With the beginning of the new year I wanted to try something new with my daily Bible study.  I have decided that all year long I am going to focus on the Gospels, especially the the Synoptics.  I began by reading each of the gospels at a moderate pace, now I am going back and simply reading 1 chapter each day, in order try and get as in depth as possible.  Here are some of my thoughts and questions about this text:

1. Why did Matthew write to primarily a Jewish audience? It would seem that his past of being a tax collector would have isolated him from his people.
2. According to Jewish law there were certain categories of women that you did not have sexual relations with: a relative, a foreigner (especially a Moabite), a married woman, and a virgin (until you were married).  It is interesting that in the genealogy of Jesus there is a one woman for each of these categories.
3. What is the significance of the number 14 in the genealogy?
4. Matthew records 9 events that are not mentioned in the other gospel accounts.  One of those is Joseph’s dream (1:20-24).  Why might Matthew have included this?
5. The text says that Mary remained a virgin until after the birth of Jesus… Joseph must have had some self-control that most of us lack!  What lesson can we take from his handling of this difficult situation?

If you have any thoughts on this passage, questions of your own, or answers that you would like to share I would love to hear them, why not share in the comment section?

Tags: Bible Study, Matthew, Synoptic Gospels

Like most people in the late twenties I carry with me a few extra pounds.  In high school I could eat whatever I wanted because I played sports year around.  Now the most activity I get is chasing my kids around the room when they don’t want to get in bed!  With 3 kids it is just hard to find the time (notice I didn’t say too hard).

For a long time I have known that I needed to lose weght, but it wasn’t until I discovered my BMI (Body Mass Index) that I knew I need to get things under control.  Your BMI is a measurement of your body fat based on your weight nad your height.  A normal range is 18.5-24.9.  Needless to say, my currently does not fall in that range (If you are curious about your BMI go here).

So when I had the chance to review Never Say Diet by Chantel Hobbs I was quite excited.  I was getting a diet book without the embrassment of going to the store and buying it!  The heart of the book is the very personal story of how Chantel manage her own weight loss program-losing over 200 pounds!  I believe that her appraoch is quite balanced, making recommendations regarding exerciese and eating habits, but also realizing that there are issues at the core of why you became overweight in the first place that must be addressed.

Chantel is very open about the steps she took, including plastic surgery to remove excess skin, but recognizes that this step may not be an option for everyone.  There were many parts of the book that more focused to a female audience that I simply skipped over.  Overall the results don’t lie, so far this year I have lost 6 pounds (which includes a couple of weeks when I didn’t stick to my workout routine).

As Americans, most of us could do a better job of regulating the food we put into our bodies and maintaining a better activity level (besides the activities of TV, video games, and blogging).  As a Christian one must also remember that the only way for me to continue to carry out God’s mission on this earth is for Him to have a body to use.

Tags: Chantel Hobbs, Diet, Health, Weight Loss

The Greatest Words Ever Spoken may be one the greatest resources a Christian ever owns.  Author Steven Scott has taken all of the words from Jesus and organized them into approximately 200 categories.  These categories are organized into 9 major headings:

1. What Jesus says about Himself
2. What He Says about the Father
3. What He Says about the Holy Spirit
4. Words about Eternity
5. Words about His Followers
6. Words about Humanity
7. Words about God Reaching Out to Us
8. Words about How to Know God
9. Words about Personal Relationships

While there certainly is some overlap with the categories, the breakdown makes it quite easy to find what you are looking for in the index.  I say that this is a great resource because it is certainly not the type the book that one reads from cover to cover.  The introduction to the book provides some suggestions about how to make the best use of this resource: a quick reference guide or for topical Bible studies.

Personally, I have been using it during my morning Bible to simply take a quick look at the words of Jesus on the topics of Spiritual Maturity and Spiritual Priorities.  Particularly on the topic of Spiritual Maturity I have wondered why certain passages were selected, however the questioning, I believe has led to the desired result.  I also appreciated the fact that in the section on the promises of Jesus that Scott includes any necessary condition to be met in order for the promise to be fulfilled.

This is certainly a valuable resource that I will be keeping in my library, and I would encourage you to add it to yours as well!

Tags: Book Reviews, Books, Steven Scott

First, let me apologize for the long (an unannounced absence).  I sure that most of you will understand that the moving process can take quite awhile.  We are still in the period of transition- waiting for our old house to sale, looking for a new one, and crashing at a friend’s place for the time being.

The change has been good.  While I certainly missing people from my old community, I certain do not miss the stress that was placed upon me and my family.  To be fair, all jobs have their stressful times, but one of the hard parts about working as a minister is the fact that it so quickly involves your family.  One of the benefits of my new job is that due to confidentially I cannot go home and talk to my wife about the details of my day.  Work stays at work and when I get home and I know that I can relax.

There has also been the adjustment of moving from Baton Rouge (pop. around 500,000) to Searcy (pop. less than 25,000).  In Baton Rouge Target was 5 minutes from the house, now it’s an hour drive!  The trade-off is that the other day we were looking at houses and saw 5 deer in some one’s front yard.

Hopefully I will begin to post more regularly again.  I certainly missed reading all of the blogs that I have linked to here, as well as writing my own.   If you want to see the site for my new employer you can go to www.capstonetreatmentcenter.com.  Maybe next week I will take some time to share about Capstone, as well as other thoughts that have been stored up in my mind over the last 2 months!

Tags: Blogging

Since I was a freshman in college I have maintained the same Bible study plan each year. I have simply read through the entire Bible. Granted, as a minister there were some portions of scripture that I studied in greater detail, but for the most part my daily Bible reading has been to just read the Bible.

This year however I am doing something different. This year I am going to work through the Synoptic Problem. For those unfamiliar with the term let me explain briefly: In the the New Testament with have 4 Gospel accounts of the life of Jesus. Three of them (Matthew, Mark and Luke) are called the Synotpics, meaning that they take the same view, covering much of the same material. Now, of course John is covering the life of Jesus as well, but he goes about it in a much different way and shares some events that the others leave out.

The Synoptic Problem focuses on how each of the writers tell the same story. What details are the same, what is different, and most importantly: what does it mean? Honestly, it’s an issue that I have largely ignored until now. I am still in the process of developing a method for this study but I have been greatly helped by The Synoptic Project over at New Testament Gateway. As the year goes on I will be updating you on my progress here, so stop in and check it out.

Also, I would love to hear your plan for Bible Study in the next year:

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Tags: Bible Study, Gospels, New Testament Studies, Synoptic Problem

I know that this has been a crazy week with lots of holiday activities for everyone. Things have been hectic at our house as we prepare to move and also try to retain a sense of normalcy (whatever that is) during Christmas. Therefore we still set up our Christmas tree and Nutcracker collection and had the family in to celebrate with us. A need to gave a huge thanks to my wife Meg, without who Christmas would be a total bust!

Because of Christmas I have selected a few of my favorite post from the week that carried a Christmas theme:

1. Congrats to our friends the Felkers who are announcing their anticipation of a boy in the coming year.
2. Rethinking Christmas? Rethinking the Nativity Scene, this video on Youtube was wonderful, but I have linked to the blog that first saw this on.
3. I have just started reading the blog of one of my friends from college, Charles Kaiser. Chuck shared some wonderful thoughts what we should embrace about the Christmas story.
4. Equally as good, from another new blog I have been reading is Matt Dabb’s thoughts.

I hope you enjoy these links, continue to have fun with your families and may God bless you with safety in all of your travels!

Tags: Christmas, Links of the Week

One of the wonderful things about marriage that the new family has to figure out what to do for the holidays and how to combine Christmas traditions. Having been married for 7 years now we have pretty much figured out our routine. This year my wife’s family is with us for Christmas (including her brother and sister-in-law). One tradition that our family has is that my mother-in-law makes pajamas for the family and we open them on Christmas Eve, immediately put them on and get ready for bed. It helps me satisfy one of my family’s traditions (which is to have Christmas from family members on Christmas Eve and presents from Santa on the 25th).

But down the road from is, in Denham Springs, one family has taken traditions to the extreme. Since the early 1960’s the Messenger Family has created a Christmas display each year that mixes pop culture with the Nativity Scene. Some of my favorites are the black light display entitled “Christmas Carnival and another showcases Dr. Seuss. There is also a Barney and friends display for those who can stand the singing dinosaur. It requires quite a bit of dedication to do this year. We will certain miss this Christmas tradition. So if you are ever around Baton Rouge during the Christmas season be sure to check it out!

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

Tags: Christmas, Christmas Traditions, Family

I have spent my whole life as a part of the Church of Christ. For those unfamiliar with this group, our core belief is that we are trying to follow the example of the church as displayed in the New Testament. An emphasis is putting on calling Bible things by Bible names and trying to match the pattern that we find in the New Testament.

In recent years there has been much debate over how effective we have been at achieving this goal and even if this a goal that should even be attempted. So, to some extent I have I stopped reading CoC members books as they wrangle with one another over the ins and outs and have tried to focus on other things.

But last year a book caught my attention: Pagan Christianity?: Exploring the Roots of Our Church Practices by George Barna and Frank Viola. The book examples some of the practices of Christianity that have been “borrowed” from pagan cultures during the early development of the church. Quickly after this book was released a companion to it, Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity by Frank Viola was released. While I haven’t read it yet, I am certainly looking forward to it. And then today at the Goodwill I found this book: Rethinking the Wineskin: The Practice of the New Testament Church

1. The Purpose of the Church Meeting
2. The Focus of the Church Meeting
3. The Location of the Church
4. The Nature of the Local Church
5. The Leadership of the Local Church: Who Were They?
6. The Leadership of the Local Church: How Did They Lead?
7. The Content of the Local Church
8. The Boundary of the Local Church
9. The Function of the Local Church
10. The Pattern of the Local Church
11. What Shall We Do?

I really can’t wait to see the conclusions that Viola reaches. If I were reading just these titles from a CoC author I would already know many of the outcomes, so it will interesting to see if someone else comes to the same/similar conclusions.

Tags: Books, Church of Christ, Church Practices, Frank Viola, George Barna, Pagan Christianity, Reimagining Church, Rethinking the Wineskin, The New Testament Church

Kiva is a wonderful organization that I stumbled across last year over Christmas break while I was at my in-laws.  I was reading an article about young leaders in America.  Matt Flannery, the co-founder, CEO and Director of Kiva, is only 31 years old, yet through his mircolending site Kiva.org, over 1.5 million dollars has been loaned this week alone!  In fact, I am hoping that after you read this you will be one of over 10,000 new users of Kiva this week.

Here is how Kiva works:

1. Field partners all over the globe submit loan request to Kiva.
2. Users login into Kiva and donate in $25 increments to individuals who are in need.
3. Based upon the amount of the loan the entrepueners begin to pay back the loan.
4. As the money comes back into your account you can choose to withdraw it or donate it to another individual in need.

Last year after Christmas I decided to take the majority of my Visa gift card and help four individuals in need.  Since that time, enough money has come back into my account that I have now added a fifth entrepueneur.

One thing that I love about the site is that you can search through a number of categories in order to find some one that you want to work with.  As I was looking for people to help I wanted to have a truly global mixture.  I am helping a fisherman in Cambodia, a food market in Sierra Leone, a college student in Lebanon, a mom who is running a childcare center in Bosnia and a rental shop owner in Nicaragua.

As a Christian, who feels strongly about mission work, it would take me a lifetime to travel to all of the places and have this kind of impact.  It is truly amazing that the ways we can use technology to advance the cause of the kingdom.  I know that there is a need for much more than money, which is why I send a personal note to those who I loan money to, letting them know what has compelled me to share what I have been blessed with, with them.

I hope that you will join me and thousands of others I believe that there is a way to make this world better, but it has to begin with us.

Tags: Giving, Kiva, Ministry, Poverty