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Peace-Loving Believers in an Age of Violence, Part 3 (Final)
Three fairly significant biblical examples appear to support a believer’s participation in the military: [1] Jesus’s approval of a king who waged war against wicked people (Matthew 21:33–41). In Luke 3:14 John did not command them to resign from military service, but to be conten
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Home with the Lord: Dr. James A. Barrick (1948-2017)
My post on ParkingSpace23’s blog this week expounds 2 Timothy 4:6-8 in regard to my brother Jim’s sudden and unexpected death on August 11. On August 15 I conducted his memorial and graveside services in Cody, WY. Jim had pastored First Baptist Church there for the past 28 years.
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When God Takes a Faithful Servant Suddenly and Unexpectedly
Pastor Jim Barrick (Feb. 9, 1948 – Aug. 11, 2017) As my wife and I were boarding our flight from Gatwick Airport in London my cell phone buzzed. It was not a good time to answer it and I knew if it were important, the call would be repeated when we landed in California. Sure enou
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Identifying the imperatives in Biblical Narratives
Narratives occupy a large portion of the Bible, whether its pages record the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph or the wanderings of Israel in the wilderness, or the events surrounding the judges and kings of Israel, or the stories of Ruth or Esther.
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Identifying the Imperatives in Biblical Narratives
Narratives occupy a large portion of the Bible, whether its pages record the lives of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph or the wanderings of Israel in the wilderness, or the events surrounding the judges and kings of Israel, or the stories of Ruth or Esther.
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Implications or Applications?: Preaching Biblical Narratives
Some preachers produce abundant applications (or, implications?) for their congregations from biblical narratives, whether they are Old Testament historical narratives like Judges 4 or New Testament Gospel narratives like Mark 3. Other preachers insist they should offer only theo
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Pentecost Meditation: The Significance of Christ’s Ascensions
Bible readers often pick up on the apparent fact that Jesus ascended more than one time into heaven following His resurrection. Indeed, there appear to be three different ascensions, each accomplishing different purposes.
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How much seminary training does a missionary need?
An old pastors’ adage says, “Those who can’t, go; those who can’t go, teach”—the shortened aphorism for “Those who can’t preach , go to the mission field ; those who can’t go to the mission field , teach.” Whoever created this useless and unbiblical proverb deserves appointment a
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Why is Bible translation an important missions ministry?
Share The Word of God must be at the core of all missions strategy. Without the Word of God, no ministry can be satisfactorily performed— the Word provides the authority for ministry, the instruction for ministry, the power of ministry, and the message of ministry. To all of this
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Biblical Genealogies: Begetting a Devotional Reading
What do you do when you come to the book of 1 Chronicles in your Bible reading? Skip?–Jump over genealogies without reading. Skim?–Read the inserted headings, but not the text. Scavenge?–Read only the narrative inserts, like the one about Jabez. Squirm?–Read with distinct discomfort.
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Biblical Genealogies: Begetting a Devotional Reading
You’ve heard it and maybe even said it yourself, “When I get to a genealogy in my Bible reading, I just skip it.” Genealogies (lists of names telling who is related to whom) can be boring and intimidating—especially if you have to read all those hard-to-pronounce names aloud for
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True Spirituality, Dealing with Addiction, and Self-Help Manuals
Dealing with addictions can push a Christian to the limits of patience, trust, and exhaustion. The addiction might involve drugs, alcohol, tobacco, food, sex, pornography, power, popularity, wealth, social media, technology, or recreation—and many more. Recovering addicts soon fi
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Hi-def Leadership in a Hi-def World
The attributes of godly leaders occupies a good deal of Scripture. Sometimes we find it necessary to synthesize the biblical teachings on leadership in order to sharpen our understanding of its seriousness and its challenges.
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Hi-def Leadership in a Hi-def World: Attributes of Godly Leaders
High-definition (or, Hi-def , or HD ) refers to increased visual resolution as compared to the commonly used standard of resolution. This involves twice as many scan lines per frame, a proportionally sharper image, and a wide-screen format. In other words, this technology produce
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What Books Do You Recommend Most Highly?–Part 2
As I continue to populate my list of books I most highly recommend, I move now to the New Testament commentaries. See What Books Do You Recommend Most Highly? (click on that title–it is a link that will take you to that first post) for the start of the list and the identification of the Old
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Another Off-Site Blog Worth Reading
In an effort to expand my contributions in the blogosphere, I accepted an invitation to submit an essay to another great biblical and theological website: “Parking Space 23.” My first contribution is “Continuity: Old Testament Truth in New Testament Clothing.” The continuity that exists between the…