'Why the Reformation Still Matters' by Michael Reeves and Tim Chester has been on my (virtual) bookshelf for a long time now.
Pursuing Health in an Anxious Age: A Review
I'm fascinated by nutrition and in the little I assessed Pursuing Health prior to reading it, I thought it might kind-of-sort-of be about that. It really wasn't. Instead it was about so much more. Vulnerability, death, community, humanity, compassion, caring for our neighbor, global health care, justice. It was a book rich with meat to chew on. There was simply so much there.
Thought-provoking. That's the word I would use to describe it. Each chapter gave me pause. Each chapter left me thinking and thinking about what I had read.
And each chapter made me appreciate the book more.
Here's how Bob Cutillo starts:
"[Health] is a good, one of our highest goods. But like most goods that are gifts, our efforts to insure, guarantee, or possess it will corrupt it. Like the intimate love of a spouse, the loyalty of a faithful friend, or the satisfaction of doing work well, health grows when we nurture it but diminishes when we try to control it. In the pages that follow, we will seek to renew our view of health in the hope that we can make better sense of the health we have, the sickness we experience, and the death we must inevitably face" (p. 27).
The book is divided into four sections. The first is "The Hope for Health," an explanation of the gift of health and our cultural fascination with and idolization of invulnerability. Health is not something to possess, to give us certainty in an uncertain world; it's a gift given in measures. The second section is "What You See Depends on How You Look," as Dr. Cutillo probes into how the medical profession views patients and sickness and how the gospel views them. This was utterly fascinating to me, especially the lengthy section on the incarnation.
The third section was "The Greatest Fear," and I'm guessing you won't be surprised that it's on death. Dr. Cutillo has just two chapters here, but they were in some ways the linchpin of the book. While the first chapter was a sober preparation for death, the second one was a hopeful cry called "Death Defanged and Defeated." The final section was "Reimagining the Good of Health." This was also fascinating to me. Dr. Cutillo dove into health in community and the cooperation of faith and medicine.
His conclusion was marvelous. It was "The Recovery of Wonder." What a beautiful idea to end a book on health care and medicine with a call to pursue wonder and mystery.
I would happily recommend this book to you. Honestly, I want you to read it and then go for tea with me so we can sit down and talk about it.
As a Canadian reading a book about health care by an American doctor, there were some obvious mental rifts in how I think about the medical system, but overall, I found Pursuing Health in an Anxious Age wonderfully helpful and relevant.
Buy the book here.
*I received a free copy of this book through Crossway's Beyond the Page review system and was not required to give a positive review.
Photo credit: Crossway
Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry: A Review
This is the fun I found in reading Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry: A Practical Guide, edited by Cameron Cole and Jon Nielson. Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry was written for youth workers, pastors, and parents (not for youth themselves), though as a teen writing a book on theology and Christian living for other teens, I still benefited from this book.
Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry is both richly theological and enormously methodological in its structure. Three main sections define the book: 1) Foundations for a Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry, 2) Practical Applications for a Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry, and 3) The Fruit of a Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry.
It was intriguing to me to read this book as a teenager who has never been a part of youth ministry. Yep, I survived my teen years without youth group. I attend a very small church, and we don't have the people or the power to run a targeted ministry for youth -- not that we have more than half a dozen teens at our church anyway.
For this reason, I have never dealt with a lot of the experiences the authors of Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry write about. Still, I found it interesting and applicable and a great resource to recommend to parents and pastors.
If I had to critique anything, it would be that I disagreed with some of the pragmatics or particulars of how to run a youth ministry, but a lot of that comes from my own small church context.
There are some fantastic nuggets of wisdom in this book. Here's just one:
"When teenagers grasp that God loves them perfectly and permanently in spite of their sins, there is great hope of transformation. When a kid adopts a gospel rhythm of life, whereby he or she sees the need for God and depends on his grace, God can bring immeasurable healing, freedom, and fruit. The gospel of grace must appear over and over again in our teaching and discipleship of young people" (p. 36).
In my mind, the strength of Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry is its first section, on the foundations of youth ministry. If churches could embrace this, it really would transform how teens are discipled. Chapter 3, "The Impact of Expounding God’s Word: Expositional Teaching in Youth Ministry," by Eric McKiddie was probably my favorite chapter. There was so much good theology and fantastic application on a frequently misunderstood or ignored subject.
I would most definitely recommend this book to ministers to youth. Also, parents. Parents of teens, in particular. This is a book first and foremost on how the gospel informs discipleship and I believe parents would benefit a great deal from the authors' biblical insight.
I'll close this review with another excellent quote on what gospel-centered youth ministry actually is:
"Youth ministry with a complete view of the gospel places the cross at the foundation of its missional endeavors. Students do not simply do mission trips and service to the poor because they represent good deeds to which Scripture calls us. A response to the gospel drives them. Youth workers constantly should remind kids that their lives and service are a part of God’s total work to redeem fully the whole world for the sake of Christ" (p. 38).
Buy Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry here.
*I received this book from Crossway as part of their Beyond the Page review system. I was not required to give a positive review.
Buy Gospel-Centered Youth Ministry here.
*I received this book from Crossway as part of their Beyond the Page review system. I was not required to give a positive review.
The Stories We Tell: A Review
It's a human love, conditioned into our minds, used to spellbind children and pass along cultural messages and eternal truths since the beginning of time. Jesus was the master storyteller in his day, often using well-crafted parables to teach important lessons. In the first century world, the dominating stories were those told verbally. As time wore on, the stories got transcribed to paper and bound in books. For hundreds of years after that, the written word was the working medium.
