Posts

“What are the joy-stealers? Why do so many of us struggle with joy?” I often ask my students this question when we open the book of Philippians. “...

While we have little problem believing smartphones shape others, we tend to resist that they shape us. The reality is that none of us are immune....

Last semester a young college friend challenged me (dared me?) to try to use the contemporary slang word “based” during one of my college class...

I was privileged to write a chapter about the book of Judges for a volume that honors my doctoral advisor, professor Nili S. Fox. My contribution...

I was privileged to contribute a chapter titled “The Lost World of Lexical Semantics: Samson’s Spectacle in Judges 16:25” in For Us, but Not to Us...

Yes. An elder has to be “able to teach.” It is one of the qualifications for becoming an elder. However, “able to teach” in 1 Timothy 3:2 may not...

If you're just joining the conversation, you'll want to read the first two posts in the series first (Part 1 and Part 2). In those posts I address...

I knew this would be a controversial topic. Already the debates are breaking out on social media over the first post in the series, where I...

The world's oldest tattoo shop is situated in the Christian Quarter of the Old City in Jerusalem. That in itself may come as a surprise to those...

It sounded like there was a monstrous beast in the brush behind me, it really did. There I was, sitting on the deck in the balmy Oregon morning,...

I read a lot of helpful Christian books this past year, but here are my seven favorites. Surprisingly, I read the first five before the end of...

As the fall 2022 semester was coming to an end, I reflected on what my students learned over the past 14 weeks in our Biblical Interpretation and...

Isaiah 9:6-7 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called...

Eric Johnson is a missionary in Salt Lake City with the Mormon Research Ministry, which is my go-to ministry for resources on reaching members of...

I dislike playing the part of the Grinch, but can we as Christians admit that there are some really awful “Christmas” songs that have become...

Contextualization is putting the gospel into cultural forms that are easier for recipients to understand and receive without changing the...

Increased attention is being paid to alleviating poverty. And yet if we want to truly help people we have to identify the heart of the problem and...

This is a Q & A blog post by our Visiting Scholar in Philosophy, William Lane Craig. Question Your ministry has been a real source of...

You have a worldview. I have a worldview. Whether they realize it or not everyone has a worldview. And it shapes the way we all live. The question...

Are you a “prayer worrier” or a “prayer warrior”? What’s the difference? prayer worriers only pray about things that they’re worried about. The...

What if we were to plot biblical examples of the leading of the Spirit on a continuum from clearest communication to least clear? That’s what I...

Based on research over the past two decades, we know much about the virtue of gratitude to other people. Some scholars think that the models...

I recently sat in (yet another) seminar about how to counsel Christians [1] who are tempted toward same-sex sexual activity or tempted to embrace a...

In our previous posts we have talked about what following really means and why it really matters. But sometimes, a worked example is worth a thousand words. So, consider the story of Nicholas Herman.

At this point, faithful following may suddenly sound both daunting and difficult. Biblically, it appears to be both.