In a moment of weakness* I prayed for my NFL team today (they won). If I’m not careful, next I’ll be quoting Scripture as if it applies to winning a championship or a gold medal.

How many times have we heard, “I can do all things through him who strengthens me”? (Phil 4:13 ESV) And it’s only quoted by those who are successful of course. This is similar to the non-Biblical, “you can do whatever you put your mind to” except with the Biblical version God will help you be what you think you should be. One reading through Proverbs (or just James 4:13-15) should rectify that.

To make a point, how about a selective quote of:

Philippians 4:12-13 TNIV
I know what it is to be in need. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, hungry [and] living in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

This applies more to the poor and the weak.

Full quote so as not to misuse Scripture:

Philippians 4:10-13 TNIV
I rejoiced greatly in the Lord that at last you renewed your concern for me. Indeed, you were concerned, but you had no opportunity to show it. 11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Another confession: When I was the age of these fine young athletes and devout Christians, I also took verses out by themselves and used their apparent meaning for my own purposes and still do on occasion when I’m not careful.

But I would think it’s better to get Scripture out there than not. Would you agree?

*I’m not doing very well right now. If you could pray for me I’d appreciate it. I’d like the comments to pertain to the post though. I’ll remove this when I come out of it.

isn’t as hard as you may think. This is my view which sounds like an expansion of Augustine’s view. I believe it’s also similar to Gary Friesen’s view in his book Decision Making and the Will of God: A Biblical Alternative to the Traditional View although it’s been over a decade since I read it.

HT: Challies.com

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

I have the edition that’s has a red cover and red on the outside of the pages and it’s like a pew Bible. I’m wondering if the one with the green cover is any different.

(I didn’t know if I should capitalize the J. I did out of respect for Himself.) Don’t people yet realize Jesus wasn’t born in Northern Europe? And that nobody knows what he really looks like? What really irks me is that Christian book publishers (even the good ones) put out books with depictions of Jesus. I personally don’t like images of Jesus at all which I don’t want to debate here, and I don’t judge those who do, but can’t they actually make an attempt to portray him as where he comes from?

One of the best images I’ve seen (click on it for a blog post):

I believe Nathan Stitt helped me with this image. If not, let me know who you are.

Sponsor a Child Today

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A couple of years ago I was seriously considering doing this and they had this same deal which I admit spurred me on to go ahead with it.

I decided to pick a child who was one of the longest waiting or more urgent. Sadly, these are the ones who may not be as attractive or a more desirable age. Don’t pick the cutest one who can already communicate well. Plenty of people will pick them.

Getting a letter in the mail is great. My previous child’s mom wrote because he was only three years old. Then they left Compassion because the mom moved. I’m not sure if the dad went with. There can be heartache. But we don’t do it (just) to feel good. It’s nice to participate in meeting the needs of others in God’s Kingdom by obeying Him.

Sponsor a Child Today

Come, thou long expected Jesus,
born to set thy people free;
from our fears and sins release us,
let us find our rest in thee.
Israel’s strength and consolation,
hope of all the earth thou art;
dear desire of every nation,
joy of every longing heart.

Born thy people to deliver,
born a child and yet a King,
born to reign in us forever,
now thy gracious kingdom bring.
By thine own eternal spirit
rule in all our hearts alone;
by thine all sufficient merit,
raise us to thy glorious throne.

I searched for a suitable video on Youtube and didn’t find one to my liking. Let’s just say I’m a picky former musician and don’t like certain religious things. I hope you appreciate the text as I did, especially those of you who celebrate Advent.

I’m so thankful for the encouragement for this blog. Some weren’t trying to encourage me and don’t know they’ve encouraged me. Most have been in person or private messages.

There have been times I didn’t know if it was worth it. Sometimes I’m just posting links and don’t have much to say.

One person said it’s a ministry. That boggles my mind. I never ever thought of it as a ministry. Some may not see it that way which is fine because I don’t! I don’t think I’ve ever said it, but my main ministry is prayer. If the blog helps anyone in any way that’s great too.

I mainly write about what I’m learning and just post some things I find along the way. I want to learn more from others than them from me.

Thank you for anyone who has encouraged me although many don’t know you have.

I also want to thank people who are praying for me because of all my difficulties. It really does make a difference. So many people have said they’re praying for me and I didn’t realize it.

I considered turning off comments for this posts because I’m not looking for that. I just want to say thanks and say how thankful I am with all the complaining I do regarding the various conditions I have. As difficult as things are I have a lot to be thankful for.

A meandering post.

Willow Creek made basically a thirty year mistake that lead untold thousands or more down the wrong path. It’s not nifty programs and growth in numbers that’s important or what the people of the congregation need.

spiritual growth doesn’t happen best by becoming dependent on elaborate church programs but through the age old spiritual practices of prayer, bible reading, and relationships.