Then television came along. Suddenly the stories we told were translated into images and projected onto a silver screen. And this medium today is what dominates our culture.
It's with this premise that Mike Cosper enters the scene with his book The Stories We Tell: How TV and Movies Long For and Echo the Truth.
Themes of the Screen and the Bible
This was a fascinating book, examining how the narratives of popular movies and television shows all echo the grander, greater narrative of the Bible. There were chapters on the search for love, frustration, darkness and horror, redemptive violence, heroes and messiahs, reality television and eternity, fallenness, and paradise.
The subject of the book was one that deeply captured my interest (I actually requested from Crossway that it become available for review). Cosper did not disappoint. He is a rich storyteller himself and covered each theme with a probing, biblical lens. I don't want to be a passive story-watcher, an unengaged entertainment consumer, and Cosper gave me tangible ways to think about the deeper meaning behind what I watch in connection with the gospel.
"I believe that the motivation for our stories is deeply connected with the gospel, and by thinking about that connection, we can more deeply appreciate both" (p. 24).
A Light Hesitation
The only hesitation I had with this book was that I would not be comfortable recommending many of the films or shows that Cosper highlights. That being said, he makes clear that he is not endorsing each program he mentions in the book. I appreciated that.
But by detailing the disturbing stories of some programs (I'm thinking especially of the show Dexter), it was difficult for me to reconcile in my mind how the theme of "blood-bought redemption" justifies soaking our minds and eyes in all the uglier themes of that same show.
A Happy Recommendation
Still, that wouldn't stop me from happily recommending The Stories We Tell. Cosper is funny and articulate and writes with depth and grace. Each chapter comes back to the truest narrative of the gospel and sends you away a more conscious and critically-thinking Christian.
And that's what I was looking for.
Buy The Stories We Tell here.
*I received this book from Crossway as part of their Beyond the Page review system. I was not required to give a positive review.
Photo courtesy of Christianity Today
A Peculiar Glory: A Review
I read my first John Piper book when I was 13. It was Desiring God.
All I remember is being blown away. It was the first theology book I had ever read, and the way that Dr. Piper wrote was so deeply affecting and arresting that I felt my heart moved in a way no author had moved it before. Since then, I have loved Dr. Piper's books and ministry greatly.
That's why I was pretty excited about his brand-new release, A Peculiar Glory: How the Christian Scriptures Reveal Their Complete Truthfulness. Piper wants readers (all readers, especially non-scholars) to be able to trust Scripture as true. His central claim is that God's glory as revealed in Scripture is self-authenticating. And this glory is essentially "peculiar" because it is God's majesty displayed through His meekness.
From the outset, he makes his task for the book clear:
"(T)he task I have set myself in this book is to answer the question: What warrant—what good foundation—in the Christian Scriptures provides a well-grounded trust? What basis of belief in the Scriptures as the word of God will, in fact, honor God?'" (p. 15)
I believe he answered those questions well, pointing to the fact that the Scriptures themselves give us confidence as they display God's glory.
A Peculiar Glory is divided into five parts. Part 1 is Piper's own story of encountering the truth of Scripture. Part 2 answers the question, "What Books and Words Make Up the Christian Scriptures?" Part 3 answers: "What Do the Christian Scriptures Claim for Themselves?" The fourth part asks: "How Can We Know the Christian Scriptures Are True?" And part 5 ends with: "How Are the Christian Scriptures Confirmed by the Peculiar Glory of God?"
In an age where more and more people are approaching the Bible with skepticism and distrust, Piper's book is a helpful addition to the conversation. He's vocal about wanting this book to be especially helpful for the ordinary, unofficially trained Christian who wants to know the Scriptures are true but doesn't have the time or inclination to dig into historical and scholarly research about the topic.
He does that pretty well, I believe. I wouldn't give this book to a brand-new Christian, though. The last two parts in particular were more technical with a lot of terminology that would confuse Christians new to the subject. I'm not sure I would give this book to a skeptic or unbeliever either. It would be most appropriate for Christians who have some background in biblical knowledge.
Still, Piper is brilliant in this book. One thing I love about his writing is that he unfailingly makes God more beautiful to me. I never come away from a Piper book thinking, "John Piper is so amazing." It's always, "I've just seen God in a more glorious way than I saw Him before." Usually, I'm not even thinking about John Piper's power or skill at all — I'm thinking about the God Piper loves so much. As a Christian writer, that's something I want to learn to do better.
There are lots of winsome quotes in here. The Gospel Coalition did a post with 10 great quotes from A Peculiar Glory. You might enjoy reading it to get a taste of the book.
I would happily recommend this book to you. There was a lot I loved about it — Piper's writing style, the way he wrote about how we got the canon of Scripture, Chapter 9: What It Is Like to See the Glory of God, and how well the book flowed and each chapter connected the dots to see the big picture. Picking up a copy would do you good.
You can buy A Peculiar Glory here or you can download it for free from desiringGod here.
*I received this book from Crossway as part of their Beyond the Page review system. I was not required to give a positive review.
Steal Like An Artist: A Review
"Read deeply. Stay open. Continue to wonder. Google it, yo."
It's by artist Austin Kleon and appears in his New York Times bestselling book, Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative.
I stumbled upon this book on two recent "must-read" lists. One was a list of 8 books on creativity everyone needs to read (curated by a secular editor), and the second was a list of 5 books every writer needs to read (compiled by a Christian). So that was that. I requested it from the library and waited my turn.
Two days ago it arrived for me. And two days ago I read it.
Yesterday I read it again, picking out my favorite quotes. It's a small book, only seven or so inches tall and about 140 pages. At first glance or flip-through, it looks like a child's book. There are lots of illustrations, lots of giant text, lots of cartoons.
