Dan Olinger

"If the Bible is true, then none of our fears are legitimate, none of our frustrations are permanent, and none of our opposition is significant."

Dan Olinger

 

Retired Bible Professor,

Bob Jones University

home / about / archive 

Subscribe via Email

On Mission Like Jesus, Part 4: Priorities

by Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Submission | Part 3: Objective

As Jesus labored to accomplish the Father’s will, he didn’t do so randomly. He was strategic; as we’ve noted before, he understood the objective clearly, and he kept himself focused on it.

But he wasn’t just slashing his way wildly through the jungle of God’s will. He thought not only about what the objective was, but about how best to get there. He laid out tactics, among which was calculating the best ways to achieve the goal and prioritizing his time and resources to best effect.

We see evidence of that throughout his life.

  • To begin with, even as a boy he calculated that “being about my Father’s business” was more important than getting back home to Nazareth right after the feast. It’s puzzling to us that he didn’t let his parents know what he was up to, but the Scripture doesn’t tell us everything, and we know that whatever he did was right. But regardless, his priorities were clear.
  • He submitted himself to John’s “baptism of repentance”—a baptism he didn’t need—because it was “necessary to fulfill all righteousness.”
  • He accepted the Spirit’s driving him into the wilderness for great difficulty—have you ever fasted for forty days and nights?—only to face the far greater difficulty of temptation by Satan when he was at his very weakest. Why was this important? Oddly, we’re not told, in so many words. He’s going to defeat Satan at the cross (Heb 2.14); why this bizarre confrontation? We can only speculate. Perhaps he benefits from the exercise of being tempted (Heb 5.8); perhaps he wants to provide an example for us; perhaps there are scores of other reasons. It’s a priority, that’s for sure.
  • He prioritizes people. When he’s on the way to heal a dying son, and when the mob is pressing on him from every side, he feels—he notices—the believing touch of a frail woman on the hem of his robe (Mt 9.20). He’s paying attention in the midst of the chaos. He’s on mission.
  • And speaking of chaos, after days of constant ministry, listening, touching, healing all who come, he prioritizes rest for himself and his weary disciples. ”Come on, men,” he says, “let’s get out of here and get some rest. Let’s get something to eat” (Mk 6.31).  He has three years to save the world, without mass media or telecommunication technologies, and he takes time off, because rest matters. It speeds you toward accomplishing the objective.
  • Sometimes he gets away not for rest, but for a different kind of labor. Sometimes he goes off by himself to pray—and some of those times, he prays all night (Lk 6.12). This is certainly not rest. But it’s just as important.
  • And as the climax of the mission approaches, he identifies and prioritizes the most important things even more aggressively.
    • He sets his face like flint to go to Jerusalem (Lk 9.51).
    • He takes a moment during the Passover meal to send his pseudo-disciple off on his deadly mission: “What you do, do quickly” (Jn 13.27). “Let’s roll,” indeed.
    • He pauses to wash the disciples’ feet (Jn 13), leaving them a lesson and life pattern that they will never forget.
    • He summons them from a safe room to the Garden, where he knows danger waits (Mt 26.46).
    • On the way he pours out his heart to them regarding the things they’ll need when he leaves them—though he knows that they’ll understand none of this anytime soon (Jn 14-16).
    • When Peter does Peter, Jesus rebukes and redirects his godless efforts, and even pauses, during his arrest, to reattach the servant’s ear (Lk 22.51).
    • Throughout a star-chamber trial, conducted in direct violation of multiple Jewish and Roman laws, Jesus never objects, never defends himself, and in fact speaks only rarely and only in ways that incite the prosecution (Mt 26.64).
    • On the way to the cross, he speaks wisdom to random weeping women (Lk 23.28).
    • On the cross, he exercises the duties of the firstborn toward his mother (Jn 19.26).

This is a man not only focused on a difficult and costly mission, but constantly prioritizing every decision, every action, in light of that mission.

Sometimes I think like that. But much more often, I don’t.

That needs to change.

