Here’s a schedule for reading the New Testament over the course of a year. For the most part, it tracks pretty closely with Lee Irons’ excellent schedule for reading the Greek New Testament in a year. My plan, however, varies a little bit. Because John’s writing is simpler Greek, my schedule goes through John’s Gospel at a faster pace than Irons’. As a result, there are no readings scheduled at the end of the year from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Eve. These open dates at the end can be used as catch-up days. The schedule is given in two formats below.

Carl Trueman has an interesting take on the current obsession that evangelical pastors seem to have with sermons on sex. They are becoming increasingly frequent and in some cases bawdy. Trueman writes: The current evangelical obsession with sex seems more like an intrusion of the culture than a priority of scripture… If, for the sake of argument, we were to allow that there might occasionally, just occasionally, be a vague and distant analogy between Hollywood and the church, I wonder if middle-aged pastors writing and speaking about sex is not becoming the evangelical equivalent of forty-something actresses doing nude scenes.   Look: your career is in decline, the only cover shoot…

I thought this piece from Chuck Klosterman was really fascinating. He is puzzling over how to understand Tebow, his faith, and how it appears that God is rewarding Tebow with unlikely victories. Here’s his conclusion:

Last week I posted the audio of Tom Schreiner’s devotional at the B&H breakfast at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society. I am happy to see that The Gospel Coalition now has the text of the address posted on their website. You can read it here. I will link the audio again below. Dr. Thomas Schreiner – Living Like Jesus is the Only Way – ETS 2011 [audio:http://feeds.soundcloud.com/stream/28607162-bhpublishinggroup-dr-tom-schriner-ets2011.mp3]

I attended the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society a couple of weeks ago, and the highlight of the week for me was Tom Schreiner’s devotional at the B&H breakfast. Tom is the new chair of the HSCB translation oversight committee, and his remarks at the breakfast were prophetic for the scholarly set. He called on scholars to do their work as if Jesus is the only way. He called on us not to trim our sails to accommodate the prevailing winds of scholarship but to set our course for faithfulness to Christ no matter what the cost. He called on us to abandon the desire to win the…

Evangelicals disagree about how the Old Testament law functions as a normative ethic for Christians. Has the law been abrogated? Fulfilled in Christ? Is it still morally binding? When it comes to the ten commandments, nine of the ten are directly reiterated by the apostles in the New Testament, so the binding nature of those commands is a no-brainer. Some controversy still exists about keeping the Sabbath since it isn’t reiterated in the New Testament in so many words. One other issue that sometimes comes into contention is the tithe. Under the Old Covenant, God’s people were required to give a tenth of all of their increase. Some people believe…

Owen Strachan wrote a blog a couple of weeks ago critiquing the “Dad Mom” mindset that is often praised in popular culture. His article provoked a response from Laura Ortberg Turner at Christianity Today’s Her.meneutics blog. Turner contests Strachan’s reading of Titus 2:5 and Genesis 3:16 and argues that Strachan’s vision of manhood is not the same as Jesus’. She writes:

Albert Mohler led a discussion in Southern Seminary’s chapel today about the historicity of Adam and the gospel. Panel members include Tom Schreiner, Jim Hamilton, Chad Brand, and Steve Wellun. You can watch above, listen below, or download here. [audio:http://www.sbts.edu/media/audio/fall2011/20111108-panel.mp3] My favorite line from the discussion comes from Jim Hamilton who argues that Peter Enns seeks to replace the beginning of the biblical story with evolution. Hamilton says that replacing the beginning of the biblical story with evolution is like replacing the first scene of “Star Wars” with the first scene from “Sleepless in Seattle.” It just doesn’t work because they are two different stories.

In a discussion over at the CCEF podcast, some counselors suggest that there’s nothing necessarily biblical about men assuming the role of primary provider for their families. [audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/ccef/HH_-_TL2C_WS2C_CC2C_AR_-_is_it_OK_to_be_a_stay_at_home_dad.mp3] I think that Owen Strachan hits much nearer the mark when he argues that the biblical ideal does not treat men and women as interchangeable with respect to the provider role. He writes, The “Dad Mom” concept is a “man fail” in my view. Men are not called by God to be “working at home” as women are in Titus 2:5. The ground is not cursed for women in Genesis 3:17, but for men, whose responsibility it was to work outside of…

Last night I happened upon this interview between Piers Morgan and Rick Santorum from last August. In it, Morgan accuses Santorum of being a bigot for supporting policies that define marriage as the union of one man and one woman. Piers Morgan criticized Santorum for his Roman Catholic beliefs, and I think Santorum parried the questions really well.