But it's not a child's book. It is a book for creatives – writers, painters, chefs, inventors. Divided into ten pieces of advice for artists, Kleon captures your attention and holds it fast through compelling narrative. He reinforces his message with simple but insightful illustrations and graphics.
Let me explain the title – Steal Like an Artist. Kleon's premise is that there is no such thing as originality. All of our creativity comes from a "genealogy of ideas." Everybody derived their art from someone else. And that's okay! It's good. We need to embrace that. David Bowie once said, "The only art I'll ever study is stuff that I can steal from."
In other words, as a writer, I want to read writers who are much better than me. I want to learn from them and figure out what makes them better so I can incorporate whatever that magic is into my own writing. I want to take their brilliance, re-fashion it, and make it my own.
This T.S. Eliot quote opens the book and explains the idea further:
"Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn."
I don't know if Kleon is a Christian or not, but Steal Like an Artist is definitely beneficial to the Christian creative. It's filled with pithy quotes and practical advice and has undeniably altered the way I think about my own creative process.
In case you were wondering, here are "the ten things nobody told you about being creative:"
1. Steal like an artist.
2. Don't wait until you know who you are to get started.
3. Write the book you want to read.
4. Use your hands.
5. Side projects and hobbies are important.
6. Do good work and share it with people.
7. Geography is no longer our master.
8. Be nice (the world is a small town).
9. Be boring (it's the only way to get work done).
10. Creativity is subtraction.
Wise words indeed. Kleon is both fun and pragmatic, practical and profound. If you're interested in creativity or art, definitely give this book a read.
Buy Steal Like an Artist here.
Photo courtesy of Culture and Lifestyle.
Easter And American Girls
The Risk We Face at Easter is my article over on The Rebelution. This is what has traditionally been called Holy Week and we're nearing the end of it. But there is a risk inherent to this week - it's the risk of sentimentality. That's what I write about in this piece.
American Girls and Their Social Media Lives is a book review I wrote for The Gospel Coalition. "American Girls" is a new release by journalist Nancy Jo Sales, reporting on the disturbing research Sales collected as she interviewed teenage girls about social media and their sexuality. It was an interesting read. Here's a taste:
"Today teenage girls live online, a recent study revealing that “92 percent were going online from a mobile device daily” (10). But this online world isn’t the screen of innocent fun so many parents believe it to be. It’s a hypersexualized world where validation, acceptance, and worth are inexorably connected to sexual appeal and appetite."
These two posts remind me so much why today, Good Friday, is needed. Sin is very real, terribly and darkly real, and it has infected us all. But the twin hope of today is that sin doesn't have the final say. It doesn't close the curtain. Hope does. Redemption does. Resurrection does. Restoration does.
And that's why this is a truly good Friday.
Christ or Chaos: A Review
But something has changed. Zach has come out as an atheist and Thomas has no idea how to respond. He believes in God but how does he process the intellectual challenges Zach now proposes?
This is how the stage is set for Dan DeWitt's new book, Christ or Chaos. He uses the fictional friendship of two college students as a launching pad to engage the presuppositions and basic beliefs of the new atheists.
Christ or Chaos isn't really about Thomas or Zach at all. It's about worldview and knowing how to stand up for the truth. It's about how Christianity demands our faith and our intellect. It's about a fundamental choice every human has to make - Is life Christ or chaos?
Winsome Intellectualism for College Kids
Dan DeWitt is a smart guy and a really good writer. I liked his first book, Jesus or Nothing, a lot and I liked Christ or Chaos just as much.
A marvelous strength of DeWitt is his ability to write about intellectual and scientific arguments in a down-to-earth way. I have a weak background in science and a lot of technical jargon can swim above my head, but there's none of that here.
DeWitt writes for college kids like Thomas, those of us who are encountering and considering these arguments and ideas for the first time.
DeWitt covers epistemology and the origin of the universe, morality and matter, evil and suffering, the Bible's historicity and the very idea of God, optimism and human nature. And I understood it all. I appreciated it all. He quotes from piles of atheists and contemporary scholars, being precise about his responses.
Sentences I Wish I Had Written
I recently heard someone give an important piece of advice to writers. They said, "Read as many sentences as you can that make you go, 'I wish I had written that.'" There are lots of sentences like that in Christ or Chaos.
Like these ones:
"[Chance] scoffs at our misplaced confidence in evolution to lead us anywhere except into more illusions. And as the sun reaches the zenith of its fury, we read the last word on the last page. 'Despair,' we read aloud, as the Red Giant snuffs out what little life—if ever we should have called it that—remains on our little planet. The End" (130-131).
I love articulate and masterful writing, and so I love to read Dan DeWitt. As Russell Moore summed it up, "Dan DeWitt is a sharp, rigorous thinker who can communicate deep truths in a way people can grasp."
Give This Book to Young People You Know
Graduation season will be upon us before you know it and I think this is an excellent book for the high school and college graduates out there. Students would eat up this book from Boyce College's dean. It's fun and readable and challenging and intellectual and biblical.
Buy Christ or Chaos here.
*I received a copy of this book from Crossway through their Beyond the Page review system. I was not required to give a positive review.
Martyn Lloyd-Jones: A Review
"He has been a constant reminder: you don't have to be cool, hip, or clever to be powerful. In fact, the sacred anointing is simply in another world from those communication techniques. His is the world I want to live in when I step into the pulpit."
Christopher Catherwood, grandson of Lloyd-Jones and author of Martyn Lloyd-Jones: His Life and Relevance for the 21st Century, begins his book by sharing this quote. He then goes on to say,
"Is that the world you would want to live in? If so, this book is for you as it describes not just the life but also the thought of a man whose regular preaching profoundly affected his hearers. As John Piper and others attest, becoming familiar with Dr. Lloyd-Jones could transform your life."