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash

On Mission Like Jesus, Part 3: Objective

by Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Submission

We’ve noted that Jesus understood his need to submit to the Father’s will and to depend on the Father’s power to accomplish his mission—and that if he did, then we most certainly do.

Something else we see in Jesus’ thinking during his earthly mission is that he clearly understood and remained focused on the mission. He knew what he was here for, and he committed himself wholeheartedly to that goal.

What was the goal?

He stated it more than once, in various ways that reflected different aspects of his mission.

  • To begin with, he understood that the Father had sent him (Jn 3.16).
  • The chief mission was to die as a payment for human sins—
    • The Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many (Mt 20.28 // Mk 10.45).
  • But that mission involved other specific activities as well—
    • Seeking the lost: The Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost (Lk 19.10).
    • Calling sinners to repent: I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance (Lk 5.32).
    • Bearing witness to the truth: For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth (Jn 18.37).

And remarkably, he devoted himself to the mission with a steely determination unwavered by the cost.

  • When the days drew near for him to be taken up, he set his face to go to Jerusalem (Lk 9.51).
  • What shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour (Jn 12.27).
  • Your will be done (Mt 26.42 // Lk 22.42).

So what do we see in Jesus’ accomplishing of the Father’s will?

  • Understand the mission.
  • Stay focused on getting it done.

As in the previous post, we find these elements challenging our understanding of the relationship between Jesus’ earthly submission to the Father and his equality with the Father as a member of the Trinity. And again, our puzzlement about those things only makes us more certain that we, who call Jesus Lord, must all the more understand the mission God has given us and stay focused on getting it done.

So what is the mission?

There’s a lot of discussion about that. :-)

I’d suggest that the overarching mission—the meaning of life, if you will—is to manifest God’s glory, by our living and our dying:

  • Whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God (1Co 10.31).

Everything else we do, on any day, in any arena of life, we should calculate to point others, as well as ourselves, to the great glory of our Creator and Master.

That gives everything meaning. It makes everything great, eternally significant.

There are no trivial activities, no trivial decisions, no trivial thoughts. Everything we think or do is heavy with consequence.

The Scripture gives us some specifics as to the ways we ought to glorify God—

  • We ought to cooperate with the Father’s plan to conform us to the image of his Son.
    • Those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers (Ro 8.29).
    • And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another (2Co 3.18).
  • We ought to do what Christ tells us to—as the Son did for the Father.
    • If you love me, you will keep my commandments (Jn 14.15).
  • And in doing that, we certainly ought to obey the last command he gave us.
    • Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you (Mt 28.19b-20).

That’s the mission. Now we focus on getting it done. We evaluate every thought, every decision, every action against the mission. Are we getting there?

Or not?

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash

On Mission Like Jesus, Part 2: Submission

by Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction

We’ve said that Jesus is our example for all things, including our current question: how should we live out our mission of glorifying God? How did he do that?

One of the first things we notice is that Jesus submitted himself to the will and provision of the Father; to put it bluntly, he knew who was boss.

It seems odd to say that, doesn’t it?

Jesus is God, co-equal with the Father and the Spirit in all respects. That’s just basic trinitarian doctrine (e.g. Mt 28.19-20). His submission to the Father during his earthly ministry—and perhaps beyond (1Co 15.24)—is a thorny question, as are all questions regarding the Trinity.

Sidebar:

Some people think this is a problem for trinitarian doctrine, but I don’t. I’ll observe that if we had invented God, we would have made him easier to understand, and we certainly wouldn’t have stymied ourselves with a doctrine we confessedly can’t explain. But if God is indeed infinite, and our brains aren’t, then we would expect him to step over our intellectual horizon every so often. Difficult doctrines like the Trinity should strengthen our confidence rather than embarrassing it.

End sidebar.

