I find it rather disastrous to fall behind in vocabulary.

–David Black

I know this from experience! Print out flashcards right away. If you have a paper cutter that works great. If not, use a scissors and do them one chapter at a time. Over time divide them into piles. One for those you know well, one for new ones that you’re still learning and one for those that are in between. I just used the book but you can’t separate those that you know well from those you need to go over more often. And memorizing them in the same order all the time doesn’t help either.

There are many software options out there too. I’m one who would rather use technology and the computer than old fashioned stuff but for vocabulary, plain old paper flashcards seem to work the best for me.

Just do it.

I would like to give away some of my images for use in web pages, blogs, etc.

This is the original size.

In the Categories area on the right sidebar you will see Free Photos. This category will only be used for free photos so that you can click on that to see them all.

These images may be used for the web for non-profit use. If you use an image directly to sell a product, it would be nice to be compensated in a small way. If so, contact me using the address listed in the sidebar to the right. If you have banner ads on your blog or affiliate programs, that doesn’t matter. If in doubt, don’t worry about it.

Also see Scripture in Pictures for a lot more free pictures.

Nice post by Randy Alcorn.

Do you believe God created the earth in six literal 24-hour days?

The tragedy is that American Christianity has so closely allied itself with the government of the day that the transcendent Gospel has become submerged in the world’s values.

–David Alan Black, The Jesus Paradigm by pg. 66

Quoted in TC’s review of the book.

I hate politics. (That’s not Black’s point though.)

Here is a light version of Around the Web. See the the one Louis posted a couple of days ago which has more links.

Audio Lectures: Gordon Fee on the Epistle to the Philippians
I haven’t listened to these but read his commentary on Philippians which is excellent.

Here is another T4G video of a pastor’s study:
Ligon Duncan’s Study at Between Two Worlds
See the others at their video site on both pages.

Released This Week: By Grace Alone by Sinclair Ferguson
I read and reviewed his book In Christ Alone and thought it was one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. I’ve reviewed five books for Reformation Trust and thought I was done for a while but now this one comes up. He may become one of my favorite authors. I have his book on the Sermon on the Mount on my wish list.

We’ve all see those pictures of drops of liquid but I think these are especially interesting:
Highspeed Photography: Drops
Just think, this happens all day everyday and we don’t even realize it. God sees all of the things we can’t and enjoys them because he created them.

I would like to give away some of my images for use in web pages, blogs, etc.

Click on it to see a larger higher quality image. You can download the file directly if that doesn’t work.

This photo may not be usable for a wide variety of applications but it’s one of my favorites. If you would need other sizes let me know.

In the Categories area on the right sidebar you will see Free Photos. This category will only be used for free photos so that you can click on that to see them all.

These images may be used for the web for non-profit use. If you use an image directly to sell a product, it would be nice to be compensated in a small way. If so, contact me using the address listed in the sidebar to the right. If you have banner ads on your blog or affiliate programs, that doesn’t matter. If in doubt, don’t worry about it.

Also see Scripture in Pictures for a lot more free pictures.

Making matters simpler for the enemy is the fact that in these days of “happy talk,” pastors, biblically illiterate parishioners, and thousands of churches that are theology-free zones, are virtual modern Marcionites. Marcion was a second century heretic who (to oversimplify a bit) embraced the “good” Redeemer God of the New Testament but rejected the (presumably) wrathful Creator God of the Old. Any discomfort with the God of the Old Testament smacks of Marcion’s heresy. To view the God in the Old Testament as different from the God of the New Testament is to expose how little we understand either.

–Jim Andrews, Polishing God’s Monuments, pg. 97

Without elaborating, sometimes when I hear people say certain things, I feel like saying, “Have you read the Old Testament?”

We’ve lost the fear of God. We’ve lost the fact that God is jealous and hates sin. I see this more than ever when reading through Numbers and Leviticus. He wouldn’t let any little tiny thing defile them and couldn’t be in the presence of anything or anyone who was unclean. And when we don’t understand that, we don’t really know God and we can’t more fully appreciate his grace and love. We talk about his grace and love all the time, but by doing that to the exclusion of other aspects of God’s character we can’t appreciate them as much as we could. We’re really missing out on enjoying God and more importantly glorifying him even more. Am I right?

This is one thing I love about the Puritans. They had that balance. And there are certainly a lot of Christians now who do too. For me this is the value of reading the Old Testament, using Psalms as a model for prayer, worship, praise etc. Spending ample time confessing when praying and when noticing things throughout the day (and asking God to point them out) etc.