That is an awfully bold claim. But in this new biography, Catherwood is on to something. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was special - and he was special because he was stringently and spectacularly devoted to the Bible. And so getting to know "the Doctor," as he was affectionately called, through Catherwood's biography is less about discovering what Lloyd-Jones' favorite jam was and more about finding how his passion for Scripture is relevant to us today in all spheres of life.
Not that Catherwood doesn't provide us with details about the Doctor as a man but his "aim, however, is to show how profoundly relevant his life and thinking are to us as evangelicals in the twenty-first century. As the saying goes, if one is biblical, one is always relevant. Of few people is that more true than with Dr. Lloyd-Jones."
Catherwood's biography walks us through ten chapters of the Doctor and his theology. The first and last chapter stand as bookends that emphasize the relevance of this biblical British preacher who died in 1981. Then Catherwood traces Lloyd-Jones' life and global influence through two chapters before getting into individual chapters on his theology and how it applies to us today.
There is a chapter on the centrality of Scripture, a chapter on preaching, a chapter on life in the Spirit, and a chapter on community. There are also chapters on two of Lloyd-Jones more controversial views and issues.
I thought Catherwood did an excellent job achieving his aim. Because he focused more on Lloyd-Jones' theology, there was less of an obvious bias (not that Catherwood ever tried to hide that - he was pretty open about the fact that the Doctor was his grandfather). He tried to provide balance to some of Lloyd-Jones' controversy and always tried to draw the Doctor's beliefs back to Scripture. Even some of his odder beliefs were always based on his interpretation of the Bible, Catherwood faithfully argued. And I greatly admired that.
If you want to dig into the beliefs of this man who wrote such seminal Christian classics as Spiritual Depression and preached to millions of people in his life, check out Catherwood's biography.
And then do just what Catherwood would want you to do - go read some Martyn Lloyd-Jones.
Buy Martyn Lloyd-Jones here.
*I received this book through Crossway's Beyond the Page review system. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.
Unbroken: A Review
"Awesome?" we say. "Does it really cause us to be in awe of it?" "Wonderful?" my dad asked in a recent sermon. "Do we really wonder at it?"
Our world flings around words willy-nilly at a dizzying pace. The pizza is excellent, the video spectacular. But really? Are we using the words to mean what they do?
I tell you all this to set up the review ahead. I want you to know that I am going to be careful with the words I use to describe Unbroken.
And I want you to know that I mean what I say when I say Unbroken is an incredible book.
I know I'm late to the Louis Zamperini game. Laura Hillenbrand's epic "World War II story of survival, resilience, and redemption" came out in 2010 and was named TIME magazine's non-fiction book of that year. Angelina Jolie's award-winning movie adaption came out in 2014. It is now 2016 and I have just closed Unbroken's covers. And I'm in awe of it.
In case you haven't heard of Louis Zamperini, Louie - as he was called - was born in 1917 New York to a pair of kind Italian Catholics. He had one older brother, Pete, and two younger sisters, Sylvia and Virginia. The family moved to Torrance, California, in 1919.
Louie got in trouble a lot as a kid before Pete encouraged him to start running. Pete, a record-breaking runner himself, began training Louie, and the Torrance Tornado, as Louie affectionately became known, broke his brother's records and started running straight for the Olympics.
He smashed national high school records first and then launched himself to the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany, the youngest American qualifier ever for the 5,000 meter race. While he didn't receive a medal, he did his country proud and set his sights on the 1940 Olympics, believing he could win a medal then.
(If you haven't read Unbroken and intend to, there are some spoilers ahead, so don't say I didn't give you fair warning.)
Louie never made it to another Olympics. When World War II broke out, he was thrust into a battle that would change his life forever.
He enlisted in the Air Corps, but after his plane crashed in 1943, killing eight of the 11 total crew members, he and his friend and fellow officer Russell Allen "Phil" Phillips and tail gunner Francis "Mac" Mcnamara were set adrift on a raft with no food, water, or supplies for 47 days.
While Mac eventually died, Phil and Louie lasted out the days only to be captured as POWs by the Japanese. They had survived by catching rain water and small fish every few days while simultaneously being surrounded by sharks the entire time. (On more than one occasion, they had to physically beat the sharks away - including one encounter with a Great White.)
At the hands of the Japanese, Louie would endure brutal torture, beatings, starvation, sickness, mental abuse, and constant cruelty (particularly from a twisted Japanese torturer called "The Bird") until he was finally released at the end of the war in 1945.
After the war, Louie fell in love with a woman named Cynthia and, against her family's wishes, they married quickly. Louie thought he was happy at first but soon began to have visions of strangling his tormenters and, to numb the constant nightmares that haunted him from the war, he fell into alcoholism.
It wasn't until hearing Billy Graham speak in 1949 at the urging of his wife that the "redemption" part of Unbroken comes into focus. Louie and his wife were saved and their lives changed dramatically. Louie started a camp for boys and began to tell people how God had saved the Torrance Tornado.
While he never ran professionally again, Louie continued to run for the rest of his life, well into his eighties and still exercising in his nineties. He passed away just a year and a half ago in 2014 at 97.
Unbroken is spectacularly written. Hillenbrand is a master of words and kept me hooked. I read a few chapters one evening and then the next day was suddenly spellbound and gobbled up the rest of the book in an afternoon.
