When a race starts, all of the runners follow the same course to the finish line. But each of us has taken a different path to the starting line. There are a thousand different reasons why people run. But after the race begins, there's a genuine "we're all in this together" mentality among the runners.
The body of Christ should not only match but exceed this spirit of camaraderie.
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| At the start of the Chicago Marathon. |
The bodybuilding and fitness industry is full of misinformation. Just because someone looks great doesn't mean the advice they're giving is true. Don't believe everything you hear. Get your information from a variety of dependable sources. Think critically and look for solid reasoning behind what people are telling you rather than take it at face value.
That's going to serve you well not just in bodybuilding but in any area of your life. Just because someone has a Ph.D. behind their name doesn't make them trustworthy. Haven't you ever met someone who was educated beyond their intelligence?
In November of 1862, Ambrose Burnside's Army of the Potomac arrived in Falmouth, Virginia, on the opposite side of the Rappahannock River from the target: Fredericksburg.
Lee was caught completely by surprise. All the Union army had to do now was to assemble its pontoon bridges and cross the river. All the vastly outnumbered Confederates on the opposite bank could do was put up token resistance. Unfortunately for Burnside, he arrived at Falmouth long before his pontoon bridges did, and the bridges were the key to the entire campaign. No bridges, no attack.
As a result, Burnside's army remained immobile and impotent on the north side of the river. It seems that no one in the entire Union chain of command had placed the pontoons at the top of their priority list. By the time the bridges finally reached the army, Less had filled in his defenses behind Fredericksburg.
I've run the Marine Corps Half Marathon several times in Fredericksburg. While there I always drive down Lee Drive to see the ground over which the union army advanced. None of their attacks was successful. The battle was over. The Army of the Potomac had lost 12,653 men, the Army of Northern Virginia 5,309. Sullenly, the Federals crossed back over the river under cover of darkness.
In 1 Corinthians 3, Paul tells the Corinthians that they had ample time by now to develop and progress out of Christian infancy. But they had failed to do so. They had put it off far too long. Hence they failed to advance beyond a state of carnality. The ideal as set forth in the Scriptures is continual progress away from carnality and toward manifestations of maturity. Yet how often do we give in to the sin of procrastination? Every distraction feels like another endless pit of wasted energy.
Let's not waste our lives reliving the failures of the past. The idea of a healthy soul lies within everyone's grasp. If you're not growing, you're dying. Always be looking to improve.
I keep running into people who have recently caught the gym "bug." If it's something you really enjoy doing, then go for it. But don't let the gym become your entire life. Proper training doesn't require you to spend hours and hours in the gym. Three 60-75 minute workouts per week is all you're going to need. Letting weight training get in the way of your daily time with the Lord or with your other responsibilities just isn't necessary and it's not going to be healthy for you in the long run. I'm not saying that the gym can't be your passion. It is one of mine. Just don't let it turn into an unhealthy obsession.
Today was lat day at the gym for me.
I also got in my steps for the day.
But here I am back on the farm, showered and ready to face my other responsibilities.
Like Goldilocks, finding what is "just right" is ultimately a game of trial and error. The real satisfaction comes when we find the balance between exercising too hard and too easy!
The "Freight Train 50K Ultra" is coming to Farmville a week from this Sunday. I've completed this distance three times. The first time I did, it was to learn what it felt like to be part of the ultra experience. I could immediately tell that the ultra environment was so much more laid back and casual than the marathon environment. I have to say, I loved it. I just plodded along for 32 miles. Every so often we would stop at an aid station and get some water, have some chips or cookies, and carry on our way. The ultra experience is all about survival. About moving forward and never stopping. That's really about it. Not only is it okay to walk during an ultra, it's expected and necessary. People are pushing themselves beyond their limits. They dig deep. At an ultra, there are no cheering crowds and external rewards, except for maybe a t-shirt. Just the internal satisfaction of knowing you persevered amidst challenges and didn't give up. Even making it to the starting line feels like a victory. I am always inspired by the determination and courage of every one of those runners you meet during the race. When you finish your first ultra, you are overcome with joy after accomplishing a goal that had been years in the making. Even when you are feeling miserable, one thought keeps you going: You chose this. Nobody is making you do this. It's your choice.
