The Sunday Edition — 04.20.25

Blessed Easter Sunday! He is Risen! Today is the most beautiful day on the calendar, bursting forth with hope, joy, and a promise for the future. I love Easter Sunday more than any other day of the year. And this year, best of all, the day coincides with new life springing up outside as spring arrives. I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful Easter Sunday.

Way back when, I reviewed a number of Bibles here on The Newsprint. The reviews are a little dated now, but they continue to be some of the most read articles on the blog. They include:

I also have a few in the collection that I haven’t yet written about:

The Crossway ESV Heirloom Personal Size Bible
The Schuyler Quentel Personal Size ESV Bible

In some shape or form, I use nearly all the Bibles. The Study Bible is my most-used Bible, as I truly love the explanatory notes on each page to help decipher the old stories and language. I use the Single Column Legacy as a reader-style Bible on my nightstand and the Omega is my pick to bring with me to church on Sunday mornings. My wife uses the Schuyler Personal Size Bible. And I’ve gifted the Heirloom Wide Margin to a reader.

The Heirloom Wide Margin Bible was the last Bible I received from Crossway for purposes of review, and it’s my fault. At the time, they had a rule that I had to review the previously provided Bible before I could request a new one for review.

The problem came when I received the ESV Heirloom Personal Size Bible, the model originally manufactured in China and since moved to Royal Jongbloed in the Netherlands. The Chinese-produced Bible was simply sub-par — the worst-crafted Bible I had in my collection and not even close to recommendable. I was stunned at other reviewers who were saying they loved the quality. It was a tremendous swing and a miss from Crossway, and I simply couldn’t understand how that product could be in line with their mission and vision. I felt at the time that future production of Bibles in that form and quality would likely cause the company to spiral out of contention in the years to come.

I couldn’t bring myself to criticize the fine folks at Crossway. Everyone I dealt with there was so easy and fun to work with. Heavily critiquing something like a Bible also went against my ethos — I truly only want to say positive words here on The Newsprint.

So instead of writing that review, I just stopped writing about Bibles. I didn’t write about the Heirloom Personal Size. I didn’t end up writing about the Schuyler Quentel Personal Size. I fell right out of the loop on the latest premium Bibles.

I kind of miss it, though.

I’ve since been researching EVBible.com once again, as I’m looking to purchase my wife an Heirloom Study Bible for her own deeper study. And I see Crossway made the right choice to revert their production back to the Netherlands. They have a number of amazing options available once again. I want to pick this one up, in particular.

I’m going to return to that dreaded Crossway ESV Heirloom Personal Size Bible review in the weeks to come. I’m going to write the review, get it over with, and move on. I’m going to be honest. I’m going to be reasonably thorough. And I’m going to forget about it after I’m done.

I’m excited.

Because the Man on the Middle Cross Said I Can Come

It’s Easter Sunday and I’m likely going to set a tradition: to share this wonderful three-minute segment from Alistair Begg about the thief on the cross. There are no more simple words than the truth spoken here.

Faith, the Scriptures, the Resurrection — these are all interesting elements. Some people believe they weren’t designed to understand these three things. Others point at them and say they are responsible for so much of the evil in the world today.

From human eyes, sure.

A key for me was making one core realization: In Genesis, the story goes that humanity is tricked/coerced/deceived into believing we can understand the knowledge of good and evil. God tells us that the knowledge of good and evil will surely destroy us. (He actually says “Ye shall surely die”, but we will talk about life and death, sin and holiness another day.)

In today’s societies, human beings define and instill values and laws based on their understanding of ”good and evil”. But God says that we, as humans, do not get to define “good and evil”. That we cannot and will never understand it. That the knowledge of those two things will surely destroy us.

If you change who gets to define “good and evil”, suddenly a lot changes. If you release the idea that you can and do understand what “good” looks like, suddenly a lot changes. Suddenly, your thinking can transform.

Suddenly, a man can walk on water. Suddenly, a man can allow the blind to see.

Suddenly, the tomb can be empty.

Faith is a long, long journey. There is so much learning to do. But the first step seems to be submitting to that one core concept: You don’t know as much as you think you do. Your trust needs to be put in something other than yourself.

Parenting: Who is it really for?

Derek Sivers in an article that I wholly agree with(!):

Whatever he’s doing right now, that’s the most important thing. So I encourage him to keep doing it as long as possible. I never say, “Come on! Let’s go!”
We’ll go to the beach or forest, and make things with sticks and sand for half a day before he’s ready to switch.
Other families come to the playground for twenty or thirty minutes, but we stay there for hours.
Nobody else can play with us like this. Everyone else gets so bored.
Of course my adult mind wanders to all the other things we could be doing. But I let it go, and return to that present focus.

I love this idea as a father. Albeit, I don’t know if I can live up to it.

Focus is such an important skill. The way Sivers is instilling this in his child also likely entrenches patience, practice, and more.

Really great parenting idea worthy of emulation.

The Second Cup

How to Take Progressively Less Stupid Notes

Long article, but my highlight from long ago:

There may well be some interesting threads of thought in the marginalia, but the only issue is that I would basically have to re-read the text to even begin to work with this text and arguments again.