Joseph and the Unintended Authoritarian Politics
As an Old Testament scholar, I’ve been spending much of my time writing a commentary on Exodus. And as I worked through the first chapter, considering the predicament of the enslaved Hebrews in Egypt, it hit me: The exploitation of the Israelites was made possible by the drastic administrative policies Joseph implemented during the years Read more…
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Died: Andar Ismail, Prolific Writer Who Made Theology Simple
Andar Ismail, a prolific Christian writer who distilled theological truths into short stories accessible to ordinary Indonesians, died of congestive heart failure on August 25. He was 84. From 1981 to 2022, the pastor and seminary professor wrote 33 books, each containing 33 short stories, for his Selamatseries. Ismail described his literary style as gado-gado Read more…
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Boomers: Serve Like Your Whole Life Is Ahead of You
Not long ago, I visited my 99-year-old father and 97-year-old mother. My dad had just passed his driver’s test again, and a year before that, he published yet another book. He told me he wants to take up painting again. Then, with a mischievous look in his eye, my dad turned to me, a 60-something Read more…
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Should Christians Across Denominations Be Singing the Same Songs?
If you feel like it’s hard to keep up with the cascade of new worship music, you’re not alone. The industry is producing new releases at a quicker clip, and the typical lifespan of a worship song—the time a song remains in regular rotation for church worship teams—has shortened. Faced with a seemingly endless supply Read more…
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Choose This (Labor) Day Whom You Will Serve
Next week’s Labor Day holiday honors the contributions workers make to society and celebrates the power and goodness of human work. But the historical roots of the holiday—which is grounded in advocacy against horrific working conditions, including those faced by child laborers—reminds us that work can also be awful. Recent research bears witness to both Read more…
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When to Respond to Slander (and When to Ignore It)
This piece was adapted from Russell Moore’s newsletter. Subscribe here. Not long ago, a woman told me about a conflict she was having with a fellow member of her church. Conflict might be the wrong word, since it seemed mostly one-sided. The woman said that the other church member was telling falsehoods about her in hallway conversations Read more…
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