God Does Not Always Give What We Ask (Peterson)

Eugene Peteterson's commentary on 1st and 2nd Samuel is not an exegetical commentary. It's not a longer and detailed commentary. And it's not a technical scholarly commentary. But I like it! Peterson often has a good way with Bible stories in that he sees angles and aspects that others might miss. I don't always agree…

He Knew He Didn’t Know Everything (Peterson)

 So far I'm very much enjoying Eugene Peterson's memoir, The Pastor.   While I don't always agree with Peterson's views, I do appreciate and benefit from his writing.  His memoir, The Pastor, is full of stories, wisdom, insight, missteps, and humor found in Peterson's Christian life story as told by himself. Here's one great story about Peterson's Ph.D.…

The Christian and Language

Language, all of it - every vowel, every consonant - is a gift of God.  God uses language to create and command us; we use language to confess our sins and sing praises to God. 

TheMessage100 – A Review

NavPress/Tyndale House recently sent me a review copy of The Message 100: The Story of God in Sequence (2015).   Here's the official website: themessage100.com.  This book is Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase The Message put in chronological order and separated into 100 chapters to make it read like a book.  To be sure, there are chronological Bibles…

Ordinary Pastor, Ordinary People

Sometimes I think the pastoral ministry is over-hyped in American evangelicalism.  It’s not uncommon for a young man to enter the ministry and expect tons of amazing things to happen in his ministry – things that he’s read about in the conservative evangelical world.  He might think that his ministry will be very well received…