Bible ← Julian Freeman

Some Guidelines for Reading New Testament Narrative

Nov

2012

Everyone loves a good story, right? And they’re always easy to understand, too… right? Or maybe not so much. When we move into New Testament Narrative as a genre (basically consisting of the Gospels and Acts) we move into some of the most familiar and most beloved portions of Scripture. But we must not mistake ...

Some Guidelines for Reading Prophetic Literature

Oct

2012

Back in the summer I began a series giving some ‘Guidelines for Reading the Bible.’ At that time I covered Old Testament Narrative and Wisdom Literature. Today I’d like to move on and cover the Prophetic Literature. These books may be divided up into their three main redemptive-historical categories of pre-exilic, exilic, and post-exilic (all ...

Some Guidelines for Reading Wisdom Literature

Aug

2012

Who doesn’t want to be wise? Everyone wants to be wise! No one wants to make foolish decisions that they will later regret. And Christians especially want to know how to make decisions that are pleasing to the Lord. That’s why we have the wisdom literature in our Bible (for my purposes here, I’m lumping ...

Some Guidelines for Reading Old Testament Narrative

Aug

2012

If you’ve ever begun to read through the Old Testament and been filled with more questions than answers, you’re not alone. Many of the stories of the OT are hard to understand and hard to apply. We know that narratives are inspired and ‘useful’ for us (2 Tim 3.16-17), but how? Are we really supposed ...

The Epistles of Paul in Chronological Order

Jul

2012

When I was planning my reading list for the summer I decided that I wanted to focus my Bible-reading-energy on the epistles of Paul for a couple months. I had the thought that it would be fun to read through his epistles chronologically to see how his thoughts and themes and concerns develop over time ...

The Story of the Bible as Told Through Motherhood

May

2012

It occurred to me the other day, in preparing for a Mother’s Day sermon, that the story of the Bible (the story of God redeeming his people) could be told almost entirely in categories of motherhood. So I thought I’d give it a shot. In Creation & Fall God created and ordered the world — ...

He Spoke

Apr

2012

Last night at the dinner table, we were discussing our Fighter Verse for this week at church (Exodus 34.6-7). When God speaks about himself, the first thing he says is, ‘The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and ...