Spiritual Disciplines Crossword

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10 Best Commentary Sets For Bible College And Seminary Students

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I recently posted about the 5 Best Commentary Sets for Sunday School Teachers . In this post, I want to continue this series by introducing you to what I believe are 10 indispensable Bible Commentary Sets for Bible College and Seminary Students. Each of these commentaries are more academic-oriented than those listed in my previous posts.  With that being said, let's look at these commentary sets. 1.  New International Commentary on the Old and New Testaments Combining superior scholarship, an evangelical view of Scripture, and concern for the life of faith today, this comprehensive, accessible commentary series is one of the most highly regarded resources of current scholarship. Prepared by world-renowned authorities, the NICOT and NICNT series reflects exacting study of the original languages and offers careful exegesis with preachers' and teachers' spiritual concerns in mind. This series consists of 46 volumes, covering every book of the Bible except Exodus, 1 Kings, 2 Ki
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Prayer as Polemic

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Some time ago, when I was involved in apologetics, I shied away from mentioning my prayer life, for two major reasons. First, because it was all but nonexistent. My prayer life has never been the strongest part of my Christian walk, and it is something that I am working on. Second, because I didn't see any practical value in using it in defending the faith. In this post, I confess, I have changed my mind. I think that prayer does have some polemical value, and I believe that the biblical authors did, as well. In 1 Kings 8:59-60, King Solomon connects prayer (although possibly in an indirect way) with people seeing and knowing that Yahweh is God and that there is no other. If we are going to recognize prayer as a type of polemic, it is important for us to understand what kind of argument we have. I would classify it as an argument from experience. If someone affirms that personal experience is valid for understanding truth, as in the way that the scientific method uses the experienc
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Dear Christians, Start Praying

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  Dear Christians, I read a sad statistic today. According to a poll conducted by Lifeway Research, prayer among protestant pastors is in terrible shape (1). This is not the only poll that has shown the lack of prayer among many in the clergy. However, it is very telling. In fact, this poll shows pastors spending more time in prayer than many other polls that were conducted. In other words, this appears to be the best case scenario. According to the poll, pastors spent approximately 5 hours each week in prayer. Yes. You read that right. Five hours each WEEK. This translates to less than 45 minutes each day, on average. Keep in mind that some of this time comes from the Sunday worship services. This is less than the amount of time these pastors spent each week watching television, to give a point of comparison.  It seems that it is easy for us to sing the old hymn "Sweet Hour of Prayer", but it is difficult for us to actually live this out in our lives. The lack of prayer amon
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The Church As The Guardian Of Truth

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  In modern times, when we speak of the work of the Church, we often think of several things: Evangelism, Preaching, Pastoral Ministry, and Christian community. These are all valid ministries of the Church, and we should focus on these things and do these things well. However, I want to propose something that we often do not think about: the Church as the guardian of truth. Let me explain what I mean. We, as the Church, have been entrusted with a truth that the world does not have. Namely, we know Jesus Christ, who He is, what He has done for us, and we are striving to live in a manner that honors Him. Namely, we have the Gospel and strive to live our lives in accordance with it. This is significant, because the apostle Paul commanded his young protégé, Timothy, to guard the deposit of faith that had been handed on to him (2 Timothy 1:14). This command should be understood to extend to us today. It is important to define my terms. By Church, I am talking about the Church universal, not
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What Are The Beatitudes?

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 Scripture: Matthew 5:3-12 These verses contain what have come to be called the beatitudes. Even many non-Christians throughout history have seen this as some of the best of the teaching of Jesus. However, they have missed the mark by not following this teaching. This teaching, as we discussed in the last post, is for Christians, not for the world. It is teaching that shows that true happiness is defined by Jesus, not by the world. Since this is the case, I think that it is vital that we properly understand what exactly Jesus is teaching here. While space and time constraints preclude me from doing a post on each of these individually (and they each deserve a post or more of their own), I would like to briefly survey the beatitudes for those who may be confused about what Jesus actually meant. It is important to note that this is not a buffet. As Christians, we don't get to look at these and say "I want a little bit of poor in spirit, no mourning, a little bit of meekness, etc
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