Since my back surgery nearly three months ago, my faith has really been tested. For a few weeks after surgery I couldn’t trust God for anything. I was worrying about everything. It was getting out of control. No matter what anxiety disorders I have been diagnosed with (two), I’m still responsible for sin and that’s what worry is.

While reading the book Unburdened: The Secret to Letting God Carry the Things That Weigh You Down by Chris Tiegreen, I made a commitment to work on worrying less. This means I have to both strive to worry less and ask God to strengthen me so I can trust him more. I need to pray more in general and go to God right away when worrisome thoughts come up. Because of our human nature, most of us will have a tendency to worry at least a little and most of us can’t fix the problem on our own. I suppose that means I need to realize how weak and poor spiritually I am too.

Since then I’ve improved a little. It’s been tested a few times and I didn’t do very well, but better than if I wouldn’t have made the commitment. This is what I’d expect. It may be a lifelong struggle but there is enough room for improvement that I hope I can improve all the time in the large scheme of things.

In the book, Chris Tiegreen writes about not just not worrying but replacing thoughts with things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God (Colossians 3:1-3; Philippians 4:8). This partial prayer below reminded me of that and everything related to the commitment. (See Puritan Prayers) I’ve included links to two other blog posts related to worry and anxiety below.

Teach me to believe that if ever I would have any sin subdued I must not only labour to overcome it, but must invite Christ to abide in the place of it, and He must become to me more than vile lust had been; that His sweetness, power, life may be there. Thus I must seek a grace from Him contrary to sin, but must not claim it apart from Himself.

–Contentment from The Valley of Vision: A Collection of Puritan Prayers & Devotions, edited by Arthur Bennett

Also see:

• The Superfluous Shoot
• Do You Ever Struggle Trusting God?

Ephesians 3:17-19 REB
With deep roots and firm foundations may you, in company with all God’s people, be strong to grasp what is the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love, and to know it, though it is beyond knowledge. So may you be filled with the very fullness of God.

Now to him who is able through the power which is at work among us to do immeasurably more than all we can ask or conceive, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus from generation to generation for evermore! Amen.

Proverbs 1:5-6 HCSB
a wise man will listen and increase his learning,
and a discerning man will obtain guidance–
for understanding a proverb or a parable,
the words of the wise, and their riddles.

A few more things I’ve learned about Proverbs.

1. Like all of the Bible, one can never stop learning. Proverbs were written for youths but also for those who are already wise. (I wonder how many youth pastors teach Proverbs?)
2. All of Proverbs needs to be read to have a good understanding even of those that seem to “stand alone”.
3. Learning the book of Proverbs can help us understand other parts of the Bible that are ‘non-literal’ like the parables of Jesus etc. This is very intriguing.

Regarding #2, I think the best example in Proverbs happen to be two that are right next to each other.

Proverbs 26:4-5
Don’t answer a fool according to his foolishness,
or you’ll be like him yourself.
5 Answer a fool according to his foolishness,
or he’ll become wise in his own eyes.

Many others are spread out. Of course reading the discourse sections many times over is valuable too. Now I understand why Professor Horner’s Bible Reading Plan goes through Proverbs 12 times a year and why many people read one chapter a day all the time. I think if people want to pull one verse out and put it on a plaque and live by it they should understand it within the context of the whole book. I used to think that most proverbs can stand by themselves but now I know better, not to mention realizing they’re proverbs and not hard and fast promises. Myself and others have been very disappointed because of not realizing this.

My favorite New Testament example of Scripture interpreting or qualifying other Scripture is:

Matthew 21:22 HCSB
And if you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.

1 John 5:14
Now this is the confidence we have before Him: whenever we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (emphasis added)

And include

Psalm 37:4
Take delight in the LORD, and He will give you your heart’s desires.

for good measure.

For now as I study Proverbs for our small group I plan on going straight through the study guide and I read Waltke’s commentary after I’m done answering the questions for each chapter of the study and doing any other stuff. I’ll read two chapters of Proverbs a day throughout.

As an aside, God is really working in me. Since back surgery, life has been even more difficult than normal. My faith has been tested for the first time in a long time, depression, anxiety, sleep, pain and accepting what my life has become has been much more difficult.

