Sampler Platter: Friday, August 29 2014

Here's a sampling of some of the things I've been reading and reviewing this week.  The hope is that these bite-sized sections of books, articles, blog posts, etc will stand on their own and be beneficial in-and-of-themselves.  But I also hope that some of you will like these excerpts enough that they pull you into the larger work from which they've been taken.

Let's start sampling: 

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Michael Kruger, "You Don't Think Learning the Biblical Languages is Worth It?  Think Again" at www.michaeljkruger.com (posted August 18, 2014): 

"...the characterization of pastoral ministry as somehow incompatible with the [biblical] languages (due to busyness, or other causes), is an unfortunate misunderstanding of what a pastorate is all about.  No doubt, pastors should be busy shepherding their flock, meeting with ministry leaders, and running the church.   But, the core of the calling is to be a 'minister of the word.'

"And if the pastoral call is to be a minister of the Word, then there is a significant component of pastoral life that should be devoted to serious study of the biblical text—beyond just the preparation for that week’s sermon.   Put differently, pastors should continue to be students.   They need to be readers, thinkers, and theologians."

Click here to see the full post from which this excerpt was taken.  Please note the usual disclaimer, that my recommendation of this post is not necessarily an endorsement of everything else on the site where this was posted.

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F.F. Bruce, The Epistle to the Hebrews, rev.  NICNT.  Eerdmans, 1990.  pp. 335-36:

Commenting on Hebrews 12:1: "There are many things which may be perfectly all right in their own way, but which hinder a competitor in the race of faith; they are 'weights' which must be laid aside.  It may well be that what is a hindrance to one entrant in this spiritual contest is not a hindrance to another; each must learn for himself what in his case is a weight or impediment.  But there are other things which are not perfectly all right in their own way but are essentially wrong; there is 'sin which so readily ensnares us.'"

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J.M. Lunde, "Repentance" in New Dictionary of Biblical Theology, ed by T. Desmond Alexander, et al.  InterVarsity Press, 2000.  p. 726:

"The biblical notion of repentance refers to the radical turning away from anything which hinders one's wholehearted devotion to God, and the corresponding turning to God in love and obedience."