This week is John 1:12–13 from Fighter Verses: Set 1, Week 3.

This week is Deuteronomy 10:12–13 from Fighter Verses: Set 1, Week 2.

This week, our family is memorizing Deuteronomy 7:9 from Fighter Verses: Set 1, Week 1.

Robert Purnell lists five ways that God’s Word purifies His saints:¹

The Word is purifying (John 15:3). You are clean through the Word that I have spoken to you. Now, the Word purifies in several ways:

1. As an antidote against sins. “Your word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you” (Ps. 119:11).
2. As a lamp discovering the spot. “I had not known sin but by the law” (Rom. 7:7).
3. As a star conducting to Christ, the fountain of purifying (1 John 2:1-2; Zech. 13:1).
4. As a rule, according to which we are heedful to order our conversation: “Wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way, but by taking heed thereto, according to your word?” (Ps. 119:9).
5. As a motive in the precious promises of it: “Having therefore these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit” (2 Cor. 7:1).

The elements of preaching, as summed up by William Perkins in 1592:¹

Preaching involves:

1. Reading the text clearly from the canonical Scriptures.
2. Explaining the meaning of it, once it has been read, in the light of the Scriptures themselves.
3. Gathering a few profitable points of doctrine from the natural sense of the passage.
4. If the preacher is suitably gifted, applying the doctrines thus explained to the life and practice of the congregation in straightforward, plain speech.

The heart of the matter is this:

Here’s the idea.

1. You want to read your Bible in roughly a year. Or at least you want to make steady progress.
2. You don’t like being tied to a specific reading plan. You like the flexibility to pick what book to read next.
3. You want to make sure you actually do read through the whole Bible. Without a plan, it is easy to end up rotating through your favorite books and avoid others longer than you realize.

If that sounds like you, I have two strategies that may help. I’ve been using one of these for a couple years now, and the other is fairly recent.

Here’s a formula you can use to create a calculated field in Tableau for converting strings in the format of .NET TimeSpan values to a total number of seconds.

I’ve been studying through Zephaniah recently, prompted by the recently released ESV Expository Commentary (Volume 7): Daniel–Malachi. The commentary on Zephaniah is written by Jason DeRouchie who I’ve been following since his How to Understand and Apply the Old Testament, which is fantastic.

Aside: Andy Naselli’s companion volume, How to Understand and Apply the New Testament, is equally fantastic. I read it first and I’m still working through DeRouchie’s volume.

I recently discovered an excellent narration of the Greek New Testament. It is freely available for download and streaming; the links are below.

• Stream on YouTube with text that follows the audio
• Download the MP3s
• Read along at Biblia.com