Children’s Bibles are helpful—but they’re not enough

“When I ask parents if they read the Bible with their children, they’ll often respond enthusiastically and say something like, ‘Yes! We read them a chapter from a children’s Bible before bed every night!’

And that’s so encouraging to hear! But it’s not what I meant.

What I’m really asking is: ‘Do you read the actual Bible with your children?’…”

– At The Australian Church Record, Leah has a point.

Boasting in the Cross

From Phillip Jensen –

“Is pride a virtue or a vice? Is it right or even wise to boast of oneself? Traditionally, modesty has long been commended and pride decried. But today, we encourage the young to be proud of themselves, and we hear celebrities of all kinds proclaiming pride in themselves and their achievements. What place, then, does pride have in the Christian life? Should we be proud to be Christians?

The ancient world, as with the modern, places great emphasis on learning, education and wisdom. The human ability to think deeply is one of the great distinctive characteristics of our species. But does God set limits on human wisdom? Can we judge God or even know him by our wisdom?

The gospel always undermines human pride in ways we never expect, and so I hope you enjoy our discussion in this episode. Thank you to those who have inspired conversations by contacting us and providing feedback; if you want to do the same, please write to us at respond@twm.email.”

– Phillip and Peter Jensen discuss at Two Ways News.

Church Society podcast — 1 and 2 Kings with Nathan Lovell

At Church Society’s podcast, Lee Gatiss learns about 1 and 2 Kings from Nathan Lovell, author of the Hodder Bible Commentary on these books.

Encouraging and well worth hearing.

As many of our readers will know, Nathan serves at George Whitefield College in South Africa.

The commentary is available now, including at The Wandering Bookseller.

No Other Name

In his Minister’s Letter for 19 February 2026, Dean of St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney, Sandy Grant, shares some thoughts on freedom of religion and a timely reminder of what  Christians believe –

“Dear Friends, religion has been much in the news lately. Australia is struggling to know how to accommodate freedom of religious expression, alongside those who don’t like some – or any – religions being expressed.

As Christians we believe in praying for our leaders so that they can provide and defend a society where ‘we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness’ (1 Timothy 2:1-2).

On another occasion, the Christian leader Paul the Apostle, writing by the ‘humility and gentleness of Christ’, reminds us that ‘the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world’. That rules out deceit, media manipulation and name-calling, as much as it does abuse, threats and actual violence. …”

– Read it all here.

William Tyndale: The Necessity of the Word

How did God God work in William Tyndale’s life to lead him to translate the Scriptures into English and place His Word into the hands of the people of England?

For the 500th anniversary of the publication of Tyndale’s English translation of the New Testament, this documentary has been released on YouTube by missionary.com.

Includes input from John Piper, Kevin DeYoung, Mark Dever, Rosaria Butterfield, Conrad Mbewe, Ian Hamilton and Michael Reeves.

The Joy of Enough — Mothers Union Sydney annual seminar

The Mothers Union Sydney annual seminar for 2026 is coming up next week – Friday 27 February – at St. Andrew’s Cathedral OR via Livestream. It’s a free event!

Details at the Mothers Union website.

Can AI Preach my Sermon?

“We have crossed a strange and significant line. For centuries, those who gathered to hear the preaching of God’s Word could safely assume that the messages they heard were prayerfully prepared by a human pastor. That pastor was someone called by God, shaped by Scripture, and burdened with the task of proclaiming it. In 2026, that assumption can no longer be made.

Recent polling confirms it. …”

– Caleb Phelps at the Proclaim and Defend blog encourages preachers to do the hard Spirit-enabled work of sermon preparation themselves.

He reminds his readers that, “Pastors do not need to lead the charge in technological advancement. We need to give ourselves to the Word. We must study it until we know it, know it until we love it, and then preach it for the spiritual good of God’s people”.

(Link via challies.com.)

Resolving the ‘Romans controversies’ — with Brian Rosner

From The Pastor’s Heart this week –

“Well, we give it a serious go in 30 minutes.

What is the ‘righteousness of God’?
Is it faith in Christ or the faithfulness of Christ?
Who is the ‘I’ in Romans 7?
What exactly is Paul saying about Israel and the Law?
How does Romans use the Old Testament?
And is the gospel mainly about individual salvation or shaping a new community?

Ridley College’s Brian Rosner has just released a major theological overview of Romans ‘Strengthened by the Gospel’ — and along the way he thoughtfully engages nearly every major scholarly controversy.

If you’ve ever taught Romans, struggled with Romans, or simply wanted to understand Romans more deeply you will enjoy this fast moving discussion through the controversies of Romans.”

– Watch or listen here. Most encouraging.

An Archaeological discovery may shed light on the Gospel of Luke

In a video published last week, Shane Rosenthal (long involved with The White Horse Inn podcast, and now hosting The Humble Skeptic) extends earlier discussion on the Joanna Ossuary –

“In this video, Shane Rosenthal, host of The Humble Skeptic podcast, takes a trip to a museum on the campus of the University of Haifa in Israel, in order to take a closer look at what he believes is one of the most significant, yet overlooked, archaeological discoveries related to the Bible.

In 1983, an ossuary belonging to Joanna, the granddaughter of Theophilus, the high priest, was discovered near Jerusalem. Could this be a reference to the Joanna and Theophilus mentioned in Luke’s Gospel (Lk 1:3, 8:3, 24:10)?”

Watch here.

In his forthcoming book, Luke’s Key Witness, he also looks at the suggestion that Andronicus and Junia, mentioned in Romans 16:7, may be the same people as Joanna and her husband Chuza mentioned in Luke 8:3.

On his podcast, he interviews many scholars, including Peter Bolt (Who is Theophilus?), who also proposes the link between Joanna of the ossuary and the Joanna of Luke’s Gospel, as well as many other fascinating ideas about Luke.

And in a similar vein, he interviews T.C. Schmidt, who makes the case for the authenticity of Josephus’ mention of Jesus. (T.C. Schmidt’s book Josephus and Jesus: New Evidence for the One Called Christ was reviewed recently by John Dickson at The Gospel Coalition.)

The One Church Divided

From Phillip Jensen:

“Church division dishonours our Lord and creates great pain amongst his people. Sadly, it is all too frequent in our experience. But what is the nature of church unity, and what level of priority should we give to it? Clarity of thought and expression is very important when painful disagreements are being addressed; this is particularly true when we discuss the nature of unity and the church.

In Corinth was the disunited church of God. This is the issue that Paul discusses in his first letter to the Corinthians. However, we must remember that he not only addresses the particular situation of the Corinthian church, but also ‘all those who in every place call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.’ ”

– Listen here at Two Ways News.

Pottery of the Roman Era

“In 1995 I took a semester of Study Leave and went back to University.

The founding Professor of Ancient History, Edwin Judge, was still lecturing at Macquarie University and I enrolled in all his classes.

One of the extra classes available, which I didn’t think would be especially relevant,  was, ‘Pottery of the Roman Era’.

The class turned out to be surprisingly interesting.

The assessment involved writing a 3000 word essay on observations of a piece of pottery …”

– David Cook shares some encouragement to grow in your knowledge of something even more exciting than Roman pottery.

The Rights and Wrongs of Rights

“Dear Friends, Monday night was a tumultuous evening at the Cathedral and I thank God for the hundred or so who attended Evening Prayer, despite the thousands outside. I am thankful for those who attended to site security and those who ensured the PA was loud enough to hear the Bible readings and prayers, despite the cacophony.

I am sorry to those who could not find a way through the crowds but I am grateful to God we were all able to get away safely, even though only one exit remained passable with all other exits effectively blocked.

Sadly almost 1500 school students missed out on their co-curriculaar activities that afternoon, such as music lessons, or sports training, or drama classes. And I think the Red Cross Donor Centre lost upwards of 30 lifesaving blood donations as a result of people cancelling or being unable to walk in because of the protest. …”

– In the current Cathedral Newsletter, Dean of St. Andrew’s Cathedral Sandy Grant recognises other people’s freedom of speech and assembly but speaks out for all who have been told to “stay away”.

(Image from the Cathedral Newsletter.)

“The most important Englishman who has ever lived”? — William Tyndale’s Life and Legacy, part 2

From Tyndale House, Cambridge:

“This is the second episode in our series exploring William Tyndale’s life, Bible translation, and legacy.

In this episode, Tony Watkins interviews experts in the sixteenth century and the history of the Bible to explore William Tyndale’s life leading up to the publication of his New Testament in 1526.

This was the first to be translated directly from Greek into English, and the first New Testament to be printed in English.”

– Watch here – or direct on YouTube.

(Part 1 is here.)

Richard Johnson: The first chaplain of New South Wales

From Moore College’s Moore in the Word podcast –

“In this episode and in honour of Moore Theological College’s 170th anniversary, we bring you a special episode taken from the 2025 Donald Robinson Library lectures on the topic of ‘The Clapham Sect and their influence on Sydney’.

Mark Thompson, Principal of Moore Theological College, introduces us to Richard Johnson and the story of how he ended up becoming the first chaplain to the fledgling colony in New South Wales, laying the spiritual foundations of Christian witness. Drawing on personal letters and historical records, Mark traces Johnson’s courage, hardship and lasting legacy in shaping gospel ministry in early Australia.”

– Listen here – or on the Moore in the Word page.

If you would prefer watch, rather than just listen, you can watch all eight talks from the Library lectures at this playlist.

Explaining for impact

“In his book Setting Hearts on Fire, the Sydney evangelist, John Chapman, counsels preachers to do six things for every point in their sermons:

• State the point
• Show where it’s from in the Bible
• Explain the point
• Illustrate the point
• Apply the point
• Restate the point.

Of these, our explanations are often the most dull and unexciting parts of the sermon. Illustrations are relatable, illuminating, and often humorous; applications are concrete and practical. When preachers explain the text, however, we wish they’d just get on with it and tell us what to do; it feels like a hoop we have to jump through in order to get to the good stuff. …”

– At The Expository Preaching Trust, Michael Leong explains how to Explain for Impact in a sermon.

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