Holidays Approaching, Book Reviews Upon Return!

So my family and I are on hols from tomorrow afternoon. We're going to take a few books with us, although with four kids I'm not sure we'll get much reading time!

Here are a couple we'll be taking with us:

 My wife will do a guest book review of One Thousand Gifts which looks like a very interesting topic. I'll have a review of Gilead, a Pulitzer-Prize winning novel. So see you again on Monday week (Jan 30) for more Christian book blogging.   

Book Review: Home Tonight: Further Reflections on the Parable of the Prodigal Son (Henri J.M. Nouwen)

This book is (as mentioned in a previous post) a collection of Nouwen's conference notes from a three-day workshop he ran following his recovery from a nervous breakdown. It's been edited into book form by Sue Mosteller of the Henri Nouwen Society. The book is divided into three parts entitled 'Leaving and Returning Home', 'The Invisible Exile of Resentment', and 'Home is Receiving and Giving Love'. Each part has three chapters with workshop exercises at the end of each chapter under the headings of 'Listening', 'Journaling', 'Communing' and 'Practices'.

Right, that's enough of the intro. A previous post talked about my interest in stories of the broken-hearted, and so I will direct you there to give you the brief history of Nouwen's personal situation behind the writing of this book.    
  
Following his breakdown Nouwen found a path to recovery in meditating on the parable of the prodigal son from Luke 15. In particular, he became entranced by the painting of the parable by Rembrandt which you see below.

Things I Liked About the Book 
Personal Self-Discovery and Biblical Insight  
Nouwen gives us a very frank self-assessment. His academic background in Psychology gives him a really fascinating insight into his own behaviour and the parable too.

Nouwen is just so good at understanding himself, even if he isn't so good at being able to change his behaviour. He is very honest in saying 'I have carried within me the pain of loneliness and a nagging need for affection...I was always yearning for intimacy in my life' (xvii). Nouwen had always found it 'difficult to love freely without being selfish and demanding' (8). Growing up, he says 'I wanted to be a pagan so I could do all the things I wanted to do and not feel guilty' (20). Carrying such baggage and being such an intense person, Nouwen seems inevitably bound to reach the personal crisis in his life that he describes.

By addressing his own weaknesses so well, Nouwen can direct floodlights onto the parable of the prodigal son, giving us much greater depth and detail into each of the characters within it .

The younger son in the parable disrespectfully leaves his father, taking his share of his father's inheritance. The son then shamelessly squanders his father's wealth. With nothing left, the younger son realizes he must return to his father to survive. Yet despite his shameful behaviour and wasteful living, the son always knows that  

"I'm still the child of my father and of my mother. I still belong to my family. I still have a home where people who know me are alive." (p23)  

With this insight Nouwen points the reader to Jesus:

He claimed himself in truth, so that whether people wanted to be with him, listen to him, make him king, reject him, beat him, spit on him, or nail him to the Cross, he never lost the truth that he was God's beloved child (p25). 

An interesting observation Nouwen makes from the younger son's plight is that when we are sensitive to our own journey in Christ, we can soon see that 'we are leaving and coming back [to our Father] every day, every hour' (p26). We undertake a constant series of departures and returns from God although we always know we are members of God's family because of Jesus.

Nouwen then moves onto the older son's part in the parable. Nouwen himself was the oldest of eleven children, so he feels a definite affinity with the older son here. He makes a powerful point about the older son which may well apply to most of us as well:

We work tirelessly to present ourselves in a good light before others in the false belief that our identity comes from who we are in their eyes, or from what we do or what we have (p37).

Nouwen says that the common problem believers make in their lives is to keep thinking that they can find the first love (that is, the unconditional love of God in Christ) in their day-to day relationships with others. Nouwen says that the people in our lives can only give us a second love: that is, a love that is imperfect and conditional. Only God can love us unconditionally. To give an illustration of this, Nouwen talks about his own situation:

When I hoped for total self-giving and unconditional love from another human being who was imperfect and limited in ability to love, I was asking for the impossible (p33).     

