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 Biblical Hymns, Part 3: Every Knee Will Bow

by Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction | Part 2: Christ As Firstborn

Our hymns typically have stanzas. The hymn in Philippians 2 does as well. The stanzas are easy to spot,* because the phrasing is parallel, and the content progresses from “down” to “up”:

  • 6 who, although He existed in the form of God,
    • did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself,
      • taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
  • 8 Being found in appearance as a man,
    • He humbled Himself
      • by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
  • 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
    • 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
    • 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Php 2).

The first hymn in our series celebrated Christ’s sufficiency to rule. This second hymn celebrates his humility as demonstrating his qualification to rule. The first stanza notes his humiliation; the second, his exaltation.

Note that it all begins with a relative pronoun, which is one of the suggested identifying characteristics of hymnic material in the NT text. Then comes a note of surprise, indicated by the “although”: “Even though he was exactly the same shape as God, he didn’t cling to what he had, but he emptied himself!”

This is surprising for a couple of reasons:

  • What it means to be “in the form of God”
  • What one would expect from such an exalted person

In English, “he was in the form of God” implies uncertainty, even fraud: “he looked like so-and-so, but he actually wasn’t.”

There’s none of that in the Greek. The word is morphe, or “shape.” Paul says Jesus is exactly the same “shape” as God. Since God has no body, we’re clearly not talking about physical shape or appearances. Jesus is like God in all of his non-physical qualities—his personhood, his characteristics or attributes, his perfections.

If some of God’s attributes are unique to him (we call those “incommunicable” attributes), and Jesus is exactly like him in those respects, then what is the only logical conclusion?

Jesus is God.

And what would one expect from such a person?

If the kings of the earth exalt themselves—ancient monarchs, and even the much more recent Hirohito, were viewed as gods—then why would the genuine God humble himself?!

Surprising, indeed.

And how, specifically, did he humble himself?

He became a mere human.

And not a very distinguished one, at that. A subject of Rome, in a backwater village in a backwater province, son of a manual laborer, with people asking questions about the circumstances of his conception (Jn 8.41).

And then, he intentionally took a path to execution as a common criminal, by the most torturous means ever devised.

You can’t get any lower than that.

And now for the big surprise.

God reaches down to the depths, to the bottom of the barrel, and raises him up, not merely to exoneration, or even to elevated human status, after the fashion of Joseph in Egypt. Not even to revelation of the Father’s approval, or of his heavenly origins.

No. All the way. All the way to the top. To the name that is above every name.

To the point where his Roman executioners, and the corrupt Jewish leadership, will bow to him.

And not just the corrupt ones. Everyone. Those despised, and those deeply admired. All humans will bow.

And not just humans. Demonic powers. And angelic ones, too. All of heaven. All of hell.

They—no, we—all will bow, and we all will agree that this one is Lord. Lord of us, Lord of all.

Those who now deny God. Those who hate him. Those who question him, because they have suffered greatly in this life. Those who have simply ignored him as inconsequential.

We all will bow to the one who, though he is God, humbled himself.

Sing of him. Sing of his marvelous works.

Sing it in private and in public. Sing it to those you love, and to those you don’t. Make it what everyone who knows you thinks of when they think of you.

Sing.

* For a slightly different look at the structure, see here.

Part 4: Morning Light | Part 5: Manifested, Vindicated | Part 6: Eternal Glory | Part 7: If and Then | Part 8: God and Us

Photo by Michael Maasen on Unsplash

On Biblical Hymns, Part 2: Christ As Firstborn

by Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction

All the  New Testament passages most commonly identified as taken from hymns in the early church are about Christ. No surprise there. They celebrate his uniqueness, his glory, his powerful work in accomplishing our salvation. I’d like to begin with the classic—and controversial—passage from Colossians 1:

15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. 17 He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. 18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything. 19 For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, 20 and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross; through Him, I say, whether things on earth or things in heaven.

This is an inductive passage—that is, it draws us along to its main point at the end, rather than stating it up front. The main point is that God the Father has planned a cosmic reconciliation by placing all that God is into a human form; “all the fulness” of God is “to dwell in” Christ (Co 1.19), “His beloved Son” (Col 1.14). This is the means God has chosen to accomplish his primary goal, “to reconcile all things to himself” (Col 1.20).

Why should God become human? Why this shredding of the fabric of the universe?

Because, as an old churchman named Anselm noted, only God can make an infinite payment, and only man can die, death being the payment required. So God designs the perfect and eternal payment for sin “through the blood of his cross” (Col 1.20).

Can the Son accomplish such a work? Can he reconcile God, the perfect Creator, with his broken and devastated creation? Is he capable? Is he worthy?

