I believe the first time I heard Max McLean was when the English Standard Version (ESV) of the Bible had first come out and I got sent a CD of this Max McLean fellow reading the ESV of Hebrews. You can give it a listen too:

I hadn’t heard much about him since then until today when I stumbled upon the Listener’s Bible website. I noticed some videos on the performance section of the site. I hit play on the Mark videos and again found myself mesmerized. Bellow is Max McLean performing the entire book of Mark.

If your experience is like mine then after a few chapters your going to wonder how you can support this. I’m going to pick up the DVD of the performance from Amazon myself.

I’m planning on including this in my family’s devotions starting tomorrow. I can’t wait to ask my kids “Did anything surprise you in that?” or “Why do you think Jesus was so mad at the Pharisees?” or “After seeing that, if someone asked you ‘What’s Jesus like?’ what would you say?”

What kind of love would seek to prevent or pervert justice? It’s very common for parents to blindly defend their children when they’ve committed grievous acts, but is that right of them? At the same time, if a parent does agree with the need for their children to be brought to justice and yet does so without any sadness something is also wrong.

In the end the idea that true love would seek to pervert or ignore injustices is a violation of love itself in that by denying someones responsibility to act justly you deny them the dignity that God bestows upon them as bearers of His image.

True love does call for justice, but not before calling the unjust to the God who loves them.

“For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord God; so turn, and live.”
-Ezekiel 18:32

Behold! The God of wrath and mercy in Christ takes on the one to provide the other!

“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
-2 Corinthians 5:18-21

Shortly thereafter I read the book and loved it. We all need direction in our lives and Total Church provides it in some of the simplest of terms. If you’re a Christian and wondering or not if a book about “the church” would really provide direction for you, then you absolutely need to read it! The first three chapters are worth the $10 by themselves.

It’s also come to my attention that Veritas Community Church has created a free study guide! I’ve only flipped through it, but I can’t wait to dig into it later.

Also, check out the messages of Steves excellent talk at that Seattle boot camp and be sure not to miss the Q&A:

Session 1

Session 2

Session 3

Keller outlines his approach to handling scripture which is Christological, and takes us through the engaging the heart with that. Clowney contributes from a lifetime of experience in showing way scripture is about Jesus – from which we could all learn massively.. Keller shows how he prepares to preach and the way that he’s learned from people like Dick Lucas. You can see why people are raving about Keller. Listening to this series of lectures could be the best use of 18 hours of your time.

Also be sure to grab Kellers 189 page syllabus for the course.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

I’ve been reflecting on what “the schemes of the devil” means. We know from Scripture that Satans goal is the spiritual death of as many as possible. It’s also been said by many Christians that Satans fall back goal (if he can’t prevent salvation that is) is to keep us bound so that we do not do the work of Him who called us.

The breadth of Scripture presents Satan as the liar, the deceiver and the accuser of the brothers. His goal is death and his means are most often lies. So what are his “schemes?”

A World Heavy Weight Champion
A professional fighter trains himself thoroughly in such a way that he has a large array of different attacks. I’ve heard it’s quite common that before a match, a fighter and his coach will watch video, a lot of video, of the opponent. Seeing where his opponents strengths and weakness are, the fighter will tailor his fight to take advantage of these.

Usually when I hear “the schemes of the devil” I think of them in very broad terms, but when Satan looks upon me and is scheming against me I don’t think he is just saying “duhhh I am gonna get that guy!” On the contrary, his plans are extremely well thought out in regards to my past, what my weakness are internally and the temptations of my present circumstances.

My point is simple and I think on track with this passage. What are his schemes against you? What attacks has he used on you in the past? Has there been a common pattern? If there has been, then I’d urge you to look at the armor of God presented in the next section of Ephesians 6 with those past attacks in mind.

Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication.

Prepare yourself with a defense to match the attacks of the past.  We should be able to say with Paul that “we are not ignorant of [satans] designs” so that we can answer Peters call for us to “be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”  

My hope is that this passage wouldn’t just be about generic schemes of the devil and generic defenses against them, but instead would evoke in us thoughtfullness about how he has decieved us in the past and an eagerness to prepare ourselves by the Spirit through the Word of God to destroy those pathetic attacks when they come.

I have been a Christian now for 8 1/2 years. Honestly I have not really read the bible much until this year. I would hear messages and talk about them or go to home groups, but when it came down to me actually doing the work….that was a rare occasion. I often times made excuses for myself and felt justified by others at times. But it wasn’t until a few months ago that I new I need to really do something about it. You don’t really realize how sinful you really are until you start reading His word. And I am not saying that we should have a beating every time we read it, but once you realize the person you are you can seek forgiveness.

Amen? Amen, amen!

From her post here.

I’ve been wrestling with the concept of Biblical manhood and womanhood for some time now. Right now I am not at a place where I can say that I agree with it, but it may simply be semantics. Let me try and explain.

