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A Simple 3-Step Bible Reading Plan for Children

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My children have really enjoyed making use of audio Bibles to develop a habit of daily Bible reading—even long past their preschool years. A few of them enjoy writing down some reflections, but most prefer to simply draw while listening. We have found that their listening comprehension is excellent.

But since every child and family is different, I believe there are many options for teaching children to love God through his word. Joe Carter has another idea that may work better for you or your kids. He proposes 3 simple steps:

  1. Make a chart listing every chapter of the Bible.
  2. Assign them to read a chapter each day, with each day of the week focusing on a different part of the Bible.
  3. Have them cross off the chapter they read that day to see their progress.

Perhaps this could work for your family. Carter helpfully reminds us that flexibility is the most important principle: It’s okay if they miss a day. The most important thing is that we foster an environment where Bible reading is a habitual part of everyday life.

To develop a biblical worldview, we need to saturate our minds in Scripture. This requires repeatedly reading and engaging with the Bible throughout our lifetime. The earlier we begin reading the Bible the more time we have for God’s Word to seep into the marrow of our souls. That’s why helping a child to develop the habit of Bible reading is one of the greatest gifts we can give them.

Check it out!

Context Matters: Where Two or Three are Gathered in Jesus’ Name

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Perhaps you’ve heard that Jesus is specially present when two or three people gather in his name (Matt 18:20). And perhaps you’ve wondered how that jives with the fact that he is present with all of his disciples when they make disciples by going, baptizing, and teaching (Matt 28:19-20). Or how it’s any different from the fact that the Father sees and hears when you pray to him alone and in secret (Matt 6:6). Couldn’t Matthew get it straight? What is our quorum for ensuring the blessing of Jesus’ presence?

Context matters. When we learn to read the Bible properly—and not merely as a collection of one-liners and sound bites—we’ll find that some of the most famous passages take on different and deeper meanings than we’ve thought.

icandidyou (2014), Creative Commons

Life in the Kingdom

Jesus’ speech in Matt 18 addresses what the new covenant community of Christ-followers should look like. It speaks to such things as humility, compassion, initiative, conflict, restoration, and forgiveness. This speech particularly highlights how to handle the sin that will inevitably infect the community.

Offense from Sin

After telling his disciples that we must not despise any straying sinner, for God seeks to win every one of them back (Matt 18:10-14), Jesus moves into practical instruction regarding what to do when someone sins against you (Matt 18:15-20). In other words, it’s one thing to feel compassion for people whose sin hurts only themselves; it’s far more challenging to lovingly pursue those whose sin has hurt you personally.

Yet that is the very situation Jesus speaks to: “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault” (Matt 18:15). When you’re directly affected by another person’s sin, to the point where you’re tempted to despise that person (Matt 18:10), your first recourse is to speak to that brother or sister privately.

If that doesn’t work, bring one or two others along for another set of conversations, to provide witnesses for the interaction (Matt 18:16).

If that still doesn’t work, then tell it to the church (presumably, begin with the church leadership). If that still doesn’t work, then treat him as a Gentile or tax collector (Matt 18:17)—that is, as someone you love and pursue, with whom you share the gospel (Matt 9:11-13).

Authority to Bind and Loose

This leads Jesus to explain the nature of church authority. What you bind on earth is bound in heaven; what you loose on earth is loose in heaven (Matt 18:18). This cryptic statement should not be too confusing, as it simply alludes back to what Jesus said to Peter two chapters earlier (Matt 16:18-20). Peter’s confession in chapter 16 highlighted a great privilege he would have to wield the keys of the kingdom of heaven. We see Peter later wielding this authority to bind and loose as leader of the fledgling Jerusalem church (e.g. Acts 5:1-11). This in no way meant he was infallible or above criticism (see Gal 2:11-14); it just meant that Jesus delegated real authority to him as a leader.

