Book Review - Recovering Redemption (12/9)

Although on the outside this particular book might not look very impressive, you really ought NOT to judge this book by it’s cover. It has been a long time since I've read such a book that has been so clear on the gospel and also on the need for repentance.

Matt Chandler and Michael Snetzer has written such a book that really helps the reader to see their need for the gospel, their need for sanctification and the need to fight for joy in the christian life. Chandler and Snetzer first gives starts at creation and the fall, then they move on to 4 different ways many have tried to salvage the situation and shows plainly why they ultimately fails, then they move on to the one who can solve this situation — Jesus.

The following chapters that follows really are a discipling process where several doctrines are taught and practical issues in the christian lives are considered and discussed. Many of them had very good examples that really brings out what the doctrine mean (I especially liked the illustration the used on sanctification). Practically, the authors also dealt issues like guilt, anxiety, fear, reconciling, forgiving, etc… and were all taught biblically and practically.

After I read this book, I can’t help but think of how I can recommend others to read this book. It’s really a great book. My only complain would be a lack of discussion questions. Although the contents of the book is really excellent, one wonders if those who are not as exciting about their faith would even bother to read it unless someone else was encouraging and discussion with them about what they have learnt. No doubt, it could be argued that everyone with such a burden would have thought about their own discussion questions on their own. Yet, I do think the book would be better served if the readers discusses about what they had learned in each chapters.

This book, I think will be a classical in the future, for it’s practicality and also the faithfulness of biblical teaching. I would recommend anyone who wants to really know about their christian faith or wants to grow in them to read this book.

Rating: 5 / 5

Disclaimer: I was given this book free from the publisher, in exchange for an honest review.

If you're interested, you can get it here, and here (free international shipping), Kindle.

Here's a video trailer for the book.

Kindle Deals You Should Know About (12/9)

New American Commentary Studies in Bible and Theology ($3.99)

The Ten Commandments, 

Enthroned On Our Praise,

The Lord's Supper,

The End of the Law,

Lukan Authorship of Hebrews,

Sermon On The Mount: Restoring Christ's Message to the Modern Church,

God's Indwelling Presence: The Holy Spirit in the Old and New Testaments,

Future Israel: Why Christian Anti-Judaism Must Be Challenged,

Believer's Baptism,

The Messianic Hope: Is the Old Testament Really Messianic?

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Profiles in Reformed Spirituality ($2.99)

An Honest and Well-Experienced Heart: The Piety of John Flavel ($1.99)

A Habitual Sight of Him: The Christ-Centered Piety of Thomas Goodwin

May We Meet in the Heavenly World: The Piety of Lemuel Haynes

Trading and Thriving in Godliness: The Piety of George Swinnock

A Consuming Fire: The Piety of Alexander Whyte

A Scribe Well-Trained: Archibald Alexander and the Life of Piety

A Sweet Flame: Piety in the Letters of Jonathan Edwards

"The King in His Beauty": The Piety of Samuel Rutherford

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Too many choices for you to choose and not sure what to get? How about a Giftcard?

Book Review - Biblical Portraits of Creation (11/9)

It used to be that Genesis was a really simple, straightforward book to study, no big controversies maybe other than the JEDP documentary hypothesis (and if the pastor doesn't want to talk about it, it’s still relatively fine). Now however, the tide has turned. It’s one of the few books of the books that has been contested and even contested fiercely within the Christian and evangelical circles. Due to that, books that have appear on the shelves on Genesis have sometimes gone rather technical. Don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful for such books. But it has created a barrier that Genesis is a difficult to study, when in reality it shouldn’t.

Although this is not a book on Genesis, it is however a book centred on creation, it might seem strange and indeed felt a little weird when I first started to read them. However, the authors' intention for this book is to ensure the church is not so lob-sided that we stay away from it due to the current controversies regarding it. And I agree there has been a lack of teaching on Genesis meant for the layman.

This book is really a series of sermons each expounding on one portion of passage with regards to creation. Overall I felt that the passages selected had a great spread, although sometimes we might only be able to think of 2 to 4 bible passages that are linked to creation, Walter Kaiser and Dorington Little are able to use some not-so-familiar passages to deliver on this topic. This is to be commended, they have helped me to that creation is not just a few passages linked only to creation, but the bible has many more passages that talks about it!

