Up until about ten or fifteen years ago, Bible scholars mostly wrote for other Bible scholars, rather than for the church. In creating these Bible studies, I wanted to take the knowledge that we Bible scholars know and deliver it directly to the church in a creative and understandable way ...
I started the New Year by worshiping, fellowshipping, and preaching at Taft Avenue Community Church in Orange, California. At one point in the service, Pastor Bob Burris read aloud a short explanation of why Christians sing during times of worship. I appreciated what he read and want to share it with you today. The reading was adapted from a blog post by Kevin DeYoung, cut down to a length that could be used in a worship service. Why do we sing when we worship together?
The title of this post is the exact title of a new little book written by Andrew David Naselli & J. D. Crowley and published by Crossway. This new book is intended for a general Christian (non-academic) audience, addressing an oft-neglected subject: the conscience. Discussions of this topic have been few in recent years, despite the fact that the Greek word for âconscienceâ (ÏÏ ÎœÎ”ÎŻÎŽÎ·ÏÎčÏ) appears 30 times in the New Testament (20 times in the writings of Paul). The book is short (142 pages without the appendices and indices). Thankfully, it is also clearly written. One can easily imagine a book dealing with the so-called grey areas being less-than-clear. The authors have done a fine job in making a complicated subject easy-to-understand.
The book of Ruth presents the inspiring journey of Godâs people from tragedy to triumph. The story is a mirror opposite of Israelâs depressing journey from triumph to tragedy that is presented in the book of Judges.
As you daily walk in the Holy Spirit, God will fill you with his Spirit in such a way that your desires to sin lessen. Galatians 5:16âset in a chapter that parallels Romans 8 in many waysâsays it so well: âWalk in the Spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh.â The one who walks in the Spirit will not give in to the desires of the flesh. Walking in the Spirit and carrying out the desires of the flesh are mutually exclusive ideas; you cannot do one at the same time as you engage in the other.
At a recent luncheon, the Talbot faculty were reminded about the culture of academia, a culture that permeates Christian universities as well. The typical academic conducts research by herself or himself alone. Any paper or book that results may be reviewed by colleagues, but still the research is the product of one mind alone. Sometimes there are books that contain contributions by various researchers, but each article typically has also a single author. There are exceptions to the ruleâbooks or articles that are co-authored. They are still exceptions, though, and not the rule ...
Paulâs discussion of the Old Testament law in Romans and Galatians connects well with a practical life concern: How do we effectively parent our children? In particular, one question parents regularly face has to do with what part rules play in raising children. Since Paul actually uses the raising of children as an analogy to explain the role of the law (Galatians 3:24-26; 4:1-7; Romans 8:14-17), perhaps we should turn the analogy on its head and ask if there is anything we can learn about raising children from Paulâs teaching about the law ...
What images do the word âworkâ bring to mind? If students and others Iâve had the chance to ask are any measure, the first thoughts arenât all that positive. For myself I can recall flip comments I have made (half-) jokingly about hating when my work gets in the way of my hobby (cycling, mountain bikingâthe sport of kings!). From what I get from others, Iâm fairly typical ...
When was the last time you heard the Bible taught and it penetrated to the core of your being? What about having this experience after thinking, âI could care less about this topic!â? Then, much to your surprise, the Spirit used the Bible rightly-interpreted and rightly-applied to cut through your lack of interest and the absence of a felt need. You stumbled out of the room enthralled with the God who speaks so clearly and powerfully through His Word. You left passionately asking the Lord of the Bible how you could align your life with this amazing truth that you cared nothing about the hour before ...
... When I was younger, I would try to get rid of doubts by closing my eyes (really really tightly) and concentrate (really really hard) on pushing out the doubtful thoughts. And when I (inevitably) started thinking about my doubts again, Iâd simply try again (really try this time!) to expel those doubts. But you canât push doubts out of your mind any easier than you can push other thoughts out of your mind by valiantly trying ...
A spiritually-minded friend of my wife and me recently made this comment: âI struggle with the idea of praying according to the will of God. Since I know that some things are clearly according to Godâs will, why canât I just pray directly about those things and know for certain that theyâre going to happen? But thatâs not the way it works with my prayers. For example, I know that God doesnât want Christians to get divorced. But Iâve sometimes prayed that God would preserve a struggling marriage that still ended up in divorce ...
This weekâs conference, âIsrael and the Church: A Troubled Past and Glorious Future,â hosted by Biola and Chosen People Ministries, provided yet another opportunity for me to think âbig picture.â As most of us, I suppose, the cares of daily tasksâemails, news cycles, family, work-ministry, church-ministryâI can get so buried in the daily that I lose the plan! By plan I mean the narrative that God has written for the world. A narrative that first rescues a fallen creation and then restores it to the flourishing fullness God made it for ...