Nouwen then spends time talking about the resentment and sense of obligation that drives the elder son in his service to his father, providing a parallel to the attitude of many believers today in their service and relationship to God.

It is very powerful and helpful for both pastors and anyone spending time in this parable to read the insights Nouwen has here. I was voraciously taking notes and pondering Nouwen's thinking in my own life.  

Some Irritations with the Book

I did have some issues with the book, but really they were more about the editing of the book than what Nouwen wrote about.

On virtually every page there is a sidebar with quotes about understanding the self. However they are not taken just from Nouwen's works but from a whole variety of different people including Desmond Tutu, Jean Vanier (founder of L'Arche), Gandhi and a sufi amongst others.

I found the quotes really distracting as they took me away from the intensity of the book's flow. I felt uncomfortable also with some quotes coming from people who were not Christians in a book that talks about the God of the Bible giving the author his means of survival and strength through his breakdown. Quotes from sufis and from Gandhi seemed inappropriate and watered down the gospel insights of Nouwen. In fact, in my opinion quotes from anyone except Nouwen were unhelpful, although well intended. So all in all, thumbs down to the quotes! The book easily holds its own without them.    

Conclusion
If you want to really get a handle on the parable of the prodigal son from Luke 15 and where you may fit within each of the characters within it, this is a very helpful book. Nouwen's own journey from breakdown to recovery, interwoven with his meditation on this parable, makes for a very moving and meaningful reading experience. The workshop activities at the end of each chapter give a great opportunity for practical application of Nouwen's biblical insights into your own life.  A wonderful book to read, dear pastors.

The Pile: January 18 2012

Every now and then I'll show you 'The Pile'. It's the pile of books I'm geared up to read. I wonder how this will change by the end of 2012!

Book Notes: Salvation Accomplished by the Son (Robert A. Peterson)

This book came in the post today. It was a free giveaway from a blog I read in the USA, so very grateful! It's basically a systematic theology book (specifically Christology) published by Crossway Books. It joins a queue of books to read this year!

I talked earlier about the aesthetic quality of a book being important in me picking it up and being interested in reading it: this passes that test. Beautiful. Will post on it after reading.  

The Apocrypha

If you were to look in the back of the Sunday Services Anglican prayer book above (a Sydney Anglican liturgical resource), you would find 'The Articles of Religion', otherwise known as the 'Thirty-Nine Articles'. The Articles are the doctrinal foundation and statement of belief of the Anglican Church.

In Article 6 ('On the Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for Salvation') you will find this:

'And the other books (as Hierome saith) the Church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet doth it not apply them to establish any doctrine; such are these following:
    The Third Book of Esdras.
    The Fourth Book of Esdras.
    The Book of Tobias.
    The Book of Judith.
    The rest of the Book of Esther.
    The Book of Wisdom.
    Jesus the Son of Sirach.
    Baruch the Prophet.
    The Song of the Three Children.
    The Story of Susanna.
    Of Bel and the Dragon.
    The Prayer of Manasses.
    The First Book of Maccabees.    The Second Book of Maccabees.'

In other words, most of the books of the Apocrypha are deemed to be suitable for reading 'for an example of life and instruction of manners', but not to be used in the formation of Christian doctrine nor in the canon itself.

I recall a Sunday last year where I'd looked up the sentence of scripture for the morning in the Australian Anglican Prayer Book and was given a choice of scripture verses and also a verse from Esdras! I chose to avoid the Esdras reading. On reflection, I will use it this year when that Sunday comes up again.

In a brief moment this morning I thought I'd follow up on the reason why the Apocrypha is largely not in bibles today, nor in most evangelical denominations' lines of sight.

This book above has been a very handy resource over the years, giving brief but thorough essays on a variety of theological topics. In the entry on the Apocrypha, it's noted that although the Jews denied the Apocrypha canonical status, the LXX manuscript included it as an addendum to the biblical OT text. Luther admitted the apocryphal texts were 'profitable and good to read', although it was only the later Reformers who took objection to it being part of the Bible.  

