Guest AuthorIn our busyness leading up to December 25, the date set aside to remember when God entered time and space to dwell or “tabernacle” with humanity, have we missed the beauty of anticipating Christmas and what it means? In this excerpt from A Light Has...
by Prof Steve Walton This list is aimed at providing a starter list for useful journal, book series, sources of book reviews, and online sources for journal articles. It’s not the last word, but hopefully it’s a useful guide into the forest of...
by Ryan Lytton Get wisdom, get understanding; do not forget my words or turn away from them. Proverbs 4:5. Wisdom and understanding are everywhere available but are nevertheless ostensibly rarely found. A student of the Word must be diligent in...
"This verse illustrates well that we cannot separate translation from theology. To do translation is to do theology."
In late January, Discovery Church in Colorado Springs, CO, launched a three-tier discipleship program at their church. About six weeks later, the COVID-19 pandemic sent their entire discipleship program online. Turns out they were actually ahead of...
"Teaching in the name of Jesus is proclamation of him, with an appeal to his authority. And in Phil. 2:10, to bow down “in/at the name of Jesus” is to submit to him because of his status and authority, evidenced by the name given to him."
When you think about helping people grow spiritually, Bible engagement and discipleship are probably at the top of your list. What if your congregation engaged with the Bible in meaningful ways every day?
By Scott Gassoway When studying a biblical text, you often encounter words that prompt questions about their original meaning. For example, in 1 Peter 5:7, Peter exhorts his readers to be “sober-minded.” This is not a common phrase in our culture...
By Scott Gassoway Have you ever made a search and wanted to keep the results highlighted to continue to see them in the future? For example, Jesus called his disciples to teach others to do everything he commanded them (Matt 28:19–20). How can you...
"What happens when we view manuscripts not simply as arbiters of a text, but as complex works of art that contain literary works, sometimes figurative and non-figurative artworks, and a high level of craftsmanship?"
"Education needs to recenter around the idea that every human’s primary calling is to put God on display and that our workplaces are simply one of many contexts for doing so."
What does the Bible say about loneliness? More than you might think. Scripture’s light reveals its lies and shows us how to deal with loneliness God’s way. This excerpt is adapted from Finding God in My Loneliness by Lydia Brownback. *** Lie:...
A recent article detailed what higher education might look like after COVID-19. I agree with most of the observations in that article, if the goal is simply to return to the pre-pandemic status quo. But what if we took this disruption as an...
This post is adapted from The Bedrock of Christianity: The Unalterable Facts of Jesus’ Death and Resurrection by Justin W. Bass. *** The earliest followers of Jesus did not just claim that Jesus rose from the dead but that his resurrection was the...
"I chose intentionally to forsake the possibility of reading broadly and chose to read much more narrowly instead."
Until a few weeks ago, COVID-19 was a distant problem that many discounted as superfluous to their life; it is a global catastrophe. No one today questions the relevancy of COVID-19 to their local community. The surge of articles, blogs, and news...
By Stephen Nichols, adapted from Welcome to the Story: Reading, Living, and Loving God’s Word. *** How Dietrich Bonhoeffer came to write Life Together In 1935, the German National Church threw its support behind the Nazi party. Troubling to many in...
Mount Gerizim, Schechem, Mount Ebal in Israel Toward the end of Deuteronomy, Moses tells the Israelites that, after they cross the Jordan River into the land of Canaan, one of the first things they are to do is build an altar on Mount Ebal and renew...
By Harold L. Senkbeil I’ve been praying the sacred liturgy for 70-some years, but it never struck me before as it did this morning—the first Sunday since the coronavirus pandemic and its precautions have swept the nation. Before the service began...
by Andrew M. King, PhD Dr. Tavis Bohlinger penned a very thoughtful response to my recent FTC article on first-year language students leaving their Greek and Hebrew Bibles at home during corporate worship. I heartily commend it to you. Thanks to Dr...
By Brandon Crowe When we ask, “What does the Bible say about work?” we often find a list of verses telling us to work hard and be faithful in our labor. But when we take a broader view of the topic, we can ask: how does the great commandment shape...
I thought, “If a nonbeliever can study theology, certainly believers should be studying theology with folks of different theologies.”
If we do our job well, our song choices can provide a “sonic sanctuary” where people meet with the living God. Here are five tips for building better worship setlists.
When we receive a request for a photo for a social post, a website banner, or an event promo slide, it always seems to be urgent. There isn’t time to sift through the archive and find the perfect image. How can this hunt be simplified?
"There is a sense in which we can say that men like Gerstner, and Edwards before him, 'lost' their battles with Culture."
"In studying the Bible, a big part of our goal is to understand the text in its original historical and cultural context. This means we have the difficult responsibility of trying to read God’s Word with “Middle Eastern eyes” instead of our innate...
"Mounce is to be commended for producing a quality seminal grammar, and this latest edition is a worthy upgrade."
"Bernard’s brilliance is not his use of so-called critical methods but in the fact that, as a monk, he had prayed, read and studied the Sacred Scriptures so intently that his vocabulary is literally a biblical vocabulary."
One of my warmest memories with Professor Hurtado occurred in 2014 at SBL in San Diego over a meal. We went to lunch at a French café and before we began eating, he paused and said: “Let’s pray over our meal.” He thanked God for the meal, closing...
By Leland Ryken, excerpted from J. I. Packer: An Evangelical Life. *** Preachers are only half of the equation in preaching. The other half is the people who listen to preaching. Just as it is easy to think of education in terms of what...