“It is better far to listen receptively than to listen critically, to search diligently for every strength while quickly overlooking every weakness… to listen as a broken person than one who is convinced he is already complete” - Challies

“his 58% favorable rating from Americans is among the lower scores he has received since 2013, and his unfavorable rating is at a new high of 30%.” - Gallup

“Proverbs does not offer us formulas that always work in every situation, but rather wise principles that are worthy of our contemplation and discerning implementation.” - Ligonier

“Sadly, many Protestants today have never read Thomas but have absorbed caricatures of Thomas based more on fear than truth, heat than light.” - Credo

“In a time when the political, religious, and cultural challenges strikingly parallel those of Machen’s day, his arguments and actions offer us a set of timeless and timely insights. We would all do well to observe them.” - Public Discourse

“I am a leader in the Pentecostal/Charismatic Church. And even though I worked hard with others to call for prophetic accountability and to rebuke the false prophecies about Trump, this is my family, so there is egg on all of our faces.” - Michael Brown

The holidays are over once again. And, for all that I did to try to hold on to it, the last week of the year has escaped me, as well.

I love the holidays, and I’ve written much about them in the past. I’ve especially shared my thoughts in previous columns about the importance of using the closing days of the year to plan for the months ahead. I have also described my intention to spend the first eight months of the year, in essence, preparing for the last four.

In this scenario, the goal would be to get as much work done ahead as possible, and to get all the trivial details out of the way by the end of August so that I could make the most of the last four months—often the busiest and most essential season in ministry.

“While exciting and important, much about a recently published, headline-grabbing fragment is not unique.” - Text & Canon

“Don’t waste your final two decades chasing earthly excitements when excitements a thousand times better await you just over the horizon of this life.” - John Piper

“This article shares data from Inside the Urban Church—a Barna report created in partnership with World Impact—to further explore what role the church has in the city.” - Barna

“Trump created a stir last week by sharing a fan-made video…. paints a Messiah-like image of Trump, saying the former president ‘cares for the flock’ and is ‘a shepherd to mankind who won’t ever leave or forsake them.’” - C.Leaders

“The number of children under 18 living with two parents had fallen from 88% in 1960 to just over two-thirds in 2005…. then, contrary to expert prognostications, the proportion of children living with two parents gradually recovered, reaching 70% in 2020.” - IFS

Acts 11:24 says this of Barnabas: he was “a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and of faith.” God describes Barnabas as a man who lived by the strength and grace of the Holy Spirit. God describes Barnabas a man who believed His Word, a man whose live greatly encouraged others. Anyone that God publicly assesses this way is someone that we want to emulate!

“Couple our cultural moment of permissiveness with the unpleasantness of administering discipline and we understand why parents err on the side of lenience. But lenience, like severity, is still an error.” - Ref21

“Last year, people continued to turn to Scripture apps…. nearly 2 in 3 Protestant churchgoers (65%) intentionally spend time alone with God at least daily.” - Lifeway

“The findings on parent-child relationships, from Gallup’s 2023 Familial and Adolescent Health Survey, expand on recently published research that found social media use is high among U.S. teenagers and associated with poor mental health and less parental regulation of screen time.” - Gallup

“Whether it’s accusations of bad writing and acting, heavy-handed messages or the demonizing of non-Christians, such movies always seem to be a lightning rod of passionate disagreement.” - R.Unplugged

“Undergraduate students at Moody Bible Institute have their tuition covered by donors….College of the Ozarks has a ‘tuition assurance scholarship’ for its students, where they work their way through school in a work-study position, and donors cover any remaining costs.” - CToday

“74% of Protestant pastors say their church’s fiscal year starts in January…. Most say the trustees or church board (77%), the treasurer (69%), the pastor (61%) and a finance or stewardship committee (58%) are involved in creating the budget.” - Lifeway

“Community leaders say the case is a wake-up call for Korean Americans to be more vigilant about religious cults and potential threats to new arrivals from South Korea.” - RNS

“Global Christian Relief finances the database maintained by the International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF), which will collect, record and analyze publicly sourced reports of persecution for the database” - BPNews

“They have honest questions about all kinds of theological matters—from social injustice to God’s sovereignty. Robust apologetics, then, provides opportunities to give answers rooted in logic and truth.” - TGC

Three times, Mark records Jesus’ predictions of His coming passion (Mark 8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34). In His explanation of the third of those prophecies, Jesus tells His followers that He is going to give His life as a ransom (λύτρον): “the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).

The concept of a ransom doesn’t connect with western culture in the 21st century. The only common use of that word today is in reference to kidnapping—usually by terrorists. But this was a very common word in the first century Greco-Roman world. Although it is used only twice in the New Testament, this word aroused immediate associations in the minds of those who read Mark’s gospel. It comes from the culture of slavery: sacral manumission, the ceremony by which a slave is set free.¹ In the case of a polytheistic Greco-Roman,² the slave owner takes the slave being freed to the temple of his god and sells the slave to the god. He is reimbursed for the slave from the pagan temple treasury.

The ceremony takes place in the presence of witnesses, and the manumission record is often recorded in stone—typically on the temple wall or pillar. This transaction is somewhat of a legal fiction, because it is not really temple money that is involved. Rather the slave himself (or his family or friends) have previously paid the specified amount into the temple treasury. Once the slave owner received the money, the slave became the property of the god. Ownership has been transferred. He does not become a slave of the temple, however, but a protégé of the god. In respect to his former owner, he is now a free man.

“In the last few years, there have been quite a few polemics published that slam evangelicalism. Some have had good but hard words we need to hear. But most suffer from the same problems which make their attempt at being prophetic fall on deaf ears.” - Dan Darling

“The gospel doesn’t come with a gag order. It calls us to name and repent of idolatries and hypocrisies—especially our own.” - Russel Moore

“…ruled that a state school district is not responsible for the actions of a teacher who allegedly proselytized students in a public school classroom, leading a Muslim student to convert to Christianity.” - RNS

“The first reason… I’ve grown tired of this approach is that it typically involves a superficial engagement with Scripture.” - Mere Orthodoxy

“Ministry leaders should recognize that after CPS has been notified, it is important to continue support to a victim and their caretaker by ensuring that the victim still feels welcomed by the church community.” - Baptist Press

This piece and its follow ups are taken from my upcoming book (DV) ‘The Words of the Covenant, Volume 2: New Testament Continuation.’

“The LORD will be the sure foundation for your times, a rich store of salvation and wisdom and knowledge; the fear of the LORD is the key to this treasure. (Isaiah 33:6)” - Geiger