I wonder if many people are afraid to fear God.

The Prayer of the Lord by R.C. Sproul

This is a Reformation Trust review. They send you a PDF file of the book, you review it on your blog and they then send you the book.

I use The Lord’s Prayer every Friday as a template for my praying. So I wanted to take the opportunity to review a book on it.

Like The Truth of the Cross, this is a relatively short book on a subject that has a wide interest. The reading level of this book would be ‘popular’ or a little deeper than introductory. At 130 pages it’s not imposing at all. Whenever there is a term that might need explaining, he does so concisely and in a well understood manner. As long as the read is familiar with the Bible and has read the Lord’s prayer, this book will be very accessible.

Sproul uses anecdotes sparingly but wisely, always dealing directly with what he’s teaching as opposed to trying to entertain or tell funny stories to try to keep the reader’s interest.

The first chapter is How Not To Pray. Of course in learning how not to pray one also learns in very general terms how to pray. This is a helpful first chapter that introduces the account of the disciples asking Jesus how to pray.

The main body of the book of course deals with each section of the prayer. These are expository (explaining what it means) as opposed to looking at it from the audience’s culture, point of view, politics, Jesus’ Jewishness etc. That would be for another book.

In the chapter on Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread, he writes of providence and provision as if they are synonymous. This was rather confusing to me because I thought that providence is God ordering of things and provision is God providing for us. I realize there is some overlap and in God’s providence he provides for us but more of a distinction may have been helpful so that readers wouldn’t confuse the terms.

Unlike many other writings and sermons on this prayer, Sproul spends a whole chapter on Yours Is the Kingdom which is the last part of the prayer that some Greek manuscripts include and some don’t.

Chapter 10 is Questions and Answers which deals “other issues surrounding the practice of prayer and the Lord’s Prayer specifically.” This chapter is a helpful bonus.

And yet another bonus is If God Is Sovereign, Why Pray? Anyone who wrestles with this idea will be enlightened and encouraged by reading it.

I felt this endorsement was the closest to how I feel abut the book:

I love listening to R. C. Sproul teach, and this book sounds just
like him—penetrating truths strikingly illustrated. His good
quotations and pastoral wisdom make him as easy to read as he
is delightful to listen to (and the short chapters help!). Sproul
clearly explains the Scriptures with sentences that are simple and
accurate. He knows enough to say important things concisely
and clearly—truths about the kingdom, the fatherhood of God,
history, and, of course, prayer. There’s even a helpful question-and-answer section at the end. This little book now takes its
place with the classics on prayer.

–Dr. Mark Dever
Senior pastor
Capitol Hill Baptist Church

For those who have read books on prayer that cover the Lord’s prayer well, books on the Sermon on the Mount or commentaries on Matthew, this book may be somewhat of a review as far as the chapters that deal directly with the prayer. If you recited this during church but never deeply pondered what it really means or are unfamiliar with this portion of Scripture, this is an excellent book for you.

Read a sample chapter.

See excerpts on Facebook.

Hardcover: 130 pages
Publisher: Reformation Trust Publishing (May 31, 2009)

Buy it at:

• Ligonier Ministries
• Amazon

I would like to give away some of my images for use in web pages, blogs, etc. I think I will do them one at a time. In the Categories area on the right sidebar you will see Free Photos. This category will only be used for free photos so that you can click on that to see them all.

Many won’t be large enough to use in print materials but I will try to get some larger ones up in the future.

Here is the first one. This is the full size picture. Windows users right click to save. Mac users are smart enough to know what to do.

Also see Scripture in Pictures for a lot more free pictures.

These images may be used for the web for non-profit use. If you use an image directly to sell a product, it would be nice to be compensated in a small way. If so, contact me using the address listed in the sidebar to the right. If you have banner ads on your blog or affiliate programs, that doesn’t matter. If in doubt, don’t worry about it.

Looks like Crossway has some good stuff coming up (gallery of eight book covers).

They all look good, especially these two for me:

I found a list too if Facebook is a problem:

• Scandalous by D. A. Carson
• Leaders Who Last by Dave Kraft
• Ruth: Under the Wings of God by John Piper
• Liberating Black Theology by Anthony Bradley
• A Sincere and Pure Devotion to Christ by Sam Storms
• Be Still, My Soul by Nancy Guthrie, ED
• Mighty Acts of God by Starr Meade

Mitchell at ve’al timkor is discussing the meaning of Genesis 6:3. Please go see his post and another thought . . ..

