Dads Need to Read the Bible and Pray

I found this so true. I am so disgusted at the fact Christian Dad's are not reading Scripture and praying, specifically in front of their teens. Mark Driscoll went to Twitter with this and tweeted:

Dads: If you don't read the Bible or pray, your kids will grow up thinking that a real man doesn't read the Bible or pray.
— Mark Driscoll (@PastorMark) June 12, 2013

I am a firm believe alongside Driscoll because any teenager can use a cop-out and say, "You tell me I have to read my Bible and pray everyday, but I never see you read or pray, Dad!" Wow. Being a Dad is ministry.  Being a soon to be Dad, who is in ministry, I want to make sure my children will see their Dad reading Scripture and praying in front of them (and with them of course) everyday. There is a visual display of active obedience to the Gospel that all parents must demonstrate. Do not be unrealistic or super spiritual. Reading Scripture and praying in front of our kids is not for personal boasting, but for boasting in the Gospel and importance of reading, studying, mediating, and  living out the Scriptures! Be a witness in your home, Dads!

How's Your Bible Reading Going?

I came across an article not to long ago about Bible illiteracy and Christians who fail to read the Bible. I had to copy the article and post it on my blog for future references so I can locate it since there are so many good points that are practical for ministry and life. It is so important we become Bible readers for life. God wants us to know his "whole counsel [OT and NT]" (cf. Acts. 20:27), and study it (cf. 2 Tim. 2:15). The Bible is the most important book we can read in our lives because it does not just inform you, but it transforms you because it is God's Word! As A.Z. Conrad once said, "The Bible outlives, out lifts, outloves, outreaches, outranks, outruns all others." I believe this article will help you see where you are in your reading of Scripture, and what you need to do to increase your reading of Scripture.

The article was posted on the Gospel-Coalition:

"January has come and gone. A little more than 8 percent of 2013 has already passed. Now is an especially good time to ask ourselves (and each other!) how our personal Bible reading is going. Many of us began a new Bible reading plan on January 1. Such plans can be helpful. You should try one. They can help you to be more consistent in your Bible reading; they can help to get you into a steady, daily diet of the Word; they can help you get through whole books and into previously unexplored parts of the Bible over the course of the year. It's never a bad time to get going on one or get back on one. 

Regardless of your Bible reading plan (or lack thereof), you probably had a general desire for your Bible reading to be better in 2013 than it was in 2012—to read more, to read more consistently, to read more thoughtfully, to read more passionately, and/or to better apply it to our daily life. So how's it going? Maybe so far in 2013 your Bible reading hasn't gone according to plan; it hasn't increased or improved as you'd hoped. Let me suggest several possible reasons why Bible reading might feel weak and wearisome, and suggest some ways in which those weaknesses might be helped. 

Maybe you're a type-A personality who's fallen behind on your reading plan. 

Maybe you're using a plan that assigns texts to specific dates. Falling behind means you're now on the wrong date. So you leave the Bible alone and decide to straighten or alphabetize something. Don't! Just keep going. Or switch to a reading plan that doesn't use dates. Remember, Bible reading plans were made for Bible reading; Bible reading was not made for Bible reading plans. 

Maybe you've become accustomed to not eating. 

If we fast from food for a few days our bodies become accustomed to not eating. The Bible is likened to food more than once (e.g., 1 Peter 2:2). We need it for our spiritual survival and sustenance. But if it's been a long time since you've had a steady diet of the Word, your spiritual stomach has shrunk and become indifferent to spiritual nourishment. This isn't healthy, and it can't go on indefinitely. So resolve to nurse yourself back to health even if you have to start small. 

Related, maybe your new reading plan is too rigorous, at least for now. 

Whether you have a spiritual appetite or not, you may have bitten off a bit more than you can chew. Going from a random verse for the day to the McCheyne Reading Plan is a step in the right direction, but if you're not keeping up with McCheyne, you might try doing it at half or one-fourth of the pace. 

Maybe you're approaching your Bible reading in a performance-based way. 

 It's good to keep track of progress no matter the discipline. But if you're reading the Bible only to feel better about yourself or appease God then a checklist can be dangerous. Go to the Bible to get more of God, not to get more gold stars. Go to the Bible to get your soul happy in God, not satisfied in yourself. 

Maybe you're paralyzed with guilt for having done poorly yesterday. 

Have you ever felt unworthy to pray or open the Bible? I have. How ironic when it's a book about and for sinners who need grace. We need the Bible most when we've read and obeyed it the least. Confess your sin boldly and in faith open your Bible to find comfort. Soak yourself afresh in the gospel. 

Maybe it feels dry, mechanical, and, truth be told, you even wonder why regular Bible intake is needed. 

Here's where another discipline should be partnered with Bible reading: preaching to yourself about what the Bible is, what it does, and why you need it. Psalm 119 is basically 176 verses of this encouragement. When the Bible feels stale and our reading feels empty, go to Psalm 119. Pray to God and preach to yourself about the need to feel the weight and worth of God's Word in our lives. 

Maybe you have false expectations about the work and discipline of Bible reading. 