The Scripture is quite matter of fact about Jesus’ submission to—indeed, his dependence on—the Father, even as it speaks of his equality with him, and it doesn’t seem to feel any need to explain the apparent tension. On the one hand, Jesus says that he can do nothing without the Father (Jn 5.30), and that he does exactly what the Father tells him to do (Jn 14.31; 17.4), even when he doesn’t want to (!) (Mt 26.39, 42), while he also remarks, without hesitation, that he operates on the very same plane with his Father (Jn 5.17) and that he shares the Father’s eternality (Jn 8.58).

And the apostles confirm our understanding of Jesus’ words. Paul writes that Christ was “obedient” to the Father, for which the Father has exalted him (Php 2.8-9). And the author of Hebrews applies to Christ the line from Psalm 40.8 that speaks of the Psalmist’s complete obedience to God: “I have come to do your will, O God.”

Now, there’s a lot of difficulty in understanding how Christ’s subordination to the Father worked. But for our purposes, there shouldn’t be any confusion at all on how we apply it. If even Jesus was submissive to the Father, then we certainly should be as well.

We all know that mission success requires obedience. We learn that during our school days by observing successful classrooms—and successful athletic teams. Success in sports comes when you submit to the coaches during practices, and when you submit to the rules during games. After we finish school, many of us learn it in the military, where knowing your place in the chain of command is an all-consuming lifestyle. Even those of us without military experience admire the effectiveness of highly trained military personnel, effectiveness that is possible only because they submitted themselves to difficult, confrontational, taxing, grueling discipline over an extended period of time.

That means that, like Jesus, we need to know the mission’s objective and then subordinate ourselves completely, trustingly, sacrificially to the sovereign Lord.

One exciting thing about this concept is that our Commander, unlike all human commanders, is all knowing and all powerful. He’s never the victim of a surprise attack, and his great enemy is completely outmatched on this battlefield. His forces are never overwhelmed, or even effectively deflected, and the outcome of the battle is certain from the very beginning of the war.

All coaches eventually lose a game. All generals eventually lose an engagement.

But not ours.

Not the God of heaven, the Creator of heaven and earth, the covenant-keeping God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

We can follow him, safely, to hell and back.

And we can delight in watching the gates of that hell crumble before him, and us, because he is faithful even when we are not, and he is victorious in all his will.

What a delight to submit to the good, wise, and great orders of the God of all.

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash

On Mission Like Jesus, Part 1: Introduction

by Leave a Comment

Over the years I’ve had different kinds of jobs: grill cook, retail management, writing, editing, white-collar management, teaching, educational administration. Something I’ve learned in that time is the importance of having a mission, understanding it, and staying focused on it. You can’t just go to work every day and react to whatever happens; to be successful, you need to have a plan for the day and devote your attention and effort to accomplishing it.

We all know that. We buy lots of books, such as Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, to tell us what we should have figured out from common sense: have a goal, have a plan, and work it. As Zig Ziglar famously said, “If you aim at nothing, you’ll hit it every time.”

That applies off the job as well. We all benefit from goal-setting and planning in our personal lives; some families even have a family mission statement, one that all of the kids can recite and explain. Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg wears grey T-shirts every day because he’s so focused on the mission that he doesn’t want to “waste” time figuring out what he’s going to wear every day.

Some people take all that more seriously than others. At one extreme we have the people on Hoarders, who seem to do no planning or organization and so can get little accomplished. At the other extreme we have people who are so obsessed with routine and process that they drive everyone around them to distraction by how seriously they take every little thing. In other words, Monk.

We can make a case for thinking through our personal mission and goals and strategizing to raise the likelihood that we’ll achieve them—but doing so in ways that don’t jeopardize other important things, such as family and mental health.

Christians have a mission, whether they realize it or not. It was given them by their Creator, the Owner of all things, the Giver of life, the only Being for whom the mission is appropriate, indeed obvious: we exist, he says, to glorify him.

Everything that exists was created for that purpose:

The heavens declare the glory of God (Ps 19.1)

O Lord, our Lord,
How majestic is Your name in all the earth,
Who have displayed Your splendor above the heavens! (Ps 8.1)

In particular, human beings were created for that purpose:

The conclusion, when all has been heard, is:
fear [reverence] God and keep His commandments,
because this applies to every person (Ec 12.13).

