Glory of God

here is a message from John Piper about why he finds the Glory of God to be the central point of the Bible and all creation. fascinating stuff.  the intro: How does the Bible orient us around the glory of God? I’m just overwhelmed, and have been for 40 years, with the centrality in the [...]

the Bible isn’t boring

John Piper on the Bible

biblical literacy

Austin Stone Community Church has just had the first week of a short series on the importance of reading the Bible. I saw somewhere the other day that a slight majority of professing believers doesn’t even have biblical literacy as a goal. Obviously, those folks do not really believe that all scripture has been breathed [...]

uniqueness of the Bible

Paul T. McCain posted this from Ernest Koenker about why reading the Bible is a worthy goal for the new year. The Bible is not simply an historical account or a literary masterpiece; it is the witness to Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and it presents the Deus loquens, the God who uses [...]

another reminder

Here from Justin Taylor is another reminder of the importance of an essentially literal approach to Bible translation. Quoting Robert Alter: My notion of effective translation of the Bible involves a high degree of literalism–within the limits of reasonably acceptable literary English–both in regard to representing the word choice and the word order of the [...]

Bible translation tribes

iMonk quotes Scot McKnight’s breakdown of which evangelical tribes prefer which translation of the Bible. Interesting stuff. I don’t know if he meant for it to be amusing, but it kind of is that too. Scott Mcknight recently came right out and said it: We do translations by tribes: “NRSV for liberals and Shane Claiborne [...]

the Death Penalty

Challies has reviewed The Death Penalty on Trial by Ron Gleason. It sounds like a interesting and useful book for Christians who have trouble with the Death Penalty as a possible punishment by the State. Go read the whole review and see what you think. I thought this part was a particularly interesting bit of [...]

Francis Chan on the Church

I am reading Francis Chan’s book Crazy Love. I am more than halfway finished with it and I will be posting more about it once I have finished it. I can already see that it is going to have to be on my read every year list. This morning I ran across an article he [...]

our culture’s effect on our faith

Al Mohler is hitting on a very sensitive topic with this post. It is a more complete picture of the effect than the slice that I was looking at in my comments to this post. I said the following: Number 2, there is a basic misunderstanding of the important responsibility of church membership in this [...]

a brilliant example of contrast

on August 1, 2007, an interstate highway bridge collapsed in minneapolis, minnesota. This collapse and the internet combined to allow all of us to see an almost real time contrast between arminian and calvinist views of God’s sovereignty in the midst of a tragedy. Many of you know that John Piper’s church is in Minneapolis. [...]

the Bible

another one of Challies’ Wednesday links was to this article. Ray Ortlund discusses some statistics detailing the shockingly high levels of biblical illiteracy in the general population and among christians. he then gives six excellent suggestions for dealing with this huge problem. an example of the statistics: According to 82 percent of Americans, ‘God helps [...]

read your bible

this is the time of year when people make resolutions. like Todd Bumgarner says, Resolve to Read Your Bible. Todd links to and describes a number of reading plans. here is a direct link to the ESV plans which are all on the web to use every day. here is the one that I plan [...]

newsweek’s stab at hermeneutics

I don’t know how many are aware of Newsweek’s recent cover story regarding homosexual marriage and how the Bible’s “values” support it, but it was quite something. If you have some time to kill and want to read a good example of how not to approach the scripture then this is a good one. Professor [...]

D.A. Carson

Here is a quote from D.A. Carson via Vitamin Z about why Christians are surprised by suffering. Here is his first reason: We may get the balance of Scripture wrong. We remember the wonderful triumphs of Joseph, Gideon, and David; we meditate continuously on the miraculous healing of the man born blind, or on the [...]

syncretism

Thanks to Al Mohler, I ran across this story from the Leaf Chronicle. Syncetism is the reconciliation/fusion of opposing belief systems. the Leaf Chronicle story talks about Christians using eastern meditation in their devotions. Like many churchgoers in the Bible Belt, Kristy Robinson teaches Sunday school with her husband and helps prepare communion at their [...]

Bible translations and study

as I said before, I am kind of a nut about Bibles. The bottom line is that I think everyone should get one that they will read and then read it for all its worth. Having said that, at Bible study yesterday morning the importance of using a literal translation in your study became apparent. [...]

Online ESV Study Bible and pitt-minion

Here is Matthew 5 in the ESV online Study Bible. pretty cool. Be sure to hit the “listen” button to have it read to you. Also, the pitt-minion edition of the ESV is out from Cambridge Bibles. Take a look at Mark Bertrand’s review and pictures. That brown goatskin looks sweet. My next Bible is [...]

ESV Study Bible is out

the ESV Study Bible is out. Westminster Bookstore has them at a good discount. Calfskin appears to have already sold out. that brown trutone is looking pretty good.

Psalm 145

here is a recitation of Psalm 145 on the attributes of God. Hat tip to ESV Bible Blog. here is the original context. here is bonus video of Ryan reciting Hebrews 9 and 10 also from the ESV blog.

Objective Bible Study

Challies has a post about the necessity of leaning on the Holy Spirit when studying the Bible to avoid the possibility of reading the Bible to support preexisting arguments rather than what is there. he first gives an interesting illustration involving the Loch Ness monster that wraps up like this. In the case of the [...]

harsh language

here is Mark Driscoll talking briefly about the use of harsh language in the Bible. Hat tip to Joe Thorn.

Bibles and blogs

I am kind of a nut about Bibles. Here are some links that some of you may be interested in, if you share my nuttiness in this area: here is the ESV Bible Blog. It is a place where they make announcements of upcoming editions as well as news and reviews of the ESV version [...]

piper on preaching

Stay with this clip (it won’t be difficult) till the last minute. Hat tip to Dodson

Romans 8:16-39

Adrian Warnock posted this video a few weeks ago of a dramatic reading of Romans 8:16-39. Enjoy.

Deacon stuff

I added the narrative explanation of deacon qualifications and role below the outline on the Deacon Outline page. Yes, that’s right, even more words.