Blog | Reproach of Men

Internet Explorer — All the joys of having a tooth pulled

Microsoft never ceases to amaze me. Since I build websites (my own and a few others), it is important to me that the site look the same in every browser (well, at least all the major ones). Thus, the fact that IE6 requires its own styles is a pain that I (and every other website developer) could do without. So, when I read that IE7 was “standards compliant” I thought that I could use the same styles that I use for Opera, Firefox and Safari. Silly, naive me. I didn’t research it out enough and simply took the word of some Microsoft apologists (had I known they were apologists for Microsoft I would have never listened), and thought I was done last Friday evening with recoding the mainpages of the site.

Today, I was informed that the pages didn’t float right in IE7 – not good. Thus, enduring the lengthy dial-up download of IE7, I (under duress – but I have to check the pages) then installed it on my wife’s computer. Sure enough – none of the floats were correct. In fact, it had the exact same problems as IE6, just in different directions. Joy. Now I had to have a second IE stylesheet to fix the problems of IE7, and I had to hack a fix for the articles section on every page that has articles.

However, it is done, and all without anesthetic (it would have felt better if I had had a tooth pulled). It does display (mostly) correctly, but I hated having to do it. Once again, Microsoft has proved that they don’t know what their doing.

Have I mentioned that I hate Microsoft products?

Preaching

I have added a new section to the website: Preaching. The Introduction begins with this:

For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. (1 Corinthians 1:21)

It is interesting that the LORD God chose a method of delivering His message to man that the world considers foolishness. After all, aren’t there more effective ways of getting the message across? Surely dramas, movies, and songs all are more effective at influencing people to believe in something?

Well, that depends upon what you are trying to achieve. More importantly, it depends upon what you can perceive about a person, versus what LORD God actually knows about man, and particularly about a specific person. Fundamentally, the method used to reach and influence people does depend upon what you can perceive about them, and their true motivations. In this regard, man is at a significant disadvantage, versus the LORD. The LORD made this very plain to the prophet Samuel, when Samuel went to anoint a king to replace Saul. . . more

Recoding the Website

What a day. Ten hours worth of changing the underlying code of all the mainpages to make a more readable layout that is both robust and easier to update. All this was done to prep for the addition of several new pages that are dedicated to the rest of the ministry.

Now, all I have to do is update the code behind the existing article pages and update the Spanish and German websites and it will all look and function the way it is supposed to. Unfortunately, today’s endeavor was also an interesting struggle with the effects of the browser wars. I originally designed the pages to look good in Opera, and then tested them in Firefox and IE 6. What looked good and worked in Opera, fell apart in IE 6 and didn’t quite function in Firefox. I had to go back and revise some of the code for Firefox and (of course) have an entirely different stylesheet for IE 6. I even looked at it in Safari after the changes, and it looked pretty good there as well.

Now, I know there are folks out there who will look at the site and comment that it is a simple site as far as design is concerned. However, accessibility is the primary aim of this site, with aesthetics not so much a concern. There are two reasons for this:

First, when visitors come to the website, if they are tickled with “eye candy” they will not take the content seriously. Moreover, those who are interested only in having something novel to look at are not really interested in where they stand with the LORD God. My interest is the state of the soul of the visitor. My desire is to see those who do not know the LORD come to know Him, and those who do know the LORD personally; see them grow in the knowledge of the LORD Who saved them.

Second, My Lord and Savior was not “attractive,” and neither was the tabernacle that represented His work to come. Rather, in Isaiah it plainly states that “he hath no form nor comeliness that we should desire him.” Moreover, the tabernacle of the Old Testament was not at all attractive. In fact, it was covered with badger skins with all the beauty of it only seen on the inside (which is the way it is with Christ). Even so, the design of this site should focus the visitor on its content and the subject of that content – the Lord Jesus Christ.

With that, I pray that the new coding makes visiting the site more of a blessing.

Home Missions

We live in a funny country. I don’t mean that in the way of humor, but that Americans have a funny way of thinking. I say this because I see it every day in the job I have, in the community I live in, and particularly among the Baptist brethren who believe as I do.

What is it that is so strange about the way we think? Consider this: We think it is a commendable thing to feed people half a world away, yet will not attempt to insure that all Americans eat. Now, I know that this is a free country, and you are free to succeed, and to fail. If you succeed, well and good. If you fail, you must bear it. I don’t have a problem with that, and I believe that individuals will never work at anything if we bail them out every time they fail. Rather, what I am getting at here is a set of mind that never seems to want to attend to those immediately about us, yet sees no problem in generously, repeatedly bailing out people halfway around the world.

You know, it is the same with Missions. As a fundamental, unaffiliated, Baptist, I expect for local churches to support missionaries directly through the church that sent the missionary. That way, 100% of the support given is received by the missionary in the field. That is rightly and properly the way it should be. However, this is where the sensible thinking seems to end. You see, there is a heavy bias for supporting missionaries to foreign fields, and little to nothing given in the way of support for missions right here in America. In this regard, fundamental, unaffiliated Baptist churches parallel the rest of American society – we care for those on the other side of the globe, and ignore the folks just down the road.

As one who is directly involved in a home mission, this is disconcerting to me, though I have know it for years. Of course, it was disconcerting when I discovered it years ago. How I found out was through a newsletter put out by a Baptist ministry in the western states of Wyoming and Nebraska. This ministry is one of providing preachers to go through the small communities and towns in the rural West and preach the gospel where there were no established churches, and no Bible preachers. One of the greatest needs they have is the support of churches to accomplish the burden the LORD God laid upon them for the rural people of the West.