A lot of reviewers will tell you not to give this book to your children. They are very right. Unbroken is a disturbing story. Louie's time as a POW was sickening. But I think you should consider giving it to your teenagers - and everyone older than that. The themes of courage and fear and friendship and hope and desperation and loneliness and dignity and humanity and compassion and camaraderie weave together a story (a true one) that will change their lives. I don't say this lightly.
When trying to articulate how I felt about this book to my family, it was difficult. "It's a traumatizing story," I fumbled out. "And I never want to see the movie." The torture seemed too brutal to view on screen. But it was more than trauma. The book also left me emotionally shaken. That being said, Hillenbrand never succumbed to mushy sentimentalism. It was just the compelling facts of this shocking story.
But the story did shock me. And I think that's the point. Reminders of human depravity haunt our war memorials. I'm 18. I have never seen war up close and personal and have no frame of reference for World War II besides impersonal history books. This brought it close to home, gave me names and faces and told me how people were hurt and described horrors I could never dream of.
Yet through it all, it gave me hope of redemption. There is human depravity, yes, but there is a light that overcomes the darkness. And that's why I think Unbroken is worth reading.
Photo courtesy of Film Festival Flix.
Do More Better: A Review
In a word, it's about productivity.
This was the first book I had read on productivity - and also the first substantial piece of writing by a Christian on productivity. I was expecting good things from Tim Challies and he did not disappoint in the least.
In the first chapter, he defines productivity as this:
"Productivity is effectively stewarding your gifts, talents, time, energy, and enthusiasm for the good of others and the glory of God."
The first four chapters of Do More Better lay the groundwork for the book by offering up a framework for thinking about work and priorities and rest. Challies covers defining our roles and areas of responsibility, creating a mission, and how productivity glorifies God.
The final six chapters nail down the practical parts - how to harness particular tools to effectively manage our time and tasks. He points out three tools and includes a chapter on each - 1) a task management tool (like Todoist), 2) a scheduling tool (like Google Calendar), and 3) an information tool (like Evernote).
Challies includes bolded action steps throughout the book to emphasize what to do next.
There are two appendices at the end that you also don't want to miss - one on organizing your email and the other with 20 tips on productivity.
Challies is a capable communicator, adept at clarity and substance even in a short chunk of writing (the page count rings in at just under 120 pages - including ten chapters and two appendices). He is pithy and practical (abundantly practical) and I already feel like I'm getting more organized after reading Do More Better.
One principle especially continues to stay with me: a home for everything and like goes with like. These simple yet profound nuggets of wisdom are what endue Do More Better with punchy power.
What better way to start the new year than picking up a Christian book on productivity? Don't miss out. Grab a copy of Do More Better today.
Within the first pages, Challies claims that this book will improve your life. I have to agree.
Buy Do More Better here.
*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.
Image Credit: Challies
Awe: A Review
You were born with an "awe capacity" is how Paul Tripp would say it. But something's wrong here - you also have an "awe problem." This problem is that you, like everyone else, are hardwired for awe but find it in the wrong places.
These profound truths are what tie together Dr. Tripp's new book, Awe: Why It Matters for Everything We Think, Say, and Do.
Through 13 chapters, Tripp walks us through how to lose our awe of the created and recapture a thundering awe of our Creator.
Tripp writes: "As it is true of a street sign, so it is true of every jaw-dropping, knee-weakening, silence-producing, wonder-inspiring thing in the universe. The sign is not the thing you are looking for. No, the sign points you to what you are looking for. ... Created awe has a purpose; it is meant to point you to the place where the awe of your heart should rest" (p. 21).
Written for Christians in all spiritual walks, Tripp is transparent about his own awe struggles but gives a lot of application for readers.
The last half of the book is where I thought Tripp really shone - when he got practical. His chapter on materialism was one of the strongest. He also deals with work, parenting, church, worldview, growth, and complaining.
Tripp was engaging throughout the book, but he was also firm and his tone could grow chastising at parts. It fit, though, because he was dealing with a subject that a lot of his readers need a bit of a shake to understand.
One thing I had a bit of trouble with was the repetition. I get that Dr. Tripp was handling a very specific subject, but I felt like a lot of the material in the first six chapters was overlapping. Again, I understand that he was trying to weave a singular theme through the book, but I think "We have an awe problem" was in almost every chapter.
The latter half of the book, where it got more practical, eased up on the repetition, which I thought flowed better. All in all, I thought the second half was stronger - it was less list-heavy and more hands-on helpful.
Overall, I thought the book was engaging and refreshing. While it's not a topic that was new to me, Dr. Tripp clearly cared deeply about it and brought his passion to his writing. This is a great addition to your library, and I would happily recommend this book to anyone.
Buy Awe here.
*I received this book through Crossway's Beyond the Page review system. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.
What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality?: A Review
His latest offering, What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality?, is no different.
"Is homosexual activity a sin that must be repented of, forsaken, and forgiven, or, given the right context and commitment, can we consider same-sex sexual intimacy a blessing worth celebrating and solemnizing? That is the question this book seeks to answer."
This question is posed in the Introduction and in less than 150 pages, DeYoung answers it.
The first part of the book covers seven principal and plain biblical texts that condemn homosexuality as a sin (Genesis 1-2, 19; Leviticus 18, 20; Romans 1; 1 Corinthians 6; 1 Timothy 1). The second part answers seven common objections to the traditional view of marriage, including, "The Bible hardly ever mentions homosexuality" and "The God I worship is a God of love."
The final part is the appendix section, and there are actually three appendices: 1) "What About Same-Sex Marriage?", 2) "Same-Sex Attraction: Three Building Blocks," 3) "The Church and Homosexuality: Ten Commitments."
