Mitchell Powell at ve’al timkor has written a posted called some of why i think what i do about genesis 1. Take a look and let him know what you think.
He’s braver than me!
Monthly Archive for January, 2010
I have yet another injection tomorrow. This will be a cortisone injection for a moderately herniated disc in the lower thoracic area. This isn’t nearly as bad as the lumbar stuff but it’s uncomfortable so I’m going to see if this helps.
I’ve had so many injections of different types in my back and upper rear I feel like a human pin cushion. The multiple trips are more annoying than the injections themselves. Thank God I’m not overly afraid of needles. I can’t imagine the terror for those who are and would have to go through it this many times.
Colossians 1:11-12 NRSV
May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and 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.
I’ve probably focused on those two verses more than any others in the last couple of years. I love the NRSV rendition.
Hebrews 10:24-25 NIV
And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. 25 Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
I’ve heard many pastors quote this as saying you should go to church. I don’t see it that way. I’m sure there are some smaller congregations where people really are encouraging one another during their meetings at some point. But this doesn’t happen in most services I’ve been to.
Then I saw this by David Black. I hope he doesn’t mind me quoting it here. It’s from January 31, 2009, 10:30 a.m. (see how hard it is to reference these things!):
I love these verses (Heb. 10:24-25, NLT):
Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
Wow! Does this not suggest the character of our church meetings? Does this not teach us that we are to come together for the purpose of mutual edification? Does this not challenge our deeply entrenched views about “worship”? Should we not suspect The Message of a bit of eisegesis when it renders “let us not neglect our meeting together” as “not avoiding worshiping together”?
Paul’s point is crystal clear: We come together to encourage one another. How we can get “We come together to hear the Word of God preached” from these verses is beyond me.
See the rest of that day’s writing to read more on the subject.
Hebrews 3:13 says: “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (NIV) Does this mean we are to go to church everyday?
I’m not at all saying I believe church gatherings aren’t important. I’m just commenting on what I’ve thought these particular verses mean.
(I used NIV because that’s what I have them memorized in and I would guess this is the translation that many may be familiar with. So I also used NIV for Hebrews 3:13 for consistency.)
I’m very humbled to say that as of today, approximately 6,799,500,000 people haven’t seen this blog.
Here is a post by Shaun Tabatt on libraries of some notable people. I like Albert Mohler’s and Mark Dever’s the best as far as the libraries go. Pretty incredible.
Here is a video of a library that made the rounds at least a couple of times in the past that I like a lot.
I can’t figure out why the Church Connection blog by Louis McBride isn’t more popular. He regularly post about good books and subjects of interest. He’s very well read and is a mature Christian that I always learn from.
Fighter Verses is a blog I found related to Scripture memory. I can’t tell you how valuable Scripture memory has been for me.
Coming up will be reviews of The Prayer of the Lord and How to Enjoy Your Bible.
I may write general thoughts on Genesis as I read through it recently but I’m not sure if that’s a good idea. Unfortunately some parts of the Bible can’t be written about without rancor ensuing.
On February 1st Tyndale.com will be introducing a newly designed, more user friendly, and information packed site.
As a blogger and social media user here are some exciting features that can benefit you:
- Links to all of Tyndale’s social media sites
- A list of all Tyndale authors and their blogs, Facebook and Twitter accounts, etc.
- A place where you can share stories about Tyndale products that have had an effect on your life
- Under product details you can post reviews with a link to your own blog so others can see the exciting other books you’ve been reviewing
To celebrate the launch of this new site, Tyndale is giving away four books a day in the following categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction, Bibles, and Kids.
All you have to do is visit the site to sign up. If you don’t win one day, keep coming back to sign up!
Please visit www.tyndale.com starting on February 1st for a chance to win!
If you have any questions feel free to email me or follow me on Twitter (@adamsab). (His email address is adamsabados @ their domain.)
Thank you and God Bless!
Adam J. Sabados
It’s pretty well impossible to sing your own praises and stay in key.
Post your comments here:
Who will recommend the HCSB?
Hope for the Depressed by Ed Welch
Be sure to see the number 2 at the bottom of the page for the second part of the article.
HT: Justin Taylor
The challenge is not merely to pursue righteousness, but to prefer righteousness.
Character in a saint means the disposition of Jesus Christ persistently manifested.
–Oswald Chambers
I believe we can strive to be righteous and holy as we are commanded but we more importantly need to pray that God will change our disposition so that it will come naturally.
1 Peter 1:15-16
But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. 16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
Romans 12:2
Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
This new book looks very interesting.
Roots: Let the Old Testament Speak by Alec Motyer
Motyer wrote the commentary on Isaiah that I’ve heard good things about and recently purchased.
This is only about $13 for a 400 page book.
Monergism now has free shipping on orders over $25 and the prices are good.
I haven’t been doing very well this week so posts are sparse. I may stick with quotes for a bit.
