May 2026

Podcasts

Mother’s Day became a national holiday under President Woodrow Wilson in 1914 (though honoring mothers every day was commanded by God way before then). But Mother’s Day celebrations can be difficult for some women for a variety of reasons. Author Abbey Wedgeworth shares how God’s Word offers hope and comfort to those grieving for one of those reasons on the Good Book Company podcast: the experience of miscarriage.

New Life has been blessed in God’s kindness to welcome a steady stream of new members over the last several years. While the reception of new members is always celebrated, some people might question if formal church membership is important or even biblical. The biblical warrant for church membership is covered briefly in our Exploring New Life class. Additional insights are offered by OPC pastor and author Jonathan Landry Cruse on this Theology on the Go podcast.

Video

One last thing for Mother’s Day: young women are often told that pursuing a career over family and motherhood will bring them the most happiness. While it’s true that God doesn’t call every woman to be a mother, motherhood is hardly inferior to a professional career. Just ask former Olympic soccer player Carli Lloyd. This short ESPN feature from 2021 is a moving account (and somewhat surprising in its raw honesty) of the beauty, joy, and blessing of motherhood. Note: I’m not unaware that many Christians express concerns about the ethics of invitro fertilization.

Articles

In honor of Mother’s Day, consider three mothers in the Bible – Jochebed, Rahab, and Eunice – and explore what they teach us about faithfulness in this article by Mary DeMuth.

“What 3 Unusual Bible Mothers Teach Us About Faithfulness”

There are a handful of New Life members enrolling in courses at Indianapolis Theological Seminary (ITS) this upcoming fall.  The president of ITS, Dr. Nicholas Piotrowski, is the author of Return from Exile and the Renewal of God’s People. For an introduction to the theme of exile and how it points us to Jesus, as well as for a glimpse into the rich biblical instruction students receive at ITS, check out this brief article by Dr. Piotrowski on “How Israel’s Exile Is Fulfilled in Jesus’s Exile and Return.”

“How Israel’s Exile is Fulfilled in Jesus’s Exile and Return”

6W Chronicles: Brief Profiles in Church History 

As a way to introduce readers to some influential figures in the church’s past, the 6W Chronicles briefly address six questions: Who? When? Where? What did they do? Why should we know about them? What works can I reference by or about them?

Who? St. Ninian

When? c. 360-432.

Where? North Britain (in what is today Scotland).

What did he do? Few details of Ninian’s life are known, but according to the Venerable Bede, he set out on a pilgrimage to Rome as a young man and was “accurately instructed … in the faith and mysteries of the truth.” He was subsequently consecrated as a bishop by the pope and sent back to his homeland as a missionary to a people known as the Picts in a region the Romans called Caledonia in present day Scotland. By God’s grace, Ninian made converts to Christ and established Candida Casa, or White Church at Whithorn, as well as the monastery of Rosnot. St. Ninian’s Cave near Whithorn remains a Scottish landmark to this day.

Why should we know about him? As the first official missionary to what is now Great Britain, some of the earliest converts there were those won through his labors, so English and Scottish Christians can trace their origins back, in part, to him. Considering how the gospel traveled across the centuries to reach us – many of the early colonists in America came from England with their Christian faith and American Presbyterianism has strong ties to Scotland – whether you’ve ever heard of him or not, nearly everyone reading this has been touched by the ministry of St. Ninian.

Works? If St. Ninian produced any written works, none have survived. During the medieval period, a short biography of St. Ninian was written by Aelred of Rievaulx called The Life of St. Ninian: Apostle of the Southern Picts. It can be purchased online.

Theolingo: Building Your Theological Vocabulary

Theolingo aims to help you expand your learning of important theological terms.  This month’s term is the Vulgate. 

The Vulgate is a Latin translation of the Bible produced by the church father Jerome. Latin was the common language spoken by the church in the West. Vulgate, from which we get our English word “vulgar,” comes from a word meaning “common” or “plain.” Various Latin translations of the Bible existed at the time Jerome was commissioned by Pope Damasus I in AD382, but due to considerable differences in those versions, the Vulgate was an attempt to standardize the text for the Western church. Using the Hebrew and Greek texts as the basis for his translation, Jerome finished the project around AD404. Initially, the Vulgate did not enjoy widespread adoption. It started to gain traction, however, about a century later and became the major text that shaped theological formulation in the West for 1000 years.

With a renewed interest in original Greek and Hebrew sources during the time of the Renaissance and Reformation in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, weaknesses and errors in the Vulgate came to light. For example, “repent” in the Vulgate is rendered as “do penance,” a mistranslation that gave rise to an elaborate, and sadly unbiblical, medieval penitential system. Turning away from the Vulgate, the Reformation witnessed the propagation of numerous vernacular Bible translations, including German (Luther), French, and English (Tyndale), to name a few. The Council of Trent, however, part of the Roman Catholic counter reformation, adopted the Vulgate as the authorized translation of the Roman Catholic Church in 1546. The Neo-Vulgate (Nova Vulgata), published in 1979 with some modern updates, is the official version of the Bible for the Roman Catholic Church today.

Quotes

Whether you’re learning to read, learning to play a musical instrument, learning to speak another language, or learning to ice skate, the process requires starting small and then improving through a series of small steps. Clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson rightly posits that the same process is required if you’re trying to “change the world,” despite what present-day “activists” might suggest.

“It is impossible to fight patriarchy, reduce oppression, promote equality, transform capitalism, save the environment, eliminate competitiveness, reduce government … Such concepts are simply too low-resolution … The necessary detail is simply not there. Similarly, sophisticated large-scale processes and systems do not exist in any manner sufficiently real to render their comprehensive unitary transformation possible. The idea that they do is the product of twentieth-century cults ... the activism they promote is the resentful and lazy person’s substitute for actual accomplishment … We should let it go, and begin to address and consider smaller, more precisely defined problems ... Have some humility. Clean up your bedroom. Take care of your family. Follow your conscience. Straighten up your life. Find something productive and interesting to do and commit to it. When you can do all that, find a bigger problem and try to solve that if you dare. And if that works, too, move on to even more ambitious projects.”

In his book Why Study History? Reflecting on the Importance of the Past, John Fea writes about two pastors who speak highly of the benefits of studying history as undergraduates. I would argue that these benefits aren’t tied to pastors nor to those pursuing formal historical degrees but can be experienced by anyone who takes the time to read and study history.

“Layne is a local pastor who majored in history in college and encourages future ministers to do the same. During his first year in college, Layne felt a call to pastoral ministry. By studying history he became a more effective thinker, writer, and communicator and developed a broad perspective on life that he has found to be very helpful. Layne finds that many Christians crave, as he calls them, ‘black and white answers to life's difficult questions.’ Yet as a student of the past, he knows that ‘history teaches us that life is marked by mystery,’ and that there is a lot more gray in life than black and white ... Joe is also a pastor who majored in history as an undergraduate. He credits his patience as a leader to his studying the human experience as it has unfolded through time: ‘One cannot complete a history degree and dedicate many hours to study of the past and not become more patient with individuals, communities, societies, and the overall complexity of life.’”

Final Thought

Whoever came up with the word receipt was an idiopt.