An ultramarathon will strip you bare. It's just you and your doubts and fears -- and the finish line. But step after step, hour after hour, that finish line gets closer and closer. And when you find it -- oh my goodness, words fail me. You shuffle back to your car looking like Frankenstein. Your legs are shaking like a newborn giraffe trying to stand for the first time. You don't care one bit about what your finishing time is. No one has done less than their absolute best. And in a real sense, their best is better than everyone who finished ahead of them. All are winners and heroes.
Well, early this morning I drove to Farmville for a 50K training run on what turned out to be a cold but gorgeous day.
As you can see, the Freight Train 50K begins and ends in downtown Farmville (near the old red caboose).
I divide the race into 4 different legs, each 8 miles long.
1. You run from Farmville to Rice (8 miles).
2. You run from Rice back to Farmville (8 miles).
3. You run from Farmville to Tuggle (8 miles).
4. And finally you run from Tuggle back to Farmville (8 miles).
Today I trained for legs 1-2, that is, running to Rice and back.
I wanted to see how many steps that would take me. And the answer? Voila!
Now all you have to do is double this number and you arrive at the total number of steps it will take for you to complete the race. It's simply a guide to help you run the best race possible. This means getting to the starting line healthy and neither overtrained nor undertrained.
Today, the last couple of miles were a bit of a sufferfest. I was again reminded that if you set out to run 16 miles, your body only wants to go 16 miles. If you set out to go 20 miles, then your body can go 20 miles that day. This was my highest volume training week of 2025. You are putting in some serious mileage, which means you are putting in some serious time. Your kids and grandkids wonder if they will ever see you in non-running clothes again, or if you could shower a bit more because you are beginning to stink up the house. Meanwhile, your friends let you know they think you're a bit daft. Even the sheep look at you like you are out of your mind. But to me, it feels good to be doing something to challenge myself. As long as I can keep it in zone 2-3ish, I think I'll be okay.
For me, running boils down to equal parts of inspiration, motivation, dedication, and celebration. Each contributes to making running fun. And on their foundation, each of us finds our own unique way of expressing ourselves as runners.
Thanks so much for reading, and I'll talk to you in the next post.
Had Thanksgiving brunch in Richmond today with my daughter and her hubby (plus the little guy). There are not three people I'd rather eat 80 pounds of bacon and eggs and drink 1,000 cups of coffee with more than the Hadley tribe.
Afterwards I got to see their brand new apartment (they began moving in today).
I love you Karen, Tino, and Noah.
Not a day goes by when I do not count my blessings. Never before in my entire life have I had so much to cherish. Thanksgiving reminds us to give thanks. It is something we should do every day, all day.
What are you grateful for today?
"One thing is needful" (Luke 10:42).
Martha was cumbered when she should have been communing.
She was so busy doing she had no time for being.
Her problem wasn't that she was working but that she was worrying.
"Be still" says the Lord, but we go about our frenetic ways.
I am SO guilty of this. We usually say "Be still" to small children, but we adults could use the same admonition.
Jesus pulls no punches here. Sabbath rest is holy. You're not being lazy or selfish when you stop to catch your breath and worship.
My heart craves a slower life. I find that very challenging and equally beautiful.
How can I better cultivate a quiet heart before the Lord?
I'm working on it.
Which builds the biceps better -- the hammer curl or the biceps curl? Let's begin by recalling that the function of your biceps is not only elbow flexion but also supinating your wrists -- essentially turning your wrists so that your palms are facing up. You can actually see this happen when I supinate the biceps.
So by supinating on a dumbbell curl, we're actually able to train that function which we're not able to do as well with the hammer curl. You should still do hammer curls with a neutral grip if your goal is to train the brachialis. But if you want to build biceps, then the biceps curl is the exercise of choice.
I stumbled upon an interesting word play in my Bible time this morning in Acts 11:23:
Notice:
charin (grace)
and
echarē (joy)
Grace led to joy!
