Filipino Counting Method

While working with my daughter, Molly Dru, on her counting, I remembered something I heard a while back.  There is a theory of teaching math known as the Filipino math method that differs from how most western students learn math.  Western students learn the “names” of the numbers and then memorize them in sequential order.  The Filipino method has a different approach. From the very beginning it assigns value to each individual digit. This means that a child from the start will see the number “4” and assign it mentally with the idea of four beans, coins or whatever object used in teaching.  The western students will normally learn to recognize their numbers and to count before students in the Filipino method, but when the degree of math rises the Filipino method gives the students a massive advantage.  When students reach the stage of multiplication and division, they are not forced to go solely off memory, but because of how they see the numbers can use those values to come to the solution.  When they see [ 3 x 4 ] they immediately know that is asking for “the value of three, four times,” instead of spouting off the memorized answer of 12.  Once again, when these students reach even higher levels such as algebra and calculus, they have a much stronger foundation. 

            This is so comparable to many Christians.  As children, teens and/or baby Christians we memorize the correct things to say or do.  We have automated responses to certain questions or circumstances that may arise.  For example, for many of you that grew up in church I am sure you have been apart of the following experience:  A minister, normally the youth minister gives a talk on how evil and wicked listening to secular music is.  He points out that Satan himself was a musician and because of that, music by certain bands, on certain stations and for the most part anything not played on K-Love (or whatever the local Christian station may be) will send you straight to Hell.  At that point the minister implores each person in the crowd to go to their car and bring in all of their CD’s (sad that this is dating me). All of the “secular” CDs would be smashed, burned, or destroyed in some creative way, making the point of how evil it was [if you didn’t grow up in church, yes, this actually happened and I know its sad].

            In those services, scriptures such as Philippians 4:8 and Colossian 3:2 would be used to make the case.  I absolutely agree that these versus are true and we should be careful what we put into our head.  “If there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things,” is a wonderful gauge of what we fill our minds with, but we need to begin to understand the value of what the text is saying, not simply learn rules of what we should or should not listen to.  As we continue to study the word, and as we teach it to our children and others, we must set the foundation of getting to the heart of what the Word is showing us.  The Word is absolutely true, and it is absolutely for today, but if we are not careful we can reduce it to memorizing a multiplication table so that we may spout off the correct answer when asked.

Parable of a Lifesaving Station

I recently heard this parable on a podcast I was listening to. I originally planned on expounding on it with a blog, but think its better left as is.  It should speak for itself.

The Lifesaving Station Parable

by Theodore Wedel

On a dangerous seacoast where shipwrecks often occur, there was once a crude little lifesaving station. The building was just a hut, and there was only one boat, but the few devoted members kept a constant watch over the sea, and with no thought for themselves went out day and night tirelessly searching for the lost. Many lives were saved by this wonderful little station, so that it became famous. Some of those who were saved, and various others in the surrounding area, wanted to become associated with the station and give of their time and money and effort for the support of its work. New boats were bought and new crews trained. The little lifesaving station grew.

Some of the members of the lifesaving station were unhappy that the building was so crude and poorly equipped. They felt that a more comfortable place should be provided as the first refuge of those saved from the sea. So they replaced the emergency cots with beds and put better furniture in the enlarged building. Now the lifesaving station became a popular gathering place for its members, and they decorated it beautifully and furnished it exquisitely, because they used it as a sort of club. Fewer members were now interested in going to sea on lifesaving missions, so they hired lifeboat crews to do this work. The lifesaving motif still prevailed in this club’s decoration, and there was a liturgical lifesaving lifeboat in the room where the club initiations were held. About this time a large ship was wrecked off the coast, and the hired crews brought in boatloads of cold, wet, and half-drowned people. They were dirty and sick. The beautiful new club was in chaos. So they immediately had a shower house built outside the club where victims of shipwreck could be cleaned up before coming inside.

At the next meeting, there was a split in the club membership. Most of the members wanted to stop the club’s lifesaving activities as being unpleasant and a hindrance to the normal social life of the club. However, some members insisted upon lifesaving as their primary purpose and pointed out that they were still called a lifesaving station. But they were finally voted down and told that if they wanted to save the lives of all the various kind of people who were shipwrecked in those waters, they could begin their own lifesaving station down the coast. They did.

As the years went by, the new station experienced the same changes that had occurred in the old. It evolved into a club, and yet another lifesaving station was founded. History continued to repeat itself; and if you visit that seacoast today, you will find a number of exclusive clubs along that shore. Shipwrecks are frequent in those waters, but most of the people drown.

