Soon I hope to review Ryken’s Bible Handbook. This has been very helpful.

I’ve been eyeing a book called Helpful Truth in Past Places: The Puritan Practice of Biblical Counselling (their spelling). I thought I’d write to the publisher, Christian Focus, and they wrote right back telling me they’d be happy to send a review copy. I’d like to see if what’s written in the book can be applied individually to the reader in addition to a counselor.

Also see:
IVP New Testament Commentary Series Online

If I fail to spend two hours in prayer each morning, the devil gets the victory through the day. I have so much business I cannot get on without spending three hours daily in prayer.

–Martin Luther

The fewer the words, the better the prayer.

–Martin Luther

To see the context of these quotes, you can read this page along with other great prayer helps by Martin Luther:
LUTHER’S PRACTICAL PROGRAMME TO REVIVE YOUR PRAYER LIFE

These images may be used for the web for non-profit use. If you use an image directly to sell a product, it would be nice to be compensated in a small way. If so, contact me using the address listed in the sidebar to the right. If you have banner ads on your blog or affiliate programs, that doesn’t matter. If in doubt, don’t worry about it.

Also see Scripture in Pictures for a lot more free pictures.

And of course it has the best footnotes/notes of most if not any other Bible that help you to learn why they chose certain words and phrases.

Here is one I looked up but of course you’ll want to look up your favorite passages. If I wasn’t using HCSB and NLT I would consider this at this point. I don’t feel like removing all the footnotes–sorry for the clutter. You can see there are 6 in this one alone and they can be easily seen on their web site.

Romans 12:1-3
12:1 Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters,¹ by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice – alive, holy, and pleasing to God² – which is your reasonable service. 12:2 Do not be conformed³ to this present world,⁴ but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve⁵ what is the will of God – what is good and well-pleasing and perfect.

Conduct in Humility

12:3 For by the grace given to me I say to every one of you not to think more highly of yourself than you ought to think, but to think with sober discernment, as God has distributed to each of you⁶ a measure of faith.

http://bible.org/netbible/

I encourage those who are suffering to speak with a friend and perhaps a pastor or counselor. But in the process, don’t seek comfort by ignoring truth. When you try to soothe your feelings without bothering to think deeply about ideas, you are asking to be manipulated. Quick-fix feelings won’t sustain you over the long haul. On the other hand, deeply rooted beliefs—specifically a worldview grounded in Scripture—will allow you to persevere and hold on to a faith built on the solid rock of God’s truth.

What ends up in the heart comes in through the head. The current tendency to minimize Bible study and sound theology in the interests of focusing on the heart is badly misguided. The anti-intellect, popular-culture-driven “all that matters is my heart” is wrong, but even if it were right, we would need to be cultivating our minds in order to cultivate our hearts. God help us to renew our minds, set our minds on things above, and love God with all our hearts and minds, never supposing we can do one without the other.

What I liked about the book How Long O Lord by D.A. Carson is he didn’t tell cute stories and give trite little saying to try to comfort us. He wrote about who God is, His sovereignty and our responsibility, and theological truth which is what we really need to even be remotely prepared when suffering comes.

I would like to get Randy Alcorn’s book, If God Is Good: Faith in the Midst of Suffering and Evil. (I asked the publisher for a review copy but haven’t heard from them.) His latest book The Goodness of God: Assurance of Purpose in the Midst of Suffering is a condensed version.

Romans 12:2 HCSB
Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

Colossians 3:1-4
So if you have been raised with the Messiah, seek what is above, where the Messiah is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on what is above, not on what is on the earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God. 4 When the Messiah, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

Deuteronomy 6:4-5
“Listen, Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is One. 5 Love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.”

I mentioned a while back how to get a free copy, which is no longer available.

I like the typeface a lot. It’s kind of a modified serif that’s closer to sans-serif than most. This is my second favorite that I’ve seen behind TNIV’s Thinline which is pretty much sans-serif. Most people like serif (like Times New Roman) for some strange reason so I’m in the minority there as I usually seem to be. It’s fairly large, a little large for me which is probably perfect for most people. The typeface is the same as in the PDF files, as mentioned below, as in this edition of the Bible.

This is like a medium sized paperback book with good paper, not thin “Bible paper”, and very black print (no red letter either!).

The text goes way out to the far edges of the page so there really isn’t any room for notes and it may be a little tough to read the inside margins.

I was happy to see it come with a bookmark. I love bookmarks and collect them.

Also, it has two color maps. What would a Bible be without maps?

This edition of the CEB Common English Bible New Testament is $5 and can be found at Amazon.com but I would strongly advise waiting for the whole Bible. There’s too much good stuff on who God is in the other part.

At first I thought they stole my splash image but I guess it’s a little different. Kidding. Besides, mine is coffee, which you can see below.

They have a nice web site where you can look up passages of the Bible, compare editions and translations, read PDF files of Genesis, Matthew and Luke among other things.

Common English Bible Web Site

Click for a larger one

God is a personal God who responds. That is one of the great lessons of the psalms; it is one of the grand assumptions of the prayers of Paul.