However, God has given me such enthusiasm for studying Proverbs, I want to learn everything I can. God has given me the attitude of what’s described in Proverbs 2 (below). This is obviously God’s doing. And God has been working in my wife so that she has become more supportive as time goes on and loves me for reasons I can’t understand.

I hate my life but love God and my wife. I hope things can get better someday but these circumstances drive me to take refuge in God. I don’t like it but I need to accept it. If you’d like to pray for me, even once, that’s what I need most right now.

Proverbs 2:1-5
My son, if you accept my words
and store up my commands within you,
2 listening closely to wisdom
and directing your heart to understanding;
3 furthermore, if you call out to insight
and lift your voice to understanding,
4 if you seek it like silver
and search for it like hidden treasure,
5 then you will understand the fear of the LORD
and discover the knowledge of God.

Also see:

• Proverbs: Creation in Proverbs
• Proverbs: Fear of the Lord

Who’s Afraid of Inerrancy? is a great blog post by Kevin DeYoung who quotes Tim Keller and then writes some anecdotes that explain what I’ve always thought about the subject and still believe.

I believe the doctrine of election, because I am quite certain that, if God had not chosen me, I should never have chosen Him; and I am sure He chose me before I was born, or else He never would have chosen me afterwards; and He must have elected me for reasons unknown to me, for I never could find any reason in myself why He should have looked upon me with special love.

–Charles Spurgeon

HT: Randy Alcorn via Facebook

As an aside, for what it’s worth, I think the “doctrine of election” should be narrowed down because everyone believes in it unless they don’t believe the Bible. It’s what type of election. Spurgeon of course is talking about Calvinism’s/Reformed limited atonement type, which I agree with.

I feel the same way about what Calvinists refer to as “the doctrines of grace” as if they have it cornered. Everyone except maybe Pelagians believe that we are saved by grace in some fashion whether prevenient (sp?) or just grace alone without the person relying on their own ‘decision’ to be saved. I wonder if Calvin used that term in his language.

I must sound like a curmudgeon.

Our friend Louis let’s us know about a book called Good News for Anxious Christians and he writes about Romans 8:6 as an interesting example in the book. (I commented there.) On the book publisher’s page you can read a PDF sample and find the table of contents which I’ve listed below. Most of these are things I’ve come to believe in the last few years. It looks like it may be an excellent book.

Introduction: Why Trying to Be Christian Makes Us Anxious

Conclusion: How the Gospel of Christ Is Good for Us
——
Hint: Read The Ten Commandments, Proverbs, Jesus and Paul along with the whole Bible to read what you do have to do (you know that already) and don’t add any general principles to them. Check what people say and what makes you feel guilty with what the Bible says or doesn’t say. It takes more work but it’s better than just listening to human ideas that have been passed down which may or may not be Biblical. Do we need another reformation? I do, and my About page lays out what I’ve been doing.

The fear of the Lord is a mini subject of interest of mine. I’ve always loved this concept. I’ve learned some aspects of it I wasn’t aware of while starting to study Proverbs where fear of the Lord is key (Proverbs 1:7; 9:10).

I think there is some true fear there but it’s not of eternal punishment (1 John 4:18) or any kind of condemnation whatsoever (Romans 8:1). There is fear of displeasing Him as our Father (filial fear) and just plain fear because of how incredibly awesome (in the classic sense) He is. If you were to come into God’s presence I can guarantee you’ll feel fear.

I read the first two quotes below in the introduction to the commentary on Proverbs by Waltke which expresses these things better than I could. I found it at Monergism so I wouldn’t have to type it out and also include a second quote found on the same page.

“fear of the Lord” cannot be understood by studying “fear” and “the Lord” in isolation from each other. The expression is compound. “Fear of the Lord["] involves both rational and non-rational aspects at the same time.

–Bruce K. Waltke from The Book of Proverbs Volume 1, pg. 100

I suppose this is part of the reason I lament the fact that some translations have changed “fear of the Lord” to something like “reverence and awe” which just doesn’t do it. Even the NLT keeps the term because it’s both a traditional term and it explains the concept clearly which is the objective of the NLT, if I can be so bold as to put words in their mouth. Let the fear of the Lord not be diminished!

