How can we develop our ethical theory and how does that inform ethical decision making? John Feinburg, author of Ethics for a Brave New World sheds light on the topic:

We think this will be a useful format in general, but especially for the following:

1. The Student – If you’re taking a course on the Bible, this could be a great companion resource. The book introductions and study notes are helpful for quickly getting the gist of a Bible book or passage.  Some professors are even starting to assign the ESV Study Bible as a required text for their classes, and those students can save some money with the paperback edition.

2. The Traveler – Have you ever tried to take your Bible somewhere and opened up your bag only to discover your Bible’s pages smashed, or the cover bent at an awkward angle? Sometimes it’s nice to have a Bible dedicated for “wear and tear.” This is an inexpensive but resource-packed edition for anyone wanting to travel with a study Bible.

3. The Church Leader – An ESV Study Bible with a lower price makes it easier to buy Study Bibles in bulk. Pastors and church leaders can consider giving paperback ESV Study Bibles to new Christians, small groups, or those involved in discipleship programs. This is an affordable training resource that can help churches equip their congregation for spiritual growth.

Learn more about the ESV Study Bible, Personal Size.

Holcomb addresses:

• 0:38 What is sexual assault?
• 1:07 Why did you title your book Rid of My Disgrace?
• 2:02 How does forgiveness work?
• 3:02 What are some things we can do to help a sexual abuse victim achieve forgiveness?

On February 5th, 2012, over a hundred million people will watch Super Bowl XLVI. Few of them will know about the horrific crimes that will be committed during and around the event in Indianapolis.

The Super Bowl is the most-watched program on TV every year. But many people don’t know about its dark underside: the Super Bowl, as are other large sporting events, is also a magnet for sex trafficking and child prostitution. It is possibly the largest sex trafficking event in the US. As more than 100,000 football fans descend on Indianapolis, sex traffickers and pimps will also arrive in droves to take advantage of the demand.

What is human trafficking?

Human trafficking is modern-day slavery and the fastest-growing criminal industry in the world. It is the recruitment, transportation, harboring, or taking of people by means of threat, force, coercion, abduction, fraud, or deception for the purpose of exploiting them.

The United Nations estimates that 2.5 million people are trafficked annually. The U.S. State Department estimates an even higher number: about 12.3 million adults and children “in forced labor, bonded labor, and forced prostitution around the world.” It deprives people of their human rights and freedoms, it is a global health risk, and it fuels organized crime. Victims of trafficking are forced or coerced into labor or sexual exploitation. Sex trafficking is one of the most profitable forms of trafficking and involves many kinds of sexual exploitation, such as prostitution, pornography, bride trafficking, and the commercial sexual abuse of children. It’s the fastest-growing criminal activity in the world, according to the United Nations, bringing in an estimated $32 billion a year. In the US, sex trafficking brings in $9.5 billion annually.

Trafficking in the United States

The United States is a destination country for international trafficking: foreign women and children are transported into the United States for purposes of sexual and labor exploitation. The US State Department estimates that approximately eighteen thousand foreign nationals are trafficked annually into the United States.

Victims are brought to the United States from Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Africa. Most women and children brought to the United States find themselves forced to work in massage parlors, commercial or residential brothels, escort services, and strip clubs.

Sex trafficking also happens to United States citizens residing within US borders. The Department of Justice estimates that more than 250,000 American children are at risk for trafficking into the sex industry annually. The average age of girls who enter into street prostitution is between 12 and 14 years old.

Traffickers coerce women and children to enter the commercial sex industry through a variety of recruitment techniques in strip clubs, street-based prostitution, and escort services.

From victim to slave

Domestic sex traffickers particularly target vulnerable young girls, such as runaway, homeless, and foster care children. In the United States, the average age of entry into prostitution is thirteen. Incest and other forms of abuse often drive children to run away from home, making them vulnerable to the slick tactics of sex traffickers.

The pimp seduces a recruit with the lure of love, protection, wealth, designer clothes, fancy cars, and exclusive nightclubs. Pimps move from city to city looking for children and young women who are easy prey: alone, desperate, and alienated. Once a pimp moves a victim from her hometown into a strange city, the pimp can easily force her to work as a prostitute. Thousands of children and women are victimized in this way every year.