However it was only in 1827 that a decision was made by a particular British bible society to exclude the Apocrypha from its bible printing runs. From then on the evangelical tradition has been to not include the Apocrypha from English bibles.  

The Apocrypha however can still be found in some editions of the NRSV, TNIV (now discontinued), NCV, REB, CEV and NLT.

Interesting!

The Reading Room

It's not mine, but click on this photo (it's a big file but worth the wait!) and soak up the reading atmosphere. See you again Monday.

Stories of the Broken

I am drawn to autobiographies of the broken. In reading such books the grace of God glows brightly. Henri Nouwen's books are an example. Nouwen was a Catholic priest who worked as an academic at Notre Dame University in the USA. Feeling like his faith was being shrivelled by the academic world he accepted an invitation to be a pastor at L'Arche, a Christian care facility for the mentally unwell.

In his first year or so there, Nouwen suffered a nervous breakdown and took an extended absence. After three years he had recovered and written a book called 'The Return of the Prodigal Son', in which he recounts his discovery of the Rembrandt painting of this gospel parable, and his personal insight from God into Jesus and God's amazing grace through both the parable and painting.

The book above is actually a collection of Nouwen's notes from conferences he spoke at, in which he relates the story of his breakdown and recovery experience.

There'll be a couple of moments where you go 'hmmm, not sure I agree with that', however the book is still  quite moving in parts and, again, a powerful witness of the grace of God. Along the way are practical exercises to slow yourself down and meditate on God and his word. Recommended.

The Christian Faith: Michael Horton

So I'm about to begin reading the above. It's a 1003 page systematic theology, if you include the glossary at the back! So a big read, but one worth taking. I suspect I'll be reading it slowly. The last theology book I read took me about 7 years in total to finish, so my book review may be in 2020 if God keeps me here on Earth until then! 

On the issue of regular reading, my wife's dad told me some good advice for pastors that someone had told him many years before. The advice was something like this: 

"You will notice in your own sermon preparation if you haven't read for a week; your congregation will notice in a month's time. So keep reading."    

Not sure if he was referring to bible reading alone, but in any event, wise advice. So keep reading, dear pastors. 

Nifties: Church Surveys

I am very interested in delving into medieval church history. In the evangelical world we just don't hear much about this 1000 year old period from 500 - 1500, save perhaps from Anselm and Aquinas and a couple of others.

Someone gave me this book one Christmas a while back so I am reading it now to begin my mini-investigation. Brief, full of colour photographs, beautiful to read through. Will post about its contents!

Postscript Saturday 14th Jan: An excellent little overview. Things I discovered/was reminded of were:
the development of Mary worship was a 12th century thing; the rise of academic theology was in this period; there were significant laity movements (such as the Lollards) that rose up to criticize the unwieldy hold of biblical interpretation by priests; and in the midst of this 1000 years there was some pretty outstanding Christian art!

Nifties: Themelios

Here's another handy link. Themelios is another free evangelical e-journal that is full of useful studies into the OT and NT. It's edited by Don Carson, so very reputable and thorough. It's also handy for the many book reviews of current and new titles that pastors use.

Nifties: Free Christian Academic E-Journal

Credo magazine is a new, free, evangelical, academic e-journal that comes out bimonthly. It contains articles on current social and Christian issues, interviews, and biblical thought. It has book reviews too!

Read the current issue here.  

Bonhoeffer: The Cost of Discipleship

(Bonhoeffer quote, in A Testament to Freedom, p308)

Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.

Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a person must knock.  

Dietrich Bonhoeffer: A Broad Picture

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is the famous German theologian and WWII martyr. He was hanged only days before the German surrender in 1945, for being complicit in the plan by German intelligence to assassinate Adolf Hitler.

Considering he was only 39 when he died (the same age as me), his volume of work is incredible. He was granted a PhD at the age of only 21 in theology, although it seems he may have only given his life to Christ at around 25.

