[ mites from our momentary marriage and ministry ]
While preparing for a sermon on Psalm 42 recently, I stumbled across an odd text-critical issue. Most commentators point out the presence of a repeated refrain/chorus in verses 5 and 11, which also appears in Psalm 43:5. In several English translations, these are rendered identically, e.g. ESV: “5 Why are you cast down, O my …
Continue reading “Textual issues in the “chorus” of Psalm 42-43″
We’ve just finished a six-part series on the Sermon on the Mount at our church. No one told me how daunting it would be to scale the heights of Jesus’s words! But it’s been so good for my soul to chew on them these past weeks and to journey through them with our church family. …
Like many others, serving in gospel ministry during the COVID pandemic has meant picking up some part-time work to put bread on the table. In my case, literally: in God’s providence, the Lord provided 6 months of part-time bread merchandising work that dovetailed into our call to pastor a new church family where I’m preaching …
Continue reading “5 things I learned about preaching while stacking bread”
She is sitting at home. There’s peals of laughter as children play on the street outside. Her son sits in his chair – he’s itching to join in, but he’s not quite learned how to walk yet. She strokes his hair, smiles, and offers him another spoonful, and wonders what the evening will bring. A …
Note: An adapted version of this article is published at https://au.thegospelcoalition.org/article/good-bloke-joseph/. A common understanding of Joseph’s dilemma when he discovers Mary is pregnant is that it puts him in two minds about whether or not to go ahead with marrying her. We usually read Matthew 1:19 through modern lenses and suppose Joseph here is wondering …
Continue reading “Don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife?”
