Three Biblical Principles of Godly Dress
We so often associate prayer with kneeling that we may fail to notice the various positions of prayer in the Bible. In fact, standing was often the assumed position of prayer in scripture. Genesis 19:27 "And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD." We know what Abraham was doing when he stood before the Lord. He was praying. The New Testament also supports the stand up and pray attitude. Mark 11:25 "And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses." The phrase, "when ye stand praying," shows that to be a common position of the body for prayer during this time. Yes, they also kneeled. This is seen in numerous passages: Luke 22:41; Acts 9:40; 20:36. But standing was a common and accepted way to pray. We should not hesitate to stand up and pray today.
"Honor: A History," a new book written by James Bunting, deals with the importance of honor as a concept in the past and the loss of that sense of honor today. The Bible commonly uses honor (spelled "honour") in the sense of giving honor to someone else (as to God) or receiving honor from others (as in honoring our father and mother). The closest Bible word for what is meant by a sense of honor is the word honourable. To be honourable is to receive honor or to be worthy of receiving honor. Samuel was introduced to Saul as a man of God and "an honourable man" (1Samuel 9:6). Jabez, who prayed and received answer to his prayer, was "more honourable than his brethren" (1Chronicles 4:9). Joseph of Arimathaea was "an honourable counsellor, which also waited for the kingdom of God" (Mark 15:43). Honor is the opposite of shame in the Bible. Therefore, a sense of honor involves living in such a way as to avoid shameful acts and associations. The emphasis in the Bible on having a "good name" (Proverbs 22:1; Ecclesiastes 7:1) embodies the idea of that sense of honor; that determination to act in an honourable way. George Washington was famous for the importance he placed on his reputation and honor. We long to see such honor today.
You may wonder what a physicist does for fun. For one thing, he plays with string theory. No, this is not a ball of yarn he stole from his cat. String theory has been a darling of physicists since the concept took off in 1984. It is based on the idea that the elementary particles of physics are not points, but are rather vibrations of one-dimensional strings. Different particles are the same strings set at different vibrations. In order to get the string theory to work mathematically, the physicists invented 10 (of maybe 11) different dimensions for the strings to play in, though no one knows what these dimensions are or how they exist.
Although it is not so prominent today, the United States used to have vocabulary words distinctive to the different parts of the country. Years ago, what was called a faucet in the North was called a spigot in the South. I was reminded of the spigot (a word commonly used by my grandparents) last night as I reviewed some memory verses. The verse in question was 1 Timothy 2:1, wich states, "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men."
Note: What follows is an introduction I just wrote to a lesson on Mark 6:1-26 entitled "Changes in the Ministry of Christ." I thought it might be an encouragement to someone who is presently going through some great changes.