He wrote on a variety of topics but he is famous for his work on Christian ethics (Life Together) and his various essays on Christian community. It's particularly powerful given he wrote when the church was under great pressure to be subject to the control of the German state in the 1930s.

The book above is a large compendium of Bonhoeffer's works. It contains personal letters, the work on ethics mentioned above, and many more essays. His various works are arranged chronologically with an editor's note preceding each section. It's a great way in to Bonhoeffer's thought and works. Thoroughly recommended.

Books Found By Reading Other Books

Not the catchiest title ever, but...if I really like a book I'm reading, I will be on the lookout for any books the author refers to while I'm turning the pages.

For example, in the All of Grace book reviewed in the previous post, the author said that his favourite book was this 1937 French novel (translated into English in 1951):

It's the story of a young Catholic priest who is not accepted in his new parish and pushes through his many hardships under God.

I read a couple of blogs fairly regularly. One I read every day is Justin Taylor's. One of Justin's posts recommended a novel called Gilead, by Marilynne Robinson.

Published in 2004, this novel won the Pulitzer Prize, a remarkable achievement. It's the fictional autobiography of the Reverend John Ames who, knowing he will soon die, wants to leave his seven year-old grandson with the story of his life and times.

Yes, you can see a theme in these books - pastors' stories! Well, it is my list after all!  

Another blog I read sometimes referred to a book on finding your strengths called Strengths Finder 2.0, by John Rath.

It's not a 'Christian' book as such, but hey - it's good to know what you excel at isn't it. My wife and I want to read through this together.

Finally, my wife was told about this book below, called One Thousand Gifts, by Ann Voskamp. It won an Award of Merit in the Christianity Today book awards for 2012.  

The gist of the book is to remind of the importance of thanking God for the everyday, not just the big events of our lives.

So there's a snapshot of some future reads.

Incidentally, I won't be posting on this blog on Sundays, so you'll see the next post on Monday sometime.

God bless and read well.  

Book Review: All is Grace (Brennan Manning with John Blase)

Pages: 236

There is something special about immersing yourself in the life of another person for a few hours. It's special because you see from inside all of the flaws and flows of another person's journey. You see that brokenness is a characteristic of every person. And if you're fortunate, you'll see a deep insight into the grace of God somewhere in there too.

Some of my favourite books of the last couple of years have been autobiographies for these very reasons. It was a privilege to read the life stories of Stanley Hauerwas in 'Hannah's Child', and Eugene Peterson in 'The Pastor'. And now 'All of Grace'.

Brennan Manning has been preaching this message for over 40 years to believers: God loves you unconditionally, as you are and not as you should be, because nobody is as they should be (p192). This is, of course, due to the work of Christ on the cross to rescue us. Yet Manning's autobiography depicts a man who 'kept getting on airplanes and flying places to proclaim a gospel he believes with all his heart but has not always lived' (p15). In the middle of this unfortunate paradox, however, comes an aroma of grace; 'the prodigal can never outrun the Father...that I am not measured by the good I do but by the grace I accept' (p.23).

Manning was born in Brooklyn, USA during the Great Depression. What is depressing about his birth is that his mother prayed for a girl and told his son, "You don't always get what you ask for". His parents' method of child-rearing was 'discipline, regimentation, sternness, and a minimum of affection' (p39). As a result, Manning was followed throughout his life by a menacing shadow:

As I think back on my childhood, the word shame serves as an umbrella. It is the sense of being completely insufficient as a person, the nagging feeling that for some reason you're defective and unworthy. That's how I felt all the time. (p51)         

As a result he made an early vow to himself to play the role of 'the good boy' for his parents. The problem with becoming this 'good boy' was that Manning 'placed a muzzle on his emotional self' (p51), creating in the process an insatiable hunger for the acceptance and approval of others as an adult.  Manning writes wistfully that this vow 'cost me my voice, my sense of wonder, and my self-worth for most of my adult life' (p56). Then, at the age of sixteen, being 'young and horribly insecure and willing to try anything not to feel that way' (p76), Manning began to regularly drink massive amounts of alcohol as his cure. Thus began a lifetime of alcohol addiction that caused great destruction in the life of this famous preacher.  