Super Bowl

Large sporting events like the Super Bowl are prime targets for sex traffickers because of the high demand generated by thousands of men pouring into an area for a weekend of fun. The 2010 Super Bowl saw an estimated 10,000 sex workers brought into Miami. Despite efforts to crackdown on sex trafficking at the 2011 Super Bowl in Dallas, there was still a tremendous amount of women and children sexually exploited. In the past, attempted crackdowns by law enforcement have misfired by treating prostitutes as criminals to be locked up rather than victims to be rescued, but new efforts are gaining traction: a bill moving through the Indiana legislature aims to toughen the state’s sex-trafficking law before the Super Bowl.

Human trafficking is an attack on God

Human trafficking is a sin against the victim and a sin against God. Evil is anti-creation, anti-life, and the force that seeks to oppose, deface, and destroy God, his good world, and his image bearers. Simply put, when someone defaces a human being—God’s image bearer—it is ultimately an attack against God himself.

The victim’s experience of trafficking is not ignored by God or minimized by the Bible, and it is not outside of the scope of healing and hope found in redemption. God’s response to evil and violence is redemption, renewal, and re-creation because of the gospel of Christ. And that should be the church’s message.

Christians and churches need to be awakened to the modern-day slavery occurring in our cities. Convinced of the problem? Here are some practical ways you can make a difference:

6 Ways You Can Fight Human Trafficking

1. Get informed and inform others. A recommended reading list can be found here.
2. Read Rid of My Disgrace to earn about the effects of sexual assault and sex trafficking and the hope and healing for victims found in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
3. Support organizations fighting trafficking:
   • International Justice Mission
   • Not For Sale
   • Unearthed Pictures
   • Abolition International
4. Get involved
5. Be an informed consumer
6. Join a local or state anti-trafficking group

Justin Holcomb is a pastor at Mars Hill Church, the Executive Director of the Resurgence, and the author (with his wife Lindsey) of Rid of My Disgrace: Hope and Healing for Victims of Sexual Assault.

Related posts:

• 3 Part Interview with Justin Holcomb on FamilyLife Today
• How You Can Best Help a Victim
• Myths and Facts about Sexual Assault
• Know a Victim of Sexual Assault? What to Say and What Not to Say

If we’re honest with ourselves, often, in the craziness of life, instead of treasuring and applying more Scripture to a heart that needs it we shy away from time in the Word.

In the prelude of For the Love of God, D.A. Carson offers the following observation:

The challenge [of reading our Bibles] has become increasingly severe in recent years, owing to several factors. All of us must confront the regular sins of laziness or lack of discipline, sins of the flesh, and of the pride of life. But there are additional pressures. The sheer pace of life affords us many excuses for sacrificing the important on the altar of the urgent. The constant sensory input from all sides is gently addictive—we become used to being entertained and diverted, and it is difficult to carve out the space and silence necessary for serious and thoughtful reading of Scripture. More seriously yet, the rising biblical illiteracy in Western culture means that the Bible is increasingly a closed book, even to many Christians. As the culture drifts away from its former rootedness in a Judeo-Christian understanding of God, history, truth, right and wrong, purpose, judgment, forgiveness, and community, so the Bible seems stranger and stranger. For precisely the same reason, it becomes all the more urgent to read it and reread it, so that at least confessing Christians preserve the heritage and outlook of a mind shaped and informed by holy Scripture.

This, then, ought to be our response: we are to read systematically and repeatedly from the Word of God so that we might rejoice in Scripture. When we do, we remove God’s Word from the altar of the urgent and rightly call its contents, “treasured.”

If you’re struggling to get into the word, here are some ideas to give you the jump start you may need to dive back in:

• It’s not to late to start up on a Bible reading plan. (You can even have them sent directly to your email or synced with your iCal).
• Gather a group of friends from church and start reading the Bible out loud together.
• Find a prayer partner and pray through Scripture together on a weekly basis.
• Read through some of the Old Testament narratives. Sometimes the narrative genre is a bit easier to jump into.

Related Posts:

• The Book that Is Essential For Knowing God
• Bible Reading Resources for the New Year
• John Piper – 7 Reasons Why the Word of God is Infinitely Valuable

Gospel Wakefulness was one of our favorite 2011 books – but you don’t have to take our word for it:

“This book is indeed one of the best books I have read this year. In fact, it is going in my top 5 list of books for 2011. I highly recommend this book.” – Chris

“I recommend reading Gospel Wakefulness because  it will surprise you at times and perhaps even shock you with the Gospel, but it will not disappoint you. Reading Gospel Wakefulness will be a breath of fresh air for those who have been in the Church their entire lives and are tired of playing games with God.” —Dave

“I would encourage anyone who embraces the Gospel of Christ to read this book. It will help you fall in love with the Gospel again and help you learn how to live your life in the Gospel. Also, pastors and other church leaders, this is a book that you must read. It will help you be awakened to the Gospel again which will allow you to lead your church with the Gospel as first priority.” – Austin

“I echo the sentiment of Matt Chandler when he says of this book, “My eyes filled with tears and my heart flooded with joy on numerous occasions…God used this book to strengthen and dare I say re-stimulate the sufficiency of the Christ and His gospel in my own heart.  Through reading this book I began to ache for more of Christ.  My heart was truly stirred…At every turn you see Wilson pointing to Jesus and saying “Behold”.  Eventually, it’s gonna click and we’ll catch glimpses—beautiful, brilliant, radiant glimpses—of the beauty of Christ.  Eventually we’ll simply become fixated.” – Mike

“Occasionally I read a book that does more than inform or inspire. Sometimes I read a book that stirs me. A book that hits me in the solar plexus of my soul, and Gospel Wakefulness is such a book.” – Alvin Reid

Gospel Wakefulness was also featured on many “Best of 2011″ lists. Here are a few:

• Trevin Wax: “Anyone hungry and thirsty for righteousness will be refreshed by the invigorating streams of truth that flow from Gospel Wakefulness. Jared Wilson wants us to delight in the gospel to the point that sin becomes bitter and Christ becomes our supreme treasure…“
• Aaron Armstrong: “Wilson’s exuberant passion for the gospel is on full display and will leave you further amazed at the grace of God in Christ.”
• Nick Rynerson: Jared Wilson’s newest book, Gospel Wakefulness is one of the most theologically rich, passionate, well written things that I have read in a long time. If you haven’t checked it out, I highly, highly recommend it.
• Steve Kroeker – “This was the book I was most anticipating in 2011 and it did not disappoint…Favourite book I read in 2011.”
• Justin Buzzard – “Now I have better words to explain what started happening to me in my early 20s. Read Wilson’s book and Tullian’s book (Jesus + Nothing = Everything) together. A gospel double-decker.”
• Todd Gragg – “Wow!  From the first page to the last Wilson never lets up with the Gospel, and I am thankful for that.  I am closing out this year by reading this book for a second time this week.  I imagine I will read it many many more times in the coming years.”

We’d love to give you a copy of Gospel Wakefulness. Simply tweet one of the quotes below and we’ll randomly select winners on 2/3/12.

Tweets:

• Flavorless salt is only good for walking over. Nobody flocks to a dimly lit city. http://cway.to/yNS6SP #wakeup
• Those who find themselves utterly captivated by the gospel can hardly be entertained by anything else. http://cway.to/yNS6SP #wakeup
• Gospel wakefulness means treasuring Christ more greatly and savoring his power more sweetly. http://cway.to/yNS6SP #wakeup
• To honestly proclaim the greatness of Christ requires honestly confessing the bankruptcy of our own souls. http://cway.to/yNS6SP #wakeup
• Our flesh wants to be rid of guilt, not sin. But gospel-wakened people want to be free of sin itself. http://cway.to/yNS6SP #wakeup
• Is a storm raging? Jesus walks on it. Jesus commands it. Jesus rests in it. http://cway.to/yNS6SP #wakeup
• Brokenness is non-negotiable for gospel wakefulness, but so is joy. http://cway.to/yNS6SP #wakeup
• If we ground our hopes for sanctification in our own obedience, we will rush headlong into despair. http://cway.to/yNS6SP #wakeup

In honor of this occasion we have put several of his eBooks on sale. If you haven’t had the opportunity to read anything by Schaeffer, now is a great time to download any of these titles for only $3.99. Offer ends 2/3/2012.

• Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life
• Truth with Love: The Apologetics of Francis Schaeffer
• Death in the City
• The Finished Work of Christ: The Truth of Romans 1-8
• Pollution and the Death of Man
• No Little People

Related Posts:

• Francis Shaeffer and a World in Desperate Need (Lane T. Dennis’s tribute on the 25th anniversary of Schaeffer’s death)

Q. What is the story behind the Single Column Legacy ESV? How did the idea originate?

The original project was conceived under the working title of “Reader’s Thinline Bible.” The goal was to create a single-column, text-only, reader’s edition that focused on an inviting readable page and beautiful design.

Our Bible typesetter relied heavily on Canadian typesetter Robert Bringhurst’s The Elements of Typographic Style as he developed the page design. Essentially, we tried to follow the “Renaissance Ideal” or “perfect page” layout. This layout refers to a set of principles called the “canons of page construction” that all focus around a 2:3 ration of page geometry. Jan Tschichold reintroduced this typographic ideal in the twentieth century, calling it a method “upon which it is impossible to improve” and which produces “the perfect book.” We stuck closely to this design philosophy, although we did have to make a few adjustments for the sake of overall page count.

Read the whole post here.

Mark Bertrand runs Bible Design Blog, a site “dedicated to the physical form of the Good Book.” In his blog Bertrand reviews high-end, quality Bible editions and processes and has much to say about how Bible design and production impact a reader’s experience. If in the past you’ve wondered about the differences in Bible materials (i.e. bonded leather versus genuine leather), check out his guide for beginners. If you’re a skeptic of high-end Bibles, his FAQ page will probably address many of your questions and objections.

Sometimes people say that prayer is a two-way conversation, where God speaks to us and we speak to God. But the Bible never uses the word “prayer” in this way. Prayer is simply when we talk to God.

Others think of reading the Bible as a conversation, in which God speaks to us, and we bring our own meanings to the text so that in some sense we find a voice, too. That’s not right, either.
We have a conversation when we hear God speak to us in the Bible and then we speak to him in prayer.

There’s a vivid description of that dynamic in Nehemiah 8–9. For seven days Ezra the scribe read the words of the Law of God (part of the Old Testament) to the people. As they heard God speaking to them, the people were deeply moved to sadness and to joy; there were tears as well as rejoicing and great feasting. And in response to what they heard, they poured out their hearts in prayer to God.

In our churches, though, the things that we share “for prayer” at the end of an evening’s Bible study are often completely unrelated to the passage we’ve been studying. While it’s true that nothing is too small to bring before our heavenly Father, it’s a shame when the tiny things—the health of someone’s neighbor’s dog, for instance—take over, and we forget the amazing truths that God has been speaking to us minutes before.

Get into the habit of praying these kinds of prayers:

• “Sorry for X, which your Word has shown to be wrong in my life.”
• “Thank you for Y, which you have shown us this evening.”
• “Please, by your Spirit, give me power to change Z in response to what you have been saying.”

Learn more about Dig Deeper.

We Can Understand the Word of God Only by the Spirit of God. Consider the following:

But, as it is written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him—” these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. (1 Cor. 2:9–12).

We need to continually express our dependence on God for a right understanding of him and his ways. He is the one who grants insight (2 Tim. 2:7; Phil. 3:15). And so we must pray. Pray before you open the Bible. Pray when you get stuck and don’t understand. Pray again when you do understand it—say thank you! Pray, pray, pray!

Paul’s point is clear: we need God’s Spirit to understand God’s Word. Given that it was the Spirit who inspired it in the first place, that comes as no surprise. There’s another implication, though: The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned (1 Cor. 2:14). Someone who isn’t a Christian (i.e. the “natural person”) won’t be able fully to understand the Bible, no matter how many qualifications or degrees in theology he or she may have.

So while we may employ strategies to do our part (meditating, praying, using Bible study tools, etc), God is the one enabling us to actually understand. Learn more about Dig Deeper. It’s an excellent resource for Bible study principles.

Related posts:

• Tactics for Reading the Bible
• Don’t Miss the Point: Questions to Ask When Reading Scripture
• Video: Meditating on Scripture

Modified from Andy Naselli’s chapter in Don’t Call it a Comeback: The Old Faith for a New Day

The Bible is necessary for us to know, trust, and obey God.
You must somehow hear the Bible’s message—whether by reading it yourself or hearing someone else read or explain it—in order to become a Christian. “The sacred writings . . . are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:15). “Faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ” (Rom. 10:17, NIV).

You must keep hearing the Bible’s message to grow as a Christian.
This means hearing it read and preached, reading it, studying it, memorizing it, meditating on it, and applying it. A Christian needs the Bible like a human needs food and water. The need never goes away. That’s why Peter writes, “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation” (1 Pet. 2:2). That “pure spiritual milk” is “the living and abiding word of God,” “the good news” (1 Pet. 1:23–25). Can you say with Job, “I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my portion of food” (Job 23:12)?

The Bible is necessary for more than survival. It’s our only infallible guide to navigate life wisely because it reveals God’s will. “How can a young man keep his way pure?” the psalmist asked.

By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; let me not wander from your commandments! I have stored up your word in my heart, that I might not sin against you. (Ps. 119:9–11)

How Should We Then Read?
Of course, our high view of Scripture won’t matter much if we don’t actually read the Bible. But, you may ask, how should we read this holy book? In one sense we should read the Bible like any other book. It consists of different styles of literature that express truth according to the intention of its authors. But we shouldn’t read the Bible merely like any other book because it is unique. There’s no other book like it.

Because the Bible stands over us, it requires reverence, submission, and obedience. Because it is completely truthful, it requires trust. Because its nature contrasts sharply with our finiteness and sinfulness, it requires humble reading that is always open to correction. And because it reveals God and his ways, it requires careful, prayerful reading that situates passages within its grand story of God’s creation, our fall, Christ’s redemption, and the universe’s consummation.

Rejoice with John Newton, author of Amazing Grace, that the Bible is a priceless book—a book like no other:

Precious Bible! What a treasure Does the Word of God afford! All I want for life or pleasure, Food and med’cine, shield and sword:
Let the world account me poor, Having this I need no more.

Related Posts:

• Questions to Ask When Reading Prophetic Scripture
• Video: Reading, Loving, and Living God’s Word
• Don’t Miss the Point: Questions to Ask While Reading Scripture

• Tweet using this hash tag: #case4life.
• Point to this link http://cway.to/AALkko, tell us why you’d like to win a copy, and/or tweet one of the quotes provided below.
• Winners will be picked at random and notified on Wednesday 1/25. (US and Canada only).

Tweetable Quotes:

• The real fight is about the foundation for human value. Are we valuable for what we are or for what we can do?
• Humans have value simply because they are human.
• If self-awareness=value, and newborns lack that property, then neither the fetus nor the newborn are valuable.
• We don’t need Scripture to expressly say that elective abortion is wrong before we can know that it’s wrong.
• All humans have value because they bear God’s image. From the earliest stages of development, the unborn are unquestionably human.
• The best explanation for the NT’s silence on abortion is not that its authors condoned it,  but that the discussion was unnecessary.
• If you’ve participated in an abortion-related decision, the solution to your guilt is not denial—it’s forgiveness.

Related posts:

• How to Defend Pro-life Views in 5 Minutes
• Author Debates Abortion at Westmont College
• Defending Your Beliefs

Giveaway closed 1/25/12.

By Scott Klusendorf, author of The Case for Life (original post here)

Suppose that you have just five minutes to graciously defend your pro-life beliefs. Can you do it with rational arguments? What should you say? And how can you simplify the abortion issue for those who think it’s hopelessly complex?

Here’s how to succeed in three easy steps:

Clarify the issue.

Pro-life advocates contend that elective abortion unjustly takes the life of a defenseless human being. This simplifies the abortion controversy by focusing public attention on just one question: Is the unborn a member of the human family? If so, killing him or her to benefit others is a serious moral wrong. It treats the distinct human being, with his or her own inherent moral worth, as nothing more than a disposable instrument. Conversely, if the unborn are not human, killing them for any reason requires no more justification than having a tooth pulled.In other words, arguments based on “choice” or “privacy” miss the point entirely. Would anyone that you know support a mother killing her toddler in the name of “choice and who decides?” Clearly, if the unborn are human, like toddlers, we shouldn’t kill them in the name of choice anymore than we would a toddler. Again, this debate is about just one question: What is the unborn? At this point, some may object that your comparisons are not fair—that killing a fetus is morally different than killing a toddler. Ah, but that’s the issue, isn’t it? Are the unborn, like toddlers, members of the human family? That is the one issue that matters. (See the “Toddler Tactics” article for more on this.)Remind your critics that you are vigorously “pro-choice” when it comes to women choosing a number of moral goods. You support a woman’s right to choose her own doctor, to choose her own husband, to choose her own job, and to choose her own religion, to name a few. These are among the many choices that you fully support for women. But some choices are wrong, like killing innocent human beings simply because they are in the way and cannot defend themselves.¹ No, we shouldn’t be allowed to choose that.

Defend your pro-life position with science and philosophy.

Scientifically, we know that from the earliest stages of development, the unborn are distinct, living, and whole human beings. Leading embryology books confirm this.² For example, Keith L. Moore & T.V.N. Persaud write, “A zygote is the beginning of a new human being. Human development begins at fertilization, the process during which a male gamete or sperm … unites with a female gamete or oocyte … to form a single cell called a zygote. This highly specialized, totipotent cell marks the beginning of each of us as a unique individual.”³ Prior to his abortion advocacy, former Planned Parenthood President Dr. Alan Guttmacher was perplexed that anyone, much less a medical doctor, would question this. “This all seems so simple and evident that it is difficult to picture a time when it wasn’t part of the common knowledge,” he wrote in his book Life in the Making.⁴Philosophically, we can say that embryos are less developed than newborns (or, for that matter, toddlers) but this difference is not morally significant in the way abortion advocates need it to be. Consider the claim that the immediate capacity for self-awareness bestows value on human beings. Notice that this is not an argument, but an arbitrary assertion. Why is some development needed? And why is this particular degree of development (i.e., higher brain function) decisive rather than another? These are questions that abortion advocates do not adequately address.As Stephen Schwarz points out, there is no morally significant difference between the embryo that you once were and the adult that you are today. Differences of size, level of development, environment, and degree of dependency are not relevant such that we can say that you had no rights as an embryo but you do have rights today. Think of the acronym SLED as a helpful reminder of these non-essential differences:5

• Size: True, embryos are smaller than newborns and adults, but why is that relevant? Do we really want to say that large people are more human than small ones? Men are generally larger than women, but that doesn’t mean that they deserve more rights. Size doesn’t equal value.
• Level of development: True, embryos and fetuses are less developed than the adults they’ll one day become. But again, why is this relevant? Four year-old girls are less developed than 14 year-old ones. Should older children have more rights than their younger siblings? Some people say that self-awareness makes one human. But if that is true, newborns do not qualify as valuable human beings. Six-week old infants lack the immediate capacity for performing human mental functions, as do the reversibly comatose, the sleeping, and those with Alzheimer’s Disease.
• Environment: Where you are has no bearing on who you are. Does your value change when you cross the street or roll over in bed? If not, how can a journey of eight inches down the birth-canal suddenly change the essential nature of the unborn from non-human to human? If the unborn are not already human, merely changing their location can’t make them valuable.
• Degree of Dependency: If viability makes us human, then all those who depend on insulin or kidney medication are not valuable and we may kill them. Conjoined twins who share blood type and bodily systems also have no right to life.

In short, it’s far more reasonable to argue that although humans differ immensely with respect to talents, accomplishments, and degrees of development, they are nonetheless equal because they share a common human nature.

Challenge your listeners to be intellectually honest.

Ask the tough questions. When critics say that birth makes the unborn human, ask, “How does a mere change of location from inside the womb to outside the womb change the essential nature of the unborn?” If they say that brain development or self-awareness makes us human, ask if they would agree with Joseph Fletcher that those with an IQ below 20 or perhaps 40 should be declared non-persons? If not, why not? True, some people will ignore the scientific and philosophic case you present for the pro-life view and argue for abortion based on self-interest. That is the lazy way out. Remind your critics that if we care about truth, we will courageously follow the facts wherever they lead, no matter what the cost to our own self-interests.

Scott Klusendorf is the president of Life Training Institute, where he trains pro-life advocates to persuasively defend their views. A passionate and engaging platform speaker, Scott’s pro-life presentations have been featured by Focus on the Family, Truths That Transform, and American Family Radio. Scott is a graduate of UCLA and the author of The Case for Life and Pro-Life 101.

Notes:
1. Gregory Koukl, Precious Unborn Human Persons (Lomita: STR Press, 1999) p. 11.
2. See also, T.W. Sadler, Langman’s Embryology, 5th ed. (Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders, 1993) p. 3; Ronand O’Rahilly & Pabiola Muller, Human Embryology and Teratology, 2nd ed. (New York: Wiley-Liss, 1996) pp. 8, 29.
3. Keith L. Moore and T.V.N. Persaud, The Developing Human: Clinically Oriented Embryology (Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders Company, 1998) p.2.
4. A. Guttmacher, Life in the Making: The Story of Human Procreation (New York: Viking Press, 1933) p. 3.
5. Stephen Schwarz, The Moral Question of Abortion (Chicago: Loyola University Press, 1990) p. 18.

We’ve evaluated the production flaws with our printer and are having the Top Grain Leather editions reprinted as quickly as possible. Unfortunately, they will not be available for at least three months. Once we have a firm publication date, we will post it on the Top Grain Leather edition’s product page.

This is designed to be one of the finest Bible editions we offer, meant to last a lifetime, and we were simply unwilling to sell an imperfect product. Please accept our apologies for the disappointment and inconvenience this may cause. If you had preordered the Top Grain Leather edition, please contact your e-tailer’s customer service department for information on how best to proceed with your order.

We look forward to offering this premium product in the coming months. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

*The editions featured in reviews and blog posts on sites such as evangelicalbible.com and bibledesignblog.com were part of a very small shipment of advance copies that did not contain the same defects.

How do you prepare to meditate on God’s Word?

• Select a text.
• Write it on a card and slip it in your pocket (old school), or put it in your smart phone’s note app (new school).

How do you actually meditate on God’s Word?

• Listen. Meditation begins with listening to the Word. This isn’t just hearing or reading—but really listening. It’s all too easy when reading the Bible just to read and not let it sink in. We need to absorb the Word like a sponge, not like a cloth that merely skims the surface. When God helps us to really hear what he is saying, the result is that we respond. For example, when this happened to King David (when God gave him an “open ear” to hear the Word), David responded: “Behold, I have come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me: I delight to do your will, O my God; your law is within my heart”(Ps. 40:7–8). David was saying that he had read and heard God’s Word—and that now it was guiding his whole life. This should be the way it is for us.
• Murmur. As Psalm 1 opens with a blessing on the man who “meditates day and night” on the law (v. 2), the word the psalmist uses for “meditates” is a word that means to mutter—which St. Augustine translated with the catchy phrase, “on his law he chatters day and night.” From this we understand that biblical meditation requires the use of both mind and mouth. Personally, this means that (along with the regular reading of the Bible) we must choose especially meaningful passages of Scripture to reverently murmur. When we prayerfully, slowly, and repeatedly murmur the text, we engages the eyes and ears and mouth—so that the truth of Scripture drills deep in our heart, maximizing our understanding and devotion.

Where do you start?

Larger portions of Scripture, especially some of the famous texts, are tailor made for meditation. For example:

• The Ten Commandments (Ex. 20:1–17)
• The New Covenant (Jer. 31:31–34)
• The Beatitudes (Matt. 5:1–12)
• The Lord’s Prayer (Matt. 6:9–13)

Or you can meditate on NT passages about Christ:

• John 1:1–4
• Col. 1:15–18
• Heb.1:1–3
• Phil. 2:5–8

Or go to Jesus’s parables, Psalms, Proverbs, the sayings of the book of James. Pull out your card (or smart phone) in those spare moments and murmur it, pray it, mutter it, memorize it, chatter it, sing it, share it.

This content adapted from Disciplines of a Godly Young Man by Kent Hughes and Carey Hughes.

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• Tactics for Reading the Bible
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Fortunately, the Bible isn’t silent on matters of its own effectiveness.