On to the quotes at Monergism:

“Fear of the Lord” entails…an emotional response of fear, love and trust. The unified psychological poles of fear and love come prominently to the fore in the surprisingly uniform way Deuteronomy treats “love of the Lord” and “fear of the Lord” (cf. Deut. 5:29 with Deut 6:2, and Deut 6:5 with Josh. 24:14; cf. Josh. 10:12; 10:20; 13:5). In Isaiah 29:13 Israel’s distorted “fear of me” is rejected precisely because it is made up only of rules taught by men. According to Proverbs 2:1-5, “the fear of the Lord” is found through heartfelt prayer and diligent seeking for the sage’s words. In Proverbs 15:33, “humility” and “fear of the Lord” are parallel terms, and in Proverbs 22:4 “humility” is defined as “the fear of the Lord sort.”

–Bruce K. Waltke from The Book of Proverbs Volume 1, pg. 101 (I added book names in places so that the hover feature will show those verses.)

The true fear of God is a child-like fear. Some of the Puritans used to call it a “filial fear.” It is a combination of holy respect and glowing love. To fear God is to have a heart that is sensitive to both His Godness and His graciousness. It means to experience great awe and a deep joy simultaneously when one begins to understand who God really is and what He has done for us.

Therefore the true fear of God is not a fear that makes a person run away and flee from God. It is a fear that drives him to God. Love for God and fear of Him are, therefore, not at all incompatible. To think that they are is to fail to see the richness of the character of the God we worship. It is to ignore the way in which knowing Him in all of His attributes, and responding appropriately to Him, stretches our emotional capacities to their limit. Scripture portrays the fear of the Lord and the love of the Lord as companion emotions.

–P.J. (Flip) Buys from The Fear of God as a Central Part of Reformed Spirituality

And another angle:

“Even the Christian must fear God. But it is another kind of fear. It is a fear rather of what might have been than of what is; it is a fear of what would come were we not in Christ. Without such fear there can be no true love; for love of the Saviour is proportioned to one’s horror of that from which man has been saved. And how strong are the lives that are suffused with such a love!”

–J. Gresham Machen

Machen (1881-1937) was Professor of New Testament, first at Princeton Theological Seminary, and afterwards at Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia. Published in God Transcendent (1949).
http://www.westminsterconfession.org/introduction-to-the-christian-faith/the-fear-of-god.php

(Inside joke: I get points from Esteban for that one.)

One more in part of a devotional by John Piper:

A Meditation on Psalm 2:11-12

Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all who take refuge in him.

“Serve the Lord with fear…”

This command does not cancel out Psalm 100:2: “Serve the Lord with gladness.” Serving the Lord with fear and serving the Lord with gladness do not contradict each other. The next phrase will make that plain (“rejoice with trembling”). There is real fear and real joy. The reason there is real fear is that there is real danger. Our God is a consuming fire (Heb. 12:29). Yes, the elect are safe in Christ. But examine yourself, Paul says, “to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you-unless, of course, you fail the test?” (2 Cor. 13:5). “Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). Confidence in Christ is not careless. Our security is rooted in God’s daily keeping, not our past decisions. ” is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory” (Jude 1:24). Part of how he keeps us is by awakening the vigilance to rest daily in Christ and not in ourselves.

Also see:
Quote of the Day: To Fear God (Ecclesiastes)

I believe the key to healthy Christian growth in godliness is a deep life in the Word of God (Psalm 1:1-3) in which we are encountered by Christ, the Living Word (John 5:39-40, Col. 3:16), in whom we find all the fullness of God himself (Col. 1:19, 2 Cor. 1:20, and a hundred other verses).

–Mike Bullmore

Many more:
What’s the Key to Healthy Christian Growth in Godliness?

This bud’s for you. Click on it to see a larger one.

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.

