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"Nothing Can Make Them Stumble" - 21 July 2024

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  Princes persecute me without cause, but my heart stands in awe of your words. There are places in our world, O Lord, where injustice, immorality, and inhumaneness sit enthroned and empowered, violently and viciously crushing people and even seeking to harm your chosen ones. Lift up the downtrodden and demoralized, show strength with your arm; scatter the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; and bring down the mighty from their thrones (Luke 1:51-52). I rejoice at your word like one who finds great spoil. Eternal God, look upon these United States of America that there may again be great joy at your Word, like the joy of those who have found a priceless treasure. Many who are in office claim to be disciples of Jesus, and fellow believers. Especially for them we beg you to shape their desires, direct their actions, protect their families, and build them up to pursue God-defined justice, equity, and the common good for all in this land – the free born, foreign born and unborn. I h
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Leviticus (ZECOT) by Jay Sklar. A Review

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  One time, a little over two decades ago, I taught an adult class at my church on the Old Testament biblical book, Leviticus . After one of those classes a parishioner walked up and disgustedly asked, “Why are you teaching on that book? Seriously?! None of it really matters anymore.” Even after I showed her how it clearly showed up in the New Testament, such as in Hebrews, she harrumphed and wheeled around and stormed off dismayed. So, needless to say, I was delighted when Jay Sklar, a professor of Old Testament and vice president of academics at Covenant Theological Seminary, St. Louis, produced a new commentary on Leviticus. This 864-page hardback is part of Zondervan’s Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament: A Discourse Analysis of the Hebrew Bible (ZECOT). Though written with those who have the technical skills in mind, it reads well and will be easily followed even by those with little to no Hebrew in their tool bag.   The format is fairly standard for the ZECOT series.
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"The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry" by John M. Comer. A Review

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  The whole book is easily summarized in the title, "The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry." John Mark Comer, founding pastor of Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon, author and teacher, has written this 304-page popular, breezy hardback to seek to help people push back against the divine tyrant, "Hurry." It was a noble effort that I think he successfully achieves, mostly. Since there are thousands upon thousands of ratings and reviews, I'll make mine quick-ish: cons then pros. The cons are three. The first, rather nitpicky on my part, has to do with a Greek word he references. "Keep in mind, the Greek word that we translate "salvation" is soteria ; it's the same word we translate "healing." When you're reading the New Testament and you read that somebody was "healed" by Jesus and then you read somebody else was "saved" by Jesus, you're reading the same Greek word"  (77). Actually, I don't know anywh
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"Glorious Things of You Are Spoken" - 14 July 2024

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  On the holy mount stands the city he founded; the LORD loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God. Selah. Sometimes, Lord, we forget that you love the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Sometimes we think you should cherish our country more than you do your Church. Sometimes our constitutional concerns become more important to us than the cares of your kingdom. So, remembering that you love the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob, we still pray for our country as you have bidden us to do. Tensions abound on the right hand and on the left. There are places and spaces of injustice in our courts, on our streets, on top of buildings, behind closed doors, and out in the open. Therefore, we implore your kindness and goodness to come and smother the seething cinders and to promote civil righteousness, fairmindedness, helpfulness and benevolence. Thank you for the many who ar
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"Finding Jesus in the Storm" by John Swinton. A Review.

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  Instead of allowing clinic diagnoses to dictate the direction of life and become one's destiny, John Swinton, a one-time mental health nurse and now Chair in Religious Studies and Divinity at the University of Aberdeen, encourages a different approach. Swinton's 2020 book, "Finding Jesus in the Storm: The Spiritual Lives of Christians with Mental Health Challenges" is geared toward giving people with serious mental health challenges (notice, not mental illness), and those who care for them, a more respectful and wholesome way of perceiving their situation. It's not an anti-psychiatry diatribe, though he does challenge assumptions. Rather, for example, he shows the pros and cons of allowing DSM V to narrow what we see and how we engage those living with these mental health challenges. Since there are plenty of other reviews, I'll make this simple. Swinton's stated goals for the book are very clear, and run the entire volume. First, "to provide reader
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"Oh, Continue Your Steadfast Love" - 7 July 2024

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  Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. The words of his mouth are trouble and deceit; he has ceased to act wisely and do good. He plots trouble while on his bed; he sets himself in a way that is not good; he does not reject evil. Our hearts, O God, grieve for those who have never repented of their sins, believed in Christ and avowed him as Lord (…). Save them, work mightily penetrating their resistance and draw them into your family.   But we also pray for those in our world whose words are trouble and deceit, who plot trouble on their beds, who set themselves in a way that is not good and don’t reject evil. Restrain, O God, and vanquish their bloodlust and bring order and honor to fill the void. Your steadfast love, O LORD, extends to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds. Your righteousness is like the mountains of God; your judgm
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“Suffering in Silence” by Timothy Mulder. A Review.

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In what ways can a congregation actually help those with mental health issues? How have churches been harmful and hurtful toward those with mental illness? Are there sensible things pastors and elders can do in this area? Those, and many other questions, get answered by Timothy Mulder, graduate of Reformed Theological Seminary-Houston, who lives with an ongoing bipolar disorder, and his 196-page paperback “Suffering in Silence: Ministering to Those with Mental Illness”. It was written in 2023 “for those in the church who want to serve those with mental illness better” (ix) and, I think, hits its mark. Though the book is primarily dealing with how to help men and women living with depression a bipolar disorder, much of what is between these covers will aid pastors and congregants in serving people with other mental health diagnoses. Mulder addresses commonly held myths about mental illness, and quickly discusses a number of notable people throughout the ages who lived with ongoing menta
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