Stopping to Think

The Drop Box: How 500 Abandoned Babies, an Act of Compassion, and a Movie Changed My Life Forever by Brian Ivie My rating: 3 of 5 stars The first half is the sort of navel gazing self-importance dressed up in Christian language that you'd kind of expect from a 20 something writing a memoir. The back end, especially the reflections on the ministry in South Korea and the pastor there who spearheaded it, his relationship with the gospel, and the need for grace was all quite good. View all my reviews

  Deeper: Real Change for Real Sinners by Dane C. Ortlund My rating: 5 of 5 stars Deeper does just what the title promises, pushing you down into the heart of Christ, helping the reader to see that real change and growth in grace are possible. But not by looking to yourself or by depending upon your own white-knuckled effort. Rather, we grow in Christ and are energized to pursue holiness as we believe ever more deeply in the wonderful work of Christ which he has already accomplished, and which we receive by faith alone. "I have one thing to say. Look to Christ. You will grow in Christ as you direct your gaze to Christ. If you take your eyes off of Jesus Christ and direct your gaze to your own growth, you will prevent the very growth you desire." (pg 171) I'd love to see this book in the hands of every Christian. View all my reviews

  Photo by Debby Hudson on Unsplash When you read the opening chapters of Genesis, one of the things you notice is the incredibly long lives of humanity’s first generations. Adam, 930 years ( Genesis 5:5 ). Seth, 912 years (5:8). Jared, 962 years (5:20). And Methuselah takes the cake at 969 (5:27).  But by the time you get to chapter 11 of Genesis, a change is taking shape. Shem, Noah’s son, lived 600 years ( 11:11 ). Eber lived to 464 (11:17). And by the time you get to Terah, the father of Abram, he lives only 205 years (11:32). That’s still amazing by our reckoning, but it’s also a far cry from Adam’s 930 years. If you move forward in time another 500 years to the days of Moses, we read his words in Psalm 90:10 that, “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty.” This resonates far more closely with our experience.  What do we see in this? The unwinding nature of sin. God created the world, and in the first chapter of Genesis we read o...

  Photo by Martin Angelov on Unsplash [the footnotes won't copy into blogger for me, most of the good ideas aren't mine, the Bibliography is attached] Introduction One of the key elements of teaching on the kingdom of God in Scripture is the use of symbol, metaphor, and parable. One need only read the 13th chapter of Matthew to find comparisons made between the kingdom and  a sower and the fruitfulness of his work ,  a sower who sows good seed and received a mixed harvest ,  the seeming insignificance of a mustard seed ,  the slow work of yeast ,  the value of hidden treasure and a pearl ,  and a net thrown into the sea which pulls back a varied catch . One recurring symbol in biblical teaching, coming up in the prophets, and then again in the teaching of Jesus, is the fig tree. The purpose of this paper is to examine some key uses of fig imagery in both the Old and New Testaments, and then to draw theological conclusions for how we might understand th...

  Photo by eberhard 🖐 grossgasteiger on Unsplash Colossians 2:13-15, "And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, triumphing over them in him." (English Standard Version) How do you see the cross? Do you look at it and see a place of defeat? Does it seem like the great tragedy of history? Paul tells us in Colossians 2 that the only defeat that day was suffered by Satan and his hordes. Not Christ. He triumphed at the cross. There he took the plan that Satan, and Judas, and the chief priests, and all the enemies of God meant for evil, and he turned them upside down. Instead of being defeated by death, he stole its power. "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the l...

  Photo by Trevin Rudy on Unsplash An (appreciative) Response to Michael W Martin and Bryan A Nash Introduction In their paper, “Philippians 2:6-11 as Subversive Hymnos” , Michael W. Martin and Bryan A. Nash argue that, though contested of late, the categorization of Philippians 2:6-11 as a hymn is correct. They do this by comparing the ancient rhetorical theory of hymnos with the text in question, and then looking at the key difference: Christ is praised for some most unusual reasons. The Marks of a Hymn Examining ancient textbooks which address the genre of hymnos, Martin and Nash first point to four markers which allow the identification of the hymnos genre (95-109). Species of rhetoric. There is a close relation between genres of hymnos and encomion , thus hymnos is set apart by the next three markers. Subject. Whereas encomion takes as its subject man, hymnos is dedicated to a god.  Length. Here both hymnos and encomion share length, as opposed to epainos , which are b...

