The excerpt below is adapted from Tim Keller’s Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God, part of the Tim Keller Collection. *** I can think of nothing great that is also easy. Prayer must be, then, one of the hardest things in the world. To...
Prayer and personal study are vital to powerful biblical teaching, but good teachers and preachers know that they are not the first ones to travel these interpretive pathways. It is often helpful to access what other pastors and theologians have...
"Reading Cyril has helped me to see . . . that the heart of our faith is a person."
With all the Bible translations available, here are four reasons the CSB stands out. 1. The CSB is accurate and understandable These goals, taken from the CSB’s introduction, show the translators’ and publisher’s intention to honor God, preserve his...
"In studying the Bible, a big part of our goal is to understand the text in its original historical and cultural context. This means we have the difficult responsibility of trying to read God’s Word with “Middle Eastern eyes” instead of our innate...
The NIV Application Commentary (NIVAC) is 44 volumes that bring the Word’s ancient message into our postmodern context. Authors like Douglas Moo, Darrell Bock, and David Garland shed light on Scriptures. Billy Graham recommended NIVAC “for every...
Hilary of Poitiers (around AD 315–367/8) became bishop of Poitiers, in western France, in AD 350. Soon after, he was drawn into disputes over Arianism, the heretical teaching that Jesus was created by God the Father. Hilary was condemned in 356 and...
“Every man dies. Not every man really lives.” — William Wallace Faithlife’s list of 2019’s best Christian books is full of titles to help Christians really live (along with some fiction for fun). You’ll find books on parenting, building Christian...
Your Christmas service includes details you might not have to worry about the rest of the year—including the possibility of many first-time visitors walking through your doors. You should be focusing on them, not worrying about potential tech...
Who wants to spend more time in prayer next year? (My guess is that’s everyone.) Prayer is one of those few things you can do with excellence the first time you do it—and you can still get better at it. But becoming better at prayer is an exercise...
"Mounce is to be commended for producing a quality seminal grammar, and this latest edition is a worthy upgrade."
"One of the key elements for teaching any language is culture. . . . Yet in teaching biblical languages we sometimes forget this."
Every year, Christianity Today announces their “picks for the books most likely to shape evangelical life, thought, and culture.” That’s a tall order, and it makes the winners well worth looking at. For 2020, two Lexham Press titles carved out a...
“A class on Mary called ‘Mother of God’? At a Protestant school?” My admission that I teach such a class arouses incredulity, because not many transgress the ecumenical divide. Reflections on Mary have remained robust for millennia, but not in all...
"Bernard’s brilliance is not his use of so-called critical methods but in the fact that, as a monk, he had prayed, read and studied the Sacred Scriptures so intently that his vocabulary is literally a biblical vocabulary."
For over 60 years, Christianity Today (CT) has set a high standard in Christian publishing. Covering everything from current events to theological trends, the magazine and its authors have modeled evangelical cultural engagement at its finest. CT’s...
Happy Thanksgiving! As the smells of turkey and stuffing waft through homes across the United States, it’s the perfect time to thank God for his kindness and faithfulness to us. “Let us come into his presence with thanksgiving; let us make a joyful...
One of my warmest memories with Professor Hurtado occurred in 2014 at SBL in San Diego over a meal. We went to lunch at a French café and before we began eating, he paused and said: “Let’s pray over our meal.” He thanked God for the meal, closing...
These days are hectic and divisive—and while it can feel as if the chasms between each of us are deepening, recent films about Mister Rogers’ life are helping us remember our shared humanity. I recently went to a screening of A Beautiful Day in the...
In 2017, David Pleins and I released a new resource designed for students of biblical Hebrew: Biblical Hebrew Vocabulary by Conceptual Categories: A Student’s Guide to Nouns in the Old Testament, a user-friendly book from Zondervan that...
If you’re building church graphics slides for your service each week, you’ve probably wondered, How can I… do this faster? be sure I’m choosing the best backgrounds? get a consistent look for the entire presentation? keep from pulling...
We often read our Bibles as if Jesus made his first appearance in this world as a baby in the New Testament. Our story as Christians, we sometimes think, starts with the book of Matthew. But the Bible’s witness to Jesus did not begin there. A common...
"The impression we want to create is that Jesus is the reason why we have a New Testament. Jesus is the momentum, the event, the power, and explanation for why Christianity began"
1. Deuteronomy 15:6–11 When Yahweh your God has blessed you, just as he promised to you, then you will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow from them, and you will rule over many nations, but they will not rule over you. If there is a poor...
When someone new sets foot in your church, what happens? A greeter hands them a bulletin as they walk through the door, an usher helps them find their seats. Now what? Maybe your regulars introduce themselves and strike up a conversation. Maybe they...
This excerpt is adapted from The Lord’s Prayer: A Guide to Praying to Our Father by Wesley Hill, a new release from Lexham Press. At the center of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in the Gospel of Matthew, He offers to his disciples a model for prayer...
Can we properly interpret the Gospels without cultural scripts? That is, without knowing their historical and cultural background? Dr. Darrell Bock says no. Dr. Bock is the Executive Director of Cultural Engagement and Senior Research Professor of...
In my senior year of Bible college, I had two electives to choose from for my final theology class. I saw the option for Puritan Theology but thought, “This will be a very boring class. What could I glean from the Puritans?” You see, I grew up...
Pursuing your calling brings victories—and rejections. If downheartedness tempts you to lose focus, remember this thought from beloved rector and Bible scholar R. T. France: “Not everyone was impressed by Jesus.” Consider Jesus’ rejection as told in...
It’s difficult for parents to find things for their kids to watch on TV. What sources do you trust? How do you vet programs? Do you prescreen all the material you give to your kids, or find reviewers you trust to give you a summary? There are a...
