I’ve often read how people love the “prolific” blogs. I don’t know why, but I find this intriguing. Many people like blogs of people who post a whole lot. So I’m thinking of trying it. I’m not looking for stats or accolades or awards. I don’t like awards and I never mention when I make the top XX or whatever. So that’s not what I’m after. I just want to see what it’s like and see what happens.

I’ve always been extremely focused on Scripture and things relevant to God and Christianity. I will be a little looser (that’s how you spell looser and not loser, all you bad spellers) in that regard. I won’t be a tabloid biblioblog–entertaining people with other people’s total depravity. I won’t write about my cats because that’s kind of pathetic, as much as I love them. I won’t write about what I ate for breakfast or the underwear I bought.

I don’t have the courage or the creativity to bring up too much controversial stuff like TC does. I don’t read enough variety of books to review as much as Nick does (or play enough games, or watch enough movies). I don’t have the secret news sources that Joel has and I’m not a Dr. But I think I can come up with some stuff.

I’m probably trying to be somebody I’m not, but I just want to see what it’s like for a month. What do you think? I may run out of prolificness before the end of the month but I might give it a try.

According to Bryan Chapell in Praying Backwards:

1. Yes
2. No
3. Not Yet
4. Immeasurably more than all we can ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20 NIV)

The Desiring God Blog Now Has Comments (Most blog posts are by John and Abraham Piper)

Maybe John MacArthur will follow suit but I doubt it.

Although my lumbar microdiscectomy was successful I still have a lot of pain in my back and rear end. Tomorrow I will be having what’s called a Radio Frequency Ablation on the nerves going through one of my sacroiliac joints. These nerves are mostly likely causing some of my pain because of arthritis in the area. I also have Degenerative Disc Disease but all that can be done about that is wait until the pain is unbearable and then have fusion surgery which is a huge deal.

If you could pray for me that would be great. You could pray for the usual stuff about the doctor doing a good job and targeting the nerves in the right way but more importantly that I would be content with the outcome, “suffer well” during the recovery (although it may not be that bad) and that God would use the situation to help me to trust Him more and know Him better.

This goes along with a previous quote by D.A. Carson.

We quickly learn that God is more interested in our holiness than in our comfort. he more greatly delights in the integrity and purity of his church than in the material well-being of its members. He shows himself more clearly to men and women who enjoy him and obey him than to men and women whose horizons revolve around good jobs, nice houses, and reasonable health. He is far more committed to building a corporate ‘temple’ in which his Spirit dwells than he is in preserving our reputations. He is more vitally disposed to display his grace than to flatter our intelligence. He is more concerned for justice than for our ease. He is more deeply committed to stretching our faith than our popularity. He prefers that his people live in disciplined gratitude and holy joy rather than in pushy self-reliance and glitzy happiness. He wants us to pursue daily death, not self-fulfillment, for the latter leads to death, while the former leads to life.

–D.A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, Priorities from Paul and His Prayers

You Gotta Love Tim Tebow by Austin Murphy, Sports Illustrated

He’s a Heisman Trophy winner and a two-time national champion, but the Florida quarterback will tell you he does his most important and rewarding work off the football field

HT: WORLD Magazine

Peter Lopez and TC tagged me for this.

The rules are simple–reveal 10 honest things about yourself and tag seven bloggers to do the same.

I don’t know what “honest things” are. But I’ll give it a try.

1. My No. 1 struggle with sin right now is “making allowance for each others faults” (Col. 3:13). Whether it’s people who have bad memories (like everyone over 50) and I have to keep repeating things, people who’s doctrines are different than mine, people who can’t spell,* or whatever, I’m having a really hard time with this. Increased pain is part of it but that’s no excuse whatsoever.
2. I’m very anal retentive. Everything must be in its place. (Notice I used its and not it’s, all you bad spellers.)
3. I’m not afraid of surgery but being in a room with a few people is extremely difficult for me. Strange strengths and weaknesses.
4. I roast my own coffee.
5. I brew my own beer. (I have safeguards in place.)
6. I smoke a cigar every few weeks to few months–to the glory of God.
7. I love to pray.
8. I have a hard time worshiping corporately.
9. I love to read commentaries straight through.
10. Like many others, I’ve watched each episode of Seinfeld and Friends many times but am having doubts as to whether that’s a good thing.

So many people are being tagged by others I’d rather not try to keep track and find those who haven’t been tagged. If you’re reading this and would like to participate please do and let me know. It’s a good way to get to know each other, as evil as these memes are.

*I know that not everybody is perfect and it’s difficult to proofread your own writing. But come on, learn the difference between too, to, their, they’re, there etc. And if you see an error in my posts or have any writing advice, please let me know. I always want to improve.

Be a Kinder Calvinist by Abraham Piper

Snippet:

It won’t be easy to change the pejorative stereotype that clings to Calvinism, but we can start by admitting that it is accurate far too often. Then we can make sure we are manifestly not self-righteous, condescending, arrogant, unfriendly, or argumentative.

