In my former life as a professor, I once spent a week grading 68 undergraduate papers, each 8–10 pages long. In the process, I noticed enough trends that I decided to throw together a series of writing tips. The number came to 25. I was focused on academic writing, but most of the principles are … More 25 Tips on Writing
Do you still know how to read? Not just clickbait headlines. Not just sensationalist twenty-click articles. Not just the punchy all-caps lines in GIFs and memes. Not just a slew of video titles in the sidebar. Not just piecemeal Facebook arguments. Not just cable listings and Netflix titles. Not just one-line iPhoned emails. Not just … More Do You Still Know How to Read?
The person you want to read is the person who’s starving to write. Anyone can string a handful of easy words into a recognizable sentence, like a Scrabble player with no patience. But the sentences you want to read are written by the guy who writes like he always has the impossible Scrabble hand: seven … More Starving to Write
Ten years ago I took a one-week class on Jonathan Edwards from Dallas Seminary professor John Hannah. It still ranks as one of my most memorable academic experiences. In the weeks that followed, I posted a bevy of wise and witty quotes that cascaded from Dr. Hannah’s teaching. Now after ten years, I’m re-posting those quotes, … More Wit and Wisdom from John Hannah Revisited (1)
In Colonel David Hackworth’s tome of a military memoir, he sums up the leadership philosophy of Colonel Glover S. Johns from a farewell speech in the winter of 1962. Hackworth’s memoir is pagan through and through, and not a book I would recommend across the board. But his 25-year, 110-medal military career illustrates countless principles gleaned … More The Leadership Principles of Colonel Glover S. Johns
Every generation of Christians must study and apply the Scriptures afresh in order to hear the voice of God speaking by his Spirit to his church through his Word. Wisdom does not neglect past interpreters, teachers, and authors; we lean on them for insight and wisdom as we dialogue with the dead. But we must always “bake … More Book Review: A Commentary on the Psalms, Vol. 3 (90-150) by Allen Ross
In the 2002 film The Count of Monte Cristo, handsome sailor Edmond Dantès is betrayed by his friend Fernand Mondego, robbed of his beautiful fiancé, and wrongly sentenced to prison in the Château d’If. Deep in despair, Dantès befriends a fascinating old priest and polymath who becomes his multidisciplinary mentor. Dantès later escapes, creates a new identity, and exacts all … More Lessons from the Real Count of Monte Cristo
When God Spoke Greek: The Septuagint and the Making of the Christian Bible by Timothy Michael Law (Oxford University Press, 2013) is a narrative retelling of the rise and fall of the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures. I have chosen to limit my review to general impressions since (1) I am a … More When God Spoke Greek: The Septuagint and the Making of the Christian Bible by Timothy Michael Law (Review)
When evangelicalism turns to books, our functional motto is: “The newer, the truer.” We stir our hearts with fresh devotionals, hone our skills with modern ministry manuals, deepen our discernment with cultural exposés, and study our Bibles with contemporary commentaries. When it comes to the freshly published word, we have an embarrassment of riches. But our … More The Apostolic Fathers: Holmes’ Text and Wallace’s Lexicon (Review)
Teaching our children the Bible is the highest responsibility we have as Christian parents. This teaching involves love, shepherding, discipleship, and modeling, but it never involves less than reading the Scriptures. Nothing can replace the reading and memorization of the normative English Bible. However, children’s story Bibles can be a helpful supplement for smaller children. The … More The Story Bible (Review)
The tree of the New Testament rises from the roots of the Old; the roots of the Old Testament break out in the tree of the New. The New Testament is nonsensical without the Old; and the Old Testament is unfulfilled and ultimately uninterpreted without the New. Therefore, I’m grateful to Jason DeRouchie of Bethlehem … More What the OT Authors Really Cared About: A Survey of Jesus’ Bible (Review)
Bret Lott is a writer, he’s a creative writer, and he’s a creative Christian writer. I don’t think he would write a normal review — summary, strengths, and interaction. That would be the easy route. That would, in terms of its category, “borrow from the vast steaming pile of clichés we always have ready at … More Letters and Life: On Being a Writer, On Being a Christian by Bret Lott (Review)
How are you shaped ethically? What experiences nuance your beliefs and behaviors? What factors determine your rights and wrongs, creating your categories of good, bad, and ugly? I am convinced that everything we experience shapes us. What we see, what we hear, what we feel — everything. Human beings are a startling blend of two … More Psalms as Torah: Reading Biblical Song Ethically (Review)
The Psalms are the pulse of the saints. The Psalter expresses the peaks and valleys of God’s people throughout the centuries, mapping the landscape of our lives and echoing the rhythm of our hearts. What would Christians do without the Psalms? The Psalter is the only God-breathed hymnbook, and it’s as magisterial as we might … More The Case for the Psalms by N. T. Wright (Review)
The Hebrew Scriptures are adorned and haunted by their crown jewel — the Psalter. The Psalms fathom the depths of evil, suffering, and betrayal, and scale the heights of devotion, deliverance, and steadfast love. Through the centuries, Jews and Christians have turned to the Psalter both as individuals and communities to lament, repent, question, declare, and … More Singing in the Reign: The Psalms and the Liturgy of God’s Kingdom by Michael Barber (Review)
With four children ages 5-7, I care deeply about children’s Bibles. If the Bible is the sacred book we believe it is, then the selection of stories, their emphases and implications, the language and tone, the artwork — everything matters. The tagline of the popular Jesus Storybook Bible (ZonderKidz, 2009) reads: “Every story whispers his name.” In the introduction … More The Jesus Storybook Bible Deluxe Edition (Review)
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