What I’m Reading – 2/20/15

Below are some of the articles and books I’ve read recently that you may enjoy perusing.

• Recapturing the Voice of God: Shaping Sermons like Scripture, Steven Smith (forthcoming) – Southwestern Seminary’s Steven Smith has us a great gift in his upcoming preaching. You’ll definitely want to check it out. Here is an endorsement I wrote for it:

“I have wanted a book like this for much of my own preaching ministry because I sensed something was missing. Steven Smith has filled that void and rendered a valuable service to pastors and churches everywhere in this work. Genre was too long a neglected aspect of preaching, even expository preaching. Walking us through the entire corpus of Scripture, this professor of preaching shows us clearly how the substance and the structure of a text should shape the substance and structure of the sermon. Why we did not see this all along I do not know. With the publication of this book, we no longer have an excuse!

• “Song of Solomon: A Picture of Marriage, Christ,” by David Roach – This article, in which I am quoted, provides a good introduction for how we see both marriage and the gospel in the book of Song of Songs.

• “Why Is the Number of the Beast 666?” by Greg Beale – As I am preaching through Revelation at my own local church on Wednesday nights, articles like this have been very helpful. Beale says that in this verse, John is exhorting the saints to exercise spiritual and moral discernment.

• “They Loved Not Their Lives…,” by Will Taylor – An SEBTS student reflects on the 21 Egyptian martyrs and the call for missionaries to mimic their devotion to Jesus above all else.

• “Creation vs. Eternalism (The Age of the Earth, Part 1),” by Ken Keathley – SEBTS professor Ken Keathley begins a series of reflection on the age of the earth debate. These, as well as his helpful book on creation and evolution, will be well worth your time.