Terms and definitions
The Manhood and Womanhood definitions from Merriam-Webster are very similar. For womanhood it says:

1 a: the state of being a woman b: the distinguishing character or qualities of a woman or of womankind

1a seems similar to saying that a piece of aluminum has entered toasterhood. The aluminum is in the state of being a toaster. In that sense I agree that I posses manhood, but if that is the sense they mean then what is biblical manhood? Believing that it is God who has made me a man? If that’s all it means I agree.

Definition 1b talks about the distinguishing character or qualities of being a woman. These are the characteristics or qualities that distinguish or set a part womanhood from manhood. If we exclude physical characteristics and qualities are we left with any that distinguishes men from women?

Why you?
I asked some friends a while back “Why do you think that God chose for men to lead rather then women?” Their answers were not all that surprising: Men are less emotional, more temperate, they are wiser, men are better decision makers. When I asked where the Bible said that I was met with bewildered looks and shrugs.

God tells all of us in Scripture to strive for certain character attributes, the fruit of the Spirit. We fall short of them because we are sinful. Certainly both men and women are called to be wise as opposed to fools, but were men designed by God to be less effected by sin in this regard? I can’t find anywhere in Scripture that says as much.

Does the Bible say anywhere that men have a designed in edge over women for any fruits of the spirit? Does it reveal this about women?

What I am not saying
Understand that I ask these as a convinced complimentarian. A complimentarian is one who believes that the husband is the head of his home and not his wife and that qualified men are elders and by virtue of the fact that a woman is a woman she is disqualified from eldership.

Egalitarianism holds that the gender of a Christian plays absolutely no part in what function they have in a body. There is no head in the family and being female does not qualify nor disqualify a woman from being an elder in the church. I believe holding the Egalitarian view point requires one to distort numerous sections of Scripture that speak clearly to the place of gender helping to define roles in family and the local church.

Why does this matter?
If I have an underlying, vague assumption that by virtue of me being a man that I am wiser then my wife then how will that effect my relationship with her? When a decision needs to be made and my wife (who is naturally less wise then me of course) is offering her thoughts how much weight will I give to her input?

When my wife says that she thinks I am leading in the wrong direction will I, at least internally, say “Sheesh, poor woman. Does she not know that God made me the leader for a reason… “

On the other hand, what if I don’t have an underlying assumption that I am wiser, etc? Would that effect how I interacted with her and the value that I placed on her thoughts for a given matter?

What I am looking for
Am I misunderstanding the concept of Biblical manhood and womanhood? Is it simply a view towards complimentarian roles (which I agree with) or does it enter into definitions like Merriam-Websters (which I can’t find biblical support for?)

Is there Scripture that speaks of distinguishing characteristics or qualities between men and women that are designed by God into the created order? Are there Scriptures which call men and women to pursue different or distinguishing character attributes?

A conventional interlinear New Testament provides an English translation directly below each Greek word in a Greek New Testament. This tool is called an interlinear because the English words are placed between the lines of Greek. Since the English words are merely translations of individual Greek words, the English words are out of grammatical word order, do not constitute any particular translation, and cannot easily be read. Their only use is as a reference. This is not to say that conventional interlinear New Testaments should not be used. One simply must be aware of their purpose and limitations.

A reverse interlinear displays an English translation as the primary text and then weaves the corresponding Greek words between the English lines. So the word order of the English translation is untouched, but the Greek words are rearranged to correspond with the English. This means that the English lines are readable and the text can be used as a working everyday English New Testament.

Furthermore, since Greek is not as dependent on word order as English, often the Greek found in a reverse interlinear is also readable. This means that there is nothing prohibiting someone from reading the English lines and then growing accustomed to reading the Greek lines as well. One of the features of this reverse interlinear is that the Greek words are numbered according to their original order. This provides an easy reference to the original for situations where the Greek word order could make a difference.

Continues here.

When I read his story I had tears of sadness for his pain which then turn to tears of joy for him and his familys reconciliation, but they are then followed by more tears of sadness. Hearing how God has turned the sorrow of another to their joy can sometimes cause me to reflect on my own sorrows that have not yet been turned by God to my joy and may not be in this life.

I do not believe this story is included in Scripture to tell us that if we have enough faith, or if we are godly enough, or if we are loving and forgiving enough that we too are promised Josephs experience with those who sin against us.

But I do believe part of the reason this story is included is to make me long for that, to extend forgiveness in hope of experiencing that reconciliation.

I believe this story is included to remind me of my betrayal against my heavenly Father and how my brother Jesus has reconciled us together again and to make me long for when he will reconcile all things in heaven and on earth to Him! All things!

That is the hope that I have: that Josephs story is only a little taste of what God has been doing this whole time in the world, even in my story and that some day, some day His plan will be fully revealed to me and I will see it perfectly and will glorify Him for the wisdom and loving-kindness of it!

One of my favorite things about getting the ESV Study Bible was that it gave me access to its entire set of resources online. These resources include top notch book introductions, commentary, translation notes, building diagrams and maps.

If you have yet to purchase an ESV Study Bible though then check out BibleMap.org. It is a great, fun to use Bible atlas. You just choose a section of Scripture and the site will mashup a Google Map with any geographic information pertaining to the passage.

Give it a try yourself with the book of Acts!