Alcohol featured in his life, but also God. Manning impulsively joined the US marines in the footsteps of his older brother at age 18. At 21, he realized there must be more to life than being 'a troubled guest on this dark earth' (p88). So he went to a spiritual director who told him that maybe the 'more' he was looking for was God.

Almost immediately Manning quit the marines and joined a Franciscan seminary. During his time at the seminary Manning went through much searching for God. As he realized he was 'Manning-centric' and not God-centric, he was given a message by a wise mentor that was to have a profound imprint on his future path: "It's okay not to be okay"/"He loves you just as you are, not as you should be" (p106-107).

The rest of the book describes Manning's lifelong battle with alcohol; his leaving the priesthood at 41 to marry, only to later divorce due to his self-destructive tendencies; his continuing family tensions; and later in his life the wonderful friendship and love he experienced forming a support group of men called 'The Notorious Sinners'.    
    
I was enthralled by this book. It is beautifully written. Manning was told early on by his superiors in the Marines that he had a gift for writing. They were not wrong. I was deeply moved by the tragic story of his upbringing. I was deeply appreciative for his openness and honesty to share his wretchedness with me, the reader. I was fascinated by the insights God had given him into that time and wished more people would pick up this book and read them:

My life is a witness to vulgar grace - a grace that amazes as it offends. A grace that pays the eager beaver who works all day long the same wages as the grinning drunk who shows up at ten till five (p193)       

A quote from one of Manning's good friends echoes this need for both God's grace and self-honesty:

My highest hope is for all of us to stop trying to fool others by appearing to have our act together. As people living in intimate union with God, we need to become better known for what who we actually are...if we really believe the gospel we proclaim, we'll be honest about our own beauty and brokenness, and the beautiful broken One will make himself known to our neighbours through the chinks in our armour - and in theirs. (p179)

I would not be surprised if this is the best book I read this year. I highly recommend this book to you all.
  

Ethical Issues for Christians: Some Introductory Reads

In the first quarter of 2012 I'm preaching through ethical issues that Christians face in our day to day lives. Sometimes we can find ourselves rowing against the stream of popular opinion. Some things we'll address at church include the environment, homosexuality and marriage, relationships, the power of words, and others.  

As well as reading through the every day papers and reflecting on popular opinion on different issues, reading the bible and praying, and panicking (I joke, although I feel the weight of presenting such a series), I've got some reads to start me off below:

The title speaks for itself. Andrew Cameron's underlying key to dealing with today's issues is 'finding our best humanity in the Lord Jesus' as 'He joins up messy lives'.

This is another accessible read with a similar goal to Andrew Cameron's, written by one of Cameron's teachers.

 
  This academic work is an evangelical response to homosexuality. It gives interpretation of biblical passages, thoughtful investigation of the various explanations of homosexuality (eg the 'in the genes' explanation and various environmental and family theories), church teaching, a Christian sex ethic, and how the Christian community can behave in a way that is welcoming but not affirming.

      
This is a very readable book which investigates society's current attitudes towards sex and relationships. It's very brief but full of statistics and intelligent Christian discussion.

Book Review - Written in Tears: A Grieving Father's Journey Through Psalm 103 (Luke Veldt)

In the back of the van a young girl is spread out across the seat, her head cradled in her mother's arms. "I need you to breathe, Allison!" the woman says. "Keep breathing!" But Allison is breathing, the deep breathing that's past sleep, the coma from which she will not wake up. (p13)    

Luke Veldt was a missionary in Pamplona, Spain, with his wife and six children. Then, in 2006, his 13 year old daughter, Allison, died from a massive brain hemorrhage caused by a condition she had lived with since birth, which was unbeknownst to her parents. She didn't have a fall, she didn't get hit on the head - the hemorrhage came while she was getting her little sister something to eat.