And that authority was not unique to Peter. In Matt 18:18, it describes the assessment of “the church” toward an unrepentant sinner. And the next verse restates the situation more practically as one where “two of you agree on earth about anything they ask” (Matt 18:19). Here he’s not talking about any old two people agreeing about any old topic. He’s talking about the church wielding the keys of the kingdom, binding and loosing, deciding to treat an otherwise professing believer as an unbeliever. He’s talking about the leadership of the church exercising its responsibility to discipline members of the community who continue unrepentantly in sin.

Jesus Present with Two or Three

And now we arrive at the verse in question: “For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them” (Matt 18:20). Notice the “for,” which is a connector word identifying this sentence as a reason or explanation for the previous verse.

So the “two or three” he’s talking about are not the faithful few who showed up at this week’s prayer meeting. They are the authorized leadership of the church, who have witnessed a sinner cause offense to another member of the community and fail to turn from it. Just as their decision to bind or loose (to either retain or remove membership in the community) will be recognized in heaven, so Jesus’ authoritative presence is with them to enact said decision.

Peter’s Concern

This leads Peter to be deeply concerned about how many times he’ll have to let someone “off the hook” (Matt 18:21). If all they have to do is turn away from their sin, and he can no longer give them what he thinks they deserve—how long does he have to put up with such behavior? Of course, they’re lost sheep and all, but surely there’s got to be a limit to such disrespectful behavior, right? Wrong (Matt 18:22-35).

Addendum: When to Apply Matthew 18

We should note that Matt 18:15-20 is not intended to be a catch-all process for dealing with any and all sin. It is about what to do when someone sins against you, and you are not able to overlook it or live with it. It’s not about public sin, or sin that doesn’t personally impact you, or secondhand rumors about sin in a community. And it’s not about what to do whenever someone offends you; you must be able to prove that they have sinned. We must look to other passages of Scripture for guidance in each of these other areas.

Context matters.

For more examples of why context matters, click here. 

Thanks to Tommy, George, Nat, and Daniel for the idea for this post.

Revelation’s Seven Letters are Sermons on the Rest of the Book

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Have you felt confused about what to do with the book of Revelation? The blog Sign and Shadow has a thought-provoking post suggesting that the letters to the 7 churches in Rev 2-3 are the interpretive keys to the rest of the book. The author argues this thesis based on his observation of genre and structure. It’s worth considering.

Check it out!

HT: Lincoln Fitch

Context Matters: Two Tries to Heal the Blind

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Perhaps you’ve come across the intriguing little story where it takes Jesus two tries to heal a blind man. After Jesus spits and lays hands on the blind man, the man can see, but people look like walking trees (Mark 8:23-24). Jesus tries a second time, and the man can finally see everything clearly (Mark 8:25). Did Jesus struggle with this one? Did he require more practice to get it right? Or could this be an example of an oral tradition slipping past editors, who otherwise had worked hard to portray a fictional Jesus to fit their preconceived notions regarding his character and claims to divinity?

Context matters. If we learn to read the Bible for what it is—and not as a random assortment of disconnected episodes—we’ll discover that some of the trickiest passages make a lot more sense than we thought.

Andy Barnham (2010), Creative Commons

The Blind Man

We find the passage in question in Mark 8:22-26, which has no parallel in the other gospels. People in Bethsaida bring their blind friend to Jesus. Jesus leads him by the hand outside the village. He spits on the eyes and asks whether the man sees anything. He touches him a second time, “and he opened his eyes, his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly” (Mark 8:25). Jesus then sends him home, prohibiting him from re-entering the village.

We don’t need to speculate in a think tank about why it took Jesus two tries, as the context likely provides the clues we need. I have two theories for your consideration. If we zoom out to catch the flow of Mark’s argument, we’ll find help both before this passage and after it.

What Came Before

This story, along with the following one (Mark 8:27-30), concludes a major section of Mark’s gospel. Our structural hint comes from the bookends (known also as an inclusio) of guesses about Jesus’ true identity.

