Stone Choir

• The Context Window

  All men have limitations — be they physical, intellectual, or something else. One such limitation is a thing we call, in the technology fields, a “context window”. In essence, a context window is the amount of relevant information that a man can hold in his mind at a given moment. In a conversation, it is the history of the conversation (along with any previous history from prior conversations, et cetera); in a relationship, it is the entire history of that relationship. In all cases, only to the extent such information can be held in the mind. Some questions call for a small context window (e.g., a bar fight may require only ten or twenty minutes of context to understand) and some questions call for a significantly larger context window (e.g., the current state of the Western Church is a matter of millennia). Not all men are equally suited to handle all matters — a man can be competent or incompetent with regard to a particular question or a particular discussion. In this preliminary episode leading into our upcoming series on the Septuagint (LXX), we discuss the concept of a context window and how it plays into the LXX specifically and many issues in our daily lives generally. Show Notes See Also Further Reading What Is a Context Window? [YouTube] Parental Warnings None.

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  1:29:32
• Addicted to Psychologizing

  Man is an animal, created on the sixth day with all the other land creatures. And yet man is more than an animal, for man has not only body, but also mind and soul. To ignore the soul is to fall into Materialism; to ignore the body is to fall into Gnosticism. We must endeavor to fall off of neither side of the horse. This tripartite nature of man plays out in many things and in many ways; one of those things is addiction. When a man (or a woman) becomes addicted to something — whether it is a substance (e.g., marijuana) or an activity (e.g., gambling) —, it is a matter of all three parts of man. The atheistic world would have us ignore the spiritual aspects of addiction (e.g., that it is sin); far too many Christians would have us ignore the biological and psychological aspects. God commands us to be wise, and so we must not ignore the good tools that science has put at our disposal — biology has given us insights into the physical bases for addiction and psychology has given us insights into the psychological aspects of addiction. We do our brothers and sisters no good when we ignore the fullness of reality, and that holds no less true when dealing with addiction. Show Notes MBTI Assessment [one of many sites offering it] Empathy Test See Also Further Reading Parental Warnings We discuss both pornography and sex in this episode. The discussion is not explicit, but you may wish to review it before listening with your children.

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  1:28:05
• Confessional Idolatry

  A true confession is not simply a matter of speaking a truth; rather, it is a matter of speaking the truth that is demanded under the circumstances. In fact, it is entirely possible to lie or to deceive with the truth. To say that it was the Romans who crucified Christ is entirely true, but to advance that particular truth in order to deny the truth that the Jews murdered the Lord Christ would be to lie with a truth. This is a tactic that Satan has employed from the very beginning. Today, we most often see this playing out with Christians who run to their doctrinal statements or confessions when faced with novel problems. The battles of the Reformation era were important (and remain important), but they are not the things that Satan is attacking today. The man who holds up his confession and denies that he could ever be wrong because he has Abraham (his doctrinal statement) as his father has become a pharisee who follows after Satan’s footsteps in lying with the truth. Confessions must not become idols, and the battles of centuries ago are not the battles of today. To look upon the bronze serpent because God commanded it is one thing; to worship the bronze serpent because you have distorted what it was is another matter entirely. Satan is rightly called a serpent — do not give him the opening he needs. Show Notes See Also Further Reading Parental Warnings None.

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  1:27:46
• Excellence

  In every endeavor, there is an excellence. A man can be excellent in his field, regardless or what it may be, or excellent at his undertaking, also regardless of what it may be. There are excellent paintings, excellent poems, excellent plays, excellent athletic performances, excellent shoes, and a whole host of other things that one could only begin to list. A part of the Christian life is recognizing the existence of excellence and then aiming for it. Not all men can achieve the same level of excellence, not even all men engaged in the same field, but every man can recognize excellence and strive toward it. Further, we must recognize, respect, and honor excellence when and where we find it, instead of giving in to the tendency of the modern world to minimize and dismiss it. The man who is excellent in his field has achieved that excellence due both to natural talent (i.e., gifts from God) and hard work (i.e., the acquisition or skill or knowledge); every man, even and often in the mundane, is participating in the same sort of striving toward excellence. We all see the man who wins some top athletic honor with his excellent performance, but what we do not see is the tens of thousands of hours of practice that went into that performance. Excellence does not fall from the sky (even if the gifts of God essentially do so), but is pursued with motivation and determination — it is a purpose toward which one strives. As Christians, we should recognize that all excellence is a gift from God, and we should honor and respect it when and where we find it, and then we should use it to motivate our own efforts, instead of joining the world in sarcasm or indifference. Show Notes kalos areté See Also Further Reading Parental Warnings None.

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  1:37:13
• Purpose and Motivation

  For the moral man, duty forms the core of life, but duty must be translated into purpose before a man can act upon it. And purpose, standing alone, benefits man not at all, for one must also have the motivation to pursue one’s purposes. In this episode, we cover the relationship and nature of purpose and motivation and how they form the backbone of a life well lived. Show Notes See Also Further Reading Parental Warnings None.

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  1:10:35

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