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.

Since I’ve been posting so little I’m going to resort to commenting on other people’s posts. Or at least this one. For those who may be somewhat new to translations/versions of the Bible, Rick Mansfield wrote a very detailed and helpful Top Ten Bible Versions: Revisited (2010) which has links to reviews he did of most of these translations in 2006.

In case you’d like to know what I like (not that it matters), it’s very similar to him.

His list:
1. Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)
2. New Living Translation (NLT)
3. NET Bible (New English Translation)
4. New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
5. New American Standard Bible (NASB)
6. Good News Translation (AKA Today’s English Version; GNT/TEV)
7. The Message
8. New Jerusalem Bible (NJB)
9. Revised English Bible (REB)
10. Today’s New International Version (TNIV)

HONORABLE MENTIONS

The King James Version, English Standard Version, The Modern Language Bible, God’s Word.

——

My top 9:

His 1 and 2 are my primary and secondary.

I like the NET but some of it reads a little strange for me and I don’t like replacing fear (of God) with respect and awe, although I always use it for comparison. I love the concept of the fear of God. It would go to about eight for me even though it’s fine I’m sure.

NRSV is my #3 and was my main translation for three years prior to switching to the HCSB and NLT combo last year.

I still like the NASB also. I’ll take that over the ESV.

I also like the GNB (GNT on his list–I like to use the older GNB designation, Good News Bible, so that it doesn’t get confused with the Greek New Testament). Gordon Fee seems to like this translation as his go-to dynamic version in some of his commentaries.

I would put The Message at #9 for comparison purposes only. If you look real hard you’ll find a good verse or two.

Then I would have TNIV at #6 (NIV was my main translation for over two decades–maybe I’m tired of it) and REB at #7 (its predecessor, the NEB, was F.F. Bruce’s go-to dynamic translation from what I saw) which is a great literary translation. That makes nine.

But I mainly wanted to point out Rick Mansfield’s post and the links he has to his prior reviews in case anyone new to this kind of thing wants to go look it up.

Of course he was!

Ezekiel 14:14
Even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were there, their righteousness would save no one but themselves, says the Sovereign LORD.

I realize that Ezekiel is filled with dream-like imagery, but this message from the Lord (and the rest of the section) certainly confirms to me that they were real individuals. Not that I needed any more convincing.

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 don’t spend a lot of time listening to and watching longer videos and recordings but this is really worth it.

Gordon Fee – Interview 1 (does this mean there will be a 2?)

Big HT to: Near Emmaus

In an eclectic post I mentioned a series that my blogging friend Robert Jiminez is starting called Has inerrancy outlived it’s usefulness? Part One. I don’t agree with this but just wanted to pass it on to people and let them decide for themselves.

Derek Ashton just wrote a blog post commenting on the post by Robert. Derek can speak for me I agree with him so much so of course I agree with his assessment.

Both plan on writing future posts on this issue.

Unburdened: The Secret to Letting God Carry the Things That Weigh You Down by Chris Tiegreen

Tyndale House Publishers has graciously provided me with a review copy of this book.

If I were to use one word for this book, it would be balanced. Back to that later.

Right off the bat I have to say I don’t like the word Secret in the title. Doesn’t it say somewhere that there is nothing new under the sun? Maybe we’re above the sun on this matter. I thought we were done with books that say secret or cure or free from whatever. I rather doubt it was the author’s idea to put that in there.

Another small complaint is that Scripture references, of which there are a lot fortunately, are end noted–shown in the back of the book. I would think if not showing the reference in parenthesis at least they could be shown at the bottom of the page. I’ll be glad to look up the Scripture but having to look it up in the back of the book first makes for two “lookings up”.

This book was timely for me. I read it after I had gotten back surgery–a lumbar double fusion. My faith was being tested at the time and I was worrying about everything. Because of this book I made a commitment to worry less, with God’s help and direction of course. Because of the surgery, I read the book and am now reviewing it later than many other people so I will try to cover things that others may not have yet.

The book is balanced because just when I felt he was cheerleading about not worrying on our own, he wrote about how important it is to do it with God’s help. When I thought he may be writing about the power of positive thinking, he would write about how we need to not just stop worrying, but replace our thoughts with Biblical ones.

He balances our responsibilities with God’s, explaining both well from a Scriptural perspective in alternate chapters, including some anecdotes from his own life.

We can’t shed all of our responsibilities and obligations. We have decisions to make, tasks to perform, things to learn, bills to pay, and people to care for. We don’t live in a vacuum.