This book describes the pain of losing a daughter and the insights of Luke Veldt reading Psalm 103 every day for a year or so afterwards. He does not seek to explain why God permits evil and suffering. In fact he says near the start of the book that he didn't know why God allowed evil before his daughter's death, and didn't know after her death either. What this book does share is how the author grows closer to God, and also how the author has a powerful desire 'to not forget' (p45). The latter may seem obvious, but it is a strong underlying theme in the book.

Veldt says that after Allison's death he has a sudden doubt about God's goodness and even God's existence for a while. He is surprised by this, especially as he has comforted people in similar situations in his calling as an overseas missionary. Through his journey through Psalm 103, Veldt addresses some big questions (although not he doesn't actually always answer them) such as 'why would God do this', 'when God doesn't heal' and issues of forgiveness.

Throughout the book he shares brief stories of the good times he had with his daughter, including a delightful fishing experience together. Along the way we learn that Veldt has had other difficult times in his family situation. His sixth child Andrea is born with Downs Syndrome; his brother Matt has lost three children to a rare genetic disease. It's tough to hear these stories.    

I particularly appreciated a short part of the book where Veldt gives some practical tips for people wanting to help out a family who has been through a tragedy like theirs. For example:

What we want is better theology, and less of it. (p126) 

The day of tragedy is not an appropriate time for theological discussion. (p126)

In other words, the family were tired of people giving short, pat sound bites telling them of God's goodness and everything would be alright and so on. As an aside, I personally call those kinds of comments 'Christian karma', whereby believers feel they have to leave you with a positive comment to neutralize the raw tragedy you've gone through. People, comments like 'you'll get over it' and 'couldn't think of a better family to deal with this situation' do not help! Don't say them!

Instead, Veldt says do things like this: give hugs; pray and tell the affected person you are doing so; help out in mundane tasks; mind the other children; run errands; help if you can with financial needs (p128). And another key one for Veldt was this: don't make the tragedy about you. If you have been arguing before the tragedy, don't go up and apologize about the argument. Just say how sorry you are for their loss, you will have your opportunity later to fix the argument. This is all very good to know if you have a church member - or any person you know - who goes through this kind of tragedy.

I feel kind of awkward writing this, given the sensitive nature of the book's subject, but I was ultimately frustrated by this book. I wished that the author would have spent more time simply telling us the story of his family's experience. Rather than telling his family's story with Psalm 103 in the background, this book is more of an explanation of Psalm 103 with small parts of his family's story in between. At one point there are over 20 pages of discussion of David without much reference to the family situation at all, out of a total of 153 pages. At times the author brings in other biblical figures such as Job and Jacob to bring out a point he is making, which seems to go beyond the scope he has set out in the title of the book. I found that frustrating too.

This book is really as much a defence of God's goodness as it is about his family's tragic story. If that's the kind of book you're looking for to read, then this will be a very good book for you to think through.                  
     


           

Nifties: Sinclair Ferguson

There's nothing worse than hearing a sermon that has no pastoral heart. I should know, having unfortunately given such sermons at points over the years!

This is the same for Christian books. There are different books for different purposes, to be sure. You'll find academic monographs on a specific theological/exegetical subject, technical bible commentaries and dense theological works. These are all important.

My default is to find books to read that have a pastoral heart to them. In other words, they give you information to foster godly Christian living and thinking in you. They apply God's word into your life, ask questions of your lifestyle choices and push you to think biblically.

Last year I enjoyed reading books by Sinclair Ferguson. I mentioned one of his books a few posts ago. Someone said to me once that if you have an author who teaches the bible well (having asked people such as your pastor and/or your Christian mentors) and you click with their writing style, stick with them! Make them your teacher.

One of those folk for me is Sinclair Ferguson. I read through his popular commentaries when I prepare sermon series. They are intelligent, very readable, full of pastoral application and wise. They're also cheap!

Ferguson doesn't just write commentaries. I've just bought the book below and am really looking forward to reading it:

          
I'll post about it after reading it.

