This new commentary is one that preachers and other Bible interpreters will want to add to their library:

Matthew S. Harmon. Philippians: A Mentor Commentary. Fearn, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2015.

My endorsement:

Matt Harmon explains Paul’s letter clause by clause, traces Paul’s argument, reads Paul’s argument in light of the rest of the Bible, and applies the letter to people today. He reminds me of two of his professors when he was working on his PhD at Wheaton: Doug Moo and Greg Beale.

When I read this book on an airplane last fall, parts of it made me cry. All of it fired me up.

David Platt. Counter Culture: A Compassionate Call to Counter Culture in a World of Poverty, Same-Sex Marriage, Racism, Sex Slavery, Immigration, Persecution, Abortion, Orphans, and Pornography. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2015. 34-page sample PDF.

[Read more…] about David Platt’s New Book: Counter Culture

Greg Strand has organized another outstanding theology conference for the Evangelical Free Church of America on the campus of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. This one is on the doctrine of the Scriptures (Jan 28–30, 2015). Speakers include Don Carson, Graham Cole, Phil Long, Doug Moo, Kevin Vanhoozer, and John Woodbridge.

More info here.

Update on 2/19/2015: Conference audio is available here.

Sweet sleep is a gift from God: “when you lie down, your sleep will be sweet” (Proverbs 3:24b).

I agree with John Piper and Don Carson on sleep:

1. John Piper: “For me, adequate sleep is not just a matter of staying healthy. It’s a matter of staying in the ministry” (p. 189).
2. Don Carson: “Doubt may be fostered by sleep deprivation. If you keep burning the candle at both ends, sooner or later you will indulge in more and more mean cynicism—and the line between cynicism and doubt is a very thin one. Of course, different individuals require different numbers of hours of sleep: moreover, some cope with a bit of tiredness better than others. Nevertheless, if you are among those who become nasty, cynical, or even full of doubt when you are missing your sleep, you are morally obligated to try to get the sleep you need. We are whole, complicated beings; our physical existence is tied to our spiritual well-being, to our mental outlook, to our relationships with others, including our relationship with God. Sometimes the godliest thing you can do in the universe is get a good night’s sleep—not pray all night, but sleep. I’m certainly not denying that there may be a place for praying all night; I’m merely insisting that in the normal course of things, spiritual discipline obligates you get the sleep your body need” (p. 147)

So I was delighted to read this book: [Read more…] about A Theology of Sleep

I recently discovered that Southern Seminary makes available free PDFs of many of the PhD dissertations (and some ThM theses) that students have successfully defended there.

These students have spent years working on these treatises, and some of the theses are outstanding (e.g., David Schrock’s on definite atonement).

I wish more schools did this. I just added over 70 of these PDFs to my Zotero library.