericho until your beards be grown, and then return.“

Christ appears to have had facial hair:

Isaiah 50:6 – “I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting.“

Again, if we throw out all our preconceived notions and cultural ideas, the Bible would seem to indicate that men should have a beard.

Birthdays / Other Honoring Days

Nowhere in the Bible do I find God’s people celebrating in remembrance the day of anyone’s birth. In fact, birthdays are mentioned in the Bible twice: Pharaoh’s birthday in Gen 40:20-22, on which day he had the baker hanged; and Herod’s birthday in Matt 14:6-10, on which day he had John the Baptist beheaded. Besides both being heathens, the events on those days don’t set a good precedent.

Even Jesus’ birth is not remembered in a yearly way in the Bible. That fact in itself I believe should also make us at least question the idea of the Christmas remembrance, although I believe there are many other issues with that, which I discuss here.

How about things like Father’s or Mother’s Day? I do not find anything in the Bible like that. What is the biblical mandate for this?

Exodus 20:12 – “Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.“

That’s one of the 10 Commandments. Are the Lord’s commandments ever not in effect? Shouldn’t every day then be a day of honoring our fathers and mothers, at least in heart and mind if not in some overt tangible way at times?

What would we think if it was suggested Jesus should have taken a specific day every year and get a card for His Father and spend the day with Him to honor Him? Seems like that might be considered absurd, but is that really much different than our cultural parent-honor days?

Cremation

In the Bible, I find that God’s people were exclusively buried, including Christ Jesus Himself. I discuss that in more detail here.

Leisure/Entertainments/Sports

I don’t see the saints involved in any of these things in their lives. I believe the following shows the general, and what should be the natural, trend of a Christian:

Philippians 4:8 – “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”

Do entertainments on TV or in movies, for example, exemplify those things?

And:

Ephesians 5:15-16 – “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

How do these things fit in with redeeming the time?

I mentioned the following in another blog post, but I believe this to be true and important:

Christianity isn’t something we do — it’s who we are. We shouldn’t fit Christianity into the rest of the things in our lives — the rest of the things in our lives should fit into our Christianity, directed by the Word of God, the Bible.

Do electronic entertainments and watching or even playing organized sports fit into Christianity, if we look at Christianity as described in the Bible, even more especially when they are done on the Lord’s Day?

Again, I don’t see it in the lives of Christians in the Bible, or discussed anywhere in it.

Retirement

Again, I don’t see this anywhere in the Bible. I see no ceasing of work — 6 days a week, resting on the Sabbath/Lord’s Day. And if someone cannot continue to work, especially widows with no wealth, I believe the Church is supposed to help.

Conclusion

I hear at times, “Let scripture be your guide,” but maybe that isn’t what really happens — it maybe only goes so far. And maybe it should go farther?

My belief is that the world and its rudiments have infected the Christian worldview so much that what is considered normal Christianity just isn’t that far from the world, its worldview, and how people live their lives — basically living just like the world with a Christian name on it.

And is that how Christianity is supposed to be?

Colossians 2:8 – “Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.“

Should we trust our own imaginations as to what a proper life that is honoring to God should be? Should what we do and how we do it be invented by man, again whose heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked? Even the true Christian has that carnal nature left inside them (the flesh, which the Spirit is at war against, Galatians 5:17), and so shouldn’t we be careful about what we let dictate our actions in this life?

Again, I’m just putting all this out as another perspective, maybe as something to at least potentially ponder. 🙂

May God grant us light, wisdom and understanding from His Word by His Spirit, and may He grant us a desire to live the life pleasing to Him that He has prescribed for us in His revealed will.

— David

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