For October, we have.... The Church.
Most of us probably wouldn't spend a whole lot of time reading books about the church. Yet it should be noted that our position as believers in Christ is defined by being a member of the body of Christ. Understanding what the church really is and how we are to act as church members represents a significant part of our lives.
The challenge for October is one general book on the church - that is, a book not about a specific area of the church - and one specific book on the church - ie. preaching, music, baptism. A specific area of the church.
Personally, I would recommend 1. Nine Marks of a Healthy Church by Mark Dever for a basic, easy to read, but very informative work on understanding the church. 2. The Church in God's Program by Robert Saucy. This is a bit more indepth on the church and is a bit slower, but interesting for those who really want to dig deeper.
For books on a specific area, I have not read a lot - to my memory - that would apply here. A lot of things would apply, though. One suggestion: Singing and Making Music by Paul Jones. Anyone involved with music in the church...which is, y'know...like, everyone...would benefit from reading this.
Books I'm planning to read include 12 Challenges Churches Face by Mark Dever - Dever goes through 1 Corinthians and relates problems from the Corinthian church to the modern day. Also hoping to read The Church in God's Program by John MacArthur and The Reformed Pastor by Richard Baxter.
Note. I did previously read Confessions of a Reformisson Rev by Mark Driscoll, which would relate to the general book on the church, but my personal opinion is that there's a limited value to the book. It's not that Driscoll is all that far off theologically, but I have concerns about the way he presents his message. As a result, I think there is definitely value to it, and I did benefit from reading it, but I don't think it's necessarily the best book for everyone to read.
Friday, September 24, 2010
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Four for September
Finished several books lately, so here is a quick review of them.
Completed: The Mortification of Sin by John Owen
The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges
War and Grace by Don Stephens
Almost finished a book I'm reading for school titled The Bible and Future Events by Leon Wood. In this class on theology for Moody, I'm studying eccliesiology (the Church) and eschatology (end times, or last things). I expected the former would be rather dull and the latter very interesting. As it's turned out, I really liked ecclesiology and I'm finding eschatology drudgery to read through.
I suppose because I found a couple of books on the church that I enjoyed reading didn't hurt. I probably need to find a book on eschatology that really piques my interest. For the moment, though, my interest in it is pretty low.
Probably at least part of the problem is that I desire to get to the heart of the truth, and I'm unconvinced that dispensationalists have a corner on it. That's not to say I disagree with them on their core teachings, but a lot of their teachings on the timelines and other end times issues - like what comes where and what different things refer to - is more entertaining than scholarly in my personal opinion. Leon Wood, at any rate, seems pretty positive about all that he is laying forth concerning how the rapture, tribulation and millennium will play out. I'm not necessarily disagreeing with him, but the verses he cites are vague and could easily be applied other things. I think some scholars make far too much from too little.
For my part, my core beliefs are unshaken, but I'm skeptical of how certain we can be of many of the details that certain writers confidently lay out. Another thing that has turned me off of eschatology a bit is the way both covenant theologians and dispensationalists mischaracterize the other side's views. I suppose it's somewhat natural that one side is going to have a weaker explanation of the views of the other side. But it seems like there's a lot of strawmen floating around. Anyway, enough on eschatology.
Still trying to get Dad to write up a quick review for Mortification of Sin by John Owen. We both read it, we both liked it.
It's short. The version I read was slightly abridged and edited for easier reading. It gives a good understanding of sin in the context of the Bible and how we are to respond to it. Obviously it's not a contemporary enough work to be too specific on a lot of issues, but it is well worth a read. The Puritans, as a rule, aren't read enough, and I'm going to try to fit as many into the schedule this year as I can. A couple of places I was a little confused as to what his point was. I suspect that the flaw was in my comprehension rather than his logic, though.
Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges was excellent. A fair bit of my sermon from last Sunday was stumbling through various thoughts he presented in his book. I definitely plan to revisit Pursuit of Holiness in the future and highly recommend it to anyone who struggles with sin - which is, y'know...everyone - or is desiring to cultivate holiness in their lives.