Psalm 46:6-10 TNIV
Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall;
he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The LORD Almighty is with us;
the God of Jacob is our fortress.
8 Come and see what the LORD has done,
the desolations he has brought on the earth.
9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth.
He breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
he burns the shields with fire.
10 “Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.”
(emphasis added)

In a blog post titled Most Misused Scriptures Doug Magnum says, “v. 10 is meant as a call to fearful awe in the face of that power, not quiet contemplation on God. … ‘Be still’ is probably better translated with the idiomatic ‘Shut up.’”

My wife had a movie on in the kitchen. It was Pollyanna, the 1960 Disney version. Pollyanna and a little boy were talking to a neighbor and the boy said something she didn’t like. She said, “Be still!” I said to my wife, Did you hear that? That’s like Psalm 46:10. My wife, who’s older than me, said she remembers her grandparents using that term as a way of saying Be quiet or Shut up.

So this is another instance where we need to learn older English usage in addition to learning how to interpret the Bible. This is an advantage of dynamic type translations where the meaning is translated into more modern English that we can better understand. But then there are advantages to the formal type translations. Thank God we have both.

This was a great example for me to see how “be still” was used in this way until not long ago. A younger generation can come along and not only take a verse out of context but misunderstand the English and come up with all sorts of alternate meanings, as I admittedly did with this verse.

This one has been going around fast but in case you haven’t seen it, this person does at least one design for each book of the Bible after he reads it and he’s not afraid to include some unpopular verses in them.
Word Designs

Ever wonder exactly what a tunic, cloak etc. is?
ANCIENT CLOTHING

Thinking About September 11th
and
When Worlds Collide

Is it progression if a cannibal uses a fork? Well, evolutionists, is it?

Since my photography blog was a flop our blogging friend Nathan Stitt encouraged me to post photos here. I really want to keep this blog focused on Scripture and Christian subjects but now and then I will keep posting Free Photos and maybe some others if I can keep a post on-topic.

I’ve gotten into macro photography lately and it amazes me what we can see through a macro lens that we would never notice otherwise. God created most of these things for His own enjoyment because we won’t discover the vast majority of them. It’s great to participate in enjoying God’s creation in this way. So I thought I’d post some macro photos that have opened my eyes up to small things that are common but not seen.

Click on a picture to see a larger one and if you put your cursor over one you may see a title. It may take a few seconds for some of them. Press Escape to get out if you have a small screen.

Genesis 1:11-12
Then God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants, and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit with seed in it, according to their kinds.” And it was so. 12 The earth brought forth vegetation: seed-bearing plants according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it, according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:24-2
Then God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that crawl, and the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 So God made the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and creatures that crawl on the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Do you know who won the Oscars that year? The academy award for the best movie went to My Fair Lady. The Oscar for best foreign movie that year went to Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. The top actor was Rex Harrison for his role as Professor Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady. The top actress was Julie Andrews for her role as Mary Poppins in Mary Poppins. The best director? George Cukor for My Fair Lady.

http://whathappenedinmybirthyear.com/

How far we’ve come in what we tolerate. Tolerance is not a good thing.

Ephesians 5:3-4 HCSB
But sexual immorality and any impurity or greed should not even be heard of among you, as is proper for saints. 4 And coarse and foolish talking or crude joking are not suitable, but rather giving thanks.

1 Peter 2:11
Dear friends, I urge you as aliens and temporary residents to abstain from fleshly desires that war against you.

Jas. 4:2-4
You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. You do not have because you do not ask. 3 You ask and don’t receive because you ask wrongly, so that you may spend it on your desires for pleasure. 4 Adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world’s friend becomes God’s enemy.

Leviticus 19:18
Do not take revenge or bear a grudge against members of your community, but love your neighbor as yourself; I am the LORD.

Revenge is my weakness regarding movies. I can watch (I actually turn away) when there is inappropriate intimacy between females. I can’t understand why men would like that. If it happens in a TV show, it’s not entertaining. If it’s a part of a storyline, we won’t waste our time watching the show. So I know people can tolerate certain things in small amounts. When it comes to revenge, if it is the, or part of the plot in many movies, it brings bad thoughts and scenarios into my mind that can last for days or more. I need to avoid those at all costs.

I think the verses above are very instructive in what we choose for entertainment. Being holy isn’t a part-time job.