As a Calvinist (although I prefer Reformed), this makes me sad:
Return to Calvin: A Personal Reflection on how Calvinism has Lost its Way By Douglas Estes

Snippet:

Calvinism—more so as a culture and an ‘ism’ than a theology—has many problems. In many conversations I have had, it quickly ceases to be anything about glorifying God and becomes a do-or-die landmark (complete with secret password) for the faithful. Why can’t we encourage his theology (one that exhorts people to know God and see him glorified (Calvin’s Catechism of the Church of Geneva)), but reject the partisan fervor often accompanying Calvinist thought? When I read Calvin, I see a man who was terribly committed to God in a very orthodox way. I hear a great depth of desire to know God. But Calvin the man was flawed; he had several strong personality defects (as we all do). It seems to me that while many of Calvin’s followers read the Institutes, they take their cues from Calvin’s personality. They build their landmarks on Calvin’s weaknesses, not his strengths.

Jason Gardner is giving away an extra copy of Russell Pregeant’s Encounter with the New Testament: An Interdisciplinary Approach that he received from Fortress Press.

The rules are as follows:

1. Mention the giveaway on your blog,
2. Comment on this post with the link to your post announcing the giveaway,
3. Commit to review the book at your leisure.

I firmly believe that God rewards people differently in the end (possibly a future post) and read that Calvin believes that everyone’s reward is equally salvation.

I haven’t read the Institutes yet but have the Battles edition. There isn’t a subject index and I didn’t see it in the table of contents. I thought it would be in Book III. Does anyone know where he writes about this?

My definition of a Calminian:

1. Someone who is confused or can’t make up their mind
2. Someone who doesn’t understand the interplay between God’s sovereignty and man’s responsibility along with the mystery inherent in them existing side by side*
3. Someone who would leave classic Calvinists perplexed at their (the Calminian’s) understanding of Calvinism and classic Arminians perplexed at their understanding of Arminianism (sorry I felt a need to use the term classic)
4. Agreeing to disagree with yourself

Related posts:

• Calminianism redux?!
• Is Middle Knowledge Middle Ground?
• Calminianism and Open Theism

*Being in-between doesn’t resolve a contradiction because there isn’t one, there’s only a paradox (an apparent contradiction). It also doesn’t solve the mystery if that’s the purpose or the desired result.

An Annotated Guide to Buzzwords (Clichés, pt. 2)

HT: Baker Book House

I would add:

Accept Christ As My Personal Savior – He accepts us when we are saved through faith. To say that we deem Him as ‘acceptable’ is condescending. Personal savior sounds too much like personal trainer or life coach although God does relate to us on a personal level in addition to being transcendent.

Head and Heart or Head vs. Heart – First of all I don’t believe in these terms and never did understand them. If they are legitimate, I don’t believe there is such a schism between the two as many would lead us to believe. And if we use the term heart the way most people use it, we are straying from the Biblical definition of heart. When people say, “It dropped from my head to my heart” I just roll my eyes. There are better terms.

Share – We never speak, proclaim, preach, talk about, discuss etc. anymore. It’s all shaaaaring now.

Tithe – An Old Testament term

Any others? Thanks for sharing.

See the comments to this post and my response on July 19.

The Holman Illustrated Study Bible can be seen at Google Books. This will allow you to take a good look at it but be aware that the scanning is awful. For example, the footnotes at the bottom are in a nice yellow box but you can’t really see that in the scans.

This edition is out of print but it can be found used in both leather and hardcover. Right now my two main translations are NLT and HCSB. (I’m Reformed and I’m not a fan of the ESV–go figure.) I bought a hardcover and may use it as my main HCSB. I also have a nice HCSB crimson pew Bible. I like the fact that the The Illustrated Study Bible is single column. The photographs shouldn’t be too distracting and the dashes of color are nice (except for the red letters). Does anyone happen to use this as their regular Bible?

Also see:
HCSB Bible Translation Web Sites

I can remember if this is mentioned in the book Exegetical Fallacies or not, but if it isn’t, this could be another one:

Still more ill judged is the over-egging of the rhetorical pudding. The project website tells us that ‘with over 1,000 references to the earth in the Bible, compared to 490 references to heaven and 530 references to love, the Bible carries a powerful message for the earth.’ I am not sure what to make of this argumentum ad arithmeticum, unless the point is that the earth is approximately 1.88 times more important to God than love and 2.04 times more important than heaven. Based on my own research into this topic and following the same method, I am prepared to say that the earth is 7.04 times more important to God than donkeys (which are mentioned 142 times in the Bible).

