Sampler Platter: Friday, July 18 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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John Goldingay in Psalms, Volume 1: Psalms 1-41, Baker Commentary on the Old Testament Wisdom and Psalms.  Baker Academic, 2006, p. 22, 23:
"The Bible assumes that we do not instinctively know how to talk with God but rather need some help with knowing how to do so.  The Psalter [i.e., the book of Psalms] is given to us so that we can 'adapt and adjust our minds and feelings so that they are in accord with the sense of the psalms.'  ....the Psalter teaches not by telling us how to pray but by showing us how to pray."

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Joe Rigney, "How to Weigh Doctrines for Christian Unity" at The Gospel Coalition (posted May 27, 2014): 
"...part of growing up into maturity as an individual, as a congregation, as an institution, and, Lord willing, as a universal church is the ability to make distinctions when it comes to doctrinal disagreements. All truths are important, but not all truths are equally important. Some are “of first importance” (1 Cor. 15:3-4). There are weightier matters of the law (Matt. 23:23). And therefore, we ought to grow in our ability to weigh doctrines and practices rightly so that we preserve and pursue our unity in Christ."

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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Kevin DeYoung in The Hole In Our Holiness: Filling the Gap Between Gospel Passion and the Pursuit of Godliness.  Crossway, 2012, p. 30:
"...don't be so scared of works-righteousness that you make pale what the Bible writes in bold colors.  We are saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8).  And we were created in Christ Jesus for good works (v. 10).  Any gospel which purports to save people without also transforming them is inviting easy-believism.  If you think being a Christian is nothing more than saying a prayer or joining a church, then you've confused real grace with cheap grace.  Those who are justified will be sanctified."