I’ve got to start posting more again. I know all of you have been crying yourselves to sleep every day that there isn’t a post here.

I’m going to follow Jason’s post on Fall Reading. At the same time, I’m considering combining my Scripture Zealot 2 and Suffering Christians blogs. Both of those have more personal things in them so I’m not sure. In Scripture Zealot 2 I often write about what I’m reading and studying in case I want to look back and see when I read what. So it may be better to keep it separate. I don’t know.

I’m getting near the end of finishing reading the Old Testament using NLT’s 24/7 chronological Bible, reading ahead a little. From then on HCSB will be my main Bible while using NLT quite a bit still. I’m going to be sad when I’m done. Obviously I can read it again, but I like what I learned and the process I went through and that will never be the same again. Of course, the next time may be even better.

I’m concentrating on the OT this year and because of having surgery and spending a lot of time sleeping because of medication I’ll be going at least through the first three months of next year too.

We’re going to be studying Proverbs in our small group starting next month. We will be using a NavPress study guide which is pretty good as those awful things go. I used that as an excuse to buy a two volume commentary by Waltke. I wanted to read through it while doing the study, but the study guide is more topical than going through it in the order it’s in. So I don’t know how that will work and if I’ll read the whole two volumes or just refer to parts. The introduction itself, which takes up about a fifth of the first long(er) volume, should be very good.

Then I have Haggai Zechariah Macachi by Evangelical Press which they sent me just to be nice because I reviewed How To Enjoy Your Bible. I will review that one too.

After that I’ll go through Creation and Blessing which is a commentary/exposition of Genesis and Handbook of the Pentateuch.

Then finally Finding Jesus in the Old Testament which I’m really looking forward to because I love reading anything about Jesus.

I also have Isaiah by Moyter but I’m afraid I’ll only use that for reference.

Depending on how much I can read each day, I’m guessing it will take well into next year. Then I’ll go back to reading commentaries on Luke and Acts and I have read one commentary for each book of the NT.

I just got done reading How Long O Lord by D.A. Carson which is a good theological way of looking at suffering, compatibilism and God’s providence. I will be posting a lot of quotes from that.

I’d like to read Randy Alcorn’s book on suffering, If God Is Good. I wrote to the publisher requesting a review copy and haven’t heard anything so I’m not sure if I should buy it yet. For you reviewers, maybe you know that limbo.

I’m behind on Greek vocabulary because of surgery and am trying to get that back before I get back into going through Black’s beginning book. I feel like I forgot everything. I may just read through the book from the beginning yet again to where I am which is a little more than half-way through.

I’ll stop there. More to come on these things I hope.

I wrote a post called Professor Horner’s Bible Reading Plan. Tim Challies just wrote an encouraging post titled Ten Chapters Per Day if you’re interested in reading more about it.

I was planning on starting this next year but I think I would like to start it when my Greek learning has slowed down and I’m mainly reading Greek along with something to help me through it and when I’m done concentrating on the OT for now. I’m thinking second half of next year to 2012.

I want to write a post about what I’m reading this summer even if just for me to look back on. Since it’s so short and boring I’ll combine it with what’s going on with surgery.

I’ve mentioned that I’m concentrating on the Old Testament this year. It’s been great. God is showing me a lot of things about how much He hates sin, what He’s willing to do for His people, how much He’s on our side and how He takes it upon Himself to bring us [back] to Him.

My extra reading and working on Greek has been pathetic. I’m sleeping worse and worse and sleeping a lot during the day. I’ve also had a renewed interest in photography and have been spending too much time on that, possibly to get my mind off of things. But I should be reading to do that.

Right now I’m reading Ryken’s Bible Handbook which is excellent. The chapter on Job is worth the whole book. I will be reviewing that and Unburdened, a book about worry, both from Tyndale, sometime this summer, God willing. (Is that a record for number of commas in a sentence?)

However, I will be having surgery on my back this Wednesday the 30th. It’s a double fusion L4 to S1 with laminectomy and removing scar tissue from my last surgery. This is much more major than my previous surgery which was a microdiscectomy. If you’d like to pray for me even just once I’d appreciate it. Please pray for the spiritual stuff as much or more than the physical as I mentioned in the previous post.

I know from last time it’s difficult to read anything that required much concentration when taking pain killers and being in pain, partly because I’m in a state of half sleep most of the time anyway. Being as tired as I normally am, adding medication will make it that much worse.

