Have You Not Read S2E29 - Head Coverings

Welcome to Have You Not Read, a podcast seeking to answer questions from the text of Scripture for the honor of Christ and the edification of the

Saints. Before we dig into our topic, we humbly ask you to rate, review, and share the podcast.

Thank you. I'm Dylan Hamilton and with me are Michael Deere and David Kazin, Chris Giesler.

We are happy to answer a question about head coverings that we've had sent into our list on the website and we do appreciate all questioners that log in and send us stuff.

We want more of it, so we are always asking anybody in the church body or anybody outside the church body who may have questions about the

Bible, send them in. It doesn't matter if you think it's a simple question or a weird question, send it in, we'll take a look at it and we won't name you.

Chances are somebody else has asked the same question but didn't write in. Yeah, or made the same connections that you might have about the

Bible, so go ahead, send it in, don't have any reservations about that. So this question reads, are head coverings relevant today or is it culturally specific to Corinth?

And this is referencing 1st Corinthians 11. Right, so when we get to 1st

Corinthians 11 and again in 1st Corinthians there is more than one location in that long epistle where Paul's concern is proper order in worship.

How is the church to go through the the processes of worship, the gatherings for worship, what's supposed to happen when we get together, what is inappropriate, what is appropriate, so there's a lot of helpful passages in 1st

Corinthians and this is one of them. And the question is of course, is it relevant today? Well, all the scripture is relevant today interpreted through the light of Jesus Christ and so there are some perhaps ancillary cultural issues that are helpful to understand when you read this text, but I think the best thing to do right now is just read it out loud.

So 1st Corinthians 11 and look at verse 2, Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things and keep the traditions, just as I delivered them to you.

But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is

God. Every man praying or prophesying, having his head covered, dishonors his head.

But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved.

For if a woman is not covered, let her also be shorn. But if it is shameful for a woman to be shorn or shaved, let her be covered.

For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man.

For man is not from woman, but woman from man, nor was man created for the woman, but woman for the man.

For this reason, the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels. Nevertheless, neither is man independent of woman, nor woman independent of man in the

Lord. For as woman came from man, even so man also comes through woman, but all things are from God.

Judge among yourselves, is it proper for a woman to pray to God with her head uncovered? Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him?

But if a woman has long hair, it is a glory to her, for her hair is given to her for a covering.

But if anyone seems to be contentious, we have no such custom, nor do the churches of God." So the important thing to do in this passage is to read the whole thing.

And there are some elements to the passage that might seem weird, that seem hard for us to wrap our heads around.

However, it's important to start with what you know, that which is clear, that which you can correlate with other passages in the

Bible, and build out and pay close attention to the way that Paul builds his argument here in this passage.

I think that one of the main offenses of this passage, one of the main reasons why this passage is perhaps avoided, perhaps thrown into the wastebasket of cultural irrelevancy, getting hard to say the word, but just kind of tossed aside and not used today, is because this passage dares to claim that there is a difference between male and female.

Now this is one of the passages where it is stated most clearly, there is a difference between man and woman.

There's a difference in the role of man and woman, even a difference of man and woman before God in the worship practices of the church, a difference in their creation stories.

And yet, at the same time, there is a togetherness of male and female, that they're not to be seen as independent from one another.

A lot of the common cultural practices today are about feminists trying to say we don't need men, and Sigma males saying we don't need women, and marriage is completely thrown away.

The whole design of God for male and female from creation is being denied, and even in the church we are encouraged in the name of loving one another to bypass all differences between male and female.

And this passage is talking about proper order in the church, proper order for how men and women are to behave in the church, and it's rooted in the creation order.

So let's look at a few of these elements. First of all, the difference between man and woman is rooted in creation.

We are reminded that Eve was formed from Adam, woman is from man, we read.

Right, so God made Adam, in Genesis chapter 2, God formed him from the dust of the earth, and he breathed the breath of life into him, and man became a living being.

He was then given instructions to tend and keep the garden. God caused a

Noah -like parade of the animals two by two in front of Adam, and he named the animals showing his dominion over them.

However, he saw that although there was a help meet, a female to a male, with all of the different animals that God made, there was no help meet for him.

And this was to emphasize that it was not good for the man to be alone, and God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam.

Adam, it took a rib from Adam, and from that rib, from that wound, in the first Adam, God made the first Eve, and brought her to the man, and he gloried in her, and he rejoiced in her.

