“Humanly speaking,” “not necessarily,” and “it does not automatically follow” are phrases we use to admit our best plans, policies, and practices are ultimately outside our control.
Our individual, limited viewpoint – we are all fallen, fallible, finite – leaves us with only two options for belief.
We can trust in the impersonal nature of “fate” and “luck;” our best efforts being subject to circumstances beyond our ability to manage.
Or we can believe a Personal Eternal Triune Sovereign who oversees our work, orchestrating our fallen, fallible, finite human endeavors for cosmic purposes.
Absolute Divine Sovereignty or absolute human autonomy. Either way, we are left with two, four-letter words: “fate” or “plan.”
What happens in this life is either the result of dice rolls in Las Vegas or Personal Providence that oversees events. How we explain the world with our words points to truths we presuppose.
Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.
Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.
“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.
Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.
“All human nature vigorously resists grace because grace changes us and change is painful”
O’Connor’s ideas track with biblical truth.
Grace is an undeserved, God-given gift, rescuing us from sin; but we like sin and don’t want to change.
Grace is not something of our own doing, it is not a result of human work; but we like our individual attainments and don’t want to change.
God’s gift of grace means we can’t measure up, pay back, add to, or fall from, grace; but we like comparing ourselves to others and don’t want to change.
Grace means I cannot do anything to achieve God’s favor or do good on my own; but we like to think we do good and don’t want to change.
O’Connor is right. Grace changes us and change can be painful. Changing grace overcomes the pain of sin and death; grace is an undeserved gift that gives us life.
Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.
Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.
“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.
Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.
AFTERWORD Learn more about why grace is greater than all our sin: a post from 2021
And don’t miss my post about Denzel Washington’s commencement address at Dillard University, where he said in part, “When you go to bed tonight,” Denzel concludes his speech, “I hope you put your slippers way underneath the bed, so that in the morning, you have to get on your knees to reach them. And while you’re down there, thank God for His grace.” Instead of seeking the credit, start giving the credit back, back to The One who has made this life and all things possible. As Denzel says in his address, “Everything I have is by the grace of God.”
The natural world comes from The Supernatural God.
Give me a minute to explain.
Did you know it takes all of your over 600 muscles plus your brain to make your body run? The human body plan explained by exercise scientists is fascinating!
Did you know that the stealth fighter-bomber design was patterned after the peregrine falcon? Compare the images of both jet and bird side by side. The detailed movements of the man-made plane are constantly adjusted by a computer. The bird, of course, was designed with a built-in flight adjuster! “Mother nature” is not the origin of how creation works.
Do you know how bird feathers get their color? According to Cornell ornithologists the answer is “biology and physics.” Us theologians would say, “Your physics depends on the metaphysics of beauty where we give God glory for His design.”
The creation is dependent upon The Personal, Eternal, Triune Creator of the Bible.
Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.
“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.
Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.
Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.
The story is told of the deaths of two men, one rich, one poor. The rich man, who thought his life was a result of his work, found himself in torment, separated from God. The poor man, who believed that his life was a result of God’s grace, found himself in comfort, near to God.
The rich man now experienced the error of his belief. So, he cried out to God, asking that he appear to his brothers so that they would not make his eternal mistake.
God’s response? If the Bible is insufficient proof of God’s work in the world, neither will miracles persuade.
The story ends with these words,
“If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.”
Listen to the Word of God in this life before you enter eternal life.
Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.
[From Luke 16:19-31]
Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.
“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.
Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.
Why is the idea of “warp and woof” important for everyday life?
Give Me a Minute to explain.
I agree with Augustine who said,
“We love Truth when it suits us, but hate Truth when it accuses us”
and with Os Guinness who said,
“If we do not have integration with truth in the whole of our life, we compartmentalize shaping the truth to our desires.”
Why am I so committed to understanding the world through The Word of God? Because I believe the best way to think about how to live is not separation but synthesis. The reason I named my first website Warp and Woof – where vertical and horizontal threads make up fabric – is because I am intent to discover wholeness.
When the science instructor reads about the universe, “God spoke and it stood firm,” she can declare that all properties and principles of science find their origin, function, and governance in what I call “Genesis law,” the beginning of all authorities.
Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.
Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.
“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.
Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.
In celebration of life for mother and child with the Pro-Life Movement.
