Since the book of Esther doesn’t mention God I thought it would be interesting to see what it does mention so I Wordled it using the ESV. It didn’t turn out very interesting but since I took the time to do it I thought I’d post it. Click on the image to see a larger one.

Esther contains the longest verse in the Bible:

Esther 8:9 HCSB
On the twenty-third day of the third month (that is, the month Sivan), the royal scribes were summoned. Everything was written exactly as Mordecai ordered for the Jews, to the satraps, the governors, and the officials of the 127 provinces from India to Cush. [The edict was written] for each province in its own script, for each ethnic group in its own language, and to the Jews in their own script and language.

Esther Study on NLT’s Web Site

I don’t usually like to post more than once a day but this one has been getting around so I thought I’d post it now so that it doesn’t look like old news.

Daily Readings from the Life of Christ is offered through August 20.

HT: Travis Carden

This is a new one for me. I found out about it at Theo Geek which is a blog I do not endorse. But for those of you who like to collect translations and didn’t know about this one, I thought I would mention it. You can find the NT as a PDF file here. I notice it has a lot of exclamation marks!

I thought I’d post a quick sample:

Romans 12:9-21 The Source
9-13 Your love must not be overly critical. Strongly detest evil! Cling to good! Your love for the fellow believers is to be affectionate and warm. Honor one another above yourselves. Do not hesitate to be eager. Be spiritually boiling hot as a slave servant to the Lord!

Be joyful when you hope, have endurance when you are oppressed,
persist obstinately when you pray! Be in partnership with the needs of the
people devoted to God! Go after opportunities to be hospitable!

14-21 Bless those who persecute you! Bless them and do not call down
curses upon them! Rejoice with those who rejoice, and cry with those who
cry! Think along the same lines as each other! Do not be high minded!

Rather, associate with those of low social standing. Do not become
conceited.

Do not repay bad with bad. Have a concern beforehand about what is
favorable in the sight of all people.

If possible on your part, live at peace with all people.

Do not take revenge, my dearly loved ones, but leave room for God’s
anger, as the Scriptures say: “’Vengeance is mine, I indeed will repay,’
says the Lord.”

On the contrary, “If your enemy is hungry, feed them! If they’re
hungry, give them a drink! For by doing this, you will heap coals of fire
on their head!”

Do not conquer by doing bad things, but conquer bad things by doing
good things!

This award has been passed on to me by the guy known as Roger Mugs. I’m honored that he chose me. The original award post can be found here on Dan King’s (Bible Dude) web site.

I have to confess that sometimes I think these awards are created in order to bring traffic to the originator’s site. But I’m am going to think positively and assume the motives are pure.

I would like to pass on this award to one lesser known blogger, at least in my circles and think the perfect person would be Iris of MannaWord. She is someone who loves the Creator and loves the creation by way of posting her wonderful flower pictures which is something I want to do more of here being an avid flower picture taker myself.

Thank you Roger and thank you Iris for the inspiration.

Pink African Violet in my kitchen “garden”.

Are the Sabbath laws binding on Christians today?
Christians and the Sabbath – John MacArthur
See the comments for a (weak) rebuttal if you are so inclined.

Colossians 2:16-17 HCSB
Therefore don’t let anyone judge you in regard to food and drink or in the matter of a festival or a new moon or a sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of what was to come; the substance is the Messiah.

Hebrews 4:9-10 HCSB
A Sabbath rest remains, therefore, for God’s people. 10 For the person who has entered His rest has rested from his own works, just as God did from His.

Interesting that HCSB capitalized Sabbath in Hebrews but not in Colossians.

Galatians 4:10-11 HCSB
You observe special days, months, seasons, and years. 11 I am fearful for you, that perhaps my labor for you has been wasted.

Romans 14:5 HCSB
One person considers one day to be above another day. Someone else considers every day to be the same. Each one must be fully convinced in his own mind.

For he has graciously granted you the privilege not only of believing in Christ, but of suffering for him as well.
Philippians 1:29 (NRSV)

The Real Jesus

Jesus on the radio, Jesus on a late night show
Jesus in a dream, looking all serene
Jesus on a steeple, Jesus in the Gallup poll
Jesus has His very own brand of rock and roll

Watched Him on the silver screen
Bought the action figurine
But Jesus is the only name that makes you flinch

Oh, can anybody show me the real Jesus?
Oh, let Your love unveil the mystery of the real Jesus

Jesus started something new
Jesus coined a phrase or two
Jesus split the line at the turning point of time
Jesus sparked a controversy
Jesus, known for His mercy, gave a man his sight
Jesus isn’t white

Jesus loves the children, holds the lambs
Jesus prays a lot
Jesus has distinguishing marks on His hands

If anybody walks behind the Good Shepherd
If anybody holds the hands that heal lepers
And if you recognize the eyes that see forever, please…

Jesus, Jesus
Oh, can anybody show me Jesus
Oh, let Your love unveil the glory, the real Jesus

Oh, can anybody show me the real Jesus?
Oh, let Your love unveil the glory of the real Jesus, the real Jesus

–From the album Wide Eyed and Mystified by Downhere, a free download down here.