And this was a glory to God in this design, male -female, man and woman in marriage before God.

This is brought up in our passage to talk about there's a difference in how men and women are to worship, that there should be a sign of authority, a covering upon a woman's head when declaring, setting forth the the truth of God, or praying, prophesying or praying.

There should be a sign of authority, a symbol of authority over her head, and with a man there ought not to be.

So a lot of the discussion in church traditions and history, and even current concerns about customs and so on, immediately go to things like, well, men shouldn't wear hats inside the church building.

Okay? Well, I can accept that as a custom, and I understand that that would be problematic for a lot of people.

If I stood in the pulpit with a hat on, and I preached, that would be a stumbling block to many of my brethren.

Is the hat a sign of authority? I don't think the text is pointing to that, but there's something about, okay, so I want to know what the text means.

What does Paul mean when he talks about a head uncovered and a head covered? Because he talks about that, and he sets that up, but then he defines his own terms.

Okay? In the text, he defines his own terms, and so he says that a woman ought to have her head covered, and we'll talk about the angels in a moment, but that a woman should have a symbol of authority over her, on her head, that she should not have her head uncovered.

If her head is going to be uncovered, you might as well just cut off all the hair, and have her go around bald. Now, if that seems shameful to you, he says, then have her head covered.

And guess what? There is a covering that's given to a woman by nature, by the created order.

What is that? Her hair. Her hair. Her long hair. So it says there's not even nature itself.

In other words, the way that God designed the differences between men and women. He's already talked about created order.

He's already talked about it, and now he says, from the very building blocks of how God has made a woman and made a man, you know it is a glory to a woman to have long hair, and her long hair is given to her as a covering.

I got a question for you. If God has given, by the created order, if God has given to a woman long hair for a covering, does she need another covering?

Logically, no. Right. So if man says, okay, yes, so God has given, by nature, long hair to a woman as a glory to her, as a covering for her, and this is fitting, and this is something that is good and should be celebrated, by the way, right?

Now, should we then say, well, you know, God has given you a covering, but what you need now is something made by man.

You need a big hat. Now, if a woman wants to wear a big hat on Easter, that's fine with me.

I don't care. I don't think it's filling the requirements of this passage, mind you. Does she need a shawl to cover her head when listening to preaching or when she's praying?

Well, she might, if she doesn't have long hair, right? Think about what the text says.

It says, every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head. Now, let's take this term, uncovered.

Now, so Paul says, if a woman has a head that is uncovered, you might as well just shave it all off.

She might as well just be shorn. So there's a state in which a woman can be uncovered and not yet be shorn, and Paul is saying, if it's shameful for a woman to be shaved, well, it's also shameful for her head to be uncovered.

Now, who else in the passage has a head uncovered, but it's a good thing? The man.

The man. So his head is uncovered. Does that mean he's shaved and bald? No. So what is

Paul saying? If a woman presents herself as a man in her hairstyle, which is, you know, a very typical way.

If you think about the debates today, think about the controversies today about men who are identifying themselves as women and trying to present themselves as women, what's one of the first things that they do to try to present themselves as women?

What do they do? Bosworth on this side, Amy Winehouse on this side. Right. So they start messing with the hair, and then so a woman trying to present as a man does something with her hair, and a man trying to present himself as a woman does something with his hair, okay?

Yeah. And Paul is saying in the text, now a man has his head uncovered, and that's a good thing, but doesn't nature tell you that long hair for a man is shameful?

Well, he's also saying for a woman to present herself as a man, meaning short hair, trying to present herself like a man,

I'll say shorter hair, how about I'm using the comparative, okay? Shorter hair, then that is as shameful as if she was shaved.

So what Paul is saying is she should have a symbol of authority over her head, and her long hair was given to her by God for that.

But what if a woman doesn't have long hair? Was she in an accident?

Is she coming out of paganism in our current day? Is she coming off a chemotherapy?

What is it? If she doesn't have the long hair that God has granted to her by nature, and she's struggling with that, then

Paul says it's fitting for her to have a covering over her head. It serves the same theological purpose.

It does. The purpose of displaying submission and respect for authority, it's serving the same purpose.

Right. So when my mom went through chemotherapy more than once, right, so she had wigs or she had head coverings, shawls, and all sorts of things to help her through that process, and it was helpful to her, it was shameful for her to have to go around bald, but it was a comfort to her to have head coverings that would not replace her hair, but it served the purpose, you see.

Even with all the technological advances that we have, it's still difficult for men to grow long hair, and we're talking about long hair.

Yeah, exactly. We're talking, you know, halfway down your back or longer, but women, especially younger women, can do it quite easily.

They actually don't need a lot of chemical help. They can just do it. It's just part of how men and women are different.

Exactly. So when you read the text, obviously Paul's arguing from creation, he's arguing from the difference between male and female, and he's saying the differences—now watch this—the differences between male and female should be kept and celebrated and established in the church, that this should be a place where male and female, the differences between them should be readily apparent, and this is glorifying to God.

It's a form of worship to recognize how God has created men and women differently. Yeah, and it's proper order of worship.

Now, what about the angels? All right, what does it say? It says that, verse 10, for this reason the woman ought to have a symbol of authority on her head because of the angels.

Now, when we deal with anything with the angels in the scripture, it's always helpful to actually read what the

Bible says about angels, and not to go on long benders of speculation, wherein there's all kinds of nonsense.

We see angels at work in the scriptures as the messengers and the agents of God.

We think of Jacob and his vision, Jacob's ladder, the angels ascending and descending upon the ladder. Christ saying to Nathaniel, you're going to see the angels ascending and descending upon the

Son of Man. We think about the role of angels ministering to Christ and ministering to his body, as angels ministered to the

Apostles and ministered to the Christians. We see in Hebrews that the angels are sent forth to minister to the believers, to the saints.

We see angels attending and participating in worship in heaven, and as is in heaven, so we are to emulate our worship here upon the earth.

So, what do we expect? If Jesus was ministered to by angels in his prayers, in his wrestlings with God, in his worship of God, are we not also aided by the angels?

Is that not what they are equipped to do? All you got to do is just read what the Bible says about angels, to see the relationship the angels have to the saints as one of assistance and measuring and sending forth blessings and helping us.

Okay, so have you ever been to, if you've ever visited a church, and you've walked in, kind of your first time there, and you walk in and you're trying to kind of gauge what's going on there, and all of a sudden, somewhere in the middle of the service, you're kind of thinking, can

I get out of here? Because you are so offended by what is going on.

I've been in a few services like that. Maybe something is being sung, and it's like, this is heresy.

Maybe the way in which they're conducting their worship service is like, it's just grieving your soul. Maybe something is said from the pulpit, or they've got the wrong kind of people in the pulpit, so on and so forth, and you're like,

I've got to get out of here. Angels minister in the presence of the glory of God, and you know, if they're to come to a church service, and we're out of order, and we're not worshiping with proper order, and we are counter to the

Word of God in our worship, you know, I think they're leaving. I don't think they're sticking around. I don't think they're helping.

I don't think they're blessing. You see, I don't think we're getting the aid and the help of God in our worship if we refuse to worship according to the order that he's given to us.

So like, if we're denying the basics of like, it doesn't matter the distinctions between men and women in our worship at our church, that's going to turn into a lot of different problems.

Not only the problem of the roles of men and women in the church that reflect the order set forth in creation that is forged in the family, but what if you have a bunch of women presenting as men, and what if we have men presenting as women?

What do we find from this text that is shameful, shameful, shameful? And I've been to shameful church services, and I wanted to get out.

I don't want the angels leaving because we have shameful things going on in our church services.

So why is Paul selecting, identifying head coverings as a sign of authority?

Why that? And I think he might answer it, that Paul didn't select it.

God selected it. And God said, this is a symbol of femininity.

So he says, well, you know, this is the only place that this is mentioned. It says, well, no.

Talking about the differences between men and women, men not presenting as women, women not presenting as men, you know, dressing in the clothes of the time, getting short hair, or whatever is the culturally masculine trait, culturally feminine trait.

You have to have those standards in place before you can even present as a woman or present as a man.

You have to have what those standards are. Those principles are repeated over and over. You can see it actually in the

Mosaic Law. Men shall not dress as women, and women shall not dress as men. That is the principle to which

Paul is appealing. It's not just head coverings. Hey, women, make sure you have a piece of cloth on your head.

That's missing the point entirely. It's men are men, women are women.

It has been like that since the very beginning. The principle is repeated in the

Mosaic Law. It's repeated in the Law of God. And Paul is appealing to that very principle here, talking about the created order and how men and women are created differently, that they have those different roles.

