Don’t Make These 10 Common Bible Study Mistakes

Some interesting tips from the Logos blog.
I don't follow all these myself. But check em out anyway.

10. Starting without prayer

9. Studying by yourself

8. Bringing preconceptions to the text

7. Reading from only one perspective

6. Using only one translation

Don’t Make These 10 Common Bible Study Mistakes (Part 1)

5. Missing the historical setting

4. Assuming modern definitions of biblical words

3. Failing to understand the genre

2. Ignoring biblical context

1. Studying for the wrong reasons

Don’t Make These 10 Common Bible Study Mistakes (Part 2)

Bible in a year series

It is my pleasure to invite you to read through this coming series of blogs over the course of 2014 that will take you through the entire bible.

The intention of this series of blogs is to encourage its readers to read the whole bible from cover to cover in a single year. The blog will also facilitate discussion on the passages I have selected amongst its readers by allowing its readers to make comments using the disqus system.

Consider the series to be a draft. I welcome constructive comments on how I can improve it. Over the next few years I hope to improve it in many ways.

The blogs will have slightly varying formats depending on the stage in the bible being commented on. The table below illustrates.

Old Testament	Gospels	Acts	Epistles
Blog Title - Heading	Blog Title - Heading	Blog Title - Heading	Blog Title - Heading
From - Passage	From - Passage	From - Passage	From - Passage
Introduction	Introduction	Introduction	Introduction
Question or Statement	Question or Statement	Question or Statement	Question or Statement
Overview	Overview	Overview	Overview
Passage and Comments	Passage and Comments	Passage and Comments	Passage and Comments
Story of Israel	About Jesus	About Mission	For Believers
Story of Jesus

Introduction

Modified an existing introduction to each book and inserted it at the start of each book to give a brief intro to the book.

Overview

This section gives a brief overview of the whole passage covered. Each part is broken up into;

1) the reference to the passage

2) a category used to distinguish this passage

3) a description of what is in the passage

The main purpose of this section is to give people who do not read the whole set of chapters to get a brief overview of what happens. Its possible they will gain an understanding of the whole bible if they read this section alone. Of course this would be improved if they read all the chapters, but this is a help if they can’t. The whole premise of this is that there are sections of the bible that are difficult to get through. Sections like Leviticus and Chronicles.

At the end of an entire book I will post all the overviews together. Each overview is semi-comma ‘;’ delimited. This means the tech savvy can import it as a csv file into excel if they want.

Passage and Comments

I will select a passage to comment on in each and every set of chapters. I generally give a brief introduction and quote the passage. Then I will comment on it.

Story of Israel

Story of Jesus

With the Old Testament, I intend to preach the gospel in the same way the apostles do in Acts. Close examination of the apostles sermons in acts reveals that they tell the story of Israel and connect it to the story of Jesus when sharing about Jesus. See Preaching the Gospel with the OT for a better understanding of where I’m coming from.

About Jesus

This section is only in the Gospels. My opinion is that the Gospels are the gospel. So I don’t need to add anything extra other than quoting the passage itself. The passage is part of the gospel. So I generally summarise what the gospel says about Jesus.

About Mission

In Acts the apostles are engaged in evangelism and mission. It seems appropriate to discuss the things we can learn from their example in this section.

For Believers

The Epistles were written for existing believers in Jesus Christ. These are examples of how the apostles engage in pastoral care with their church audiences (mostly believers, possibly some unbelievers). So in this section I will comment on their practice. I think we should learn from and adopt their practice in our churches today.

Bible in a year series

It is my pleasure to invite you to read through this coming series of blogs over the course of 2014 that will take you through the entire bible.

The intention of this series of blogs is to encourage its readers to read the whole bible from cover to cover in a single year. The blog will also facilitate discussion on the passages I have selected amongst its readers by allowing its readers to make comments using the disqus system.

Consider the series to be a draft. I welcome constructive comments on how I can improve it. Over the next few years I hope to improve it in many ways.

The blogs will have slightly varying formats depending on the stage in the bible being commented on. The table below illustrates.

Old Testament	Gospels	Acts	Epistles
Blog Title - Heading	Blog Title - Heading	Blog Title - Heading	Blog Title - Heading
From - Passage	From - Passage	From - Passage	From - Passage
Introduction	Introduction	Introduction	Introduction
Question or Statement	Question or Statement	Question or Statement	Question or Statement
Overview	Overview	Overview	Overview
Passage and Comments	Passage and Comments	Passage and Comments	Passage and Comments
Story of Israel	About Jesus	About Mission	For Believers
Story of Jesus

Introduction

Modified an existing introduction to each book and inserted it at the start of each book to give a brief intro to the book.

Overview

This section gives a brief overview of the whole passage covered. Each part is broken up into;

1) the reference to the passage

2) a category used to distinguish this passage

3) a description of what is in the passage

The main purpose of this section is to give people who do not read the whole set of chapters to get a brief overview of what happens. Its possible they will gain an understanding of the whole bible if they read this section alone. Of course this would be improved if they read all the chapters, but this is a help if they can’t. The whole premise of this is that there are sections of the bible that are difficult to get through. Sections like Leviticus and Chronicles.

