I’m going to South Africa this summer for three weeks. 94% of the pastors in South Africa have no Biblical training whatsoever. Christ’s Church in Federal Way, WA (my home church) is sending a mission team to South Africa that will help with a conference intending to train local pastors.

To learn more, please download my support letter.

A few months back I got a group together to read through a script I created of the Gospel of Luke. The script uses the NET translation so others can copy it as long as it is not done for profit. The beginning of each chapter has characters listed in script order. The end of the script includes a full list of characters and a few maps to show all the locations in Luke.

Back in March, twenty-five people crammed into my apartment to read this script. People still comment about that night. Aside from the main characters such as Jesus and the Narrators, each reader got assigned several characters. Some characters read as a group. The script designates this with a bold font.

I would appreciate any comments or suggestions, particularly from those who attempt their own Bible reading night. It would help me as I venture into making scripts for other books.

In the late 80s and early 90s Zondervan produced the Dramatized Bible in the NIV translation. Printing of that Bible has ceased. Although I don’t know the reason, I speculate that it is hard to get enough copies for every member in the reading group. By using the NET translation, I hope to avoid this problem.

Click here to download the pdf.

A psalm I composed for class today…

Yours is the hand that passes with us through the chaos
Your arm stretches out to keep us safe.

But your ark encompassed us;
You picked us up and carried us with the wind.
When the enemy attempted to dash our existence to the ground,
You prepared the gentle landing–
Setting us down below the will of the storm.
You thwarted the enemy’s plan;
You preserved our souls.

A great psalm to learn about what it means to cherish the Word of God. In reading Psalm 119, two verses stood out to me.

v.72 – “The law of Your mouth is better to me / Than thousands of gold and silver pieces.”

v.92 – “If Your law had not been my delight, / Then I would have perished in my affliction.”

http://www.believers-chapel.org/temp/online.htm

The above link is an audio resource of old sermons from old profs such as Dr. S. Lewis Johnson and Dr. Bruce K. Waltke. The sermons are sorted by Bible books, so it’s easy to find something on a passage you’re looking for.

“But you are not to be called ‘Rabbi,’ for you have only one Master and you are all brothers. And do not call anyone on earth ‘father,’ for you have one Father, and he is in heaven. Nor are you to be called ‘teacher,’ for you have one Teacher, the Christ. The greatest among you will be your servant. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

In Matthew 23:8-12, Jesus redirects his address from the Pharisees to the crowds standing by. He contrasts the Pharisees’ self exaltation with what God wants. We are not called to pursue titles and positions that glorify ourselves. Rather, our attitude should be that of a servant.

What is a servant?

Later in the book, Matthew gives one example of a servant in 26:6-13…the woman who annointed Jesus’ feet. The disciples did not want to acknowledge her action, but Jesus responded in v.10, “”Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me.”

It takes humility, submission, sacrifice, and action to be a servant.

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. 12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” — Matthew 5:11-12

Today’s sermon was on the persecuted church. A guest speaker came whose family had suffered persecution. He gave a first hand account of how his father fled from the home for over six years and how his family stood firm; risking their lives for the sake of the gospel. The service today reminded to pray of some specific things:

1) Pray that the believers being persecuted would stand firm in their faith, and that the believers who are being persecuted would remain united in their efforts for the kingdom of God.

2) Pray that God would open doors in for Christian literature to be printed so that the believers would be able to grow and develop their understanding of God, Scripture and theology.

3) Pray that the persecution of the believers would continue to make the truth of the Gospel evident to those who do not know Jesus Christ.

There are more things to be praying for, but these are the specifics that stood out to me this morning.

One of the Ph.D. students in my Matthew class has this website where he has developed a Bible Map program that allows you to edit the map just about any way that you would like. Today in class the student showed some of the maps where he marked them according to the story of Matthew 21:1-11.

Once you get the map situated the way you like, you can use the image in a Powerpoint slide with a screenshot. On a PC, screenshots can be created by simultaneously pressing the ALT+Print Screen buttons; then paste the image into your document and/or slide. If you scroll the map far enough, you can even get a screen shot of the UK.

http://www.biblemapper.com/

Last weekend at Northwest Bible Church’s singles retreat I was challenged by the speaker, Matt Klingler, to take another look at what it means to be filled by the Spirit. In his example he used an empty cup, filled it with liquid until the liquid reached the top of the cup. That’s what we normally think of when we think full. Then he poured some more, the liquid spilled over, and he set this as an example of being “Spirit-filled.”

Spirit-filled, is when we overflow for others. If the Spirit’s filling stopped before it spilled over, then his work would only be benefitial for us.

Yet the Spirit’s filling is more like 1 John 3:16 where it says, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.”

It makes sense then that Spiritual fruit is for other people. Remember Galatians 5:22-23b. It says, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Now within that list, which are a benefit for the “self?”

When the Spirit fills us, it benefits other people.

I just finished a paper for my Gospel of Matthew class. The purpose of the story in the narrative is to demonstrate Jesus’ authority to forgive sins. Throughout the gospel, the writer continues to emphasize Jesus’ authority. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, the writer mentions Jesus teaching the people as one who had authority (7:29). The theme is also seen at the end of the book when Jesus sends out the twelve saying “All authority has been given to me…therefore go (28:18).”

There are two miracles in the pericope of Matthew 9:1-8. The first miracle is invisible to the audience, but the second miracle is visible. Jesus crossed the politically correct boundary with his first statement when he told the paralytic his sins were forgiven at that moment. The experts in the Law accuse Jesus of blasphemy because they know that only God can forgive sins (the irony of their statement is that the experts in the Law are the ones speaking blasphemy by disrespecting Jesus’ claim). Jesus follows his first miracle with a second miracle that could only be accomplished by God himself. By showing his ability (being God himself) to heal the man, Jesus makes a visible demonstration to the crowd that He must also have the ability to forgive the paralytic of his sins.

It is significant that Jesus speaks the words to the paralytic, “your sins are forgiven.” It is signicant because when God speaks, reality happens. This is also true of the creation acount in Genesis 1; when God spoke he created the heavens and the earth. All of creation is a reality of God’s word.

The meaning of this can become even more significant for you when you understand that Jesus offers to forgive all of your sins. If the Bible is God’s word, then the message is the reality. Thus, when the Bible says that salvation is found in no one else other than Jesus, then Jesus must be the only way to eternal life. So if Jesus freely offers to forgive your sins and you accept his offer, then take courage friend because the reality of eternal life in heaven is true for you.

Below is the DJT (Daniel Jensen Translation) of Matthew 9:1-8.

And then Jesus, stepping into a boat, crossed over and went into his own town.

Now when the crowds witnessed this they were awe-struck and glorified the God who had given such authority to men.