Gary Shogren's Blog
Ideally, a young girl should grow up surrounded by love; the adults in her life should be dependable; they should respect boundaries; they should alleviate fear rather than stir it up. We instinctively feel that all of these shoulds ought to be a given. But the sad reality is that a large percentage of girls,... Continue Reading →
To my surprise, I just found out that Zondervan republished my Thessalonians commentary some months back! You can now buy three full commentaries in one eBook! Mine has a lot of Greek in it, but also much application and thoughts on how to preach the letters. The collection includes Holmes NIV Application Commentary (which I... Continue Reading →
“We can’t interpret the Bible according to our own personal taste! Or twist it to conform with today’s culture! Or invent our own meaning!” Most of us evangelicals would say Amen. And we all could list Those People Out There who rewrite the Bible to fit their own ideas of truth. And then we go... Continue Reading →
Related essay: "False Apostles are Smacked Down by Hurricane Irma!" Human beings are wired to look for cause and effect. The car won’t start; that means the battery must be dead! That bell keeps ringing; there must be someone at the front door! But we don’t always get it right. If, for example, you are... Continue Reading →
We see it in panicked blog posts and garish YouTube videos, and hear it in whispers from concerned friends! That Rupert Murdoch is trying to take your Bible away from you and make you use the NIV Bible instead! That he is a friend to the Vatican and a pornographer and the guy who put... Continue Reading →
For Karen, on our 30th anniversary (orig. written May 2010) This is for the guys, but the women can listen in! Weddings are a great place to meet young women. Everyone is thinking of love and marriage, and some women want to meet guys. So go to weddings when you’re invited, even if you have... Continue Reading →
One of those, "Wish I had said this, in this way, but there's no way I could have improved on this statement by Russell Moore - I think sometimes pastors and leaders simply take whatever they find objectionable in the culture and rail against it. They sometimes use the language of decline, where we’re in the worst... Continue Reading →
I have always been a big reader, but never anything close to my list for 2016. That’s when I began to use the wonderful online group, Goodreads.com, to log the books that I have read, am reading, and want to read. I am up over 1900 books that I have logged as "read" in my lifetime, so... Continue Reading →
The devil has a Weapon of Mass Destruction, and it is called online pornography. Of help is the following article is by Jason DeRouchie of Bethlehem Bible College and Seminary. It is one of the best explorations of the topics of masturbation and sexual fantasy that I have read, and I repost it, knowing I... Continue Reading →
If I asked you “Who were the martyrs of the early church?” you would, quite properly, begin with Stephen in Acts 7; James in Acts 12; and then go on to Peter and Paul. “Brave, godly men were early martyrs” = a right answer But not a complete answer. Why not? Because we all, simply... Continue Reading →
Open Our Eyes, Lord! 