Any authority is derived from God, and he makes it very clear, look, it's all from God. That any authority is all derived.

Nevertheless, in the Lord, woman is not independent of man, nor is man independent of woman.

They are distinct, but they are not independent. They are not identical, but they are interdependent.

This is subject to God's design. It's always from God. Yes. So if this passage were more,

I guess, robustly grasped and celebrated, what kind of pitfalls could we avoid in studying this passage?

I mean, one of the things is simply this, that maleness and femaleness is based in God's good creation and based in nature, and that to present as something else is shameful.

So there's a lot there. And it's not about, okay, women need to wear doilies on their head or, you know, or some sort of cloth over their head in special circumstances.

And those who do that, I understand why they do that. I'm not saying that they're sinning. To my reading of the text,

I think they go beyond that which is necessary, but I don't think they're trying to be rebellious or disobedient.

I don't think they're trying to be prideful or so on. And I, you know, I rejoice in my sisters who do that, and the brothers who encourage them to do that, and they're gonna worship according to their convictions and they're gonna do so in their liberty, and I rejoice in that.

So you would consider that a conscience issue, that they want to do that, but you do disagree with a woman who has long hair, she is living according to God's designs, she is living as a woman, recognizes that she's female.

In addition, she's putting another piece of cloth on her head. Although it's a conscience issue, you would disagree with it.

I would because, again, when we look at this, I don't know how long Paul's hair was.

Right. You know, he probably had a high and tight. He was a Marine. Yeah. He probably had a high and tight. Something. I don't know how, but men have shorter hair and women have longer hair.

Mm -hmm. Right. If we say men have short hair and women have long hair and we just leave it at that, then now we're looking for the ruler and how many inches and so on.

But if women have longer hair and if a woman has longer hair and maybe her hair is, you know, sitting at the jawline and then there's another woman, her hair is sitting at her waistline, okay, one is not in sin and one is not more holy.

You see, there's liberty in Christ. Right. Even as we embrace the different, you know, roles that we have.

A guy may have longer hair, you know, longer hair than another guy, but they're both shorter.

They're both presenting as male. Right. And so there's, they're not trying to present as something other than male.

And Paul says that that's not a subjective thing entirely. Nature itself, the way that God has designed, says there's something shameful.

Now, if you go back, you go back a few decades, what were the rock bands doing? The exact opposite.

Putting makeup on, long, big hair, long hair. Yeah. Perming. Right. And then, you know, you know, punk rock, the women, what would they do with their hair?

Cut it short. Right. Where'd they get that idea from? You know, what were they doing? The whole idea was about rebellion.

Casting up authority. So we're gonna rebel against nature itself. Right. And of course, the independent fundamentalist

Baptists who were like, you know, that's from the devil, that's sin. Well, they weren't wrong.

Okay. But then to get out the ruler and say, your hair is touching your ears. Yeah. You know, that's, that's not the answer.

They knew Paul was right, but they didn't know what argument he was making. Right. Exactly. If there are men out there with a bowl cut, you know, that's, there are reasons not to do that, but it's not, it's not a, it's not a theological issue.

Yeah. Well, it seems pretty, that's called, it's called presenting as one of the Three Stooges.

Or Kim Jong -un. Oh man. So, I have a question about some of the wording here and the issue of authority and maybe hierarchies.

So, in verse 3, but I want you to understand that the head of every man is

Christ. The head of a wife is her husband and the head of Christ is

God. There's seeming to be a hierarchy there. In verse 5, it says, but every wife who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head.

Is there a little bit of wordplay happening here? Is he saying that she's only bringing dishonor on herself or is it claiming she brings dishonor to more than just herself, also her husband?

And we have some of that language, like say in weddings, who gives this woman her mother and I.

Can I have this conversation with my daughters? I'm in charge of you. Not I'm the boss, but you've been given into my charge to take care of you.

I have authority over you and one day I'll pass that authority off to another man.

Correct. And in our current culture, a lot of times, and maybe this is just anecdotal, but a lot of times when you see young women that have shaved their heads, you can ask them, how's your relationship with your father?

And it's non -existent or rebellious or just antithetical to everything their father stands for.

And it just seems to be like that's just nature. You're rebelling against nature and you're throwing off all of the authorities above you.

