Few resources are more helpful to Christians than a good study Bible. We have just seen the release of the new Grace and Truth Study Bible which is edited by Dr. Albert Mohler and now available in both English and Spanish. In this sponsored interview, I asked him a few questions about it.

We have a good number of study Bibles available to us. What was the benefit in creating a new one?
I have been dependent upon study Bibles from the time I was a teenager. Those Bibles and their notes helped to open the scriptures to me as I became more and more serious about studying the Word of God. There are many really wonderful study Bibles available to Christians, but I saw the need for a study Bible that was theologically and convictionally clear while being accessible to people who might be intimidated by a study Bible that was thousands of pages long. I also saw a need for a study Bible that people will be able to take with them. I hope Christians find the Grace and Truth Study Bible a faithful and trustworthy companion—a study Bible that can be used as a devotional Bible and a Bible to be brought to worship to be opened for the preaching of God’s Word. My great hope is that the Grace and Truth Study Bible will help coming generations to love and to understand God’s Word.
What are some of the unique features of the Grace and Truth Study Bible?
The most important feature of the Grace and Truth Study Bible is represented by the table of contributors. I was able to work with a team to pull together the most remarkable biblical scholars who combined unquestioned conviction with excellence in biblical scholarship. This is not a study Bible that will be of interest only to the world of scholarship. It represents scholarship turned into a passionate devotion for the Word of God. Every single book of the Bible received careful attention from a skilled interpreter of God’s Word whose passion is to see God’s people exalt in the glory of God as revealed in every book of scripture. 
Another feature is that the accessibility of the notes has driven this entire project. It was one of my great joys was to work with that team of scholars to craft introductions and helpful notes so that Christians utilizing the study Bible could clearly understand God’s Word.  
Last, I was determined that a study Bible that would serve Christ’s church would need to be available only in the highest quality of presentation in both form and format. Every part of the Bible—down to the design, the print and typeface, the quality of paper, the density of ink, the translucence of reflection—was carefully chosen. God’s Word deserves the very best. I have to thank Zondervan Bibles for their outstanding support in this respect because we were able to bring to the excellence of that attention to detail to this project.
Who’s the target audience or reader for in the study Bible?
Every Christian will benefit from the Grace and Truth Study Bible. One of the interesting issues in publishing is knowing your target audience. In that respect, one could envision a study Bible that would be many volumes in length that would serve the scholarly community. On the other hand, one could imagine a study Bible that would be so minimal that it would basically offer just a bare introduction to each book, and then a few necessary notes along the way. Finding the right balance between those two polarities is the great challenge. I believe we were able to strike a unique balance in the Grace and Truth Study Bible that I hope will really serve the church.
We aimed this study Bible at Christians who are committed to Christ, who love God’s Word, and who want to know how to understand it even better. This Bible is for getting deeper into God’s Word. It is accessible enough that the newest believer can immediately benefit from it. It is also deep enough and thoughtful enough that the faithful, mature believer of many decades will find ever new riches in the text.
I do hope there will be many unbelievers who will read the Word of God as found in this study Bible, receive new birth in Christ, and come to saving faith. It will be the Holy Spirit through the Word of God does that, not the study Bible. However, our main audience for this Bible is Protestant, evangelical Christians who are looking for a serious study Bible because they want to be devoted to the serious study of God’s Word.
What was the importance of launching the Spanish addition alongside English?
Given our own hemispheric reality, the incredible opportunities in the Spanish-speaking world, and the interchange between the English and Spanish-speaking worlds, we really saw the opportunity to make history. This is the first major study Bible released simultaneously in English and in Spanish. Many people in the Spanish-speaking world told us of the need and hope for a study Bible like the Grace and Truth Study Bible. We intended to reach the untold millions of people included in both the English and the Spanish speaking audiences in order to meet that need. I am very thankful to Zondervan and Vida Bibles and to our team for finishing this project on time without any sacrifice of quality in either translation.
Creating a project as big as a study Bible must represent quite a logistical challenge. I wonder if you could talk us through a bit of what that process looks like.
It all began with the concept that led to a consensus that this study Bible meets a need for the church. A leader from the Bible Group at HarperCollins Christian Publishing, which comprises both Zondervan and Thomas Nelson Bible teams, approached me, and I agreed to be general editor. Then it fell to me to put together a team. I started with managing editor and then editors for both the Old and New Testaments. Then we had to get down to the hard work of putting together the roster of writers who would each take responsibility for one of the books of the Bible. 
I was able to choose the very first ranked team because the Lord opened many doors. I am so thankful that the best team of biblical scholars bought into the project. They affirmed its theological convictions. They agreed to its approach. They were eager on the basis of their own convictions about holy scripture to help Christ’s church in understanding the Word of God.
The writers received the assignment and guidelines—including a word length—and then most of them gave a sample of their work so that we could understand how they were doing. When those contributions were forwarded to the editors, the editors went through every single line, weighing them in terms of conviction and helpfulness to the project as a whole. Those editors put enormous work into this, including keeping the entire project on time, which is seldom found in something of this magnitude. Finally, I went through the whole project to ensure we accomplished what we set out to do. It was a great joy to work with our team, and I am extremely thankful to all who worked to see this project come together.

As we venture into a new month it’s a good time to remember that right now, at this very moment, God is reigning from his throne.

Westminster Books has a deal on a helpful new resource book.
Ministry Is Tough: When Self-Care Becomes Self-Absorption
Interesting… “I wonder if in some cases the cultural shift toward self-care has led to a new set of wrong assumptions among those just entering ministry. If the generation before me assumed the need for overworking to the point that people had to insist on self-care and say ‘Stop and take care of yourself before you burn out,’ I wonder if the generation behind me will assume the opposite. We’ll assume the need for self-care to the point that others may need to insist on hard and strenuous labor, even when it hurts.”
Answering the Challenge of Back-Alley Abortions
“Now that abortion-choice advocates sense abortion rights are slipping away, there is a growing fear that women who can’t obtain abortions will resort to desperate measures to end their pregnancies. As a result, we’re seeing an uptick in classic pro-choice rhetoric—specifically, the challenge that women will pursue dangerous, back-alley abortions.” Here’s how to answer that challenge.
Who Killed the Prayer Meeting?
This is so true: “The American church is functionally prayerless when it comes to corporate prayer. Of course, a remnant does the hidden work of prayer, but in most churches corporate prayer doesn’t function in any meaningful way.”
Blogging Is Never Going Away
I agree with Chris on this: “A lot of us in the Christian space have, over the years, wondered, ‘Is blogging dead?’ Some have wondered if podcasting, especially, would kill the blog. Though I am biased, because I am a writer and a words guy in general, I have long said that the blog will always have a place in online content. I’ve said, often with skeptical responses, that blogging is never going away.”
Following God When You Feel Forsaken
“Sometimes it feels like God has forsaken us. We don’t hear his voice. We don’t feel his presence. We struggle even to see his hand at work in the world. We cry with the psalmist, ‘My God, why have you forsaken me?’.”
Secular Liturgies Leave Me Longing for More
Darryl recently experienced a kind of secular liturgy and writes: “I left the meeting aware of the ways that we’re being formed without knowing it. I felt sad that the gospel of self-fulfillment and self-empowerment is so commonplace and unsatisfying. I long for more: for a higher purpose than my own satisfaction, a truer compass than my own feelings and intuitions, a better way to deal with what’s wrong with my soul.”
Flashback: One Of The Ugliest Sights In The World
Yet as we address God as Father, we must not behave like children who are peevish or petulant. We must not make demands, we must not level accusations or provide ultimatums. We must always pray that God’s will will be done, that God’s wisdom will be showcased, that God’s glory will be displayed.

Our family in Christ will more than make up for any family lost when we pursue Jesus and the gospel. —Jen Oshman

May the Lord be with you and bless you today.
Westminster Books has discounted a whole collection of their “new and notable” picks for April. The discounts include commentaries, theological works, along with books for adults and for kids.
Yes, the Kindle deals continue. What a joy to be able to so cost-effectively build a library!

This is a lovely reflection from Madelyn. “Maybe this Easter you couldn’t see the sunrise either. Maybe you were tempted to despair rather than praise. Maybe you sat in the pew with an armful of questions and left with no answers. Maybe you couldn’t sing without the knot forming in your throat and the tears threatening your eyes. Maybe you couldn’t make it to the pew at all.”

Richard Dawkins is now a self-professing cultural Christian. We didn’t see that one coming, did we? To be clear, there’s a world of difference between being a cultural Christian and being a true Christian. But still…

There are few better times of year than the beginning of a new baseball season (even when your team is as sad as the Blue Jays—who, as it happens, got no-hit on the day Casey posted this). “I’m aware that my opinion about baseball is not widely shared. I’ve lived in the Bluegrass State for two decades. Basketball reigns here, and I understand why. Basketball is a great sport. But basketball ain’t baseball and neither is football. Baseball stands alone atop the hierarchy of greatest sports every played under the sun. You’re free to disagree, but at least listen to my arguments.”

John Piper discusses the impact of watching a man (literally) die in the pulpit. “So, we were all sitting there when, suddenly, he stopped for no apparent reason. There were a few seconds of silence. He turned to his left and just collapsed. It was not a gentle collapse, as I recall. He hit the floor like a log, and the sound was frightening. He didn’t crumple. You thought it was quiet before? Good night. Now it was breath-holding quiet as two thousand students trembled inside. ‘Oh no. What has just happened?’”

Yes, let’s! “The longer I reflected, the larger the circle of God’s goodness grew. It’s good to exist. It’s good to be. Every breath we take testifies to the goodness of creation and the goodness of a Creator. And this fatherly benevolence flows to undeserving, often ungrateful creatures.”

“Ever since Adam and Eve tried to solve their separation from God with the solution of running away from God and blaming each other, we’ve been reenacting the comic tragedy in every generation since. We turn to our own way to solve the problem we have made; but that just makes the mess worse.”

I came across a wonderful quote from F.B. Meyer that is at least parenthetically related. He counsels us on what to do when others attack our character and seek to harm our name. In short: wait on the Lord.

The Lord’s “quickly” may not be my “quickly”; and if so, let him do what seemeth him good.
—Charles Spurgeon