Rex M Rogers - Discerning What Is Best

Discerning What Is Best
With Dr Rex Rogers

Two New eBooks at Amazon Kindle!

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 15 February 2022

Pandemics may be new to us—at least in our lifetime—but they’re not new to the world. What can we learn from the Reformation theologian Martin Luther who lived through the Bubonic Plague?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #2 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

We are living through a time when a virus has literally gone worldwide, bringing some countries to their knees. COVID-19 has resulted not only in illness and suffering but also death, extensive if debatable government response, and negative economic ripple effects, along with confusion, fear, political rancor.

Seems like it would behoove us to learn a bit about how our forebears dealt with virulent diseases.

Martin Luther was one of the greatest Christian reformers, the man who on Oct. 31, 1517, called the Roman Catholic Church to account by posting “95 Theses” on Wittenberg All Saints Church door.

As enormously important as this is, Luther should also be remembered for his actions and thoughtful response to the dreadful Black Plague – and what his wisdom suggests for us today in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the 1300s, Black Death, also called the Bubonic Plague, swept across two continents, eventually killing half the population of Europe in a short span of four years. Between 75 and 200 million people died and it took nearly two hundred years for the population to return to former levels.

During the 15^th and 16^th Centuries, various epidemics took even more lives in the known populated world. And worse, the Black Death proved episodic, meaning it would die off only to resurge later.

In 1527, the plague came again, visiting Martin Luther’s hometown, Wittenberg, Germany. Luther was instructed to leave by his university elector, but he stayed to minister to the sick. Days later, several around Luther had died. Thankfully, they survived, as did Luther, but he was asked, even challenged, about the decision he made not to leave ahead of the epidemic.

Later that year, Luther wrote a fourteen-page pamphlet, an open letter entitled “Whether One May Flee from a Deadly Plague.” He began his address to Rev. Dr. John Hess, pastor of Breslau, saying, “You wish to know whether it is proper for a Christian to run away from a deadly plague.” Luther’s answer bears repeating at length.

Luther noted: “When (the Lord) speaks of the greatest commandment he says, ‘The other commandment is like unto it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself’” (Matt. 22:39).

Luther made it clear that Christians have a communal responsibility.

Then Luther stated: “This is said as an admonition and encouragement against fear and a disgraceful flight to which the devil would tempt us so that we would disregard God’s command in our dealings with our neighbor and so we would fall into sin on the left hand.”

Luther did not take lightly the idea of fear or flight, and in fact indicated Christians should not succumb to either.

At the same, time, while Luther rejected fear and flight, he thought people foolish for not using the brains God gave them to avail themselves of reasonable and current ways to protect their health.

“Others sin on the right hand,” Luther said, “They are much too rash and reckless, tempting God and disregarding everything which might counteract death and the plague.

They disdain the use of medicines; they do not avoid places and persons infected by the plague, but lightheartedly make sport of it and wish to prove how independent they are. They say that it is God’s punishment; if he wants to protect them he can do so without medicines or our carefulness.”

But for Luther, “This is not trusting God but tempting him. God,” Luther said, “has created medicines and provided us with intelligence to guard and take good care of the body so that we can live in good health.”

Luther was attempting to discern what is best. That’s what this podcast is about, Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, look for us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends.

In case his reasoning was somehow misunderstood, Luther went right to the point:

“Use medicine;
take potions which can help you;
fumigate house, yard, and street;
shun persons and places wherever your neighbor does not need your presence or has recovered, and
act like a man who wants to help put out the burning city. What else is the epidemic but a fire which instead of consuming wood and straw devours life and body?”

Luther further recommended, “I shall ask God mercifully to protect us. Then I shall fumigate, help purify the air, administer medicine and take it. I shall avoid places and persons where my presence is not needed in order not to become contaminated and thus perchance inflict and pollute others and so cause their death as a result of my negligence. If God should wish to take me, he will surely find me and I have done what he has expected of me and so I am not responsible for either my own death or the death of others. If my neighbor needs me however I shall not avoid place or person but will go freely as stated above. See this is such a God-fearing faith because it is neither brash no foolhardy and does not tempt God."

When the Black Death arrived at his doorstep, Martin Luther did not run screaming into the woods. He did not close his eyes and whistle past the graveyard. He did not stick his head in the sand. He was neither fearful nor foolish but a man of faith who applied his biblically Christian worldview to a real, sin-cursed-world problem. He learned and he served, and he trusted the Sovereign God to work his will with grace and love with respect to both Luther’s family and his community.

COVID-19, the coronavirus, is a real-world pestilence, or in modern terms, a pandemic. It is our challenge in year 2020-2022, and maybe longer yet.

Borrowing from Luther’s application of his Christian worldview:

We should love God by loving our neighbor, both caring for them and for ourselves. We should be good stewards, acting with reason and judgment, taking preventative precautions.

