Book Highlights

Short Lives are a Grace

If humans were immortals, they would go extinct from an accident, or a gradual build-up of misfitness.

According to the Bible, this is, indeed, what happened. When humans could live almost 1000 years, we got so bad that God had to wipe the slate clean with the Flood. Something similar happened with the Tower of Babel. Lifespans had begun to shrink, but Shem still lived for 600 years and mankind had to be dispersed, or else the evil they would be able to accomplish would be considerable.

Prayerful Parenting – Don’t Forget Sunlight

Raising children is all about faith, because ultimately, you cannot control what they do.

No matter what you have taught them, no matter how you have disciplined them, no matter how good an example you have set (and let’s be honest, none of us do any of those three things perfectly), your children can choose to turn from the path on which you have tried to set them.

That’s terrifying. It can be disheartening.

J.K. Rowling Understands the Gravitas of Fatherhood

Spoilers below, for the 3 people on the planet who have not read Harry Potter.

At the end of Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, we have the climactic scene of Voldemort’s reconstitution, and his attempted killing of Harry Potter. This is the moment where the series takes its darker turn: a fellow student is dead, the main villain, who has been a mere shadow in the distance, has regained his powers, and Harry himself is on the brink of being another victim.

Invitation to a Banquet

“The gospel invitation is an invitation to a banquet, which includes intimate fellowship…” with Jesus. From Blessed are the Hungry.

And wise table fellows will help make us wise.

The Christian life contains inherent obligations, as loyalty to any king does. But this king first bids us to sit down, to rest, and to share a meal with him.

Making Fun of Pharaoh

“…the tabernacle was modelled for polemical purposes, at least in part, on mobile Egyptian military tent camps that consisted of almost exactly the same three-part structure with the same measurements and that was oriented eastward (courtyard, inner reception area and the innermost chamber, where an image of the divine Pharaoh was flanked by two winged creatures!)” (Beale, The Temple and the Church’s Mission, p. 64)

Beale then goes on to describe that Egyptian military tents were even surrounded by four camps of troops, just like Israel in the wilderness. The tabernacle was Yahweh’s war headquarters.

This is given greater strength when we read the description of the Israelites in Exodus 12:41, which says that “all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.” Also translated “divisions” or “forces.” This is military language to describe God’s people just after we have been told that they have plundered the Egyptians. Just after God has made war against the gods of Egypt.

The tabernacle was making fun of the pretensions of Pharaoh. It was a slap to the face of worldly idolatry.