When Herod hears of the disciples preaching two by two across the countryside, he hears some people saying John the Baptist has been raised from the dead. Others think he is Elijah, while yet others consider him a prophet, like one of the prophets of old (Mark 6:14-15). And the 12 disciples have apparently heard exactly the same three guesses: “John the Baptist; and others say, Elijah; and others, one of the prophets” (Mark 8:28). This repetition provides us with bookends to help us see that Mark is making a coherent argument through these chapters.

So what is that argument?

Jesus has big ministry plans for these 12 men. He sends them out with his own authority to preach, heal, and exorcise unclean spirits (Mark 6:7-13). Yet at the height of their effectiveness, we’re reminded through flashback of what happened the last time a man of God got the attention of important people (Mark 6:14-29). This does not bode well for the disciples.

When they return to Jesus, he embarks with them on a rigorous curriculum of training.

  1. They participate in helping him feed a multitude – Mark 6:30-44
  2. They cross the sea – Mark 6:45-56
  3. They watch Jesus answer a question from the Pharisees and scribes – Mark 7:1-23
  4. They watch him speak to a Gentile woman about the children’s bread – Mark 7:24-30
  5. They see Jesus use his own spit and hands to heal a man with malfunctioning sense perception – Mark 7:31-37

Through this section, many people begin to understand who Jesus is. The Gentile woman understands his bread metaphor and submits herself to his will (Mark 7:28). Sick people touch only the fringe of his garment and are made well (Mark 6:56). From astonishment, many claim that he has done all things well (Mark 7:37).

But the disciples? They see all this, yet “they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened” (Mark 6:52).

So Jesus takes them through his training course a second time:

  1. They help him feed a multitude – Mark 8:1-9
  2. They cross the sea – Mark 8:10
  3. They see him answer a request from the Pharisees – Mark 8:11-13
  4. They have their own discussion with him about bread – Mark 8:14-21
  5. They see Jesus use his own spit and hands to heal a man with malfunctioning sense perception—but this time it takes two tries – Mark 8:22-26

This time, however, we don’t have anyone who begins to understand who Jesus is. Not even the twelve disciples. They can’t imagine where they’ll get enough bread to feed these people (Mark 8:4). They completely misinterpret Jesus’ bread metaphor (Mark 8:16). And Mark makes explicit the fact that they can neither see nor hear (Mark 8:18). In other words, they do not yet understand who he is (Mark 8:21).

But Jesus can heal the deaf (Mark 7:31-37). And he can heal the blind (Mark 8:22-26). Perhaps his two attempts to train the disciples will pay off and enable them to see clearly.

After the blindness is healed… “Who do you say that I am?”

“You are the Christ” (Mark 8:29).

So the first theory about why it took Jesus two tries to heal the blind man is to provide a picture, a living parable, of his two tries to heal the disciples’ spiritual blindness. Their sight of Jesus is fuzzy for a while. But after two complete training cycles, they see clearly in declaring him to be the Christ.

What Comes After

The passage immediately following the healing of the blind man shows Peter declaring Jesus’ identity as the Christ, or Messiah. He sees something important about Jesus, that Mark wanted us to see from the first sentence (see Mark 1:1).

But Mark also wants us to know that Peter’s sight remains fuzzy. He sees a Messiah, but not exactly the kind of Messiah that God wants him to see. When Jesus begins describing his coming suffering, rejection, death, and resurrection, he does so plainly (Mark 8:31-32). No more parables or confusing metaphors. And Peter promptly rebukes him (Mark 8:32).

Jesus then spends the next 2 chapters helping them to see more clearly what kind of Messiah he must be. Not the conqueror they expect, but the servant who suffers and dies. Not a tree of life walking around, but a Son of Man coming to serve and give his life (Mark 10:45). Jesus must explain these things 3 times (Mark 8:31, 9:31, 10:33-34) and illustrate them vividly through word and deed (raising a demon-possessed boy who fell as one dead, welcoming the typically unwelcome children, turning aside the one who refuses to sell his possessions, etc.).

