I’ve been tagged by TC Robinson for a meme started by Roger Mugs.
“In an effort to keep it simple, short, and easy to follow, I’d like to challenge you to quote one verse (not one chapter). And then say what the Lord has been teaching you in one sentence (not one paragraph). Then tag 5 peeps (you know the drill).”
Psalm 51:4 TNIV
Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge.
God is the holy lawgiver and when we sin it is against the one who not only gave the law, but is the Holiest of holy who is infinitely more offended by sin that any people we sin against, and caused David to declare that only against Him was he sinning.
That verse always mystified me. In a future post I may elaborate on this regarding forgiveness which is more personal in nature.
I’d like to tag:
- Stefan - even though he doesn’t have time right now
- Mike - ditto
- Bryan - I follow Christ (or whatever it’s called now)
- John MacArthur
I never knew until recently that the Greek word most often translated as hallowed only occurs twice in the New Testament.
Update: As Peter Kirk pointed out to me, this isn’t true. While the specific verb form may be used twice in Matthew 6:9 and Luke 11:2, it occurs many more times in the New Testament. Please see the ISBE portion of the PDF file. (And read it more carefully than I did the first time around.)
Matthew 6:9
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Luke 11:2
When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.
I put together a PDF file of some definitions that I printed out for a Bible study using out of copyright sources and thought I’d make it available here.
Here is a quote from the book we’re studying:
By requesting that God honor his name, Jesus teaches us to ask God to make all creation recognize and revere his holiness. Of course, included in creation is the one praying. So in the same breath that we request God to make his name holy everywhere else, we also ask God to make our own heart honor him.
By praying, ‘hallowed be your name,’ we make God’s holiness our highest priority and ask him to promote his glory in, around, and through us. Thus the first petition of the Lord’s Prayer asks that all creation reverence God and that God exercise his will in ways that will advance his name in all the earth. The petition for God to hallow his name asks God to fulfill his righteous purposes for his glory.
–Bryan Chapell, Praying Backwards
I like what I’ve seen so far of the HCSB translation. I bought an inexpensive one on Amazon to try out for a while. If I like it better than any other I want to wait for next year’s revision to buy one I really want. Otherwise I’ll stick with my NRSV.
I went to their site today and found a very useful feature. The translation is heavily footnoted. If you’re unfamiliar with the site, try it out and click on a footnote, which is a number inside brackets (as opposed to verse numbers). The footnote will expand. (This works for me on Windows XP using Microsoft Internet Explorer, Opera and Safari but unfortunately not Firefox.) Some are explanations of a word, some are alternate translations and some are cross references.
http://hcsb.broadmanholman.com/crossmain.asp
Update: You can also hover over a bullet point word to see a definition.
I don’t like writing about myself but thought this might be a good way to describe the purpose of this blog for those who are too lazy to read the About page. <smiley would go here>
This subject has been going around the biblioblogosphere.
Rule 1) List three reasons for your blogging.
- To record what I’m learning and cement my thoughts.
- Writing things down often prompts me to look up more Scripture and do a little more research than I normally would.
- When I read commentaries, I usually post the things that stuck out to me about a month after I read them. This helps me to better retain what I learn.
- I’m going through the NT by reading carefully and reading commentaries to clear up misconceptions, false teachings or find Scripture for true teachings and (try my best) to develop sound doctrine.
- To have a repository for what I learn and for quotes, articles and blog posts that I collect.
- Hopefully others can learn a little with me.
This may sound the oppostite of altruistic and it is, partly because I don’t claim to be able to offer any new scholarly insights.
I would love to learn from others by their posting comments to this blog. The problem with that is my blog is a “tween-er”. I’m not a scholar and am not scholarly enough for scholarly people to want to read and post to this blog. (Although I do get an occasional gem from Estaban and others.) And this blog may be a little much for those who are casual Bible readers but come across it doing a search for something like Jeremiah 29:11 (link) or free will.
I’m so blessed in that God has given me a zeal for Him and His Word. I want to learn and grow more and more* in all spiritual knowledge and wisdom.
we have not ceased praying for you and asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of God’s will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding,
Colossians 1:9 b NRSV
*possibly a future post
We can accomplish more by time and strength put into prayer (and bible study) than we can by putting the same amount of time and strength into anything else.
–R.A. Torrey
Make up your mind that you will put some time every day into the study of the Word of God. That is an easy resolution to make, and not a very difficult one to keep; if the one who makes it is in earnest. It is one of the most fruitful resolutions that any Christian ever made. The forming of that resolution and the holding faithfully to it, has been the turning point in many a life. Many a life that has been barren and unsatisfactory has become rich and useful through the introduction into it of regular, persevering, daily study of the Bible. This study may not be very interesting at first, the results may not be very encouraging; but, if one will keep pegging away, it will soon begin to count as nothing else has ever counted in the development of character, and in the enrichment of the whole life. Nothing short of absolute physical inability should be allowed to interfere with this daily study.
–R. A. Torrey, introduction to the New Topical Textbook.
Deuteronomy 6:4-9 NRSV Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6 Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. 7 Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, 9 and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
(The Shema)
Matthew 22:37 NRSV He said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
[pruh-pish-ee-ey-shuhn] or [pro-pish-ee-ey-shuhn]
Propitiation: peace with God forever at CAMPONTHIS
Be sure to listen to the excellent Podcast which lasts about 15 minutes.