The song begins as a commentary on Western culture’s numerous misunderstandings of the person of Christ, but it quickly reveals itself as a call to the church to proactively wrestle with what it means to live as Christ’s representatives in the world.

Galatians 5:6 HCSB
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision accomplishes anything; what matters is faith working through love.

1 John 4:14-17 HCSB
And we have seen and we testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world. 15 Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God–God remains in him and he in God. 16 And we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and the one who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him.

17 In this, love is perfected with us so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment; for we are as He is in this world.

1 John 3:23 HCSB
Now this is His command: that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another as He commanded us.

Also see:
Jesus, Made in America

This book is on sale at Westminster Bookstore through July 30. From there you can find a 46 page excerpt in PDF format.

I take this [Psalm 19] to be the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.

–C.S. Lewis

In memorizing the second half of Psalm 19 I wanted to get a good understanding of the terms used for God’s revelation of Himself through the many facets of his instruction to us. I don’t own a commentary on the Psalms in book form but the commentaries from Matthew Henry, John Gill, Adam Clarke, Charles Spurgeon, Keil & Delitzsch, John MacArthur (from a sermon) and Derek Kidner (from the library) more than suffice.

Even after reading through all of them I still feel like I’m still just beginning to mine the depths of what this text offers (not to mention Psalm 119!). So I would like to write down a synopsis of just these verses based on commentaries and my own thoughts and observations to further embed these ideas in my brain and cause me to ponder further.

Don’t take this as a scholarly paper. It’s just what I’m learning so far. Comments are welcome.

Psalm 19:7a (HCSB used for all)
The instruction of the Lord is perfect,

The HCSB uses the word instruction for tôrâh instead of the usual law here so as not to confuse it with only the law of Moses or the Decalogue (ten commandments). ” תֹּורָה [tôrâh] does not in itself mean the law, but a pointing out, instruction, doctrine or teaching”. (K&D) It’s a complete divine instruction of God’s will for man’s life and conduct.

On a side note, the Bible isn’t just an instruction manual for us. It’s so much more than that. It’s God revealing Himself, His purposes, how He has dealt with people and His redemption story. How much more wonderful this is than a mere instruction manual.

Since God does not reside in our constraint of time, His law is timeless and includes the gospel message and all of His revealed word to us, not just the law as it was revealed up to the time of David when he wrote this Psalm. It’s somewhat prophetic in that way.

Regarding the word perfect John MacArthur says, “I remember the first time I studied Psalm 19, many, many years ago, I wanted to really know what perfect meant. So I went back and I got all the Hebrew lexicons off my shelf and I remember spending several hours chasing this word ‘perfect’ all over the place, trying to wring out of it everything that I could so I would have a grasp of it. And after many hours of study, I came to the conclusion that what it means is perfect. A bit disappointing after all the effort, but that’s exactly what it means…perfect.” He qualifies that as meaning–not as opposed to imperfect but as opposed to incomplete.

The law of the Lord is sufficient for “everything we need for life and godliness”. (2 Peter 1:3)

Psalm 19:7b
reviving the soul;

Restoring, reviving, refreshing, or converting; turning to God or back to God. In any case, transformation takes place.

Psalm 19:7c
the testimony of the Lord is trustworthy,

I think that some of the obvious examples of His testimony are what He has said audibly about Himself and His Son. But more comprehensively it is God disclosing His character, His will and His nature–who He is. (cf. 1 John 5:9)

You can know that what He says about Himself is trustworthy. Believing He is who He says he is–this is vital for trusting Him and making it through hard times. (Psalm 119:92 MSG)

But what kept me going more than anything else was my confidence in the character of God.

–Ravi Zacharias quoting Charles Cooper in the book Cries of the Heart

Psalm 19:7d
making the inexperienced wise.

The underlying Hebrew word for simple (inexperienced) means wide open, as in an open door; people who are easily led one way or another. For those who are simple, or inexperienced in the ways of the Lord, His testimony is trustworthy in making them wise for living in a manner skilled in walking in His ways and for salvation. (2 Timothy 3:15)

Psalm 19:8a
The precepts of the Lord are right,

Precept
1. In a general sense, any commandment or order intended as an authoritative rule of action; but applied particularly to commands respecting moral conduct. The ten commandments are so many precepts for the regulation of our moral conduct.
–Webster

Synonyms for precepts would be commandments, decrees or statutes, which many other translations use.