And especially, every one of God’s people, those who call him Father, is created for this purpose—

Israel:

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name;
Bring an offering, and come before Him;
Worship the Lord in holy array (1Ch 16.29)

And the church:

Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do,
do all to the glory of God (1Co 10.31).

The Scripture reminds us often that our example, the one we should strive to imitate, is Christ himself. Since the Father’s plan is to make us like the Son in significant ways (Ro 8.29), we ought to pattern our thinking and behavior after his (Php 2.5-11).

It makes sense, then, that we ought to look to Jesus’ thinking, while he was ministering to and among us, for insights into how we might pursue our great mission in life, to glorify God and to make his name great.

How did Jesus serve his Father? How did Jesus glorify him?

We can read about what he said and did in the Gospels, and we can go to the Epistles to learn what it all means. I’d like to spend a few blog posts investigating the topic. We’ll find a lot of data there to inform our thinking and our service.

Next time.

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash

On Devotions, Part 8: Conclusion

by Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Semper Gumby | Part 3: The Plan | Part 4: Bible Reading | Part 5: Bible Study | Part 6: Christian Reading / Music | Part 7: Prayer

Since we didn’t quite finish covering my prayer structure last time, I’d like to wrap it up here and then share some closing thoughts about devotional life and practice.

The last part of my prayer is Supplication, or asking for things. Like many other believers, I’ve organized my requests by days of the week. Every day I pray for my family specifically and for any urgent matters that have come to my attention from church or school or social media. But then I pray for different areas of need based on the day of the week—

  • Sundays: church—the leadership, the other members of my small group, and any other needs in the body
  • Mondays: work (BJU)—administration, faculty, staff, students
  • Tuesdays—those who need to be saved or who are struggling spiritually
  • Wednesdays—the recently bereaved; I note the date of death and then pray for the families for 6 months or so. I know from experience that concern for the bereaved tends to wane long before the need for prayer does.
  • Thursdays—missions. There are several mission works with which I have particular connection, and I pray for specific needs in those ministries. God will hear “bless all the missionaries,” of course, but he tells us to bring our requests, which I see as implying a certain specificity.
  • Fridays—health needs. Acute needs typically go on the daily list; this section is for chronic needs. Right now I pray weekly for about a dozen friends who have cancer, and a handful of others with various other chronic needs.
  • Saturdays—governments. I cover a specific level each week: city council, county council, state assembly, state senate, governor, US House, US Senate, White House, Supreme Court, UN. (I’m not making any statement about sovereignty with that last one; but since things happen there that affect my country, I pray.)

I typically close by praying through my schedule and task list for the day, and I end with a recitation: “Father, I give you this day. Use me, as you wish, to glorify your name, edify your people, and advance your kingdom, for Jesus’ sake. Amen.”

This makes for a really good start to the day, and a really sharp focus on what should be my primary motivations throughout the day.

Closing Thoughts

Several things to note.

First, these days my devotional practice takes a little more than an hour—5 to 10 minutes for maintenance Bible reading, 30 minutes or so for Bible study, 15 minutes or so for Christian reading, 5 minutes for music, and 10 to 15 minutes for prayer. Ideally I get up at 5 am and get right to it, while the house is quiet. As I’ve noted earlier, that means that I typically don’t stay up late, but as an empty-nester that’s a realistic option for me.

Saturdays and Sundays, of course, I can take a little longer.

If I have time, I’ll sometimes add a couple other items to the chain. Sometimes I’ll watch a Logos training video to sharpen my skills with my Bible study software; and if I have time, I’ll quickly scan the day’s headlines to orient myself to what’s happening Out There. Stewardship, conversation hooks, general awareness.