Comments welcome.

Also see:
Can I enjoy Art (Movies, Music, etc) produced by Unbelievers and glorify God?

Kevin DeYoung wrote a blog post called Less Than Meets the Eye where he lists six ways of arguing badly and explains them. I was glad to see this one. I’ve heard the Galileo thing so many times if I read it one more time I’m likely to go out the window.

If you insist that God created the world out of nothing by the word of his mouth or that homosexual behavior is sinful you’re bound to have someone bring up Galileo and slavery. The argument usually goes like this: “I can’t believe you are holding to these outdated beliefs. Sure, you think the Bible is on your side, but Christians used to think the sun went around the earth, and Christians used to defend slavery from the Bible.” The idea is: “Don’t be too confident. We’ve been wrong before, so you are probably wrong now.”

I can’t recall how many times I’ve heard this line of thinking, but it’s roughly equal to the number of rainy days in Seattle. And yet for all its frequency, this argument proves nothing more than that Christians have interpreted the Bible incorrectly in the past (leaving aside whether the usual Galileo and slavery trump cards are as historically well-suited as people think). But the fact that Southerners were sure the Bible supported chattel slavery does not mean we can’t be sure of anything. In fact, the “what about slavery” argument is self-defeating because it assumes that we do know for certain that slavery is wrong. So there are things can be sure of after all.

Read the whole post.

I don’t usually write about what reviews I’ll be doing until I actually do them. What’s the point in wasting the time writing about what I’ll be reviewing and then post again when I review it? But I so much want to be like everyone else and be a cool and famous biblioblogger so I’ll try it this one time. If anyone can tell me why this is a good thing let me know.

Soon I hope to review Ryken’s Bible Handbook. This has been very helpful.

I’ve been eyeing a book called Helpful Truth in Past Places: The Puritan Practice of Biblical Counselling (their spelling). I thought I’d write to the publisher, Christian Focus, and they wrote right back telling me they’d be happy to send a review copy. I’d like to see if what’s written in the book can be applied individually to the reader in addition to a counselor.

Michael W. Halcomb writes about how College Press has put their entire commentary series online.
Free Commentaries: 25,000+ Pages

Also see:
IVP New Testament Commentary Series Online

If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.

–Martin Luther

The fewer the words, the better the prayer.

–Martin Luther

To see the context of these quotes, you can read this page along with other great prayer helps by Martin Luther:
LUTHER’S PRACTICAL PROGRAMME TO REVIVE YOUR PRAYER LIFE

According to Bruce Waltke in his commentary on Proverbs, there are ten creation motifs. I thought I’d use a feature in the WordPress RefTagger plugin where the name of the book can be listed only at the beginning (as it is in the commentary) and it will still show all the rest of the verses in a popup window. If you’d like to see a longer passage you can click More at the bottom left of the box.
Proverbs 3:19-20; 8:22-31; 14:31; 16:11; 17:5; 20:12; 22:2; 29:13; 30:2-4

It’s been a while since I’ve offered a free photo for use in non-profit blogs and articles. I hope this one is a little more useful. This is a Florida sunrise. If you need different sizes let me know. Click on it for a larger one.

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.

Most of my beloved readers already know about the NET translation but if you don’t, or if you’ve overlooked it, it’s worth investigating and using at least for comparison. I’ve often used it for comparison when I’m using a lot of translations for comparison, but I’m realizing more and more how much I  like it with some caveats. I let a few strange sounding passages in the past turn me off to it a little.

And of course it has the best footnotes/notes of most if not any other Bible that help you to learn why they chose certain words and phrases.

Here is one I looked up but of course you’ll want to look up your favorite passages. If I wasn’t using HCSB and NLT I would consider this at this point. I don’t feel like removing all the footnotes–sorry for the clutter. You can see there are 6 in this one alone and they can be easily seen on their web site.

Romans 12:1-3
12:1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters,¹ by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God² – which is your reasonable service. 12:2 Do not be conformed³ to this present world,⁴ but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve⁵ what is the will of God – what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.

Conduct in Humility

12:3 For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you⁶ a measure of faith.

http://bible.org/netbible/