–Alan Jacobs, reviewing The Green Bible

HT: Between Two Worlds

We must ask ourselves how far the petitions we commonly present to God are in line with what Paul prays for. Suppose, for example, that 80 or 90 percent of our petitions ask God for good health, recovery from illness, safety on the road, a good job, success in exams, the emotional needs of our children, success in our mortgage application, and much more of the same. How much of Paul’s praying revolves around equivalent items? If the center of our praying is far removed from the center of Paul’s praying, then even our very praying may serve as a wretched testimony to the remarkable success of the processes of paganization in our life and thought.

–D.A. Carson, A Call to Spiritual Reformation, Priorities from Paul and His Prayers

I think I will post more on this book in the future. So far it’s very good, if a little oddly organized.

P.S. There is a good discussion about evil going on in a previous post.

John Calvin is still dead (~500 years) and Jesus is still alive (~2000 years). Just sayin’

–Scott Thomas of Acts 29 and Seattle’s Mars Hill Church on Twitter

HT: WORLDmag.com

In case you’ve been living in a cave (as I do), Calvin’s 500th birthday is today. Frankly, I’ll be glad when all the hoopla is over with. As much as I like Calvin’s theology, I don’t like focusing so much on one man other than Jesus and I have a low tolerance for repetition. I also think it’s strange that people say he’s 500 years old when he died a long time ago.

However, I decided to gather some links for those who are interested in reading more about Calvin and I’ll start of with a couple that defend the celebration and talk about his weaknesses.

Celebrating Calvin’s Birthday for Christ by Abraham Piper at Desiring God

As we’ve begun talking about John Calvin more over the last months, we’ve gotten several responses from folks who are concerned that we’re focusing on a man at the expense of focusing on God. We appreciate this sentiment and want to be careful to not let that be the case.

Yes, we’re focusing on Calvin a lot this year in commemoration of his 500th birthday, but it’s not for the sake of Calvin. Being a Christian doesn’t mean ignoring everything but God; it means celebrating God and each of his good gifts—whether it’s a meal, a family, or a 500-year-old reformer.

Withering and the Word: John Calvin at 500 – DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed

We do the memory of Calvin no disservice to admit that he had weaknesses. He was physically frail and could be emotionally volatile. No one lamented his own weaknesses–physical and spiritual–more than himself. And no one understand general human weakness better than Calvin. The universe of Calvin’s thought was one where man was small and God was very big. He had no problem being thought of as dust, or a worm, or grass, because he knew that’s what he was compared to the infinite glory, splendor, and holiness of a sovereign God. In a culture like ours where everyone has their thing, their schtick, it’s worth remembering that Calvin’s thing was always the word of God and the glorious God he met there.

Must-have Memorabilia for John Calvin at 500 years
HT: beauty of the bible

On the Eve of the Celebration John Calvin’s 500th: Five Reasons Why I think I’m the Worst Calvinist Alive!

What is Calvin doing with his hand?

What Can We Gain from Calvin Today?

Why Is Calvin Controversial?

John Calvin’s 500th Birthday – Calvin and the Holy Spirit

Read the Entire July Issue of Tabletalk on John Calvin Online

Book Reviews
Homage to the Institutes

At Scripture Zealot:
John Calvin: A Heart for Devotion Doctrine & Doxology

Living for God’s Glory: An Introduction to Calvinism

The Reformed Reader informs us that the Tyndale Bulletin Online is available for free. Everything is listed on this page so if there is a topic or author you’re interested in, try using your browser’s search function.

Also, to remind you, or for those who haven’t seen it, there is also the Themelios Journal.

Revelation 16:1-7
Then I heard a mighty voice from the Temple say to the seven angels, “Go your ways and pour out on the earth the seven bowls containing God’s wrath.”

2So the first angel left the Temple and poured out his bowl on the earth, and horrible, malignant sores broke out on everyone who had the mark of the beast and who worshiped his statue.

3Then the second angel poured out his bowl on the sea, and it became like the blood of a corpse. And everything in the sea died.

4Then the third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and springs, and they became blood. 5And I heard the angel who had authority over all water saying,

“You are just, O Holy One, who is and who always was,
because you have sent these judgments.
6Since they shed the blood
of your holy people and your prophets,
you have given them blood to drink.
It is their just reward.”

7And I heard a voice from the altar, saying,

“Yes, O Lord God, the Almighty,
your judgments are true and just.”

This passage [Revelation 16:1-21] announces that God’s judgments are just; the world oppresses God’s children and then wonders why it must suffer so much. Many people today do not like to talk about divine judgment; in their view, that is not what a god is for. But Santa Claus theology ‘cannot cope with the reality of evil’ or seemingly senseless sufferings. To make God kind but never firm (as many liberals have done) is ‘to deny his omnipotence and lordship over a world full of sufferings; facing such hardships without assurance that God has a purpose in them leads to fatalism. A God who never inflicts corporate judgments on the world is not the God of Scripture, but an idol of our own making. As A.W. Tozer observed, ‘when God acts justly He is not doing so to conform to an independent criterion, but simply acting like Himself in a given situation.’

–Craig Keener, The NIV Application Commentary: Revelation