Bible Marathon

Bible Marathon.

Pastors: If I Had To Do It All Over Again...

From Jesus Creed:

...from Kent Anderson, pastor of a Covenant church in Naperville Illinois.

Hindsight is 20/20 but it often comes at less than productive moments but sometimes it does make a difference. I have served churches in Iowa, Michigan and Illinois; in rural, small town and suburban environs. I have dealt with everything from murder to suicide to sexual abuse to goofy boards to cranky members to bats in the church to you name it. Knowing this - the one thing I would make sure of if I was starting over again is this – read the Bible.

Oh I read the Bible regularly with some systematic method, but what I mean is to read through the Bible repeatedly every year. Make it a high priority practice. About 12 years ago I began to read the Bible from front to back three times a year. I read it in 20 chapter segments and this takes about an hour a day. I do this 4 - 5 time a week. I change version each time read through it, NIV, NRSV, KJV, NASB, Jerusalem, the Message, whatever. I mark the Bible up and have cheap notebook to jot down my thoughts and questions. There are times when I take a break for a month and do something else but this has been my foundational practice for years.

Why do this? In every other element of my position I know that there are people in the church who know more about leadership and vision casting, finances, building construction and maintenance, pedagogy and the care and feeding of copiers. But I need to know the Bible. I need to know it intimately, its themes (large and small) the people who populate it and its flow. I need to know it personally to be able to carefully use it professionally. The more I read it the more I am drawn to it. And I discover more about myself in reading the Bible. I love Leviticus and its lessons. Judges is the most contemporary book for our land. David is always in trouble in Psalms. The personalities of the gospels are amazing, and Revelation can be breathtaking.

My regret is that I started this practice after 15 years of ministry. But if I were starting over again among all the choices I would have to make, reading the Bible through would be #1.

One-Third of Americans Believe the Bible is Literally True

One-third of Americans believe the Bible is literally true, according to Gallop.

Authenticity of the Gospels

From Pen & Parchment: The Gospels: Embarrassingly Authentic?

This is why the potentially embarrassing elements of the Gospels are a significant part of their historicity. Notice these accounts from the Gospel of Mark taken from Gregory Boyd and Paul Rhodes Eddy in their excellent new book Lord or Legend: Wrestling with the Jesus Dilemma.

* Jesus’ own family did not believe him and even questioned his sanity (Mark 3:21)
* Jesus was rejected by people in his hometown and couldn’t perform many miracles there (Mark 6:2-5)
* Some thought Jesus was in collusion with, and even possessed by, the devil (Mark 3:22)
* At times Jesus seemed to rely on common medicinal techniques (Mark 7:33; Mark 8:23)
* Jesus’ healings weren’t always instantaneous (Mark 8:22-25)
* Jesus’ disciples weren’t always able to exorcise demons (Mark 9:18), and Jesus’ own exorcisms weren’t always instantaneous (Mark 5:8-13)
* Jesus seemed to suggest he wasn’t good (Mark 10:18)
* Jesus associated with people of ill-repute and gained a reputation of being a glutton and drunkard (Mark 2:15-16)
* Jesus sometimes seems to act rudely to people (Mark 7:26-27)
* Jesus seemed to disregard Jewish laws, customs, and cleanliness codes (Mark 2:23-24)
* Jesus often spoke and acted in culturally “shameful” ways (Mark 3: 31-35)
* Jesus cursed a fig tree for not having any figs when he was hungry, despite the fact that it wasn’t the season for figs (Mark 11:12-14)
* The disciples who were to form the foundation of the new community consistently seem dull, obstinate, and cowardly (Mark 8:32-33; Mark 10:35-37; Mark 14:37-40)
* Jesus was betrayed by an inner-circle disciple (Mark 14:43-46), and Peter cowardly denied any association with him (Mark 14:66-72)
* Women were the first to discover Jesus’ tomb was empty—while the men were hiding in fear! (Mark 16:1-8)
* The primary hero (Jesus) was crucified on a cross bringing a definite curse upon him (cf. Deut. 21:22-23)

If the Gospels served to form the backbone of the emerging Christian community of the first century, why include such details if they were not true? In other words, historic inquiry must ask the question concerning the raising of such stories, What explanation best accounts for their inclusion? Why make up details that are damaging?

The nations first appear in the biblical grand narrative in the context of life after the flood—God’s catastrophic judgment on human wickedness. By Genesis 11 the nations have been scattered in confusion. The conflict of nations mirrors the brokenness of humanity as a whole. With undoubtedly deliberate intent, the final book of the Bible comes to its climax with the picture of the nations purged of all sin, walking in the light of God, bringing their wealth and spendor into the city of God, contributing their redeemed glory and honor to the glory and honor of the Lamb of God (Rev. 21:24-27). The brokenness of humanity is healed at the river and tree of life (Rev. 22:1-2). And between these two great scenes in Genesis and Revelation—the primal and ultimate state of the nations—the Bible records the story of how such cosmic transformation will have been accomplished. It is, in short, the mission of God... God’s mission is what fills the gap between the scattering of the nations in Genesis 11 and the healing of the nations in Revelation 22. It is God’s mission in relation to the nations, arguably more than any other single theme, that provides the key that unlocks the biblical grand narrative.

— Christopher J.H. Wright
The Mission of God

Man who says he followed every verse of the bible for a year...

Extreme Makeover

NEWSWEEK: It’s been a little over a year since your experiment ended and you shaved your beard. How’s the life of sin?
A. J. Jacobs: It’s all right. I miss my sin-free life, but I guess I was never sin free. I was able to cut down on my coveting maybe 40 percent, but I was still a coveter. Flat-screen TVs, the front yard of my friend in the suburbs, a better cell phone, higher Amazon rankings. And that's not to mention coveting my neighbor's wife. I live in New York, I work in publishing, so there’s a lot of coveting, lying and gossiping.

Luther on the Bible

The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold of me.