What translation do you have? ESV. Yeah, so what they do in the text is that they translate the woman as wife because in modern

New Evangelicalism what has to be stated again and again to preserve our place in cultural positivity is that there there is no sense in which on any scale that men have a role of responsibility in society for authority and women have a role and responsibility in society generally of submission.

Right, that it's only ever in respect to the marriage relationship particularly that there is any kind of authority of a man over a woman.

It's only husband and wife. It's the only way it ever applies and that is the Neo evangelical interpretation.

However, we have problems with that interpretation when we read the Bible out loud. Now some translations unnecessarily become very specific where the

ESV does that. We live in a society today where feminism is so ingrained that it's it's so much in the water and in the air and the so and so on that these assumptions just have to be automatically you know made and so on and so forth but that's not what the text says.

Right, so the text says the head of every man is Christ the head of woman is man.

That is not to that doesn't of course that doesn't mean that every woman is under the authority of every other man.

Right. However, Paul is dealing with the types the archetypes of male female okay and what is the general relationship there okay and by the way in the wedding ceremony it used to be who gives away this woman and the father said

I do. No, because he does he didn't say her mother and I.

Yeah, which makes sense with this text because he's the one with a man is the one with authority. Right, who is the young man supposed to ask for permission.

He didn't go ask the mom and the dad you go ask the dad right what now that makes feminists crazy they're like you're just treating us like property and so on and so forth and the

Bible of course affirms the full image of God in the woman.

Yes. As well as in the man. This is this is not about being less than. That's Genesis 1 you know both male and female he created them in his image.

Sure. You can't get any more basic than that but when God made the woman he made her from the man and gave her to the man.

Was was there a situation somewhere in God's very good creation where the woman stood beside stood apart from the man and they both thought of themselves as unrelated to each other?

No. And was this relationship one of absolute dominion and absolute degradation?

No. She was not made at the old trip goes he she was not made from his foot so that he would step on her she was not made from his head that she would rule over him made from his side to be his help meat but there was a relationship there of hierarchy of authority which

Paul is referencing here. Right. Paul didn't know that he wasn't supposed to say this. Right.

He didn't know. Poor Paul. Right. But he is talking about some some principles and the way in which

God has has made things. Now he's gonna go on later on and talk about now think about this dynamic in 1st

Corinthians 14 that sometimes we just totally miss. In 1st Corinthians 14 in proper order of worship he says that the woman should remain silent and ask her own husband at home.

Okay. If it's simply a matter of the authority that the difference in the relationship between male and female is only ever about husband and wife then the husband should be able to say to say to everyone around you know hey

I've given her permission to you know to preach I've given her permission to to help to be an elder in this church and you know we've talked about it and she's under my authority but she's good to go as a pastor here.

Right. And once you've settled that there should be no more differentiation between male and female because remember it's only between the husband and the wife that there is any kind of hierarchy.

It's not between male and female at all in general. There's no difference. Right. They're totally fungible in terms of roles.

But that doesn't work in 1st Corinthians 14 because not only is she not supposed to be contradicting and saying hang on a second

I'm not sure if that's correct or not you know to those who are who are prophesying each in turn in an order that's not what she gets to do but she does get to talk to her husband about it and say

I think the guy was a lunatic I think he was totally off on his doctrine why didn't you say something help me understand and then the husband's like I was asleep sorry you know or something like that but there's a role there that that persists even in 1st

Corinthians 14. Well in 11 when it says if she's praying or prophesies it doesn't say anything about preaching or having that role of authority.

So that's so when you when you look at the text and you have this idea of hierarchy does she dishonor her own head yes so every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head for that is one in the same as if her head were shaved right it's not only like in particular regard to her husband only her head being her husband.

It's a disgrace to herself. It's a disgrace to herself because what is she doing she is presenting as if she is not a woman so proper order in the church went away a long time ago right a long time ago we stopped celebrating the differences between men and women we stopped honoring

God with the differences between men and women so why did it go away? Well in in our culture

I mean any difference if you draw any difference at all that is an opportunity for continued further oppression.

