Here is a great quote that Michael Bird put in a blog post today. Totally agree. “The purposes of God are reducible to his will, a will that initially appears equally set to harden or to save, but turns out on closer inspection, and in the end, to harden only in order to save, to [...]
This article has been birthed out of my desire to find out what is really true about Christians in regards to sin and our natures. I’ve heard so many different accounts of the power that sin has over believers from none to irresistible that it’s difficult to know where to stand. Then, of course, there [...]
Here is a great quote from one of my favorite Bible scholars Michael Bird from his new book – Introducing Paul: The Man, His Mission and His Message. “Paul is not given the thirty-nine lashes by his fellow Jews because he asks them to ‘try’ Jesus in the same way one might try a kebab [...]
Lastly I will talk about Bible study option c) reading a small bit of the Bible every day. To understand why I’m not so keen on this method remember my analogy from Part 2, your grandfather’s letters to you. If you were trying to understand those letters would you pick a random number of sentences [...]
Now I will turn to option b, doing topical studies in the Bible. Again, I would point to the length of the Bible and how many things are said in it. By just picking verses at our leisure we can make the Bible say whatever we want it to say. Also we can make the [...]
In the next three posts I felt I should explain what I said in Part 2 about methods of Bible study a bit more, since I’m going against conventional wisdom. To remind you, I said that for most people the best way to understand the Bible was to read it slowly over and over again [...]
A couple more suggestions and we’ll have made a good start. Another way of reading the Bible that I find very helpful is to read it chronologically, meaning in the order of when it was written. You need to understand that the Bible isn’t a compilation of fairy tales or moral teachings put in at [...]
Imagine that at your Grandfather’s funeral you are given ten four page letters that he wrote you with advice on life. How would you go about reading the letters to really understand what your Grandpa was getting at? Would you: Read one sentence per week spending two hours going over the sentence structure and debating [...]
In the next several blog posts I want to talk about how you can come to understand the Bible. First, you need to know that you can understand the Bible. Too often in churches Bible study is seen as an occupation for a few smart, well-educated men. These men get the church platform and use [...]