Paul presents the answer to the question, the evidence for the conclusion, at the beginning of the passage. The second person of the Godhead, God the Son, is

  • The image of the invisible God. By becoming man, he makes the invisible visible. He can be seen, and touched, and heard (1Jn 1.1-3). Those who have seen him have seen the Father (Jn 14.9).
  • The ruler over all the universe. The Jehovah’s Witnesses use the phrase “the firstborn of all creation” to support their heretical claim that Jesus was God’s first created being. I’ve written at some length about why their reading of this text is certainly wrong. As that series demonstrates, the phrase means that he is the ruler over everything that has been created. Why is that?
    • Because he is the Creator of all things (Col 1.16). This fact is stated repeatedly elsewhere by other writers (Jn 1.1-3; Heb 1.1-2). If you make something, you are sovereign over it; you can do what you want with it.
    • Because all things were made for him (Col 1.16b).
    • Because he maintains all things (Col 1.17). They exist because he continues to want them to, and he directs how their existence proceeds.
    • He is the ruler of all those to be delivered by his cross, called here “the church” (Col 1.18a). The Father has appointed him to this position (Eph 1.19b-23).
    • He is the one whose resurrection makes possible the resurrection of all those who follow in his train (Col 1.18b).

I’ve mentioned that some of the biblical benedictions are thought be early church hymns as well. It seems appropriate to include one here:

33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! 34 For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? 35 Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? 36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen (Ro 11).

Sing of him. Sing of his marvelous works.

Sing it in private and in public. Sing it to those you love, and to those you don’t. Make it what everyone who knows you thinks of when they think of you.

Sing.

Part 3: Every Knee Will Bow | Part 4: Morning Light | Part 5: Manifested, Vindicated | Part 6: Eternal Glory | Part 7: If and Then | Part 8: God and Us

Photo by Michael Maasen on Unsplash

On Biblical Hymns, Part 1: Introduction

by Leave a Comment

God’s people sing.

They always have.

  • On the day of Israel’s great deliverance from Egypt at the Red Sea, Moses led God’s people in a song of delight and rejoicing before the God who had delivered them (Ex 15.1ff): “The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea!”
  • At the end of his life, Moses composed a song by which Israel could remember God’s words (Dt 32.1ff): “Ascribe greatness to our God!”
  • Hannah, the mother of the prophet Samuel, who introduced the monarchy to Israel, wrote a song of thanksgiving for the end of her long period of infertility (1S 2.1ff): “He raises the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap!”
  • David, the “sweet psalmist of Israel,” and his son Solomon set up elaborate musical infrastructure for the Temple, including (apparently) hundreds of professional singers to lead the congregation of Israel (1Ch 15.16; 2Ch 5.13).
  • Like Moses, David too left behind a song for his people (2S 23.1ff): “The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me, and his word was on my tongue!”
  • And like Hannah—with her words deeply embedded in her heart—the Jewish girl Mary composed her “Magnificat” (Lk 1.46-55) in response to the news that she would bear the Messiah: “My soul exalts the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior!”

In the church age, the New Testament speaks of God’s people singing, placing great importance on congregational singing as part of regular worship (Ep 5.19; Co 3.16). Paul—who sang with Silas when they were in a Philippian jail (Ac 16.25)—speaks of the importance of our understanding what we’re singing (1Co 14.15). James urges suffering believers to sing (Jam 5.13). And in the ages to come, God’s people will continue to sing in their praise to him (Re 14.3)—including, apparently, that song of Moses from Deuteronomy 32 (Re 15.3).

We all know that Old Testament believers had a hymnbook, called today the Book of Psalms, containing 150 songs written by several authors over many generations, from Moses (Ps 90) to Asaph (Pss 50, 73-83) to the sons of Korah (Pss 42-49, 84, 85, 87, 88) and especially including David, who wrote, among many others, the universally known and loved Psalm 23.

What did the early New Testament churches sing?

There’s no New Testament equivalent to the Book of Psalms. But there are three passages in Luke’s Gospel that are poetic and lyrical—

  • Mary’s “Magnificat” (Lk 1.46-55)
  • Zechariah’s “Benedictus,” his prophecy at the birth of John the Baptist (Lk 1.68-79)
  • Simeon’s “Nunc Dimittis” upon seeing the infant Jesus in the temple (Lk 2.29-32)

We can’t know whether the early church sang these as songs in corporate worship, but there are other passages in the New Testament that scholars suspect are taken from hymns sung by the early church.

How do they know that?

