Random Thoughts from a Fish

Have you ever gotten to the point where you want to read the Bible in a systematic way, but have fallen behind? Over the years, I have read the Bible through using a variety of systems. After using each system for a while, I find that I begin to lose interest.

Let me try to explain what I mean. If one begins in Genesis, reading straight through to Revelation, it takes forever to get to Jesus. One tends to bog down in the Old Testament. I love the book of Genesis, but I usually don’t tell people to begin reading there. They’ll get lost for certain through Leviticus and Numbers.

I have used a Chronological Bible, which is not the same thing as reading from Genesis to Revelation, but has some of the same problems, as it takes so long to get to Jesus.

I have also used a system where one reads a portion from the Old Testament (except for Psalms and Proverbs), a portion from Psalms, a portion from Proverbs, and a portion from the New Testament, every day, so that one will finish reading the entire Bible in a year.

How much must one read each day to finish reading the entire Bible in a year? About 3 chapters, more or less, per day.

Whoa, this post is titled 10 chapters a day! If one reads 10 chapters a day, one will read the Bible through quicker than one year–but it is SO EXCITING!

The drawback I mentioned to reading through one of the systems described above is that it takes too long to get to the good stuff. Last week I cam across a “10 chapter per day” system. I have been using it daily for the past week, and it has been exciting.

It was developed by Professor Grant Horner, who teaches at The Master’s College in California. You can begin it at any time, and it just keeps coming at you. Basically, you start reading in 10 different sections of the Bible, reading one chapter in each of the sections, each day. The sections are as follows:

• Gospels
• Genesis – Deuteronomy
• Romans, 1-2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Hebrews
• 1-2 Thessalonians, 1-2 Timoty, Titus, Philemon, James, 1-2 Peter, 1-2-3 John, Jude, Revelation
• Job, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon
• Psalms
• Proverbs
• Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1 -2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther
• Isaiah – Malachi
• Acts

That way, you read a WIDE variety of Scripture every day, and you get the good stuff every day! At the end of the year, you should have read the gospels about 4 times, the Pentateuch about twice, the epistles 4 or 5 times, the books of Poetry (other than Psalms and Proverbs) nearly 6 times, the book of Psalms more than twice, the book of Proverbs nearly every single month, the books of OT History nearly twice, the OT Prophets nearly twice, and the book of Acts more than 12 times.

Does that sound exciting? It requires a little more reading time than the other systems mentioned above, but it is great! If you would like to see Professor Horner’s own description of the system (PDF file), which includes a sheet with bookmarks that can be cut out to use in your Bible, click here.

If you decide to give this system a try, drop me a line to let me know how YOU like it.

I’ve been teaching NT Greek at OCC for a number of years now. I have enjoyed co-teaching with my advanced Greek professor, Kenneth L. Boles, at both the 2nd year Greek level, and 3rd year Greek level. When I started teaching Greek, I taught 1st year students for a number of years. The last several years, however, I have spent my time teaching more advanced students. I hope someday to get some more whacks at 1st year Greek as well as teaching the advanced level students.

At any rate, this reflection has its roots in a conversation that I had earlier this year with one of our graduates. He went on to do some graduate study at a rather prestigious graduate school. He took a Greek proficiency exam, and needed to take a leveling course in Greek, as he did not show himself to be proficient in NT Greek, despite studying Greek at OCC for 3 years! OUCH!!

He took his leveling course in Greek, and was able to continue on in his Greek studies at the prestigious graduate school. Once he got into the courses that he should have been taking, he saw that he could read Greek far better than most of the people in the course. The reason for his reading proficiency is because that is what we foster in our advanced Greek courses. In other institutions, advanced Greek courses teach the intricacies of Greek grammar, but students don’t learn to read Greek.

For the past several years, in our 2nd year Greek classes, we have used Daniel Wallace’s The Basics of New Testament Syntax, which is the abridged version to his Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics. We attempt to expose students to all of the categories, while at the same time getting them massive amounts of Greek reading. Our 3rd year Greek classes consist of massive amounts of reading, talking about the grammar that surfaces from our reading. For example, my 3rd year Greek students from the 2009-2010 school year read the following in Greek: Mark, Romans, 1-2 Peter, Jude, and Ephesians. We spent some time the last week of the semester reading some Patristics.