So the second theory about why it took Jesus two tries to heal the blind man is to provide a picture, a living parable, of the two stages of sight the disciples must go through to understand who Jesus is. Yes, he is the Lord’s Messiah. But you must also see clearly that he is a suffering and dying Messiah.

It is no accident that this section of the gospel ends with another healing of another blind man, who immediately recovers his sight and the follows Jesus “on the way” (Mark 10:52), having lost his “life” by throwing off his cloak (Mark 10:50) so he might gain true life with Jesus.

Conclusion

I’m not sure which theory is the best one. Both do justice to the surrounding material and to the flow of Mark’s argument. And perhaps we don’t have to pick only one theory. Couldn’t it be possible that Mark had both ideas in mind as he wove together his glorious account of our Messiah?

Context matters.

For more examples of why context matters, such as the widow’s mite, the love chapter, and all  things work together for good, click here.

The Best Way to Equip Your Teenagers

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Jen Wilkin offers outstanding advice for Bible study, including how to teach your teens to do it. They don’t need more topical guides geared to their age group. She writes:

Your teen will be exposed to devotional content and topical studies at every turn, and they likely don’t need a resource that is targeted specifically at their demographic. What most are missing are basic tools to help them read and learn the Bible on their own. By guiding them in some basic study methods, you can position them to use devotional and topical material with far better discernment and far greater benefit, as those types of resources assume a first-hand knowledge of the Bible that many teens have not yet developed.

She then gives 6 suggestions for how to go about guiding them in this way.

  1. Choose a book of the Bible to read and discuss together.
  2. Get a copy of your selected book of the Bible that has room for taking notes.
  3. Set a schedule to meet once a week for a 30-minute discussion.
  4. Get a bird’s-eye view.
  5. Prepare for discussion.
  6. Meet to discuss.
  7. Pray together.

Wilkin’s advice is outstanding. Check it out!

Context Matters: By Grace You Have Been Saved

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If you have trusted in Christ and now follow him, you’ve likely heard that you’re saved by grace through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God (Eph 2:8). But do you know what these things mean? And how did the Apostle Paul expect you to perceive and apply these truths?

Context matters. If we learn to read the Bible for what it is—and not as a collection of independently assembled proverbial sayings—we’ll discover that some of our most familiar passages have even more to say than we’ve always assumed.

Kyle Smith (Creative Commons), 2015

Salvation By Grace

The doctrine of grace is both astounding and alarming. It is astounding that sinners can receive a righteousness from God, which they do not deserve, and be adopted as his sons and daughters. And it is alarming that they can do nothing to deserve such favor. All they can do is trust the one who makes it so.

Few places define this doctrine more clearly than Ephesians 2:1-10. A skeletal outline of the text shows Paul’s flow of thought. You were…But God…So that…For…For…

  • YOU WERE (Eph 2:1-3): dead, following this world and its prince, living for our own desires, children of wrath like the rest.
  • BUT GOD (Eph 2:4-6): made us alive with Christ, raised us up with him, and seated us with him.
  • SO THAT (Eph 2:7): he might display you as trophies of his grace.
  • FOR (Eph 2:8-9): you have been saved by grace, not works.
  • FOR (Eph 2:10): we are his workmanship, created and prepared for good works.

How It’s Possible

In the previous section, Paul describes his prayers for these people. He asks God to give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation (Eph 1:17) so they might understand:

  • the hope to which he’s called them (Eph 1:18),
  • the riches of his inheritance (Eph 1:18), and
  • the immeasurable greatness of his power (Eph 1:19)

That power is the same power that raised Jesus from the dead and seated him in the heavenly places and put all things under his feet (Eph 1:20-22). This raised, seated, and authoritative Jesus is God’s gift to the church (Eph 1:22-23).