Well, they don’t; there’s no reliable record from those days as to what those believers were singing. But students of the Scripture suggest that certain passages sound lyrically like hymns—they evidence certain patterns that are typical of hymns, such as

  • A beginning—an “introductory formula”—that sets the passage off from what precedes
    • Reference to a “faithful saying”
    • A relative pronoun, particularly in reference to God
  • Rhythmic structure / patterns
    • Repetition, in the fashion of a refrain
    • Parallelism
  • Distinct vocabulary
    • Doxologies
    • Hapaxlegomena (words that occur only once in the New Testament)
  • Interruption of the flow of the passage
  • Exalted or liturgical language

Since prose can have these elements as well, most of this is subjective, and much of it is just guessing; for a scholarly discussion of its weaknesses, see this article. (And if you want a second rigorous look at the topic, try this.)

That said, there are a few passages in the New Testament that are routinely viewed as reflecting early hymns:

  • Ephesians 5.14
  • Colossians 1.15-20
  • Philippians 2.5-11
  • 1 Timothy 3.16
  • 1 Timothy 6.15b-16

There are also several benedictions (e.g. Ro 11.33-36), which might have served a similar purpose.

We’ll take a look at these, and perhaps some others, in the posts to come.

Part 2: Christ As Firstborn | Part 3: Every Knee Will Bow | Part 4: Morning Light | Part 5: Manifested, Vindicated | Part 6: Eternal Glory | Part 7: If and Then | Part 8: God and Us

Photo by Michael Maasen 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

On Devotions, Part 2: Semper Gumby

by Leave a Comment

Part 1: Introduction

The fact that there are false ideas and legalism about our practice of personal time with God is no indication that we shouldn’t have such a time, or that we shouldn’t take it seriously.

What are some indications that you take it seriously?

  • You make it a priority. You engage in it even when there are other things that need doing, or when it’s inconvenient. It may even require you to sacrifice some other activity—or maybe it won’t. But you’re determined to get it done.
  • It’s not haphazard. It’s not going to happen just once in a blue moon, when you happen to think about it, or when some sermon or group Bible study makes you feel guilty. It’s probably regular—every x period of time, and lasting for y minutes, give or take—but maybe not, if your daily schedule is less predictable than average.
  • It’s purposeful. You have an end in mind—personal closeness with the Father, Son, and Spirit, and preparation for effective service to and for them—and you keep that goal in mind as you proceed.
  • It’s thoughtful. You put mental effort into planning and designing it; you seek input from other believers, whether in person or in writing, and you consider how those practices might or might not help you reach the goal.
  • It’s practical, flexible, and creative. You try new things to see whether they’ll move you toward the goal, and you cast off practices that don’t seem to do that. Continuous improvement. ISO 9000.
  • It’s personal. As I’ve noted earlier, it’s more like a date than a business meeting. You protect it from becoming routine or mechanical; you seek God’s presence, and you delight in it.
  • It’s real. As in a marriage, you have your good days and your bad days, but the relationship persists.

What this means is that the way you have devotions will probably change over time, as your life circumstances change—

  • I have a job with predictable responsibilities and hours; my schedule changes somewhat every semester, but for that semester it’s pretty much solid. Back when I was working in retail or in food service—boy, that was a long time ago—I had a different schedule every week, and I just had to pretty much figure life out a few days at a time.
  • Over the years my family circumstances have changed. When I was single, I had a lot more flexibility in my schedule; when my wife and I got married, we had to consider one another. Then when the kids came along, well, it was just chaos for a while, and parents have an obligation to prioritize the health, safety, and general well-being of the little progeny. Now our kids are both grown and taking care of their own responsibilities, and we have more schedule flexibility again. We can go to bed when we want, and nobody’s going to keep us up half the night. Probably.

Devotions for a young mom are going to look very different from what I do, and there ought to be no guilt for either of us regarding those differences. You evaluate your circumstances, you calculate what you need, you lay out a plan to meet those needs given the circumstances, and you do the best you can. You try to be consistent, but exigencies happen, and God knew they were going to happen—in fact, ordained that they would happen—so you go with the flow and keep your thoughts Godward even in the middle of the maelstrom.

It’s about the relationship, not the details of your carefully designed process.

Now, I’m about to appear to contradict myself.

I’d like to take a few posts to lay out what my devotional life looks like at the moment.

It’s not a pattern for anybody else; in fact it’s not even a pattern for me, in the sense that it changes all the time, as needs require and as insights provoke. But it’s an opportunity to demonstrate how and why those changes occur, and how I’ve adjusted the process over the years. And since we’re supposed to “stir up one another to love and good works” (Heb 10.24), perhaps something I share might stimulate your creativity and inclination to try something a little different.

Might make a difference for you, or you might try one of my ideas for a while and decide to go back to what you’ve done before. But we’re all in this together.

Part 3: The Plan | 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