We can, however, cast all our cares on the Lord. That’s a promise–or, rather, a command. It’s an act of rolling our worries off our shoulders and onto his, fully expecting him to take responsibility for dealing with them appropriately. We absolve ourselves of the responsibility for determining the outcome and handle only the aspects of those burdens that he tells us to handle.

Most of us have read that sort of thing many many times but within the context of the book it’s good to review it again.

What and how God tells us something can be a sticky issue in other parts of the book. I won’t go into that here because it depends on your theology and view of what and how God speaks. Just be aware of those things when reading the book.

One portion of the book I disagree with is that, “Those who see themselves as adopted children of God in whom he absolutely delight find themselves growing in purity in ways that a person focused on his utter need for mercy never does.” The first part of that statement is certainly true. But Biblically we are to constantly recognize and confess our sin and grow in appreciation of his mercy. I will say that he’s addressing people who focus too much on their sin and not enough on being redeemed children of God, but I think he goes too far here. He gives no Scripture in this section other than being dead to sin.

The second to the last chapter, titled Praise, comes awfully close to the “power of positive thinking” type of psychology. In reading it a second time, I can see where he comes so close to that type of mindset, but then comes out of it by bringing the spiritual dimension back into it. I would read that carefully, but with an open mind.

Here are a few more quotes that might give you an idea of what the book is like.

God is deeply concerned for your body, and he does promise to heal us, but he is infinitely more invested in your heart. That’s where his Spirit thrives and does amazing things in your life.

We can never experience any kind of loss that he does not have some kind of provision for.

The fallacy of mistrust is that it doesn’t recognize God for who he is.

We don’t have to figure out the root cause of all our wounds and issues in order to deal with them.

But that’s the goal: deep-down trust that can count on his agenda to be at least as good as or better than our own. Then we can relinquish ours and rest in his.

I recommend this book. It’s rather basic and most of us have read much of what’s written (and I didn’t find a secret) but it’s written in a way that most everyone could benefit from. Knowledge of the Bible is necessary, but there is no deep theological or philosophical jargon that would leave anyone confused. As mentioned earlier, because of reading this book I made a commitment to worry less. That’s very valuable even if I disagree with some of it. On the whole I think it’s a solid book that will help anyone who needs to work on this matter.

Buy it at:
Amazon.com

Paperback: 240 page
Publisher: SaltRiver
Published: June 7, 2010

I love these kind of posts because it shows where I may have gone wrong or just reminds me how important context is and helps to interpret Scripture:
Most Misused Scriptures

Jeremiah 48:10
Cursed are those who refuse to do the LORD’s work,
who hold back their swords from shedding blood!

(This speaks about the Lord, His sovereignty, His hatred of sin, etc. not what we’re supposedly supposed to do in this day and age, just so people don’t get the wrong idea.)

Spend at least 5-10 minutes, five if you have an incredibly difficult time with this, and meditate on Ephesians 3:16-21. Or not even all the way to :21. I know it will be good for you.

I found some interesting resources on Habakkuk after following up on a quote found in Ryken’s Bible Handbook:

God doesn’t always change the circumstances, but He can change us to meet the circumstances. That’s what it means to live by faith.

–Warren Wiersbe, Conclusion to his outline of Chapter 3

You can find these outlines in HTML format at these links:
Habakkuk 1-2:4
Habakkuk 2:5-3:19

The outline is very colorful–literally. Much of Habakkuk is applied to our present day world and New Testament references are noted. There is quite a bit about Reformed theology throughout.

Another resource I happened to find is by Dr. Thomas L. Constable of Dallas Theological Seminary.
Notes on Habakkuk – 2010 Edition

I like this quote he includes which part of why Habakkuk is so interesting.

Habakkuk is a unique book. Unlike other prophets who declared God’s message to people this prophet dialogued with God about people. Most Old Testament prophets proclaimed divine judgment. Habakkuk pleaded for divine judgment. In contrast with the typical indictment, this little book records an intriguing interchange between a perplexed prophet and his Maker.

–Ronald J. Blue, “Habakkuk.” In The Bible Knowledge Commentary: Old Testament p. 1505

And of course there is John Hobbin’s blog Ancient Hebrew Poetry which starts out here:
The Book of Habakkuk: An Introduction
I think you can find the rest via Google.

I plan on buying Bruce Waltke’s two volume commentary on Proverbs. Would anyone want to dissuade me from buying this and getting something else? I want something that’s very complete and won’t leave me wanting. I can’t afford any others in addition to this.

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.

A while back I mentioned a brief blog post by John MacArthur on Christians and Cremation. Today, Justin Taylor let’s us know about a much fuller treatment of the issue on his post called To Bury or Burn: Christianity and Cremation. He gives a nice summary of a full article by David Jones, professor of Christian ethics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and a link to it.