Right. That's you know this is a defense mechanism I tread into these waters at all with really with with with anyone but you know just going through the you know the scriptures itself this is this is a minefield it is seen as a really as a personal attack you you read any of these oftentimes you have to we have a caveat you have to have a disclaimer you have to this this well it doesn't mean that you get to treat women as slaves this is it doesn't mean this it doesn't mean this you have to you know catch it well our culture is spring -loaded for self -defense and you read any of this and I'm not talking about radical feminists

I'm talking about Christian women who want to understand the Bible want to submit to God's design they read this and get scared sure and you know

I can't can't say that I that I blame them all that much but they read this and get scared how do you address the fears of a especially a new

Christian a new Christian woman who has been steeped in the culture itself has been rebellious and says

I don't want to be like that anymore you know I was miserable and Christ has reached out and saved me now

I'm willing to be you know submits to to his his rule but this how far am

I supposed to go I mean I'm willing to go all the way but I don't does this mean that that I have no voice that I'm only worthwhile if I get married

I mean my head was my hair was was really short I'm not trying to present as a man not not anymore what what do

I do how do we assuage those fears it's good question Paul roots this whole thing in the design that God has for for men and women for maleness and femaleness so he points back to the created order so what is this passage on about it is advocating for not only men to do what is manly according to God's definition not some sort of pagan

Greek definition or some pagan American definition put the rulers away stop measuring hair lengths yeah or or anything else that becomes a common pagan trope of maleness in a materialist

Marxist society right so what what is maleness in a materialist society muscle mass or something or here's my bank account here

I drive these cars right collecting wives as trophies or girlfriends as trophies yeah so that's so that's what gets read into maleness and that's why everyone you know like well that's you know it should be against that and and then what about femaleness you know are we actually reading what

God has to say about maleness and femaleness what does it mean to be a man what it means to be a woman so this passage is about hey it's a glory to you a woman that you would be given this covering this long hair it's a glory to you that you would present as a woman to present as a man is shameful you should be you should be delighting in the fact that God has made you a woman and rejoice in that do we have more to learn about that sure

I got more to learn about how to be a man and we have to go to the scriptures Paul was pointing us to the created order

Paul is pointing us to the scriptures to go read elsewhere to know what this means and so that's what that is growing up into Christ proper worship and you know so on and rejoicing in who

God has made us we have to go to the scriptures to be taught what that is so a godly biblical woman she rejoices in being feminine she rejoices in being female according to God's definition not according to romanticism not according to the

Enlightenment not according to feminism but according to the scriptures right now if you read about the women who are praised in God's Word and you read through that Wow I mean the problem 31 is an amazing passage hey this is the kind of wife that any man should be desirous of hey look at look you know look at look at what kind of a woman this is go read go read elsewhere there's lots of there's a lot of stuff in the

Bible that talks about what does it mean to be a woman what does it mean to be a man that's where we have to go for our definitions so this is not about saying to women you must take on some stereotype from some previous generation right that's not what this is saying this is saying you need to actually progress into the fullness of what does it mean to be a woman according to the scriptures ain't nobody's arrived there yet we need to make progress this is not about going backwards is about going forward we have been regressing in our churches we have been shying away from we have been walking backwards down the mountain we have been retreating from what

God calls men to become what God calls women to become we've been retreating from the summit we don't want the hard climb we have this is not progress this is regression into paganism what is

Paul talking about here in first grade is it culturally connected you bet it's culturally connected guess what was going on in Corinth all kinds of sexual immorality you know what's happening

Corinth women were presenting as men and men were presenting as women in Corinth that's what was going on and Paul says that's shameful time to progress out of paganism into Christianity that's why

I think this passage is very relevant amen well I think we can move on to some of the content that we would recommend for our listeners they haven't hit some of these books or podcasts or videos already

Michael what would you have for them this week I would recommend look up Chapel library it's a ministry of Mount Zion Bible Church from Florida and they reprint the

Puritans and they do so for free or for like a couple of dollars

I mean they they put out so much material best thing to get is the free grace broadcaster you can sign up for it's a quarterly and it comes out with a theme and they have about you know eight articles taken from longer writings by the

Puritans but they you know gets into bite -size and you can just read all about whatever the topic is maybe it's the

Atonement maybe it's the family they'll throw modern author in there every once in a while but again you sign up for it comes a quarterly it comes free they're not asking for any cost and they always offer you a quarterly offering of free materials tracks or small books and so on it's all very inexpensively produced but it's it's great it's helpful it's great devotional reading and if you're ever teaching on a subject or if you're ever trying to research a subject it's nice to go grab one of those free grace broadcasters on that topic and just have all of this indexed

Puritan writings right there at your fingertips it's really helpful David what about you hey so my family's been going through Isaiah and I don't think

