Gary Shogren's Blog
From a meeting of one of my classes on spiritual identity:It is only through confessing the Triune God that we can form our identity, because only then can we capture how God is eternally, essentially, a God of love. LOVE IS A VERB, and to affirm that God is love means, he loved for an... Continue Reading →
A while back I wrote a brief commentary on 1-2 Timothy for Bible translators. In I had to deal with the most important textual variant (place where the manuscripts differ one from another). It appears in 1 Tim 3:16: “Beyond question, great is the mystery of godliness, ___ was manifest in the flesh” (NASB version). In... Continue Reading →
Some material adapted from my commentary on 1-2 Thessalonians in the ZECNT series. It can be purchased from Zondervan, Logos, Amazon. 1 and 2 Thessalonians (Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament | ZECNT) | Logos Bible Software The New Living Translation treats 1 Thess 3:13 as – “May he, as a result, make your... Continue Reading →
He was fully human, not a newly created zygote (despite the ancient/revived error that he was not genetically related to Mary). [1] Literal, genetic son of Mary – she was not a "surrogate mother" or a borrowed womb, but the true mother. Son of Mary, thus, Son of David. Thus, Son of Judah. Thus, Son... Continue Reading →
As C. S. Lewis said, some Christians are careless about the devil; some are too consumed with his existence. [1] So here’s a word for the preoccupied. I just heard a fine Holy Week sermon titled “It is Finished.” One of the references to Jesus’ crucifixion was, “He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made... Continue Reading →
The next time Dan Brown tells you that the Roman emperor Constantine invented the trinity; or the Jehovah's Witnesses tell you we worship a "three-headed God" - and they have been showing that fuzzy black-and-white photo for decades! - send them back to the history books! Especially this:“The Church, although scattered through the whole world,... Continue Reading →
Our mission, WorldVenture, has produced a package of daily Christmas devotionals, meant to help during times of pandemic. It's a free download. One of them is mine, for Day 17. Please download and enjoy! Where, O Death, is Your Sting DAY 17 My favorite Christmas book was written in the early 300s. No holly, ivy... Continue Reading →
When I was in Israel, we got on the bus and went west from Jerusalem, and in a short while the guide said, “By the way, there is the location of Emmaus.” Today it’s just a stop on the highway outside our bus window. In fact, one of my favorite Bible passages is from Luke... Continue Reading →
According to Matthew 1:21, "Jesus" (in the form Iesous or Yeshua) means "he shall save." Matthew also states that Christ fulfills the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 - "And you shall call his name Immanuel, which translated means, God with us." In 1-2 Thessalonians, Paul also reveals how Jesus is the personal manifestation of Yahweh. The... Continue Reading →
This commentary was prepared for Kairos Publications in Buenos Aires. It was composed specifically for the Latin American church. In some cases I have retained the words "Latin America," at other times I have substituted "the Americas." The bibliography reflects what is available to the Spanish-speaking church. We will publish it a section at a... Continue Reading →
Open Our Eyes, Lord! 