Give Me a Minute as I consider four points for life.
Everyone has a theology, an operating system for life.
I believe all views should have at least four points to consider, about when life begins. All should be:
(1) Considerate of the latest scientific knowledge. If we know a baby’s heart begins beating 22 days after conception or can feel pain at 12-weeks those should be considered observable data points for life.
(2) Consistent, uniformly applied with everyone. Neither ethnicity, nor gender, nor neurology should enter the decision-making process for life. One of the worst examples is the Gosnell case in Philadelphia.
(3) Coherent, taking into consideration all of life. What is done in one place for one person should be considered for all people.
(4) Compassionate, for mother and child. I love the billboards I have seen on the highway, a picture of a child in utero, with the line, “Love them both.”
Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.
Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.
“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.
Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.
[FWIW, my theological position (my operating system) considers statements such as Jeremiah 1:5 where it is declared, the prophet was “formed, known, consecrated, and appointed” in the womb. Psalm 139.16 – along with several other statements – say that prior to birth, my “days had been appointed.” And John the Baptist’s response while in his mother’s womb when Mary, carrying Jesus, was close by, is described as a “leap” (Luke 1:39-45).]
Dr. Luke knew “what was real.” The good doctor gives the precision, the detail we come to expect from doctors. Luke 3:1-6 is a case in point. Luke chronicles the historic exactitude of John the Baptist’s mission and message into the world. The first two verses identify seven rulers, their times, names, titles, and events surrounding their regimes.
In history this type of listing shows the truth of a space-time history by linking people, places, and time. This is no sci-fi story. The kind of writing Luke does is in keeping with the Grecian-Roman histories. The people and events surrounding them can be researched and confirmed. As Paul says later in Acts 26:26, “these things have not been done in a corner.”
This kind of historic writing is public and transparent. Nothing is more real than the historic Truth of the Bible.
Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.
Mark Eckel (MA English, ThM Old Testament, PhD Social Science Research) is Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University.
“Give Me a Minute” is an ongoing effort to simply, clearly, and quickly explain aspects of true Truth.
Gratitude, as always, to my longtime friend, videographer, and tech guru Josh for his continued service.
Talking about God means we are talking about everything.
Find out why by watching or reading my one-minute explanation.
G. K. Chesterton, famed Christian apologist, saw the basic problem of God and reality. Chesterton said, “You cannot evade the issue of God: whether you talk about pigs or the binomial theory, you are still talking about Him . . . If Christianity should happen to be true – God being the real God of the universe – then defending Christian truth means talking about anything and everything.”
Teaching about everything was my experience teaching in Christian high schools. My compatriots and I were constantly interacting with each other’s disciplines. Team-teaching was ongoing. Collaboration was taken for granted. After a few years I altered the title of “Bible” classes replacing it with the acronym CLAWS for “Christian Life and World Studies.” As colleagues were engaging biblical texts in their classrooms, I was bringing math, science, history, literature, or fine arts to intersect with Scripture.
Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.
Mark Eckel, Center for Biblical Integration, is photographed for Environmental Headshot Day in the School of Divinity Lobby on August 28, 2024. (Photo by: Matt Reynolds)
To acknowledge life as a gift of God, one’s whole focus and concentration must be shifted from themselves to One outside themselves. Gratitude focuses one’s attention upward. Thankfulness is of preeminent importance. Disciples of Jesus as Lord bow the knee to their Sovereign Savior both in response to Who He is as well as what He has done. Appreciation is born out in worship.
“Worship” is the total response of the total person to our Lord Jesus. “In all things He shall receive the preeminence” (Col 1:18) who has “reconciled all things to Himself” (Col 1:20) that we should do “all things in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col 3:17). Leaders then bear responsibility for encouraging disciples to focus their love for God through others (Mark 12:30-31) working toward excellence in their God-given lives. Encouraging gratitude encourages excellence.
Distinction in one’s work as a marker of excellence born of gratitude for God’s distinctiveness. The Hebrew word for holy identifies both God’s Person (“Holy One,” Ps. 78.41; 89.13; 99.3, 9; 111.9) and God’s people (Lev 11.44-45; 19.2; 1 Pet 1.14-15) as inherently different in their nature. A historic summary of the distinction between other ancient cultures and Israel becomes apparent: Hebrews were to worship their God based on gratitude; other nations worshipped man-made gods for fear. Gratitude signals acknowledgement that I am responsible to someone else. The Hebraic-Christian practice of thanks is through prayer (Ps 75:1) in all things (Eph 5:20).
