The reflecting theologian

Recently I was taking another course on the book of James. Similar to Romans, this is also a book that I have co-taught in church and studied in Eagles Rendezvous. Revisiting this book again yielded three reflection points. 1. The disciple's identification  The epistle by James is an interesting book within the New Testament to study. In my own NT study, I have also been fascinated by how economical the NT authors when it comes to their words - that they do not waste words in their letters. This manifests itself right from the beginning when the NT authors introduce themselves. Many of us will sometimes skip over the introduction, but we can learn a lot about the epistle itself as well as its application to our Christian life through the introduction. In James, for example, James introduced himself as a slave of God and the Lord Jesus Christ (James 1:1). The original Greek reveals much more, placing the the possession genitive (of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ) before the ...

(Originally sent out as an article under Eagles' Simply Proclaim) As preachers and teachers of Scripture, it is a core description of the job to exegete and to interpret the Word of God as accurately as possible. This is the most exciting part of the preaching and teaching process. Why so? This is because it is in the interpretation that I learn new insights about God. It’s from these new insights that I ponder and meditate on their implications and applications to my present context. However, as we all know, the task is not an easy one. Very often, our task of figuring out the original intention and message of the biblical writers goes too far—we overdo it and instead of reading  from  Scripture, we read too much  into  it. This means we read new meanings into Scripture that its writers never intended, because we fail to notice the cultural lenses we are using. We assume that the Bible values the same things we value, and condemns the same things we condemn. The ...

(Originally sent out as an article under Eagles' Simply Proclaim) I’ve spent most of my life dreading public speaking. Stage fright is natural, but watching great speakers, I had a hard time believing that they too started out like me—uncertain and afraid of making a bad impression. “Dude, you’re sure to bomb,” I kept hearing in my head. But in molding me to become a speaker, God showed me that the oft-cited fear of public speaking can be a good thing—you just have to channel it in the right way. It never really goes away, so you might as well use it to your advantage! Forget the old bromide of picturing the audience in their underwear. Here are three fears that once paralyzed me—and once I thought of them in the right way, freed me to speak with greater vitality and authority than ever. 1. Fear of Misrepresenting the Word of God The more I learn about the Scriptures, the more I realize how little I have grasped its incredible depths. Charles Spurgeon grasped this when he wrote, “...