Back in mid-2020 (remember then?), we all chuckled at the use of the word “unprecedented” when talking about the times we were living through. Now the repeated refrain is how hard the last 18 months have been and how much we’ve been through. Yet the reason we hear this refrain so often is because it’s […]
I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. Job 42:2 We write in the hope that you will support The Serious Joy Scholarship at Bethlehem College & Seminary, the instrument that permits our students to receive a Bible-saturated, academically rigorous “Education in Serious Joy” and then […]
At Christmastime, most people skip the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1. But a study of this genealogy yields many valuable insights, a number of which focus on the five women listed among Jesus’ ancestors: Tamar (v. 3), Rahab (v. 5), Ruth (v. 5), Bathsheba (v. 6), and Mary (v. 16). The first four were […]
The Bible exhorts us to give thanks always and for everything. Gratitude is a perennial obligation for creatures, and especially for blood-bought creatures. Thus, it’s a gift of common grace that our culture continues to block out a specific time of the year to encourage gratitude. And on this Thanksgiving weekend, I find myself filled […]
Over the years I have collected lapel pins. I have pins that point to theological institutions, the United States Military, academic credentials, and even one that tips a hat to the local police department where I live. I like a nicely done pin and believe it looks good on a suit jacket. Bethlehem College & […]
Bethlehem Seminary in Yaoundé, Cameroon is a church-based extension site of Bethlehem College & Seminary. Dieudonné Tamfu (class of 2009), is the Director of the extension site where he is also serving as a full-time professor. For a seminary to be truly church-based, it needs to be in close association with a church or a […]
My favorite verse in the Bible is Romans 11:36: “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.” Several years ago I asked one of my friends to design that passage so that I could display it on canvas over the fireplace in our home. This […]
It’s easy to say “Praise the Lord!” in times of peace and plenty but more challenging when life is painful and perplexing. Psalm 113 provides us with fertile soil in which fresh praise can flower. “Praise” is the theme of Psalm 113 (the word occurs five times in nine verses). This psalm expresses when and […]
Why should we love God? This seemingly impertinent question is answered by the American theologian Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758). Edwards defined a truly virtuous person as exemplifying benevolence to all or displaying “consent, propensity, and union of heart to Being in general, which is immediately exercised in a general goodwill” (540).[1] In other words, to be […]