Some of humanities’ great thinkers agree on the importance of gratitude. “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things he has not, but rejoices for those which he has,” (ascribed to the Greek philosopher Epictetus). “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all others,” says the Roman historian Cicero. Seneca, a contemporary of Cicero said, “He who receives benefit with gratitude repays the first installment on his debt.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer—a man who could make this claim based on how he lived—wrote, “In an ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal more than we give, and that it is only with gratitude that life becomes rich.”
Mark Eckel, Center for Biblical Integration, is photographed for Environmental Headshot Day in the School of Divinity Lobby on August 28, 2024. (Photo by: Matt Reynolds)
Whether one believes in Jesus as Lord or not, what we may all agree on is the need for one day dedicated to the reminder that our lives should be filled with Thanksgiving. I offer my thanks for you all and wish for you a day filled with gratitude.
First written for social media 27 November 2024.
Dr. Mark Eckel is the Executive Director of the Center for Biblical Integration, Liberty University
Dreading those potential disagreements over politics, culture, and other issues that might come up at the dinner table and other family events? Here are 10 Proverbial principles that will help you engage in lively conversation without losing your Christian witness.
“All I wanted to do was argue.” So said a student enrolled in my public university course titled “Argumentative Writing.” He was surprised, “caught off guard,” as he put it, that the course’s first two sessions were on “Humility” and “Charity.”
During “Humility,” I taught that our arguments should be gracious, considerate, careful to represent other ideas with accuracy, while in “Charity” I emphasized that communication is a community-based, convivial, invitational work of intellectual hospitality.
Turns out, many students had assumed that a course on argumentation would teach them how to engage in — and win — a knock-down, drag-out verbal brawl. My teaching was based on listening, care for others, and broad-mindedness, concepts these students didn’t associate with arguing.
As we head into the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season on the heels of yet another divisive election season, the chances of a quiet disagreement or a loud argument breaking out at the dinner table are likely high. But it’s important for Christians to remember that the goal of fellowship, conversation, and even friendly debate with friends and family who may hold different points of view isn’t to “own” or “crush” them for having the “wrong” takes on current events or major issues.
Those who know me well would understand why I always take a non-combative approach to persuasion. Though I enjoy conversation and discussion, I don’t like conflict and I don’t like to argue in anger. But unbeknownst to students, my approach in the class was not based on my own personality but upon biblical truths.
A careful study of Proverbs sets the tone of dialogue. Proverbs 15:33, for example, says,
“The fear of the Lord is instruction in wisdom and humility comes before honor.”
And as for charity, Proverbs 15:23 is clear,
“To make an apt answer is a joy to a man and a word in season, how good it is!”
Christians should carefully consider graciousness in our conversations rather an argumentative spirit. Don’t forget that at Jesus’s first public reading of Scripture it was said of His hearers,
“They marveled at the gracious words coming from his mouth.”
–Luke 4:22
Conflict and disagreement are important in life, but our argumentation should be woven with humility and charity.
But what if “humility and charity” are not practiced by others, like our friends, neighbors or family? And what if we know we’ll be spending time with friends and family over the holidays who do not agree with our religious, political, or cultural viewpoints?
It should be clear that Christians should not use approaches that others may appropriate, such as defamation, slander, or outright lying about a person or situation. We are not to hate anyone as our “warfare is not against flesh or blood but against principalities and powers” (Eph 6:11). And we should remember that some people who disagree with us have honest differences, which we’ll realize if we listen (Prov 18:17).
With respect to table conversation, it may be best to practice the following Proverbial wisdom, or what I call “The 10 Proverbial Principles to Avoid Thanksgiving Indigestion”:
Restraint outdoes complaint (Prov 10:19; 17:27). “Many words” may make us say something we’ll regret. Self-control is better than losing control. Hasty talk is foolish (29:20) and Scripture says that person will be “thrown down” in defeat (10:8, 10:10). In short, toning down your rhetoric may stop a fight before it starts.