Acts 11 records the birth of the church in Antioch. It was the result of the efforts of witnesses scattered from Jerusalem by persecution. Luke says, "And the Lord honored their efforts, so that large numbers of Gentiles believed and turned to the Lord" (11:21). When news of this reached the church in Jerusalem, they sent Barnabas to look into the matter. When he arrived, he "saw the grace of God" and "was glad." Then he began to encourage the believers there to "cleave to the Lord" (11:23).
I jotted down 3 applications in my journal:
1. Conversion to Christ makes the believer. But cleaving to him makes the disciple.
2. Many a church has never grown to maturity because there is no Barnabas (his name means "Encourager") to exhort young believers to go on with God after their initial encounter.
3. God's grace is always a good reason to rejoice.
Pastor Rudy Ulrich of First Baptist Church Windward in Kailua led me to Christ in 1960 when I was 8. Pastor Jim Cook of International Baptist Church in Honolulu taught me to devotedly cling to Christ all week long. I needed both men in my life. Interestingly, the disciples were first called "Christians" here in Acts 11:26. Many people who call themselves Christians (noun) are not Christian (adjective). The noun needs to become an adjective. Believers are to be more than statistics on a church roll. God would have us become saints. And it is the Barnabases in our lives who are vital if we are to go from Noun Christian to Adjective Christian.
On a break from teaching all this week and loving it.
Hard work beats talent any day. Unless, of course, talent works hard.
Enjoy your week! 😉
Stop praying for an easy life. Pray for a disciplined life. Make the 2026 version of yourself unrecognizable from 2025.
Fitness is not the final goal. It's the foundation for everything else.
This year I've written quite of number of reference letters for former students of mine who are applying to Ph.D. programs. I am always happy to do so. Where you study for your doctorate -- and especially with whom you study -- are two of the most important questions you will ever ask in your entire life.
As you ask and answer those questions, I would invite you to consider the metaphor the apostle Paul uses for himself in 1 Cor. 3:10. Here he calls himself a sophos architektōn. This expression has been variously rendered as:
The person under whom you will study should be this kind of a person. The idea is twofold:
Like an engineer, Paul designed how the early church would expand. He in essence drew up the "blueprint" for the establishment of Christianity in the first century. But Paul not only had a pen, he had a hammer. Not only was he a thinker; he was a doer. He himself was engaged in evangelism and church planting.
And your doctoral supervisor?
Make sure that he or she has the same qualities. First, how active has their pen been? You say, "Well, they've hardly published anything." Then you probably don't want to study under them. You see, once you have completed your own doctorate, you will quickly realize that the least important thing you will ever write is your doctoral dissertation. The function of a dissertation is simply that of a springboard or launching pad for a lifetime of research and writing. So one of the best ways to get to know a potential doctoral supervisor is to read their writings. Are these scholars models of careful scholarship? Have they rusted out and stopped publishing altogether? Are they effective in the way they express themselves through their publications? Please, I beg you, don't ignore the pen.
But then there's the hammer. A good scholar is not only an academician. He or she is a practitioner. They are excellent classrooms teachers. They love their students and their students love them. If they are believers, they themselves are engaged in the work of the Great Commission. They are doing and not merely dabbling in their craft.
Many years ago one of my seminary professors charged me to decide on one thing to do with my life and stay with it. It was good advice and I have tried to follow it. My own doctoral program was a complete joy and delight from beginning to end. My professor was there for me, carefully wielding both the pen and the hammer. It was perhaps the happiest experience of my scholarly journey.
I hope your experience will be the same.
This morning it was such a sweet joy to be in Joshua 14 and to read the story of 85-year old Caleb. He said to Joshua, "I am as strong now as I was when Moses sent us on that journey, and I can still travel and fight as well as I could then." Oh to be able to say that at 85! Then Caleb added, in Hebrew:
GIVE ME THIS MOUNTAIN!!
His audacity met with this immediate response from Joshua:
"So Joshua blessed him and gave him Hebron as a permanent inheritance because he had followed the Lord God of Israel."
