Verses are meant to be markers to read the context more fully, as the Puritans and others often meant Scripture references to be used.

Good and upright is the LORD;
therefore he instructs sinners in his ways.
He guides the humble in what is right and teaches them his way.
All the ways of the LORD are loving and faithful
toward those who keep the demands of his covenant.
For the sake of your name, LORD,
forgive my iniquity, though it is great.
Psalm 25:8-11

“These are the ones I look on with favor: those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at My word.”
Isaiah 66:2b

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:3

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you:
Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought,
but rather think of yourself with sober judgment,
in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.
Romans 12:3

Do not deceive yourselves. If any of you think you are wise by the standards of this age, you should become “fools” so that you may become wise.
1 Corinthians 3:18

For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not?
1 Corinthians 4:7

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
Philippians 2:3-4

Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.
Jeremiah 9:24

As the brook hides the footprints which are imprinted on its soft ooze, so are God’s footprints hidden. We cannot detect his great and wonderful secrets. He marches through the ages with steps we cannot track.

–F. B. Meyer, as seen in The One Year Book of Psalms on Psalm 77

Your path led through the sea,
your way through the mighty waters,
though your footprints were not seen.
Psalm 77:19

I prefer this type of quote to the Footprints In The Sand poem. I went to a site of someone claiming to be the author (which is still in dispute, apparently), just to take a look at the poem and was very disappointed to find out it’s mainly about the author’s fight for getting the copyright. I was hoping to find out about the author’s life as a Christian, but that didn’t seem to be an important enough to even mention. It’s interesting how the popular bits of “Christian” culture like this and the Prayer of Jabez can be so vacuous. I’ve heard first hand that the book below–which is a parody in addition to being educational–is excellent.

I’ve read that one possible reason that Christians, or those on the fringe of Christianity often like bad Christian books, is “because it impacts them in some significant way“ (see the Marturo blog). It may be a new way of seeing God, or a feeling of comfort. But when somebody reads The Shack, how likely are they then to keep reading other Christian books, and more importantly, keep wanting to know God better by reading [more] Scripture? In my limited experience, this is not the norm, and it breaks my heart. I’m very thankful that there are those who do go on from there. God uses those deeply flawed media, but those impactful experiences often fall on bad soil. (Matthew 13:3-23)

The latest popular thing was the TV series The Bible. I wonder how much will come out of that, or if it will become a classic? In any case, Jesus sure is good looking! I never realized he was used as the cover model of so many romance novels. And that slightly English accent sounds so theatrical.

How lovely is your dwelling place, O LORD Almighty!
My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the LORD;
my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.
Psalm 84:1-2

Thoughts on reading Psalm 75:

Praise God that he is fair. We may not know exactly how God handles those who have never heard the gospel; how he handles the awful situation of when infants die (John MacArthur has detailed and encouraging thoughts on this), etc. But we know that he will never judge anyone without perfect justice. Nobody will get ripped off because they live in too remote of an area, which is God’s doing anyway, or died too young.

It’s also comforting to know that evil will be punished exactly as it is deserved. God is very angry with evil; he’s not just a judge who meats out punishment and is callous to or unaware of the victims of their hideous deeds. Those who he has made righteous will get infinitely more than we deserve.

“I have set a time for judgment,” says God,
“and I will judge with fairness.
Though every living creature tremble
and the earth itself be shaken,
I will keep its foundations firm.
I tell the wicked not to be arrogant;
I tell them to stop their boasting.”
Judgment does not come from the east or from the west,
from the north or from the south;
it is God who is the judge,
condemning some and acquitting others.
The LORD holds a cup in his hand,
filled with the strong wine of his anger.
He pours it out, and all the wicked drink it;
they drink it down to the last drop.
But I will never stop speaking of the God of Jacob
or singing praises to him.
He will break the power of the wicked,
but the power of the righteous will be increased.
Psalms 75:2-10

Tragic Worship | First Things by Carl R. Trueman

This article has been getting a lot of “press” today, so if you haven’t seen it, I hope it might be of interest.

