This week the blog is sponsored by AGTV.

In October 2020, the team that produced American Gospel: Christ Alone launched AGTV. Some see it as a Netflix for Christian teaching. The network hosts over 800 hours of carefully curated content. Much of it is available for free. There is now a long list of premium content and exclusive films and series for AGTV subscribers.
AGTV’s premium roster includes the following films:

American Gospel: Christ Alone
American Gospel: Christ Crucified
AG: Chapter & Verse (episodic versions of the AG films)
Luther: The Life and Legacy of the German Reformer
The Church: Pillar and Ground of the Truth
Calvinist
Spirit & Truth: A Film about Worship
Knox – The Life and Legacy of Scotland’s Controversial Reformer
Logic On Fire – The Life and Legacy of Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones
Every Tribe: Cambodia, Laos, & Vietnam – Dispatches From the Front
I Once Was Blind: West Africa – Dispatches from the Front
Islands on the Edge: Southeast Asia – Dispatches from the Front
Father, Give Me Bread: Ethiopia & South Sudan – Dispatches from the Front
Matthew Henry – The Life and Times of the Bible Commentator
Fight of Faith: Meeting Machen

and the following series:

EPIC: An Around-the-World Journey through Christian History (10 Episodes)
Behold Your God: Rethinking God Biblically (13 Episodes)
Behold Your God: The Weight of Majesty (13 Episodes)
The Bergers: Voyage of Life (7 episodes)
Christ Crucified: Chapter Walkthrough – Defend & Confirm (10 Episodes)
The God Who Speaks: Sunday School Kit  (9 Episodes)
Discipleship Explored (8 Episodes)
Life Explored (14 episodes)
Christianity Explored (10 Episodes)
Adventures with Ranger Joe (25 Episodes)
AG Roundtables (9 episodes)
AG Uncut (10 videos)
Answering Progressive Christianity – Alisa Childers (5 Episodes)
Freedom – Costi Hinn (6 Episodes)
Law & Gospel – Mike Abendroth (5 episodes)
Spiritual Warfare: Truth or Territory? – Jim Osman (8 Episodes)
The Genesis – Biblical Theology with Emilio Ramos (6 episodes)
Steve & Paulette’s Place
God Doesn’t Whisper – Jim Osman

An AGTV subscription is $5.99 per month, and a three-day free trial is available at www.watchagtv.com. Once you register on the web, you can use the AGTV apps available for iPhone, AppleTV, Android, Android TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire Stick.

There are times in the Christian life when we realize a distance has grown up between ourselves and God. There may be different sources and causes and it is wise for us to examine ourselves to attempt to determine why. F.B. Meyer once wanted to offer counsel to those who had searched their hearts and understood that it was sin that had caused this rift. Here is what he said:

You have lost the light of God’s face, not because He has arbitrarily withdrawn it, but because your iniquities have come between you and your God; and your sins, like a cloud before the sun, have hid His face from you.
Do not spend time by looking at them as a whole. Deal with them one by one.
The Boer is a formidable foe to the British soldier because he is trained from boyhood to take a definite aim and bring down his mark, whilst our soldiers fire in volleys. In dealing with sin, we should imitate him in the definiteness and accuracy of his aim. Ask God to search you and show you what wicked way is in you. Marshal all your life before Him, as Joshua marshalled Israel, sift it through, tribe by tribe, family by family, household by household, man by man, until at last you find the Achan who has robbed you of the blessed smile of God. Do not say: “Lord, I am a great sinner, I have done what I ought not, I have not done what I ought;” but say, “Lord, I have sinned in this, and this, and that, and the other.”
Call up each rebel sin, by its right name, to receive sentence of death. Your heart is choked with sins; empty it out, as you would empty a box, by handing out first the articles that lie on the surface. When you have removed them, you will see more underneath; hand them out also. When these are removed, you will probably see some more. Never rest till all are gone. Confession is just this process of telling God the unvarnished story—the sad, sad story—of each accursed sin; how it began, how you sinfully permitted it to grow, and how you have loved and followed it to your bitter cost.

Every generation of Christians faces the very same challenge: To learn the Bible for themselves and to teach it to those who follow in their footsteps. This task cannot be willed, it cannot be inherited, it cannot be passed down. Rather, each generation must accept afresh the challenge to honor, to know, and to obey the Word of God.

Gary Millar’s Read This First is, according to the subtitle, “A Simple Guide to Getting the Most from the Bible.” It is, in that way, a wonderful place to begin for those who wish to accept their God-given responsibility (or alternatively, a wonderful resource to distribute to help others with theirs).
Millar says, “This book aims to help people who would like to read the Bible but don’t really know where to start or how to go about it. You may be a Christian who enjoys being part of a church or a Bible-study group, but you end up feeling lost and confused whenever you attempt to read the Bible for yourself. You may have even tried to embark on a Bible-reading regime but … it didn’t take long before you gave up with a sense of defeat: you just don’t get it. That’s why I’ve written this book: to guide you through it. My hope is that you’ll read this first and go back to the Bible with the skills and confidence to truly enjoy it.”
There is a second audience in his mind: “You may be pretty new to Christianity. You have always thought that the Bible seems interesting enough for you to take a look, but you’ve been put off by the small print, strange ‘religious’ language, its distance from your culture, or even just its size. You may have been been encouraged to read the Bible by a friend, or heard a snippet of what it says at a wedding or funeral, or come across a quotation somewhere. It’s often said that the Bible is one of the best-selling books of all time. That alone seems like a good reason to dip into it.”
For either of those audiences, or even more experienced Bible-readers who are just looking for a bit of a refresh, Read This First offers a simple, helpful guide to reading the Bible well. It begins with an explanation of why everyone should consider reading the Bible, then begins to teach how to read it: to pay attention to the “vibe” of any passage, to discern meaning, to account for context, and to read it both as a book that was written in a different time and to a different audience and as a book that was written for we who live here and now.
Though Read This First is short and simple, that is exactly its purpose and its exactly its charm. It is just the kind of book each of us would have benefitted to read at the start of our journey to better understand God’s Word and just the kind of resource each of us loves to distribute to others. It will do exactly what it promises: help those who have a desire to read the Bible to actually read the Bible—and to read it right. I’m very glad to recommend it.

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