Url Scaramanga over at Out of Ur a sub-blog of Christianity Today has five predictions for the year of 2009.
I just found out about this in my subscriptions in google reader. The Biblical Studies and Technological Tools blog has put together a short list of their own including a Facebook group. Check it out below.
Logos Global Bible Reader: A Logos blog post on this reader states:
This free download from Logos is a powerful desktop application that provides community and accountability in a Bible reading plan.
Once you install Global Bible Reader you sign in with your Logos.com user account and choose from one of the six reading plans. After you chose a plan (or multiple plans) Global Bible Reader will download six days worth of reading (so you can even read when you’re not online). After you finish the reading for a day, click the Done Reading button and Global Bible Reader will mark the day as completed. In order to make sure you don’t fall behind, you can set up Global Bible Reader to give you a daily reminder to read the day’s text. More than just reading yourself, Global Bible Reader plugs you into a community of people who are on the same reading plan as you…
Facebook Bible Reading Group: Wayne Leman reports on this option on the Better Bibles Blog:
Join us in reading and discussing the books of the Bible in 2009! We’re starting with Genesis, and we hope you’ll join us for as many books as you’d like–hopefully all of them. We’ll be using an edition of the Scriptures called “The Books of The Bible” that the International Bible Society has specially formatted for reading with greater understanding and enjoyment. The text is in a single column, and there are no chapters or verses or section headings.
Those of you who are already members of Facebook can attend the event by going to this Internet address:http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=40536860035
YouVersion: From the YouVersionBlog:
Our One-Year Reading Plan will take you through the entire Bible in 2009—just read the selections mapped out for you each day and you’ll cover the Old Testament once and the New Testament twice this year. Invite friends to join you in this journey and you’ll have built-in accountability along with enhanced learning.
And don’t forget that you can use your mobile phone to read the Bible no matter where you are.
There are dozens of Bible reading plans available on the web. You may have even produced one yourself that suits your liking. Justin Taylor has put together a helpful list of Bible reading plans for you to choose from which I have copied and pasted below. I personally have been using The Discipleship Journal Reading Plan. What I appreciate about this plan is that you have a set standard of 25 days and if you fall behind you can always fall back on the “catch up” days. They are also available in bookmarks which are convenient. If you do decide to use these bookmarks I would recommend laminating the them for durability.
One thing to keep in mind about these Bible reading plans is to exam and guard yourself from a legalistic mindset. For most Bible reading plans your hope is to finish in one year but even more important it is to be more familiar with God’s word. I know there have been times that I have fallen behind on my schedule simply because I decided to camp and meditate on a certain passage rather than finishing the chapters assigned. I personally have never been able to finish in a year but maybe 2009 is the year.
The ESV Bible Reading Plans can be accessed in multiple ways:
There are about 10 plans available. Go to that link to access each plan in any of the options above.
Here are the three I would recommend:
ESV Study Bible (ESV Literary Study Bible contains the same plan)
With this plan there are four readings each day, divided into four main sections:
The introduction explains:
In order to make the readings come out evenly, four major books of the Bible are included twice in the schedule: the Psalms (the Bible’s hymnal), Isaiah (the grandest of the OT prophets), Luke (one of the four biblical Gospels), and Romans (the heart of the Bible’s theology of salvation).The list of readings from the Psalms and the Wisdom Literature begins and ends with special readings that are especially appropriate for the opening and closing of the year. The list of readings from the Pentateuch and the History of Israel proceeds canonically through the five books of Moses and then chronologically through the history of the OT, before closing the year with the sufferings of Job. The list of readings from the Chronicles and the Prophets begins with the Chronicler’s history of the people of God from Adam through the exile, followed by the Major and Minor Prophets, which are organized chronologically rather than canonically.
I plan to print out this PDF, which is designed to be cut into four bookmarks that can be placed at the appropriate place in your Bible reading.
With this plan you go through:
If you like this plan, you may want to pick up a copy of the Daily Reading Bible (available in hardcover and paperback). It’s not in the style where the Bible itself is rearranged by readings. Rather, it is a normal Bible, except that there are marginal notations that indicate where you are to start and stop reading.
E.g., on January 1 you are to read Genesis 1-2, Psalm 1, Matthew 1-2. When you open to Genesis 1, you’ll see in the outer margin a notation that says in bold, JAN 1. That’s where you start reading, until you get to JAN 2 at Genesis 3.. At the bottom of the page of Genesis 1 there is a box that says, JAN 1: Ps 1; Matt 1-2–which indicates the other readings for that day. Hope that makes sense. (Here’s a sample from Matthew.)
M’Cheyne One-Year Reading Plan
With this plan you read through:
The plan begins with the four great beginnings or “births” of Scripture: Genesis 1 (beginning of the world), Ezra 1 (rebirth of Israel after her return from Babylonian exile), Matthew 1 (birth of the Messiah), Acts 1 (birth of the body of Christ). John Stott says of this reading schedule: “Nothing has helped me more to gain an overview of the Bible, and so of God’s redemptive plan.”