Second, let me reiterate that I don’t intend this to be a pattern for anyone else. I’ve intentionally used tentative language in these posts; I’m absolutely not suggesting that you have to do these things, in these ways, in order To Be A Good Christian. What  I’m doing these days is working really well for me these days; but I’ll change pretty much anything if I think I can make better spiritual progress in some other way, and particularly if I find my routine getting, well, routine. I share these things in the hope that someone might harvest a useful idea or two, and that someone stumbling along might be motivated to spend more time with his God.

I cannot tell you how significantly this regular devotional practice has revolutionized my walk with God and my consequent daily life. It pays infinite dividends, and God helping me, I will not short-cut it.

May the road rise to meet you, my friend.

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

On Devotions, Part 7: Prayer

by 1 Comment

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Semper Gumby | Part 3: The Plan | Part 4: Bible Reading | Part 5: Bible Study | Part 6: Christian Reading / Music

I typically end my morning devotional time with prayer.

Prayer’s always been really difficult for me. I find it hard to have a real conversation with someone who’s invisible, and my tendency toward something resembling ADHD means that my thoughts in that situation are all over the place.

I’ve found that a couple of practices help me a lot. First, I have a plan. I was brought up in a culture where liturgy was suspect, but I’ve found that a certain amount of structure and even recitation helps keep me focused and contributes to my sense of purpose and goal.

Second, I usually pray with my eyes open. That seems counterintuitive, but during my morning prayer time I’m typically the only person up, and there aren’t distracting things going on around me. And opening my eyes enables me to focus on the written plan that I’m using.

There are lots of ways to structure prayer; most books on prayer offer suggestions. Most recently I’ve been using the well-known ACTS acronym: Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. It’s been working well.

I begin with exalting God (Adoration). In Theology Proper (the doctrine of God) the standard organizational structure is 1) Person (characteristics) and 2) Works (activities). My prayer “script” lays out the standard points under these two headings. For Person I’m currently using the classic description from the Westminster Shorter Confession, Question 4: “God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.” For Works I’m using the standard list: Creation, Providence (consisting of Preservation and Government), and Miracles. Each day I focus on one item in this list.

Next comes Confession. I structure this in a standard way: Sins of Omission (failure to love God, and failure to love my neighbor) and Sins of Commission (in thought, word, and deed). Over time I’ve asked God to make me more sensitive to my sin as I’m committing it, so I can pause throughout the day to seek (and receive) forgiveness. I’ve found that waiting for daily devotions to confess the previous day’s “batch” encourages me to forget a lot of stuff. Lots of Christian teachers say we ought to “keep current accounts” with God. They’re right.

Next is Thanksgiving. This has always come easily to me; I’m just a generally happy and thankful guy. Currently I’m structuring this section on the great description of God in Exodus 34.6-7, praying through one characteristic per day. Then I add three areas in which God has been good to me: physical, providential, and spiritual. There’s plenty of fuel there for gratitude, and I find that thinking through some of these things every day does wonders for my devotion—and, incidentally, for my mental health as well.

It’s worth pausing here to make an observation. At this point we’re 75% of the way through the daily prayer, and we haven’t asked for anything—but forgiveness. Many years ago it occurred to me that I was coming to God in prayer as though he were my personal assistant or butler—expressing thanks, yes, because that is, after all, a polite thing to do for those who work for you—but almost immediately getting to a list of demands. Prayer was more about me than about him. After studying biblical prayers, I realized that I was missing the whole point. I didn’t talk that way to anyone else that I loved; how could I be so brusque and efficient with my Creator, Father, and Shepherd? So I’ve developed the practice of beginning with fellowship.

Next time I’ll describe my plan for the final section of my daily prayer practice—requests—and we’ll wrap up this series with some closing thoughts.

Part 8: Conclusion

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

On Devotions, Part 6: Christian Reading / Music

by 1 Comment

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Semper Gumby | Part 3: The Plan | Part 4: Bible Reading | Part 5: Bible Study

After my daily Bible reading and study, I like to spend just a few minutes in a worthwhile Christian book. I really don’t have any specific advice for you here; since everyone’s different, everyone’s reading and reinforcement needs are different; and the circumstances of your life are going to affect what books are available to you. There are lots of sources of recommendations out there; take a recommendation from a source you trust, and read something. I read just a section a day, for 10 or 15 minutes, just enough to give me something to think about. You might enjoy doing that as well.