Regarding masks and vaccines, we should be fully convinced in our own minds, as the Apostle Paul reminded us in Romans 14. God has given us reasoning ability, the capacity to think and to choose what we believe honors him, and the responsibility to discern what is best in our decisions.

It may be difficult for some to embrace, but we need to acknowledge that there are dedicated Christians on both sides of the mask and vaccine debates.

I do not understand pastors who have led their churches into adamant positions on one side or the other of mask and vaccine debates, even disinviting or otherwise excluding those who disagree.

I respect pastors who have led their churches to a nuanced, open, informed, mutually respectful attitude toward mask and vaccine decisions among their flock, welcoming all in what can be awkward circumstances.

It’s possible, in fact given the doctrine of Christian liberty it’s biblically defensible, to say that both pro and anti-mask and vaccine advocates can honor God in their decisions.

It is most assuredly not honoring God to judge, to condemn, to assume positions of moral superiority, to perpetrate division in the Body of Christ, especially when many of the arguments are built upon political talking points rather than theology.

It seems to me that the great challenge of the Christian Church in this season of pandemic and post-pandemic is not masks and vaccines per se but helping believers to overcome fear, not based upon our own finite reasoning and not based upon politics but by leaning upon God’s strong right arm, as the Psalmist did.

This pandemic era is an opportunity for the Christian Church to point to a Sovereign God who is not surprised or perplexed by disease. It’s an opportunity to live as unto the Lord, proclaiming the Lordship of Christ in and through all he gives us to experience, and “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thess. 4:16-17).

Well, we’ll see you again soon.

For more Christian commentary, be sure to subscribe to this podcast, Discerning What Is Best, or check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 14 February 2022

Jesus said, Be in the world but not of the world. But to do that, we have to think, we have to Discern What Is Best. But how, pray tell, do we do this?

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #1 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

Years ago, one of our sons returned from a date with his girlfriend. They’d gone to a movie and decided to walk out because the film proved to be less than worthy.

What was interesting to me at the time was his exasperation when he got home—something that turned out to be a teaching moment for me and what he later said was a maturing moment for him. Remember, they’d walked out because the film got nasty. I was proud of them for doing so. But when we talked about it at the dining room table that evening he said, “But Dad, it was PG-13. It was supposed to be OK.”

Yeah, it was supposed to be OK.

He’d wisely checked the ratings, as we’d taught our kids to do, to assure he wasn’t taking his girlfriend to a raunchy movie. But the film’s language and sex scenes belied the rating.

The teaching moment was this: Checking the ratings was a good thing. But a rating of PG-13 doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good movie, or one that’s worth your time and money. Hollywood or critics may say it’s a good movie, but that doesn’t mean it actually is. A rating is one indicator. It helps, but you still have to think. You have to exercise your spiritual discernment.

Through that experience my son learned to think more carefully, purposefully, and thoroughly.

He learned to apply his Christian worldview and to flex his Christian critical thinking muscles. He took another step toward mature spiritual discernment.

Thinking, particularly the kind where we apply knowledge of the Scripture to life’s everyday issues and events isn’t what it used to be.

In my estimation, as a culture if not individually, we give over too much to a host of pretenders we let do our thinking for us = celebrities, politicians, preachers, athletes, super models and super stars.

But God does not want us to be confused by the world’s false teachers and wayward influencers.

In Col. 2:8, the Lord said, “See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.”

God does not want us simply to absorb our culture’s philosophy du jour. To “catch our worldview like measles” as Francis A. Schaeffer once said.

God does not want us confused and disillusioned.

God created us to think. He created us in his image as reasoning though we’re not always reasonable beings and he entrusted us with the responsibility to think well and wisely. This we must do to care for ourselves, our families, our country, and the world. God wants us to think, to discern as the Scripture calls it.

Spiritual discernment is rooted in Philippians 1:9-11.

God said,

9 - “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight,

10 - so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,

11 - filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God.”

It’s the act of using biblical principals and values to Discern What Is Best so that we may live the Christian life the way God intended. It’s about holiness, Christian liberty, independent judgment, and mature decision-making. It’s the act of living “in the world” while being “not of the world.”

We’d do well to rediscover or to develop how to “think Christianly.”

What, for example, does Christian spiritual discernment suggest about these thorny issues?

--immigration

--religious professions or protestations of presidential candidates

--respecting Muslims while disagreeing with tenets of Islam

--deficit spending and debt

--climate change

--healthcare

--aging

--human sexuality

--welfare

The list of issues needing, nay crying, for Christian thinking is virtually endless.

So, I say, learn to discern and think Christianly…about everything = Discern What Is Best.

That’s what this podcast is about, Discerning What Is Best. If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, look for us on your favorite podcast platform. Download an episode for your friends. Helps us all learn to discern what is best.

How do we learn to discern what is best?

