{"id":616,"date":"2015-04-03T12:00:19","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T12:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/?p=616"},"modified":"2015-02-26T05:21:23","modified_gmt":"2015-02-26T05:21:23","slug":"bible-resource-spotlight-exalting-jesus-in-1-2-thessalonians","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2015\/04\/bible-resource-spotlight-exalting-jesus-in-1-2-thessalonians.html","title":{"rendered":"Bible Resource Spotlight: Exalting Jesus in 1 &amp; 2 Thessalonians"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Reader Appeal: Pastors, Sunday School Teachers<\/p>\n<p>Genre: Bible Commentary<\/p>\n<p>FBSN Rating: B<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The distinctive aspects of the Christ-Centered Exposition series are two-fold. First, as the editors say, \u201cThe Bible is a Christ-centered book \u2026 We purpose to exalt Jesus from every book of the Bible.\u201d Second, \u201cWe desire to provide a commentary busy pastors will use.\u201d Those two goals drive every facet of Mark Howell\u2019s <em>Exalting Jesus in 1 &amp; 2 Thessalonians<\/em>. The results are interesting.<\/p>\n<p>On the downside, the exclusive focus on pastors (and related, to Sunday School teachers) makes this commentary a bit unwieldy for Bible Study Nerds who are not in a teaching capacity. Also, like all the books in this series, this one is exclusively a Baptist commentary, written by a Baptist for other Baptists. In that sense, when combined with its pastors-only agenda, <em>Exalting Jesus in 1 &amp; 2 Thessalonians<\/em> sometimes feels insular in tone and message. Still, if you can get past those things. or if you are a Baptist preacher yourself, you\u2019ll find much to admire in Howell\u2019s work.<\/p>\n<p>First, Howell writes with a pastor\u2019s heart, inviting readers to do more than just learn facts and history about Paul\u2019s letters. For instance, when discussing 1 Thessalonians 2:14-16, Howell begins by saying, \u201cRead verse 14 very carefully and allow it to soak in.\u201d That\u2019s refreshing, because it sometimes turns study of these letters into devotions about the letters. When Scripture becomes personal like that during study time, it shows up in the sermon\u2014and in a life.<\/p>\n<p>Second, Howell isn\u2019t afraid to ask the \u201cwhy\u201d question\u2014as in, \u201cWhy would Paul say that?\u201d Asking the question engages us in a discovery of the answer. In this way, Howell avoids simply dumping theology on the reader and instead brings us along in our understanding, and ability to explain to others, answers to the typical questions that arise from a study of 1 &amp; 2 Thessalonians.<\/p>\n<p>Additionally, Howell\u2019s commentary is solidly evangelical, which I tend to prefer, and appears well-grounded in the scholarly traditions.<\/p>\n<p><em>Exalting Jesus in 1 &amp; 2 Thessalonians<\/em> isn\u2019t for every Bible Study Nerd, but then again it wasn\u2019t meant to be anyway. Regardless, pastors and Sunday School teachers in most of the evangelical denominations will be glad to discover this uniquely human commentary on two of Paul letters.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.bhpublishinggroup.com\/products\/exalting-jesus-in-1-2-thessalonians\/\"><em>Exalting Jesus in 1 &amp; 2 Thessalonians<\/em> <\/a>by Mark Howell<\/p>\n<p>(Holman Reference)<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u2126\u2126\u2126<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Bible Study Nerds\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-for-bible-study-nerds.html\">About: For Bible Study Nerds\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"About: Mike Nappa\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/about-mike-nappa.html\">About: Mike Nappa<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2014 to present by\u00a0<a title=\"Nappaland Communications Inc. official website\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nappaland.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Nappaland Communications Inc<\/a>. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Reader Appeal: Pastors, Sunday School Teachers Genre: Bible Commentary FBSN Rating: B &nbsp; The distinctive aspects of the Christ-Centered Exposition series are two-fold. First, as the editors say, \u201cThe Bible is a Christ-centered book \u2026 We purpose to exalt Jesus from every book of the Bible.\u201d Second, \u201cWe desire to provide a commentary busy pastors&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":571,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[101],"tags":[278,279,280,281],"class_list":["post-616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible-resource-spotlight","tag-1-thessalonians","tag-2-thessalonians","tag-christ-centered-exposition","tag-mark-howell"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Bible Resource Spotlight: Exalting Jesus in 1 &amp; 2 Thessalonians - For Bible Study Nerds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bible Resource Spotlight: Exalting Jesus in 1 &amp; 2 Thessalonians - For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reader Appeal: Pastors, Sunday School Teachers Genre: Bible Commentary FBSN Rating: B &nbsp; The distinctive aspects of the Christ-Centered Exposition series are two-fold. First, as the editors say, \u201cThe Bible is a Christ-centered book \u2026 We purpose to exalt Jesus from every book of the Bible.\u201d Second, \u201cWe desire to provide a commentary busy pastors&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/2015\/04\/bible-resource-spotlight-exalting-jesus-in-1-2-thessalonians.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"For Bible Study Nerds\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-03T12:00:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-02-26T05:21:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Nappa\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bible Resource Spotlight: Exalting Jesus in 1 &amp; 2 Thessalonians - For Bible Study Nerds","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bible Resource Spotlight: Exalting Jesus in 1 &amp; 2 Thessalonians - For Bible Study Nerds","og_description":"Reader Appeal: Pastors, Sunday School Teachers Genre: Bible Commentary FBSN Rating: B &nbsp; The distinctive aspects of the Christ-Centered Exposition series are two-fold. 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He's a former youth pastor who shepherded kids on staff at Chuck Swindoll's church in Southern California\u2014and he's a bestselling and award-winning author with more than a million copies of his books sold worldwide. Plus, he holds a degree in Christian Education with an emphasis in Bible Theology. So, you know, he\u2019s got that going for him. Mike is also a pop culture dork who watches too much TV, reads too many comic books, utters too many bad words, laughs at all the wrong jokes, and often gets in trouble because he says whatever he happens to be thinking at the moment\u2014like quoting an R-rated movie in the middle of a sermon. Yeah, he\u2019s a mess (just like you!), but he kind of likes it that way. Most of all, Mike Nappa loves Jesus, and he figures that covers over a multitude of sins. Learn more at nappaland.com\/mikenappa.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.biblestudynerds.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/author\/mnappa"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/571"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":622,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616\/revisions\/622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/forbiblestudynerds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}