Collected Shorter Writings of J I Packer: Volume 1

After finishing volume three the other day, I moved onto the volume in this collection entitled 'Celebrating the Saving Work of God'. It's actually volume one in the series.

 When I look at this book I think of two things.

One is the pleasant memory that this was a gift given to every student in my bible college course by a generous benefactor. That alerted me at the time to the fact that this gift giver placed a lot of cred in this book to give away so many copies - it must have cost him or her a bundle!

The other is of my Tasmanian friend pointing out at the time that the author had a deadly squint even with incredibly thick glasses. Shame on you Paul! (I did laugh a lot at that one - actually I laughed a lot at Paul's comments in general).

Getting back to the point...of the four academic volumes, this is the slowest read. I'm kind of embarrassed by this, as this volume covers the real core beliefs of the Christian faith with chapter titles including 'The Trinity and the Gospel', The Uniqueness of Jesus Christ', and a well-known essay of his called 'What Did the Cross Achieve?'. The last essay mentioned was tough going. Packer discusses penal substitution in 40 pages or so, but could it have been edited down by a good 15 or so to produce a razor sharp argument and concise piece? Maybe it was just when I read it - at mid-afternoon after a nice lunch? I dunno. The next essay called 'Sacrifice and Satisfaction' was concise at 12 pages and addressed many of the same ideas. So there you go.

As I said above, this book is a collection of lectures, essays and articles for magazines and conferences on the theme of God's saving work. It covers topics such as justification, trinitarian theology, Christology, justification, and the Holy Spirit. Many of the articles are apologies (ie written defences) for a reformed evangelical position on these important tenets of our Christian faith. He also has an excellent essay on universalism, outlining its arguments and giving a very helpful biblical reply. Although the slowest read of the four, it's still well worth being in your collection, dear pastors.
             

Book Review: The Grace of Repentance

As a pastor I'm always on the lookout for little books to give away if and when the time comes. Having said that, 2011 wasn't a big book giving year. Anyway...

This book was added to my 'potential book giving' list in 2011. It's a small book, in size about as big as my hand, and 61 pages long. 

And yes - it is about the grace of repentance in the life of a believer. The big idea of the book can really be summarized in a quote the author gives from Martin Luther:

When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said "repent", he meant that the entire life of believers should be one of repentance. (p13)

Sharing this quote at the beginning of the book, Sinclair Ferguson then devotes a very helpful chapter to the biblical bases for a lifetime of repentance and what the elements of repentance look like in a believer's life. Essentially his point is that believers, saved by the grace of God in Christ, are now to be 'dying to the old ways, crucifying the flesh' (p25). 

He gives a case study of King David in outlining the effects of sin:

David had discovered the truth about himself. His soul was like an onion, with layer upon layer of self deception and pretence keeping him from recognizing his true spiritual condition. (p29)

After a brief survey of historical interpretation of these biblical passages on sin, the book's final chapter ends (as it should!) with the Christian hope, although there is also a sting in the tail with a challenge to believers and churches to take God's word seriously and turn to God. Make a habit of repentance! 

Incidentally, I've called books like this one 'nifties' in our journal. 'Nifties' here are brief, useful books that promote kingdom living in a readable, accessible way. You'll see 'nifties' posts every now and then to alert you to these resources!

I had thought this book would be useful to give to someone who you've spoken to who is stuck in a rut in their Christian life, doesn't know why (after you've eliminated other possibilities such as depression, physical illness or some outside influence out of their control). Give it to them to read and say you'll shout them a coffee to discuss it together later!

           

  

The Beautiful Book

OK, I admit it. I like things that look good.

Like the 'smoking a pipe (if I smoked that is) with glass of port/sitting comfortably in a deep green wingback Chesterfield chair/wood-panelling surrounding the room' good. See Chesterfield chair in the blog title for inspiration.

Like beautiful photography. Take a look at this site of a friend of mine and you'll get what I mean.

If you take the trouble to make something look beautiful and pleasing to the eye, whatever it may be, you will definitely have my attention.

