I ran across this in my Theological Journal Library in Logos a few weeks ago, and I literally laughed with delight. Maybe you'd have to be living in the country I live in right now (Dissertationastan) to find this as perfectly glorious as I did, but perhaps people in...
Piety
The Singular We
A minor exegetical note that I'm sure I'm not the first to notice but did just now: Do you sometimes get the sense that Paul is using something like the "royal we" ("Unhand our royal person!"), that when he says "we" he means "me"? Here's some evidence that you were...
MacLaren on Christ’s Teaching
Christ’s ‘originality’ as a moral teacher lies not so much in the absolute novelty of His commandments, as in the perspective in which He sets them, and in the motives on which He bases them, and most of all in His being more than a teacher, namely, the Giver of power...
A Good Bible Commentary
A good Bible commentary combines judicious exegetical comments with a willingness to make and defend theological and personal application: Viewed from a perspective that holds this world to be a “closed system,” suffering is a harsh and final reality that can never be...
Barack Obama is God’s Servant for My Good
First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way (1 Tim 2:1–2). In obedience to...
Found It!
I have looked fruitlessly for this quotation a number of times, and I finally just stumbled across it: It is not biblical to say that the only virtues God can require of me are the ones that I am good enough to perform. If I am so bad that I can’t delight in what is...
Edmund Waller on 10/10/10, Or Maybe—Let’s Face It—10/10/40
The soul’s dark cottage, battered and decayed, Lets in new light through chinks that time has made; Stronger by weakness, wiser men become, As they draw near to their eternal home. Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, That stand upon the threshold of the...
Informing Ourselves to Death
The danger of constant connection is a becoming a relentless theme among people whose highest goals are merely laying up treasure on earth. For those who want to lay up treasure in heaven, this warning ought to carry an even greater weight. I want treasure in heaven....
The Fear of Aslan
I just wrote a little section in my dissertation on the fear of the Lord. Proverbs 1:7 reads, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” Fear (יִרְאָה) in this verse is certainly used often in the phrases “fear of God” or “fear of the Lord,” but it is also...
Christian Memes
Christians have memes. At least American evangelical and fundamentalist Christians do, and I imagine we’re not alone. A meme is “an idea, behavior, style, or usage that spreads from person to person within a culture.” (Don’t hold it against the poor little word, but...
Another KJV Verse You Probably Memorized without Understanding It
Keep thy heart with all diligence; For out of it are the issues of life. (Proverbs 4:23) This is a very common memory verse, as well it should be, but how many people know what issues means here? It doesn't mean what we would usually expect that word to mean in a...
All Are Yours, But You Have Only One Father
My pastor preached a message last night on 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 which I thought showed great insight into how the Internet has affected Christianity—and what Paul says we should do about it. Here are my notes to that sermon. Party Heads Immediately after Paul’s...