I've mentioned this before but in case I have I'll mention it again this is a very readable commentary on the book of Isaiah by Barry G Webb who this is this is written back in the back in the 90s and he's out of Moore Theological College and it's the

Bible Speaks Today series but it's the message of Isaiah by Barry G Webb and I have benefited from this little volume so much

I've listened to you know sermons and there's there's huge commentaries that have been written on the book of Isaiah obviously but this is from that from the back ever since Jesus read from the scroll of Isaiah and the synagogue of Nazareth Christians have gravitated to this great prophecy as the interpretive center of the

Old Testament here is the story of Israel scourged by judgment and exile and hopeful restoration is framed by his witnesses heaven and earth it's been very very beneficial for me as especially going through the second half of Isaiah 40 through 66 and and reading this through the interpretive lens of who

Christ is and reading about the servant so I hope that hope that it blesses you if you haven't gone through Isaiah in a while do so and if you're looking for a very readable kind of layman's commentary on it

I would suggest the message of Isaiah by Barry G Webb Barry Webb's good to listen to as well mm -hmm

I enjoy listening to him does he have a nice Australian accent he does he does and the guys that have more

Theological College are just on the forefront of what I would consider to be good biblical theology keeps it keeps the big picture in view all right

Chris what do you have for us I have a book that somewhat related today's topic it's called conscience what is it how to those who differ and I went through this book years ago when

I was kind of struggling with some of my own convictions internally on my own but then also in our marriage you know when when your wife doesn't share the same convictions or your husband doesn't share the same conviction what do you go with how you differ especially if you're married so head coverings or drinking or schooling or you know whatever it is there's these issues of conscience and so this book was really really helpful for that it's by Andrew David Naselli and JD Crawley conscience what is it how to train it and living those who differ all right well

I'll introduce mine with a couple of questions have you guys heard much about the economy lately like jobs money the dollar anything like that I heard it was the best economy ever

Jack yeah best ever Joe Biden's economy Joe so I've recently had a free download from a he's actually a professor at the

Oklahoma State University and this would be the only way I ever became a poke is if I were able to go and take his courses and get a master's in economics there but he has a primer called how to think about the economy it's printed by the

Mises Institute and Auburn Alabama it's a hundred thirty nine page or 130 some odd page primer on how to think about the economy money markets price and value it's all from the

Austrian perspective and I find the Austrian perspective most helpful when thinking from a biblical lens because they take many biblical presuppositions or Christian presuppositions and apply them to the economy and I think that's probably why a lot of Christians are

Austrian economists but something like that at a time like this 139 pages you can sit down and knock out

I don't know five six pages a night and you can get through it pretty quickly before everything kind of crashes on us and you'll know what to do when that time comes but I'm I'm recommending that this week

Michael what are you thankful for this week well I'm thankful for the rain that we've been enjoying it's been long time since we've had some some good steady rain and it's interrupted a few of my projects but it also has brought needful rest so it's about trusting the

Lord in his timing and his provision so I'm thankful for the rain amen David I am thankful that a friend of mine that I've known since some of my times overseas you know quote -unquote going outside the wire came through town with his wife and we were able to have a dinner in our home

I thought we're gonna have to be going out to dinner and I was sitting there trying to arrange all of this and Amy just said no let's let's just invite them in let me cook and she had breakfast for dinner and they loved it you guys ever had breakfast for dinner to do it the best it is the best and we just enjoyed each other's company and I got to talk about some very difficult and frank things with him that he would understand and then they sent them back to their hotel they were driving from Albuquerque to visit their daughter

Hope in Tuscaloosa she's going to University of Alabama and so they were just wanted to come through and saw us and they made time for us and it went slightly out of their way but they did it just to see us and I'm very thankful that they came in amen

Chris breakfast for dinner I think I'm gonna do that tomorrow night oh it's awesome Friday night bacon and eggs yeah

I am thankful to be able to see some of God's providence in what he's doing in other people's lives to hear people's testimony or things that they're going through that I've gone through in the past and can look back and say wow it looks very different this side of it and I can see what he was doing then when during it

I couldn't see what was going on and I am very grateful that that he allows us to see that I get that it's not every time sometimes we won't know this side of heaven but I am grateful for those times where he does allow us to see it amen well

I am thankful the Lord and his providence reorders our loves and reorders our understanding of what family is for the the purpose thereof and how to relate to one another