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Bible reading for April 5 -- 6 Apr 5 -- Proverbs 23 and 1 Thessalonians 2 Apr 6 -- Proverbs 24 and 1 Thessalonians 3 "Fret not yourself because of evildoers, and be not envious of the wicked, for the evil man has no future; the lamp of the wicked will be put out." (Proverbs 24:19-20)  BE NOT ENVIOUS. There are sections within the book of Proverbs. Those originating with Solomon transition to other sources in chapters 22 through 24. Here there are parallels with Egyptian wisdom teachings of Amenemope (see Derek Kidner, Proverbs, pp 23-24). They are adapted -- either by Solomon or perhaps Hezekiah later -- for use by Israelite believers. In these chapters there is a repeated call by the father to his son to pursue wisdom, to listen, to observe, to control desires, and to make good decisions. Familiar themes are repeated: labor vs. laziness, sobriety vs. drunkenness, justice vs. injustice. One repeated admonition is to avoid envy and the temptation to join with others in a worl...

B ible reading for Nov 19.  1 Chronicles 13-14. "And the ark of God remained with the household of Obed-edom in his house three months. And the LORD blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that he had." (13:14) BLESSING UPON DAVID.  The Chronicler highlights King David's love for the Lord and for worship in Jerusalem. Chronicles contains more details about this than are found in the parallel passages in 2 Samuel and 1 Kings. Chronicles and Kings are like the synoptic gospels in the NT (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) in that much of the same history is covered, but with some different emphases and variations in the reporting of the events. Variations in place names, and variant spellings of proper names, were normal. The names of the sons born to David in Jerusalem are listed in 14:4-5, numbering thirteen. That's two more than listed in 2 Sam 5:14. For some reason Elpelet and Nogah are not listed in the earlier Samuel account. These two chapters say that God's blessin...

Bible reading for weekend October 31 -- Nov 1.  2 Kings 13-14. "Then Jehoahaz sought the favor of the LORD, and the LORD listened to him, for he saw the oppression of Israel, how the king of Syria oppressed them." (2 Kings 13:4)  MIXED REVIEWS. We continue reading the alternating accounts of kings, north and south, most of whom do poorly. (The King Joash of 13:10-13 is a different Joash than the king of Judah, btw.) And those rulers who did better still get a mixed review.  King Amaziah of Judah did what was right in the eyes of the Lord (14:3), but he did not remove the high places, and his pride got the better of him by inciting a battle with Israel. Yet the Lord still had mercy on his people and answered their prayer (13:4). There is an ongoing reminder in these chapters that God preserves his people: "But the LORD was gracious to them and had compassion on them, and he turned toward them, because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not destroy ...

Bible reading for October 16.  1 Kings 19. "And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his cloak and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, 'What are you doing here, Elijah?'" (1 Kings 19:13) FROM FAITH TO FEAR. Elijah goes from a mountain-top experience of great success, down to the pit of fear and despair, because of Jezebel's threat. And the threat was real. Who knew that God's prophets could go through such ups and downs? So Elijah flees to Mount Sinai, many miles to the south in the wilderness. The Lord sustains him through the journey. He is going back to the place where God gave his law and promises, where God's power and glory had been manifested centuries before, and where the nation was founded. Twice the Lord will ask him, "what are you doing here, Elijah?" In other words, why have you come? This is not an indictment, but an invitation to speak and to plainly state his pro...

"I have given them your word , and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.  Sanctify them in the truth ; your word is truth ."  (John 17:14-17 ESV, underlining added) John 5 in Codex Sinaiticus, early 4th century Just as the Lord Jesus Christ is wholly sufficient for us (and all our needs), so also is the word he has given us.  Here's James White on the sufficiency of Scripture: I have often preached that Christ is a perfect Savior, that He possesses the power and the nature to save without fail, and that He will share His glory with no other. I have used these truths as a basis upon which to exhort believers to rejoice in Christ’s sufficiency. Look to Him for your every need! Do not allow the world to distract you, to draw you away so as to nibble at t...

I hear this often from professing Christians.  "The Lord told me..." or "I received a word from the Lord" or "the Lord said to me _____ [ followed by a statement,  supposedly from God as speaker in the first person ]"   People saying such things don't realize how confusing this actually can be for others.  In a sense it places the person above others ("the Lord spoke to me") and beyond accountability ("how can you question what God said?").  This also causes people to want to have this experience for themselves and thus to minimize what God (by his Spirit) has already and eternally said in Scripture.  It makes the present more important than the past.       Can God speak to us apart from the Bible, or independently of it?  He certainly can.  The question is, however, is this what the Lord has promised to be a normal and expected experience for those who follow him?   Indeed there may be unusual and remark...

Carl Henry observed that contemporary culture considers itself to be "culture-transcending."  That is, people who approach uncomfortable content in the Bible will dismiss it as being culturally-conditioned, while assuming their own viewpoint as being above or transcending cultures.   He warns that evangelical scholars particularly -- what he calls "evangelical mediating scholars" -- are being tempted to divide certain apostolic statements, for example, as coming from "Rabbinic Paul" versus "Christian Paul."   He writes,    "The notion that the Apostle Paul compromises New Testament christology under the influence of the rabbinic ethos is often advanced by critical theologians in connection with various biblical emphases that they find personally distasteful.  If what Paul teaches about evangelical women or about Christians and divorce, or about homosexuals, is to be comprehended by dismissing the authority of the biblical teaching, the ax...

Came upon the following in B. B. Warfield's work, The Inspiration and Authority of the Bible , pp 80-81... "...the series of redemptive acts of God has not been left to explain itself, but the explanatory word has been added to it.  Revelation thus appears, however, not as the mere reflection of the redeeming acts of God in the minds of men, but as a factor in the redeeming work of God, a component part of the series of His redeeming acts, without which that series would be incomplete and so far inoperative for its main end.  Thus the Scriptures represent it, not as confounding revelation with the series of the redemptive acts of God, but placing it among the redemptive acts of God and giving it a function as a substantive element in the operations by which the merciful God saves sinful men.  It is therefore not made even a mere constant accompaniment of the redemptive acts of God, giving their explanation that they may be understood.  It occupies a far more indepe...