While some critics might argue that DeYoung is biased by his traditional view of marriage and conservative religious views, he does an astonishingly fair job of letting the Bible speak for itself. He is sympathetic toward his dissenters, but never soft on them.
Furthermore, he does not obscure or veil his conviction. He never tries to disguise himself as possibly being in the affirming camp, nor does he cloud his belief. Right from the outset, he states:
"I believe same-sex sexual intimacy is a sin. Along with most Christians around the globe and virtually every Christian in the first nineteen-and-a-half centuries of church history, I believe the Bible places homosexual behavior - no matter the level of commitment or mutual affection - in the category of sexual immorality. Why I believe this is the subject of the rest of this book."
DeYoung never hides behind anecdotes. What I love about this book is that DeYoung unashamedly does what he set out to do: instead of focusing on history, sociology, emotions, politics, or the media, he looks simply to what God says about homosexuality.
In this day and age, I think every Christian should pick up a copy of this book. If you want to be able to defend the traditional view of marriage from a singularly biblical perspective with grace and conviction, this book is for you.
Concise, clear, punchy, relevant, and staunchly biblical, What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? equips and encourages today's Christians for inevitable cultural engagement. Definitely pick a copy up.
Buy What Does the Bible Really Teach about Homosexuality? here.
*I received this book through Crossway's Beyond the Page review system. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.
Image Credit: Gospel Coalition
Free E-Book: Taking God At His Word
I reviewed Taking God At His Word back in April and you can read the entire review here. This is what I said about this book:
"Taking God At His Word is short. It's readable. It's accessible.
It's broken down into eight chapters on things like the sufficiency of Scripture, its surety, its clarity, its authority, its necessity, and its unbreakableness. DeYoung want us to trust the Bible and see its importance in the practical grind of our daily lives. But he also wants us to love the Bible, just like the psalmist in Psalm 119.
And I came away from this book feeling just like DeYoung had hoped, and just like another pastor named David Platt.
In his endorsement of this book, Platt wrote,
'My trust in God's Word is greater, my submission to God's Word is deeper, and my love for God's Word is sweeter as a result of reading this book.'"
'My trust in God's Word is greater, my submission to God's Word is deeper, and my love for God's Word is sweeter as a result of reading this book.'"
You can download a free e-book version of DeYoung's Taking God At His Word here at Crossway until July 14. Don't wait!
Photo courtesy of discipletimothy.
Is Anybody Out There?: A Review
He was raised in a fractured home in Yorkshire, England, where his mother left him and his neglectful father remarried a woman who abused Mez sadistically and mercilessly. His upbringing reflected poverty and always loneliness. He was friendless, loveless. When his step-mother wasn't looking, he would escape into a story world, craving solace from his nightmare of a life.
His dad finally kicked his step-mom out when Mez was thirteen. From there, though, his life didn't get much better. He dropped out of school, went from job to job, and finally immersed himself in a life of crime and drugs. Here at last he found some semblance of community.
Then he was sent to one of England's worst prisons. Christians visited him in jail, but it wasn't until after Mez was released and he moved in with some Christians that God transformed his heart. All of his life, Mez struggled with wondering what was the purpose of it all. He would ask his fellow thieves and drug addicts, but they had no answer for him. "Who cares?" they would say. "Just enjoy life now."
But Mez's nagging questions finally led him to discover the truth. After attending Bible college, he spent time as a missionary in Brazil with his wife and daughters and now pastors Niddrie Community Church in Niddrie, Scotland, as well as overseeing the ministry 20schemes.
This memoir is hard to put down. Mez is a gifted writer and his quirky sense of humor often seeps through. A lot is written in stream-of-consciousness, making you feel so much more invested in his story, feeling the pain and the loneliness and the ache of it all. And then you feel the liberating, transforming power of Jesus.
What I especially liked about this memoir was the way that Mez dealt honestly with the growing stage of a new Christian. Is Anybody Out There? didn't end when he got saved; it covered his learning, his struggling, his initial evangelism. It accurately showed the sometimes slow process of peace that comes to new Christians. He didn't just wake up feeling all hunky-dory one day. As he learned more about the Bible and came to understand the depths of his own sinfulness and the magnitude of God's grace and forgiveness, he was given overwhelming peace and assurance.
Is Anybody Out There? is a fast-paced, hard-to-put-down, heartbreaking, grace-saturated, powerful read. Mez has an incredible testimony to share - not of his greatness, though, but of God's glory. Be sure to pick up a copy and experience it for yourself.
Buy Is Anybody Out There? here.
Photo courtesy of challies.com.
Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled: A Review
At eight chapters long, this book reflects the eight sermons that Lloyd-Jones preached. He patiently plods through the first twelve verses of John 14. The context of the passage is that Jesus is telling His disciples about His imminent death and they don't understand. They are confused and hurt by this, and Jesus addresses the tumult in their own hearts with compassion and encouragement. Lloyd-Jones breaks each sermon (and the editors, each chapter) into just a couple of verses.
This book has buckets of strengths, in my opinion. First off, it's richly encouraging. I read a lot of books, but this short work was like a breath of fresh air, a pure delight to read. While present day political circumstances are quite different from 1951, the core sins and discouragements that Martyn Lloyd-Jones addresses are starkly relevant. I was deeply encouraged by these sermons.
Secondly, it's immensely readable. If I wasn't well aware of the fact, I'd be surprised to find out these words were first spoken in the early fifties. Sure, in the grand scheme of things sixty years isn't that long, but it's long enough. Yet Lloyd-Jones speaks in a timeless manner, offering ageless encouragement. His style is conversational, and I could almost hear his voice (including the crisp British accent) as I read. All in all, it was very accessible.