I love it when Scripture explains Scripture. Whether it’s Paul or the other NT writers expositing the Old Testament, one idea completed in another part of Scripture, a verse explaining what went right before it, etc.

I read a version of the latter–Isaiah 5:7 explaining what goes before it in the first six verses. I feel like it’s a bonus.

Isaiah 5:1-7
Now I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard on a rich and fertile hill.
2 He plowed the land, cleared its stones, and planted it with the best vines. In the middle he built a watchtower and carved a winepress in the nearby rocks. Then he waited for a harvest of sweet grapes, but the grapes that grew were bitter.
3 Now, you people of Jerusalem and Judah, you judge between me and my vineyard.
4 What more could I have done for my vineyard that I have not already done? When I expected sweet grapes, why did my vineyard give me bitter grapes?
5 Now let me tell you what I will do to my vineyard: I will tear down its hedges and let it be destroyed. I will break down its walls and let the animals trample it.
6 I will make it a wild place where the vines are not pruned and the ground is not hoed, a place overgrown with briers and thorns. I will command the clouds to drop no rain on it.
7 The nation of Israel is the vineyard of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies. The people of Judah are his pleasant garden. He expected a crop of justice, but instead he found oppression. He expected to find righteousness, but instead he heard cries of violence.

Comments welcome.

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.

Joni Eareckson Tada to Undergo Surgery for Breast Cancer

Warning: This is one of those not well written and not very coherent posts.

This reminds me of my seemingly morose motto, “Things can always get worse.”

We tend to think that when something really bad happens to someone, that means something good is around the corner or nothing else really bad will happen. I have been told this many times by individuals, read it in devotionals, etc. etc. I’ve also heard that the Bible says that God will never give us more than we can handle.

Regarding the first point–this isn’t Biblical at all unless one is talking about God working in the trial, which is indeed eternally valuable, comforting, encouraging and edifying. But life isn’t always about finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbows and everything working out fine and living happily ever after.

On the second point, 1 Corinthians 10:13 is talking about temptation, not about anything we ever go through. When we are tempted by Satan or our own sinful desires, God provides a way out. We can run from it (Genesis 39:11-12). But I believe that to say that Job or Paul went through things they could handle is incorrect. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 1:8, “We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure”. Being suicidal is beyond our ability to handle. (This happens to Christians too.) Starving to death isn’t something I could handle. However, God does give us the grace to endure to the end without losing our faith.

One of the things I think about with this is to be as prepared as possible. Part of this is praying as Paul did: “May you be made strong with all the strength that comes from his glorious power, and may you be prepared to endure everything with patience, while joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has enabled you to share in the inheritance of the saints in the light.” (Colossians 1:11-12 NRSV) That’s a subject of another post.

In addition to writing about what 1 Corinthians 10:13 means and being prepared for suffering, I’d like to talk about how to pray for those suffering.

I’ve mentioned this before–if we only pray for healing, we are doing people a great disservice. God uses these situations for His glory and our good in one way or another. Healing of a physical ailment when we will eventually die anyway (I’m getting morose again aren’t I) is temporary albeit important. Praying for the spiritual is eternal and can affect others eternally also (as can healing). Using Paul’s prayers as a model, we know that what we pray for is God’s will. Physical healing may or may not be His will for who we are praying for but growing in knowledge, strength, working for our good, glorifying God–we can know that all those things are His will for those who love God.

In the last few years I’ve gotten one bad diagnosis after another. The latest is needing a lumbar double fusion with laminectomy/decompression with hardware. It’s been one thing after another for me on many fronts. I would hope that people praying for me aren’t just praying for healing. God has brought me closer to Him than ever before even though my conditions have gotten worse after being prayed over many times. In this rambling post, that’s what I’d like to leave you with.

Ecclesiastes 6:9 
Enjoy what you have rather than desiring what you don’t have. Just dreaming about nice things is meaningless–like chasing the wind.

Truth necessitates application.

–Eric Carpenter, Ligonier 2010: A Review

In his excellent review of the conference, Carpenter laments the fact that speakers spent little time on application. The only thing I can say in their defense is that John MacArthur has spoken at length about how he exposits Scripture and let’s the listener apply it. He doesn’t know everyone’s individual situation and there could be 100 ways of applying something either in insight or in practice.

I think preachers could give a personal application as an example. This helps people to know their pastor better and gives them an idea of how something written in an ancient text still applies to us. (Like the same powerful God who created the earth in six literal days abides in us. Ha.)

But the quote stands on its own and is clear in meaning.