Gen Men: What the Men of Genesis Can Teach Us Today, by D. Eric Schansberg, Resource Publications, 2025, 192 pages, paper, $24.00. Anyone who spends time surfing social media will likely have encountered this sobering meme: “Hard times create strong…
Genesis 3:14-21 The LORD God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust…
Beginning today I plan on posting daily (Mondays – Fridays) devotions for anyone interested. First and foremost these are for the folks I get to serve as pastor at Covenant Presbyterian Church. But I hope they are encouraging to…
We cannot properly interpret what God does, as He has recorded it for us in Scripture, unless we know something about the God who effects what is recorded for us in Scripture. In other words, there must be a hermeneutical (i.e. interpretive)…
Pope Francis’ recent and much-publicized change of the Catholic church’s position on the death penalty presents a challenge in the realm of theological and ethical reasoning. His rationale for denouncing the death penalty, according to the Vatican statement, is that…
“The things related in Scripture are not always proper to be imitated.” So notes Calvin midway through his commentary on the story of Isaac and Rebekah’s engagement and marriage–a story that, rather unpromisingly to modern ears, begins not with star-cross’d…
Over the years it has been my practice, learned from others, to offer up praises and petitions framed by a passage of Scripture. Some of these passages were read in preparation for preaching, others offered material for meditation in daily…
“This chapter contains a most memorable narrative.” Thus Calvin introduces his readers to Gen. 22, that text which records God’s instruction to Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac, the long-awaited fulfillment of God’s promise and source of Abraham’s profound joy.…
Somewhat curiously, Calvin judged “the great number of inns” populating the landscape of his day to be rather obvious “evidence of our depravity” — the “our” in question being, in the first instance, early modern Europeans. What prompted such disapproval…
Scripture’s account of God’s command to Abraham to “circumcise the flesh of [his] foreskin” (Gen. 17.11; KJV) affords Calvin ample opportunity to reflect on the reality and nature of sacramental signs. Thus he is keen, in his comments on this…