Seumas MacDonald, an Aussie who authors several blogs, has a post today on his blog, Compliant Subversity, along these same lines. In it, reflecting on the tendency at seminaries to emphasize grammatical categories in their 2nd year Greek classes, says:

I’m not sure this is the best use of a 2nd year Greek education. Let’s at least acknowledge the fact that Greek speakers rarely looked at a genitive and asked ‘what category of the genitive does this fall into?’. Did they sometimes do that kind of in-depth analysis of their own language? Certainly, as we do in English sometimes when disambiguating or arguing over complex or unclear words. But not in our everyday discourse. Far better, I contend, that we spend 2nd year Greek studies trying to get students deeply into reading Greek qua Greek, and far less on memorising 183 uses of the dative.

I agree with him wholeheartedly.

M, pls rite on tabs & giv 2 ppl

1. no1 b4 me. srsly.
2. dnt wrshp pix/idols
3. no omg’s
4. no wrk on w/end (sat 4 now; sun l8r)
5. pos ok – ur m&d r cool
6. dnt kill ppl
7. :-X only w/ m8
8. dnt steal
9. dnt lie re:bf
10. dnt ogle ur bf’s m8. or ox. or dnkey. myob.

My colleague Gary Zustiak shared this with me. I believe it is taken from the current issue of Reader’s Digest.

OCC Students (& other Bible college students): Logos Bible Software has had a seminary scholarship program for some time. They just released a new program, offering scholarships and Bible software to undergraduate Bible college students. The recipient could be you! Check it out!

Appeared on their blog this morning: click here.

Bristol Palin has made a Public Service Announcement for The Candie’s Foundation, whose mission is to reduce teen pregnancy.

Chile was devastated by one of the strongest earthquakes in history early Saturday morning. 25 years ago (almost on the same weekend–last weekend before the school year was to begin), Santiago was struck by an earthquake with a magnitude of 8.0 on the Richter scale (as a comparison, the January earthquake in Haiti was 7.0).

This quake, with an epicenter near Concepción (the 2nd largest Chilean city), registered 8.8 on the Richter scale. Only the 1960 earthquake in Valdivia, CHILE measured larger (9.5 on the Richter scale). We are praying for Chile, and are very concerned about many friends in the VII Region of the country.

This music video is making the rounds on Facebook. The music is sung by a Christian duet (man and wife) called Tercer Cielo (3rd Heaven). The song, titled Yo Te Extrañaré (I’ll Miss You) appeared on their album titled Hollywood (2008). The song, together with images from Saturday’s earthquake, moves me to tears. Knowing that many of you do not understand Spanish, I wanted to help you understand the lyrics to the song.

Please remember to pray for Chile.

I did not write this. The author’s name is Mark Lightman. But I liked it . . .

Μαρκος τοις δυναμενοις αναγιγνωσκειν Ελληνιστι. Χαιρετε, ω φιλοι! Πως εχετε; Εγω Μαρκος καλως εχω.
Σημερον ὁ τοπος του Μαρκου «γαλα» εστιν. Γιγνωσκεις το ρημα «γαλα;» γαλα ποσις εστιν. Πινομεν γαλα. Γαλα λευκον εστιν. Εκ βοῶν γαλα εστιν. Μαρκος χεει το γαλα επι των «fruit loops» αυτου. Το γαλα εστιν «2%» ἢ «1%» ἢ «4%» ἢ «skim.»
Τοις ανθρωποις ὑγιειαν φέρει το γαλα. Αλλὰ γαλα και ωφελιμον εστιν προς το μανθανειν την γλωσσαν Ελληνικην. Την αληθειαν λεγω. Ουκ ψευδομαι. Εγω Μαρκος λεγω υμιν οτι γαλα βοηθήσει υμιν μανθανειν την Ελληνικην.
Γαλα γαρ «ακρωνυμον» εστιν: γ-α-λ-α.
γ-γραφε
α-ακουε
λ-λαλεῖ
α-αναγιγνωσκε.
Μαρκος λεγει: μικρον γαλα καθ’ ημεραν. γραφε Ελληνιστι και ακουε Ελληνιστι και λαλεῖ Ελληνιστι και αναγιγνωσκε Ελληνιστι. Ποιουντες ταυτα παντες ημεις προκοψομεν.
Ερωτῶ ουν σε: γαλα εχεις;
χαρις υμιν.