It seems that Saddleback hasn’t learned from them either. But the pastor admittedly isn’t much interested in theology, learning how to interpret the Bible or scholarship. And on it goes.

This may be why there is some sort of a resurgence in Reformed theology. There seems to be a backlash of the post-modern (I can’t believe I used that term) way of thinking and a need to clear unwavering truth from people who aren’t afraid to lay it all out there. Of course a congregation doesn’t need to be Reformed to teach solid Biblical truth. There are plenty of all types are offer sound Biblical doctrine from pastors and teachers who care very deeply about helping people to know God better through the Bible.

What I like about Reformed theology is that the leaders talk about their beliefs without sounding defensive or having any qualifiers. (I like this one too.) They also don’t have any “best kept secrets” that some denominations seem to have. (I’m not going to name them.) People know exactly what they believe in. Again there are other denominations that offer the same conviction. When listening to or reading about Reformed doctrine, one can know pretty quickly if it’s not to their liking and move on to something else pretty quickly.

And contrary to popular belief, Reformed people have a sense of humor.

Here is a comment I found on a post by an Arminian to “those” types of Calvinists. It relates to relativism and certainty (regarding certain doctrine–we obviously can’t be certain about everything and need to embrace mystery and paradox) as mentioned above but it also speaks about Calvinists/Reformed being more gentle.

Religious hard liners are often those who have been victims of chaos. Religious softies are often the children of religious hard liners. Children of skeptics often seek certainty. Children of the certain sometimes wish for the freedom to doubt.

Being patient, kind and gentle is not necessarily the result of relativism but can be a product of deep faith because anger, violence and a need to control or silence others is usually the product of fear. I like it when Calvinism helps people become old and gentle because they have a deep seated belief that our God is all understanding, just and generous. Only such a God can address this world because we both can’t because we don’t know and can’t because we don’t have the power.

– paulvanderklay – link to comment

Calvinists–behave!

Post HT: Brian Fulthorp via Billy Birch on Facebook (not sure how to link that)

Also see:
Spurgeon: A Defense of Calvinism (and Arminians)

See what Joel has to write here. Be sure to buy books from your favorite blogger’s Amazon or Westminster or other affiliates links or books stores. I like to look at the lists at Westminster of what’s popular in addition to purchasing. You pay the same as you would going straight to the store’s web site. Help us out so we can get our $10 every three months. Mine are in the right column. Thank you for your support.

is my friend Stan at just after sunrise. And it looks like One Monk’s Journey Through Faith will switch too.

Two others on my wish list:

• Derek at THEOparadox
• Eric Carpenter at A Pilgrim’s Progress

A rare off-topic post here.

There are some people I really love that have a blog on Blogspot or whatever it’s called. I’m tired of having to log in to wordpress.com only for it to show my old blog and not this one, or using a Google account that’s different than the one I’m logged into for mail, or having to manually write in my username and URL, even though I have macros for those words.

I’m sorry. I’d urge you to switch to WordPress. I know there are many many people who feel the same way. I know you may have your reasons for Blogspot. I transferred my Suffering Christians blog from Blogspot to WordPress without a problem except for a few longer subject lines being truncated but I think that has as much to do with the theme as anything else.

I wasn’t sure what the subject of this post should be so I just made one that would get some Google hits.

I was looking at Suzanne’s Bookshelf to see what she’s been writing lately. (This post isn’t about her.) In a post called Jana Chapman Gates on Complementarianism she quotes Thomas Schreiner:

because of the different inclinations present in Adam and Eve. Generally speaking, women are more relational and nurturing and men are more given to rational analysis and objectivity.

– “An interpretation of 1 Timothy 2: 9-15: A dialogue with scholarship” in Women in the Church: A Fresh Analysis of 1 Timothy 2: 9-15 Eds. Andreas Kostenberger, Thomas R Schreiner and H. Scott Baldwin (Grand Rapids: Baker Book Houser, 1995) 145-6.

I like Thomas Schreiner a lot. I’m disappointed in this. It’s as bad as psycho-babble. I very much believe that any counseling done in a Christian setting should be based on the Bible, not the Bible plus… If we, especially Reformed people like Schreiner and myself, believe in Sola scriptura and that “God has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him” (2 Peter 1.3), then we shouldn’t need to rely on spurious descriptions like this or if we do use arguments like this, they should always be backed up by Scripture, not just human logic. (Sorry for the long sentence.) Maybe in the larger context it is, but I doubt it. If anyone has it handy let me know.

