Do you like gold? Do you like good food? Do you like things that are perfect? Do you like knowing how to stay clear of trouble?

Whether or not you’ve ever read the Bible with regularity, these desires common to humankind mean that any of us can understand what David is saying in Psalm 19:

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul;
the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart;
. . . More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold;
sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.
Moreover, by them is your servant warned;
in keeping them there is great reward.

With the new year around the corner, now is a good time to consider how you will read the Bible in 2013. Of course, new years resolutions aren’t in the Bible, but there is never a wrong time to resolve to know God more in his Word, and the new year presents us with a nice opportunity.

• Chronological Reading Plan: Reading God’s Story: A Chronological Daily Bible, George Guthrie:
  This Bible is published with a one year daily reading plan in mind, ordering the Biblical material chronologically along the Bible’s own narrative framework and includes a reading plan. George Guthrie has also published a one year chronological Bible reading plan, “Read the Bible for Life,” available in PDF form here.
• The M’Cheyne Plan with Daily Devotional Commentary: For the Love of God is a two volume series of books written by D.A. Carson providing daily reading to supplement the M’Cheyne reading plan. This plan, named after its designer and Scottish minister in the 1800’s, Robert Murray M’Cheyne, takes you through the Old Testament once and the Psalms and New Testament twice in one year.
• Several Places A Day: Crossway’s Daily Bible Reading Plan is available as a PDF form to print out as a series of bookmarks. This plan gets you through the Bible in a year, reading from several different places in the Bible each day. Crossway has published 10 reading plans to supplement the ESV, including RSS, email, audio, and print versions daily. Also, the Discipleship Journal “Bible Reading Plan,” by NavPress, takes you through the entire Bible by reading from four different places each day.
• Just a List of Chapters:The Bible Reading Record, by Don Whitney, is a simple list of every chapter in the Bible. With this, you can read at whatever pace you like and keep track of what you’ve read until you’re through the Bible. This, of course, wouldn’t necessarily be a one year plan, but it could be. To get through the Bible’s 1089 chapters in a year, you need to read an average of 3.25 chapters a day, which comes out to about four chapters per day if you commit to reading five days each week.

If the Bible is new to you, or if you haven’t personally invested in knowing the Scriptures through regular reading, listen to Ryan’s sermon on Psalm 1, “If You Wanna Be Happy for the Rest of Your Life….” For even more plans, read this post by Justin Taylor, surveying a number of different Bible reading plans.

Some Christians suggest that believers should not celebrate Christmas because of the holiday’s mysterious and possibly pagan roots. If you are curious, here’s a post by Kevin DeYoung on the background to Santa Claus.

In his post, “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” Steve Hayes over at the Reformation 21 Blog helps us think through what Christians are to do with Christmas given these questions. Here are excerpts from Hayes’ post, which you can read in full here.

Every year, as the Christmas season approaches, some folks object to the celebration of Christmas due to its allegedly pagan roots. Some critics are Christians while others are cultists (i.e. Jehovah’s Witnesses). Before proceeding any further, let’s draw a few distinctions.

The question at issue is not whether Christians have an obligation to celebrate Christmas. Rather, the issue is whether it’s wrong for Christians to celebrate Christmas-given the allegedly pagan roots of the holiday.

Likewise, we’re not defending any particular Christmas custom. That’s something we can evaluate on a case-by-case basis.

Suppose, for the sake of argument, that Christmas has its roots in ancient paganism. Suppose it co-opted a pagan festival. Would it be wrong for Christians to celebrate Christmas?

. . .Words often change meaning with the passage of time. Some modern words have unsavory associations if you trace them far enough back into the history of the English language.

But that’s not a reason to refrain from using these words. What they may have meant in Elizabethan English or Middle English or Old English is simply irrelevant to contemporary usage. Those are obsolete connotations. Most contemporary English speakers are oblivious to those obsolete connotations. Moreover, scholars who are aware of those obsolete connotations ought to be astute enough not to take offense. They should make allowance for semantic change over time.

. . .The allegedly heathen roots of Christmas are long forgotten. But even if the associations were still fresh in the mind of the celebrants, that, itself, wouldn’t automatically discredit the holiday.

. . . Many Asians practice folk Buddhism, Taoism, veneration of the dead, &c. If you go to an oriental restaurant, you may notice statuary. Perhaps you assume that’s decorative. Maybe so. But you may well be eating in the presence of idols.

I doubt many Christians, including those who oppose Christmas, give Chinese take-out a second thought. But in consistency, this may have pagan associations that are current rather than historical. Not a dead religion, but a living religion-albeit false. Real idolatry.

Not only are Christians not defiled by incidental pagan associations, but, as temples of the Holy Spirit, there’s a sense in which we can consecrate residual pagan associations. Purify it. Conscript it to the service of Christ.