Third, it's both theological and practical. Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled would be an excellent book for a new Christian, or even as a discussion springboard for an unbelieving friend. While this book is at its root simple exposition of Scripture lacking any sort of flashy or funny illustrations, it's engaging and extensively practical. It's rich with doctrine yet offers easy, practical encouragement.
Last, it's short. While this may not seem like much of a strength, its brevity would appeal to many. It is literally just like a breath of fresh air. It whooshes in, clearing cobwebs of doubt and fear and confusion and discouragement from one's mind, bringing sweet, fresh encouragement and joy instead.
This is a book to invest in for sure. If you are going through a particularly low point in your life or simply find yourself troubled by the world we live in, Martyn Lloyd-Jones has encouragement for you: Believe in Jesus. He has the answer to your questions, and He offers hope for your doubt.
“[Jesus said,] 'Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also'" (John 14:1-3).
*I received this book through Crossway's Beyond the Page review system. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.
Image Credit: Amazon
The Things of Earth: A Review
Turn your eyes upon Jesus
Look full in his wonderful face
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim
In the light of his glory and grace.
But Joe Rigney has a bit of a problem with this song on its own - especially the third line of that chorus. Namely, because this song captures only one half of a tension in the Christian life: "How can we enjoy all that God richly provides without setting our affections on the things of earth?"
And that's the tension he sets out to resolve in his book, The Things of Earth: Treasuring God By Enjoying His Gifts.
He contrasts Helen Lemmel's hymn with Maltie Babcock's "This is My Father's World":
This is my Father's world:
He shines in all that's fair;
In the rustling grass I hear Him pass,
He speaks to me everywhere.
Rigney believes that God has given His people good gifts to enjoy in this life and that we bring glory to God by enjoying those gifts. Furthermore, we bring ourselves gospel-powered joy by enjoying these gifts. And that motivated Rigney to write this book. He writes,
"My aim is simple - I want to work with you for your joy. Your joy in your family. Your joy in your friends. Your joy in your pancakes and eggs, your steak and potatoes, your chips and your salsa. Your joy in your camping trips, workouts, and iPod playlist. Your joy in the Bible, in worship services, and in the quiet moments before you fall asleep. Your joy in your job, your hobbies, and your daily routine."
He attains this aim wholly and fully. This is a marvelously inventive book on a topic I've spent little time considering. But it is a vital topic to the Christian life, and Rigney's creative, compelling book makes an adroit addition to the Christian's library.
Rigney's twelve chapters cover sub-topics like delighting in the Trinity, participating as creatures in God's story, using our wealth and resources, dealing with suffering, understanding self-denial and generosity, living a "godward" life, and embracing our creatureliness. Rigney is an excellent writer and a capable academic and theologian.
Perhaps my favorite chapter was chapter six, "Rhythms of Godwardness," where he defines and unpacks that beautiful phrase. He defines godwardness as the following:
"[T]he attempt to faithfully live out the famous biblical exhortation in 1 Corinthians 10:31: 'So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.' To go forward is to move intentionally in the direction in front of us. To go backward is to move in the direction behind us. Thus, godwardness is the movement of the soul toward God such that our thoughts, affections, and actions ultimately terminate upon him."
This particular chapter I found both convicting and encouraging and eye-opening. He examined something that is at once fairly familiar (i.e., doing all to the glory of God) and put a new spin on it, using fresh language and clear expression.
You won't regret reading this book. And you definitely won't regret spending some time in personal reflection on all that you've read.
Buy The Things of Earth here.
*I received a copy of this book from Crossway through their Beyond the Page review system. I was not required to give a positive review
Image Credit: Desiring God
The Romantic Rationalist: A Review
But C.S. Lewis was, and remains to be, a controversial guy. Why would these respected pastors, authors, and scholars host a whole conference and write a whole book about the merit of Lewis?
"[In] this fiftieth year since [Lewis'] death, it seemed to many of us that a book like this would be a small expression of our thankfulness to God for him, and our admiration of him, and our desire that his gifts to the world he preserved and spread."
These men respect Lewis' writing and his thinking and they wanted to worship God by expressing that respect for others to see. And being a personal fan of a lot of Lewis' writing (despite our disagreements), I was ready to jump right in to The Romantic Rationalist and see what it had to offer.
First things first: this book is a dizzying whirl. There are moments of sharp intellectualism and literary complexity (there is a lot, not surprisingly, of Lewis quoted in this book, and Lewis was a smart guy). Most of The Romantic Rationalist was pretty easy to follow, though - despite the dozens of Lewis works that are referenced and quoted from.
The first chapter finds Piper giving the definition of "romantic rationalist" and explaining how C.S. Lewis was saved and how that shaped his writing. Piper writes,
"My thesis is that [Lewis'] romanticism and his rationalism were the paths on which he came to Christ, and they are the paths on which he lived his life and did his work. They shaped him into a teacher and writer with extraordinary gifts for logic and likening. And with these gifts, he spent his life pointing people beyond the world to the meaning of the world, Jesus Christ."
In the next chapter, Philip Ryken dealt with Lewis and his doctrine of Scripture (in "Inerrancy and the Patron Saint of Evangelicalism: C.S. Lewis on Holy Scripture), on which, Ryken points out, Lewis had some serious shortcomings. Ryken went so far as to call Lewis "suborthodox." Nevertheless, Ryken contends that Lewis was mostly right on all the really essential stuff.
Douglas Wilson wrote about Lewis on salvation in what I found to be a very jumbled, often confusing chapter. I was not a little disappointed as this was the chapter I had looked most forward to, to ease my previous confusion on Lewis' soteriology. Instead I came away even more confused.
