Westminster Books has deeply discounted the excellent Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament series. I’d especially recommend Schreiner on Romans and Revelation, Moo on Galatians, and Beale on Colossians & Philemon.
I added quite a number of excellent Kindle deals yesterday and plan to add some more this morning.
(Yesterday on the blog: My Favorite New Songs of 2023)
My Grandfather Died With Dignity
This is an important article about what it means to die with dignity. “The conversation around MAiD puts front and center the questions of what makes life worth living and, by implication, in what circumstances a life might no longer be worth living. In the modern Western ethos of entrepreneurial individualism, the cardinal virtues include efficiency and productivity.”
There Is No Inconvenience Too Great for Godliness
“We often show what is important to us by what we do. It’s easy to say, ‘I want to please the Lord more than anything else,’ but it’s another thing to act like it.” I think we can all attest to our own inconsistencies there.
Christmas Should Humble Us
“A baby who was the High King of Heaven. In a feeding trough. It’s a shocking picture, really, when you think about the humility of Christ. To step down from the literal throne of Heaven itself, take on our humanity, and enter our world as an infant born into poverty among an oppressed people is hands down the most extreme display of humility in all of history. Nothing else comes close.”
Why Was a Man Killed for Touching the Ark of the Covenant?
This article explains how and why Uzzah was struck down for touching the Ark of the Covenant.
Nobody Can Know the Trouble You’ve Seen
Samuel discusses the role of personal experiences in shaping people’s understanding of the world. “When it comes to empathy, many people who say they ‘believe the victims’ are carrying experiences and knowledge around that is literally impossible to transmit effectively. They dislike Calvinists or complementarians, partially on principle, and then partially because over the years, in dozens of obscure articles, personal conversations, and unspoken observations, they have built up an idea whose origins are mostly inaccessible to anyone else.”
A Year in the Greek NT
Wes spent a year reading the New Testament in Greek rather than English. His reflections are really interesting and make me wish I had progressed a bit further in Greek!
Flashback: What I Long for More than Miracles
As we parted ways that day, Aileen and I both knew without the smallest shadow of a doubt: God did this. In fact, Aileen has often said that this was the very moment she really understood that God was caring for us in our loss. And it was not through a miracle, but through providence.
The anguish which love endures for others’ sins is among the saddest of earth’s sorrows.
—J.R. Miller
