I love working at Northern Seminary because we are serving God’s Kingdom every day.  We prepare students to become future pastors and positively impact their communities with the same effect of a rock being dropped into a mirrored lake…the impact forms rings which continue to grow and expand outward.  That’s exactly what our graduates do in sharing God’s word! One of our current students, Tash, felt God’s leading to attend Northern seminary but she was in need of financial support... Read more

The book of Job, as John Walton and Tremper Longman II point out in their recent book How to Read Job, “contains more extensive discussion of the cosmos and God’s role in it than any other book in the Bible with the possible exception of Psalms.” (p. 120)  Today we will look specifically at the discussion of the cosmos in the book of Job. The view of the cosmos presented in Job represents an ancient cosmic geography familiar to the... Read more

Christian Smith, in his must-read and challenging book, Bible Made Impossible, The: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture, contends that what many of us (evangelicals) affirm is impossible to hold with intellectual integrity. The fundamental problem that undercuts biblicism as a sufficient basis for articulating the Christian faith is interpretive pluralism. That’s the problem. The solution to the impossibility of coherently sustaining a biblicist approach to the Bible is to learn the read the Bible christo-centrically... Read more

Scott Peterson: ISTANBUL, TURKEY — When Turkey’s teachers returned to school in September, they found their numbers decimated by expulsions, more than half their textbooks gone, and some 2,250 educational institutions sealed with police tape. Schools have emerged as a critical battleground in Turkey, after a failed coup attempt on July 15 prompted sweeping purges of, by one estimate, 125,000 individuals from the police, armed forces, judiciary, and other ministries; more than 46,000 people have been arrested. Educators have borne the brunt... Read more

The question is What is God like in the Bible? Let’s ask John Goldingay, whose new book Biblical Theology: The God of the Christian Scriptures, presents a “biblical” theology. The topics of his book are all shaped first by God, hence: God’s person, God’s insight, God’s creation, God’s reign, God’s anointed, God’s children, God’s expectations, and God’s triumph. We could take far more “story” or “narrative” to Goldingay’s biblical theology for, as it is, the book is a topical exposition that... Read more

Christian Smith, in his must-read and challenging book, Bible Made Impossible, The: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture, contends that what many of us (evangelicals) affirm is impossible to hold with intellectual integrity.  The fundamental problem that undercuts biblicism as a sufficient basis for articulating the Christian faith is interpretive pluralism. That’s the problem. Smith contends a simple point in this chp, but it’s one that biblicists are incapable of accepting, unless they are willing to... Read more

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness, and put on the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility; that in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal; through him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy... Read more

SUFFERING STUDY BIBLE: A CRITICAL REVIEW By David George Moore Dave blogs at www.twocities.org and his videos can be found at www.mooreengaging.com I am currently writing a book (and speaking in various places) about what it means to trust God when suffering intersects our lives. It is the culmination of thirty years of wrestling with the issue…and not just theoretically. My dear friend, John, who himself has experienced much suffering recommended this new Beyond Suffering Bible. The good folks at... Read more

Issue: Tim Suttle, immigration and what it means to be a neighbor: I am raising my voice in opposition to the prospect of the United States Government rounding up and deporting millions of our neighbors because they do not have legal immigration status. I’m doing so as a Christian and as a pastor. Because, for the Christian, immigration isn’t about politics or economics. Immigration is a matter of hospitality, and a matter of adhering to the teachings of the Bible.... Read more

Cleveland Clinic: In recent years, studies have shown a strong link between our emotions and cardiovascular health. Research shows that hostility, anger, depression, anxiety and social isolation all lead to higher rates of heart disease. The reverse is true as well: Laughter, happiness and a sense of humor actually can help you to stay healthy. Research suggests laughter can decrease stress hormones, reduce artery inflammation and increase HDL, the “good” cholesterol, says the American Heart Association (AHA). The positive effects of laughter last 24 hours, the... Read more