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The Blogroll is a collection of blogs that are often of interest and help to SI readers. SharperIron does not create the content of these blogs and the views expressed in them are those of their respective writers.
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The Judaizing Christians who gave Paul and his infant churches so much difficulty were legalists. There are, of course, legalists around today as well. The Jerusalem council once-and-for-all decided to put an end to legalism in the church when they ended their letter with these words:
It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to lay any additional burdens on you than these essentials: . . .
Then they went on to mention sacrifices to idols, blood from strangled animals and sexual sin, all of which had to do with pagan worship.
Did you get it? Not “any additional burden!” No legalists I know are making additional rules regarding pagan idolatry. But, sure as the day is long, they are busy all the time laying other burdens on people. It’s interesting; if you ask “why do you think that we must refrain from this or that?”—or “why we must certainly do such and such?”—what sort of answer they give. Usually it’s something like this: “you don’t get it; these things are really important. Such rules are crucial.”
Whoa! Did you read Acts 15:28 carefully? It says nothing but...
How is nouthetic counseling different from just coming along side of those who are struggling and building relationship and speaking into their lives?
This was the question that was put to one of our students as he explained to his church elders his goal to complete his studies with us and seek certification. Though framed many different ways it is a common question—why the need for formal training and formal counseling? Why can’t our church people just help each other with problems informally? Isn’t this just the “one anothering” the Bible talks about?
Let’s think for a moment about how your church accomplishes the tasks it believes are important. You believe studying and learning the Scriptures is important so you have organized a Sunday School and other learning opportunities. You meet at a set time, someone is designated to teach, and when you meet everyone understands the purpose of the gathering. The teacher has studied, is prepared to take charge of the class, and leads the students in a structured way to make good use of the time allotted.
What about your choir? You have a goal of presenting a Christ honoring anthem in a way that will facilitate...
David was forgiven! He rejoices over the Lord’s goodness for that forgiveness in Psalm 32. But he doesn’t stop with celebrating God’s mercy. He also considers it an obligation to urge others to seek forgiveness for their sin. Indeed, he seems to be obligated to help. So he counsels them:
I will instruct you and show you the way to go; with my eye on you I will give counsel. Psalm 32:8.
But what is that counsel? We can read it in the next verse:
Do not be like the horse or mule . . . that must be controlled with bit and bridle (v.9).
Why mention that?
He says that these are needed to bring the animal to you. In other words, when one won’t come on his own to seek God’s forgiveness, he must be dragged along. And David is willing to do it!
He wants his reader to deal with their sin differently than he did. He counsels him to be willing to come readily to God and seek forgiveness. David had to be stunned into submission to God by Nathan’s story. He wanted, therefore, to warn others that they need not go through the agony he had experienced when, mulishly, he wouldn’t come to God seeking forgiveness (see v. 4).
So, too, why...
Yesterday we published Dr. Adams’ list. Here is mine. What would you add?
By far, the posts on this blog with the most “hits” are those regarding “mid-life crisis”. Just out of curiosity, I looked at the numbers…there were nearly 12,000 clicks on one article alone. Hearts are aching and distressed. The search terms which brought folks to my blog are sometimes painful to read. Hurting people are searching in the blogosphere…a venue that feels safe for them. It makes me want to be sure that I’m providing solid, biblical resources, because God has the only right answer. The previous posts can be found here. It’s been nearly a decade since I’ve posted on this topic. Below, I’ll share a few more current resources:
John Piper on “What Would You Say to a Christian Going Through a Mid-Life Crisis?”
Paul David Tripp’s book,...
Well, yesterday I had to make an apology to our youngest. But let me back up.
We have “One Another” verses on beautiful plaques above the windows in our church. Each week, a new one of the verses is put in the bulletin for us to meditate upon and memorize. This was the verse for yesterday:
“Thy father and thy mother shall be glad, and she that bare thee shall rejoice.” Prov. 23:25
I got to thinking about my mother. I think I got some of my perfectionist tendencies from her. As a kid, it seemed I never did things well enough. Words of affirmation were few. Looking back now through eyes that understand grace, I can see that my mom didn’t have a lot of mom skills passed down to her. She was only a girl (about the same age as our youngest) when her own mother was hospitalized and then placed in a facility long-term. It was a situation where there was not much parenting or mentoring that could happen from then on, and mom was raised largely by an older sister. My mom also didn’t trust...
