Editor’s note: This post is part of a series featuring outstanding excerpts from student papers at the BibleMesh Institute, which offers affordable online training for local churches, schools, and ministries. The author’s name has been withheld for privacy and security purposes. He is preparing to serve as a missionary overseas. For I know the plans …
8 Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, 9 for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck. 10 My son, if sinners entice you, do not consent. Proverbs 1:8-10 (ESV) If swimmer Michael Phelps was a country, he would have won more medals in the 2004 Olympics than Brazil, Canada, …
Many of us want a big church. Therefore, we should check our hearts, battle pride, and give thought to the value of slow, steady growth as opposed to rapid, overwhelming growth. Sometimes, God has other plans. David Platt took over for a mega-church pastor. Matt Chandler’s church experienced remarkable, numerical growth not long after he …
In his second letter, Peter writes, “But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed” (2 Pet. 3:10). It …
If Everything Will Pass Away, Why Bother Doing a Good Job? Read More »
You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men. Matthew 5:13 (NIV) Christian behaviors demonstrate Christian beliefs. True disciples live lives conspicuously different from unbelievers, and their character (as …
Grand Rapids, Zondervan, 2009, 204 pgs. Summary: John N. Oswalt (1940- ) is distinguished professor of Old Testament at Asbury Theological Seminary. He has a written a careful assessment of the uniqueness of the biblical conception of God and how this distinguishes the Bible from similar forms of ancient near-eastern religious texts. The Bible …
John N. Oswalt, The Bible among the Myths: Unique or Just Different? Read More »