What a magnificent story! Caleb was given some of the most prized territory in the Promised Land -- the hill country of Judea, including the great city of Hebron. The lesson for this 73-year old?
Age gracefully and confidently.
Note well:
God sometimes grants his servants their greatest success in their final chapter of life. Caleb had retained possession of his mental and physical capacity to old age. And what did he expect of the Lord? A cozy retirement? A pension? An easy chair? No. Caleb sought great things of God because God had promised them to him.
Gladys Burrell ran a marathon at the age of 92.
Teiichi Igarashi climbed Mount Fuji at 100.
Diana Nyard swam from Cuba to Florida at 64.
John Glenn went to space at 77.
Colonel Sanders started KFC at 65.
Peter Roget invented the thesaurus at 73.
Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa at 75.
Christopher Plummer won his Oscar at 82.
My aging friend, we do not honor our God when we ask him for molehills when he is offering us mountains.
Few B-movies are more famous than the classic western, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."
What magnificent directing and storytelling! It's a bit of a masterpiece, if a slightly flawed one. Released in Italy in 1966, it starred a relative newcomer to Hollywood, Clint Eastwood. The vast landscapes and extreme closeups -- who can ever forget them? If nothing else, the movie redefined and blurred the line between "good" and "bad" guys in westerns. Eli Wallach really makes the film for me. He was superb as the ugly guy. Or was he "nasty," "brutal," "criminal," or "gruesome"? The Italian has, "The Good, the Villain, and the Nasty."
The German? "The Good, the Bad, and the Brutal."
The French reads, "The Good, the Cruel, and the Criminal."
While the Norwegians chose, "The Good, the Evil, and the Gruesome."
Anyone who hasn't seen the film should. It is a deep character study of three amoral characters just trying to survive in a brutal environment. If you think we have improved since those days of the wild west, read Paul's description of men in the last days (2 Tim. 3:1-7). It reads like the same old crowd one finds in western movies.
By the way, the 3-way standoff is probably one of the most unforgettable movie scenes in history. And the film comes in awfully handy when explaining the substantival use of the adjective to Greek students!
In Matt. 5:2 we read that Jesus "opened his mouth" before giving the Sermon on the Mount. The Greek idiom implies that Jesus was about to say something profoundly important. (See Job 3:1 for a parallel.) Until then, he remained silent.
Prov. 17:28 says "Even fools are thought to be wise if they keep silent, and discerning if they hold their tongues" (NIV). In 1 Thess. 4:11 Paul writes, "Study to be quiet" (KJV). The wise person will not wear himself out answering every email he gets or in explaining himself to every curious inquirer. When he finally speaks, what he says will gain added importance from the long silence preceding it.
We will do ourselves a favor by indulging in only a few words "fitly spoken" (Prov. 25:11).
Ever heard of Victoria, VA? Probably not. It's just a bump on the road between where I live and Richmond. Its population is less than 2,000. But one thing it has going for it is a portion of the Tobacco Heritage Trail.
The town was named in honor of the queen of England, Queen Victoria herself. It was a place where crew changes took place on the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway. Today it's a sleepy little town but one I had wanted to check off my bucket list for year. The trail was lovely.
It even has a little playground where I could indulge in one of my favorite pastimes.
The biggest employer today is the prison industry. But its old railway is still a popular attraction for school kids as well as for runners like myself.
Hope your day is going well!
I've noticed I've started to put on more muscle since I began consistently pushing myself to a close enough approximation to true muscular failure during my lifts. That's the point in a set where you can't complete any more reps with proper form no matter how hard you try. Here's an example from today's arm workout. I am about to finish a set of biceps curls, with the last rep being almost impossible to complete.
When you allow your form to just fall apart and then stopping the set, you're shortcutting the entire process because the targeted muscle isn't getting close enough to failure. When a set is taken to actual muscular failure, the biceps themselves have actually run out of strength. Remember that the only real purpose of your initial reps is to get to the more challenging stimulative reps later on. The key point to understand here is that if you're training to real muscular failure, then the exercise speed should be gradually slowing down from rep to rep. That steady gradual slowing down assumes you're lifting with maximum force on each rep.