I’d also like to read and review a small commentary on Haggai Zechariah Malachi from EP Press and read Handbook on the Pentateuch, Creation and Blessing, a commentary on Genesis, Finding Jesus in the Old Testament and a few articles. I probably won’t get all that done this year.

As far as learning Greek, I’d like to get back up to speed on that too. I’ve been keeping up with the vocabulary and I went through the workbook up to this point, but lately I haven’t been moving ahead very much in the Black book.

That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

I love the book of Colossians and there are and will be quite a few more commentaries coming out on this. Someday after I’ve done some other things like looking further into the OT and reading more of Calvin I’d like to study Colossians as in-depth as I can.

If you’re interested and haven’t seen it, here is a review by Review by David Schrock at The Gospel Coalition Reviews of a commentary/exposition of Colossians and Philemon by Michael F. Bird

I’m still a little dizzy about the back surgery thing and haven’t been posting as much lately.

I want to write a thank you post to Evangelical Press. I heard about the book How to Enjoy Your Bible and requested a review copy. I hadn’t dealt with them so I didn’t know how it would go. They were glad to send me a copy and I wrote a review here.

Then a few weeks later I got a box with a bunch of books from them. I felt like a kid on his birthday. I received Happiness of Heaven by Roberts, Heading for Heaven by Ryle (I’m a fan of his and haven’t even read any of his books yet), True Love by Renihan, Fire From Heaven by Cook, Seven Steps to Glory by Allred and Haggai Zechariah Malachi by Duguid.

I know I’m not obligated to review these since I didn’t request them but I will end up reviewing at least one or two of them. I’m especially glad to have the commentary on the last three books of the Bible since my OT material is so sparse. When I’m done reading through the OT I plan on reading that book and reviewing it (unless I’m having back surgery or something awful). I’m sure at some point I’ll read the Ryle book too.

Then they sent me another box a few weeks later. This had Dealing with Dawkins by Blanchard, Every Word Counts (there’s that scary inerrant theme again) by Barnes, and Anne Bradstreet, Pilgrim and Poet by Faith Cook which my wife has already read.

I didn’t realize they have books tailored to my preferences even if I might not read every single one of them.

So I want to say thank you to them for being so kind to me and let you know about the review or two this summer (which you will have totally forgotten about by then).

Book reviews will be sparse for quite a while, not that you’re waiting for them from me with bated breath. Whatever that means. I’m sure it’s better than baited breath.

The next review will be Ryken’s Bible Handbook from Tyndale which I was very happy to receive even though I had another book waiting for review. (Thanks Laura) I’m reading this along with the Old Testament. This means I won’t be reviewing it until the summer. I normally review books within 6-8 weeks after requesting them and I always review books requested, otherwise I would consider it stealing. I will skim the NT portion and then write a review. I hope they don’t mind me waiting that long. I’ve found the book extremely helpful and interesting.

Another post on books and reviews coming up.

For some reason I had about $11 of eBay bucks that had to be used today. I’ve got enough books for a while but couldn’t think of anything else I needed. So I looked through my Amazon wish list and found The Book of Psalms: A Translation with Commentary by Robert Alter which has been mentioned a lot on blogs and is highly praised. The cost with shipping was $14.89 and I only had to pay $2.60. Did I do good? What do you think of this book?

WaterBrook Multnomah books is offering the first chapter of the book Radical by David Platt. It talks about how the seeker sensitive movement is not Biblical and how different Jesus was when on earth compared to those churches that try to soft peddle the Gospel. I think David Pratt explains these things extremely well and will be a real eye opener for some. He later talks about what our response to the Gospel should be and how we are to deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow Him (Luke 9:23). He also talks about the cost of not being a disciple.

You can read the first chapter online (PDF file). There is a web site devoted to the book here:
www.radicalthebook.com

You can also request a free companion booklet called The Radical Question here.

Excerpt:

Consider Mark 10, another time a potential follower showed up. Here was a guy who was young, rich, intelligent, and influential. He was a prime prospect, to say the least. Not only that, but he was eager and ready to go. He came running up to Jesus, bowed at his feet, and said, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

If we were in Jesus’ shoes, we probably would be thinking this
is our chance. A simple “Pray this prayer, sign this card, bow your
head, and repeat after me,” and this guy is in. Then think about
what a guy like this with all his influence and prestige can do. We
can get him on the circuit. He can start sharing his testimony,
signing books, raising money for the cause. This one is a nobrainer—we have to get him in.