His whole idea of tragedy as entertainment is rather disturbing. But then so is what Christ has done for us and what He needed to save us from and is saving us from.

During the first half of the article, I was thinking, “This is why I don’t like ‘life celebrations’ instead of funerals.” But then he wrote exactly what I was thinking, which is also what Michael Horton had written about in his book on suffering. My two favorite guys intersecting in explaining an aspect our real Hero and worshiping who He is and what He’s done for us forgiven sinners.

Hard to imagine this is the 46th one of these I’ve done.

Tominthebox News Network – Religious Humor/Satire – Religious humor and satire from a reformed perspective. Not trying to be mean here, just trying to laugh. [He used the word Religion!]

A.W. Pink Quotations.docx – Google Drive

Theology Proper by Charles Hodge – Available free in Kindle .mobi and ePub formats

FactChecker – Search Results – The Gospel Coalition Blog – Very interesting posts

Dictionary of Christianese

I will be writing a series on Christian sayings and platitudes at some point.

Spurgeon on Why You Should Read Wesley on the Christian Life – Justin Taylor

This goes along with another post on this blog:
Stuff On Calvinism | Scripture Zealot blog
which has some links to other things related to being a nice Calvinist.

I’ve not written one bad word about Arminians on this blog. Although I write about many things from a Reformed point of view, this blog isn’t about apologetics for the Reformed faith. When people come here hating on Calvinism, they are way out of line. Arminianism is probably the closest thing there is to Calvinism, as far as I know. When it comes to prosperity preachers or other false teachers, I will write some negative things about them once or twice a year, and often regret it. Not because I went too far, but because I just don’t like dealing with the backlash, and that’s not what this blog is about.

I will write about things critical of evangelicalism, of which I’m a part of. I’m writing this as sort of a preamble for a series I’ll be writing on things Christians say that aren’t Biblical or don’t make any sense. But mainly I found the article linked to at the top of the post and it reminded me of other links I have found that are similar. So I guess I kind of went off track there. Sorry. I think something sparkly caught my attention.

Also see:
A Conversation with My Favorite Wesleyan Theologian – Justin Taylor – on why Calvinists shouldn’t be the enemy of Arminians either

We have been inundated with articles on mental illness lately. I post a lot of these because I would be under that category and because I post a fair amount about suffering on this blog. There is a Category on the right for suffering and also a link to the old Suffering Christians blog.

I’ve read things from Oswald Chambers and D. Martin Lloyd-Jones about what I call “real psychology” and thought they were ahead of their time–earlier and middle of the last century. As it turns out, the Puritans were way ahead of their time. They even recognized that there can be physiological components to depression, which many people today still don’t believe. I’ve read that the contemporary book Helpful Truth in Past Places: The Puritan Practice of Biblical Counselling by Mark A. Deckard is a good place to start.

The Puritans and Mental Illness | HeadHeartHand Blog

The following is a good article about how certain terms can be hurtful and unhelpful. I don’t think there is a need to go all politically correct on this, but there should be some guidelines, especially for journalists who write about these things. I don’t really mind the terms like mental, headcase, wacko or whatever, unless they’re meant in a truly hateful manner. (Sometimes we shouldn’t take ourselves too seriously either.) I think it’s the proper medical terms used incorrectly that can be especially unhelpful. The writer of the article mentions calling yourself “a little bit OCD”. I’m extremely particular, almost to the point of being ‘certifiable’, but I’ve stopped using the term ‘a little OCD’ once I learned how awful being truly OCD really is. It’s not funny. And people always get schizophrenia wrong. They’re usually meaning ‘multiple personality disorder’, as in a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Or people who say one thing and then another, which could just be hypocrisy. Schizophrenia is awful (I’m not), and not funny or something that should be used when a more accurate term could be.

Another area is when someone is chronically depressed and they’ve tried everything, and have lived with it for decades, and then when mustering up the courage to mention it, have someone else say, “Yeah, I get depressed too.” That’s a tough one because there are so many degrees of depression. Same goes for anxiety and a number of other things, including chronic [physical] pain.