In The Gospel and Scripture: How to Read the Bible, Pastor Mike Bullmore has compiled a “representative sample” of what the Bible, itself, claims to do:

1. It initiates faith: “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ”
   (Rom. 10:17).
2. It gives new spiritual life: “You have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (1 Pet. 1:23).
3. It helps us grow spiritually: “Like newborn infants, long for the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into salvation”
   (1 Pet. 2:2).
4. It sanctifies: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17).
5. It searches the heart and convicts: “The word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).
6. It liberates: “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8:31–32).
7. It refreshes and renews: “Give me life according to your word!” (Ps. 119:25).
8. It revives and enlightens: “The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple” (Ps. 19:7; see also Ps. 19:8–11).

A Few Questions:

1. Has the knowledge of these claims made it down to your heart yet?
2. If you know these claims to be true, are you truly expecting them from Scripture?
3. How could this change your approach reading the Bible?

Related Posts:

• Tactics for Reading the Bible
• Don’t Miss the Point: Questions to Ask While Reading Scripture
• Piper on the Precious Value of God’s Word
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Go slow.
Focus on smaller passages at a time.
Seek to understand some key things:

• What does this passage tell me about God?
• What does this passage tell me about the human condition / my condition?
• Is it law or is it promise?

Joe Thorn is author of Note to Self and blogs at joethorn.net.

Related posts:

• Tactics for Reading the Bible
• Theology as More Than an Academic Discipline
• Check out Christianity.com for more in their Video Answer Series.

• 0:02 – What is at stake in our pursuit of racial harmony?
• 3:31 – Why do some think the ideal is color blindness?
• 6:30 – Every person has stereotypes

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• What Reviewers are Saying about “Bloodlines: Race, Cross, and the Christian”
• Bloodlines Video Documentary with John Piper
• Issues of Race in Scripture

You should keep the big picture of hope in view. It’s easy for us to get lost in the details. We are tempted to run down rabbit trails of trying to decipher minutiae and looking for some secret insight into the details. Is Ezekiel’s “wheel within a wheel” some sort of UFO? Are the locusts in Revelation Huey helicopters of the US Air Force?

Remember the big-picture reason why God reveals the future to us. He wants us to know what will happen so that we can have a real and abiding hope. God wants us to know what will happen so that we will trust in him that despite appearances, he controls the future and we need to trust and rest in him. He wants us to know what will happen so that we will work until he comes.

As you journey through these prophetic passages of Scripture, you can easily lose your way. These questions serve as guideposts to help you navigate these texts. Begin with trying to capture the big picture of restoration, and then work from that solid ground to sorting through and understanding the details.

Questions for reading prophetic passages of Scripture:

• What does this passage teach about the grand narrative of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration?
• What does this passage specifically teach about the coming restoration of all things?
• What have I learned from this passage about the future that I can put into practice now?
• What do I need to change in my life based on what I have learned about the future?
• How does this passage offer a different perspective on life, as compared to the perspective offered by our surrounding culture?

Learn more about Welcome to the Story by Stephen Nichols.

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Join Pastor Rhodes and Dr. Bradley, author of Keep Your Head Up, in Jackson, MS.

Conference Description: A new generation of Christian leaders address the intersections of theology, race, and culture in an exciting conversation about the future of the black church.

Speakers: Pastor CJ Rhodes, Mount Helm Baptist Church, Jackson, MS, and Dr. Anthony B. Bradley, Associate Professor of Theology and Ethics, The King’s College, New York, NY, editor of Keep Your Head Up: America’s New Black Christian Leaders, Social Consciousness, and the Cosby Conversation.

Date: Saturday, February 11, 2012

Schedule:
8:30 a.m. – 9:00 –A Celebration of Praise and Worship in Black Church Traditions
9:00-10:15 Session 1 –Dr. Anthony Bradley, “Reformed Theology, White Privilege, and Black Liberation.”
10:15-10:30 Break
10:30-11:15 Session 2 –Pastor CJ Rhodes, “Liberating the Black Church”
11:30–1:00—Break for Lunch (Lunch is provided)
1:00 p.m. -2:15– Panel and Audience Discussion: “Is the Black Church Dead?”
2:15-2:30–Final Remarks and dismissal.

Lunch is provided for those who RSVP via admin@mthelm.org by February 6, 2012.

Address:

300 E CHURCH ST
JACKSON, MS 39202
601-353-3981
Church website: click here.