 The following post is adapted from a Communion Meditation given at Remsen Bible Fellowship on 11/7/2021. Remembrance In Luke 22:19, Jesus tells us that when we come to the communion table we are to do so, "in remembrance of me." In this post, I want us to fix our minds on, to remember, one particular passage . Let's examine the words of Jesus in John 19:28-29.   "28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth." (ESV) As we briefly consider these verses, I want to organize our thoughts under two headings, plan and pain. Plan First, plan. Note in verse 28, John tells us that Jesus spoke. His words were not mere incoherent cries., they were words intended to bring a particular result - the fulfillment of Scripture. Psalm 69:21 says,   "for my thirst they gave me sour wine to drin...

  Text       28        “And it shall come to pass afterward,        that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh;                    your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,        your old men shall dream dreams,        and your young men shall see visions.              29       Even on the male and female servants        in those days I will pour out my Spirit.  30 “And I will show wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. 32 And it shall come to pass that everyone ...

Photo by Nico Smit on Unsplash A Response to “Isaiah 53 in the Pulpit” Introduction In his paper Isaiah 53 in the Pulpit ( Goldingay, John, and John E Goldingay. “Isaiah 53 in the Pulpit.” Perspectives in Religious Studies 35, no. 2 (Sum 2008): 147–53) John Goldingay attempts to marry homiletical form with contemporary exegesis of Isaiah 53. Behind his quest is a question posed by G.A. Brame in a 2005 article ( Brame, Grace Adolphsen. “The Cross: Payment or Gift?” Perspectives in Religious Studies 32, no. 2 (Sum 2005): 67–81) , asking why this was not more readily being done. If so many modern exegetes have moved on from the idea of Isaiah 53 being a prophecy of Jesus’ penal substitution for sinners, why do people in the pulpits and the pews continue to cling to such archaic interpretations?  What I will seek to do in this brief paper is to first interact with one of Goldingay’s interpretive assumptions, and secondly, to compare his exegesis with the text itself. When Was Isa...

  "Neglecting the church is neglecting Jesus." Sam Allberry, Why bother with church? , pg 31

I previously posted some interaction with a particular part of this commentary here.  The Gospel According to John by D.A. Carson My rating: 5 of 5 stars DA Carson has been my go-to for the past two years of studying John's gospel. The combination of wise and scholarly interaction with commentators both contemporary and historical, the rich exegetical insights, and the commitment to applying the text as the word of God to the people of God set this commentary apart from the others that I used. View all my reviews

John- Moody Gospel Commentary by J. Carl L. Laney My rating: 3 of 5 stars Useful cultural and background data; exegesis was pretty thin. Homiletical helps at the end of each chapter were of varying helpfulness. I didn't dislike it, but I probably wouldn't pass it around to friends looking to preach from John's gospel. View all my reviews

 Yesterday our church celebrated its one year anniversary of meeting together as a local congregation. Our guest speaker was Mike Hulinsky, lead pastor at LeMars Bible Church. As he preached from Galatians 6:7-10 , his first point was simply a restating of verse seven: you reap what you sow. This seems obvious, intuitive, and you almost ask, why, Paul, is this even necessary to state? But there is a reason he needs to say it: we don't want to believe it. We want to think that our actions don't have consequences. We want to act like they don't.  Wild Oats There used to be a phrase, which I don't hear as often anymore, but I think that has more to do with a change in vocabulary than a loss of the idea. You'd see someone, usually a young man, making some very foolish decisions with their life, and it would be described as sowing their wild oats. Johnny is doing a lot of partying and spending time with girls who are sexually indulgent, just sowing his wild oats. Ronnie ...

  Preface:  This isn't "writing" per se, this is the first of three posts that will be lesson outlines from the VBS our church is conducting this week. The titles are,  Where Did I Come From? , Am I Important , and How Can I Be Okay? My hope in sharing is that if you work with kids, or simply are interested in answering these questions for yourself, you will be edified. How Can I Be Okay? Gold bean bag Do you ever feel broken? Like something inside of you just isn’t right?  The last couple of days the kids have been working on a verse, Gen 1:1, In the beginning, God created… The Bible starts not with people, not with some slog beginning with an immense hydrogen explosion, but with God. A speaking God. A God who speaks life into being What did God call his creation? Very good ( v31 ) Part of that very good creation was an image-bearer: people Kids, who made everything? God! So, who made you? God! So, who’s the boss? God is! Right, God is the boss. And he gave people a...