Category Archives: Books

Radical Review

March 29, 2011 By in Books, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

At least twice now I have referenced in a message David Platt’s book Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream.

Today I received an email from someone with a link to a Gospel Coalition review of Platt’s book by Kevin DeYoung.

DeYoung expresses some helpful push back to some of the potentially more extreme aspects of Radical or at least they way certain things might be taken along the way by the less mature, more emotionally stirred, less critically insightful reader.

Uniquely it includes a response in turn from Platt, something you don’t see/read every day. It’s worth the read. Here’s a sample from DeYoung’s critique:

We must do more to plant the plea for sacrificial living more solidly in the soil of gospel grace. Several times David talks about the love of Christ as our motivation for radical discipleship or the power of God and the means for radical discipleship. But I didn’t sense the strong call to obedience was slowly marinated in God’s lavish mercy. I wanted to see sanctification more clearly flowing out of justification.

I commend this interchange to the reader as an example of redemptive debate. Would that more of God’s people engaged in this kind of critique/response with such gospel grace. You can read the entire piece here.

In the end result, risks notwithstanding to some of Platt’s bold and passionate pleas, I personally want to embrace the five-fold practical challenge of application with which Platt leaves his readers and pray for a church full of folks who will do the same.

The Awe Factor of God

February 12, 2011 By in Books Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

Just started reading Francis Chan’s Crazy Love.

Over a million copies sold already. I picked up a copy at the Desiring God Pastor’s Conference in Minneapolis last week. Figured I needed to see what all the ruckus was about.

He begins in a rather unorthodox way with chapter one entitled Stop Praying. He wants us to step back and take a look at the awesomeness of God. He directs the reader to a website to view this:

Have to admit. That perspective will definitely fuel your awe tank. Amazing.

Later in the chapter, Chan quotes A. W. Tozer:

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. . . . Worship is pure or base as the worshiper entertains high or low thoughts of God. For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.

Will you pray with me that God gives us a fresh and accurate view of Himself tomorrow as we gather to worship His awesome name?

A Book You Won't Want to Read If

February 8, 2011 By in Books Tags: , 2 Comments

Generally I prefer to recommend books folks might want to read.

This one you want to avoid like the plague . . . IF you prefer to remain mired in a mediocre north American version of following Jesus.

I am referring to David Platt’s dangerous little ditty entitled Radical: Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream (Multnomah, 2010, 230 pages). And obviously I wax facetious.

You want to read this book if you desire to rescue your faith from the kind of perverted counterfeit version American affluence often deceives us into accepting as if it were the real deal.

Here is a sample of the kind of hard-hitting content you will encounter in Radical:

We are, by nature, receivers.  Even if we have a desire to learn God’s Word, we still listen from a default self-centered mind-set that is always asking, What can I get out of this? But as we have seen, this is unbiblical Christianity.  What if we changed the question whenever we gathered to learn God’s Word? What if we began to think, How can I listen to his Word so that I am equipped to teach this Word to others?  ….When we realize that we have the responsibility to teach the Word, it changes everything about how we hear the Word (p. 102).

Platt concludes the book with an extremely practical five-point, one-year plan for a life turned upside down. I struggle to dare believe what might happen in a church like ours if everyone read a book like this and put the author’s one-year challenge into action with God’s help.

You will rarely find a resource so biblical in its content and yet practical in its approach.

Dangerous? Yes. Necessary? Absolutely.

Unless you prefer to remain mired in the you-know-what.

Things that Make PC Delirious with Delight

December 6, 2010 By in Books Tags: , , Leave a comment

Wouldn’t you like to know?

Lots actually.

This post focuses on one only.

Yesterday after service someone came to me to ask for the exact title and author of this book:

It just so happens that request came from one of our teens! I really shouldn’t be surprised. We have some of the sharpest young people knives in the drawer at OGC, my bias notwithstanding.

I mentioned in my announcement about our gift wrap outreach that I had purchased a few copies of OW as Christmas gifts for friends.

That a young person from OGC would ask about how she can get a copy of this invaluable, newly revised, indispensable resource for the world Christian who takes 1 Tim. 2:1-2 seriously – that makes this pastor-teacher downright delirious with delight!