Top 10 Reasons To Like the HCSB at Anwoth
And:
Find Out How You Could Win a Limited Edition Minister’s Bible
at the bottom of the page
If like me, you don’t have the budget to buy John Sailhamer’s The Meaning of the Pentateuch: Revelation, Composition and Interpretation, which a few people have been raving about, you can read the introduction online at Westminster Bookstore (PDF file) and read an interview of the author at Christianity Today.
I thought these might be timely since many of us are reading through the Old Testament right now. Are there other free materials on the Pentateuch online that you like?
I recently bought a used older edition of The Handbook On the Pentateuch by Victor Hamilton that I plan on reading later on.
Genesis 8:21
“I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood.”
[I]f you are going to act like a prophet today and call people out, you had better be sure your own house is in order.
–Dave Black, Sunday January 10, 8:04 AM
D.A. Carson on theological education:
…as you study, you may suddenly without even realizing it shift from desiring to be to be mastered by the Word to desiring to be masters of the Word.
This is from an interview that can be found on Justin Taylor’s blog. The quote is at about the 15:30 mark.
T.C. wondered why I removed my Blogroll without saying anything. I in fact did say something buried in this post.
I’ve eliminated my Blogroll because I’m going to be reading less blogs and I don’t want to feel like I’m an Endorser of blogs or anything. This also takes stress off of deciding what to add or remove.
Read the rest of the post for more perspective.
I’m only writing this to be polite and offer an explanation. I didn’t do it spur of the moment, out of frustration or anything else like that. I certainly didn’t do it for drama or attention–I hate that. T.C. mentioned me with that Dr. guy which was strange for me we’re cool now. I know it was light hearted anyway.
If I had to offer more explanation it’s because while I love all the people in my Blogroll, I didn’t agree with all of them on basic doctrine and don’t feel some are models of what I would want newbies to see.
I realize the advantages of a Blogroll:
- Others finding good blogs
- Others knowing what kind of blogs I like, getting a feel for what my theology is (part of the problem)
- Providing a link to other people’s blog which is helpful for them because Google likes that
- Reciprocity for those who link to mine
I apologize for taking away some of those benefits.
I saved the links in case the widget got erased and I change my mind in the future.
I could offer a page of all the links I know of whether I agree or not but that’s too much work. I’m trying to spend less time on the internet and that’s part of the reason I originally was going to reduce the Blogroll because I’m not reading all of them (but still the vast majority).
I could offer my top five or ten but that would cause the stress again.
So that’s the explanation. Sorry for the off topic post. I could have offered more drama but that’s what I’m avoiding. That previous post is about as far as I’ll go for now.
Scripture isn’t hard to understand, it’s hard to accept.
I like this because when it comes to basic doctrine many of us want to try to change an interpretation of Scripture so that it’s more acceptable to us, especially us in the West with our sense of democracy and fairness. Some even go so far as to explain away miracles because they just don’t seem possible.
I like to think that as time as gone on I’ve grown to embrace what Scripture says and embrace paradoxes (apparent contradictions) even if it doesn’t seem fair or reasonable to me and my logic.
The Rebirth of Virtue: An Interview with N.T. Wright by Trevin Wax
I really like the content of this interview. Much of it could be applied to blogging in some ways. I won’t mention the things I disagree with because I’d be repeating myself and that’s not the purpose of this post. I imagine this would be a good book that many would shy away from.
In fact many of the negative things he mentions are things I see in the biblioblogosphere.
[W]e modern westerners – and even more postmodern westerners – are trained by the media and public discourse to think that “letting it all out” and “doing what comes naturally” are the criteria for how to behave. There is a sense in which they are – but only when the character has been trained so that “what comes naturally” is the result of that habit-forming [virtuous] training.
I’m not going to write much on it but I’ll just say it saddens me to see a lot of what goes on in blogs and lack of personal holiness, belief in God’s sovereignty, truthfulness of Scripture (this is not related to any posts within the last couple of days), not relating charitably with each other etc. I’m guilty myself of course and am always working on my attitude and how I present opinions and ideas without being disingenuous.
I’ve eliminated my Blogroll because I’m going to be reading less blogs and I don’t want to feel like I’m an Endorser of blogs or anything. This also takes stress off of deciding what to add or remove.
That sounded so stern. I really love you guys and gals.
1 Peter 1:14-16
So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then.15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy.16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”
Hopefully there is something for everyone and you haven’t already seen all of them.
Dave Black tells us of some Greek resources for his students. Since I’m studying his book I’m one of his students, right?
Ben Witherington has some fantastic photos he took of an archaeological find of Ephesian houses.
Ten Technologies That Will Rock 2010
I apologize for the use of the word ‘rock’ in this way. Hopefully by the end of the decade it will have fallen out of use. We’ll see which of these technologies rock our world and which ones are whack.
I know this is a highly regarded work. What I’d like to know is if I would be more satisfied with a good multi-volume commentary or this which includes a unique translation. Is the commentary mainly on the translation? What I would like is a good commentary but Barnes and Noble has a great price on this which would be an economical solution and I have gift certificates for them. (My relatives don’t know how to buy one from Amazon but I’m thankful to have these.)
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