The content of this prayer provides the context for Paul’s remarks about grace that follow in Eph 2:1-10. Though God’s people have been blessed with every spiritual blessing blessing in the heavenly places (Eph 1:3), the greatest blessing is the gift of the raised, seated, and subduing Christ.

This gift is God’s grace to an undeserving people. First, Jesus is raised from the dead and seated in heaven (Eph 1:20). Then, his people are raised with him and seated with him in heaven (Eph 2:6).

Why It Matters

But why is it so critical that we understand the nature of grace and the gift of the Lord Jesus? What does Paul want us to take from this doctrine?

We must observe the word “therefore” in Eph 2:11. In the second half of the chapter, Paul does not change the subject. He applies the doctrine of grace to the life of the church. Even a skeletal outline of the text shows immediate connections to the chapter’s first half. Remember that you were…But now in Christ…So then…For…For…

  • REMEMBER THAT YOU WERE (Eph 2:11-12): separated, alienated, and strangers; having no hope and without God. (In other words, you were dead in your trespasses and sins…)
  • BUT NOW IN CHRIST (Eph 2:13-17): you far-off ones have been brought near by the blood of the one who brings peace, breaks down hostility, abolishes the ordinances, creates one man, reconciles both to God, and grants equal access to the Father. (In other words, you have been made alive, raised with Christ, and seated with him and with his people.)
  • SO THEN (Eph 2:18-22): you’re not strangers, but fellow citizens, being built into a new dwelling place on the proper foundation. (In other words, you now show off the riches of God’s grace through your new community.)
  • FOR (Eph 3:1, 14-21): Paul the prisoner of Christ asks the Father to strengthen his people through this indescribable grace and immeasurable love.
  • FOR (Eph 4:1-32) Paul the prisoner of Christ urges you to walk in the good works that you’ve been created and prepared to do.

The main thing to catch is that the structure of the argument of Eph 2:11-4:32 follows the same structure of the argument of Eph 2:1-10 (with the possible exception of Paul’s mid-sentence digression in Eph 3:2-13). That repeated structure, together with the opening “therefore,” indicates that Eph 2:11-4:32 describes the implications, the ramifications, even the point of the doctrine laid out in Eph 2:1-10.

Conclusion

As presented by Paul, the glorious doctrine of grace serves a rather practical purpose. We are not saved by grace so we can feel great about ourselves or maintain an insider club. We are saved by grace so we can be built up together as a new temple, where members of all races are involved in one another’s lives and growing together in faith and good works. This shows the world how astounding God’s grace truly is.

Perhaps our generation might find greater help with race relations and reconciliation within the church by looking harder into the doctrine of grace.

Context matters.

For more examples of why context matters, such as the widow’s mite, the love chapter, and all things work together for good, click here.

5 Ways to Read More of the Bible

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J.A. Medders understands real life, and how the ideal setting for Bible reading rarely occurs. In his post “5 Ways to Read More of the Bible,” he mentions a few ways to capitalize on the clumpy nature of life.

Life is loaded. Add up the ingredients of a routine day: getting kids ready for school, packing lunches, getting ready for work, traffic, co-workers, projects, meetings, helping with homework, kids extracurricular activities, exercise, church functions, and more. And this recipe alone doesn’t make it difficult to regularly read the Bible.

These full days also get bits of eggshell in the batter. Days can spin out of our routine with stress at work, car problems, sick kids, a spouse traveling for work, or a rough night of sleep. Our days can be unpredictable, and that’s why our Bible intake often is too.

Medders holds himself to 2 rejections and 3 practices. If you already feel behind on your Bible reading plan, perhaps these suggestions might work for you as well.

  1. Reject needing the Instagrammable scenario
  2. Reject the checkbox
  3. Read on your phone
  4. Read without study speed bumps
  5. Read in community

This is great advice. Check it out!

Back Soon…

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I’m taking a little additional time away from blogging here at the beginning of the year, partly to have more time for Bible reading.