I read this in the NLT which reads:

Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not put up with humans for such a long time, for they are only mortal flesh. In the future, their normal lifespan will be no more than 120 years.”

So naturally at first reading I thought this is why the lifespan of Adam and his descendants living around 900 years and then they got shorter. However Mitchell doesn’t see it this way so I looked it up in other translations and found this:

Genesis 6:3 NET
So the LORD said, “My spirit will not remain in humankind indefinitely, since they are mortal. They will remain for 120 more years.”

My question is why are these translations so different? Any Hebrew people want to tackle it?

I can’t stop at the end of each day’s reading. I think I’m going to get done early. I’m just going through the Old Testament though and then keep reading about it.

Also see:
Bible Reading Roundup

Here is the most concise quote I’ve seen on Augustine’s idea of seeking and doing God’s will and it can be distilled down to this:

“Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart” (Ps. 37:4). Augustine said, “Love God and do as you please.” Because if you’re really loving God, you want to do what pleases him.

–Randy Alcorn on Facebook

John MacArthur spoke a very good sermon on it. Here is a quote:

You say, “But…but…but…but what about me?” Are you ready for this? Hum, if you’re saved, Spirit-filled, sanctified, submissive, suffering, and saying thanks, you know what God’s will is? Whatever you want. You like that? Do whatever you want. Go do whatever you want. You say, “You’re kidding.” No, I’m not kidding…No, I…you say, “What do you mean? How can…I can’t just go do what I want.” Yes, you can, because if that’s how you’re living, guess who’s in charge of your wants?…

But you really have to hear or read the whole thing to really know what he’s getting at. This quote is near the end of the sermon.

Lately I’ve been having thoughts about the genre of poetry in the Bible and how people can easily dismiss it as inaccurate or greatly embellished. I found a quote that expresses what I’ve been thinking (and is related to Genesis 1):

Second, “poetry” is not some lesser form of literature that tolerates nonsense. The Israelites did not think, “Well, it is just poetry so we can say some whacky things we would never dare say in narrative.” The opposite is the case. The Psalms were used in worship. The presence of the cosmic battle motif in Psalms actually tells us how important this notion was to them for praising the Lord. He is worthy of praise in part because of the defeat of his ancient “foes.” That is how the Israelites understood it.

–Pete Enns, The BioLogos Foundation

See the rest of the post at the link.

Disclaimer: I’m not familiar with Pete Enns or the BioLogos foundation. For all I know their basic tenets may be against mine. I just like this quote.

HT: Joel

McHugh identifies three primary characteristics of introverts. First, he says, introverts are energized by solitude and drained by social interaction. (Extroverts, on the other hand, derive energy from external sources and find both inactivity and too much solitude draining.) Second, introverts tend to filter information and experiences internally; thinking generally precedes speaking. Third, introverts prefer depth over breadth in both relationships and interests. They may look calm on the surface, but their brains are “bubbling with activity”; thus, they require less external stimulation than their extroverted neighbors.

–Adam S. McHugh, author of Introverts in the Church: Finding Our Place in an Extroverted Culture as quoted in an article on Christianity Today titled Introverts for Jesus, Unite!

Being an introvert and having chronic fatigue, social occasions are especially draining. Sometimes I want to plug my ears because of the cacophony of sound. For some reason it takes energy to speak and think when in a group of people. Most don’t understand except those who are introverts. But I know it’s good for me in small doses.

John 3:16 KJV
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

As most people know, this English is hundreds of years old and because most new translations are too afraid to mess with the Bible’s most popular verse (although I read that “judge not” has now surpassed it which is for another post). The first part of the verse to our modern ears sounds like it’s saying, “God loved the world so much”. But in that time it read like, “this is how God loved the world”.

Most of the readers of this blog already know this, but I thought I’d point out a quote by Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) which explains it in those words:

“And all this will be aggravated by the remembrance, that God once loved us so as to give his Son to bring us to the happiness of his love, and tried all manner of means to persuade us to accept of his favor, which was obstinately refused.” [emphasis added]

Which to me is some confirmation that this is really how it reads in English much less the original Greek which I can’t comment on.

So now we have some brave new translations like these:

John 3:16 HCSB
“For God loved the world in this way: He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16 NET
For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16 ISV
“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his unique Son so that everyone who believes in him might not be lost but have eternal life.

I suppose God does love the world so much, but God wants to emphasize what He did because of it. The whole gospel message would fall apart if we just emphasized “God loves the world so much” wouldn’t it?