Source: You Don’t Owe Your Toxic Mother a Card, Candy, or Quality Time on Mother’s Day
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You Don’t Owe Your Toxic Mother a Card, Candy, or Quality Time on Mother’s Day
Where is the Story of the Woman Caught in Adultery really from?
Amen…
This is a guest post by one of my former master’s students at Dallas Seminary, Kyle Hughes. This was his term paper in the course Advanced Greek Grammar, now published in the vaunted journal Novum Testamentum. Although he credits me with strong input and support, he went much further and worked far more closely with the primary sources than I would have. I am grateful for his endeavors.
Kyle R. Hughes, “The Lukan Special Material and the Tradition History of the Pericope Adulterae,” Novum Testamentum 55.3 (2013): 232–251.
The great majority of scholars hold that the so-called pericope adulterae or “PA” (the story of Jesus and the adulteress found in John 7.53–8.11) is not original to John’s Gospel. The first manuscript of John to include this story is Codex Bezae (D), which dates to the fifth century, and on internal grounds these verses interrupt the narrative of John’s…
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Silent Saturday
Silence.
Eery quiet.
Fear and anxiousness.
Despondency and hopelessness.
Most of all, the silence. It pressed like a weight on one’s chest, making every breath difficult and painful.
So different from how things were just a few days ago when the world seemed filled with hope and promise.
The laughter and cheers filled the air and echoed off the walls of the narrow street of the ancient city.
And there was joy!
But this Saturday morning, normally a day set aside each week for quiet reflection on all that God had done through the ages, the reflections were dark, helpless, hopeless.
The mind held the raw terror and shocking violence of the previous day like a mother holding a still-born child. Numbness and distress both battled for supremacy. Neither won.
The small group of the faithful huddled together in the shadows couldn’t make eye contact with each other. They were each lost in their own misery and gloom.
They were living Jeremiah’s lament: “”So I said, ‘My endurance has expired; I have lost all hope of deliverance from the Lord.’”
They were unaware that, tomorrow, the world would change forever. There would be hope and promise like they had never known.
No, today all they could hold onto was yesterday.
Yesterday they had watched—well, some of them had—the brutal killing of the one they believed had been promised from of old.
The One they had believed was the Messiah promised through the prophets for as there had been prophets.
Yesterday was what would be known in later times as “Good Friday.” For them, however, it was an evil day.
And they had no inkling that tomorrow would be Resurrection Day. Somehow they had missed the greatest promise of the One they had believed and followed these last few years—that He would rise again as Victor over Death.
No, all they could see was the darkness and hopelessness of today.
How like us so often. So easy for us to see our circumstances of the moment with no vision of the promises of the One who lay entombed that Saturday.
How easy for us to hold on to hopelessness and despondency instead of holding on to the sure knowledge that that tomb is empty, that death and defeat lost their power that Sunday morning.
How easy for us to wallow in Saturday, overshadowed by Friday.
How easy for us to focus more on the darkness of today rather than the promise of The Risen One, “I am the Resurrection and the Life. The one who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and the one who lives and believes in me will never die.”
How easy for us to huddle in the shadows, weighted down by doubt and worry instead of trusting and living in the promise that He “has overcome the world,” and that, in Him, “we are more than conquerors.”
Let us remember that, yes, we may be living in Saturday right now, Sunday IS coming!
Soli Deo Gloria
Is She a False Teacher? 7 Steps to Figuring it Out on Your Own
A great deal I could say. Simply put, though: this is a well-written blog that is reasoned and gracious. Well worth the read.
“What are your thoughts about _____?
Is she doctrinally sound? Is she a false teacher?”
That’s probably the number one question I’m asked by readers. It gives me so much joy each time I receive that question because it’s encouraging to hear from Christian women who don’t want to be led astray and want to worship Christ in spirit and in truth.
I’m delighted to answer readers’ questions about various teachers (You can find information about many of today’s best known evangelical personalities and ministries under my “Popular False Teachers” tab at the top of this page.) but, unfortunately, my answers often take a while. I’ve never heard of many of the teachers I’m asked about, and in order to give a fair and biblically accurate answer, I have to research each of them. The less famous they are, the less information there is out there about them, and…
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An open letter to the church from an abused Christian wife
Here is a quote from a blogger with an important message to those in leadership in “Church, Inc.”
‘Abuse isn’t “marital difficulties”. Our abusers aren’t just “angry men” or “men with anger issues” who “really want to do better”. They aren’t men who “aren’t understood by their wives” or who “aren’t being treated with respect” by us…’
Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ,
It is with a heavy heart, for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, and because of His grace that I sit down to write you. I’m writing for myself and for my sisters in Christ who suffer under the heavy hand of domestic abuse. You might hear that term and immediately think that you don’t know anyone living in an abusive situation so what I’m about to say really doesn’t apply to you. Please don’t think that. You probably do know someone who is being abused; you just don’t know it yet. Domestic abuse, domestic violence or, as it is often referred to today, DV, isn’t just about whether or not a man is physically beating his wife: He may or may not be but still be abusive. Abuse comes in many forms. Sometimes it manifests as physical abuse but not always. When…
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Debunking Silly Statements in Greg Gilbert’s “Debunking Silly Statements about the Bible: An Exercise in Biblical Transmission.”
Always delighted when sound scholarship brings correction, even in areas some might consider “mundane.”
Editor’s note: Robert D. Marcello, CSNTM’s Research Manager, has written a blog for my site. I approve this message.
Daniel B. Wallace
By: Robert D. Marcello
I recently came across Greg Gilbert’s article, “Debunking Silly Statements About the Bible: An Exercise in Biblical Transmission” at the Gospel Coalition, which is an excerpt from his book Why Trust the Bible? by Crossway. Since I work in the field of textual criticism every day, I am keenly interested in how people present this oftentimes difficult material to a lay audience. I began reading his article and found myself agreeing with his points even nodding my head in agreement to the claims. There is much that is helpful in this book and I’m always encouraged when Christians are thinking seriously about the text of the New Testament. However, some minor mistakes turned into major ones as I kept reading. Below is a…
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