At the end of an entire book I will post all the overviews together. Each overview is semi-comma ‘;’ delimited. This means the tech savvy can import it as a csv file into excel if they want.

Passage and Comments

I will select a passage to comment on in each and every set of chapters. I generally give a brief introduction and quote the passage. Then I will comment on it.

Story of Israel

Story of Jesus

With the Old Testament, I intend to preach the gospel in the same way the apostles do in Acts. Close examination of the apostles sermons in acts reveals that they tell the story of Israel and connect it to the story of Jesus when sharing about Jesus. See Preaching the Gospel with the OT for a better understanding of where I’m coming from.

About Jesus

This section is only in the Gospels. My opinion is that the Gospels are the gospel. So I don’t need to add anything extra other than quoting the passage itself. The passage is part of the gospel. So I generally summarise what the gospel says about Jesus.

About Mission

In Acts the apostles are engaged in evangelism and mission. It seems appropriate to discuss the things we can learn from their example in this section.

For Believers

The Epistles were written for existing believers in Jesus Christ. These are examples of how the apostles engage in pastoral care with their church audiences (mostly believers, possibly some unbelievers). So in this section I will comment on their practice.

Weekly Random Links

Inerrancy and the recent non-apocalyptic discussion at the annual Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) 

As a biblical scholar who deals with the messy parts of the Bible (i.e., the Old Testament), I came away with one recurring impression, a confirmation of my experience in these matters: mainstream American evangelicalism, as codified in the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, doesn’t really know what to do with the Bible as a historical text.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/peterenns/2013/11/inerrancy-and-the-recent-non-apocalyptic-discussion-at-the-annual-evangelical-theological-society-meeting-in-baltimore/

The End of Protestantism

What I’m calling “Protestantism” does the same with Roman Catholicism. Protestantism is a negative theology; a Protestant is a not-Catholic. Whatever Catholics say or do, the Protestant does and says as close to the opposite as he can. ...

http://www.firstthings.com/onthesquare/2013/11/the-end-of-protestantism

#1 King Jesus Gospel Question

The most common question I am getting about The King Jesus Gospel: The Original Good News Revisited is this one: How do we evangelize now?

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2011/10/10/1-king-jesus-gospel-question/

Paul and the Faithfulness of God N. T. Wright | Review by: Douglas J. Moo

Reviewing N. T. Wright’s Paul and the Faithfulness of God is like trying to get a handle on the U.S. tax code. In 1,513 pages (like Luke-Acts, split into two volumes), Wright not only outlines his distinctive vision of Paul’s theology (chs. 9-11); he also describes the worldview that generates that theology (chs. 6-8) and, in keeping with his view of theology as historically rooted, sets it in first-century context.



http://thegospelcoalition.org/book-reviews/review/paul_and_the_faithfulness_of_god

Weekly Random Links

Household Battles: An Infographic

We all have grips over whos turn it is to do the washing up, that someones left the lid off the toothpaste or dumped dirty clothes on the floor. But a new UK wide survey has revealed these household chores cause the most tension in today's homes.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2013/10/20/household-battles-an-infographic/ 

Weekly Random Links

Kevin Reynolds Achieves Resurrection

Biblical epics seem all the rage at the moment, with Ridley Scott filming Exodus and Darren Aronofsky working on Noah. It was only a matter of time before somebody turned their attention to Jesus, and it turns out that somebody is Kevin Reynolds, who will be directing Resurrection, about the 40 days following the crucifixion.

http://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=38917

Where Are You on This Infographic?

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/jesuscreed/2013/09/29/where-are-you-on-this-infographic/

“If They Only Knew What I Thought”: The Sad Cycle of Evangelical Biblical Scholarship

I’ve had far too many conversations over the last few years with trained, experienced, and practicing biblical scholars, young, middle aged, and near retirement, working in Evangelical institutions, trying to follow Jesus and use their brains and training to help students navigate the challenging world of biblical interpretation. And they are dying inside.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/peterenns/2013/10/if-they-only-knew-what-i-thought-the-sad-cycle-of-evangelical-biblical-scholarship/ 

Weekly Random Links

Recovering from inerrancy in the second half of life

I met an old friend for lunch yesterday. He was, once upon a time, firmly ensconced in a career in the ueber-conservative world of “Evangelical orthodoxy”–and he actually had a pretty good gig.

He left because of inerrancy. He could not square that non-negotiable pillar of the evangelical system with (1) how the Bible behaves when you sit down and read it, (2) a modern/scientific framework of thinking that is fully operational in every other phase of his life but not permitted when it came to his faith, and (3) his own experiences with real live people of faith whose very lives were a living testimony to other, vibrant, paths of Christian communion that did not require him to turn a blind eye to the cognitive dissonance created by 1 and 2.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/peterenns/2013/08/recovering-from-inerrancy-in-the-second-half-of-life/ 

Weekly Random Links

Secret confessions of a barista

HAVE you ever bought a coffee and felt sorry for the poor soul who's trying to make 3 million flat whites in 10 minutes flat?
News.com.au spoke to a barista who makes around 350 coffees between 7am and 3.30pm every day about what they're really thinking on the other side of the counter.

Here are his secret confessions.

http://www.news.com.au/business/worklife/secret-confessions-of-a-barista/story-e6frfm9r-1226700969896