This year we are studying 1 Corinthians at Oceanside Christian Fellowship. I preached the message on 6:12-20, with the above title. I began by explaining Paulâs foundational principles in verse 12: (1) not all things are helpful, and (2) I will not be dominated by anything. The rest of the sermon outlined the âFive Good Reasonsâ (subtitle, above) as follows ...
... Grace is a concept that we have fully received, but one that we will never fully comprehend. Throughout all of eternity we will be âgrow(ing) in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christâ (2 Peter 3:18). Our worship and praise of the One who has bestowed grace on us will only increase, ever and always ⊠there will be no end of our awe ...
This morning I was reading in Hosea 9:7-15 during my Bible reading time and was reminded once again why it is so important to be reading and learning the Bible. In those nine short verses are five allusions to places/events/things that someone who reads the Bible a lot should be able to recognize. Test your Bible knowledge and see if you know what Hosea is alluding to in each of these five cases ...
... The well-known words suitable helper in Gen. 2:18 are so engrained in our English speaking culture that itâs difficult to think of Gen. 2:18 in any other terms, even though many translations have tried to adopt better wording to fit the original Hebrew (c.f., ESV, NLT, or the footnote in the NASB). These words come in the midst of the sentence, âI will make him a helper suitable for himâ (NASB). Suitable helper might have been a suitable translation 50 years ago, but I suggest that the phrase suitable helper has become outdated and is now misleading in its translation ...
What Did the New Testament Authors Really Care About? The easiest way we know to answer that question is to pick up Matt Williamsâs and Ken Berdingâs (editors) book: What the New Testament Authors Really Cared About: A Survey of Their Writings. The second edition has just been released by Kregel in an attractive full-color format with some added materials ...
One of the ways to interpret the idyllic story of Ruth is to read it as a wisdom textâan illustration of Godâs order in the lives of his faithful people. There are a number of good reasons to read Ruth in this way ...
Theologians have often observed the paucity of details about the Holy Spirit in the Bible, as compared to revelation of the Father and the Son. This holding back by the Spirit who inspired Scripture seems typical of his humility, and the trait of divine love âthat does not seek its own.â Sets of details that we can add to the several statements about the Spirit are connected with eight metaphors used throughout the Bible. Several of these metaphors pull together and give concrete expression to the declarative statements of pneumatology, such as âthe Spirit sanctifies, indwells, teaches, assures, and convicts people" ...
It is commonly claimed that when Jesus used the phrase âI amâ (áŒÎłÏ ΔጰΌÎč, ego eimi), he was making a direct reference to the name of God in the Old Testament, YHWH. There is some truth to this, but I want to suggest three important caveats to this claim: âI amâ (áŒÎłÏ ΔጰΌÎč), by itself, is not a code for the name of God; âI amâ is only intended to refer to deity in some of Jesusâ sayings; Paying too much attention to the âI amâ part of the sentence distracts readers from paying attention to the rest of the sentence.
One of the keys to understanding the New Testament (NT) use of the Old Testament (OT) may be the recognition that when a NT author draws upon an idea found in a particular OT passage, it does not have to be the main idea of that passage to be usable. The contemporary assumption (often not articulated) that it has to be the main idea of an OT text to be legitimate seems to be a key stumbling block for people studying the NT use of the OT. The tendency for people to focus only on the main idea of a text (rather than also upon sub-themes) may also explain my present discomfort with the sense / referent distinction made by various authors.[1] The sense / referent distinction seems to assume a single sense for a verse that is akin to an exegetical idea of that verse.
As a parent, my favorite word to say is âyes.â Saying this word puts me in a favorable position with my children. The look of joy on their faces when I say âyesâ compels me to say it more and more. I even struggle saying âyesâ when I know it would be wiser to say ânoâ due to budget restraints (âyes, take my last $20â), or health concerns (âyes, eat the whole gallon of ice creamâ), or just common sense (âyes, you can play in the streetâ). My children expect a âyesâ when they ask because I love saying âyesâ so often. So when I say ânoâ they are surprised by my objections to their request. However, my disapproving ânoâ is just as loving as my âyes,â and many times it is a much more compassionate response ...
Amos has much to say about oppression and the plight of the poor in Israel, so it is only natural that his book has become a focal point for discussions about social justice.[1] At least three aspects of the issue dealt with by Amos concern the nature of God, the role of the individual, and the role of the social system ...
One might think that church leaders would naturally agree on the priority of mission. However, this is not the case. Debate continues today between those who say the priority of mission is to do well in whatever form it takes, while others contend that our priority is to preach the gospel of salvation. Building on the salvation motif found in the Gospel of Luke, this article suggests that the priority of the church is to preach the gospel of salvation.