Bible - how they decide?

While reading about the Bible this morning, I was just thinking more about how the early Christians thinking about. So, I started googling all about the canon of the Bible.

http://freethought.mbdojo.com/canon.html

The ending give an interesting comment about how Martin Luther, the greatest reformer:

Martin Luther

The greatest name in the records of the Protestant church is Martin Luther. He is generally recognized as its founder; he is considered one of the highest authorities on the Bible; he devoted a large portion of his life to its study; he made a translation of it for his people, a work which is accepted as one of the classics of German literature. With Luther the Bible superseded the church as a divine authority. And yet this greatest of Protestants rejected no less than six of the sixty-six books composing the Protestant Bible.

Luther rejected the book of Esther. He says: "I am such an enemy to the book of Esther that I wish it did not exist." In his "Bondage of the Will," he severely criticises the book.

He rejected the book of Jonah. He says: "The history of Jonah is so monstrous as to be absolutely incredible." (Colloquia, Chap. LX., Sec. 10).

He rejected Hebrews: "The Epistle to the Hebrews is not by St. Paul; nor, indeed, by any apostle." (Standing Preface to Luther’s New Testament).

He rejected the Epistle of James: "St. James' Epistle is truly an epistle of straw." (Preface to Edition of 1524).

He rejected Jude. “The Epistle of Jude,” he says, “allegeth stories and sayings which have no place in Scripture." (Standing Preface).

He rejected Revelation. He says: "I can discover no trace that it is established by the Holy Spirit." (Preface to Edition of 1622).


Now, how should we, Christian responds to all these?

Show kindness; but with wisdom

Does kindness beget kindness?

Usually this is so, but sometimes, people who know that you are kind will take advantage of your kindness.

What would you do then? …

Continue to be a door-mat and be stepped all over? …

A few months ago, I recruited a technician to work in my department. He is not very bright but I thought I could give him encouragement and close supervision, after interviewing him. He seemed to have a good and positive attitude. After all, I believe, attitude is all that matter.

Then, after a couple of weeks working in the company, he ended up in hospital for stomach problem. I visited him and gave him assurance and encouragement. I also showed a lot of compassion to him, giving him a lot of time-off as he also has two aged parents who are not healthy. I tried to accommodate him by giving him flexible working hours. However, as time passed, I noticed that he began to take medical leaves very often, even for seemingly discomfort. [He would just send SMS stating that “I have backache.”]. Also, he would come to work at about 9.30am (instead of the usual 8.30am to 6pm) but when the time to dismiss (at 6pm), he would just loiter around till his time to leave office (7pm). That way, he can still maintain the same amount of working hour.

Also, I have given him a list of work to do, yet he has not achieved any to these. Moreover, the list of works is quite simple. [“If you can’t do, just ask, the engineer will teach you.”]

After some months, I called him up and told him about his work contributions. Apparently, he did mention that I was quite compassionate to him, after knowing about his family background. Then I decided to tell him, “I can be kind to anyone but I need to be fair to the company who employs us and do our part to contribute to the company success. We should not take advantage of kindness”. His face changed and it showed; that he realized that I have seen through his motive.

My thought then was – we need to be nice, kindness and generous, but we need also to be wise to discern those who take advantage of our kindness and use us and think of us as a fool.

Matthew 10:16 – “See, I am sending you out like sheep into the midst of wolves; so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves”

Agape

Be Quick to listen, Slow to criticize

Do you flare up easily when your sub-ordinate points out some mistake in his work?

My big boss is … a boss, not a leader. A boss tends to see the faults of his sub-ordinates and act as if he knows all. A leader seeks to show the ways so that his followers can follow.

Once, I shared that a suppliers delivered an over specified component and was drawing too much current. He immediately started to flare out and questioned why we didn’t consider the efficiency of our design. My thought then was: “Hey, why should I bear the mistakes of a supplier?” I shared this to the management just to keep everyone inform that such subtle incidents do happen and not to point out any faults of anyone.

Then last week, we discovered some software bug. You know, software bugs always happen … after many trials and tests. Yep, the bug is a timing issue, it sometimes happen, but mostly it doesn’t. But when it happens, it can cause serious trouble, like what we see in some banks. When I told the management about this, again, he exploded and wanted to get people responsible and accountable. Instead of seeing the good of able to catch a software bug (like I did when my hardware engineer spotted it after meticulously tested the program), the big boss started to flare up.

Fortunately, my second boss is more understanding and I see the leadership in him. It is actually his technical knowledge and encouragement that keeps the whole engineering team moving. Without him, it is hard to work in this company.

¹⁹ My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, ²⁰ because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. (James 1:19,20)

 Agape

Stay healthy

High blood pressure! The test showed 160/98. I am 40mm Hg higher than normal. It was a shock. :(

My first instinct was denial; I have been jogging so much and feeling very fit and energetic. Then, it dawned on me that maybe I am not eating properly. I need to read up more on blood pressure, what causes it and how to prevent it from going up further. OK, so daily intake sodium should not exceed 1500mg for my age. If you are younger and healthy, then less than 2400mg is acceptable.

The five foods that help to reduce blood pressure are:

Fruits – banana and berries

Vegetables – celery and broccoli

Cereal - oatmeal

For the past few weeks, I have been very mindful of what I eat. I began to look at all the food labels for their nutrient values. Sodium and sugar are all killers. I didn’t know that berries jam and milo drinks have so much sugar. Will avoid these. The worst culprit is instant noodle. It has 1710mg for one serving! No more instant noodle from now on.

Another thing I found is that consuming calcium will strengthen heart contraction and this helps to reduce blood pressure. I have been drinking Soy milk with high calcium regularly now, in addition to fresh milk.

OK guys, see you now. Got to go for a jog! Let me know how are you keeping yourself healthy.

Agape!