I thought this was interesting, might help with your new study plans for the new year. (HT: PureChurch)

The Houston Chronicle is running a story titled “Condemned killer says Bible helped jury decide his death sentence“. It seems a convicted killer on death row in Texas is appealing his trial on the basis that the jurors were using their Bibles as references in determining his fate:

“Several of them carried Bibles in and out like my daughter carries her “Seventeen” magazine,” she said. “It was just their reading material.”

It seems there is debate as to how much the jurors used their Bibles to render their decision in the case though:

At a state district court hearing two months after the trial, four jurors testified about the presence of Bibles in the jury room and gave varying accounts, ranging from one Bible to several being present. One juror testified he and fellow jurors carried the books with them because they would go to Bible study in the evenings following the day’s court proceedings,

Another juror testified any reading from the books came after they had reached a decision. A third said the reading of Scripture was intended to make people feel better about their decision.

So, the issue at stake in this particular case is this:

“Unless there’s a suggestion they used religious law as opposed to the Code of Criminal Procedure and the instructions the judge gave them, but that wasn’t an issue in this case.”

Whether or not the jurors physically opened up their Bibles while they were deliberating doesn’t really make much difference, how do you stop someone from following after the Word that is written on their heart? It may be the case someday that Christians will not be allowed to bring a Bible into the courtroom or any government workplace. It may even be the case that the Bible will be classified as “hate literature” as we see some beginnings of in Canada. But Christians should live by the Word of God in all things that we do. God’s Word should direct all areas of our lives, regardless of our ability to physically carry around a book with us.

So, what does this look like? What does it look like for someone to live by the Word of God?

We must know the Word of God

“These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. “You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. “You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Deuteronomy 6:6-9

We cannot teach them to our children and talk of them night and day if we do not know them. So we should seek to know God’s Word, study it, memorize it, talk about it with our friends and family. I can’t think of a better way we can spend our time than digging through the Scriptures to learn of the riches found in them.

We must see Christ as the Word of God

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.
John 1:1-3

If all things came into being through Him, then we should see Christ in all things. This means looking at life through the lens of Scripture and not through our own worldview. As we read through the Bible, we should Christ as the foundation of everything we read and this will shape our perspective.

We must live out the Word of God

He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your fathers had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD
Deuteronomy 8:3

We should not rely on anything other than the Word of God. This means that in all situations in life, we should look to Him for guidance and provision. When decisions need to be made, we should look to the wisdom found in the Scriptures. When doubts arise, we should look to God’s promises found in the Scriptures. When temptation comes our way, we should look at the commandments found in the Scriptures. There is no area in our lives that is without the need for prayerful consultation of the Word of God.

So, I’ve been purposely brief here, I would like to know what you think about the extent of God’s Word in our lives or some practical ways that you have made the Scriptures direct areas of your lives. Feel free to comment and add to this list.

Justin Taylor has posted a few lists that may be helpful for practicing family devotions in 2008.

He has also let us know that BibleMemory.us has added Bethlehem Baptist Church’s Fighter Verses to their Scripture memory program.

Have a look at Crossway’s ESV Daily Reading Bible as well.

Here are some resources on the M’Cheyne reading plan.

The new year starts in a few days so I hope you’re prepared with what new reading plans or programs you are going to go through this year. Don’t wait until January to do this!

Dr. Mohler has a posting on that question that comes up again and again, “what would Jesus do if he were here today?” I do like these types of questions, it causes me to think about what my perspective is. Is it based on Biblical principles or have I let outside sources affect my reasoning?

Dr. Moore writes about the realities of abortion clinics and what the Christian response should be.

Two words: wahoo!

Monergism Book Sale

An article picked up from the Associated Press reports that at least 10 churches were attacked and burned in India on Christmas night. One man was killed and 30 more were injured during the attacks. Typically these stories do not appear in the mainstream press and I have to wait for the Voice of the Martyrs to pick it up, but this one was reported by a few mainstream agencies. Please pray for the believers in India, for their encouragement and that their witness during this persecution would not go unnoticed by the attackers.

When we look to the cross, we see the extent to which God despises sin. He does not take lightly our rebellion against Him nor does He see any of our good works as worthy enough to satisfy His wrath against our sins. At the cross we see God willing to send His only son to die a most horrific death to pay the penalty we justly deserve. The gospel shows us the lengths God has gone to so that we can be free from the enslavement our sin keeps us in. If God was willing to send His beloved to die in our place for our sin, He could not expect anything less than that same sacrifice from us. The sacrifice He desires is for us to offer up our most beloved, to put to death the sins that keep us from following after Him.

