Articles for tag: Psalms

April 12, 2015

Christian Standard

How Should Christians Suffer?

By Mark W. Hamilton The Bible helps us answer the question. A good beginning point is in the psalms of lament. Pain and suffering. This word pair names one of the most difficult problems facing Christian faith and practice today. Some Christians seek to dodge the problem by imagining that suffering always marks the presence of sin and that God, because he is good, wishes us to escape pain in all instances. This despite the obvious facts that the pain of Jesus lies at the very heart of the gospel, and that he called us to imitate him as suffering

March 18, 2015

Christian Standard

The Church”s Original Hymnbook

By Jim Tune There is an energy about the Psalms. I love the raw honesty that spills out everywhere as David and others confess their inadequacies, cry out for mercy, or plead for justice to fall viciously on their enemies. The Psalms have a voice of their own. Perhaps that is why the book of Psalms touches me in a way that some others in the Bible do not. A friend once suggested the opposite of Psalms is Romans. I get that. In that rather formal letter, Paul meticulously lays out the foundations of the faith by following a specific

December 8, 2014

Christian Standard

Lesson for December 14, 2014: Make a Joyful Noise (Psalm 95)

This treatment of the International Sunday School Lesson is written by Sam E. Stone, former editor of CHRISTIAN STANDARD. It is published in the December 7 issue of The Lookout magazine, and is also available online at www.lookoutmag.com. ______ By Sam E. Stone  Psalm 95 begins with a call to sing praises to the Lord. The invitation to come is found three times in today”s text. The messianic implication in these verses is confirmed by the usage of this psalm in the New Testament. It is quoted in Hebrews 3 and 4, where it is attributed to David. Leslie S. M”Caw observed, “The anthem

October 25, 2014

Christian Standard

Books for Bible Students: Reading the Bible for All Its Worth

By Mark Matson If I had to choose just one Bible handbook to accompany solid Bible study, it would be How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth (Zondervan) by Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart, both well-known and respected biblical scholars. This book, now in its third edition, has proven itself over three decades. The first edition, which came out in 1981, is still valuable, and the latest edition is a real treat. I use this book for college and seminary classes, and I also recommend it to my church. Fee and Stuart”s book is not a handbook, as

October 23, 2014

Christian Standard

Books for Bible Students: Read These Books to Understand the Old Testament

By Gary Hall The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament by John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, and Mark W. Chavalas (Intervarsity Press, 2000) The cultural and historical background of the Old Testament is a mystery to most Christians, leading to many misinterpretations. This book begins with Genesis 1 and goes through the entire Old Testament, section by section, giving crucial sociocultural, historical, and geographical information. It is a treasury of facts that brings the text to life and enables Bible students to penetrate many of the barriers to Old Testament understanding. It is well informed, accurate, easy to use,

April 23, 2014

Christian Standard

Westminster High

By Daniel Schantz On the sixth day of our London tour, my wife threw me a curve. “Tomorrow is Sunday,” Sharon said, “so I would like to attend services at Westminster Abbey.” My face fell. Oh, no, not that place. That”s “high church,” Anglican. I don”t want to be sitting around in a dark, musty cathedral watching priests perform mysterious rituals and listening to Latin mumbo jumbo and mournful choirs. “OK,” I said, cheerfully, “Westminster Abbey it is. It could be interesting.” We were celebrating our 50th anniversary with a trip to London””Sharon”s lifelong dream””and I was determined not to

March 3, 2013

Christian Standard

ASL Version of Bible Released as Mobile App

By Jennifer Johnson Deaf Missions, producer of The Bible: American Sign Language Version, recently released this Bible translation for the deaf as a mobile application for smartphones and tablets. The free app, Deaf Bible.is ASL, was developed by Faith Comes By Hearing, a leading audio Bible ministry based in Albuquerque, NM, using the video content translated and produced by Deaf Missions. The entire New Testament and 22 books of the Old Testament currently translated into American Sign Language (ASL) are included, along with the 2001 English Standard Version text of the whole Bible. The mobile app also features the sign

September 12, 2011

Christian Standard

Interview with Jim Phegley

By Brad Dupray Jim Phegley was sitting in the barber”s chair when he heard that a plane had crashed into one of the twin towers in New York City. With half-shorn hair, he saw another airliner strike the second tower and went right to work doing what he does best, ministering to people in his church. Jim has been senior minister of Glen Cove (New York) Christian Church for 27 years. The church on Long Island became a place of solace on the evening of September 11, 2001, and continued as a place of ministry outreach after that. Jim”s heart

August 16, 2011

Christian Standard

Who”s the Hero?

By Teresa Welch During my 15-year tenure as a children”s minister, I was proud of how much Bible content the children learned. But now I wonder if that was enough. Whether it was through Sunday school, kids worship, youth groups, or summer programs like church camp and Vacation Bible School, I knew children were learning the Word of God. However, as I reflected on those years, I saw a problem. Sometimes our efforts to make sure children were learning the Word of God didn”t lead them to learn about God. Certainly we taught about the number of stones David collected

May 19, 2011

Christian Standard

If You Want to Know God, Immerse Yourself in the Psalms

By Barry McCarty Like most Christians, I have always loved the book of Psalms. It was the first hymnbook of the early Christians and the hymnbook and prayer book of the Jews. Jesus died with the words of the Psalms on his lips. After his resurrection, he told his disciples: “Everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled” (Luke 24:44, New Revised Standard Version, author”s emphasis). No other book of the Old Testament is so often quoted in the New. It is a storehouse of messianic prophecies that the first Christian

January 10, 2011

Christian Standard

The Cure for Moralistic Therapeutic Deism

By Jon Weatherly Nothing alarms church folk quite so much as problems with the young folk. So it was about five years ago with Christian Smith and Melinda Lundquist Denton”s book, Soul Searching: The Religious and Spiritual Lives of American Teenagers. Smith and Denton”s research produced the phrase “moralistic therapeutic deism” to describe the typical American teen”s view of God. It”s “deism” because the god of the typical teen is mostly distant and uninvolved. It”s “therapeutic” because that distant god still wants everyone to have a happy life and occasionally is willing to get involved when a person has an

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