Here’s what you get with your purchase:

  • All the countries of the world featured
  • Maps of each country
  • Geographic information
  • People groups within each country
  • Economic information
  • Political information
  • Religious make-up of each country
  • Daily Prayer Calendar
  • Answers to prayer
  • Challenges for prayer

I promised her I would blog about the book for her and others’ convenience. You can order your copy here.

Why not join the campaign to make your pastor delirious with delight by adding this weapon to your spiritual armory in 2011?

Even if you don’t feel responsible for my happiness (and you shouldn’t) do it anyway!

Ministries of Mercy – Free Audio Book

August 10, 2010 By in Books Tags: , , 1 Comment

Christian Audio is giving away this month a free download of Tim Keller’s Ministries of Mercy: The Call of the Jericho Road.

I have read this book. It is an important contribution to the conversation about the need for believers to show mercy to the poor and compassion to the needy.

If you need motivation for showing the gospel through deeds of mercy and want help in building bridges into the lives of unbelievers, this will help.

Don’t forget to use the coupon code “AUG2010″ when checking out.

Also, for the month of August, you can get Ministries of Mercy for half price ($6.49) at Westminster Bookstore, if you prefer reading your books.

Take advantage of either deal while you can.

A Run Through the Bible in 14 Chapters

July 31, 2010 By in Books Tags: , , , 4 Comments

That’s how D. A. Carson characterizes his latest book, The God Who Is There, Baker, 2010, 233 pages. He subtitled it: Finding Your Place in God’s Story.

He wrote it principally for the rising number of people in our postmodern world today who really do not know how the Bible works at all. It’s a primer on redemption’s story, Genesis through Revelation, from creation, to the fall, to the cross, to consummation.

The table of contents reads this way:

  1. The God Who Made Everything
  2. The God Who Does Not Wipe Out Rebels
  3. The God Who Writes His Own Agreements
  4. The God Who Legislates
  5. The God Who Reigns
  6. The God Who Is Unfathomably Wise
  7. The God Who Becomes a Human Being
  8. The God Who Grants New Birth
  9. The God Who Loves
  10. The God Who Dies—and Lives Again
  11. The God Who Declares the Guilty Just
  12. The God Who Gathers and Transforms His People
  13. The God Who Is Very Angry
  14. The God Who Triumphs

So far I have read chapters one, ten, and fourteen. This is typically readable Carson at his apologetic best. In fact the obvious place to begin in terms of the utility of this resource is as an evangelistic tool. This looks like a great book to give someone with whom you wish to dialogue about Christianity.

But at the same time it serves as another helpful tool in terms of equipping the believer with numerous insights in how to share Christ with people in our postmodern context. For example, his treatment of Genesis 1 & 2 and science in chapter one offers four points in the debate that will come in very handy when sharing with someone hung up on the questions related to the age of the earth and naturalist presuppositions.

While this book differs greatly from Tim Keller’s Reason for God in its approach, it does serve similar purposes but with more of the meta-narrative of Scripture in mind (hence the subtitle). This makes it more readable and useful to the average individual.

David J. Jackman, former president of Proclamation Trust, London, England, offered this endorsement:

This may well prove to be one of the finest and most influential books D. A. Carson has written. A comprehensive apologia for the Christian faith, it is rooted in engaging exposition of major biblical texts, tracing the chronological story of God’s gospel grace with rich theological insight. Skillfully related to the objections and issues raised by twenty-first-century culture, it will inspire and equip any Christian who desires to communicate Christ more effectively and can confidently be given to any inquirer seeking to discover the heart of biblical faith. It is the best book of its kind I have read in many years.

I managed to pick up twenty copies for our resource table for the incredibly low cost of $6. They will be available at church starting tomorrow. I’m thinking about reading this through with Nancy as a family devotions book to help equip us both better for mission.

Get your copy and read along with us!


The Trellis and The Vine

July 28, 2010 By in Books Tags: , , 2 Comments

In 2009 Matthias Media published this book subtitled: The Ministry Mind-Shift that Changes Everything.