All of His precepts are always right and always leading people in righteousness and in the right path. (Proverbs 8:8) They are always well meaning and for our well-being.

Psalm 19:8b
making the heart glad;

Having His precepts written on our hearts leads us to a right mind which gives us joy. They satisfy our desire for morality.

Retire and read thy Bible to be gay.

–Charles Spurgeon

Psalm 19:8c
the commandment of the Lord is radiant,

HCSB and TNIV use the word radiant, some clear, most others pure. The commandment itself is pure, not adulterated by any person. It also purifies us.

I would guess that the word radiant is used because light is pure. It may also be looking forward to the next line. (Comments?)

Psalm 19:8d
making the eyes light up.

His commandment gives us discernment to see what’s earthly and what’s spiritual; what is of the world and what is of true value. It gives us understanding not only externally but internally–showing us our own sin. (Proverbs 6:23)

Psalm 19:9a
The fear of the Lord is pure,

His instruction taken to heart causes us to fear, venerate, reverence and be in awe of the Lord. Its purpose is to purify (John 15:2-3), as purified silver or gold.

Psalm 19:9b
enduring forever;

The fear of the Lord is perpetual. The coming of Jesus does not and should not alter our fear of the Lord, even though Jesus calls us friends. (John 15:14) The fear of the Lord is in opposition to all false ways of reverencing (or not reverencing) Him.

Psalm 19:9c
the ordinances of the Lord are reliable

The ordinances or judgments of the Lord are unquestionable and need no excuse to justify them. All that He has decided is right and proper.

Psalm 19:9d
and altogether righteous.

Any one of them or all of them together are righteous. They are all alike in their righteousness. Clarke would say that, “they are truth [reliable] and righteousness united.” Spurgeon, “no exception may be taken to a single clause separately, or to the book as a whole.”

Psalm 19:10
They are more desirable than gold-
than an abundance of pure gold;
and sweeter than honey-
than honey dripping from the comb.

Here obviously each idea is intensified. My mind thinks of them as being not only more valuable than money, but more money than we would know what to do with.

I haven’t done a lot of research on honey but obviously honey is sweet. Honey dripping from the comb is very different than the honey we would get at the store. Clarke says honey from the comb has, “a sweetness, richness and flavour, far beyond what it has after it becomes exposed to the air.”

God’s instruction is more satisfying than any earthly pleasure we can imagine. This is the truth. Is this my estimation of God’s Word? I pray that it will be, and more and more so.

These are a little old and many of you have seen them but I thought I would point them out for those who haven’t.

Who Translated the New Living Translation? (And More Thoughts on Advocating English Translations) – Internet Monk (good comments too)

Speaking of the NLT, here is a feature on their web site where you can easily look up popular verses/passages. There are so many familiar passages making it easy to get a good feel for it. There are also three in-depth comparisons.

Update: And a newer post on the NLT.

One “Best” Translation? – living the crucified life (ironically, most of the comments may be contrary to what the post is about)

I will be forced to make-over (as in do it all over again) the site over the next week. The old theme was causing problems after the upgrade to Wordpress 2.6. So I upgraded the base theme that I used and will be gradually getting it to look the same or similar as it was before. In the mean time it will look a little different. I’m not trying for a new look. All the functionality should be there. If you see anything not working please let me know. And this comes right at a time that I want to spend less time online messing around with things and while I’m creating a new Windows related blog/site. :-/

Update July 21: Updating is nearly complete. There are now also avatars on the comments and HTML formatting buttons for posting comments.

Update July 23: Site makeover is complete other than tweaks that I’m sure will be made from time to time. There are now a few more features for commenting.

Psalm 12:6 TNIV
And the words of the Lord are flawless,
like silver purified in a crucible,
like gold refined seven times.

Psalm 66:10 TNIV
For you, God, tested us; you refined us like silver.

Proverbs 2:1-5 TNIV
My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you,
2 turning your ear to wisdom
and applying your heart to understanding–
3 indeed, if you call out for insight
and cry aloud for understanding,
4 and if you look for it as for silver
and search for it as for hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the Lord
and find the knowledge of God.

Silver, in the form of electrum (a gold-silver alloy), was coined to produce money in around 700 BCE by the Lydians. Later, silver was refined and coined in its pure form. Many nations used silver as the basic unit of monetary value (see Silver standard). The words for ’silver’ and ‘money’ are the same in at least 14 languages.

–Wikipedia

Photos © Scripture Zealot
Bible: TNIV Thinline
Flower: Impatiens

If you have a Christian/biblio blog, what are you really writing about? I’d like to issue a challenge. Wordle your blog.*

See what it looks like. Are the biggest (most commonly used) words a person you’re obsessed with, politician, ideology or something other than what you intended your blog to be about?