I’ve been a Christian now for nearly 40 years, and it took until just recently for me to understand something big. We don’t run this race alone.
Now, I understand that God says “I will never leave you, or forsake you“…it’s not that. I am very grateful to know that His presence is with me (although I need to remind myself of that…I tend too often to look from horizon to horizon instead of looking up for help).
No, what became clear to me is this– the Christian “race” is not a sprint that we run alone, with God cheering us on at the finish line. Growth doesn’t happen fast. If it seems to, it is probably questionable. We shouldn’t be looking over our shoulder at other runners, wondering if they are gaining on us. Know what happens then? When our eyes aren’t forward, we get off track, we trip, we cause others perhaps to stumble over us. That doesn’t help anyone win.
This isn’t a competition. We should strive for our own personal best. It’s a team...
I just received these beautiful hard bound copies this morning. I was able to read the first chapter or so online while I waited for them to arrive–I can’t wait to immerse myself in more of this biblical truth that is so needed among Christian women today!
“…was it not at Calvary that our Savior took upon Himself the rags of our sin and shame, adorning us in exchange with the robes of His righteousness? Is not the cross the only source of any external beauty we may ever hope to experience or to offer other souls starved for love and loveliness?… It [Titus 2] paints for us a picture of generational wisdom flowing downhill into inexperienced hearts, where it can cycle around and back up again in a continual process of godly care and counsel.”
We need this in our churches desperately. I’m afraid we are losing a generation of up-and-coming “older women” due to several decades of being content in our churches with a superficial spirituality. We’ve trained ourselves to be satisfied with looking right, talking right, behaving right… and I feel we are on the dangerous precipice of...
“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.” John 17:17
Be aware of those “little white lies” and compromises which can easily slip into our lives and homes. Pay attention to your children, that they are using biblical truth as their standard, and not social norms, the standards of another family or friend, or the world’s idea of morality. God’s Word is an unchangeable standard. In a changeable world, it is so important for us to provide this solid, predictable, consistent foundation for our kids.
We are so prone to look around us, and compare ourselves with people (and we can always find someone we feel is “worse off” than we are, and so easily justify ourselves according to their standard). Teach by word and example that it is what God says, and choosing to live by His words, which sanctifies us.
The word sanctify means “to set apart” for special use or purpose, that is, to make holy or sacred. And that job is God’s, for He is Jehovah Mekoddishkem, “the Lord who sanctifies” (Ex. 31:13).
We must continually caution ourselves as moms, who discipline and try...
If any reader of this paper really feels that he has counted the cost, and taken up the cross, I bid him persevere and press on. I dare say you often feel your heart faint, and are sorely tempted to give up in despair. Your enemies seem so many, your besetting sins so strong, your friends so few, the way so steep and narrow, you hardly know what to do. But still I say, persevere and press on.
The time is very short. A few more years of watching and praying, a few more tossings on the sea of this world, a few more deaths and changes, a few more winters and summers, and all will be over. We shall have fought our last battle, and shall need to fight no more.
The presence and company of Christ will make amends for all we suffer here below. When we see as we have been seen, and look back on the journey of life, we shall wonder at our own faintness of heart. We shall marvel that we made so much of our cross, and thought so little of our crown. We shall marvel that in “counting the cost” we could ever doubt on which side the balance of profit lay. Let us take courage. We are not far from home. IT MAY COST MUCH TO BE A TRUE CHRISTIAN AND A CONSISTENT HOLY MAN; BUT IT...
Here’s another passage from J. C. Ryle’s Holiness on counting the cost of becoming a Christian. This time, he is addressing the preaching of the gospel and what those who proclaim it to sinners must preach.