Are you under the mistaken impression that Bible reading is easy and glorious if you're spiritual enough? Remember, Paul told Timothy, "Discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness" (1 Timothy 4:7). It is not unspiritual to do what the flesh resists. Determination, resolve, and self-discipline are necessary for even the most consistent and experienced Bible-readers. 

Maybe you have too high of expectations for this season of life. 

Perhaps you're a mom of a few tots. Before children, your times of Bible reading and praying were sweet, slow, and steady. Praise God for those seasons! But you're not in one of them now. Do what you can, starting with reading this new mom's testimony and this good advice from Don Whitney. 

Maybe you're in a part of Scripture right now that is new and unfamiliar to you. 

Maybe you don't understand the "big picture" of the story. The Bible is a big book; it is a long, multi-millennia story, each part building upon and pointing to others. Maybe you didn't grow up in church hearing the stories of the Old Testament. Then again, many of us grew up in church hearing the stories but still have no idea in what order they go or if it even matters. A little book, God's Big Picture, is helpful in laying out, well, the big pictureof the Bible. Read it alongside your Bible plan. 

Maybe you find yourself all too often scratching your head wondering what a word or phrase means. 

If so, get something like the ESV Study Bible. Look down in the footnotes when you need some help. Go to the back for a longer explanation about a biblical or theological concept. Or check out this article that recommends other resources for interpreting the Bible. 

Maybe you haven't found a consistent time or place to do Bible reading and prayer. 

Habits form much more easily with consistency. In our busy culture, consistency has to be planned. Chances are, there are some bad times of the day for you to try to read and pray. Chances are, there some good and some bad places in your home for Bible reading. Find the best spot at the best time and keep to it. By God's grace, in time, it will become a sweet, familiar place and time for you to meet with the Lord. 

Maybe you're compartmentalizing your Bible reading from the rest of your day. 

Healthy Bible intake seeks to bring the Bible to the whole of life. No matter how consistent our schedule, if our thoughts about the Bible are separated by 23 or more hours, we will not use our "swords" like we should. Here's a practical recommendation: No matter the amount of Bible you read in your "quiet time," take one verse, something that stood out to you, and write it on a 3x5 card or sticky tab. Put it in your pocket, on your desk, or on your dash. Several times per day look at it, say it, think on it, pray it back to God. If the Bible is like food and eating, remember, snacks are good! 

Maybe this part of your life is actually too personal.  

Do you have anyone in your life who will ask you how it's going and what you've been reading? If not, seek one out. Find someone and read the Bible together. Find a more mature friend who can help you with how to read and understand the Bible. 

I could go on and on with possible diagnoses for the shortcomings of our Bible reading. I know because I have experienced these and many others myself. Maybe you, too, see yourself in one or more of these diagnoses. Don't think I intend to make Bible reading more complicated or to simply add more tasks. Use this list as a diagnostic tool to help you narrow in on one or two practical or spiritual ways that Bible reading is hindered and might be helped. This thing of God's Word is "no trifle for you, but your very life" (Deuteronomy 32:47). May God do great things in us through his Word in the rest of 2013.

Every Morning There’s War in the Piper Household

Men's Study @ Harvest - Lesson 2

In the second lesson, the Men of Valor study at Harvest went over the beginning of Jesus' ministry. The selected NT texts were Matthew 3:13-17; Matthew 4:1-11; John 2:1-12; John 2:13-25; John 3:1-21. From the very beginning of the study, my interest was in the establishment and inauguration of the ministry of Jesus Christ. The study began with Jesus baptism (anointed his ministry), led by his temptation (tested his ministry), and then followed by his first miracle (validated his ministry). All of these passages have rich OT references that associate closely to Jesus' kingship and messiahship.

Matthew 3:13-17
A. Jesus' baptism is a massive, theologically packed episode in the gospels. It demonstrates many biblical realities concerning the identity and purpose of Jesus by fulfilling many OT references to the Messiah.

B. 3:13, there is so much background that needs to be emphasized in order to answer or acknowledge the reason why Jesus came to John the Baptist (or needed to be baptized). Jesus came to him because the proselyte baptism ministry of John the Baptist was directly linked to the "messenger in the wilderness" preparing "the way of the Lord" as indicated Exodus 23:20, Isaiah 40:3 (cf. Mark 1:2-3), and specifically Malachi 3:1, "Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts." Therefore, it is clear that the baptism of Jesus is associated with the prophet's declaration of a messenger who would usher forth as Elijah [meaning John the Baptist as a forerunner to Jesus] predicted at the end of Malachi 4:5-6, “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” This fulfillment frames the episode in Matthew's gospel to prove Jesus' kingship and messiahship (identity and purpose) which is confirmed by [this Elijah type] John the Baptist response, the Father (the voice), and the Holy Spirit (the dove).

C. 3:14, John the Baptist responds (cf. Mark 1:4-13; John 1:27) to seeing Jesus as Joshua seemingly viewed the "commander of the army of the Lord" in Joshua 5:13-15, "When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” And he said, “No; but I am the commander of the army of the LORD. Now I have come.” And Joshua fell on his face to the earth and worshiped and said to him, “What does my lord say to his servant?” And the commander of the LORD's army said to Joshua, “Take off your sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy.” And Joshua did so. Jesus was indeed the commander in John's eyes.

