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We are currently teaching through Revelation on Sunday mornings at our church. As we started working through the seven churches, I quipped to our church that it is like a dispensational rite of passage to create a chart of the seven churches. Though others have created similar charts and someone else will create a fresh chart in the future, here's what I think are my somewhat unique contributions to the world of charts on the seven churches: Color coding Churches with "mixed reviews" are blue, those with no positive qualities are red, and those with no negative qualities are green. Positive attributes and promises are green, negative attributes and warnings are red Simplified columns Many charts split the Condition column into two (typically, Commendation and Condemnation ). I merged these, but color-coded them. Many charts split Christ's Commitment  to the churches into two columns (typically something like Warning  and Promise). Again, though I've merged the two...

The last blog post in this mini-series laid the groundwork for how I initially began using the ESV, but then began having issues with the translation. I recognize that there is no "perfect" translation and that all translations have to make interpretive decisions to maintain some level of coherence. The issues I began seeing with the ESV, however, rose to such a level that it caused me to begin considering other options. This blog post will discuss one such text. Ephesians 5:32 In the fall of 2023, I took a class titled "Scripture Citing Scripture" at Shepherds Theological Seminary with Dr. Michael Vlach. In this class, I had the opportunity to research four cases of Scripture referencing Scripture and note how the later authors used earlier texts. One of the texts I selected was Ephesians 5:31 and its use of Gen 2:24. I was not aware of the depth of issues when I selected this text, but I was amazed when I started diving in. The context is Paul instructing husban...

Getting these out late. I'll blame the travel schedule! Grieving: You Path Back to Peace by James White This may be White's most pastoral book. Usually associated with his debates and staunch defense of his theological convictions, it is rare to see White take a step back and offer encouragement from a pastoral perspective. When this happens, however, it is truly a blessing. White gently reminds his readers that yes, Christians grieve too, no, you aren't the only one to feel this way, and that you should give yourself the time you need to process through your grief. He explores what upward healthy grieving patterns look like as opposed to downward patterns, and that the key difference between the two is hope.  From there, White goes on to give practical advise on how to actually do the real work of grieving. He helps the reading through things like transitions, sifting through belongs, and dealing with spontaneous emotion. He warns about common pitfalls and things that can ...

 Here are my February reads. Lighter month.  Click the link to jump to the section: Do You Pray? by J.C. Ryle The Pastor and Counseling by Jeremy Pierre and Deepak Reju The Expulsive Power of a New Affection by Thomas Chalmers Do You Pray? by J.C. Ryle This brief book probes into your heart and mind regarding the subject of prayer, and each chapter ends with the penetrating question "Do you pray? Ryle's pastoral heart shines through as he seeks to instill within the reader a burning desire to spend regular time in prayer.  This book is short enough to read in one sitting, but has enough to chew on that it would be worth slowing down and mediating on the sections.  The question "do you pray?" is about the habits of personal and private prayer. I'm sure there are many who pray with others, who bow their heads before meals, or even lead prayer at worship gatherings. The question that Ryle wants to know is if you pray when no one else is there to see or hear yo...

My Journey Through Translations I began my initial draft of this mini-series on Bible translations last summer. As I was finishing the article, I began to see the ESV pop up in online discussions because of changes being made (again) and now more people are walking away from the ESV as a result. My reasoning for my decision to change away from the ESV differs from why others are doing the same, and I officially transitioned away from the ESV back in August of last year. I do think the textual changes are a significant issue, but I believe what I will discuss in these posts may be even more significant. I grew up on the NKJV, and I have to say, I still feel very at home when I open and read from it. Most of my memorization work was in the NKJV, and it remains an elegant translation (many of those currently abandoning the ESV are going with the NKJV, and understandably so). I still consider it a top 3 translation. I started exploring other translations when I went off to college, and pro...

Someone recently gave me a tip for AI image generation and its too good not to share. I've been using AI image generation for some time for create unique, passage-specific images to use for presentation slides for my sermons. Sometimes these look pretty good. Other times they don't. I recently learned how to take my AI game to the next level, and it's a really simple trick: Use AI to translate your thoughts to AI. No, really. Ask AI to give a prompt that you can use for AI image generation. What does this look like? After a friend of mine showed me how it worked, he joking said something like "can you imagine the billboards that John Hagee would have had if he had access to these tools back in the day?" And I took that as inspiration. I went straight to chatGPT and said,  I want an image that makes use of the themes John Hagee would preach about regarding end times. This image would be used on a billboard warning that the end was near ChatGPT responded with: Here’...

Here are the books I've read in January. While some the sections here are more traditional "book review-y" than others, these aren't intended to be formal book reviews but rather just my overall impressions and thoughts as I finish each book.   In this post (click to skip to section): Thomas Jefferson  by Joyce Appleby How Does Sanctification Work? by David Powlison The Preacher Behind the White Hoods  by John Collins Thomas Jefferson By Joyce Appleby This is part of the American Presidents Series published by Times Books. This set (minus two volumes) was gifted to me a while back and I've started reading through them. Last year I read the volumes on George Washington and John Adams. The bullet points here represent my impressions on this volume, followed by one critique I would have of the book. I'm not educated enough on the American presidents to offer my critique or evaluation of this biography in terms of its historical accuracy. From Appleby's presen...