Reading Lamentations

The book of Lamentations is very closely associated with the book of Jeremiah, as they both deal with the destruction of Jerusalem: Jeremiah as a prophetical warning, Lamentations as a lament after the fall. The poetry is important in interpreting the book as it highly corresponds to the message, which is that although the people […]

Reading Habakkuk

One of the most repeated sentences by young children is, “it’s not fair…” As in, It’s not fair that my brother can stay up later than me. It’s not fair that dad’s piece of pie is bigger than mine. It’s not fair that I can’t watch that movie. It’s not fair that he broke my […]

Reading Joshua

This week we have been reading the book of Joshua in our Bible reading plan. The key person in the book other than God is Joshua, and it is important to remember that he was one of only two men who survived the 40 years in the wilderness due to his good report that the […]

Reading Ezekiel

Like many of the prophets, the theme of this book is quite simple. It is essential to remember that this book was written while Ezekiel himself was in captivity in Babylon, and he was writing to the Jews to get them to repent. Thus, it is also noted that it encompasses the fact that “the […]

A short concordance for Proverbs

One of the best tools for studying Scripture is a good concordance. Seeing how an author discusses a topic throughout a book or in his other books, or discovering how other authors discuss the same topic will help one develop a full theology on a given topic. One book where it is particularly useful to […]

Kindle ESV Study Bible on sale

The Kindle version of the ESV study Bible is on sale for $4.99 — that’s a great deal if the ESV is your primary Bible for reading and study. Go to Amazon.com to purchase this Bible.

Understanding Numbers

The last couple of weeks, we have been reading the book of Numbers, which is one of the Old Testament books that people are prone to skipping or skimming because it is not readily understood. Because of that, I thought a chart of the book might be helpful to comprehending the contents and flow of […]

Reading the Pentateuch

This year our church is following an Old Testament reading plan — reading through the entire Old Testament chronologically, along with two of the Gospels. So these first months of the year, we are in the first five books of the Old Testament — the Pentateuch. For many books of the Bible, I have put […]

Bible reading plans for Accordance

For 2013, I customized two chronological Bible reading plans — one for the Old Testament (plus two of the gospels) and one for the New Testament (plus the Psalms). You can download those plans here in PDF format. For those who use the Bible program Accordance — my favorite for the Mac, and one I […]

Inexpensive ebook commentaries

Moody Publishers is making many of their commentaries in the Everyman’s Bible Commentary series available for a very price. Most of the available books are $0.99. While these commentaries are brief, they excel in being readable and in providing the reader with a good overview of the flow of each book and the individual passages […]

Help for your spiritual disciplines

Too often I have experienced the phenomena of reading my Bible in the morning, closing it, and not remembering anything particular that I have read. I don’t think my experience is unique. As Don Whitney has explained, it is often due to lack of meditation. [His rule of one minute of meditation and reflection for […]

Grab bag

Some helpful articles and blog posts I’ve spotted recently: Mike Riccardi [“Learning to Suffer Well: Trusting God’s Absolute Sovereignty”] writes, “…when we suffer, we should not seek to save God from His sovereignty. If we do that, we cut the legs out from under the solid, robust theology of God’s absolute sovereignty that we depend […]

Those perplexing brackets in the Bible

The account of the adulterous woman at the beginning of John 8 has created no small amount of interpretative challenges. Two questions will help us sort out some of the basic issues and facts. 1. Why are there brackets around this story? The story (7:53 – 8:11) is bracketed because there is a question whether […]

Don’t miss the obvious, and…

Comparisons are virtually always a bad idea (I’d say “always,” but I was taught that it’s always bad to say “always”). Inevitably, we favor ourselves in our comparisons and we fail to be objective in those comparisons. Even in the church, it’s tempting to offer comparisons that are unfair to the ones compared. For example, […]

Grab bag

Some helpful articles from the couple of weeks: Greg Lucas offers “Seven Lessons from the Disability Community:” God is both sovereign and good. You have been brought into this community for a purpose. Disability magnifies our vision for joy in the smallest things. Community brings much needed perspective Outspoken men are often minorities. When marriage […]