B-Grade Bible

How could a Bible ever deserve less than a 5-star rating?  When too many of man's words are mixed in with it.  Zondervan's NIV Essentials Study Bible is not a bad Bible -- there is much to commend about it and certainly you could find worse Bibles.  However, there are so many other better study Bibles available (even from Zondervan!) that I cannot recommend this one.

As its title suggests, Zondervan designed this one as a starter study Bible, combining (what they thought were) the best elements from 6 of their other study Bibles.  Their aim was to help newbies quickly get up to speed on the fundamentals of the faith. 

Great idea, bad execution.  The notes from the 6 study Bibles were not all of equal quality.  In particular the devotions from the Great Rescue Bible are not even as good as what you'd find, say, in Our Daily Bread.  Some of the rather lengthy notes pulled from the Archaelogical Study Bible are anything but essential to the faith.  (A full page about the shroud of Turin?)  A whole page in Jude showing a map of where the cities of Sodom were located?  The notes doubt that the Genesis 1 days were 24 hours, and aren't sure that Noah's flood covered the entire earth or that Paul actually meant to prohibit women pastors. And it is lacking the most essential feature of any study Bible: marginal cross references.  

On the other hand, there are lots of helpful maps, character profiles, in-depth sidebar Q&A's, and a number of solidly helpful notes from the NIV Study Bible.  Ironically, I think the original NIV Study Bible did a better job covering the "essentials" than the NIV Essentials Study Bible.  I would recommend it or the ESV Study Bible or MacArthur Study Bible over this one.

I received a copy of this Bible for free from Zondervan in exchange for writing an unbiased review.

How I Marked My Ballot

If you'll be voting in an Arizona GOP Primary this year, this message might be of help to you.

Picking candidates was harder for me this time than in any previous election.  Many of the candidates seem to be accused of major scandals.

Nevertheless, here are the people for whom I cast my vote.

Congress (CD1): Adam Kwasman
Governor: Andrew Thomas
Secretary of State: Wil Cardon
Attorney General: Tom Horne
Treasurer: Randy Pullen
Superintendent of Public Instruction: Diane Douglas
Corporation Commission: Tom Forese and Doug Little

A Greater Enemy than ISIS

Today my heart was captured by a two minute CNN video of Yezidis being rescued off Mount Sinjar.  Then I remembered that these dear people face an even greater enemy than ISIS: God.

The Yezidis believe in a false god, a god who tested his angels by commanding them to do something that violated a previous command.  One angel somehow figured out that he should obey the first command and disobey the second command, and was rewarded with rulership over the earth.  The Yezidis now worship this angel.

The Bible calls this (and worship of any other false god) idolatry.  And ironically, ISIS also calls it idolatry and has determined to exterminate as many Yezidis as they can.  The Bible would call that murder!

But if the Yezidis continue to reject the true God who made them and who made a way for them to be forgiven by the death of an innocent Substitute, they will face an fate far worse than ISIS.  There are no rescue helicopters from hell.

If journalists can risk their lives to get photos, why can't Christians risk their lives to preach Jesus to the Yezidis?

A Simple Plan to Evangelize Your Neighborhood

Last fall I tried to start a weekly Bible study in my neighborhood.  I went door to door distributing invitations.  It pretty much flopped after one week.  But then a friend pestered me for a couple months to try again.  I did, with a change.  Instead of using professional curriculum, I decided to just start at the beginning of Mark and work our way through the text of his gospel in order.  The Lord has blessed our weekly Saturday night gatherings.  We are small, but it seems like people are growing.  And of course it makes me grow!

Some Christians are good at evangelism. Some love to pray.  Some are good at hospitality. And some are good at teaching the Bible.  (And of course, some people are multi-talented.)  If these people could be found and linked in each neighborhood, they could work together to form and fill small home Bible studies. I would love to see the little work we are doing multiply in neighborhoods everywhere. Pray about that, OK? And if you live in the Verde Valley and would like to see a Bible study started in your neighborhood, contact me!

Eat Your Leviticus

Americans have become increasingly skilled in medicating their conditions, either directly (vitamins and over-the-counter drugs) or with professional help (prescription drugs).  But strangely, despite the fact that we have more brands and types and knowledge of pills available to us than ever before, we still have a lot of sick people.

Rather than investing in better pills, and better knowledge about which pills to take, what if we focused on eating really good food?  What if God put our food together with more absorbable, more balanced nutrients than the best of pills can offer?  What if God's engineering was better than ours?  I am thankful for vitamins and drugs, and the scientists who design them.  They are often helpful and even life-saving.  But, I think many of our health conditions could be prevented or cured if we would simply:

• Eat a wide variety of food
• Eat foods seasonally
• Eat foods with as little processing as possible

I have noticed that many people approach their spiritual health like their physical health.  They look for 'vitamin verses'.  Short, pithy Bible cures for particular malaises.   Topical indexes are handy for this.  Got worry?  Take Philippians 4:6-7.  Anger?  Ephesians 4:28-32.  Lust?  Matthew 5:27-28.  And so on.  And yet despite the fact that we have more books and blogs and sermons talking about Scripture than ever before, we still have a lot of spiritually anemic people.  I think it's because we are trying to self-medicate, or expert-medicate, our souls.  Why not trust the Expert?  He made our souls, and He's given us, not a collection of magic-bullet verses, but a gourmet, balanced meal: the whole Bible.  I think most of our spiritual problems could be solved if we:

• Read from many parts of the Bible (Torah, history, poetry, prophets, gospels, epistles)
• Read through the Bible on a schedule
• Read through the Bible with as little 'processing' as possible -- which is to say, reading whole chapters and whole books rather than isolated verses.
• Listened primarily to expository sermons that go through a book of the Bible, rather than topical sermons based on a few scattered verses.

Jesus' Teaching Methods

Recently I have been startled by studying the teaching methods of Jesus.  Why are they so different from what we typically think of when we say "teach"?  How would the message of Jesus have been subverted if His methods were more like ours? 

Commands.  These constantly brought His followers to a point of choice about whether they would continue to follow Him; they could not remain undecided.  Study the gospels to see how many times Jesus spoke commands!

Questions.  What are the benefits of using questions in teaching, and how did Jesus use them differently than Socrates?

Stories.  I find that stories stick in my mind much longer than prose, don't you?  And when I tell Bible stories during evangelism conversations, they form such a helpful framework around which to teach important truths!

Traveling.  Rather than establishing a school in one location, Jesus traveled widely to make it easier for many people to hear Him.  This also meant that the people who wanted to hear Him more had to... follow Him!  For more detail on this, go here.

Analogies, illustrations, similes, and metaphors.  If stories are like paintings, analogies are shafts of sunlight to illumine the subject.

Brevity.  The Sermon on the Mount is only 15 minutes long.

Difficulty.  Jesus was sometimes deliberately obfuscatory.

Shock talk.   Jesus wasn't joking--or putting anyone to sleep--when he talked of cutting off hands, swallowing camels, escaping hellfire, or giving everything to the poor. If you haven't noticed this, you have a log in your eye.

Tangible.  Why use a blackboard when you can touch a coin, a fig tree, a mustard seed, a child?

Authority.  The MacArthur Study Bible, commenting on Matthew 7:29, says "The scribes quoted others to establish the authority of their teachings; Jesus was his own authority".

Scripture References. Jesus may not have quoted humans, but He sure did quote or refer to the Scripture a lot, and rebuked people for their ignorance of it.  (See, for example, Mark 12:24.)

Repetition.  That's right, He said important things multiple times.  He didn't mind saying things more than once to make sure His listeners "got it".

Demonstration.  Jesus lived everything He taught.  I'll have to show you how this one works. 

Supervised delegation.  Go explain these methods to someone else (using your own words) and let me know how it goes!

In-the-moment.  This one would be better explained over lunch.  When can we get together?

What other methods can you identify in Jesus' teaching?

Don't Beat Around the Bush

This is a true story about the danger of assumptions.  So if you're going to read this, please read it all.  Don't assume that you know how this story will end!

The video and audio teachings by Todd Friel and the team at Wretched have been a great blessing to me.  I thought I would make a donation to help further their ministry.

Then I learned that they are a for-profit company so donations are not deductible.  That didn't bother me too much.  I can see how being non-profit could hinder their effectiveness.

The name of the parent company behind Wretched is Burning Bush Communications.  A quick Google search showed me that a man named Chuck Bush owns Burning Bush Communications.  According to the Wikipedia article, Chuck Bush seems to be a wealthy financier behind various film and TV products, focusing currently on producing 'non-toxic' films and programs.  No indication that he's a Christian, just a shrewd businessman.

That turned me off.  Not to Wretched, but to the idea of donating.  I didn't like the idea of giving money to help some rich guy who was using Wretched as part of his 'non-toxic' media portfolio.  And I found it puzzling that a brother as seemingly conscientious as Todd Friel would be a financial bedfellow with someone like Chuck Bush.

Months went by and finally I decided to email Wretched and ask about this.  I was afraid they would be offended and write back to say, "Why are you judging our motives?  Chuck Bush is a fine Christian man!"

Twelve minutes after I sent my email, Todd Friel wrote back from his iPhone. 

I don't have any idea who Chuck Bush is!

My best guess is that he might be related to George. Otherwise Chuck Bush has nothing to do w us.

It turns out that there are two Burning Bush Communications that are completely unrelated.  They both happen to be involved in producing video-based programming.  But that's where the connection ends.

I sent Wretched a donation immediately.

I wonder how many other wrong assumptions I have made about people?  It's better to ask the difficult questions than go on in assumed estrangement.