I thought that the next blog I would post would be a reflection on the movie Avatar. I still haven’t written that one down.

Today is Super Bowl Sunday. In my e-mail this morning was a very thoughtful reflection on attitudes of Christians towards sports. It was written by my Chilean friend, Fernando Soto Dupuy, who ministers on the west coast. He recounts how he grew up in a church culture in Chile (different from the one in which we ministered), that viewed a Christian’s participation in sports as an indication of carnality. I once led a Bible Study in a home in Chile, shortly after having my nose broken playing basketball. At the end of the Bible Study, my Chilean colleague asked the woman of the home to dismiss our meeting in prayer. She came toward me, put her hands on my head and began to pray for me, casting out the demons of sports. That shows a prevailing attitude of a certain Christian sub-culture at the time in Chile.

At any rate, Fernando’s reflection was based on personal experience, and on an article titled “Sports Fanatics” by Shirl James Hoffman, published in Christianity Today. I know that most of the readers of this blog are more proficient in reading English than Spanish. You can access the article by Hoffman by clicking on the link.

Some of my readers will appreciate Fernando Soto’s essay, titled “El Cristianismo el el deporte competitivo“. If you read Spanish well, you may enjoy reading it. I know that I did!

I received this greeting via e-mail. Perhaps you will enjoy watching it:
http://bit.ly/6kzdbP

I am a graduate of Columbia International University (Columbia, SC). One of my favorite professors there was Dr. William Larkin. He has written a number of books on the Biblical message as it interfaces with divergent cultures.

I recently received the December 2009 letter from CIU’s president, Dr. Bill Jones. In it, he shares a portion of an op ed piece in the State newspaper, as Dr. Larkin responded to another writer’s thesis, that “a variety of paths lead to the same Divine Truth.”

Christians who believe that the Bible is the very Word of God sometimes appear to be intolerant. John 14:6 and Acts 4:12 are rather narrow. If a Christian accepts Scripture as revelation, such texts do not allow for much wiggle room.

I liked the portion from Dr. Larkin’s piece so much, that I wanted to share it here. In his introductory letter, Dr. Jones said, “What better time to discuss the exclusivity of Christianity than at Christmas.”

Here are the two main points from Dr. Larkin’s article:

1.) Exclusivity is revealed in the Old and New Testament.
God has a salvation plan with a universal scope. God’s call to Abraham clearly
communicates that universal scope: “in you all the families of the earth shall be
blessed” (Genesis 12:3). Joel’s invitation, repeated by Peter and Paul (Joel 2:32, Acts 2:21, Romans 10:13), echoes that opportunity: “Whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

In the Old Testament, at the very heart of covenant obligations, is exclusivity. In the first two Commandments God commands “You shall have no other gods before me” and “You shall make no carved idols” (Exodus 20:3-4).

In the New Testament, Jesus and His followers taught exclusivity in terms of salvation accomplished and applied, though they asserted it should be offered to all. While Jesus said to make disciples of and teach all nations and ethnic groups, He also said, “I am the way the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).

At CIU, we do not debate Christian exclusivity. Our doctrinal standard centers
on the person of Jesus Christ. In fact, we only admit students for degree
candidacy who affirm this Scriptural truth. Christian exclusivity means that much to us.

2.) The source of Christian exclusivity is revelation, not arrogance.
Left to ourselves, we are those blind individuals feeling various parts of the elephant and coming to our conclusions about God’s truth. But if God’s message is that He has provided one way of salvation, then the exclusivity of
its truth claim is not a matter of the “fundamentalist” Christian’s desire to be right, but of humble obedience to the Good News he has received.
It has been said that sharing God’s exclusive message is simply “one beggar telling another where to find bread.” Admittedly, we can hold to this exclusivity in arrogance, self-righteousness and smugness. But this is not the stance Jesus commended—or commanded. Throughout His ministry, Jesus challenged such attitudes among the religious leaders of His day. A quick scan of the Gospels
reveals this.

Jesus IS the reason for the season. We live to know Him and to make Him known.