What always comes with the New Year? Numerous resolutions and for many Christians, one of those resolutions will have something to do with the Bible. It might be to start reading the Bible more regularly, or to get more out of their reading time, or perhaps even to read the entire Bible over the next year.

I just wanted to take a moment and give you some resources that will help you accomplish your goal. Reading the Bible is an important aspect of the Christian faith that is too often neglected by those for whom it should take prominence. As a pastor, I see time after time where Christians don’t take the time to read their Bible and so they don’t even know something as simple as where the Ten Commandments are located. However, you ask them about the Chronicles of Narnia and they could draw a story board for you. That is not saying there is anything wrong with Narnia, but it is saying that Christians should be putting that much effort into reading their Bibles.

First, you can receive your daily reading in your email by visiting the ESV (English Standard Version) website. There you can choose from quite a number of different reading plans as well as different methods that you can read those plans such as: email, rss, mobile, print, etc.

Another help available to you is a website called YouVersion.com. This website is designed specifically to give people mobile access to the Bible from your iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, or web enabled smartphone. You can read 41 different translations in 22 different languages. With YouVersion, you’ll never be far from the Word.

For those of you who don’t think you can tough it out for an entire year in order to read the Bible from cover to cover, there is another reading plan I would like to offer you. It is the Bible in 90 Days reading plan. This is a very intense reading plan and requires a great deal of commitment in order to accomplish. The task itself is really not that difficult. You will spend about 45 minutes to an hour each day reading (less if you’re a fast reader) and at the end of three months you will have read the entire Bible. There is also a Bible designed specifically for this. It comes in the NIV thinline (New International Version) and has large print. With this Bible you read twelve pages a day, which are marked to help you keep track of where you are along your reading plan. If you are one who likes to study the Bible and make notes in your Bible, then I would encourage you to get this Bible. I am very much a person who writes notes in the margin of my Bible (that’s why I own a wide margin Bible), and this helps keep me from feeling the urge to write notes and stay on task to complete the reading.

For those of you who are not necessarily looking to read the Bible cover to cover but just to start getting more out of your time with the Bible, there are two resources to which I would like to point you. The first is a series of posts that are appearing on Fallen and Flawed about how to study the Bible, which are being guest authored by Jonathan Woodward who runs Sorting Beans. These will help you start to read the Bible and get more out of what you read. However, if you really want to dive deep into studying the Bible, then I would recommend you go and pick up a copy of Living by the Book. Howard Hendricks does an excellent job of explaining how to study the Bible in a way that is easy to understand. Short of going to Bible College or Seminary, this is the best resource out there to learn how to study the Bible.

So, for all of you who read this post and have those Bible reading resolutions, you have no excuse not to follow through and reach your goal. In fact, I would love to hear from those of you who have made a Bible reading resolution in the comments below; maybe even check back in through the year and let everyone know how you’ve been doing. Maybe this post will turn into a place everyone can hold themselves and each other accountable, who knows…

This post was written by Demian Farnworth, who authors Fallen and Flawed, at the beginning of this month. I have re-posted it here in its entirety with his permission. Please head to his site to leave comments.

Ben Affleck never read the Bible as a child.

So, as an adult he expected it to be loaded with fire and brimstone…

Ripe with weeping and gnashing teeth.

Naturally this notion was only reinforced as he encountered one angry, hateful person after another who claimed to represent all Christians.

This stereotype held until he actually read the Bible.

In fact, this is what he said about reading the Gospel According to Matthew in an August 2008 Oprah magazine:

“Reading the Bible disabused me of any sense that a hateful person could represent this faith. The book is beautiful and exquisitely written–but it is characterized by one quality that colors every page: love.”

He went on to say that reading the Bible made it harder for him to accept the “damaging and small minded beliefs” that people promote in the name of Christian values.

I wonder if he had Fred Phelps in mind when he said that.

Where I’m Going with This

Often on this blog I here non-believers write the Bible off as a collection of hallucinogenic babbling from the mental fringe.

Indeed in my own experience as a non-believer I made outlandish claims about the perversity of the Bible…without ever reading it…so I’m inclined to believe neither have they.

At least not carefully.

Yet honest people like Richard Dawkins read the OT and shake their head in disbelief at what they deem a volatile, childish tyrant.

What gives? The New Testament gives.

Sinclair Ferguson writes, “You cannot open the pages of the New Testament without realizing that one of the things that makes it so ‘new’, in every way, is that here men and women call God ‘Father.’”

This conviction of intimacy with the creator of the universe lies at the heart of our faith. And it suggest we humbly read the Bible in it’s entirety…

And we understand the OT through the lens of Christ.

Reading Matthew obviously had an impact on Ben Affleck. But I don’t know if Ben Affleck is a true believer.

To be sure, he anticipates the question in the article when he says he considers his religious beliefs private matters.

But he nonetheless is moved by it. Perhaps no more than a deep interest in social justice as indicated by his involvement in genocide recovery.

Your Turn

But what about you: What was your first encounter with the Bible like? With the New Testament? With a particular Gospel?

Did you view it as a majestic piece of literature that can stand on it’s own feet [as I once did during a "Bible as Literature" course]?

Or were you appalled by what you read?

Or did you tear your clothes in grief like Josiah who said, “For great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us”?

Sarah Young. Jesus Lives: Seeing His Love in Your Life. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2009, 359 pp.