Having said that, I do have to say that there was one particular chapter that I thought didn't fit in this book, and that was about the genealogy of Jesus, sure, I’m aware that the greek word comes from genesis, yet, I do think it’s a bit of a stretch to make that point in this book.

Overall, I felt that the sermons by Little was slightly better, Kaiser’ ones were sometimes more technical and had more pointers and sub-pointers. However, located at the appendix is an essay by Kaiser, and that is a superb article! I felt that particular piece should be well worth the price of the book. You really ought to read it. Kaiser and Little have also very wisely added in discussion questions for each and every chapter, anticipating, in fact encouraging readers to use them in conjunction with their sermons.

In summary, if you want to have a book that speaks particular on the topic of creation, yet not too technical, this is the book to go. You’ll be able to learn not just biblical teachings from them, but also pick up some relevant application points along the way.

Rating: 3.75 / 5

Disclaimer: I was given this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

If you're interested, get it here, and here (free international shipping).

Book Review - From Jesus to the Church (9/9)

I’m personally not a great fan of history. I find that having a deluge of dates, names and places rather intimating, and don't usually find myself reading any books on history. However, I was quite intrigued by the title of this book, plus it didn't seem to be a super thick book and thus attempted to read this book. I must say, this book has been very insightful and perceptive, I came away with a deeper appreciation of the early church history.

Within this book you will find many helpful background info which you normally do not find elsewhere, for example there were many revolutionaries that had tried to revolt against the Rome governance. These revolutionaries, like Jesus, were often executed in the bid to stump the revolt, or are being intimated by the Rome governance. And these ‘solutions’ were often very effective in solving these problems.

Craig Evans first attempts to answer the question about the link between the temple (Jewish) and the Church (Christians), specifically, he wants to show the readers that the forecast of the destruction of the temple was one of the key prediction of Jesus judgement on the corrupt Jewish leaders and shows that Jesus does have the church in mind, but not in the same way as what we might often think. Evans handles this question very carefully, being careful to examine how the new testament authors used the words ‘synagoge’ or ‘ekklesia’ in their writings. Admittingly, I felt the first 2 chapters the most difficult to comprehend, but this is not due to any fault of the author!

Next, Evans examine how Jesus himself proclaims the kingdom of God, what he means by it. And how the Old Testament should shape our understanding of the concept of the kingdom of God. What is clear is that, this kingdom already has in mind the inclusion of the Gentiles even within the Old Testament. Therefore the inclusion of Gentiles into Christianity is not something novel, rather it is a outworking of what the Old Testament passages were writing about.

The third chapter talks about how James, rather than Peter was early church leader was exceptionally well written. In it, he interacts with Acts very well, and attempts to show that James was indeed the leader at that time. This was my first time hearing this, and I would have hope to see how Evans would have had attempt to explain John 1:42, where Peter is called the rock. Within this chapter, Evans also explains about the apparent ‘differences’ between James and Paul with regards the faith and work, and this was very well handled. This was the best chapter within the book and would be well-worth the price of the book.

Lastly, Evans ends by explaining why the church moved from a Jewish majority in the beginning to a Gentile majority thereafter, essentially the ‘stumbling blocks’ for the Jews to believe in the Risen Christ.

This book is exceptionally well-written and would be insightful for many. It has certainly helped me in my exegesis of the New Testament, being more careful to ask myself how would the first readers have understood this text. I do encourage pastors or motivated laypeople to read this book, and reap from the knowledge you would be able to gain from it.

Rating: 4 / 5

Disclaimer: I was given this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

If you're interested, you can get it here, and here (free international shipping), Kindle.

Book Review - Hidden in the Gospel (7/9)

Gospel, it’s something no one can have enough of. But many a times Christians lived as if we do not need the gospel, or we’ve somehow outgrown our need for it. It’s often heard that the non-christians need to gospel, but when was the last time you heard a sermon on how much we as christians still need the gospel?

In this book, William Farley writes especially for christians, to remind us of our deep and desperate need for the gospel each and everyday. This book is really a mini-systematic theology on soteriology, but a lot less intimidating and a lot more winsome.

Farley first concentrates on the importance of the need for christians to be preaching the gospel to themselves each and everyday. We often need to be reminded of the marvellous gospel of what God has done for us, through Christ Jesus. Failing to do that, we will be swayed away by our situations, our thoughts or our feelings. We moved from being God-centered, to me-centered. Salvation becomes how am I performing, rather than what Christ has performed.

