Bible theology for nerds | Stray Thoughts

This is a good time for my occasional reminder that links here do not imply 100% endorsement of everything on a site I’ve linked to or from.

Why Don’t We Read the Bible More? Three Common Misunderstandings, HT to Challies. “That we should read the Bible is rarely questioned. Why we should read it is also fairly well-established. What we rarely do is examine why we, as confessing Christians, don’t read the Bible despite saying that we should. In my years of lay and vocational ministry, I’ve known the acceptable answers to this question and what we perceive to be ‘unacceptable’ answers.”

To (Almost) Die Is Gain, HT to Challies. A young wife and mom contemplates the gains she experienced after a dangerous brain surgery.

Biblical Theology Is for Nerds, HT to Challies. “When Marvel fans piece together the interconnected stories of the MCU across multiple films, they’re exercising the same muscles needed to trace biblical themes from Genesis to Revelation. The skills that make someone an expert in Star Wars lore or DC Comics continuity might be preparing him or her for something far more profound: biblical theology.”

What Does “Love Your Enemies” Not Mean? HT to Challies. “I recently preached on Jesus’s most revolutionary ethical teaching––love your enemies (Matt. 5:44). It stands as a Mount Everest among ethical instructions that both Christians and non-Christians respect. Yet, because we have a certain modern definition of love, it is easy to misunderstand Jesus’s teaching. What did Jesus actually mean by enemy love and how do we integrate it with Old Testament texts that seem to contradict it?”

The Sweet Honey of Forgiveness. “I’m thinking we make forgiveness way harder than it needs to be. It seems cumbersome, impossible … and somehow so wrong.”

How Are Children a Gift From the Lord? HT to the Story Warren. “If kids are a blessing and having a house full of them is a gift, we are going to have to structure our lives a little differently than the cultural norm.”

Our Answer to “Imagine.”Just before I stepped up to speak at the funeral of a professing believer, I had to endure the playing of John Lennon’s ‘Imagine.’ The opening words are ‘Imagine there’s no heaven!’ . . . I began to pray that the Lord would give me wisdom about what to say about this choice of music for a funeral.”

How to Pray for a Cancer Survivor. Much of what’s written here can be applied to other kinds of major illnesses as well. Sometimes the mental, emotional, or spiritual healing from trauma takes longer than the physical.

The Darkness of Winter, HT to Challies, subtitled, “It’s Not the Villain I Once Pegged it For: How the Lord uses Winter to Grow my Faith.” I share the author’s aversion to winter, though her winters are harder to deal with than mine. But she shares how God uses them.

When Everyone Else Is Getting the Blessings You Want. It’s easy to focus on the one thing we want that we don’t have. But God has poured out many blessings on all of us. Lois shares several.

Food (Allergies) and Fellowship. “Food plays an important part in corporate worship and the fellowship of God’s people. It did in Scripture, and it does so today. So, one of the issues we should perhaps consider is the challenge of food allergies. While food allergies may seem simply like a personal health issue for individuals, it can also impact that individual’s fellowship with other believers in a local assembly.” I can “amen” all of this as we have family members with gluten, dairy, nut, and other food issues. I’d especially highlight being careful of cross-contamination–sometimes people who mean well don’t realize this is a problem, too.