Street View

     I have to admit, I have a slight addiction to Google and all that it has to offer. I am the guy that looks for their beta (test) versions of some of their apps and provides feedback on what I think. One of my favorite things Google offers is the "street view" option inside of Google Maps. Street view gives you the perspective of being in a car and driving down the street of the area on the map you are looking at.  I know that it has been around for a while, but they have finally gotten around to sending that little Google car to most of the streets here in Oklahoma City. I have used the terms "street view" and "map view" to describe a theory I have on how men and women see directions differently. Remember this is simply my opinion, but I feel like most women see directions from the street view, ground level, and tunnel vision perspective. They know where to turn by remembering certain landmarks not by seeing the overall plot of the course. In contrast, most men (and I use most liberally) see directions from the map view. Men visualize a map in our head and plot out the course from point A to point B. Because of this over view of the directions, when something such as a wreck or road construction causes us to detour we are able to adjust on the fly.  For those that view directions from the street view level, an accident can cause panic and confusion because their only reference points may not be accessible.  

     This analogy also works wonderfully when comparing how we see our lives versus how God sees everything.  God is not bound by time and space and is able to see the "map view" compared to our extremely limited "street view." Psalms 115:3 is simple and concise in saying "Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases." Regardless of what we feel like should happen from our street view, God will take us in the direction that He pleases.  Even the evil King Nebuchadnezzar came to this realization; that is after being driven out of his kingdom, eating grass like an ox, growing hair like feathers of an eagle and nails like claws of a bird (Daniel 4).  After regaining his reason and sanity, the king came to this realization in Daniel 4:35; "all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, ' what have you done?'"  

         As I have spent the summer studying Romans 8 in depth, I have come to a new understanding of a popular verse in the Christian world.  Romans 8:28 says “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” I have been guilty, in the same way many others have, of hijacking this verse as simply a good response to people going through a rough patch, or at an impasse on their street view. As my view of God and his ultimate love for me has changed, my understanding of what Paul is communicating in this verse has become much more clear.  He is writing to believers, and yes all things will work together for good, but the key word is all.  From the street level, we are not able to see how weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities (2 Cor 12:10) can work together for good, but all of those things fall under the category of all.  We simply have to trust that the God who created the universe is capable of getting us from point A to point B, regardless of what the view looks like from our windshield. 

Blogging again for the second time...

I have decided, once again to start keeping a more consistent blog.  Previously I stepped away from writing, feeling unqualified to be writing something others may read.  In previous writing, I would question whether some of the statements were truth and/or whether I truly believed them.  The last year in my life has been an eye opening time where I have done my absolute best to take off any filters I have of God’s word.  [I will preface the next statement in saying that my feelings are not directed at my parents but rather at the environment of the church I grew up in] I grew up in a church environment, whether it was intended or not, put a specific lens on God’s word that prevented me from seeing it in its entirety.  Taking this filter off of the Bible has done a pretty good number on my belief system and more than ever I have been able to see just how much God loves me.  Even over the past few weeks I have spoken with several people who were raised in a similar church setting as myself and see how their current state is affected by what they were taught.  My background is full of some absolute wonderful experiences but lacked in absolute truths. 

The experience based theology in which I spent the first 26 years of my life taught me to fear making a mistake, and when I did I felt less about myself and further from God.  I have begun a process of truly knowing a God whose word says, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And it is not your own doing; not a result of works, so that no man may boast (Ephesians 2:8&9 ESV).” I now live in a freedom of knowing nothing I have done or do has anything to do with my salvation, but God, while I was and still am a sinner, justified me through his grace.  This has not given me a license to sin, but the security in knowing my sanctification is a process.  I now strive to daily live as He has commanded, not out of a fear, but out of a desire to experience the joy he has in His commands. 

The following lengthy quote from J.I. Packer’s book Knowing God is an absolute description of where I was, and where I believe many who read this are:

“One can know a great deal about godliness without much knowledge of God.  It depends on the sermons one hears, the books one reads, and the company one keeps.  In this analytical and technological age there is no shortage of books on the church booktables, or sermons from the pulpits, on how to pray, how to witness, how to read our Bibles, how to tithe our money, how to be a young Christian, how to be an old Christian, how to be a happy Christian, how to get consecrated, how to lead people to Christ, how to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit (or, in some cases, how to avoid receiving it), how to speak in tongues (or, how to explain away Pentecostal manifestations), and generally how to go through all the various motions which teachers in question associate with being a Christian believer…Whatever else may be said about this state of affairs, it certainly makes it possible to learn a great deal second hand about the practice of Christianity… Yet one can have all this and hardly know God at all.” [Parentheses were apart of the original text, not added by me]

         This book was written by a man who I had never heard of, in church or Bible College most likely due to the fact his theological leanings did not meet the 16 truths.  I believe this excerpt, although over 30 years old, is an incredible accurate description of where the church is today.  Both sides of the theological aisle need to do a better job of “knowing God” and not simply knowing a great deal about God.  Our foundation has to be based on sound Biblical truth if we want to be able to withstand life.  Experiences will wash away with the house built on sand.  Through this blog, my desire is to stir others to begin to question and seek God for who He truly is.  Is what you believe tinted by the shade of your glasses or have you truly dug into God’s word and sought to know Him for yourself?