From the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary website:
If you keep current with all manner of national and international news, from politics to sports to literature to science and more, and if you like to think about how all these aspects of life in our world relate to the Bible and Christian faith and practice, you’re missing out if you’re not following Steve Tuell’s blog, “The Bible Guy.” Every couple of weeks, the Rev. Dr. Tuell engages a wide range of interesting topics as PTS’s James A. Kelso Professor of Hebrew and Old Testament.
For example, one of his post discusses the “whooping” controversy involving Minnesota Vikings’ running back Adrian Peterson in the light of biblical perspectives on disciplining children, as well as violence generally. In Part 2 of his series “Does the Bible Contradict Itself?” he talks about the surprising results of the stellar explosion SN2014J and advocates an approach of eager discovery to reconciling the Bible’s similarly puzzling parts. He even tackles the question, “Does learning weaken faith?”—reflecting a concern not only of preachers past but also of many Christian parents present when sending their children off to college.
Throughout Steve’s posts appear topically relevant photos ranging from works of classical art to Peanuts cartoons, scientific charts to historical portraits, schematic sketches to modern architecture. He weaves in observations on current literature, new films, global conflicts, and even his recent ankle-replacement surgery in an effort to inspire God-honoring thinking and living in modern society.
“I’m not interested in giving prescriptions, proscriptions, or pronouncements,” says Steve about his blog. “What I want and try to do in it is to wrestle honestly and faithfully with both the letter and the spirit of the Bible and its interpretation, so that readers log out with a deeper understanding of what it means to be and to live as Christians than when they logged in.”
To follow Steve’s blog, subscribe to “The Bible Guy.”
OLD TESTAMENT Ezekiel 17:22-24
22 Thus says the Lord God:
I myself will take a sprig
from the lofty top of a cedar;
I will set it out.
I will break off a tender one
from the topmost of its young twigs;
I myself will plant it
on a high and lofty mountain.
23 On the mountain height of Israel
I will plant it,
in order that it may produce boughs and bear fruit,
and become a noble cedar.
Under it every kind of bird will live;
in the shade of its branches will nest
winged creatures of every kind.
24 All the trees of the field shall know
that I am the Lord.
I bring low the high tree,
I make high the low tree;
I dry up the green tree
and make the dry tree flourish.
I the Lord have spoken;
I will accomplish it.
GOSPEL Mark 4:26-34
26 He also said, ‘The kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground, 27 and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow, he does not know how. 28 The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain in the head. 29 But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.’
30 He also said, ‘With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable will we use for it? 31 It is like a mustard seed, which, when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth; 32 yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.’
33 With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; 34 he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples.