Test Your Knowledge of the New Testament

This is the first in a series entitled: "Test Your Knowledge of the Bible." This first test has to do with the New Testament. What do you know about it? Let's find out with the following questions (you'll be able to check how many you get right below):

1. How many different books make up the New Testament? (a) 39; (b) 66; (c) 38; (d) 27.

2. How many different authors combined to write the New Testament? (a) 9; (b) 2; (c) 10; (d) 8.

3. Can you name the different authors who combined to write the New Testament? (a) Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, James, Jude, Philemon; (b) God the Father and the Holy Spirit; (c) Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, James, Jude; (d) Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Peter, Paul, James, Jude, Jesus.

4. Of the four gospels contained in the New Testament, it is believed that one of them was really produced at the dictation of which person? (a) Mary Magdalene dictated to Matthew; (b) Peter dictated to Mark; (c) Paul dictated to Luke; (d) Jesus dictated to John.

5. Which is believed to be the earliest written New Testament epistle (excluding the Gospels)? (a) 1 Thessalonians; (b) James; (c) 1 Corinthians; (d) 1 Timothy.

6. The New Testament was mostly written in what language? (a) King James English; (b) Aramaic; (c) Egyptian; (d) Greek.

7. There is one New Testament book that is considered to have a sequel. Which is it and what is the sequel? (a) Romans and Hebrews; (b) 1st & 2nd Peter; (c) John's Gospel and Revelation; (d) Luke's Gospel and Acts.

Answers: 1. (d) 2. (d) 3. (c) 4. (b) 5. (b) 6. (d) 7. (d)

(This test was developed mostly from the New American Standard Bible, Open Bible Version. For more information on the New Testament, take some time to visit: Wikipedia - New Testament.)

What Good is a Blog?

So what’s all this stuff about blogs, bloggers and blogging? And isn’t it just enough to have a website to promote your school, church, business or something else? Well, it’s not just enough anymore. In the past a website did well. (And it still does. Don’t get me wrong.) But now there’s the blog. Simply put, a blog does better than a website to attract viewers. And I’ll tell you why in just a moment. But before that, what you need to remember is a blog is basically an online information page. Anyone can create a blog. (The good news is you can create one for free at: http://www.blogger.com/.) And once you’ve created a blog, that’s when the fun begins. You post to it regularly (write articles). You invite others to come and read your posts (via email). You include relevant links on your blog so that viewers of your blog can go to other websites (and/or blogs). And so your blog becomes a portal. People will come to your blog because it has all the links right there in one place easy for them to find. Which brings me to the point of a blog’s ability to attract viewers (versus a website’s). Search engines (like Google, Yahoo, Dogpile, etc.) recognize blogs more than they do websites. The reason for this is blogs are “dynamic” (always changing) versus websites that are “static” (don’t change much). And search engines look for the dynamic sites! They want those that are visited often and updated regularly. And they’ll give a much higher search ranking status to those blogs which are (and these are my words for it) “living and breathing.” And so let’s just say someone is looking for a Christian school in the foothills of California. Well, if we do our homework correctly and we invite people (via email) to read the regularly updated blog posts and come to the blog as a portal to visit other sites, then guess which Christian school in the foothills of California appears when someone searches the internet? I don’t think I have to tell you.

In the Belly of a Fish

"...The Lord appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the stomach of the fish three days and three nights" (Jonah 1:17). Sometimes when a person calls on God for help, it seems like the Lord rescues him from one dilemma only to face another. For Jonah, he went from being lost at sea to becoming fish food. Now I wonder what it must have been like for Jonah inside there. If you've ever seen Walt Disney's "Pinocchio," you might picture Jonah as Gepetto was--with elbow room enough to even lay out on a lounge chair if he wanted to. But I tend to believe that it wasn't nearly that comfortable of a lodging place. Fish digestive tracts aren't necessarily known for their quaint accommodations. Now inside the stomach it most certainly was dark, probably quite close-fitting and surely very slimy. And after three days and three nights with all the acids and enzymes at work, Jonah may have felt like he was as close to becoming a prune as anyone had ever been. And can you imagine if Jonah wasn't inside there alone? Surely he must have had some company, don't you think? Could there have been some other half-digested bait alongside him? This was a large fish. And what of the smell? It certainly was awful at best. Whatever the case, the belly of a fish surely must not have been the best of environments for Jonah to find himself in. Yet the fish was God's chosen means to rescue him! Again - sometimes when a person calls on God for help, it seems like the Lord rescues him from one dilemma only to face another. Has that ever happened to you? Has God ever chosen to answer your prayer for deliverance in a "creative way"?