By learning biblical doctrine – In 2 Peter 1:3, God said, “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”

So how do we discern what is best?

By understanding the principals and values we’ve drawn from unchanging biblical doctrine, by learning about real world issues in this rapidly changing world, and by applying our biblical, Spirit-guided discernment to real world concerns and everyday issues of life.

As long as we breathe, we can never “not think.” We live, we are Christians, therefore we (should) think Christianly. It is our great blessing and liberty.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. For more Christian commentary, be sure to subscribe to this podcast, Discerning What Is Best, or check my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com. And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 10 February 2022

This is the trailer for my new podcast, which will be officially launched later this month. This trailer is already available on Apple Podcast and several other podcast platforms.

*This blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 18 January 2022

Learning about podcasts is my latest thing. It’s been fun.

A podcast is simply a pre-recorded (mostly) audio or (some) video episode made available online. They can be streamed or downloaded, generally for free.

Last estimate, there are maybe 1 million, or still fewer, podcasts now being distributed. This sounds like a lot, and in one sense it is if you take into account podcasts didn’t exist until the early 2000s. They were popular for a time, dropped off for some reason, and more recently seem to be surging again.

But podcasts relative to other media distribution platforms are still a new thing. According to Buzzsprout.com, “There is a lot of unexplored space in the podcasting industry. There are at least 600 million blogs, 23 million YouTube channels, but only 800,000 podcasts in Apple Podcasts. That means for every podcast, there are 750 blogs and 29 YouTube channels.”

Some 67 million Americans listen to a podcast every month, and this number has grown 100% in past 4 years. So podcasting is a brave new world for communicating simply, personally, inexpensively, and without barriers online, making your voice and point of view, literally, accessible to the world.

The average podcast is 30 minutes, while the average listener hangs in for 22 minutes. Interestingly, the average American commute is 25 minutes. Podcasts range in duration from 4-5 minutes to 3-4 hours.

So it would seem that if you really want to get in, grab someone’s attention, and get out, something less than 22 minutes might be optimal, but it depends upon the topic and podcaster preference, not technological constraint and generally not cost.

In the early days podcasters had to work to get their podcast RSS feed onto a variety of distribution platforms. Now, with one-stop-shopping services like Buzzsprout, the service does the work of distribution once the podcaster signs on and uploads the latest episode.

Not counting the cost of a laptop, podcasters can get started with an outlay of less than $250 for a good microphone and associated equipment. Recording and editing software, a “DAW” or digital audio workstation, like GarageBand is available for free on Apple products.

Most podcasts feature interviews or conversations, while many churches and other similar organizations that regularly produce audio content simply use the podcast medium as another way to disseminate their content. A “true podcast,” one in which the podcaster is offering original content exclusively via the podcast medium are less common but are increasing in number.

I’m researching because I’m looking hard at launching my own podcast, in the midst now of learning and deciding whether to brand the podcast on my own or as an associated expression of the ministry with which I serve, SAT-7 USA.

Time will tell.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 18 January 2022

Learning about podcasts is my latest thing. It’s been fun.

A podcast is simply a pre-recorded (mostly) audio or (some) video episode made available online. They can be streamed or downloaded, generally for free.

The average podcast 30 minutes, while the average listener hangs in for 22 minutes. Interestingly, the average American commute is 25 minutes. Podcasts range in duration from 4-5 minutes to 3-4 hours.

So it would see that if you really want to get in, grad someone’s attention, and get out, something less than 22 minutes might be optimal, but it depends upon the topic and podcaster preference, not technological constraint and generally not cost.

Time will tell.

Details: Written by Rex M. Rogers; Published: 10 November 2021

50 years ago today, Sarah Lee Stone, now known as Good Wife, and I had our first date at The Carpenters concert, University of Dayton Arena. Sarah wore pink, but I have no idea what Karen Carpenter wore.

We were 19-yr-old sophomores who’d met a year before at a huge bonfire by the lake during freshman orientation at Cedarville University. Though we dated others that year we began talking on the phone late at night soon after, sometimes for hours. So we had probably bonded without knowing it by the time we had that first date.

The girl I had dated a couple times opted out of the concert. Fantastic. I didn’t have money, athletic prowess, or high-rent looks, but hey, I had leverage, a car thanks to Dad and two tickets, so I gave it a shot, asking the girl-dating-someone-else who I wanted to ask in the first place. Hence Sarah's and my first date.

So, we met our freshman year, started dating our sophomore year, broke up our junior year, and got engaged our senior year, like a lot of others who arrived on campus as singles but by the time they left walked around two-by-two like Noah’s Ark. Summer before senior year I proposed while we stood barefoot in a creek rushing down the side of a mountain.

Since that night 50 years ago my life has been enriched in every way, thanks to the divine gift of a girl who grew up in WV, about 2.5 hours south of me in OH. God is good.

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Two New eBooks at Amazon Kindle!

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