Last year I decided that for my private devotions, I would only read Luke. I did that and loved it. It was wonderful to slow down and focus on the text for a while. I’m currently in chapter 20 for about the forth time this year and I plan on finishing the book before I start my next reading program. I wasn’t sure what that would be till I read this post from Lee Irons’ blog.

I think next year I’m going to try to read through the Greek NT at least once. Over the summer I tried to refresh my Greek in addition to everything else. That didn’t work. Trying to read Greek for half an hour just before bed wasn’t cutting it for me. I need more mental focus that is available to me at that time of the day.

OK, so I did it in seminary. I worked till about 11PM and then sat up studying Greek till about 4AM. Then I woke up at about 7AM and did it all over again. I got through two years of Greek like that but I don’t recommend it. I don’t remember much. During the refresh, I would like it to stick!

So what I think I’m going to try this next year is to start reading the Greek NT, chapter at a time, on the train on the way in in the morning. Hit Caribou for a cup of awake before I get on the train. I’ll try to read for half a hour and then knock it off. I have a journal so I can make some notes of interesting things I might want to dig in to.

Frankly, I know me. I don’t have high hopes of this lasting for very long but I’m willing to try. I get frustrated and then give up. If I can get myself to slog through it for a while and get the basic vocab down again, this could be helpful.

Cartoon by Dave Walker. Find more cartoons you can freely re-use on your blog at We Blog Cartoons.

There was a row in England when the BBC aired “Jerry Springer – The Opera” because of a humiliating portrayal of Jesus in the farce. The whole thing went to court in an attempt to sue the BBC for blasphemy. The case was rejected and so I guess it is okay to make fun of the sacred on the BBC. This is now, how exactly?Anyway, there’s an opinion piece by Charles Moore in the Telegraph that really grabbed me.

Christians should surely not be upset by this decision. The founder of our own religion was crucified because the high priest declared: “He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses?” The use of the criminal law to uphold a religious belief is normally a power game, not a genuine defence of the honour of God.

Wow, that’s pretty good! I’m not sure that I agree with him that up until the 90s the BBC had been “an unashamedly, though non-denominational, Christian organisation” but Moore weaves in and out of some good comments on religion and the public.

What he aims at and seldom seems to hit in this editorial is how the media feel free to mock Christianity but are very careful of how they treat Islam. Perhaps its justified. With Pullman’s atheistic, anti-Christianity book being made into a film there has been a lot of civil discussion and dialog about what the film/books accomplishes and what it proposes. But no riots.

Yet, when Dawkins book “The God Delusion” gets published in Turkey, there’s the threat of legal action against the publisher because it is “offensive.” No riots yet but it sure seems as if Islam has the Western media pretty intimidated. Jesus doesn’t seem to phase them.