As iron sharpens iron,
one person sharpens another. (Proverbs 27:17)
“Held Evans makes progressive theological assertions and sarcastic disparagements of fundamentalism; she also acknowledges the debt she owes her evangelical parents and takes wistful backward glances at the spiritual certainty she once owned.” - TGC
Read Part 1.
We are accustomed to treat the so-called “Lord’s Prayer” within our own “Church” context. And no wonder, for the guidance and hope it supplies are a great boon to the spiritual life. But if we situate it in its setting in the Sermon on the Mount we have to allow that it signified something a little different for the disciples, especially Matthew 6:10:
Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth!
Serve the Lord with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!
Know that the Lord, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!
For the Lord is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.
(ESV)
“the Puritans have much good to say, and Reeves and Ortlund have mined their depths, found their gems of wisdom, and repackaged their truths in modern language.” - DBTS
“… the Fall 2021 issue of Eikon: A Journal for Biblical Anthropology. This is now our sixth issue under the new masthead. This issue and past issues can be accessed at no cost at our website, where you can also download free PDFs” - CBMW
“Scrivener carefully noted 111 passages in which the KJV translators chose to follow Beza against Stephanus, 59 in which they did the opposite, and 67 in which they differed from both texts and went with some other reading.” - Mark Ward
While we are not certain of the exact date, we do know that this year marks the 400th anniversary of the Pilgrims’ first Thanksgiving celebration in Plymouth.1
In the fall of 1621, “the 53 surviving Pilgrims and Chief Massasoit with his 90 Indian braves”2 (of the Wampanoag Tribe) came together to mark the bounty of their harvest and to give praise to God for graciously preserving them and providing for them.
Matthew 3 begins with John the Baptist proclaiming, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand!” (Matt. 3:1-2). It has him calling Pharisees and Sadducees “a brood of vipers” (Matt. 3:7), which hardly matched the exalted spiritual status they gave themselves. Later in this Gospel we see Jesus calling Pharisees (and scribes) hypocrites and “fools and blind” (Matt. 23:13-19). In Matthew the religious leaders get called all kinds of names.
“ ‘Do I exist for God or does God exist for me?’ That’s the question that I think animates Dean Inserra’s new book, Getting Over Yourself: Trading Believe-in-Yourself Religion for Christ-Centered Christianity” - TGC
In his splendid book, How to Preach the Psalms, Kenneth Langley’s burden is not to teach you how to interpret the psalms. Plenty of folks have already done that.
Discussion