The article also mentions that those who are mentally ill are not likely to be more violent than the general population. I don’t know how many times I’ve heard people say, “Yeah, she’s Biopolar, so she’s kind of dangerous” or something to that effect. I deal with Bipolar Disorder (Bipolar II on the depressed end of the spectrum, or the unofficial term Bipolar Depression, if you’re familiar) and I know there’s no truth to that. Being Bipolar doesn’t make someone violent or mean.

By the way, incorrect spellings would be Bi-polar or BiPolar, if you happen to be writing about it. Bipolar Disorder is the general term, but there are two basic types, being I and II (1 and 2) and it’s a spectrum disorder in many ways. So two people who both suffer from ‘Bipolar Disorder’ could have varying symptoms that vary in severity.

‘Crazy Talk’: How We Characterize Mental Illness | Her.meneutics | Christianitytoday.com

The 9 words you missed. – This is a post about hope. I identify with the majority of what he says. I’m basically in a permanent “season of hurt”, so I get a lot of practice. I really like his “edge verses”. I call them “verses off the beaten path”, which I like to post on Twitter or Facebook when I come across them if they don’t require explanation–especially the OT, but his term sounds less like some are more important than others.

A couple of Reformed resources:

Westminster Theological Seminary – The Westminster Theological Journal – this has somehow failed to acquire my attention until now

The Beatitudes by Thomas Watson – free ebook in various formats and even as an MP3 audio book too

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13

FOR MODERN READERS PLAGUED by a negative view of the Old Testament in general and Old Testament law in particular, the book of Deuteronomy offers a healthy antidote. Through the work of Christ not only is Israel’s relationship made possible, but also the church, the new Israel of God, is grafted into God’s covenant promises. As with Israel, access to these promises remains by grace alone, through faith alone. However, having been chosen, redeemed, and granted covenant relationship, Yahweh’s people will gladly and without reservation demonstrate their allegiance to him wholeheartedly and with full-bodied obedience (Rom. 12: 1– 12).

For Christians today Deuteronomy remains an invaluable resource for a biblical understanding (1) of God, especially his grace in redeeming those bound in sin; (2) of the appropriate response to God, entailing love for God and for our fellow human beings; and (3) of the sure destiny of the redeemed. More than any other book in the Old Testament (if not the Bible as a whole), Deuteronomy concretizes the life of faith in real life. In the New Testament Jesus Christ, the incarnate God of Israel’s redemption, summarizes the spiritual, moral, and ethical pronouncements of Deuteronomy with the Supreme Command: to demonstrate covenant commitment to God with one’s entire being (love) and covenant commitment to one’s fellow human beings (Matthew 22: 34–40). Christians who live by this “law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2) will have their feet firmly on the ground and will resist the temptation to retreat into interior and subjective understandings of the life of faith so common in Western Christianity.

–Daniel Block, Deuteronomy (NIV Application Commentary, The) (Kindle Locations 734-746). Zondervan. Kindle Edition. (Hardcover Available)

Advertisement – Affiliate Links

The Kindle Fire HD is on sale for $20 off through Mother’s Day (May 12).

All of the Kindle versions of the NIVAC commentaries are on sale for under $5. I don’t know for how long. I’m thinking about getting the one on Deuteronomy, as I’ve read good things about it. (And it’s 25 cents lower than many of the other ones right now!) I have read the one on Revelation by Keener, and it’s one of the most helpful commentaries I’ve read. I also read the one on Luke, which was a good book about Jesus, but didn’t go in-depth enough–which is partly because of the objectives of the series, and the length of Luke (one of his other commentaries on Luke by the same author is two large volumes)–and didn’t answer a lot of questions for me. They can be a mixed bag. The Cross Quoter gives you a little help in this regard as does Tim Challies.

We often think so much of the physical realm when interpreting some parts of Scripture and when we pray.

