Seminary students (and professors) would be wise to read this new little 80-page book by two recent seminary students:

David Mathis and Jonathan Parnell. How to Stay Christian in Seminary. Wheaton: Crossway, 2014. 14-page PDF sample.

The authors are good men, and they write well.

Justin Taylor approached them with the idea for this book after their blog series for Desiring God. (My contribution: “Thank God for Gifted Professors and Students.”)

[Read more…] about How to Stay Christian in Seminary

Last week Desiring God’s blog published a little piece I wrote called “Three Tips for Better Bible Reading.” They’re not the sort of tips you’d expect.

Here are some supplementary thoughts:

1. In the article I advocate macro-reading. But this is not mutually exclusive with micro-reading. Both are invaluable. Both macro- and micro-reading should contribute to our hermeneutical spiral. On micro-reading, see especially Tom Schreiner’s “Tracing the Argument,” which revolutionized how I read Paul. I agree with Scott Hafemann that the best part about knowing the biblical languages is tracing the flow of the text’s argument. You can’t do that well at macro-reading speed. [Read more…] about Re 3 Unusual Tips for Better Bible Reading

When I started reading this book last week, I thought that I would size it up and move on to another book within 10–20 minutes. Didn’t happen. It drew me in, and I ended up reading almost the whole thing:

Craig Detweiler. iGods: How Technology Shapes Our Spiritual and Social Lives. Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2013. 52-page PDF sample.

This book explains the history of the technology that so many of us use regularly: [Read more…] about iGods: How Technology Shapes Us

Suppose a man was going to New York to take possession of a large estate, and his [carriage] should break down a mile before he got to the city, which obliged him to walk the rest of the way; what a fool we should think him, if we saw him ringing his hands, and blubbering out all the remaining mile, “My [carriage] is broken! My [carriage] is broken!”

–John Newton

• Quoted in Richard Cecil, Memoirs of the Rev. John Newton, in The Works of the Rev. John Newton (Edinburgh: Banner of Truth, 1985), 1:107.
• Cited in John Piper, “John Newton: The Tough Roots of His Habitual Tenderness,” in The Roots of Endurance: Invincible Perseverance in the Lives of John Newton, Charles Simeon, and William Wilberforce (The Swans Are Not Silent 3; Wheaton: Crossway, 2002), 68.

Sam Storms wisely contrasts secure and insecure pastors.

See also reflection 10 in this wisdom-packed post: What I Wish I Had Known or Done: 10 Reflections on Nearly 40 Years of Pastoral Ministry. (And one more: Some Words of Counsel for Pastors.)