Realizing this has been a real game changer for me. My weight has gone from 198 pounds to a consistent 204 pounds. I'm not saying that all of those pounds are muscle, but most of them are. The fact of the matter is that you need to have a knowledge of what failure is, what it looks like, and (most importantly) what it feels like if you want to build more muscle.
I'll need strong biceps in 2026 not only for climbing but also for when I return to Hawaii to surf. The key is to continue training hard enough for maximum muscle growth.
Thanks for reading!
To think that people can find God only in a church building is as absurd as thinking that you can find an automobile only in a garage. Spontaneous praise can erupt any time, any place -- as it did today in Southside Virginia on a perfect day for a 10-mile run.
Open your eyes and the Creator is right there! You catch glimpses of heaven on a park trail, a Mexican meal after your run, and in looking back with gratitude on the steps he gave you this day.
The Bible says that the trees clap their hands and the mountains sing for joy. Makes you want to join the celebration, doesn't it?
"Nature is the living, visible garment of God," wrote Goethe. So do be sure to get outdoors every chance you get. Spontaneous worship just might break out.
Working on the soundtrack of the opening scene from the movie Gettysburg.
Randy Edelman's score is amazing from beginning to end. It fits the subject matter perfectly. I've got a long ways to go to perfect my playing but I get a lot of enjoyment from trying to learn the score.
I love milestones. Don't you? Next year I will celebrate a milestone of sorts. Lord willing, I will celebrate 50 years of teaching. Yes, I began teaching at Biola in 1976 at the ripe "old" age of 24. Just like doing your 20th marathon is a milestone, I think teaching for 5 decades is a milestone. I have decided to celebrate this milestone, if the Lord allows, by climbing another 4,000 meter peak, either in the Rockies (Uncompahgre?) or in the Alps (Allalinhorn?). I am grateful for every milestone in life that God grants me.
The planning for this type of a climb is ridiculous. Preparation is everything. There is something pure and simple about training for a climb and putting all of your energy into that sport. As time has gone by, my body has adapted to the increased training hours and the variety of workouts, as our amazing bodies are apt to do. No doubt the recipe for training for and completing a really difficult climb includes motivation, determination, and putting an element of pressure on yourself. Without putting a tad bit of pressure on yourself you probably wouldn't crawl out of your warm bed in the morning and head off to the gym for a workout or to the trailhead to get in your steps. I know I'm not overtrained, but I could probably be training a little harder too. I think it's hard to find that balance and it takes time to figure out what your body can and cannot do. One of my challenges is that I'm pretty much a Type-A kind of guy. I know, shocking! Right now I'm blogging and cooking supper and checking my investments and worrying about my grandkids' college funds. Not to mention running in place. But as I've said a million times, more isn't necessarily better. You can't get there if you're always beating up your body.
I'm sorry if I'm always talking about my training, but right now training is monopolizing and consuming my brain so that's what comes out on this blog. Today I did a massive arm workout.
This was followed by getting in my steps.
Have a wonderful day!
I can remember the years we spent building our home that we call Bradford Hall.
It actually took my son one whole year to finish the interior.
He took his time, and the result was amazing.
We mortals today race along from one project to the next as fast as our ulcers will allow. No wonder the result is often shoddy work. There was an era in our country when craftsmen took time to build great houses, paint great pictures, and write great literature.
The quality of the product suffers when we do a rush job just to meet a deadline. I have always been in a hurry, but today I am a "stop and smell the roses" kinda guy and I love that about me. There are certain things I never want to give up on ...
The quality of my parenting.
The quality of my teaching.
The quality of my friendships and relationships.
The quality of my training.
Bottom line: God expects much from us because he is ready to work in us to will and to do what he expects. The true perfectionist knows he is not perfect nor is anyone else, but excellence is his goal and he moves toward it.
You only get one pass at life, so why not do your best?
Yours truly was interviewed about his book Why Four Gospels? for the Into the Desert Youtube channel. This is my first ever audiobook and I even got to meet the narrator. Special thanks to our Media Services team for allowing us to use their outstanding recording studio today!
