give thanks!

No matter what language we are using (or studying) we should be giving thanks to the Lord!





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Romans commentaries

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At a weekly lunchtime study a few of us are going through Paul's epistle to the Romans. Though we should build upon our own reading and study of Romans, we will also find some commentaries helpful.   In choosing and keeping commentaries for each book of the Bible, I like to have at least one commentary in each of these categories: 1) exegetical, that is, focusing on the text in its original language; 2) expositional , which is a running commentary on the verses, both in meaning and application; and 3) devotional , relating more to the personal application of the biblical truths in that book of the Bible. Of course, some commentaries overlap these categories.  In the process of downsizing my own personal library (i.e., the physical books) over the last couple of years, I've been faced with choosing which commentaries to keep. On Romans, I have kept (and use) the following volumes:  Romans (Exegetical Commentary), by Thomas R. Schreiner (Baker Academic, 1998). Schrein...
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"I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the LORD!'" (Psalm 122:1) THE SONGS OF ASCENTS  are Psalms 120--134. These fifteen psalms are called the psalms of ascents, because traditionally they were recited on the way to the temple on Mount Zion, in Jerusalem. Each psalm has a particular theme related to being a pilgrim on the way to God's house.  Why are these psalms in the Bible? I believe that it is because we need to know that we, like the ancient Israelites, are citizens of the kingdom of God, sojourning in this world as resident aliens. We're on our way to God's glorious eternal kingdom in the new heaven and new earth (Matt 6:33; Heb 11:16; 1 Pet 2:9-12; 2 Pet 3:13). Here are the fifteen themes.  DEPARTURE (120). The psalmist does not literally dwell in Meshech (to the far north of Israel) or Kedar (far to the east) but feels as if he lives among barbarian people who do not care about the God of Israel. Their lives are characteriz...
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Kuyper and mysticism

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In the preface to his book To Be Near Unto God , Abraham Kuyper has these comments about having a proper mystical sense in our relationship with God...  As in everything that risks itself in the depth of mysticism, so in the preparation of these Meditations, lurked undeniable danger. The soul that seeks God involuntarily inclines to step across the boundary appointed of God, defined by the word "near," and to force an entrance into His Being. From the first I was on guard against this danger, and I believe I have escaped it. On the other hand, fear of this danger could not be allowed to repress that fervor and that spiritual warmth, which refreshes the soul only when the feelings are aroused and the imagination awakened. Mere thinking is not meditation, this is something quite different, and, in view of the wide-awake preparedness necessary to withstand the constant onslaught waged from the gates of hell against the Church of the living God, with a fierceness that neither res...
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