_____

Next comes music.

When God designed me, he designed in a great appreciation for music, but he chose not to give me much ability to produce it. On the few occasions when I feel like bursting into song in the shower, I quit pretty quickly, out of consideration for others in the house and for my own sense of musical quality.

I find that music is an important part of my daily devotions; I like to place it just before prayer, where it helps set my mind in the right place for my speaking to God. But because of my musical limitations, I find that my own singing doesn’t yield the same result that listening carefully and appreciatively to good, well-performed recorded music does.

So over the years I’ve developed a list of recordings that contribute to my attitude of worship as I enter my prayer time–a playlist, if you will.

I have a couple of preferences that guide my selection:

  • Firm commitment to a traditional rather than a contemporary style, though my conscience does allow some contemporary folk (as opposed to rock).
  • Since I’m more of a visual than an auditory learner, I prefer videos that include the lyrics either in the video itself or in the comments below.

This is my list at the moment. I add to it all the time as I come across appropriate and effective recordings, and I cycle through the list, one piece a day.

One closing observation. 

Music is property. I’ve linked to YouTube videos here for purposes of reference and demonstration. But if you intend to use a piece of music over the long term, you should pay for it. 

Part 7: Prayer | Part 8: Conclusion

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

On Devotions, Part 5: Bible Study

by Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Semper Gumby | Part 3: The Plan | Part 4: Bible Reading

I find maintenance reading to be important in keeping the Word of God—all of it—in my head. But I also find that it’s not enough. I need to study the Bible—to settle in, dig deep, find out what it means, and merge it with my thinking in a more substantial way than reading a passage once a year can do.

So I devote a section of my daily devotions to digging deeper. It’s the longest section of my devotional practice, and even then I’m just scratching the surface. I’ve tried to make it more productive by making it a daily progression, building each day on a process that takes several weeks.

There’s something to be said for topical studies, including word studies; I’ve done a lot of those over the years. But typically my study time is spent trying to get my head around an entire biblical book. The length of time I spend in it will depend on the length of the book. One year I spent a month each on the twelve shortest books of the Bible. Right now I’m in the middle of two months on 2 Timothy. Here’s how I’m spending those two months:

  • Day 1: Read & outline
  • 2: Identify and highlight key words (I use Logos’s “Important Words Guide”)
  • 3: Compare English versions to identify substantive differences (Logos “Text Comparison” tool enables me to do this quickly, but any parallel Bible will provide this information)
  • 4-5: Identify textual variants (the easiest way to find the substantive ones in English is here)
  • 6-43: Read commentaries and note key background and interpretive details (I have a lot of commentaries—about 50 that include 2 Timothy)
  • 44-49: Diagram the book on biblearc.com to comprehend its structure and flow of argument (here’s my diagram of 2 Peter)
  • 50-51: Note and evaluate instances of intertextuality (the book’s references to other biblical or extrabiblical writings—Logos’s “NT Use of the OT” tool is very helpful for this, but both NASB and CSB emphasize the NT citations of the OT typographically [NASB with ALL CAPS, and CSB with boldfaced type])
  • 52: Write a thesis statement for the book, reflecting the key themes in the wording, and the organization in the sentence structure
  • 53-56: Go through the file of notes I’ve been compiling, cleaning up the format and readability

I keep each month’s schedule to 28 days so it will work in February; the extra days in other months give me time to catch up or pursue things I’ve discovered that aren’t already given time in the schedule.

When I’m done, I have my own commentary on the book, with key features color-coded in highlighting. And the weeks immersed in the book reinforce its content in my mind in ways I wouldn’t be able to get from a century of annual readings.

This study takes about 25 or 30 minutes per day. The Logos tools I’ve mentioned—particularly the interlinear mode of the Text Comparison Tool—make some of it noticeably more efficient, and the time I save I invest in commentary study.

