Posts by Aaron B. Downs

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11 Suggestions for Your Summer

The publishers of the Christian Standard Bible recently sent out an email with a list of practical suggestions for using the summer to connect with neighbors for the advance of God's kingdom. Here's a modified version of that list: Move to your front yard. Think about where you're more likely to see your neighbors, and then spend your free time there. Read a book or enj...

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Book Review: Spiritual Gifts

Thomas Schreiner is the professor of New Testament Interpretation at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and has written The King in His Beauty: A Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments, along with numerous books and commentaries at both a scholarly and more popular level. His recent book, Spiritual Gifts: What They Are Why They Matter is a more popular lev...

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Reading the Psalms in Every Rhythm of Life

The Psalter has found massive popularity with Christians and non-Christians alike. The psalms have been sung, chanted, memorized, and meditated on by God's people, and others, for thousands of years. Simply put, the psalms are beautiful poems that speak to the soul and aid the soul in speaking to God. Whether the soul needs a medium for expressing sorrow, grief, joy, or th...

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Suffering and the Sovereignty of God

I love Narnia. If I could go anywhere and be anyone I would go to Narnia and I would be a Narnian. My love for Narnia has ebbed and flowed over the course of my life, beginning when I was a young child. My father read the Narnian chronicles aloud to all of us children after our evening family devotions. I loved hearing his different voices for the different characters. I p...

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Bible Translations: Best vs. Useful

Wherever there are people there are differences of opinion. Friendly debates are had (in person and online) about sports teams, cars, diets, and so on. These kinds of arguments don't really matter all that much (unless you're talking about the Vikings current Quarterback situation). When it comes to Bible translations, similar differences of opinion arisebut these differe...

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The Value of Vacation Bible School

My church recently hosted a Vacation Bible School. If you've ever helped out with a VBS before, you know the drill. Hand out flyers in the surrounding neighborhood. Decorate the church building. Distribute prizes ordered from the Oriental Trading Company. Act crazy. And then take a long nap when the week is over, because, for whatever reason, VBS is exhausting. But is VBS...

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Reading Large Portions of Scripture

Currently, the Wednesday night adult prayer group has been working through Luke's gospel. This study involves reading considerable amounts of Scripture in a short amount of time without being able to engage in deep teaching and discussion of everything that was read. This raises a really good question:is reading such a large amount of text at the expense of deep explanatio...

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