All Things are Better in Koine

Okay now, at the risk of going overboard and making too much of Greek, here is a video made by four year Bible Greek students on why we should learn Koine Greek. It's way better done, and far more funny than one would expect. Watch it and enjoy!

Thanks to my fellow Greek students Mike for the link!

Soli Deo Gloria,

Josh

Spontaneous Discipline

...just a preview

Since the last post was on new year's resolutions, I thought I would reveal a little of what I am planning to study this year.

I said planning to study rather than going to study because as Jonathan Edwards said, we need God's grace to keep our resolutions, and for them to matter. So inasmuch as God shines His grace on me, I am resolved to keep at it through 2010.

I would love to say that studying God's holy word and reading delicious books comes naturally, effortlessly, and spontaneously but that would be far from the truth. I mean, we all desire to be spontaneous. We all wish it would come naturally, and we know it should. At least for me I need to take hold of certain means of grace to keep myself in the Word and learning from God fearing men.

One of those means is to plan out what I want to read and not to overbook myself with too much. I can read a number of books in a year, but I am not a speed reader, and overloading myself is a good way to get discouraged and bomb out of reading books altogether for a season.

Last year I found out that a good read-through-the-bible-in-a-year-plan works for me.

There are several to choose from.

The Discipleship Journal plan is offers a 4 part, short selection of readings, starting in Genesis, Psalms, Matthew, and Acts at the same time. With 20 minutes a day read for only 25 days a month it gives much grace to the reader. I opted to choose this one for 2010.

The official Bible Reading Plan for Shirkers and Slackers is also a great option. It has check boxes like the DJP, but instead of a monthly schedule it uses the weekly method with no dates. The reader gets a fantastic opportunity to dig into,

O.T. Poetry on Sunday,
The Pentateuch on Monday,
O.T. History on Tuesday and Wednesday,
O.T. Prophets on Thursday,
N.T. History on Friday,
and N.T. Epistles on Saturday

I have been thinking recently that I should toss out a reminder that discipline is a means of grace and often leads to the spontaneous. And I especially want to get this out;

if we are in Christ, then we are Sons of God by adoption and He looks at us as his children with the eyes of a Father rather than a judge. And it is only Christ's blood and perfect righteousness that is sufficient to give us the freedom to serve and know more about God because we are accepted, rather than to labor and study in order to be accepted by God. What a difference that can make for the troubled soul!

Romans 4:6-8 David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works: "Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin."



Soli Deo Gloria,

Josh

Reform your life and doctrine, meet with God in the text

How Many Herods?

Hi-rez Chart of the Herodian Succession. Feel free to download and use

In those dark days before the ESV study bible came out, I created this chart to help myself understand the Herods that kept popping up in the New Testament. There were several Herods living and ruling in the decades surrounding the advent of Christ. Distinguishing them from each other can be confusing.

I made the first version of this chart in January of '08 on a sheet of notebook paper. Several months later I decided to improve it, and so I transferred it into Mac's stellar graphing software, Graffle, which worked out just fine.

If you have an ESV study bible you can find a similar chart near the intertestamental period. (It might be a little more accurate.) I simply based this one on facts from FF Bruce's New Testament History book. If you own your own copy of the ESVSB, you can view the chart online and print it out.

Josh

Making Progress

George Mueller 1805-1898

A short word from George Mueller;

"Now . . . I would give a few hints to my younger fellow-believers as to the way in which to keep up spiritual enjoyment. It is absolutely needful . . . we should read regularly through the Scriptures, consecutively, and not pick out here and there a chapter. If we do, we remain spiritual dwarfs. I tell you so affectionately. For the first four years after my conversion I made no progress, because I neglected the Bible. But when I regularly read on through the whole with reference to my own heart and soul, I directly made progress. Then my peace and joy continued more and more. Now I have been doing this for 47 years. I have read through the whole Bible about 100 times and I always find it fresh when I begin again. Thus my peace and joy have increased more and more."