A Review of HISTORY’S The Bible

***Sandra and Maureen are taking a week off from blogging fun. They’ll be back to their usual schedule next week. In the meantime, please enjoy this guest post by RTB’s Dean of Online Learning (and former film reviewer) Krista Bontrager.***

 

Great Is Thy Faithfulness

Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

— Lamentations 3:22–23

These verses, from a book whose title refers to “the act of expressing grief,” influenced the lyrics of “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” A staple of church hymnals, this beautiful song celebrates

 

Demystifying Prayer

Technology begets humility. Just ask my coworker and I how long it took us to sync a new keyboard to my Mac. What should have been a quick setup took a few phone calls to our onsite Mac guru and a lesson on how to find the power button. (We’ll take some whipped cream with that humble pie, please.)

As it turns outs, syncing new equipment isn’t as complicated as we make it out to be. Sometimes the solution is right in front of us waiting to be examined.

 

Star of Wonder

Every holiday season, a man living in the hills above my hometown lights a star of Bethlehem display. The star is over 20 feet high and, on clear nights, can be seen for miles around. Just a few years ago, an October fire tore through the foothills. My father, a firefighter, told me the house with the star was among the property lost to the flames. But despite personal loss, the star’s maker still lit the beacon that December.

For as long as I can remember that star has marked the beginning of the Christmas festivities. I see it on my way home from work and as I go about my holiday shopping. It is a simple, silent reminder of the hope Christ brought to the world over 2,000 years ago.

 

Why I Heart the Big Bang

Inspiration for this week’s post comes from Facebook, but bear with me. I assure you it has nothing to do with politics or meme generators. In honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday, several virtual friends have posted real things for which they are thankful. Last week my blogging cohort posted a few gems from Hugh Ross’ thanksgiving list—one that includes gas giants and whale excrement. Oh joy!

For me, the big bang theory comes to mind when I think of features found in nature for which I’m grateful.

 

Thoughts on Palm Sunday

As we’ve done the past four years, we will be spending Palm Sunday weekend at the Mount Hermon Christian Writers’ Conference amid California’s glorious coastal redwood forest. Encountering such natural beauty—from towering trees to chattering Steller’s jays—serves as a striking reminder of our Creator’s power and majesty. And it’s a great way to begin Holy Week.

Here we share our individual reflections on Palm Sunday and offer a collection of RTB resources about other Holy Week observances.

 

Piecing Together the Creation Texts

My family loves solving jigsaw puzzles. We always start by finding the corner pieces and then the edges. With the frame complete, puzzle-building becomes a practice in patience as everyone takes turns examining pieces, studying the image on the box, and trying out different combinations. Slowly, from the mound of seemingly unrelated pieces emerges a clear picture.

Something similar happens when we integrate creation texts from throughout Scripture. If someone asked us to show them the Bible’s creation story, most of us would point to Genesis. But Genesis isn’t the only piece to understanding God’s creative acts or the natural realm.

 

Serving up Sweet FAQs

A casual dinner with my sister reminded me of one of her endearing (and enduring) traits—a penchant­ for sweets. You’d hardly believe it given her small frame, but she readily fesses up that she “eats dinner to get to dessert.”

If there’s one “sweet” thing RTB president Hugh Ross can’t get enough of, it’s Q&A.

 

What’s Your Favorite Animal?

This Monday, Halloween ushered in the holidays. That means that, along with department store sale ads and turkey-themed cooking magazines, our mailbox is stuffed with appeals from charitable organizations. Each holiday season, World Vision (my personal favorite—other than RTB, of course) sends out a gift catalog featuring various farm animals that supporters can help provide for families in need.

 

Evil, Suffering, and Hidden Treasures in the Book of Job

“My friends cautioned me not to write this book. They warned me, ‘No one who attempts to write any kind of commentary on Job can escape without some new experience in suffering.’ They had a point.”

  -Hugh Ross, Hidden Treasures in the Book of Job

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In the years it took Hugh to write Hidden Treasures in the Book of Job, he (and his wife, Kathy) endured profound personal suffering. Some of those trials, including the loss of their fathers and almost losing their son, are shared in his latest book.

Hugh’s intent was to write on the science content in Job. Instead, the book developed into a conversation about the connection between creation theology and evil and suffering.