Farley then moves systematically, from election to incarnation, death, resurrection and accession of Christ. Then ends off with Christ’s return and the new heavens and earth. This is really a good book especially for those who are reformed, too many a times, in the pursuit of correct doctrine, we at a loss of their applicational purposes. Farley remedies it by showing the readers how each and every doctrine is comforting for christians. There is even example prayers at the end of each and every chapter to help the reader be able to visualise what all these doctrine mean for us.

This would be a great introduction to the christian faith, for those who are young and old. However, I would recommend going through the book together if the reader is younger, as the person might see the influx of these doctrines as overpowering. For the young, it introduces some very good doctrine, in an easy to understand manner. For the old, it will help us be thrilled with the gospel again. It has been a good reminder, and I anticipate myself reading this every 1 or 2 years. I certainly need this reminder always.

I felt that it would be even better if there was a specific chapter on sanctification, and/or on mortification of sin/repentance. It’s not that these are not talked about in the book, but maybe a specific chapter on these 2 topics would make this great book even better. Certainly recommended for Christians young and old, be prepared to be thrilled and grateful for what God has done for terrible sinners like us, because of His great love, mercy and grace for us. Soli Deo Gloria!

Rating: 4.5 / 5

Disclaimer: I was given this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

If you're interested, you can get it here, and here (free international shipping), Kindle.

Book Review - How Can I be Sure? (Questions Christians Ask) (5/9)

Doubts — every christian faces them in their life. So what do we do with them? Are doubts bad? Often when youths come to me with doubts they’re almost too ashamed to talk about them. So how should a christian deal with the genuine doubts we have?

John Stevens has written a short and extremely helpful book on this important topic. Within the book, Stevens gives several examples of situations where christians faced with different kind of doubts, which is what he defines in the first chapter, and also highlights that not all doubts are wrong. Next, Stevens dwells on the topic of why some doubts are dangerous, essentially, some doubts do lead to disbelief, although that just means they were never really christians.

Following which, Stevens explores the benefits of doubts, how we can grow from it, and more importantly, how we can overcome our doubts in our christian lives.  Here is where Stevens differ from the rest of the apologetics style books, Stevens helps the readers to see that our own spirituality, and also our community plays a vital role when we deal with doubts. Which is what he further elaborates on in the next chapter, how to develop our faith so we will not doubt. This I think make the book very comprehensive. It not only wants to help believers deal with any doubts they might have currently, more importantly, it encourages and persuades readers to grow spiritually once their doubts are resolved.

Lastly, Stevens provides a short appendix for christians who have various doubts to refer to. For a book of this length, one might not expect much from it, but do not be deceived by how thin it is, this book achieves what it sets out to do, and with much clarity and gentleness! I would recommend this book especially to new or old believers, who are dealing with doubts, and for pastors to learn how to deal with doubts pastorally. One can only wished this book had been published earlier!

Rating: 4.75 / 5

Disclaimer: I was given this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

If you're interested you can get it here, and here (free international shipping), Kindle.

Kindle Deals you should know (4/9)

There's  a galore of kindle deals up for grabs this week.

As mentioned in the previous re-blog:

Westminster Bookstore has partnered with Presbyterian and Reformed (P&R) Publishing to offer over a hundred titles for $1.99 on EBook.  The sale ends this Saturday, September 6th, 2014.

To see the selection of Ebooks click HERE.

Here's a preview of what I brought.

Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Christian Belief

Equipping Counselors for Your Church: The 4E Ministry Training Strategy

Recovering Eden: The Gospel According to Ecclesiastes (Gospel According to the Old Testament)

Antinomianism: Reformed Theology's Unwelcome Guest?

The Heart Is the Target: Preaching Practical Application from Every Text

Union with Christ: In Scripture, History, and Theology

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Rest of the Kindle deals on Amazon

Crossway

Rediscovering the Church Fathers: Who They Were and How They Shaped the Church ($2.99)

Heaven on Earth: Capturing Jonathan Edwards's Vision of Living in Between ($0.99)

Inerrancy and Worldview ($0.99)

The Deity of Christ ($1.99)

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IVP

The Bible Study Handbook ($2.99)

Knowing Scripture ($2.99)

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Ravi Zacharias

Why Jesus? ($2.99)

 

Bible Study Wednesday - John (4) (3/9)

John 2:1-12

¹On the third day there was a wedding at Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.² Jesus also was invited to the wedding with his disciples. ³ When the wine ran out, the mother of Jesus said to him, “They have no wine.” ⁴ And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? My hour has not yet come.” ⁵ His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”

⁶ Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. ⁷ Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” And they filled them up to the brim. ⁸ And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. ⁹ When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom ¹⁰ and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” ¹¹ This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him.

