Arts and Culture on Reading The Bible

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Set Aside Your Culture when Reading the Bible

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Rather than translating the culture, then, we need to try to enter the culture. When people want to study the Bible seriously, one of the steps they take is to learn the language. As I teach language ...

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The Bible Needs to be Read in Context

Author

Vaughan Roberts

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Scripture

Psalm 119:160, Luke 24:27, Isaiah 55:11, Acts 17:11, 2 Timothy 3:16-17

With the exception of some of the Proverbs, the Bible does not contain isolated sayings. I should be wary about dipping into it at random and extracting individual verses without any regard for their ...

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Parachuting Into Unknown Territory

Author

Vaughan Roberts

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Scripture

Jeremiah 10:23, Proverbs 16:9, James 1:5, Psalm 32:8, Isaiah 30:21, Psalm 25:4-5, Proverbs 3:5-6

I am told that when SAS soldiers parachute into unknown territory they are trained to pause before moving. They must first get their bearings and only then set out for their destination. That is wise ...

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How being a Slave Shaped their Reading of Scripture

Author

Esau McCaulley

Keywords

Scripture

Galatians 3:28

The social location of enslaved persons caused them to read the Bible differently. This unabashedly located reading has marked African American interpretation since. Did this social location mean Blac...

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Reading Genesis by Marilynne Robinson | A Review

Author

Paul Koptak

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Robinson's Winsome Faith I’ve been reading Marilynne Robinson's novels and essays for some time now. Of her fiction, I’ve read Gilead , reflections of a retired minister written for his ...

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On Heaven and Hell

Author

Source Unknown

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Scripture

Exodus 32:null, Numbers 16:null, 2 Thessalonians 1:5-10, Mark 10:15, 2 Timothy 3:16, Romans 10:9

There’s a story of a young girl on a plane who was reading her Bible, and there was a businessman sitting next to her. He looked over to her and he said, you don’t really believe that do you?” And she...

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Reading the Gospels for the First Time

Author

Os Guinness

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Scripture

Revelation 3:15-16, Matthew 6:24, James 1:6-8, Luke 14:34-35, Revelation 2:4-5, 1 Corinthians 15:1-4, 1 Corinthians 1:18

Thomas Linacre was king’s physician to Henry VII and Henry VIII of England, founder of the Royal College of Physicians, and friend of the great Renaissance thinkers Erasmus and Sir Thomas More. Late i...

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Author

David N. Bastian

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I was told that our worship services should be designed with seekers in mind, and that unchurched people have neither the attention span nor the interest to give to the reading of Bible passages. The ...

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My Keeper’s Brother?

Author

Source Unknown

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One day the zookeeper noticed that the Orangutan was reading two books – the Bible and Darwin’s Origin of Species. In surprise he asked the ape, “Why are you reading both those books”? “Well,” said ...

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The Dickensian Approach to Storytelling (Or, Rather, the Biblical Approach)

Author

Mark D. Roberts

Keywords

Scripture

Genesis 1:, John 1:1-3

Sometimes great stories introduce the protagonist in the very first paragraph. In Charles Dickens’s Great Expectations, for example, we are immediately introduced to Pip, the central figure of the nov...

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Book Review: Spiritual Practices in Community

Author

Kayla Zowada

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Many of us have been involved in small group ministry, and if we are honest with ourselves, there are seasons when the groups can lack the dynamism of a fully-flourishing Christian ministry. This is w...

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Sermon Prep & Self-Awareness: Austin Carty's Guide to Authentic Sermon Writing

Author

Paul Koptak

Keywords

Some of the Words are Theirs: The Art of Writing and Living a Sermon by is a book by a preacher who loves the craft of writing . And what is the writing of poetry, fiction, essay, but offering ins...

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Author

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

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Give yourself unto reading. The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men’s brains, proves that he has no brains o...

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The Grievous Sin

Author

E. Randolph Richards and Brandon J. O’Brien

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 6:1

In 1988, I (Randy) moved with my wife and two sons (ages two and eight weeks) from Texas to Sulawesi, an island north of Australia and south of the Philippines. We served as missionaries to a cluster ...

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Elemental Claims of the Gospel by Walter Brueggemann

A Theological Giant's Final Word Walter Brueggemann’s passing on June 5, 2025 leaves a void in biblical scholarship that will last a very long time. He was still writing books and essays at age 9...