As to commentaries, let me make some recommendations—

  • The best source, by far, for evaluating biblical commentaries is bestcommentaries.com. The site has a ranked list of commentaries for each biblical book (e.g. John). The rightmost column in the list identifies the type of commentary with various tags. I would recommend avoiding the “devotional” commentaries, because they often don’t answer the questions you have when you’re trying to understand a passage. If you have some training in biblical languages, the “technical” commentaries are quite valuable; if not, the “pastoral” commentaries are probably the best investment for you.
  • I am quite fond of both the New American Commentary series and the Pillar NT Commentary series—they’re thorough and specific, and most of what they say is accessible to someone of average intelligence and without seminary training—if you’re willing to study. :-)
  • Electronic is better than hard copy. It takes up no space and weighs nothing—and you’ll really appreciate that every time you move. Further, it’s electronically searchable, which makes it far more useful than hard copy. You can highlight it just like a book—and even better, you can change the highlight later if you want to. And finally, it’s often less expensive than the hard copy, both in manufacturing and in shipping.

6 These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates (Dt 6.6-9).

Study.

Part 6: Christian Reading / Music | Part 7: Prayer | Part 8: Conclusion

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

On Devotions, Part 4: Bible Reading

by Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Semper Gumby | Part 3: The Plan

Since the first means of grace is the Scripture, ingesting the Bible should be a key part of our devotional plan. I’ve divided that into two phases. The first is simply reading the Bible—typically not taking notes or looking things up, but just reading. I like to call this “maintenance reading”—just keeping the whole Bible reasonably fresh in my head, so it will constantly inform and direct my thinking and decision-making.

A lot of Christians like to read through the Bible every year. That’s an excellent practice, and one I typically follow, but again I should note that doing it is not a biblical command. It does make sense, though, to keep as much of it in your head as you can, and I’ve found that an annual overview works well.

Some years I’ll do something else instead. Once I decided to read through the Greek New Testament, and I realized that I would need to take a couple of years to get through it successfully, so for those two years I read just the New Testament for my maintenance reading. But most years I read through the entire English Bible.

I’ve also made a practice of reading in different translations. For several years I read a different version every year; now I’m going back over ones I’ve already read. (This year it’s the NASB 1995, which is the version my church uses.) I’ve done this for three reasons.

  • First, as a Bible teacher, I often get asked
    about this translation or that one, and I felt the need to be in a position to
    give knowledgeable answers.
  • Second, I found that if I read the same version
    all the time, I’d get familiar with the words to the point that my mind was
    more likely to wander as I read—and I’d get to the bottom of a page and realize
    I’d been thinking of something else through the whole page. Reading the same
    ideas in different words has helped me focus more consistently.
  • Third, reading those different words often helps
    me notice different angles on various passages. Sometimes there are differences
    in meaning between the way different translations render the same verse. These
    differences usually come from one of two situations: 1) there’s a textual variant in
    the verse, or 2) there’s a word or phrase in the verse that is ambiguous and
    could legitimately mean two different things. In either case, I’m made aware
    that there’s an ambiguity, and I can look into it further using commentaries or
    other study tools.

I also like to vary the order in which I read the Bible. As you probably know, there are lots of Bible–reading plans available; they tend to get circulated on the internet every December, just in time for New Year’s resolutions. I’ve tried most of the ones that take you through the whole Bible in a year; in recent years I’ve read a passage each from the OT and NT every day; OT, NT, a Psalm, and chapter of Proverbs; through the Bible in chronological order; last year I used Trent Hunter’s Bible Eater plan; and this year I’m just reading straight through from Genesis to Revelation. Sometimes I plan a “day off” every so often, so I can catch up more easily if I get behind. I like all these approaches, and I like varying them. My regular Christmas present to myself is deciding what the next year’s plan will be.