It is no different for any home mission. It is difficult to establish a church and conduct a ministry when one works full time, and then conducts the work of the ministry during the evenings and Saturdays, with Sunday dedicated to conducting services.

Why is it this way? Because this is America! Don’t you know, just start a church and they will come! No, I’m not being flippant, or a smart-aleck. What I have seen among brethren is an underlying attitude that somehow home missions will just take care of themselves, and they really don’t need the support a foreign missionary needs. After all, any home missionary can get a job, and provide for his needs that way and conduct the ministry on the side. Yes, that is actually the attitude of many pastors and brethren in this country. It is utterly shameful and really does help the Devil accomplish his purpose of taking this country straight to Hell. There is a decided lack of understanding that America is one of (if not the) most difficult mission fields in the world.

Now, if you read this, and your attitude toward home missions and missionaries is what is described above, I have some questions for you:

Which do you think is the greater sin:

Allowing someone halfway around the world to go to Hell because they didn’t have the gospel preached to them?

Or allowing someone in the town just down the road to go to Hell because you don’t think home missions require support?

If you don’t support home missionaries to plant proper churches in this country; how long do you think it will be before there are not enough proper churches to send missionaries overseas?

And finally, if we don’t work to save our own country, how can we save the rest of the world?

Himself

Occasionally, when I add a hymn to the Hymns page I note it here, particularly if it is a hymn that really ought to be considered as to the message it contains. The hymn, “Himself” is a hymn worthy of just such notice.

This hymn is a contrast, and what a contrast it makes! It contrasts the difference between the “hope so, maybe so, I had an emotional experience” salvation, to the real salvation that is in Christ Jesus. Perhaps this is why it was dropped? After all, how many people out there who profess Christ as Savior also tell of a “I had an emotional experience” salvation? How many, when pressed about their assurance of salvation, cannot be absolutely certain that Christ saved them utterly? How many only think, saying “I think I’m going to heaven. I hope I make it.” that they are truly going to be with the Lord when they die? How many experience no change at all at “salvation” and are just like they were before they were “saved?”

You know, if your salvation was one of those “I had an emotional experience” events, and your assurance consists of “I hope I’m going to heaven,” then I invite you to truly learn of the Lord Jesus Christ, and come to know Him personally. You will never meet a more gracious, more lovely person. He is, as the Song of Solomon says:

His mouth is most sweet: yea, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. (Song of Solomon 5:16)

And, after you come to know Him, place all, not some, but all without reservation, your trust in Him as the full payment for your sins; knowing that His shed blood on the cross paid for your sins once for all. Trust totally that He was raised from the dead the third day, as the Scripture says. Trust totally that God the Father sent Him and His offering to God is a fully sufficient, acceptable sacrifice for sins, once for all. Trust completely that all the Old Testament testifies of Christ to come, as the Lord Jesus Christ explained in rebuking His disciples on the road to Emmaus:

Then he said unto them, O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. (Luke 24:25-27)

If you do know the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, I pray that you are blessed by the hymn “Himself” and the rest of the hymns on the Hymns page. May you be strengthened in the Lord, and walk steadfastly in Christ.

When We Can’t Read

This is not about “won’t read,” but about “can’t read.”

Today, AFP reported the following from the Middle East:

“Nearly one in three people in the Arab world is illiterate, including nearly half of all women in the region, the Tunis-based Arab League Educational Cultural and Scientific Organisation said Monday.”

It is impossible to state how distressing this report is. Why? Because it highlights the real problem with the Arab world – ignorance. Moreover, without the ability to read, one cannot actually sit down with the Scripture and see what it states for themselves. They cannot honestly compare texts such as the Koran and the Bible and see the inconsistencies between the two. Though the Muslim claims that they must believe the Bible, and that they accept the Bible, there are glaring inconsistencies between the two. Only when one can read, can actual comparison be made, and the Scriptural command to “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.” (I Thessalonians 5:21) be followed.

Instead, those who cannot read are left at the mercy of those who would “teach” them. One of the most precious things the LORD God has given us is the ability to read and understand what we read. He did this for us because our LORD is a LORD of words and desires to communicate the truth to us through His written word. But without the ability to read, this becomes impossible. One is trapped in a prison of ignorance, unable to learn the truth for themselves and become free.

The LORD God has much to say in His word about the fact that He desires that we know for sure who He is and what He has done for us. So much so, that he insured the following passages were carefully set in His word:

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. (Isaiah 1:18)

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater: So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. (Isaiah 55:8-11)

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)

Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. (John 8:31-36)

I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness. And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. (John 12:46-48)

I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name. (Psalm 138:2)

Why does the LORD state these things in His word? Because he wants us to know Him and what He requires of us. Moreover, He wants us to be able to determine the truth for ourselves. The LORD is ever desirous that we are able to read His word, then ask Him for understanding. He will honor the one who asks truly wanting to know and understand.

It is no accident that there is such a parallel between the word of God (the Scripture) and the Word of God (the Lord Jesus Christ). Though the Lord Jesus Christ does not walk among men today, we have His word whereby we can assuredly know Him and all He has done. After all, the LORD God moved Jeremiah to write the following passage to give us the assurance that we can personally know Him through His word:

Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD. (Jeremiah 9:23-24)

But how can you if you can’t read?