Unfortunately, Jesus didn’t have the personal evangelism
books we have today that tell us how to draw the net and close the sale. Instead Jesus told him one thing: “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”

What was he thinking? Jesus had committed the classic blunder of letting the big fish get away. The cost was too high.

Yet the kind of abandonment Jesus asked of the rich young man is at the core of Jesus’ invitation throughout the Gospels.

TGC Reviews

I took pictures of my library and thought I’d show them to you. The picture you see below–that’s it. My whole library fits on one shelving unit consisting of five shelves other than some fiction books and a few others I really don’t like that are on another shelf.

On this post by Nick Norelli I have the smallest amount of books of all the people who responded. Nick said, “I don’t know how you do it. I think everyone who owns over a thousand books should send one to you as well.” I agree.

If you could help a poor (not really, relatively) boy out, please buy your Amazon stuff through the search box at the right. I will be putting a Westminster link there also.

However, I love my library and I’m very thankful for it. In a way this is a lot of money. I used to get all my books from the library but then was able to very slowly buy some books.

I disabled clicking directly on an image because it doesn’t work well in this case. Click on the link below it to see a HUGE one. (Be sure your browser isn’t resizing them to make them smaller.) If you’re on dial-up it will take a very long time. Comments below.

HUGE image

This is the whole thing. I couldn’t shoot it straight on because our couch is in the way and with my bad back there’s no way I could move it. When I’m lying down on the couch most of the day I can see the top half of it. I often look at it and remember some of the things I’ve read in many of them.

HUGE image

The bottom shelf is Bibles and a few books on reading the Bible. I wish I would have taken a picture of just the bottom shelf. Many of these are on or under the coffee table where I have access to them when I’m reading. I put those few here for the picture. The HCSB Illustrated is my primary Bible and the NLT Mosaic is my secondary. Many of the pew Bibles are under the coffee table.

The next shelf up is Calvin and Calvinism, then Philip Yancey (I’m sure he’s thrilled about that), then some odds and ends, then Greek and exegesis.

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The next two shelves are the reference section. Only the librarian can get these for you and you can’t check them out. I have one commentary for every book of the New Testament. My Old Testament material is severely lacking. The study Bibles are here because I only use them for reference. They are valuable because of not having much else in the area of OT material. I’ve read all of the commentaries all the way through except Luke and Acts which I plan to do next year.

HUGE image

The top shelf has my favorite ‘regular’ books on my favorite subjects. I’ve read at least 2/3 of them. The other 1/3 will keep me busy between the other things I read and study.

There you have it–my beloved little library.

One more below just for the fun of it.

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Pastor Jim at Ex Libris is giving away a copy of this book. See his review post for details:

Review and Giveaway: Holy Subversion, by Trevin Wax

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

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.

I started my first day of reading through the Old Testament using the NLT 24/7 Chronological Bible. I’m really looking forward to it.

I apologize for any repeats in these links.

• Louis at Church Connect has a list of many of the links at Justin Taylor’s blog–Between Two Worlds
• More Bible Reading Resources at Between Two Worlds
• Bible Reading Plans at Best-Bible.org (keep in mind the site is for sale)
• ESV Bible Reading Plans
• Bible Reading Plans at bibleplan.org – My favorite is the plan for reading Proverbs in a month which I thought was pretty humorous until I realized that they send you the Scripture for each day so that you can read it on a hand held device. They give you a choice of many different translations and languages.
• YouVersion has 20+ Bible Reading Plans mainly for hand held devices
• Professor Grant Horner’s Bible Reading System within this post with links to resources
• Professor Horner’s Bible Reading System: Interview with Tom Shelton and Rick Doctor, pt. 1
• Professor Horner’s Bible Reading System: Interview with Tom Shelton and Rick Doctor, pt. 2

Hold the presses! Be sure to see On Reading the Scriptures, Part I by Esteban Vázquez.

Nobody said you must read the entire Bible in exactly a year. You can read it in two months, which gives you a great overview if you’re able to do it. (I did it once and I’m not sure if I could do it again.) Or you can read it in two years. Justin Taylor points us to other plans in a post titled Bible Reading Plan for Shirkers and Slackers (also mentioned by Louis).

If you haven’t ever read the Bible you may want to start with one of the gospels, like the book of John. You can read three paragraphs a day if you’d like. Then maybe choose a plan that has an Old Testament and a New Testament reading each day. The important thing is to read it. One paragraph a day is infinitely better than nothing.

These are mainly for reading on a hand held type device but it could give you ideas for what’s out there in any case. You can access the plan through their web site, your mobile phone and using RSS.
Reading Plans

It case you’re wondering, as I’ve mentioned before I’ll be using the NLT 24/7 Chronological Bible for the OT next year and then for now plan to read using Professor Horner’s system in 2011.

Have you ever posted the same thing twice and didn’t realize it? In addition to the link above I also posted this on Horner’s reading plan back in August. My brain is pretty amazing.

To encourage a year of reading godly and edifying books, Working out Salvation with Fear and Trembling blog and his favorite publishing company, Crossway Books, have partnered together for the 2010 Book Give-a-Way! Each month he will give one brand new Crossway release to the readers of his blog.

Go to the blog for the details.

I didn’t read a lot of regular books because I read commentaries of James through Revelation and Mark, Matthew and John. My favorite commentary was Revelation by Keener, which I did a mini review on but I loved reading them all. I also had surgery in January and was kind of out of it (or stupid as I called it) for a while.

My two favorites were A Call to Spiritual Reformation: Priorities from Paul and His Prayers by D.A. Carson which I did quite a few posts on and by far my favorite was In Christ Alone: Living the Gospel Centered Life by Sinclair Ferguson. I definitely plan on reading both of these again someday.

In the future I will be reviewing The Prayer of the Lord by R.C. Sproul and How to Enjoy Your Bible by John Blanchard.

I decided after Black’s beginning grammar book I would move on to his intermediate-intermediate It’s Still Greek to Me and his beginning linguistics book. I have Con Campbell’s verbal aspect book which I won and will read whether I understand it or not. I have Wallace’s intermediate book within Bibleworks so I’ll see at that point if I want to get into that. Sometimes I want to spend all my time on the Greek and other times I want to just read other stuff. I only have so much mental energy and focus time.

I’m still trying to spend less time on the internet which is a struggle. There’s a lot of good stuff that I’ve learn from but a lot of things to learn which are useless and a lot of useless arguing and people who don’t fear God that really add unnecessary stress. Sometimes I admire the old coots who don’t even get on the internet.

The Gospel of Luke (The New International Commentary on the New Testament) by Joel Green

Acts (Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament) – by Darrell Bock

I now have and will have read next year one commentary on each book of the New Testament. I wish I could afford to have three in addition to one for each OT book but there’s always the library if I’m going to study something in-depth. I do plan on getting a couple more commentaries on Colossians someday.

The Prophecy of Isaiah: An Introduction & Commentary by J. A. Motyer

How Long, O Lord?: Reflections on Suffering and Evil by D.A. Carson

The UBS Greek New Testament: A Reader’s Edition – I may have been a little hasty in buying this but hopefully I will be able to make use of it by later next year. I appreciated Nick’s review.

Now is a time when people think about Bible reading and devotional reading for the next year.

Although I’ll be reading through the Old Testament using NLT’s 24/7, I’m extremely interested in Professor Grant Horner’s Bible Reading System which Nathan W. Bingham wrote about. I’d like to use that system in 2011. There is a link on Nathan’s site to a Scribd document of the system. However I found him on Facebook and found this link to a PDF file which you can download. Nathan’s site has bookmark images in Photoshop format if you want to use those for any reason.

Does anyone use this system?

For devotionals, there are a lot of hokey ones out there that aren’t much worth reading, especially if you want to learn something specifically about Scripture each day. Tim Challies has a Daily Devotional Roundup which includes a lot of good ones.

Do you have anything to gauge where you’re at spiritually? I’m talking about how willing your are to give it all up to God and how aligned you are to doing God’s will on a time line of a few weeks to a few months.

For me it’s reading Tozer’s The Pursuit of God. When I first read this short but challenging book, I just couldn’t get with the program. He’s talking about following hard after God, contentment–even with nothing, listening to and obeying God, humility etc. The second time I read it I had gone through a lot in my life and was so beaten down I was willing to give it all up. Since then I’ve wavered slightly, then got back with it, then realized I hadn’t given it up as much as I thought, found a lot more sin and had to go further to ‘get with the program’ again.

Trusting God by Jerry Bridges was a good help for me when I was afraid and needed to go farther.

On a daily basis I have indicators for if I’m angry, depressed, anxious etc. which affect my relationship with God but I’m interested to see if you have longer term indicators.

I have the prayers from the book printed out and go over those now and then which remind me of what’s written in the book. They are at the end of each chapter. I copied and pasted them from this site and printed them out.