All of our visible blessings are but pale shadows of the real wealth that we can have if we live in continual communion with God. He does not put his best gifts in the store windows. He keeps those in the inner chambers. The best good is not the good that we can touch, taste, and handle and that men can see.

–Alexander MacLaren

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.
1 Timothy 6:17-19

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
Colossians 3:1-4

Mental Illness and the Church | Biblical Counseling Coalition Blogs

Why Should we “Study” the New Testament? | Baker Book House Church Connection – Terrific rebuttal to “just me and the Holy Spirit”

Are those people [who worry about theology] just being cold, heartless, unfeeling, selfish and indifferent to the world’s needs? I don’t think so. We tend to compartmentalize our Christianity, and this is our undoing. Strong dichotomies and strict antitheses are not helping anyone. It is not a matter of doctrine versus practice, truth versus love. It is both. It is a matter of the doctrine under-girding our practice; the truth in our love. That order is deliberate. Doctrine precedes and is the foundation for practice. Truth precedes and informs love.

–Are You a Member of a “Real” Church? | Alien Citizens

It’s nice to see more writings out there on introverts. I am one, but I never let others bamboozle me into thinking it’s a bad thing. I always stood my ground on this one, even as a high school student. There’s nothing wrong with being quiet. I always naturally did things like taking a break to be by myself between dinner and desert during holidays, and many other things. I never felt selfish about needing to have a certain amount of time alone.

One time during a meeting with the Navigators (a college Christian ministry, in this case), they handed out pieces of paper with the name of one of four or five animals on it. Then they had everyone close their eyes. We were supposed to make the noise of whatever animal was on your piece of paper and migrate (get it?) into groups of the animals. I was too shy to do it. Which nobody could tell I was [not] doing. I still don’t know the purpose of that one, but it shows how the leaders were extroverts, the group was filled with extroverts and many of these people were unaware of what an introvert is, and belittled me for being “quiet”. If you’re an introvert, there’s nothing wrong with you.

Although we have been kind of bombarded with blog posts on introverts lately, I hope this one will be helpful for some of you.
Four Lies About Introverts – The Gospel Coalition Blog

My 3 Excuses for not watching The Bible on the History Channel | Stuff Christians Like – Jon Acuff

During this lull in blogging I would like to make my semi-annual plea to support your favorite blogger. I won’t start out by writing, “Friend”, even though I probably don’t know you, or talk about how this ministry is in a crisis until ‘we’ meet our goal that we set too high. (That’s my attempt at humor if you didn’t catch that.)

I want to thank everyone who has bought items through Amazon or clicked on the other affiliate links in the right column. I appreciate it even if someone just buys a 99 cent Kindle book because I know you’re thinking of me.

If you’d like to support this blog or another, buying through any affiliate links is very helpful. There is no extra cost to you. Just click on a link for the store and it will know someone came from this site. And remember, Amazon sells just about everything that’s made in the universe. I often forget to look there or on eBay for good deals on any number of things. eBay and half.com are also good for certain books.

A little while ago I wrote about the New Westminster Books Web Site. I like to look at their bestsellers and recommendations. They also have a lot of sample chapters of books.

Now Monergism Books has added the ability to search Amazon books and Kindle books in addition to their own site. Aside from books, I also often go to Monergism whenever I’m looking for any kind of information on Reformed theology.

Joel Watts has a list of bibliobloggers who have Amazon Affiliate accounts.

Thank you again for your support.

I’ve been working on Greek for about three years now, with some breaks for surgeries and other low points for various reasons. I started with Croy’s grammar and switched to Black after I reviewed it and liked it better. I bought Mounce for good measure. After getting great help from Esteban with pronunciation (not the never-used-by-any-Greek-speaking-person Erasmian rules), I tried to spend about 20 minutes a day on the book and then some time on vocabulary. After starting over with Black’s book twice, and dabbling in Dobson, I’ve finished Black, but feel like I don’t know the material very well. I used the workbook for a while, but didn’t use it fully, because I’m a bad person. I’m now taking an online conversational Greek course, but I’m not sure if it’s getting me where I want to go.