This is a devotional book that is written from the perspective of Jesus speaking to the reader. It is also written with a very specific topic in mind—the unfailing love of Jesus Christ. Each of the devotions is designed to bring you to understand that love and experience it in a new and/or fresh way. Life brings with it many challenges and difficulties that may cause us to question the love of our Savior. Sarah Young hopes to help those who use this devotional to “’see’ His Love in [those] moments of our lives.”

The layout of this devotional is topical. This is different from a great majority of devotionals available that take the format of lining out the devotions according to the calendar. Of the 180 devotions contained in the book, some of the topics on which you can find devotions are: Adversity, emptiness, His forgiveness, idolatry, prayer, sorrow, worship, etc.

All in all, this is a wonderful devotional book. I like how the author writes as though Jesus were speaking directly to the reader. The other thing I really like about this book was that every devotional was accompanied by several Scriptures to meditate and reflect upon as you read the “message from Christ.”

I am typically not big on devotional materials as I think they very often times tend to simply give Christians the feeling that they have spent time in the Word of God when they have only read one verse. This devotional is slightly different than most and has some value for those who would like something to help them with understanding certain topics better. For example, if someone is struggling with trials in their life, there are five devotions that address that very topic. And each of those devotionals will point them to several places in the Scriptures that will help them better understand trials. Therefore, I don’t think this is a devotional that one would sit down and read from cover to cover; but I think it is one of those books you turn to at different points in your life when you need a fresh perspective on something.

I am a book review blogger for Thomas Nelson Publishers. brb.thomasnelson.com

I have seen a lot on the Internet of late about Christmas. One of the hot topics is the origin of the Christmas tree. What bothers me most about a lot of what I have read is that many people appear to simply throw assertions out with nothing to support their claims. Such as this comment by @Deathiepants, "Come on, let's be honest. A Christmas tree is just an Asherah pole anyway." No support given to support the claim, just the assertion that Christmas trees are Asherah poles. I read a Jewish cite condemning Christmas and Christmas trees. I even read an article from a Christian claiming that the entire tradition of Christmas is pagan and that God commands we not celebrate it at all. That being said, there are a great number of websites that cite credible sources regarding the origin of the Christmas tree—an excellent example is History.com.

There is no hard evidence which reveals exactly how the tradition of bringing an evergreen tree indoors and decorating it became intertwined with the Christmas celebration. There are a few facts that seem to indicate it came from a Germanic background. In this tradition, the evergreen tree was decorated with apples to recall the Garden of Eden and were popularly known as “Paradise Trees.” However, there were also traditions from many different cultures that would bring boughs of evergreen branches into their homes during the winter. The best explanation seems to be that the tradition was born out of Queen Victoria’s urging of Prince Albert to decorate a tree in 1848. This appears to be one of the singular acts that brought the Christmas tree into mainline Christmas tradition.

The claim that Christmas trees are really just Ashera poles bothers me because it is an assertion with no support. What is interesting is that many of those who claim this look to the Bible to try and claim support. The passage they regularly cite is Jeremiah 10:2-5, which reads:

This is what the Lord says: Do not learn the ways of the nations or be terrified by signs in the sky, though the nations are terrified by them. For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter. Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak; they must be carried because they cannot walk. Do not fear them; they can do no harm nor can they do any good.

At this point, the claim is along the lines of “God condemns the putting up of pagan (Christmas) trees with this plain Bible command!” So does the Bible condemn Christmas trees? Well, when one takes this passage in context that is not what God was condemning at all.

The cultures around the nation of Israel (and even Israel at times) would create gods to worship. One of the typical methods of doing this was to cut a tree down from the forest and carve it into the rough shape of the idol they were making. Then, they would cover the idol with gold or silver. This is similar to our modern day gold plating. It is cheaper to use an inferior metal for the bulk of something, and then cover it in a coating of the more expensive precious metal. Can you imagine trying to build a seven-foot statue of Zeus from solid gold to be placed in all of the temples erected to worship him across the Greek and Roman empires? It would be nearly impossible to locate that much gold and keep people from trying to steal the statues. Neither could many other ancient cultures when creating the images they worshiped. The wood served as the bulk of the idol while the precious metals and stones were then fashioned as a covering.

This is clearly seen when you look at some of the other biblical passages that address using trees to make idols. Isaiah 41:7 mentions the craftsmen “nailing down” the idol so it will not topple, just as it is in Jeremiah 10. A much longer treatment is given in Isaiah 44:12-20. In fact, the Bible uses sarcasm when condemning idol worship in this passage. Another place that mentions them using silver and gold when fashioning their idols is Isaiah 46:5-7 where individuals weigh out gold and silver and hire a craftsman to fashion a god(s) for them to worship.

It is abundantly clear that Jeremiah 10 is not condemning Christmas trees. What is being condemned is idol worship. There is no doubt about this when one considers the other passages mentioned. Besides, if they were worshiping the tree itself, why cut it down? Why not simply go out into the woods and worship the tree in all of its glory as many of the nature religions do?

At this point, I must tell you that I am not condoning nor condemning the practice of putting up Christmas trees. I can tell you that real Christmas trees smell great, but I hate having to clean up all of the needles left behind when it is time to take them down. What I can say is that Christmas trees most certainly have some roots in pagan worship practices. The choice to place a Christmas tree in your home or not is a choice that your family will have to make. I only wanted to make it clear that the Bible does not expressly forbid Christmas trees. I think that there would still be nay-sayers if Jesus’ birth was celebrated almost any other day of the year. Somewhere, someone would find some connection to a pagan celebration and then explain that we shouldn’t celebrate the birth of Jesus.

As for me and my house, we will most certainly celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior. For without the advent of Jesus, there could not have been the greatest gift of all time—salvation.

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