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Author

C. S. Lewis

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I have been reading poems, romances, vision literature, legends, and myths all my life. I know what they are like. I know none of them are like this. Of this [gospel] text there are only two possible ...

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Les Misérables: A Tale of Transformative Grace

Author

Scott B. Bullock

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 2:4-5, Colossians 3:10, Romans 8:38-39, Philippians 4:6-7, Psalm 23:1-4, Isaiah 40:31, Jeremiah 29:11

A Great (and Weighty) Work of Literature That Will Delight Like Moby Dick and War and Peace , Les Misérables is a hefty novel. Affectionately known as the ‘Brick’ for its formidable length, it c...

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The Ted Lasso Effect on Bros

Author

Scott B. Bullock

Keywords

**Spoiler Alert:**This review contains some minor spoilers about the plot of Ted Lasso . Content Alert: Ted Lasso contains adult themes, sexual content, and strong language. I’ve read at least ...

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Spare: Privilege and Pain

Author

Colleen Strachan

Keywords

What do the royals and a Rorschach test have in common? Both provoke reactions that tell us more about the attitudes and beliefs of the beholder than about the object of their gaze. This is not to say...

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A Review of "The Minority Experience" by Adrian Pei

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Scripture

Ephesians 2:14, Galatians 3:28, 2 Corinthians 5:18-20, Proverbs 31:8-9, James 2:1-4, Amos 5:24, Isaiah 1:17

Editors Note: This is perhaps less a review as a jumping off part to articulate some thoughts I developed while reading The Minority Experience. For a full review of the title, a cursory google search...

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Stories Expand our Lives

Author

Martha Nussbaum

Keywords

We have never lived enough. Our experience is, without fiction, too confined and too parochial. Literature extends it, making us reflect and feel about what might otherwise be too distant for feeling....

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Prayer of Adoration God, Almighty –

Author

Richard Herman

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Prayer of Adoration God, Almighty – holy, gracious, truthful and loving, we’re drawn by Your invitation to enjoy Your love, an invitation to feel Your touch and hear Your voice, to taste and see tha...

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Pursuing the Common Good in Community

Author

Don Everts

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In 2017 Rebekah Morris was teaching English and journalism at Cross Keys High School, a public high school in Atlanta. Noticing that her students had really important, insightful things to say about t...

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Thanking God for Places of Peace

Author

Cyd and Geoff Holsclaw

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Think back over your life and try to remember a place where you felt safe and at peace, a time when you felt relaxed and okay. It could be an outdoor place—like on a beach or sitting in a tree. Maybe ...

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Stick With What You’re Good At

Author

Stuart R. Strachan, Jr.

Keywords

Pablo Picasso lived among a group of artists in Paris in the early 20th century. One evening, the celebrated American writer Gertrude Stein was hosting a group of artists at her home, which doubled as...

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One of the Major Functions of the Skin

Author

Sam Jarrett

Keywords

Scripture

Psalm 139:13-14, 1 Timothy 4:4-5, Ephesians 5:29, Job 10:11, Genesis 1:27, 1 Corinthians 6:19

My wife was grading a science test at home that she had given to her elementary-school class and was reading some of the results to me. The subject was “The Human Body,” and the first question was: “N...

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The Controversial Cookies

Author

Reader’s Digest

Keywords

Scripture

Matthew 7:1-2, John 7:24, Proverbs 18:2, James 4:11-12, 1 Corinthians 4:5, Proverbs 21:2, Ephesians 4:31-32, Colossians 3:12-13

A traveler, between flights at an airport, went to a lounge and bought a small package of cookies. Then she sat down and began reading a newspaper. Gradually, she became aware of a rustling noise. Fro...

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Author

Eugene Peterson

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Exegesis is loving God enough to stop and listen carefully to what he says.

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Author

Rachel Held Evans

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When we turn the Bible into an adjective and stick it in front of another loaded work (like manhood, womanhood, politics, economics, marriage, and even equality), we tend to ignore or downplay the par...

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Enlighten us, O God, by your Spirit, in

Author

John Calvin

Keywords

Enlighten us, O God, by your Spirit, in the understanding of your Word, and grant us the grace to receive it in true fear and humility, that we may learn to put our trust in you, to fear and honor you...

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