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| Is that serious look really necessary? 😇 |
Big congratulations to Will Varner of the Masters University upon the release of his latest book.
It even espouses -- if you can believe it -- Matthean priority. Let the revival begin!
The Shiny Object Syndrome happens when you're always focusing on something new and current. This often comes at the expense of what you're already doing.
The problem with this syndrome is that you end up chasing the latest trend, often leaving you distracted and overwhelmed. I fell prey to this syndrome when I was teaching myself German. I had been selected to play the trumpet on a brass octet that would spend the summer of 1978 playing evangelistic crusades throughout Germany. We would gather a crowd and then our bilingual director would share the gospel with the audience.
I had decided that, if possible, I would like to do more than play my instrument. Perhaps I could share my personal testimony with the audience or speak with individuals afterwards. So I jumped head first into teaching myself German. No sooner had I bought one beginning German grammar I ended buying another and then another until I had maybe 10 of them on my shelf. In retrospect, I would have been far better off had I just stuck with one grammar and mastered its contents instead of flitting from one grammar to another.
Likewise, I've noticed the temptation as a bodybuilder to jump from this exercise fad to that one, partly out of boredom and partly because you think newer is actually better. However, I've discovered that you really don't need a long list of exercises to develop your physique. Building a strong back, for example, doesn't require endless exercises or overly complex routines. You probably need only two exercises -- lat pulldowns, and pull ups.
The lat pulldown, like its name hints, is the best lat exercise you can do. And you can easily adjust the resistance to your fitness level. In addition to your lats, lat pulldowns work the lower parts of your traps, your rear delts, and even your biceps.
Next to the lat pulldown, the pull up is the quintessential back exercise. It works similar muscles as the lat pulldown, but of course the price of entry is higher with this exercise. Not to worry, though. Using a resistance band can adjust the resistance level to help you get up. Focus on correct form, keeping your core engaged, and smooth eccentrics (that's when you lower yourself back down). And sure to keep your sets and reps just easy enough to keep the ugly reps from creeping in. If you do this, the long term implications can be massive.
Have a wonderful week!
P.S. My son and I obviously don't suffer from the Shiny Object Syndrome when it comes to farm equipment! 😁
Not training your lifts to failure is like driving from New York to Los Angeles and turning around in Phoenix.
"You'll never be satisfied with your publications record." I'll never forget my doctoral supervisor telling me that. The year was 1980. I had just arrived in Basel to begin my D.Theol. studies under the great Swedish New Testament scholar Bo Reicke. A month after my arrival in that historic city on the Rhine, I received in the mail the page proofs of my very first journal article. The periodical was the Grace Theological Journal, and the essay was entitled "The Peculiarities of Ephesians and the Ephesian Address." I melted into my shoes when I got those page proofs. I simply couldn't believe that anything of mine would ever be published. But here it was, my first-ever refereed journal article staring me in the face. "Nothing could possibly be better than this!" I thought to myself. But I was wrong. The reality is, no matter how long you work at your craft or how many journal articles and books you end up publishing, you're probably never going to be genuinely satisfied. Once my Grace Journal essay had appeared, I was already writing another journal article for publication. And then came another. And another. And then I went from publishing in evangelical journals to publishing in more mainstream journals. I thought, "Why stop with The Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society? Why not try to get published in New Testament Studies or Novum Testamentum"?
This cycle of always seeming to want more is called the hedonic treadmill.
And it affects more than just our scholarly life. Seems our brains are hardwired to keep us striving for more and more. For example, when I was a novice weightlifter, I recall thinking to myself, "If I can just lose some body fat and put on some muscle, I'll be happy." However, the fact is that as your physique improves, you'll mentally return to baseline, and your achievements just won't satisfy you any longer. Each new level you achieve just becomes your new normal and it won't satisfy you anymore. Maybe you've experienced the same thing. I think the solution to this problem is to just to accept it and acknowledge that you will never be fully satisfied or fully content with everything. Having a lean and muscular body is not going to make you happy any more than having a long list of publications on your resume will ever truly satisfy you. None of these external things will put you into an internally happy state. I myself have worked hard at writing and exercising and I do get a feeling of satisfaction from being in relatively good shape and from contributing to the world of New Testament scholarship. But I don't think that any of these things is going to make me fulfilled or happy on some kind of fundamental level. Only my relationship with Christ will. He saves. He keeps. He satisfies.