If we desire to do good, let us never be ashamed of walking in the steps of our Lord Jesus Christ. Work hard if you will, and have the opportunity, for the souls of others. Press them to consider their ways. Compel them with holy violence to come in, to lay down their arms, and to yield themselves to God. Offer them salvation, ready, free, full, immediate salvation. Press Christ and all His benefits on their acceptance. But in all your work tell the truth, and the whole truth. Be ashamed to use the vulgar arts of a recruiting sargent. Do not speak only of the uniform, the pay, and the glory; speak also of the enemies, the battle, the armour, the watching, the marching, and the drill. Do not present only one side of Christianity. Do not keep back “the cross” of self-denial that must be carried, when you speak of the cross on which Christ died for our redemption. Explain fully what Christianity entails. Entreat...
Here’s a helpful passage from J. C. Ryle’s Holiness on counting the cost to be a Christian:
I am bold to say that it would be well if the duty of “counting the cost” were more frequently taught than it is. Impatient hurry is the order of the day with many religionists. Instantaneous conversions, and immediate sensible peace, are the only results they seem to care for from the Gospel. Compared with these all other things are thrown into the shade. To produce them is the grand end and object, apparently, of all their labours. I say without hesitation that such a naked, one-sided mode of teaching Christianity is mischievous in the extreme.
Let no one mistake my meaning. I thoroughly approve of offering men a full, free, present, immediate salvation in Christ Jesus. I thoroughly approve of urging on man the possibility and the duty of immediate instantaneous conversion. In these matters I give place to no one. But I do say that these truths ought not to be set before men nakedly, singly, and alone. They ought to be told honestly what it is they are taking up, if they...
Some months ago, Andy Naselli (professor of NT at Bethlehem College and Seminary) sent me a PDF of a new book he had just completed entitled How to Understand and Apply the New Testament. Over the next few weeks, I read it with great interest and, more importantly, with great benefit.
Here’s my bottom line: I like this book and I commend it to you.
Now a brief, informal review.
As you can tell from the title, this book serves as a basic primer on how to study the NT. The principles in it are, of course, applicable in many ways to the OT but there is a companion volume on the OT by Jason DeRouchie (who also teaches at Bethlehem). This book seems targeted primarily at students, perhaps the very people Andy teaches. It starts at the beginning and walks the reader through the process of, well, understanding and applying a NT text.
However, it is not just students who will benefit. Anyone with an interest in knowing the Word deeper will find this book and its methodology helpful. Sunday school teachers, Bible study or small group leaders, or any...
Five years ago I recommended Todd Bolen’s Pictorial Library of Bible Lands.
This month Todd Bolen and his team have added to that collection with The Gospels: Photo Companion to the Bible. (There is a sale through August 21.)
Here’s a 5-minute video introduction:
For over a decade Todd Bolen lived in Israel while he taught the Israel Bible Extension for The Master’s College. Many evangelical books feature his photos of Israel. Todd is now professor of biblical...
Bruce Waltke is an OT scholar who has been studying Proverbs for decades. His two–volume commentary on Proverbs in the NICOT series is outstanding, and he coauthored the notes on Proverbs in the NIV Zondervan Study Bible.
You can listen to Waltke lecture for 26 hours on Proverbs for free via BiblicalTraining.org. I listened to his lectures recently, and they are thoughtful and edifying.
Robert L. Plummer and Benjamin L. Merkle. Greek for Life: Strategies for Learning, Retaining, and Using New Testament Greek in Ministry. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2017.
Here’s what I say about it in How to Understand and Apply the New Testament:
[It is a] motivating and practical help if you are learning Greek for the first time or relearning it decades later.
Some excerpts:
P&R Publishing recently released these two books:
P&R Publishing has partnered with Bethlehem College & Seminary to offer a special discount: for a limited time (until August 4), my school’s bookstore is selling these books at 30% off for one or 40% off for both, and all orders contribute proceeds to my school ($11.20 when buying one book and $19.20 when buying both). Details here.
...
The second edition of this book recently released:
Michael P. V. Barrett. Complete in Him: A Guide to Understanding and Enjoying the Gospel. 2nd ed. Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage, 2017.
My endorsement:
Barrett correlates what the whole Bible teaches about the gospel in a way that is organized, clear, faithful, and edifying. As he says over and over, right thinking about the gospel produces right living in the gospel. The better you understand the gospel, the better you can enjoy it.
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