Reformation21

I recently finished Luke Timothy Johnson’s The Mind in Another Place: My Life as a Scholar (Eerdmans, 2022). I was eager to read it. I am always eager to read an autobiography about the intellectual and scholarly life of a person so accomplished and prolific as Johnson. The author provides a list...

A while back, I took an interest in the theology of Maximus the Confessor. I primarily became interested in him because he represents a theological capstone to Nicene-Constantinopolitan theology, and I want to keep sharpening and improving my own Christology as a pastor. If I wanted to understand...

A Church Is a Dangerous Place to Be Church - A Safe, Welcoming, and Casual Place?: A big stage with smoke machines and flashing spotlights, emotional music and songs, a man wearing jeans and a shirt with tattoos standing on a podium, a sign that reads “Welcome! You are loved here!” These are the...

Editor's Note: If you haven’t already, go back and read Part 1 , 2 , 3 , and 4 to catch up with where we are at!) (Read Part 1 of A Single's Choice here! ) A heart of contentment is possible because of Christ. Since his conversion, the apostle Paul had not had an easy life. He experienced frequent...

In remembrance of his late mother, the 19 th century Southern Presbyterian B.M. Palmer wrote, “Ah! We have but one mother on earth. Who can replace her in our thought? She who bore us in the walls of her flesh, in the strange community of a dual life; she who nourished us in feeble infancy from her...

Editor's Note: If you haven’t already, go back and read Part 1 , 2 , 3 , and 4 to catch up with where we are at!) BREAKING NEWS: a runner has tripped and fallen during their race! Wait, that runner looks familiar…It’s you. What happened that put you flat on your face? CUE INSTANT REPLAY. Okay, just...

Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers (Crossway, 2020), by Dane Ortlund, has been very well received in the broader Reformed and evangelical world. I was asked to review this book years ago, but it seemed that any form of engagement other than full appreciation was going...

Occasionally, I see and hear comments about the relationship between Reformed theology and the pagan world. Some are nervous and hesitant to appreciate non-Christian authors whereas others sometimes express deep appreciation and admiration for those who do not profess the faith but say things that...

We are approaching a once-every-four-year phenomenon. No, not the Olympics or the pageantry of elections, but the Bitcoin-halving (due in April). Monetary rewards for mining new bitcoins (which happens through computers solving complex math problems) get cut in half. Prior halvings coincided with...

Growing up, I remember being clearly taught that to be a true man was to be godly and to strive for Christlikeness. We were taught that being a man is not summarized by “being macho”. It is not about how many weights you can lift, going hunting, or fixing cars. The quintessential quality of...