Some translations use “atoning sacrifice”, “sacrifice of atonement” or “expiation” (RSV) among others. If you want to read more about why different terms are used you can find plenty on the web by using Google.
These are the four instances the term is used.
Romans 3:25
whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.
Hebrews 2:17
Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people.
1 John 2:2
He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 John 4:10
In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
Many Christians have lost or never learned a sound doctrine of regeneration. They believe that the only thing that matters is their standing with God or with the church. They assume that a past decision for Christ or a decision to affiliate with a congregation determines their standing with God. Having made that decision, they make no effort to allow the Spirit to renew them. The Spirit is not imposed upon us, and Christians must engage in spiritual disciplines that make the Spirit’s work possible in changing our lives at the fundamental level. God’s Spirit empowers us to do what we want to do and makes what we want to do to be what is right so that Christlikeness flows from us naturally.
–David Garland, 2 Corinthians
Related Scripture:
Philippians 2:12-13, 2 Peter 1:3-10
When reading and studying I don’t want to just build up knowledge, especially not knowledge that “puffs up”. (1 Corinthians 8:1) In addition to praying prior to each time I read and study I have come up with some indicators.
1) Does what I read and study cause me to pray about what I’m learning or being convicted of?
2) Do I ponder and meditate on what I’m reading?
3) Is what I’m learning producing change?
4) Does what I’m learning cause me to worship God?
5) Am I growing more humble with an attitude of fear and trembling instead of being puffed up?
Proverbs 9:10
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.
Do you have anything to add? Since there aren’t many reading this blog I know I may be risking silence as I shout alone in my little corner of cyberspace.
Why Study The Bible?
Also:
Understand the priority the Bible gives to the Bible - especially reading it. The Kings of Israel were required to read the Law closely enough to make their own hand-written copy (Deut 17:18-20). This makes sense, after all how can one lead a people by something he has never read? Paul also writes to Timothy and tells him to think over what he writes (2 Tim 2:7). This implies he has read Paul’s words and should do so over and over again. If the Bible is God’s Word, then we should we make our life’s goal to know it inside and out. We should knows its every nook and cranny, the famous passages and the obscure ones. For to know well God’s Word is to know well the Author of the Word.
From: Are Christians Still a People of the Book?
1 Timothy 4:13
Till I come, give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine.
Supplements
Galatians
Please excuse this post for being like a rough draft. I spent too much time on it already. If you can make it to the end you will either be rewarded, frustrated or wonder why I’m writing about things you already know.
Galatians 2:16 NRSV yet we know that a person is justified not by the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ. And we have come to believe in Christ Jesus, so that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by doing the works of the law, because no one will be justified by the works of the law.
Most of us believe that works (of the law) will not save us and it is by God’s grace through faith in/of Christ that we are saved. Longenecker defines Paul’s use of “the law” as:
Paul adds another dimension to this in his letter to the Galatians. He is also saying that the law can’t add anything to what Christ has done for us nor can it perfect our salvation. There is no supplement regarding our standing before God. If we “obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thess 5:9) and then try to perfect it by works of the law, we are going backwards:
Galatians 3:3 NRSV Are you so foolish? Having started with the Spirit, are you now ending with the flesh?
Longenecker says,
Longenecker quotes Betz,
Longenecker:
It’s interesting to note that whenever Paul mentions Abraham and the covenant, he never mentions circumcision, which is one of the ‘works of the law’ that the Judaizers where claiming the Galatians needed to perform. The promise of Abraham did not come through the law but through the righteousness of faith (Rom 4:11-13; also see 1 Cor 7:19).
Galatians 3:6-18 NRSV Just as Abraham “believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,” so, you see, those who believe are the descendants of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, declared the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the Gentiles shall be blessed in you.” For this reason, those who believe are blessed with Abraham who believed. For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not observe and obey all the things written in the book of the law.” Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law; for “The one who is righteous will live by faith.” But the law does not rest on faith; on the contrary, “Whoever does the works of the law will live by them.” Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”— in order that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith. Brothers and sisters, I give an example from daily life: once a person’s will has been ratified, no one adds to it or annuls it. Now the promises were made to Abraham and to his offspring; it does not say, “And to offsprings,” as of many; but it says, “And to your offspring,” that is, to one person, who is Christ. My point is this: the law, which came four hundred thirty years later, does not annul a covenant previously ratified by God, so as to nullify the promise. For if the inheritance comes from the law, it no longer comes from the promise; but God granted it to Abraham through the promise.
Galatians 5:18 NRSV But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not subject to the law.
*According to Longenecker, nomism is “expressing their Christian convictions in their lifestyle in ways compatible with Jewish tradition” which was not to be foisted on the Gentile Galatians. Although, “To be a Jewish believer in Jesus did not mean turning one’s back on one’s own culture or nation. Yet no longer could it be argued that circumcision, Jewish dietary laws, following distinctly Jewish ethical precepts, or any other matter having to do with a Jewish lifestyle were requisite for the life of faith.”
Update: Please see the first comment by Bryan.