So, I’ve spent three years on this and I can read some easier passages and pretty much know what they say, but I don’t understand the intricacies of the grammar or understand it in a way that’s more nuanced than English translations.

Sometimes I want to just leave it here and be satisfied with being able to understand what scholars are writing about in commentaries. I really miss memorizing new Scripture, even though I have my head full with reviewing what I have, and I could do more book reading if I’m not spending as much time on Greek. Or I could go back to the workbook and get to know the material better. But to really be able to read my Greek NT, I would need to spend another three years on this. I probably need another year reviewing Black’s material and going through Mounce for secondary material, and then maybe work on Black’s next book that’s an in-between before going on to Wallace. I think Wallace is asking too much. (Well not him, but you know.) I keep seeing things on why we should learn the Biblical languages, but those are mainly for pastors.

So what would you do? Should I be content with where I am and learn more here and there? Should I keep on spending more time on something I’m not sure I’ll be able to fully utilize, meaning NT exegesis?

I will continue with the conversational course through June or July, keep up with the vocabulary and possibly go back to the workbook for a while, but I just don’t know what my expectations should be, or how much more time I should or want to spend. If you have any opinions, I’d love to hear them.

As I’m dealing with health problems and starting to work on a blog series, I thought I might write some short posts.

I’ve never read the Bible in a staggered way, meaning, two chapters of the OT, a chapter of Psalms and a chapter in the NT, like I’m pretty much doing now. It was either slow reading (devotionally, for lack of a better term), or reading through the Bible straight through or in “chronological” order. I just finished Leviticus and am starting Deuteronomy where God tells the older folks and Moses that they can’t go to the new place because they didn’t believe. So they couldn’t go and rest from all of that time in the desert. Then I happen to read chapter 4 of Hebrews the next day and the writer, certainly not Paul (let’s see if prof. David Black is reading), says that believers have now entered in God’s rest (Hebrews 4:5-7). Although lately I don’t feel like I got no rest (Greek allows for double negatives as emphasis, so I’ll adopt that), I am in his rest. I’m not wandering aimlessly, complaining, not believing, not receiving God’s benefits. Maybe some of those middle two, but God has given me the faith to believe in Him, and I have His inheritance that will never disappear, wear out, get old, change over time or anything like that (1 Peter 1:4). It’s mine, and ours who are believers, and we and our inheritance are protected by God through our faith in Him (1 Peter 1:5) that He’s given to us (Ephesians 2:8). I suppose that’s blessing on blessing or grace on grace.

That’s all for now.

~Jeff

The Really Big List of Kindle Deals | Challies Dot Com – the commentary on Deuteronomy looks interesting and I read Michael Horton’s A Place for Weakness which is excellent

Gospel Grace blog is owned by Luma, who writes about all kinds of interesting things in a very intelligent way, much of it from a Reformed perspective (just as a warning to those who are sensitive to R rated content)

I may as well mention Housewife Theologian again, which is where I found Luma from Gospel Grace (noted above) commenting. If I had a twin sister, it may be her.

One of Justin Taylor’s Favorite Prayers in the Whole Bible:

“We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”
2 Chronicles 20:12

Related Scripture:

Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him,
and he will make your paths straight.
Do not be wise in your own eyes;
fear the Lord and shun evil.
Proverbs 3:5-7

A person’s steps are directed by the Lord.
How then can anyone understand their own way?
Proverbs 20:24

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.
Colossians 3:1-3

I may be blogging a little less for a while. I’m working on a big series on the silly sayings that evangelical Christians say. But it won’t just be poking fun at others, or each other, but will be writing about the problems and possible alternatives. I will also be thinking and praying about what I write here. Pray with me if you’d like.

On the subject of prayer, my back pain has been worse this week than ever outside of surgery recovery. I don’t know what’s going on. I hope that if there’s something wrong with the various hardware in there that it could be figured out. I’m trying my best to trust and not worry. It’s hard not to be thinking of various scenarios.

~Jeff