When I read Mark Dever’s assessment (This is the best book I’ve read on the nature of church ministry) I knew I needed to read it. I have. Since then I have given away several copies.

Recently I picked up thirty more copies at a great one time only price of $8 per copy which will be available beginning this Sunday on the resource table.

You will want to read this book if you are a pastor.

You will want to read this book if you are an elder or deacon.

You will want to read this book if you are an intern.

You will want to read this book if you are a discipler of others – a mentor or are being mentored.

You will want to read this book if you are a growth group leader.

You will want to read this book if you are a believer looking for ministry in the local church, especially if you don’t have a clue where you fit.

Here is Mark Dever’s endorsement of the book:

Pick up your copy this Sunday!

Read or Get Out

July 15, 2010 By in Books Tags: , , 1 Comment

Another Oxford Club meeting for men lies just around the corner a week from Saturday. I just finished reading chapter 13, The Leader and Reading, in Oswald Sanders’ Spiritual Leadership.

In it the author cites the example of John Wesley as a model for leaders who wish to lead well.

John Wesley had a passion for reading and most of it was done on horseback. He rode sometimes ninety and often fifty miles in a day. He read deeply on a wide range of subjects. It was his habit to travel with a volume of science or history or medicine propped on the pommel of his saddle, and in that way he got through thousands of volumes. After his Greek New Testament, three great books took complete possession of Wesley’s mind and heart during his Oxford days. ‘It was about this time that he began the earnest study of “The Imitation of Christ,” “Holy Living and Dying” and “The Serious Call.” These three books became very much his spiritual guides.’ He told the younger ministers of the Wesleyan societies either to read or to get out of the ministry!

Apparently Wesley’s students had little doubt as to just where he stood on the importance of reading to the life of the pastor!

While I don’t recommend imitating Wesley’s example in a modern day version of reading while driving, there is something to be said about mastering some books thoroughly as opposed to reading widely alone.

Charles Spurgeon apparently agreed:

…master those books you have. Read them thoroughly. Bathe in them until they saturate you. Read and re-read them, masticate them, and digest them. Let them go into your very self. Peruse a good book several times, and make notes and analyses of it. A student will find that his mental constitution is more affected by one book thoroughly mastered than by twenty books which he has merely skimmed, … Little learning and much pride come of hasty reading. In reading let your motto be “much, not many.”

C.H. Spurgeon, To Workers with Slender Apparatus, (Sword and Trowel, December 1873)

Brothers, I invite you to join us next Saturday, July 24, at 7 AM, at the church office, for discussion and prayer around these and other provocative thoughts concerning the leader and his time and his reading.

Oxford Club for Men – New Book Study

April 8, 2010 By in Books Tags: , , 2 Comments

This Saturday at 7 AM at the church office (see events section of this site) we will begin a new discussion study. So many men indicated a desire for prayer for growth in their leadership abilities in the home, on the job, and at the church, that we decided to utilize J. Oswald Sanders classic Spiritual Leadership: Principles of Excellence for Every Believer (Moody, 2007, updated edition) to help equip us better in this important area. Copies are available at the resource table on Sunday mornings or you can order from Amazon here.

Here is a sample of some of the chapter headings from the table of contents:

  • The Master’s Master Principle
  • Can You Become a Leader?
  • Essential Qualities of Leadership
  • The Leader and Time
  • Improving Leadership
  • Tests of Leadership
  • The Art of Delegation
  • Reproducing Leaders
  • Perils of Leadership
  • The Leader Nehemiah

In the chapter headed An Honorable Ambition, Sanders writes:

True greatness, true leadership, is found in giving yourself in service to others, not in coaxing or inducing others to serve you. True service is never without cost. Often it comes with a bitter cup of challenges and a painful baptism of suffering. For genuine godly leadership weighs carefully Jesus’ question: “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?” (Mark 10:38b). The real spiritual leader is focused on the service he and she can render to God and other people, not on the residuals and perks of high office or holy title. We must aim to put more into life than we take out (pp. 13-14).

We will utilize the study guide on pp. 184-186 for our discussion this Saturday.

Don’t forget to bring your own breakfast and a friend!