Think Wink.

Today has been just one incredible blessing from God my Father and Jesus his Christ.

First has to do with the summer mission trip that my youth at church is going on July 19-26, 2008. While on the trip the kids are going to study John Piper’s book, Don’t Waste Your Life (For more information about this book and the study package it has you can click here or just go to the DesiringGod website linked under the Resources menu below). Yesterday I had the awesome privilege to serve my good friend and co-laborer with the youth Jimmy (he used to be my boss at UPS until a couple of weeks ago when Jesus blessed him with an 8-5 job working with an amazing gentleman at church) by moving him out of his old apartment on MBTS campus and to a new one just a couple miles away. In light of the move, I was asked to teach this morning (June 22, 2008) and begin the study of Don’t Waste Your Life. So I read the chapters and watched the DVD session and did the study guide section last night. I must say it was an amazing study for me. Then today, the youth really responded well and engaged the material. Some even came up to me after the second service and told me how much they look forward to the rest! Teenagers did that! God was really working in their hearts and minds and they want more. God is SO good. Read more

When I think of “euaggelion” or “gospel”…

Another look into euaggelion

Pop Culture and Humanity

Last Sunday I preached on Mark’s theme of going to the cross. All over Mark’s gospel text the reader sees that the Messiah, namely Jesus, must suffer and die. Jesus instructs his disciples, and any who wish to be his disciples, to follow that path. To walk behind him. This becomes most explicit in both Matthew 16:13-28 and Mark 8:27-9:1 when Peter confesses Jesus to be the Messiah. When Peter makes the great confession, Jesus instructs his disciples that he must die and be raised on the third day. In both accounts Jesus rebukes Peter and then speaks of anyone who desires to follow Jesus must deny self, take up one’s cross and follow Jesus. Now compare the following statements by Jesus in Matthew 16 and Mark 8 in the NET.

Now note that Matthew and Mark do not read the same, but the statements are in a similar context. My question for all who read this is this: what is the difference between Matthew using εὑρίσκω while Mark uses σῴζω? What is the significance of such a choice in words? What does σῴζω convey that εὑρίσκω doesn’t, and vice-a-versa? Or is this just two words being used the same? After all Mark uses σῴζω twice in Mark 8:35 and Matthew parallels σῴζω with εὑρίσκω in Matthew 16:25. Just think about it.

An Exegetical Insight

The Jesus Christ Gospel According to Mark pt 1

“Son of Man” and Jesus

Two weeks ago, I received in the mail Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony by Dr. Richard Bauckham. Having read the first seven chapters of the book, I must say that I am so impressed that I want to begin my review of the book already.
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The Next Book I Am Going to Get…

A New Way of Doing Devotions for this Year?

My Millennial Views Pt. 4: Revelation20:4-6

is Richard Bauckham’s 2006 book Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony. I read chapter 9 and why Papias was right to say that the primary source of the Gospel according to Mark is the apostle Peter. It was really good and the arguments are very persuasive. Based upon that chapter alone, I really recommend this book to defend the historical reliability of the four Gospels (not necessarily inerrancy).

A Hard Decision for Me

Free Book for November

The Future of Justificaiton

I had looked over J. J. Hiehaus’ work God at Sinai and wanted to post on a text that I found quite amazing. Niehaus argued that in Genesis 3:8 we don’t see God walking in the cool of the day in the garden but rather was coming in the wind of the storm based upon word studies done in Akkadian that line up with the Biblical Hebrew (Kind of makes one wonder about this past weekend’s tornadoes in Oklahoma, Missouri, and Georgia that killed 22 people at my last count). You can refer to this post for the citation. Niehaus offers an interesting translation of 1 Kings 19:12 which reads in the ESV,

And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper.

This post will summarize the arguments and then posit some thought on the translation. You can find the arguments in detail in Niehaus’ book God at Sinai on pages 247-248.
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In the Cool of the Day?

Dr. Jerry Falwell

What to do?

B3 (Better Bibles Blog) has been discussing whether or not Holy Spirit should be capitalized every time if appears, like Psalm 51 for instance. Here is an excellent discussion of the words “holy”(ἅγιον) and “spirit” (πνεῦμα) in Greek. I encourage you to read through all of the posts on the holy spirit, they are worth the read. These posts are very technical so be warned.

No related posts

Here are some links for today.

Last summer, Dr. Daniel Wallace led a team that found a cash of never-before-seen Greek manuscripts for the New Testament. Here is a link to Dr. Wallace’s blog post on the find and a video link covering the story. Greek New Testament Manuscripts Discovered in Albania.

Video from a local news affiliate in Dallas/Fort Worth; H/T: Denny Burk.

Here is a good question asked by Eric Carpenter, “Where are all the Calvinist Troublemakers in the Southern Baptist Convention?“; H/T The Contemporary Calvinist.

Next Summer’s Mega Hit

Augustine

The New Captain America

This is an amazing sermon preached at FCC two Sundays ago. I love it. Enjoy and be richly blessed by it.

What can I say?

Reviewing Spider-Man 3

This Is So Unreal.

Continuing in the series on Ezra’s infinitives found in Ezra 7:10. Let us put the text before us,

For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

Today we are looking at the second infinitive: to do. Last time we looked at “to study the Law of the Lord.” There we saw that to study the Law was to seek Yahweh by studying Scripture. Today we are going to look at the second verb.
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Ezra’s Infinitives

Ezra’s Infinitives Part 3

A New Way of Doing Devotions for this Year?

This past week Ezra 7:10 has really been a focus of my attention and study. The text reads,

For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the Lord, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.

What struck me was the movement of the text in its infinitives: “to study,” “to do it,” and “to teach.” What makes this movement so compelling is what precedes this text in Ezra 7:9, “For the good hand of his God was on him.” Why was the good hand of the Yahweh upon Ezra, “For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.” In this three-part series, I want to examine each infinitive and how performing these actions led to the good hand of Yahweh to be on Ezra.
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Ezra’s Infinitives Part 2

Ezra’s Infinitives Part 3