…

“The degree of our peace of mind is tied to our prayer life (Philippians 4:6-7). This is not because prayer is psychologically soothing, but because we address a prayer-answering God, a personal God, a responding God, a sovereign God whom we can trust with the outcomes of life’s conclusions. And we learn, with time, that if God in this or that instance does not choose to take away the suffering, or utterly remove the evil, he does send grace and power. The result is praise; and that, of course, is itself enjoyable, in exactly the same way that lovers enjoy giving each other compliments.

–D.A. Carson, How Long O Lord?

Psalm 73:26 HCSB
My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart, my portion forever.

Psalm 119:28
I am weary from grief; strengthen me through Your word.

2 Corinthians 12:7-9
so that I would not exalt myself, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messsenger of Satan to torment me so I would not exalt myself. 8 Concerning this, I pleaded with the Lord three times to take it away from me. 9 But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Therefore, I will most gladly boast all the more about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may reside in me.

RT @jaredcwilson: Seeing the cross in Esther 7:10. Blows me away. The gallows Satan meant for our defeat is his own defeat.

I just read Esther and this went right over my head. Feel kinda dumb. I need to keep my eyes more open and also have help in seeing these kinds of things. It’s amazing how this is all over the Old Testament.

Eric Carpenter has been posting about Strawman Arguments Against House Churches.

I wrote a post a while ago on Hebrews 10:24-25 and quoted David Black.

Also see:
Who Were the Puritans?

Colossians is pretty special for me though, in addition to the Gospels, and Hebrews, and Ecclesiastes, and Revelation, and the prison letters and Proverbs. Next maybe Genesis? I like Titus and Philemon a lot too.

(For a while I’m going to try to post at least 6x a week. I can at least post a quote.)

Our biggest problem comes from the inside; the only solution comes from the outside. To get it the other way around is to miss the gospel.

–Tullian Tchividjian

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.

In the three strands of prayer mentioned a ways down, I seem to overemphasize #2. I find that in group prayer by and large #1 tends to take over.

HT: Between Two Worlds

Also see:
A Sample Prayer Plan

Another OT example of how much God hates sin and will punish it but also the lengths He’ll go to show his people how much he loves them and is fiercely on their side.

Ezekiel 32:31
When Pharaoh and his entire army arrive, he will take comfort that he is not alone in having his hordes killed, says the Sovereign LORD.

Ezekiel 33:11
As surely as I live, says the Sovereign LORD, I take no pleasure in the death of wicked people. I only want them to turn from their wicked ways so they can live. Turn! Turn from your wickedness, O people of Israel! Why should you die?

2 Corinthians 5:20b
We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!”

2 Corinthians 1:3-5
All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. 4 He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 5 For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ.

So is this a legitimate thing to pray for? What if God doesn’t want to put a hedge of protection around someone? I suppose you could say the same for healing. We pray for it and God decides if it’s his will. But just this one mention of it? How often does Paul pray this way (which I haven’t looked at yet). It seems to be one of those things where it gets started somewhere and then spreads like wildfire, kind of like saying “just” once a sentence in some evangelical circles when praying. (“We just ask that you would just help our brother to just…”) We really need to stop minimizing our prayers but that’s a different topic.

Jeremiah 44:25
This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘You and your wives have said, “We will keep our promises to burn incense and pour out liquid offerings to the Queen of Heaven,” and you have proved by your actions that you meant it. So go ahead and carry out your promises and vows to her!’

Then today I read a post by Jason called Why Literal Interpretation of the Bible Can Be Bad which you can read if you want to be consternated.

Also see:
Quoting Scripture Out Of Context

Two others on my wish list:

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

In the beginning (sound familiar) there is day with light, night with darkness, morning, day etc. “[E]vening passed and morning came, marking the second day.” Later in the Old Testament He tells us to keep the Sabbath day holy.

I never before noticed that it repeats “produce the kinds of plants and trees from which they came” twice, “each producing offspring of the same kind” and “God made all sorts of wild animals, livestock, and small animals, each able to produce offspring of the same kind”.

He also repeats, “And that is what happened.”

I see some emphaticness here of some sort. Just an observation of what I read, no real conclusion here other than He made specific things happen each day and things that produce the same thing that they are. Worms don’t produce humans etc.

By far the most important thing is God’s sovereignty. Women would say that God closed up their wombs. Then God would say to some that He will open them. People knew God had control over everything and that He is the Sovereign Lord.

I don’t think that they used this language even though He supposedly wasn’t exercising that much control and then humored them anyway by saying things like He would open up a woman’s womb when it was really just chance.

I notice a contrast between this and how most of us think and talk today about God and how much control He has over everything. Colossians 1:15-17 is reality but I don’t think most of us really ponder, understand and believe that enough. It’s a challenge for myself.

(I reserve the right to make up words. Also anyone who happens to say that the Bible isn’t a science book will have their comment deleted. I already know that.)

Also see:
Reading the Old Testament

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 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.