Christian Life

I feel prompted to post part of Psalm 2 this morning

¹ Why do the nations rage
and the peoples plot in vain?
² The kings of the earth set themselves,
and the rulers take counsel together,
against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying,
³ “Let us burst their bonds apart
and cast away their cords from us.”

I've just taken delivery of the commentary on 1-3 John (paid link) by Colin Kruse, published in the Pillar series by IVP.

Smalley (paid link), commenting on 1 John 2:3, is very helpful on the place of obedience in the Christian life.

Some of you are thinking "that's obvious!".

Genesis 2:18 describes God making Eve as a "helper" (עֵזֶר) for Adam.

This particular word occurs 19 times in the Old Testament, and it pays to notice carefully what it does and does not mean elsewhere.

What was the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and why was it a sin to eat its fruit?

Bruce Waltke is very helpful, on page 86 of his Genesis commentary (paid link):

One of the values of having a blog, is it gives me somewhere to put notes that will almost certainly not make it into the next sermon, but may interest some people. "If you're interested, for further reading,..."

Here's Bruce Waltke (paid link) on Genesis 2:

Doug Wilson is on fine form as he reflects on the popular Christmas Carol, Hark the Herald-Angels Sing.

Go read - it's worth it just for the list of possible biblical references within the carol. Indeed, just the other day someone had asked me where "sun (sic.) of righteousness" comes from.

I'm not sure anyone has taken the (alleged) implication Mayan prediction that the world will end on 21st December 2012 totally seriously. Actually, what the Mayans and others really thought about this is somewhat more complex, although unsurprisingly the media aren't terribly interested in nuance.

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God. (1 John 4:7)

Today, the Church of England's General Synod meets for 3 days; on the agenda for tomorrow is a debate and then a vote on "final approval" of the measure that could see women become Bishops in the Church of England.