2024 was certainly something! If you have followed my writings here for some time, you may have noticed that my posts for the past several months have been fairly sparse. That has largely been for two reasons.
First, broadly, life has weighed heavily (although not altogether negatively) upon our family. Inflation has greatly compounded the difficulty of being a single-income family, as many of you can likely affirm as well. We have been trying to sort out some chronic health issues in our eldest daughter, which, of course, has been another financial expense. But I have also been able to be a teacher at a new academy. That has been absolutely amazing, but since I teach on my two days off, I have simply not had much free time to invest here.
Second, specifically, my free time has been occupied with learning languages. In October of 2023, I decided to learn Latin, but after finding that process quite enjoyable, I became convicted that as a pastor I should give precedence to learning the Greek and Hebrew (the biblical languages) instead. Thus, I have been giving nearly every spare minute that I have to Greek, Latin, and Hebrew (generally in that order), and I am thoroughly enjoying it. I believe that pursuing proficiency in these three classical languages is a long-term investment that will pay off. However, for the time being, I simply do not have time or energy to write as frequently as before.
With that said, I don’t have many concrete plans for 2025. I hope to continue writing articles and to return to recording Dead Men Preaching and Ex Libris podcast episodes. But with weekly sermon preparation, various meetings and counseling duties, teaching, learning the classical languages, and being a present and engaged husband and father, I foresee 2025 being another year where this site decreases as those other areas of my life increase. Such is this season of life.
With all of that said, here are a few of my favorite sermons, articles, and meditations from this past year.
Also, check out my favorite reads from 2024, if you haven’t already.
FAVORITE SERMONS
1. My Son, Eat Honey | Proverbs 24:13-14
As with last year, I opened this year by preaching from a sermon from Psalms and a sermon from Proverbs. This, as you can probably guess, was the Proverbs sermon. I chose it because God’s command to eat honey is one of my daughter’s favorite Bible verses.
2. Keep in Step with the Spirit | Galatians 5:16-26
Preaching through Galatians was a powerful reminder of the absolute importance of the gospel, and of every passage, Paul’s listing of the works of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit was my favorite. It also helped that a few weeks before that sermon I was able to preach on the fruits of Gentleness and Self-control.
3. You Shall Not Boil a Young Goat in Its Mother’s Milk | Exodus 23:19
I finished preaching through Exodus this year, which was a bittersweet moment.
In this sermon, I used one of the Bible’s strangest commands as a case study for how we can read and apply God’s law today as Christians.
4. Washed: The Nature & Purpose of Baptism
I preached a three-part series on baptism, and those were some of the most challenging sermons of the whole year. But this first sermon of the series was a particularly wonderful opportunity to study to Scripture and work through it on page and in the pulpit.
5. Craft & Sabbath | Exodus 31
The repeated commands of Exodus to keep the Sabbath certainly impacted my vision of how Christians ought to observe the Lord’s Day. I also enjoyed studying God’s love of beauty and craft in this text of Scripture.
FAVORITE ARTICLES
1. When God Gives You (Or Makes You) a Joke, Laugh
This fall our family was able to take a two-week trip to my wife’s home-country, Colombia. While it was a great journey, nothing went according to plan.
2. A Catechism for Classical Christian Education
I will certainly be revising this small catechism in the near future. It comes from my growing love of education and a desire for parents and teachers to understand why we teach our children the things that we do.
3. Theology in the Heart When the Mind Fails
My wife wrote this article as a reflection on her grandmother’s Alzheimer’s.
4. What If All the Conspiracies Are True?
With all the conspiracies that are on the Internet, I found Psalm 119:23 to be a marvelously appropriate answer to what Christians ought to do with them all.
Spoiler: meditate on the Word.
5. Yes, the Bible Should Be Taught in Public Schools
As an Oklahoman, I wrote this article in light of Oklahoma’s new law requiring the Bible to be taught in public schools. As I say in the article, I make no comment here on how the Bible ought to be taught; only that it should absolutely be required in the United States’ schools.
FAVORITE MISCELLANEOUS POSTS
1. Should We Distinguish Between Sex and Gender?
In the spring, I began teaching through Christopher Gordon’s New Reformation Catechism on Human Sexuality, which is a tremendous resource that every Christian should have on hand.
2. On the Septuagint
From my series of podcast episodes on books, Ex Libris Ad Cor, this was my favorite. Although I knew of the Septuagint before this year, I purchased a Reader’s Edition in Greek, which I have been working through (very, very slowly).
3. The Excellency of the Subject | A Sermon by John Flavel
Although I only did a couple of Dead Men Preaching episodes this year, Flavel’s first sermon on the person and work of Christ is worth returning to again and again.
4. Question 34: Since We Are Redeemed by Grace Alone, Through Christ Alone, Must We Still Do Good Works and Obey God’s Word?
This is a question that is perennially useful in the Christian life. No, our good works do not contribute to our salvation, but since we are saved by Christ, we now ought to do good works.
5. The Comfort of Conforming to Christ
Beginning the discussion of sexuality with identity is a wise insight from Gordon’s catechism.
B. C. Newton 