Some may say it’s obvious, but I don’t think so. Some people could see the terms used and think that men get the smart ones and women are just good with the children and being sympathetic.

What are some things that are in the Bible that show intrinsic differences between men and women other than any kind of roles which I don’t want to get into here? The only verse or passage I can think of is the “weaker vessel/nature/partner” (1 Peter 3.7) which I believe refers to physically, and being sexually and generally vulnerable to being dominated.

I like this video. I’m surprised at some of the things Christians use to entertain themselves. One example is Christians who play games like Grand Theft Auto. Do you know how absolutely mindbogglingly shocking this would have been 50 years ago? But for some reason, for some people it’s OK today. I have a story at the end if you want to read it.

This clip is of Driscoll talking about books for teenagers but I think some of the things he says, especially at the beginning, can be applied to just about everything.

I’ve been wanting to write about this type of thing and personal holiness, but I just can’t figure out a way of doing it. Maybe I just don’t have the authority to be writing things like this. So I’ll just show a video that’s close. Someday I’ll find something better. If you know of anything, let me know because I’d like to have something to point people to.

Quite a few years ago I took a self portrait of me and my wife at her parents house. We were under the shade of a tree with some sun coming behind us. I was for some strange reason wearing dress pants and a tie (I don’t know what was going on) and my wife was wearing a dress. The picture ended up looking very nice.

So we go to my grandparents house and show them our album with this picture in it. My grandma is like, Oh my, the sun is going through there. I didn’t know what she meant. She said the sun was shining through my wife’s dress and you could see her legs. That hadn’t even occurred to us. In my grandma’s day and age, that would have been immodest. Modesty is a very Biblical subject. I really don’t know if showing some leg in shadow is bad or not, but it just shows how we can not even be aware of things that people used to be shocked by. I wonder how many things I do or watch on TV that God isn’t happy with. I don’t wrangle over it, we just try to limit what we watch and live as holy of a life as we can.

For a long time I’ve been praying that I would love what God loves and hate what God hates, always seeking His will (Psalm 97:10; Matt. 6:33; Col. 1:9; 1 Peter 1:15-16).

Exodus 20:26
And do not approach my altar by going up steps. If you do, someone might look up under your clothing and see your nakedness.

I have a new photography blog that’s languishing. I asked about advice on promoting it. Our blogging friend Nathan suggested combining blogs which he does for all of his interests.

I know I don’t want to combine photography and Scripture because my objective with this blog has always been to stick to Bible and Christian related stuff. I don’t want to write about what I had for dinner and I don’t think others are interested in that either. Not that there’s anything wrong with that. I just want to write about, collect links and quotes and learn about Bible related things from commenters.

But it did cause me to think about combining Suffering Christians, where I mainly share information about things related to chronic suffering and Scripture Zealot 2 which is mainly just for myself for keeping track of what I’m reading and studying.

The topic has changed from promotion to saving time, making these other things visible here and organization.

Some of the suffering stuff might be a little much for some people but then again we all need to be prepared as well as we can and need to learn how to deal with people who are suffering (although all of you who comment here are so great you seem to know that already). And I don’t want to bore people with my personal stuff about what I’m reading.

I’m not sure if it would really save time. I would either write stuff here or somewhere else. But more people may see it here. Let me know what you think.

Some people have been writing eclectic stream of thought posts and I thought I would give it a try. It’s much easier than trying to write a real and intelligent post anyway.

I had lower back surgery three weeks ago. A double fusion of S4 – S1, laminectomy/decompression and removal of scar tissue from a previous surgery. The doctor said the surgery was textbook. The post op was not. For at least half a day, probably more, my morphine was unknowingly dripping on the floor instead of going into me. So I had no pain medication for quite a while. I’ve never felt so much pain in my life. They also kept getting my other psych meds wrong. I had an anxiety attack and was sweating so much for two days the bed was soaked. I couldn’t sleep much because of pain and people parading through my room at all hours of the day and night. I’m still traumatized by the whole experience.

Since then my mobility has steadily increased, my exercises are improving and the pain has gone down somewhat. I won’t know if the bone is starting to fuse well until three weeks from now when I get the first x-ray.

For the first time in a long time my faith is really being tested. I’m having a hard time trusting God for anything. I’m doing all my devotional stuff and have started doing my ‘extra’ reading again as I become more coherent after surgery but it’s been tough. I’m scared the bone won’t fuse and I’ll have to go back for more surgery. Seems like I’m just scared of everything. I’m praying constantly but not getting much help yet. It’s very inconsistent from day to day.

Friends on Facebook gave me:
“…if we are faithless, he remains faithful– for he cannot deny himself.” (2 Timothy 2:13)

In distress you called, and I delivered you; (Psalm 81:7a ESV)

2 Corinthians 12:9
9 But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Robert Jimenez is starting a series called: Has inerrancy outlived it’s usefulness? Part One. Many people are excited about this one. Tune in if you’re interested.

I believe the Bible is inerrant. Meaning I believe all of it is true. I’m thankful that the majority of people on the major Bible translation committees feel the same. It seems that there are many different definitions and modernistic baggage so that it’s not helpful anymore. I’m not always up to speed on how these terms morph, but I’m not really concerned so much. If it’s a dirty word then I’ll just say that I believe all of the Bible is true. It’s not high on my priority list of things to read right now but I did read an article I liked for the most part:
IS THE BIBLE INERRANT?

A verse about me:

For the first time in a year and a half I’ve slacked off on learning Greek. It’s hard to concentrate on anything when in pain and on pain meds (and sleeping a lot) but I think it’s about time I got back to it.

Right now in addition to reading the OT I’m still reading Ryken’s Bible Handbook and Unburdened, which is about worry and is very timely, at the same time. I will eventually be reviewing both of them.

I would really like to be blogging more, especially about what I’m reading in the OT, but it’s difficult right now. I remember “The August Experiment” last year when I posted at least once, usually multiple times a day and the stats went way up. I really don’t care about stats though.

I better stop there or I’ll run way beyond most people’s internet attention span. Thanks for reading.

Just passing it along
I Love Jesus & I Accept Evolution
which is the name of a book he reviews.

I have begun to make another pass through the entire ISV New Testament in preparation for the publication of the entire Bible next year. I welcome your comments and suggestions. One passage that will require a great deal of thought is Heb. 13:17. How should it be rendered? In other words, do elders rule? The Greek here is most revealing. Any thoughts?

Dave Black Online
Contact Dave
isv.org

Amos 4:13
For the LORD is the one who shaped the mountains, (NLT)

Could it be that God created the mountains right from the beginning? And trees with rings that we use to age them, and layers of rock and soil, and coral reefs? And animals with characteristics built-in so they can survive and thrive in their environment in a general sense. Adam and Eve as people like we are with food and animals that reproduce their own kind? Getting light from the stars to the earth at the time of creation? Is it not possible? Is that so far fetched for the Sovereign Lord who did all of the mighty deeds written down as history?

When this scenario is talked about, many people say that if that is so, God tricked us. I don’t get that at all. If that’s tricking us what about Job? That was the ultimate trickery.

BTW, NLT and NET use shaped or formed–past tense and most of the rest use ‘forms’. I’m reading the NLT at this time and didn’t pick a translation just to suit my argument which is that I don’t understand how some Christians believe the theory of evolutionism is iron clad and there can’t be other possibilities with a miracle working God.

I’m writing about evolution a little too much. Part of it is because in reading the OT I keep coming across things that make me think about it but also because I just haven’t taken the time to write much lately.

Amos 5:8
It is the LORD who created the stars, the Pleiades and Orion. He turns darkness into morning and day into night. He draws up water from the oceans and pours it down as rain on the land. The LORD is his name!

I’m in a dark mood. I saw a silly, trite poem and put a different, half joking ending on it:

To be a star, you must shine your own light, follow your own path, and don’t worry about the darkness, for that is when the most unimaginably bad things could happen to you at any time. Remember, things can always get worse.

Where will you get help? Thank God his children can take refuge in him.

I’ve been posting about Genesis, evolution, Adam and Eve being real, individual people, etc. lately. Some say that people like me think that’s the only important part of the Bible. (Nobody has accused me personally of this.) I’ve only posted on it a few times in the last few months. Others are more adamant about it.

While I don’t use it as a litmus test–I respect those who see Genesis 1 as some sort of poetry or allegory with much thought and respect and are true brothers and sisters, then there are those who just plain don’t believe what the Bible says.

If God just created some stuff with a bang and then let things evolve from there, that doesn’t give me much hope. All the other parts of the Bible that speak of creation as literal and Adam and Eve as individuals (like Jesus) are suspect. Psalm 139:13ff doesn’t really mean much. God may not have really known how I’d turn out. He’ll just deal with things the best he can and make them good afterward (mangling Romans 8:28).

I praise God for creating people, animals and plants that reproduce their own kind. I praise God for knowing exactly how I would turn out and the problems I would face. I praise God for also holding human beings responsible for their actions so that evil will be punished in the end and God will be glorified and suffering people will be repaid so many times over it can’t be counted (Romans 8:18).

That’s my ramble for the night. Hopefully I won’t be too embarrassed when I read it later in the week.

Ecclesiastes 7:14
Enjoy prosperity while you can, but when hard times strike, realize that both come from God. Remember that nothing is certain in this life.

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.