Let the reader understand, I am not posting an essay by G. K. Beale. This is just a simple blog post, based on my private morning readings of 1 Peter (yesterday) and 2 Peter (today). The Apostle Peter wrote his letter to serve as a reminder to the elect exiles (e.g., 2 Pt 1:12-15; 3:1-2). [...]
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For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of [...]
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UPDATE: As of yesterday, my wife informed me after her doctor’s visit that our third child, tentatively named Caleb Owen, is growing healthily in the womb. It is not uncommon for me to post about my wife at an anniversary. I wrote her a poem on our three-year wedding anniversary and tried to show honor to [...]
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“‘Show me the coin for the tax.’ And they brought him a denarius. And Jesus said to them, ‘Whose likeness and inscription is this?’ They said, ‘Caesar’s.’ Then he said to them, ‘Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.’ When they heard it, they marveled. [...]
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“Pay to all what is owed to them: taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed” (Rom 13:7). “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they [...]
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Writing meaningful blog posts is not the easiest thing. There are, however, a few ways in which one can make writing blogs meaningful: (1) write about something important (e.g., the Bible) and (2) write about something personal. On rare occasions these two may overlap and the result is perhaps a blog post worth reading. Generally, [...]
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“I want you to know, brothers, that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ. And most of the brothers, having become confident in the Lord by my imprisonment, [...]
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I have already argued that we see the ministry of Jesus foreshadowed in his birth (i.e., the humble circumstances in which he was born), in his childhood (i.e., obedience to the law), and in his temptation (i.e., defeat of Satan and), but now we find the hallmark of his ministry in narrative form: the rejection [...]
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For those readers who have wanted to learn the Shorter Catechism or wanted to find helpful ways to teach it to your children, let me heartily recommend Bruce Benedict’s Shorter Catechism Volume 1 (Questions 1-38) and 2 (Questions 86-107). Volume 1 can be purchased on iTunes and both Volume 1 and 2 can be ordered on cdbaby.com. Bruce [...]
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I was reading G. C. Berhouwer’s General Revelation today and found something worth sharing. (Let the reader understand the American Standard Version.) Is not the knowledge of God in his revelation always and everywhere dependent upon the knowledge of Christ, and is there anyone who comes to the Father except through Him? (John 14:6). “If [...]
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Solomon spoke 3,000 proverbs (1 Kgs 4:32), but the book bearing their name contains only about one third of those. Readers of the Book of Proverbs should appreciate the brevity with which these truths are communicated. Even a cursory reading of Proverbs evinces the most profound wisdom. They speak meaningfully into the human condition in the [...]
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In his address “What’s Right with the Orthodox Presbyterian Church?” R. B. Kuiper said, “It is a foregone conclusion that, when I have finished, some of you—perhaps all of you—will think of things that I might have said, and perhaps should have said, but did not actually say. I have two excuses to offer: first, [...]
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Numbers “in the desert (of)” The LORD spoke to Moses in the wilderness of Sinai” (Nm 1:1). In part two of Introducing Leviticus, I made mention of an important recurring theme throughout the Torah, which is part and parcel of the basic, organizing metanarrative. The metanarrative is God’s special dealings with his people, redeeming them [...]
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In the previous post, I tried to do two things: (1) demonstrate that Leviticus is intimately connected to Levi and (2) provide a reason for the centrality of its location in the Torah. What I did not discuss is the content of the book of Leviticus and how that content is related to the basic, [...]
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Exodus: “going out” “Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt” (Ex 3:10). Exodus is not so much many stories as it is one main story with many parts. Exodus is the story of the birth of Moses (Ex 1-2), the fulfillment of [...]
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The following is taken from the Westminster Shorter Catechism, Qs 33-36: Q. 33. What is justification? A. Justification is an act of God’s free grace, wherein he pardoneth all our sins, and accepteth us as righteous in his sight, only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone. Q. 34. [...]
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Notice I did not entitle this post “The Simplicity of Child-Bearing,” which is a labor intensive process, rife with many pains and (possible) complications. God made this abundantly clear to us in Genesis 3:16: “I will surely multiply your pain in child-bearing; in pain you shall bring forth children.” Therefore, already and not yet mothers [...]
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As you know, I did not comment much on Luke 2, so I will offer some comments in passing, albeit brief. It is not that I think Luke 2 isn’t worth blogging about, but these posts largely deal with what is brought up in family worship with my wife. For example, the other night she [...]
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Luke 3 can arguably be divided into two main parts: Luke 3:3-22 adumbrating (outlining) the ministry of John the Baptist. Luke 3:23-38 providing a genealogical record of Jesus. I have already discussed (some of) the importance of passages like Luke 3:1-2 in a previous post on Luke 1:1-4. Nevertheless, it seems prudent to point out [...]
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Luke 1, as well as Matthew 1, Mark 1, and John 1, provide an account of Jesus’s birth. Therefore, even the most cursory statements on Luke 1 should not go without (some) mention of the Incarnation (“enfleshment”) of Jesus Christ. That Man, who existed before the world (John 17:5) and by whom all things were [...]
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This Lord’s Day my wife and I started reading Luke in family worship. I found great benefit and joy from the first chapter, so I thought it might be a worthwhile experience to attempt to blog through the Gospel of Luke in a cursory way. Over the next few weeks I will try to post [...]
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