I can hear one of the apostle Paul's old friends saying, "Poor old Saul. He got off to such a great start. He was a straight-A student under Gamaliel the Second. Then he went on to become a member of the Supreme Jewish Council. But one day on the road to Damascus he must have had a sunstroke or something, because ever since then he's been a religious lunatic. Not to mention the fact that he's always in prison. What a tragic waste of potential!"
And yet we have completely forgotten Paul's contemporaries and are still reading Paul. Everything depends on what -- or who -- we are living for.
I love the Greek of Acts 8:30, don't you? When Philip heard the Ethiopian eunuch reading aloud from the prophet Isaiah, he asked him, "Do you understand what you're reading?" Here the Greek text has a beautiful play on words:
The man's response was wonderfully vulnerable:
"How can I unless I have someone to instruct me?"
The eunuch realized he needed trained instruction. So he uses a Greek word for "instruct" that describes the guidance provided by a teacher to a student.
What a great lesson. Interpreting the Scriptures has everything to do with understanding what's been written. This sounds simple, and often it is. But when you start digging into the Bible on your own, you're suddenly faced with a number of barriers, including the language barrier. That's why, if you haven't studied Greek, you'll need a version of the New Testament that's as close to the Greek as you can get. The ASV of 1901 is one such version, as is its more modern counterpart, the NASB. There are also many beneficial resources available online.
Folks, a seminary degree is not a requirement for serious Bible study. But you do need reliable tools and resources. Thankfully, there's no shortage of such today. Use them!
Here's my step count for the past 12 months.
That's the distance of the Appalachian Trail from beginning to end. I got 19,000 of these steps today at the High Bridge Trail. Aren't the leaves beautiful?
I don't believe that running will necessarily add years to our life. But I am convinced that running will add life to our years. The latter is far more rewarding.
Every mile is a pure gift. Thank you, Lord.
Winter is the time you do all the projects your wife has been wanting you to do. Or your father. Bush hog the fields. Work on equipment. Fill up the freezer. Some grow a winter crop. Tonight my kids worked overtime bush hogging all the fields for winter.
Farming combines long hours, economic risk, constant repair, and seasonal urgency.
Dinner is usually whenever you can work it in. Farming is a 24/7 job.
Why does anybody work so hard? In the end, it's the willingness to look up from our plodding feet, figurative or otherwise, and see this:
I wouldn't trade it for anything.
I loved getting in my steps today.
It's a good time to saturate your heart with the goodness of God.
Guard your hearts and trust your Father.
Have a wonderful evening!
When we read the Bible, we need to become thoughtful students of the linguistic and cultural contexts of Scripture. Every verse in the Bible has a context. This includes a verse I was studying this morning in my daily devotional time.
In John 9, Jesus has healed a blind man. Later, the people were incredulous. Some thought it was the same man. Others weren't so sure. But the blind man himself kept saying:
"I am."
The Greek here reads egō eimi. I'm sure you've heard of that expression. It plays an important role in terms of New Testament christology. Why, a few verses earlier, Jesus uses the same two words with reference to himself. In John 8:58 we read:
Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I AM."
Here the words "I AM" are placed in caps because the expression is an obvious reference to the name of God in Exod. 3:14. But in John 9:9, the very same Greek words mean nothing more than "It's me."
This was a simple reminder to me that we always have to place the verses we're reading into their proper contexts. If we fail to do so, we'll be awash in confusion, and it won't be long before we slide down the slippery slope of eisegesis. Every major cult is built on a violation of this basic principle of context. A great deal of that sort of error could be avoided by simply asking ourselves, "What do the previous verses or the ones that follow say?"
I'll talk more about the importance of context in upcoming Greek classes. But whenever you study the word of God, keep taking the context into careful consideration!