But now that I’ve done more of the ground work I wanted to do on structure—its value, how to observe it, how it conveys meaning, etc.—I’ll be ready to get back to more “Context Matters” posts. Readers have given me many ideas of potential verses to cover in that series, and I’ll work my way through them in 2019. I won’t cover every suggestion but will limit myself to those examples where I think I can make a contribution.

Stay tuned!

What to Look for in Bible Study Leaders

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Keri Folmar lives in a transient community, where she constantly loses her best ministry partners and must replace them. She’s found 4 primary characteristics to look for in new women’s Bible study leaders.

  1. Committed to the church
  2. Delights in the Scriptures
  3. Isn’t afraid to lead
  4. Considers her ways

Folmar accompanies each point with both explanation and real-life examples.

Check it out!

Top 10 Posts of 2018

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San Churchill (2007), Creative Commons

It’s hip and cool for bloggers to post their top 10 posts of the year. And we want to be hip and cool. Our hearts tell us to do it, and the Bible says to “walk in the ways of your heart and the sight of your eyes” (Eccl 11:9). So here goes.

Last week, we gave you the top 10 posts from those written in 2018. Now, we list the top 10 posts from the full KW archive. If lots of other people are reading these posts, you probably should be, too.

This year’s Top 10 has 3 new posts that haven’t been “top 10” before. Only one of those was written this year; the other two from the archive saw a surge in pageviews.

10. The Best Ways to Listen to the Bible

This 2016 post made its way onto the Top 10 list for the first time this year. In the post, Ryan gives a few recommendations for audio Bibles. And though Ryan doesn’t prefer dramatized audio Bibles, Peter has been delighted with, and cheerfully recommends, NIV Live.

9. How to Recognize Sowers of Discord

Making it onto the Top 10 list for the first time, this post outlines from Proverbs 6:12-15 a few signs to help recognize divisive people. This post comes from Peter’s 2013 series of studies through the first 9 chapters of Proverbs.

8. Top 10 OT Books Quoted in the NT

This post was part of Peter’s 2013 series analyzing every Old Testament quotation in the New Testament. Other posts listed the most quoted chapters and most quoted verses. But this one on the most quoted books got a lot of pageviews in 2018.. This post was #5 on this list last year.

7. 4 Bible Studies for Lent

This is the only post written in 2018 to be among the Top 10 of all posts. These Bible studies from Ryan will help you to make the most of the season of Lent by walking through one of the gospel accounts of Christ’s passion week.

6. 10 Old Testament Books Never Quoted in the New Testament

This post was also part of Peter’s 2013 series analyzing every Old Testament quotation in the New Testament. Good to know not only what’s said, but also what’s not said. This post was #4 on this list last year.

5. How I Prepare a Bible Study

In another post I explain, in the abstract, 5 practices for preparing effective Bible studies. In this post, I describe what it looks like for me to employ those practices. This post is up from the #9 slot last year.

4. Details of the OIA Method

We put this one into the top menu so people could find it easily. It pretty much explains why this blog exists, so we’re glad it gets a lot of pageviews. This one is down from #2 last year.

3. Summary of the OIA Method

See the previous post, unless you want less of a detailed explanation and more of a summary. Then see this post instead. This post was #1 last year before being supplanted by a young, angry man.

2. 10 Reasons to Avoid Sexual Immorality

This was the most-viewed post in 2014, but then dropped off the list until resurfacing as #8 last year. I’m delighted to see a continued resurgence in appeal for such an important topic.

1. Why Elihu is So Mysterious

The popularity of this 2015 post continues to surprise. Elihu is that mysterious 4th friend in the book of Job. If you even knew he existed, chances are you’ve skipped his speeches entirely. This post is Peter’s attempt to explain his role in the drama of the play of Job. This post was #3 most viewed in 2017, but in 2018 it had almost twice as many views as #2.