D. 3:15, Jesus said he needed to be baptized to "fulfill all righteousness." This could be a possible allusion to the new covenant Jesus came to establish through "his righteousness" not Israel's based in Deuteronomy 9:5, "Not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart are you going in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is driving them out from before you, and that he may fulfill [confirm] the word that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob," and in Jeremiah 31:34, “Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will fulfill the promise [of righteousness] I made to the house of Israel and the house of Judah."

E. 3:16, when Jesus is baptized, three things happen that are symbolic in the OT:

1) First, when he came up immediately from the water, the "heavens opened to him" as God can only open the heavens in Psalm 78:23, "Yet he commanded the skies above and opened the doors of heaven..."(cf. Genesis 7:11 and Isaiah 24:18 declare the heavens were opened for judgment; Ezekiel 1:1 says the heavens were opened for a prophetic vision).

2) Secondly, after the heavens were opened, the text describes Jesus seeing the Spirit of God descending "upon him" in like manner of a dove. This is explicitly stating that Jesus is the "Lord's anointed" as promised in Isaiah 11:2, "And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him," and in Isaiah 42:1, "Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights; I have put my Spirit upon him; he will bring forth justice to the nations." (Jesus confirms this biblical reality in Luke 4:16-21 when he quotes Isaiah 61, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.")

3) Thirdly, once the Spirit of God descended upon him, a "voice came from heaven and spoke, 'This is My Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.'" This audible response to Jesus' baptism is the final validation to prove Jesus is the Messiah. The voice is directly quoting Yahweh (God the Father) who is speaking of the reign of the Lord's anointed [who is indeed Jesus] in Psalm 2:7, "I will tell of the decree: The LORD said to me, “You are my Son; today I have begotten you."

This was a great study. I hope you enjoyed some of my notes that encouraged me. I love the baptism episode because we see the Trinity ushering forth and confirming the kingdom of God has come through the life of Jesus Christ.

"Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked."
(1 John 2:6)

What Is Your Favorite Genre of the Bible?

What is your favorite genre of the Bible? There are several different kinds, and they all have their specific context and content that address audiences from an unique approach. The genres of the Bible are typically divided into these groups. Vote on your favorite genre, and I will write a segment on which one gets the most votes!

Narrative (historical/epic): Genesis and the first half of Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Jonah, and Acts (as church history)

Law: the last half of Exodus; Leviticus, Deuteronomy

Wisdom: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes

Poetry: Job, Esther, Psalms, Song of Solomon, Lamentations

Prophecy: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi (Apocalyptic: Daniel, Revelation)

Gospel: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John

Letter (Epistle): Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 and 2 Thessalonians, 1 and 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon, Hebrews, James, 1 and 2 Peter, 1, 2, and 3 John, Jude

Men's Study at Harvest - Introduction

I recently signed up for the Men's ministry at Harvest called Men of Valor. My father-in-law is leading an inductive Bible study group on Tuesday mornings, so I decided to join them while I have the availability now that I am still on unemployment. I wanted to do the study because I knew it would be all about Jesus. In fact, that is all the study is about, Jesus! It's about walking with Jesus; real men walk with Jesus [follow him]. It is a case study of the words and works of Jesus in the gospels from a chronological approach (starting with his birth, and ending with his resurrection/ascension).

Our first study was very comprehensive and took a long time to finish. Nevertheless, I finished the study and got to contribute to the group time. I was asked to contribute to the group in a deeper, biblical-theological way. It was interesting being ask knowing I have never signed up for the Men' study before, but I was humbled and blessed to able to share. I came to find out it made me dig deeper in the Scriptures and use my hermeneutics that I have been learning. Thus I contribute to the group by sharing OT references, allusions, fulfillments, and insights contained in the various NT texts. On my blog, I am going to post some of those references to share with you some of the cool things that I have been learning about the words and works of Jesus.

"Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked."
(1 John 2:6)

Reading the Bible Book by Book - Acts 20:27

I have many resources that describe the different books of the Bible and their distinct purpose and harmony in the OT and NT. Yet, there is one resource that explains the content, history, and emphases of each book in a very academic and pastoral manner. In How to Read the Bible Book by Book: A Guided Tour, New Testament scholars Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart put together a classic read that gives a deeper and more complete explanation of each book in the Bible.

The book cultivates the idea that Jesus is revealed in the whole story of redemption, weaved throughout the grand narrative of Scripture in all 66 books. Paul read through the Scriptures and studied them book by book to showcase the glory of Christ. This is exactly what John Piper alludes to in the video below. We must know how to read the Bible book by book to see the Lord Jesus Christ highly exalted in the Word of God.

"[Jesus] stands forth from the pages, in the story of the pages that are written, which are self authenticating and compelling...you meet him, he befriends you, he reduces you to humble brokenness, and reveals himself sufficient for you in his cross...such that you cannot not see the magnificence of the glory and beauty of Jesus Christ [in all 66 books of the Bible]." - John Piper

"Therefore I testify...for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God."
(Acts 20:27)