The last three chapters were as such: Kevin Vanhoozer covered Lewis on imagination in the context of discipleship and theology; Randy Alcorn wrote about Lewis on the New Heavens and the New Earth; and Piper closed it up on Lewis on the use of creation. Appendix 1 is Randy Alcorn on Lewis' doctrine of hell, something that, Alcorn admits, like his view of Scripture, had errors. But Alcorn still finds Lewis a worthwhile voice on the matter. There is a transcript of this panel discussion (which was easier to listen to than read) in Appendix 2 that covers the authors answering some general questions about the merit of Lewis and so forth.
Would I recommend this book? To someone who is interested in C.S. Lewis, absolutely! Despite the confusing parts, someone who enjoys Lewis, has read Lewis, and wants to digger deeper into Lewis' beliefs will enjoy this. To someone who isn't especially interested in Lewis, I think there might be better books to read. Nevertheless, I enjoyed The Romantic Rationalist.
Buy The Romantic Rationalist here.
*I received a copy of this book from Crossway through their Beyond the Page review system. I was not required to give a positive review
Image URL: http://www.epm.org/static/uploads/images/blog/cs-lewis-desiring-god.jpg
The Gospel: A Review
This book is another title in the ministry 9Marks' series on the nine marks of a healthy church. At the beginning of The Gospel, Ortlund explains the purpose of this book:
The purpose of this book, then, is simple. I want to show how Christ puts his beauty into our churches by his gospel. That explains the title of this book: The Gospel: How the Church Portrays the Beauty of Christ. Beauty is powerful. ... We possess, in the gospel alone, God's wonder-working resources for the display of Christ among us. And as you read, I hope you find yourself thrilled with the beauty of Christ. That's my ultimate goal.
But what is the gospel? Chapter one, titled "The Gospel for You," is focused on John 3:16 and unpacks this familiar verse phrase by phrase. It succinctly yet robustly explains fully what the gospel means for the individual. Ortlund says it like this:
God, through the perfect life, atoning death, and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, rescues all his people from the wrath of God into peace with God, with a promise of the full restoration of his created order forever - all to the praise of the glory of his grace.
The second chapter is called "The Gospel for the Church" and is focused on Ephesians 5:25 (scroll over the reference to see the verse) and explains how "the doctrine of grace creates a culture of grace where good things happen to bad people." The third chapter, "The Gospel for Everything" is on Revelation 21:5 and focuses on the "bigness" of the gospel and how it impacts our future.
The fourth chapter shifts into exploring further implications of the gospel - "specifically, what does the gospel create in this present world that wasn't here before?" Chapter five is titled "It Isn't Easy, But It is Possible" and is framed around Galatians 2:14 and the difficulties of creating a gospel culture within the church. "What We Can Expect" is chapter six and is based on the encouraging verses of 2 Corinthians 2:15-16 as Ortlund asks, "As our churches press further into gospel doctrine and gospel culture, what can we expect to see?" In the final chapter, "Our Path Forward," Ortlund wraps everything up with Revelation 14:4,
"They follow the Lamb wherever he goes."
He ends by pointing out three treasures the church should reach for: power, courage, and love.
I cannot recommend this book highly enough. The Gospel is a book that any church member should try to get their hands on. It will make you love your church better, but more importantly, it will draw your eyes to Christ to make you love him better. This Bible is centralized in this book, Christ glorified, and the church magnified. What more can you ask for in a book?
Buy The Gospel here.
*I received a copy of this book from Crossway through their Beyond the Page review system. I was not required to give a positive review
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Welcome to the Story: A Review
The Bible is a great story. It is a true story. It is the story that makes sense of us, of every moment, whether those moments are utterly confounding or seemingly insignificant.
Stephen J. Nichols' book, Welcome to the Story: Reading, Loving, and Living God's Word, is a book all about the Bible, making it an excellent resource for a new Christian. It's not long, it's written in a clear and simple format, and it provides a sweeping overview of the narrative of Scripture. Though I found nothing unfamiliar in my read of it, a new Christian would, I'm sure, find it deeply practical and beneficial.
Nichols writes in what neatly summarizes Welcome to the Story:
This book invites you to enter in, to participate in, the story of the Bible. To do so, we must first see and grasp the story. We can put the puzzle together much more easily if we are looking at the picture on the box. This book aims to show you the big picture so you can make sense of all the pieces.
The first five chapters examine this big picture of Scripture, looking at four major themes (or acts):
1) Creation
2) Fall
3) Redemption
4) Restoration
The next chapter looks at the characters in Scripture, and how to view them. The final four chapters are exceedingly practical, looking at how to not miss the point of the story, how to love the story, how to live the story, and then the "now what?" aspect of the story - or, how do we put all of this together? There's an appendix of sorts in the back, called "Cheat Sheet for Reading the Bible," which applies "the five friends of biblical interpretation and application," or the journalist's five friends - who, what, where, when, and why - to the daily reading of Scripture.
Nichols' writing is accessible for pretty much anybody, sprinkled with a dose of terribly corny jokes. His overview of the story is accurate and concise, and I enjoyed it the most out of this book. But I love how Nichols emphasizes the personal aspect of Scripture, how we're invited to enter in and participate in that grand story. The Bible is not just to read and forget. It's to read and live and love. And that comes out clearly in Welcome to the Story.
We don't passively watch the story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration play itself out. We're not off in the gallery peering down on the stage. We are part of the story. We're not off the field, in the bleachers watching God bring his plans to fruition. God has made us part of the game. We're suited up and we're on the field.
Buy Welcome to the Story here.
*I received a copy of this book from Crossway through their Beyond the Page review system. I was not required to give a positive review
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