My wife like a fruitful vine and my son like an olive plant

Here's Psalm 128:1-4 (NASB):

How blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, Who walks in His ways.

. . .

Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine

Within your house,

Your children like olive plants

Around your table.

Behold, for thus shall the man be blessed

Who fears the Lord.

. . .

Sounds good to me.

Responding to disobedience

This morning I finished reading the longest chapter in the Bible, Psalm 119. What a beautiful, encouraging, and challenging Psalm. I want to post what I've been convicted to see as a necessary (though perhaps not sufficient in some cases) part of a healthy Christian response to another's disobedience. Here it is in Psalm 119:136: "My eyes shed streams of water, Because they do not keep Your law." Who are the "they" in your life? The margin of the NASB translation says the literal translation of "shed" is "run down." May my tears run.

21st century slavery in your backyard

Read Nicholas Kristof's latest Op-Editorial in the NYTimes for more.

How to combat school bullying?

Read this NYTimes article for a solution.

Eternal Security

I am now reading the book "Still Sovereign: Contemporary Perspectives on Election, Foreknowledge, and Grace" edited by Thomas R. Schreiner and Bruce A. Ware. I'm on chapter 6 by Professor Wayne Grudem re: the interpretation of Hebrews 6:4-6 and whether a Christian can lose his/her salvation. Since I became a Christian in 2000 I have believed in eternal security, that is, once saved always saved. Dr. Grudem's exegesis of this difficult passage in Hebrews is staggeringly impressive, and is bolstering my belief in eternal security one hundred fold.

"Good" parents and their "bad" children

Provocative and hard-to-swallow article titled "Accepting that Good Parents may Plant Bad Seeds" at NYTimes by a professor of psychiatry in Manhattan.

Bewail the ban on the veil

See here for an excellent NYTimes article by Martha Nussbaum on the discriminatory arguments to ban the burqa.

Covenant vs. Dispensational Theology

I'm currently reading another book recommended by missionary Pastor Wayne Snyder here in Phnom Penh: "There Really is a Difference: A Comparison of Covenant and Dispensational Theology" (1990) by Renald E. Showers. I'm about half way through, and I highly recommend what I've read so far. I've been a Christian a little over 10 years and this is the first time I've read about these two views on the Bible's philosophy of history. This book is also my first in-depth exposure to a bunch of really neat Biblical issues that I knew very little about, such as the three Millennial views (Premillennialism, Amillennialism, Postmillennialism). I'm not sure yet which Millennial view I subscribe to, but this book is definitely helping me to decide.