When the Jews were about to cross over into the Promised Land, God commanded them to wipe out all of the nations that were in the land He was about to give them. They were not to leave any remnant in the land because He knew that their idolatry and worship of false gods would lead His people away from the one true God. We have this same command with the sin in our lives, we are to remove every idol and be perfect as our heavenly father is perfect. We are to leave no remnant of sin and idolatry in our lives, God demands nothing less than the complete eradication of sin throughout the lifelong process of sanctification. In the gospel we see the death of Jesus Christ for our sin and that compels us to put to death the sin in our lives.

“And there they continued to preach the gospel” - Acts 14:7

Each Tuesday a different reflection on the gospel and its continual effect on our lives

I came across an opinion article in the Australian titled, “Another year closer to the end for God”. The article doesn’t explicitly state that the author is an atheist, but from paragraphs like this:

The Christmas war, in fact, is rapidly acquiring the status of historical curiosity. In a few years’ time, we’ll have to stage re-enactments, like those Civil War buffs who gather in soggy fields: “Look, George. Those people with the lanterns and the hymn books actually used to believe in the whole Christmas story.”

“Wow. They look so real. What was the Christmas story, Mum?”

and this

Christmas closes another year that has been pretty brutal on the God squadders, a year in which the swelling tide of unbelief crashed further through the structures of our cultural architecture.

it seems that the author is less than enthusiastic towards belief in God. But there was something I found interesting in the article:

You’d have thought (and certainly the pre-Christians did) that the Son of God, when he chose, would enter the world in a way that would leave no doubt who he was or that he existed.

But he chose instead to come in a way that ensured just about the maximum room for doubt; merely another barely noticed nativity in the most miserable of circumstances. If you were lucky enough to be one of those shepherds on the hills around Bethlehem who got the news from the angelic host, or one of the wise men who followed that star, you were lucky. No long, dark night of the soul for you. Instead, just one brilliant flash of celestial light and the secret of the universe was revealed.

So I thought I would comment on this because it is true, Jesus did not come in a way that would leave no doubt as to who he was. He was not born into the royal family of the day that would have left his name in a book of official records. His public ministry was three short years, certainly not a long career by today’s standards. He never traveled farther than a few miles radius of Jerusalem in a day when Rome and Spain were the cultural and intellectual centers of the world. He lived a life of poverty. When he died, he left behind no children, no wife, no house, no estate. His only possessions, his clothing, were gambled over and divided by those who put him to death. He couldn’t even afford a proper burial and ended up being buried (ever so briefly!) in someone else’s tomb. But yet, the effect that Jesus has had on the world has been unparalleled by any human in the history of civilization.

Why did God choose to come to the earth in such an uneventful way? Why not make this whole believing thing easier for people? Why not leave historical records so that there would be no doubt of one’s existence?

If he did, would that have helped?

John said even the people who were right there with Jesus, witnessing miracles that truly could have only been performed by God, did not believe (John 12:37). And this was done to fulfill the prophecy of Isaiah (Isaiah 53:1) so that they would not believe:

Render the hearts of this people insensitive,
Their ears dull,
And their eyes dim,
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
Hear with their ears,
Understand with their hearts,
And return and be healed.”
Isaiah 6:10

Or look at the story of Israel. The people witnessed an entire sea split right down the middle so that they could escape Pharaoh’s army and yet they still did not believe that God was with them always and they doubted His power. The point is, people don’t doubt because of lack of evidence, they doubt because of the hardness of their heart.

Jesus came in exactly the way God willed, in humility, as an example for us to follow. How would he have related to the poor if he himself was not so? Would the meek truly listen to him if he was their king with the power to force them to by the sword? What an amazing story, that God became man 2000 years ago and lived the life we could not live ourselves to become the sacrifice we could not provide ourselves to forgive the sins we commit against him who came. Please join me in praying for those who do not believe that salvation is possible through the humble life of Jesus Christ.

I stumbled onto a fantastic book, The Enemy Within, by Kris Lundgaard. The Enemy Within is a great work on the power of indwelling sin and what can be done to help in the battle against sin. The book relies heavily on John Owen’s works, which can be found here. Owen may be difficult for some to read through considering the language and style he uses, but for sure it is well worth the effort to read through them.

When I read through books, I scribble notes in the margins and underline things I find interesting. Usually the notes are illegible to anyone but myself and that’s ok because I take notes for myself anyway. I did not want to keep these notes for myself though, this book has great value to all believers since we all struggle with sin in some form. I am posting some PDF slides that are a quick summary of the book. They probably will not be very useful if you haven’t read through the book or do not have a copy of the book in front of you though so I would encourage to pick up this book for yourself.

Here is the first slide with a quick summary of the book:

• Sin must be mortified in the believer
• The flesh wars against three areas in the believer:
  • the mind – the watchman of the soul
  • the affections – the desires of the soul
  • the will – the doer of the soul
• Sin occurs when any area is dragged away in temptation and the other two follow
• Mortification is done in faith, with the Spirit because of the work done on the cross by Jesus to make us into God’s holy people
• We must understand how the flesh wages war if we are to have any victory over it

Download the slides here