If you go with this route, I’d recommend D.A. Carson’s For the Love of God (vol. 1 and vol. 2 are available–vols. 3 and 4 are forthcoming). Carson’s introduction and preface–which includes a layout of the calendar–are available for free online.
Since there are four readings each day, it’s easy to modify this one so that you read through the Bible once in two years, by reading just the first two readings each day for the first year and the second two readings each day for the second year.
And here are a couple of plans from NavPress:
The Discipleship Journal Reading Plan
With this plan you read through the entire Bible once.
The unique advantage of this plan is that there are “catch-up” days:
Bethlehem Baptist Church makes available the bookmark-method for this plan:
Book-at-a-Time Bible Reading Plan
This book-at-a-time approach takes you through the whole Bible once in a year. It has two readings each day:
As with the Discipleship Journal Plan, there are only 25 readings a month, allowing for catch-up and/or reflection.
Robert P. George of Princeton University recently hosted a three day event centered on the social costs of pornography.
Consultation Overview
The consultation on “The Social Costs of Pornography was organized by the Witherspoon Institute in conjunction with the Institute for the Psychological Sciences in Washington, DC and held at Princeton University, December 11 – 13, 2008. The consultation was hosted by Robert P. George, Senior Fellow of the Witherspoon Institute and McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University. This meeting assembled leading experts in the fields of psychiatry, psychology, neurophysiology, philosophy, sociology, law, and political theory to present a rigorously argued overview of the problem of pornography in our society and to make recommendations. The primary purpose of the meeting was to examine the real nature of pornography in its moral and social consequences.
It is essential to note the scholars who participated in this consultation represent a wide range of political perspectives, but share a common interest in addressing pornography’s devastating social cost. At the two-day-long consultation, ten scholars delivered papers on subject-specific aspects of pornography’s impact, and approximately twelve scholars served as discussants throughout the meeting. This format ensured that the papers will be energetically critiqued in order to promote a fair and in-depth assessment of the issues in question.
Below are some papers from the event:
Hadley Arkes, Pornography: Settling the Question in Principle
Roger Scruton, On the Abuse of Sex
Pamela Paul, From Pornography to Porno to Porn
Norman Doidge, MD, Acquiring Pornographic Tastes
Jill Manning, The Impact of Pornography on Women
Ana Bridges, Pornography’s Effects on Interpersonal Relationships
Kirk Doran, The Economics of Pornography
Gerard V. Bradley, Moral Principles Which Govern the Legal Regulation of Pornography
James Stoner, Freedom, Virtue, and the Politics of Regulating Pornography
Hamza Yusuf, Climbing Mt. Purgatorio: Reflections from the Seventh Cornice
(HT: JT)
Here are some Christian-Flavored Resolutions from StuffChristiansLike. So funny….
1. Put the devil on notice more often.
2. Throw at least one movie, CD, or book away and not repurchase it three weeks later when my temporary guilt has worn off.
3. Win the “please turn to” Bible verse race every Sunday.
4. Be the silver medal friend that isn’t good enough to be in the wedding party but instead is asked to read “Love is patient” during the ceremony.
5. Read a one year walk through the entire Bible plan in roughly two years.
6. Master the “Stop that” church hand grab in case my kids ever act up during service.
7. Keep kids at camp or in the youth group from “making purple.”
8. Become a pro at the “whisper of importance” that sly trick we all do when it’s time to break it on down with a serious message.
9. Refuse to use the word “postmodern” in every sentence I speak.
10. Crush all foes in the “VBS Decorating Wars.”
11. Rededicate my life. Again. No this time I’m serious, it is on.
12. Find more subtle ways to discover if I’m with a Christian that will also drink a glass of wine or a pint of beer.
13. Look more spiritual, more in love and more generous at church. (Hint, don’t let your wife knit.)
14. Help tall people get baptized with less awkwardness.
15. Find someone that will paint my mural.
16. Get a holier email address and quit using Godisgoodandbeautiful777@yahoo
17. Retire the Michael Phelps sermon illustration.
18. Write better Christian hate mail.
19. Shine up less scars.
20. Fishbowl a church drummer.
21. Say “Razzle Dazzle” 22% more or stop telling people I’ll prayer for them and then not.
(HT: Vitamin Z)
Jess and I love our date nights. This is a movie we hope to see soon. New Testament scholar Ben Witherington gives a short review of the film. Below is an excerpt from his review. You can also check out the trailer here.
I have to tell you that Brad Pitt should certainly win an Oscar, and Cate Blanchett is marvelous as well. This is a very watchable movie, even if you are only watching them. But the movie is so much more than a star turn. And like in any good movie the cameo appearances and minor characters are interesting in and of themselves. The photography is grand, the sweep of the story is grand, there is tragedy and triumph.
