Christmas and End of the Year Musings (12/22/2023)

Riddleblog and Blessed Hope Updates:

  • For some reason, I was not getting notifications when folks comment on Riddleblog posts. I was also gone for several weeks in November. So, I missed a number of your questions/comments. Very sorry, but I think the problem has been fixed.

  • I should have a release date for Season Three of the Blessed Hope podcast soon—early in the New Year. I’ve been hard at work, getting the first few episodes of our study of 1 Corinthians ready. I’d like to have several episodes “in the can” before season three begins.

  • The Riddleblog Series on the Book of Daniel is underway.

Thinking out loud:

  • Count me among the vast majority of Americans who do not want to see either Trump or Biden nominated by their respective parties. Every news cycle reveals more cringeworthiness, disrespect for the rule of law, and ineptitude from both of them. There are 340 million Americans and this is the best the Ds and Rs can do?

  • Why do personal injury attorneys always seem to wear incandescent blue suits in their commercials and billboard ads?

  • The NCAA better fix the NIL mess with college football—this current signing date and transfer portal situation is pure chaos.

Christmas Reading:

Many consider Martin Luther’s Commentary on Galatians, or his Bondage of the Will to be his most important books—they are. But my personal favorite is his Christmas Book edited by Roland Bainton. Bainton has assembled Luther’s sermons and reflections on the incarnation and birth of our Lord. Luther’s awe and wonder at what God has done for us in Christ is thoughtfully and beautifully expressed in this volume. It is well worth reading at any time, but if you plan to read a devotional this Christmas, don’t overlook this one.

After quoting Isaiah 9:6, Luther writes, “this is for us the hardest part, not too much to believe that He is the son of the Virgin and God himself, as to believe that this Son of God is ours. That is where we wilt, but he who does feel it has become another man. Truly it is marvelous in our eyes that God should place a little child in the lap of a virgin and that all our blessedness should lie in him. And this child belongs to all mankind. God feeds the whole world through a babe nursing at Mary’s breast. This must be our daily exercise: to be transformed into Christ, being nourished by this food. Then will the heart be suffused with all joy and will be strong and confident against every assault.”

Currently Reading:

I’m currently working my way through John M. G. Barley’s book Paul & the Power of Grace—background work for season three of the Blessed Hope Podcast series on 1 Corinthians. It is an abridged version of his larger work, Paul and the Gift, which several (Moo and Schreiner) have pointed out is perhaps the most important book on Paul in the last twenty years. I am especially looking forward to Barclay’s discussion of the new creation (Galatians 6:11-18) and his take on Romans 9-11. I’ve skimmed his treatment of grace and power in 1 Corinthians and found it insightful.

Barclay aims to correct the New Perspective (NPP) view of “in by grace, stay in by works,” opting for “in by grace, stay in by grace,” while otherwise accepting the NPP understanding that Paul is primarily concerned with the Jew-Gentile relationship in the churches. I must confess, it is a joy to read a concise and clear text on Paul (unlike several others I’ve tackled recently).
Links to Recommended Resources:

Other Links:

Previous Musings: December Musings (12/1/2023)

Video: Nate Bargatze as George Washington was hilarious. When SNL is funny, it is really funny

MusingsKim RiddlebargerPostmillennialism, Bears and Taco Bell, Alaska as in Island, Season 3 of the Blessed Hope2 Comments