¹² After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples, and they stayed there for a few days.

Big Idea: Jesus manifested (showed) his glory (what is mentioned at John 1-2) by changing water into wine, which resulted in the his disciples believing in Him.

Big Aim: Do I believe in Jesus, not as a good moral teacher? But as one who is truly God incarnate?

Book Review - Churches Partnering Together (2/9)

I come from a small church, but often we think with a big church, ‘we-are-independent’ mentality, so much so we hardly work with other churches. This book is a good start to how my church can start to solve this issue.

It’s a wonder why no such books has been published thus far! For the christian faith that has always  around koinonia and the unity of the church, it is indeed bewildering why churches far too often chooses to work alone rather than in partnership with others and i think that is one of the reason why the churches often has too little effect on the society it’s in (of course, there are many more factors to this).

Bruno and Dirks first defines the terms of what the partnership is and is not. Bruno and Dirks centres partnership around the kingdom mindset. This is a valid point, too many churches are too centred around their own local church and therefore most of the time sees partnership, at worst, as pointless, or problematic, and mutually beneficial, at best. There has been a deep lack of kingdom mindedness in our culture today.

Bruno and Dirks then covers in a step by step format what churches will need in order to form good, well grounded partnership. Although I’m not entirely convinced on some the biblical text they used as foundations on their principles, overall I find them practical and sensible. It covers everything from starting, whilst in the midst of partnership and also how to move on after the partnership has reached it’s goal.

All these finally cumulates into the last chapter when it is all “put together”. This is a book that many church leaders and pastor should first read and then to seriously consider how they can partner with other churches, so that by our working together, we can attempt to do more and bigger stuff and that finally God will be glorified more and more.

Rating: 4/5

If you're interested, you can get it here, and here (free international shipping), Kindle.

 

Disclaimer: I was given this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Book Review - The Stories We Tell (31/8)

Chances are, you most likely would spend at least some times watching television or movie every week. The approach that christians often take in respond to this are usually asking what can I watch or not watch? What is right or wrong about this film/video? It seems as though Christians thinks that the shows and movies tell us nothing more than that.

Mike Cosper thinks otherwise and wants to show christians that movies and television does tell stories, stories that christians can easily resonate with. Cosper argues that these stories do, in one way or another show glimpses of the gospel truth, in one shade or the other, in one facet or another.

Cosper first explains the Grand Story, the story of the bible, and from it, he picks out the various main themes that runs throughout the bible, these will need be the ‘lens’ that Cosper will use to help the readers pick out and see traces of these in the various shows and movies. Cosper then goes through 8 of such lens through each chapter.

Each chapter was first explained and illustrated within the biblical context, to show the readers that these really can be done within the bible (ie. the author is not making these up!) then he would run through various shows or scenes that (sometimes intentionally) portrays topics, as examples.

I must say that as I read this book, I do find myself watching a film or watch with these lens, not that prior to these I was just ‘watching’ a show, but the strength of this book is that Cosper does manages to pick up some of the more subtle topics (or sub-topics) and the examples he give are tremendously helpful. Even though I really do not watch a lot of shows, there’s enough description within the text that allows me to ‘catch’ the point and example.

An additional value to this book is how it can be used as a conversational starter towards evangelism, many a time as I was read, I did envision myself, if I did managed to catch such topics to be able to use them as starters to engage my non-christians friends after the show.
Finally, I do not think there’s any book out that at this moment that helps christians see movies in this particular way, and therefore I do think christians should read this book, pastors, students, parents. This would be helpful to you personally, and also helpful as you interact or ministers to others as well. Pastors could even use these as a stepping stone to learn how to get illustrations they could use in the future when they are preaching these topics.

Rating: 4.25/5

If you're interested, you can get it here, and here (free international shipping), Kindle.

Disclaimer: I was given this book free from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.