Fred Sanders over at The Scriptorium Daily has suggested a weird, creepy, and unusually funny way to celebrate John Calvin’s 500th birthday (July 10, 2009).
I recently updated my “About” page to give you a little more information about myself, what my interests are, my favorite preachers, where I was born, etc. This usually isn’t a big deal to most people but in case you’re interested in who’s behind all the blog posts I have gone ahead and updated this page. It was also fun to work through these questions. I have been meaning to do this for some time now but never got around to doing it until now. I hope you have a very merry Christ-exalting holiday season! 
I thought I would post the song Jess and the bridal party walked down the aisle to earlier this year during our wedding. I know of no song that captures the beauty and excitement of the marriage union between Christ and His Bride (the Church). The song itself is based off of Revelation 21:2 and Isaiah 61:10. I tried looking up the biographical info of the writer but could not find anything on the internet. I first decided to use this song when my best man Adam Barnes used it in his wedding. I chose to use this song in hopes that those in attendance would set their minds and hearts on what our wedding was representative of, namely Christ’s marriage to the church. Marriages are the clearest and most dramatic expressions of our relationship with Christ (Ephesians 5:22-33) therefore we thought it would be appropriate to use this song rather than the standard piano or pipe organ (which also would have been amazing) for our wedding. Instead of allowing the intensity of the music to move people we thought that the lyrics in and of themselves were enough to do this although it was quite an amazing experience to hear the key change on the last verse when the doors opened and the crowd rose for Jessica’s entrance. We used a piano, a violin, and a guitar for the instruments and our friends Jason and Donna Shaw sang.
The actual music that you hear in the audio is not the original composition but was actually composed by Zachary Smith who was a member at the church I was at while in Lynchburg, VA. As you listen you can hear that it basically works itself out like a contemporary worship song. I apologize about the audio as it was done on the fly at a friends house on my laptop with a cheap mic. The person singing is my college buddy and friend Brady Rose.
**If you are subscribed to me through Google Reader you’ll have to be directed to the actual blog to listen to the audio track.
D.A. Carson is probably one of the most well-rounded academics in evangelicalism today as seen through his writings. This candid interview with Carson shows a side most may not be familiar with. If you are familiar with the way Driscoll conducts his interviews you will enjoy this discussion between them. So apparently there have been rumors that Carson has the New Testament memorized in Greek. Listen to Driscoll bring this up…
Get to know DA Carson, learn about his childhood and the dad that God blessed him with. Dr. Carson sat down for this interview while in Seattle for the conference A Day With Dr. Don, hosted by the Resurgence.
Tim Challies recently interviewed Ryan Ferguson on memorizing scripture. Ryan Ferguson is known for his dramatic recitations of scripture. I have posted a video of him reciting Pslam 22 as well as an excerpt from his interview with Challies. I was encouraged and challenged by this interview as I am sure you will be. Be sure to read the whole interview.
What are some of the blessings you’ve experienced in memorizing Scripture?
I have heard it said that joy comes through obedience. I would say that I have experienced joy in memorizing Scripture because God has asked me to hide his Word in my heart so I don’t forget him. There is a joy in knowing God’s Word. In a different way, I have been blessed to be able to use the Scripture that I have in my head in specific instances to encourage or exhort a brother or sister in Christ.
What benefit is there in memorizing entire books of the Bible?
If we value Scripture as God’s inspired Word, then I would suggest that the benefit of memorizing entire books is that we get to experience everything God wanted to say through that author at that particular point. For instance if you memorize Ephesians, you get to experience how the Spirit inspired Paul to write the first three chapters declaring truth after wonderful truth about God, and then you would experience the practical power of Scripture in chapters four through six as we have multiple commands given to us about our living. When we have whole books in our minds, we can experience the entire story of that book.
Here’s a little bit of seminary humor for your day. If you are familiar or are in the process of studying the biblical languages you’ll appreciate this video. If you’re taking Greek next semester you should send this to your Greek professor ahead of time. This would be a wonderful and hilarious way to start the new semester if he showed this to the class.
(HT: CCC)
I just found out that you can catch full episodes of The Dave Ramsey Show on HULU.
My wife and I watched WALL-E today. I actually knew nothing about the movie until I picked it up at our local Redbox. I decided to check out the reviews before watching the movie and it was given a 96% rating by Rottentomatoes (The Dark Knight was given 94%). For Rottentomatoes reviewers this was exceptionally good. After watching the movie I would have to say that this was one of the top two films of the year for me and I am not surprised that TIME named it the number one movie of the 2008. The movie is incredibly imaginative and the simulations are amazing but even more importantly the movie was overall a genuine delight to watch. One other great thing about the movie is that it’s rated “G” meaning you could watch it with the whole family. Disney and Pixar did a great job with this one. Check out the trailer here.
