Summary of Paul’s Message from Paul Himself

Stumbled across this today while studying something else.

Kind of jumped out at me for some reason.

Read on…

Chronological Bible

[yes, I know its been a while...Life has been busy ]

I was perusing chronological Bible reading plans as mine seems to be a bit inaccurate in places (or not as accurate as I would like) and came across the NKJV (New King James Version) chronological study Bible by Thomas Nelson publishers.

Perhaps I should take a moment to define my use of ‘Chronological’ – It is not the exact time the book was put to paper, but the approximate time the events are transpiring and the events that are occurring around the writer – Which King was King of Judah when Amos is writing?  Which King was king of Israel when Obadiah was writing?  When did the prophets appear and what circumstances were occurring during their writing?  I hope that makes sense.

Apparently there has been several criticisms of a chronological Bible that I was [blissfully] unaware of.  One of the criticisms was moving the individual psalms closer to the events that led to the psalm being written instead of having a “book of psalms”.  To me, that shows an interesting lack of knowledge and naiveté on the part of Christian believers. [i.e. Believers that criticize reading the Bible in a different order than they are arranged - Naiveté is not necessarily a bad thing!]

For example, when I am reading about David’s sin with Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11-12 and find Psalm 51 moved from Psalms to closer to the event that inspired it, I find that much more easy to follow and much more inspiring.

If I’m reading the Bible book-by-book and come to Psalm 51 months after I’ve read 2 Samuel, it loses a bit of its context and punch.

Some chronological Bible plans have the book of Job as occurring in the same time frame as part of Genesis (Job was not a Jew but a Gentile), others have it occurring later after Isaiah.  This study Bible prefers the latter and they give their reasons for it.  (I would like to think that Job is Pre-exile, but in this case they put it Post-exile and during/after Isaiah).

Anyway, the current Bible reading plan that I’m on has me in Ezekiel at the moment and he has references to Daniel which means Daniel was writing at the same time (or earlier), yet the plan I’m on hasn’t taken me into Daniel yet – so that is frustrating.

This new Chronological Bible has the reader start Daniel before Ezekiel and I think I do like that.

I have discovered that they have their reading plan available on line if you want to use your current Bible and read the books of the Bible in the context of which they unfolded according to their scholarship.  However, this approach will lose the “reasoning” behind why they placed a particular section where they did.

Many scholars may not agree with their arrangement, and many scholars will.  For the typical Christian looking to dig a bit deeper and broaden their appreciation of God’s work, then I highly recommend a chronological approach to reading the Bible.

Here are some links:

Wayne Hasting’s response to the debate surrounding this particular Bible

Nelson Bibles Chronological Bible Reading Plan if you don’t want to actually buy the book – HOWEVER, you will lose the “reasoning” behind why the authors chose to place certain sections of scripture next to other sections.

SO, I’m interested in hearing your thoughts.  Do you have a problem with rearranging sections of the Bible for reading purposes?  If so, would you mind sharing your reason(s)? 

I pray that God blesses you today and keeps you safe from turmoil.  And if you’re going through a tough time, I pray that God will lift you up and give you victory over whatever is plaguing you.

God Bless,

Chris

!G = E [Not God equals Emptiness]

Not God?  What do I mean by “not God”?

Anything that is not God Himself, not of God, or not Godly.  Anything that is contrasted to life and value.  Worthless as opposed to priceless.

Thus says the LORD, “What injustice did your fathers find in Me, That they went far from Me And walked after EMPTINESS AND BECAME EMPTY ?(Jer 2:5 NASB)

Another way to word this:

“Thus says the LORD: What wrong did your ancestors find in me that they went far from Me, and went after worthless things, and became worthless themselves?” (Jer 2:5 NRSV)

When we seek “not God” we become empty – we are full of emptiness.  Full of emptiness?  Odd but true.

You can be full of LIFE or full of EMPTINESS.

BULL!

Ever played that card game?  Some call it bull.  Others call it bullsh**.  Others probably call it something else.

You know the one.  Where everyone has to lay 1-4 cards down in the middle face down and tell the group what they are laying down.  Like “4 aces”, or “2 sixes”, or “1 nine”.

The other players can either believe them or call “Bull!”.  You know that game?

The object is to be the first to run out of cards.  If you call “BULL!” on someone and they were telling the truth, you get all the cards that happened to be in the middle at the time.

It’s a fun little game for a while and teaches an interesting lesson.

I find myself suspended between two worlds

I recently asked a question on two “theology” lists that I belong to about Isaiah’s use of the words “Israel” and “Jacob” in the book of Isaiah.
I understand the difference between Israel and Judah, the divided kingdom, but there was something missing in my reading of Isaiah.  Why would the writer of Isaiah purposefully mention Jacob by both his names instead of by one proper name?

Either the Holy Spirit was poking me (in a sense) or my own background in reading was picking up on something.