And when it comes to books, it's no different. You could give me the best book ever written to read, but if it's in Times New Roman font with cheap paper in a glued paperback form, I will either not read it or begrudge every second of the reading task.

I guess to some, expressing this quirk may seem trite. Maybe you're right, maybe it is a silly thing. I can't explain my bent towards the beautiful. I simply find it very hard to sit down and read a slab of words without some kind of aesthetic relief to get me through it.

In 2011 I bought a new Bible and I'd like to show you it as an example of something I have found pleasing to the eye.

I love the Bible. God speaks through it. I am enjoying my new Bible for this reason, but it helps that it's beautifully presented too.

    Provide beautiful presentation and you have my attention. Confessions of an aesthetic diehard.

PS: It's the NIV (2011) Study Bible in 'personal' size.

Nifties: Little Helps for Bible Study Leaders

If you are a bible study leader doing your preparation for a new set of studies, someone who simply wants to quickly get your head around a verse or passage in your regular bible reading, or there's a new sermon series at your church on a book of the Bible, this is a nifty (and cheap) little resource to help you. In all there are 12 of these well-written mini-commentaries for lay people covering all 66 books of the bible. Each little paperback book is about 200 or so pages.

The one I have in front of me here covers Hebrews to Revelation. Each book of the Bible gets a very helpful two-page overview so you know when each book was written. The intro has little sections on the author, occasion, purpose, historical context, themes and contribution to the Bible of the book. The authors then break down each Bible book itself into sections to discuss. For most of these sections (eg Hebrews 10:19-39) there is a 'Setting up the Section' help, an explanation of the text, a 'Critical Observations' text box and an application called 'Take It Home'.

Actually reading through the Bible itself and meditating on the word is the best kind of preparation for any Bible study! But as far as extra helps go that are brief, easy to read, to the point, take you deeper into the passage you are reading and answer your questions, this little series is very good to have next to you when you're reading your Bible. And yes, cheap too! Recommended.

2012 Books

Happy new year everyone!

Here are some Christian books on my 2012 reading list. Doubtless this list will morph over the year, but so far the list reads:

As an aside: it was disappointing to see the way this book was promoted. Let me quote from the publisher's blurb about the book from their website:

'The Christian Faith represents his magnum opus and will be viewed as one of—if not the—most important systematic theologies in the past fifty years.'

What an arrogant claim to make! At the very least, it is up to the book's readers to decide if this claim is true. It also really walks over many systematic theologies written before it - some of them not even American (joke?). So this blurb initially put me off a lot. Marketing like this has no place in Christian publishing. Shame on you publisher. Right, rant over. But nevertheless I did buy it in the end anyway! 

I may well post on this book over the year with what I find. 


Theology is what pastors preach in their sermons each week as they exegete and apply God's word. We are telling our congregations about God and his character. God is our subject always. Reading theology feeds our preaching too.    

I'm only going on what I've read around the blogosphere, but I've heard this is a very raw and compelling auto/biography of a Christian plagued by his very difficult childhood. Christians are by no means perfect; our lives are as messy, if not more so sometimes, than those who are not followers of Jesus. This is the moving story of a Christian with a very messy life.     

   

Hermeneutics - I've posted on this topic already. Kostenberger is the protege of Grant Osborne who wrote 'The Hermeneutical Spiral', another good introductory book on this topic. I've mentioned that I want to improve my preaching this year. Part of this process involves some more thinking about hermeneutics in the biblical text.

  

I'm afraid to read this but also compelled. It's the story of a missionary pastor whose 13 year old daughter tragically dies through a brain injury. The books tells of the man's recovery through reading Psalm 103 for a year (although I doubt you can ever recover from such an awful tragedy). 

    

I last read Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion online about 6 years ago. Since finishing J I Packer's theology volume (mentioned a few posts ago), I am hungry to read theology again. So this is top of the list. 

  

I'm not usually into the snappy- titled American pragmatic kind of Christian book, but this grabbed my attention. Will post if I actually read it...