Jesus hung on the cross. “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree,” says the law (Gal 3:13). Yet Jesus embraced the odious association. Jesus transfigured the odious association. Made death a source of life. Made night a source of light.

. . .The Puritans were rightly opposed to invented religious duties. That’s why they stood against the church calendar.

But unless we’re very careful, this can become just another invented duty. Not having a duty to celebrate Christmas becomes a duty not to celebrate Christians. It’s a mirror-image of the error it opposes.

Although the Bible doesn’t have a Christmas holiday, yet when Christians celebrate Christmas, they commemorate a Biblical event. And not just any event, but the midpoint in world history. The beginning of the end of our age-long pilgrimage.

Russell Moore raises a great topic in his article, “How to Deal with Holiday Family Tensions.” Here’s his introduction:

We tend to idealize holidays, but human depravity doesn’t go into hibernation between Thanksgiving and New Year’s. One thing that will hit most Christians, sooner or later, are tensions within extended families at holiday time. Some of you will be visiting family members who are contemptuous of the Christian faith and downright hostile to the whole thing.

Others are empty nest couples who now have sons- or daughters-in-law to get adjusted to, maybe even grandchildren who are being reared, well, not exactly the way the grandparents would do it. Still others are young couples who are figuring out how to keep from offending family members who are watching the calendar, to see which side of the family gets more time on the ledger.

Click here for Moore’s advice to Christians around the holidays, and especially those with difficult family situations.

Two additional articles are worth checking out as well. In, “Family Feuds and Tensions over the Holidays,” Justin Taylor summarizes a helpful booklet by Timothy Lane, Family Feuds, available at the Resource Center and here for free. Then, at The Gospel Coalition Blog, Kathleen Nielson offers, “5 Aims for Holiday Family Gatherings.”

October 31 is Halloween. It’s also Reformation Day – the day when Martin Luther nailed his famous “95 Theses” to the Wittenberg Door.

Today, Justin Taylor published an interview with Carl Trueman on the subject of Martin Luther’s “95 Theses.” Trueman’s historical insight helps to appreciate the providence of God in what was a great renewal of the gospel in that day.

On Saturday, October 31, 1517, a 33-year-old theology professor at Wittenberg University walked over to the Castle Church in Wittenberg and nailed a paper of 95 theses to the door, hoping to spark an academic discussion about their contents. In God’s providence and unbeknownst to anyone else that day, it would become a key event in igniting the Reformation.

Carl Trueman—who wrote his dissertation on Luther’s Legacy, teaches on Luther’s life and theology, and is writing a book on Luther on the Christian Life—answered some questions for us.

Had Luther ever done this before—nail a set of theses to the Wittenberg door? If so, did previous attempts have any impact?

I am not sure if he had ever nailed up theses before, but he had certainly proposed sets of such for academic debate, which was all he was really doing on October 31, 1517. In fact, in September of that same year, he had led a debate on scholastic theology where he said far more radical things than were in the Ninety-Five Theses. Ironically, this earlier debate, now often considered the first major public adumbration of his later theology, caused no real stir in the church at all.

What was the point of nailing something to the Wittenberg door? Was this a common practice?

It was simply a convenient public place to advertise a debate, and not an unusual or uncommon practice. In itself, it was no more radical than putting up an announcement on a public notice board.

What precisely is a “thesis” in this context?

A thesis is simply a statement being brought forward for debate.

Read the rest of this insightful interview here.

For a round-up of helpful articles related to Reformation Day, see this post from this time last year. To learn more about the Reformation from Carl Trueman, download audio from Clarus ’05, The Reformation: Why Was It Needed and Do We Need Another?. If you would like to read a book on the subject of the reformation, purchase, The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation, on Amazon or at the DSC Resource Center.

Over at The Gospel Coalition Blog, Collin Hansen published a helpful summary of a sermon given by Mark Dever from Mark 12:13-17, where we read Jesus’ famous words, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.”

From this text, Dever unpacked three points. First, Christians are good citizens. Second, no earthly kingdom can be identified with God’s people. Third, Christians are finally accountable to God.

Collin begins his summary of Mark’s message, “Jesus Paid Taxes,” with this paragraph:

Jesus sets out a novel, revolutionary philosophy in these five verses, Dever argued. By way of background on this confrontation between Jesus and his religious opponents, Dever explained that Jesus posed such a great threat to Jewish leaders that he united bitter enemies from among the Herodians, who conspired with Rome, and the Pharisees, who rebelled against Israel’s occupiers. Together, they approached Jesus, hoping to catch him in a trap. They asked, “Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not? Should we pay them, or should we not?” (Mark 12:14) By answering, Jesus was in danger of losing either his popularity or his life. In fact, he lost both after a shocking response that subsequently formed the basis for all Western political philosophy.

Dever’s sermon is 70 minutes long and the message is worth your time. Listen to the sermon here.