This isn’t an ad, but I use Logos Bible software a lot—every day, throughout the day. It has a Bible reading plan generator that is infinitely customizable. I recently set up a plan to read through the “miscellaneous” sections of Proverbs one verse per day, so I could just focus and meditate on one proverb each day. Logos made it easy to do that.

You can get the Logos executable for free, along with a few free books to get started. What you pay for in Logos is adding books to your library. But they give away free books fairly frequently, and their catalog almost always has free items; it’s possible to get a reasonably useable program without spending any money at all if you’re patient, and if you have a few bucks, your library can be even bigger and more useful.

Another program, e-Sword, gives you a much more robust library for free; you might want to check that out as well.

Part 5: Bible Study | Part 6: Christian Reading / Music | Part 7: Prayer | Part 8: Conclusion

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash

On Devotions, Part 3: The General Plan

by Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Semper Gumby

I’ve noted already that your devotional time should be purposeful. So what is its purpose?

I’d suggest that the purpose is pretty simple: to support and increase your intimate knowledge of God so that you can serve and represent him as he wishes, for the promotion of his glory.

As we’ve seen in an earlier series, that knowledge of God grows primarily through the means of grace: Scripture, prayer, and fellowship with other believers. Since your devotional time must involve some private activity, it will likely be focused on the first two of these; it will involve time in the Scripture and in prayer, and it should issue in private worship.

Over the years I’ve tried different ways of exercising these means of grace. For most believers it starts simply; you should take baby steps, lay out achievable goals, and build some momentum by seeing some consistency in those little victories.

So as a baby Christian, my first need was just to do something involving Scripture and prayer, and to develop a pattern of doing it regularly. Daily is great, but regularity of any kind is a step in the right direction.

Over the years, as your maturity and discipline increase, the pattern may grow more complex, or it may simply involve a bit more time. But it will develop and change.

I’ve found that a difficulty with regular devotions is keeping it fresh. When I was younger, I needed more variety in my life than I do now; in fact, I rather enjoy the familiarity of a regular system these days. But every day I need to keep my easily distracted mind focused, and I find that varying things one way or another helps with that. I’ll note some of those variations as we proceed through this series.

Right now my devotional time has these primary sections, derived from the purpose stated above.

  • Bible reading
  • Bible study
  • Christian reading
  • Music
  • Prayer

I’ll describe each of these in further detail in future posts.

As to overall pattern, I’ve settled on a daily frequency, for the simple reason that I need the daily workout. Almost daily I tell myself, “Dan, you’ve been a Christian for 60 years. You ought to be better at it than this.” I regularly surprise myself by the ease with which I turn from the path; I am indeed “prone to wander.” So I return to my spiritual roots every day to drink from the fountain of God’s grace.

I’ve also settled on having devotions first thing in the morning. I wake up quickly and happy—something that irritates people, I know—and the fact that I have a clear mind and a spirit of energetic hopefulness for the day ahead means that it’s a good time to meet with God.

A word about that waking up business. I know that people are all different, and I really don’t think this is a moral issue. I’ve noticed over the years, however, that our culture puts a lot of pressure on us to stay up late enough that it’s not likely that those of us with 8 am commitments are going to get 8 hours of sleep, which is what most people need to function at their best level. A while back I decided to make that a priority, and I go to bed earlier than most people.

Sure, that means no more late-night TV, but there’s nothing much worth watching there anyway. And little to no late-night sports, but the highlights will be on YouTube first thing the next day (actually a lot sooner than that). And in return for those trivial sacrifices, I get a full night’s sleep and wake up energetic and happy.

For me, it’s a no-brainer.

I didn’t used to be a morning person. I wonder how many people think they’re not a morning person when they actually could be.

Again, not a moral issue. There’s no particular virtue in being like me. But the change has made a remarkable difference in my day-to-day experience—of devotions, and of a lot more.

Next time we’ll begin looking more closely at the components of one Christian’s devotional practice.

Part 4: Bible Reading | Part 5: Bible Study | Part 6: Christian Reading / Music | Part 7: Prayer | Part 8: Conclusion

Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash