“You and I, as preachers, are dealers in words. Words are all that we have to do any important work. Like some of the psalms of lament, I want both to thank God for speech and to blame God for speech being so difficult. And I want to fall in love with language, over and …
“The Bible is alive, it speaks to me; it has feet, it runs after me; it has hands, it lays hold on me.” -Martin Luther, quoted in Mark Dever, What Does God Want Of Us Anyway (Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2010), 21.
“It is a sin and shame not to know our own book or to understand the speech and words of our God; it is a still greater sin and loss that we do not study languages, especially in these days when God is offering and giving us men and books and every facility and inducement …
“The Word of God that saves and sanctifies, from generation to generation, is preserved in a book. And therefore at the heart of every pastor’s work is book work. Call it reading, mediation, reflection, cogitation, study, exegesis, or whatever you will–a large and central part of our work is to wrestle God’s meaning from a …
“We must affirm with Martin Luther that the preaching of the Word is the first essential mark of the church. Luther believed so strongly in the centrality of preaching that he stated, ‘Now, wherever you hear or see this Word preached, believed, professed, and lived, do not doubt that the true ecclesia sancta catholica [Christian, …