Round the Sphere Again: Suggestions for Readers

What to Read
Two lists:

• A bunch of books on the Bible (Kevin DeYoung).
• Recommended books from speakers at the 2012 Gospel Coalition National Women’s Conference (Justin Taylor). All excellent recommendations, but I’m a little surprised D. A. Carson’s The God Who Is There doesn’t show up anywhere.

One review: 

• Luma Simms recommends an e-book on evangelism, The Unbelievable Gospel by Jonathan Dodson.

What You Didn’t Read
I’ve not read Pilgrim’s Progress. Nope, never. I’ve tried, but apparently allegory isn’t my thing. It doesn’t help that my mother tried to read Pilgrim’s Progress to me as a child and I was unimpressed. 

See: I just followed this advice from Aaron Armstrong. 

Thankful Thursday

First, I want to acknowledge the wonderful summer weather we had today and that we will have for the next few days, if the weather report is to be believed. Finally, summer is here: The sky is bright blue; it’s hot, but not too hot; the daylight hours are still long. I’m so thankful. 

I’m also thankful that God is eternal. He’s always been and always will be, and that means he will always exist to fulfill his promises to us.

And isn’t being eternal in the sense of transcending time an important part of God’s ability to control time—to create it and declare what occurs in it? That we have seasons and days and nights, that babies grow, that we mature, is dependent on God’s eternality. That God planned salvation before the foundation of the world and brings it about in history is dependent on his eternality, too. The God who works all things for our good is not subject to time, but controls and uses it to bring about his perfect will. All the more reason to be thankful that God is eternal.

Round the Sphere Again: Learning from the Bible

The Evidence
“Most people who hold to the doctrine [of eternal hell] do so not because they want to, but they have simply been overwhelmed by the biblical evidence”: A list of passages from scripture that describe hell as eternal (The Cripplegate).

The Reasons
A list of ten reasons you should use a commentary for Bible study and a few reasons you should be careful how you use them (The Bible Archive).