Righteous speech has great worth (Prov 10:20). A tongue of “choice silver” means a person has carefully chosen his or her words. Choosing words carefully is the mark of virtue (Prov 31:10) because it helps guard against hurting, irritating, or smearing someone else.
Providing good fruit sets a good table. Find ways to feed others. Proverbs tells us that our words can be a “well of life” (10:11) and a “tree of life” (15:4). Words that honor, esteem, praise, and encourage are better received than combative language. Find a way to bring “life giving words” (18:4) to dinner.
Bite your tongue, or it may bite you. When tempers flare, someone is sure to be burned (Prov 14:29). And if you’re too “hasty” with your words, the end result may not be pretty (Prov 29:20).
Better to be thought a fool than speak up and remove all doubt (Prov 17:28). Opening one’s mouth may reveal what’s on one’s mind (18:2), which is not always best. Measure your words by silence (11:12; 17:28).
Winning a battle may cost the war but overlooking a transgression wins the day (Prov 16:32; 19:11). Bringing up old wounds (18:4) can break a spirit (15:4), but good words can heal (12:18; 16:24).
Anger is not a sin, but a calm spirit (15:1) may do more if anger is concealed (12:16). On the contrary, a “whisperer” may just add fuel to the embers of anger (26:20), breaking relationships (16:28).
Speaking without discernment “belittles a neighbor” and often “lacks sense” (11:12). Translated to today’s environment, this means that thoughtlessly popping off on social media is a bad source of knowledge and communication. Proverbs 11:9 clarifies, “With his mouth the godless man would destroy his neighbor.” In our day, “neighbor” can mean “friends” on any digital platform; we can toss a lot of destructive bombs from behind a screen. By contrast, as second part of that Proverb says that restraint in our words “delivers” knowledge and understanding.
Guarding your mouth and tongue keep a person “out of trouble” (21:23). The word “trouble” suggests intense internal distress, something that everyone wants to “escape” (12:13). Everyone knows or has experienced that arrogant, know-it-all person who creates “indigestion” at the dinner table. (21:24).
Less is more. You don’t have to say everything you know. Saying few words is considered wise (10:19; 12:13; 14:3; 17:27, 28; 18:21), so make it a point to consider putting “your hand over your mouth” (30:32), both metaphorically and, if necessary, physically.
Mark Eckel, Center for Biblical Integration, is photographed for Environmental Headshot Day in the School of Divinity Lobby on August 28, 2024. (Photo by: Matt Reynolds)
The emphasis in this article should be clear: While Christians should always speak truth, they should also think before they speak and speak in love and kindness. When we aggravate or inflame a situation, the only thing gained is continued aggravation of everyone at the table. Swallowing your words at Thanksgiving may avoid indigestion for everyone else.
Dr. Eckel is executive director of the Center for Biblical Integration at Liberty University. He previously taught in the humanities at IU Indianapolis, a public university.
Thanks for spending this minute with me, Dr. Mark Eckel.
To acknowledge life as a gift of God, one’s whole focus and concentration must be shifted from themselves to One outside themselves. Gratitude focuses one’s attention upward. Thankfulness is of preeminent importance. Disciples of Jesus as Lord bow the knee to their Sovereign Savior both in response to Who He is as well as what He has done. 
Some of humanities’ great thinkers agree on the importance of gratitude. “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things he has not, but rejoices for those which he has,” (ascribed to the Greek philosopher Epictetus). “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues but the parent of all others,” says the Roman historian Cicero. Seneca, a contemporary of Cicero said, “He who receives benefit with gratitude repays the first installment on his debt.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer—a man who could make this claim based on how he lived—wrote, “In an ordinary life we hardly realize that we receive a great deal 
Dreading those potential disagreements over politics, culture, and other issues that might come up at the dinner table and other family events? Here are 10 Proverbial principles that will help you 
Those who know me well would understand why I always take a non-combative approach to persuasion. Though I enjoy conversation and discussion, I don’t like conflict and I don’t like to argue in anger. But unbeknownst to students, my approach in the class was not based on my own personality but upon biblical truths.
With respect to table conversation, it may be best to practice the following Proverbial wisdom, or what I call “The 10 Proverbial Principles to Avoid Thanksgiving Indigestion”: