Pastor Scott Owen and I did a fictional sketch looking at the Apostle John and the importance of Christ coming in the flesh.  It starts with a communion service with the Apostle John leading… http://www.cbcames.org/media/sermons/20091213AM.mp3 Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 35:38 — 6.1MB) Subscribe: Android | RSS #bible

Here are some questions I ask myself in different parts of the Bible to help myself understand Scripture better and keep from getting in a rut. Narrative 1. What’s the frame of the story? 2. What’s repeated? 3. Who’s the hero? 4. What happens before and after? 5. What seemingly inconsequential details are added, especially about God? Poetry 1. Is it repeating ideas or contrasting ideas? 2. What emotions predominate? 3. What tensions are introduced? 4. Where is God an

Taken from Dr. Constable’s notes on Deuteronomy: “The ceremonial custom of boiling a kid in its mother’s milk is known from the ancient Canaanite tablets found at Ugarit [i.e., the Ras Shamra Tablets]. Such a rite was superstitiously observed by the Canaanites, hoping that through magical acts they could increase fertility and productivity (14:21; Ex. 23:19; 34:26).” 161 “. . . various Canaanite cults regularly engaged in the practices of seething a kid in its mother’s milk a

i was going through this in devotions this morning.  What does it mean?  Context helps us here: In Deuteronomy 14 the broad context is what does it mean to take the Lord’s name (be a part of His people) and not do that in vain.  Both in Deuteronomy 14 and Exo. 23 the immediate context is on tithing.  Giving back to the Lord his due. The picture also helps.  The mother’s milk would be the sustenance provided for the kid as well as for the family.  The kid is itself a picture o

It’s amazing how Deuteronomy affects the rest of the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 11:22-25 For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him, then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourselves. Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wildern

Here’s a quote from a report of the debate between Daniel Wallace and Bart Ehrman (author of Misquoting Jesus) I found interesting: Perhaps the most provocative part of Wallace’s lecture was his comparison of what Ehrman claimed was true about New Testament transmission with the transmission of sacred texts in another religion: Islam. Wallace gave three basic points that showed that what Ehrman wanted to see in New Testament manuscripts simply wasn’t there—specifically, an ea