Please excuse this diversion from the regular programming here. This is something I’d like to put out there. I’ll leave it at that.

I hope this doesn’t appear to be prideful but I’ve included a couple of images of this blog. You can click on each one to see a larger one and then use your Back button.

All the text on the front page as of 7/15/08 (25 posts plus all the other stuff on the page):

The text from the RSS feed (10 days):

I think I will do this from time to time to make sure I’m on the right track. I was a little disturbed at all the translation references (this blog should be more about Scripture than its translations) until I realized that almost all Scripture references on this site have the translation cited.

*Go to the front page of your blog. If on Windows (I’m not sure how it works on other platforms but if you’re using a Mac or Linux you should be pretty smart) press Ctrl-A which will highlight all the text on your blog. Then press Ctrl-C to copy the text of your blog. Go to http://wordle.net/create, click on a blank part of the text box and press Ctrl-V to paste the text and click Go. Alternatively you can copy the link of your blog’s feed and use the next section down although the feed may only be for a certain amount of days. Obviously the number of posts on your first page will also affect the representation.

(You can do this with other people’s blogs too.)

Introduction to the Psalms, along with the notes for Psalm 1 – PDF File

From: ESV Bible Blog

Colossians 2:3-8 HCSB
In Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.
4 I am saying this so that no one will deceive you with persuasive arguments. 5 For I may be absent in body, but I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the strength of your faith in Christ. 6 Therefore as you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. 8 Be careful that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit based on human tradition, based on the elemental forces of the world, and not based on Christ.

It was essential to listen to Paul’s warning in his own day: it is even more essential to heed it in our day when the arts of persuasion, and the means by which they can be exercised, are so highly developed. There is a fresh responsibility laid on Christians to examine all teaching for the truthfulness of its content rather than the attractiveness of its packaging. There is a new call to be sceptical of exaggerated rhetoric, the tendentious anecdote, or the theatrical appeal, for nothing is so dangerous as feeble reasoning allied to fast talking.

–R.C. Lucas, The Message of Colossians & Philemon, 1980

Paul’s answer for his friends was startlingly simple; the mystery of all mysteries was the (now public) good news of what Jesus did on the cross for his people (Colossians 1:28-2:5). Moreover, Paul made it plain that maturity came through understanding this gospel better and better, not through laws, experiences and revelations.

–Mark Strom, The Symphony of Scripture

I’m learning the basic gospel message as revealed through Christ is of central importance not just to salvation and then we move on to other things; it is always of central importance.

To preach the gospel to yourself, then, means that you continually face up to your own sinfulness and then flee to Jesus through faith in His shed blood and righteous life. It means that you appropriate, again by faith, the fact that Jesus fully satisfied the law of God, that He is your propitiation, and that God’s holy wrath is no longer directed toward you.”
…
“This is the gospel by which we were saved, and it is the gospel by which we must live every day of our Christian lives…If you are not firmly rooted in the gospel and have not learned to preach it to yourself every day, you will soon become discouraged and will slack off in your pursuit of holiness.

–Jerry Bridges

Colossians has become one of my favorites and I will revisit it in the future.

Here is a related post I came across:
A Sense of Christ’s Sufficiency

Jeremiah 10:23 NET
LORD, we know that people do not control their own destiny.
It is not in their power to determine what will happen to them.

I hope this doesn’t confuse things but here are some older posts that have been updated either in the main message or with additional comments:
Bible Commentary Lists and Reviews (Updated)
Divorce – most recent rebuttal to a rebuttal in the comments
Recap on Divorce Articles – not updated recently but relevant to the previous one
HCSB Bible Translation Web Sites

Various people have been letting us know about the new NLT Blog (New Living Translation). Editor and contributor Keith Williams has posted on other blogs when translation issues come up and also has a blog called the NLT Study Bible Blog.

Other blogs that I know of are the ESV Bible Blog and TNIV Truth, an independent blog.

Updated:
NLT Study Bible Blog
NET Bible Revolution

Any others?

If you had to select only five or six verses you would pray every morning which ones would they be?

My choices as of now are:

Psalms 86:11 HCSB
Teach me Your way, Lord,
and I will live by Your truth.
Give me an undivided mind to fear Your name.

Luke 9:23 HCSB
If anyone wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

Luke 11:3 HCSB
Give us each day our daily bread.

Matthew 6:33 HCSB
seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness

Luke 22:42 HCSB
“…not My will, but Yours, be done.”

Colossians 1:11-12 NRSV
may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.

Psalm 19:14 HCSB
May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of my heart
be acceptable to You,
Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

If you’d like to list your own, please do so here or make a new post on your blog and let us know.

I was taking some pictures today and thought I would post this view of the REB.

More info on ElShaddai’s blog. You’ll see that this edition is the one listed at the top of the editions on his page.