(Repost from 2022)

A confession: Veterans Day is not a holiday that usually ranks high in my awareness. There’s no tradition of family gathering, no feasting, and almost no special decorations or merchandising. Most people don’t even get the day off.

So, these reflections are partly a kind of penance. I want to compensate a bit for my customary Veterans Day obliviousness—and maybe help a few others do the same.

When I give it some thought, reasons to be thankful for veterans come quickly to mind. These are just a few.

1. I’m…

I was driving home late at night during these early days of November, and all across the radio dial I heard … Christmas songs!

Now, on the one hand, it is actually quite amazing that secular radio stations take two months out of the year to devote their schedule exclusively to the music of Christmas. And if you enjoy listening to that, and it helps you to think about Christmas this early—while everything around us is still a beautiful shade of burnt orange—go for it!

Yet, I am not convinced that this is the best strategic choice for promoting one’s spiritual growth.…

Interpretation is the process of understanding 1) what a Biblical text means and 2) how the text was meant to be applied. Once you have gathered the necessary information to discover what a passage is saying, you can then begin to understand its meaning through careful study of the book’s historical context, literary context, and actual content.

1. Historical Context

“Why did the author write this book?” This is a hugely important question that needs to be answered. Each Bible text…