Penn Jillette of Penn and Teller, a self proclaimed atheist has given his thoughts on proselytizing after a Christian approached him with a Bible. Some prophetic words from the famous illusionist.
Penn Jillette:
“I don’t respect people who don’t proselytize. If you believe that there’s a heaven and hell, and people could be going to hell, and you think, ‘Well, it’s not really worth telling them this because it would make it socially awkward’…How much do you have to hate somebody not to proselytize?”
(HT: Ed Stetzer)
I have read through the Institutes and it was one of the best reads I have ever had to make time for. I would not mind reading it a second time.
1. Because it the most important book written in the last 500 years.
2. Because it is foundational for every Reformed systematic theology ever since.
3. Because Calvin was the best exegete in the history of Christianity.
4. Because Calvin is one of the five greatest theologians in Christian history.
5. Because he wrote it as a “sum of piety” not as an arid, speculative dogmatic treatise.
6. Because it gave J.I. Packer the idea for “Knowing God.”
7. Because Calvin thought and wrote succintly and clearly. “Brevitas et claritas” was his motto – brief and clear!
8. Because you will know God better, if you read it prayerfully and believingly.
9. Because it’s the 500th anniversary year of Calvin’s birthday. Don’t be a party pooper.
10. Because I agree with what Derek and Iain say in their posts.
Acts 29 has posted audio for their most recent church planting boot camp.
12/13/08
Barry Keldie
Cultivating a Culture of Repentance
12/13/08
Darrin Patrick
12/13/08
JR Vassar
The Role of Social Justice & Poverty in Discipleship
12/13/08
Matt Carter
Vivification & Mortification: A Process to Holiness
12/13/08
Matt Chandler
Spirit-Led Ecclesiology: Following the Spirit Through Church-Planting
12/07/08
Jonathan Dodson
The Mission and Vision of Acts 29 Network
11/19/08
Mark Driscoll
One of my favorite sites called The Big Picture: News Stories in Photographs has put together photographs that make up the year of 2008. Each picture has some type of narrative that goes along with it. Many of the pictures are breathtaking. Below is picture #1. You’ll have to check out the rest of the pictures along with their captions.
I just finishing watching “Volition”. It is a fifteen minute film focusing on three of the worst atrocities of human rights this world has faced. I’ll let you decide if you agree with me. Coupled with amazing cinematography and music this short film does a brilliant and powerful job relaying it’s intended message. I also love the film because it is not overly sentimental, which some films can be ruining its impact on the audience. I would recommend watching this with your spouse and/or children. It will definitely be worth your 15 minutes. My favorite line in the whole movie is: “I just hope the day comes when we can see this for what it really is.”
“Volition (n)- The act of making a choice. Sometimes the choice of inaction has consequences stronger than we could ever imagine. Throughout history, men have been faced with difficult choices in a world that makes it easy for them to conform. This film explores the hope that lies behind every decision made in the face of adversity; the hope that is buried in the heart of those that look beyond themselves and see something bigger worth fighting for.”
(HT: Randy Alcorn)
Christianity Today has just complied a list of their top 10 religion stories for this year.
1. Election 2008: Democrats woo evangelical vote, making only slight gains from Bush era.
2. Voters turn back California Supreme Court’s same-sex marriage decision.
3. Christians in Orissa, India, again become scapegoats for Hindu extremists.
4. Anglican Communion continues to implode in slow motion.
5. Christians flee Iraq and Gaza.
6. Candidates’ religious associations come under scrutiny.
7. Ministries hold their breath as financial crisis threatens the global economy.
8. Muslim and Christian interfaith dialogues get serious.
9. Todd Bentley’s Florida Outpouring divides charismatic movement.
10. Texas authorities raid FLDS ranch.
Christianity Today has put together a fun seven question Christmas Quiz to test your knowledge. I got questions #1 and #3 correct. Everything else I got wrong. A measly two out of three what can I say. Test your knowledge of Christmas….
Looking to make yourself or a loved one a Christmas stocking. Look no further…it’s the expandable Christmas stocking, which is able to fit most if not some of your needs that a regular stocking couldn’t satisfy.
Matt and Elizabeth Schmucker have provided 30 lessons, 10 tips, and “don’ts” for parenting. Below is just a portion of their article. Be sure to read the whole thing.
Lessons About Ourselves
(HT: Challies)
Maybe I’m just weird but I’ve always wanted to participate in something fun like this… Below are a couple of videos from Improv Everywhere. If you’re not familiar with Improv Everywhere they were the creative geniuses behind the ever so popular Food Court Musical.
“Frozen Grand Central”
“Mobile Desktop”
“In an Absolut World, Everyone Would be Welcomed Home”
Recent Comments