War and Grace didn't strictly fit the guidelines for this month's reading challenge, but I finished that in the two books listed above. It's a book of biographic stories about men and women (actually, I think there was only one) in World War 1 and 2 (primarily 2). I'd actually seen this at the Shepherd's Conference last year and only given it a sideways glance at the time. I think the title put me off a bit. It seemed cheesy, being an obvious play off of War and Peace, so I really didn't even give it a close look. Big mistake. But apparently my Dad didn't do much better - he bought it and never read it. However, I'd heard from my Mom - who did read it - and Drew - who bought it AND read it - who both liked it. So I took another look at it on the shelf and discovered that it actually looked interesting.
I figured I'd read one of the 13 chapters a night and finish it in two weeks. Plans changed, though. After finishing chapter one, I stopped and thought to myself, "You know, Justin, if you read *two* chapters a night, you can finish it in *one* week."
So I read chapter two.
Then I looked at my watch.
Groaned.
Weighed my options.
Decided to forget the time.
Read chapter three.
Two nights later I read the next four chapters. The last six went at a more thoughtful rate. I got slowed down a bit over the week because I was studying for Sunday night's sermon. Finally, on Monday I finished it. The last chapter didn't really look terribly interesting at first. It was about the American minister who was chaplain to the living Nazi leaders during their trial for war crimes. I'd had half an idea how it was going to run out, and I wasn't wrong, but it was a good deal more interesting than I had expected. It would be hard to pick favorites, but that last one was particularly interesting to me. The first chapter about Louis Zamperini was the one that hooked me on the book, so I'd be hard pressed to not remember it. Rounding out the top three would be the story of Mitsu Fuchida, lead Japanese pilot in the Pearl Harbor attack.
Very good book. For encouraging biographies that aren't too long, it was good. Often, short biographes I read are about Christian leaders/missionaries. This one was somewhat different than that. It was encouraging to read about what God was doing during and after the war in the lives of these different people. And the book doesn't just focus on the English - the nationality of the author. There are stories of Germans, Japanese, English, Americans, Jews, and one French man. Some are officers, some are regular fighting men, some are victims of hate, some are civilians who were involved in some way. All in all, an excellent book.
Completed: The Mortification of Sin by John Owen
The Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges
War and Grace by Don Stephens
Almost finished a book I'm reading for school titled The Bible and Future Events by Leon Wood. In this class on theology for Moody, I'm studying eccliesiology (the Church) and eschatology (end times, or last things). I expected the former would be rather dull and the latter very interesting. As it's turned out, I really liked ecclesiology and I'm finding eschatology drudgery to read through.
I suppose because I found a couple of books on the church that I enjoyed reading didn't hurt. I probably need to find a book on eschatology that really piques my interest. For the moment, though, my interest in it is pretty low.
Probably at least part of the problem is that I desire to get to the heart of the truth, and I'm unconvinced that dispensationalists have a corner on it. That's not to say I disagree with them on their core teachings, but a lot of their teachings on the timelines and other end times issues - like what comes where and what different things refer to - is more entertaining than scholarly in my personal opinion. Leon Wood, at any rate, seems pretty positive about all that he is laying forth concerning how the rapture, tribulation and millennium will play out. I'm not necessarily disagreeing with him, but the verses he cites are vague and could easily be applied other things. I think some scholars make far too much from too little.
For my part, my core beliefs are unshaken, but I'm skeptical of how certain we can be of many of the details that certain writers confidently lay out. Another thing that has turned me off of eschatology a bit is the way both covenant theologians and dispensationalists mischaracterize the other side's views. I suppose it's somewhat natural that one side is going to have a weaker explanation of the views of the other side. But it seems like there's a lot of strawmen floating around. Anyway, enough on eschatology.
Still trying to get Dad to write up a quick review for Mortification of Sin by John Owen. We both read it, we both liked it.
It's short. The version I read was slightly abridged and edited for easier reading. It gives a good understanding of sin in the context of the Bible and how we are to respond to it. Obviously it's not a contemporary enough work to be too specific on a lot of issues, but it is well worth a read. The Puritans, as a rule, aren't read enough, and I'm going to try to fit as many into the schedule this year as I can. A couple of places I was a little confused as to what his point was. I suspect that the flaw was in my comprehension rather than his logic, though.
Pursuit of Holiness by Jerry Bridges was excellent. A fair bit of my sermon from last Sunday was stumbling through various thoughts he presented in his book. I definitely plan to revisit Pursuit of Holiness in the future and highly recommend it to anyone who struggles with sin - which is, y'know...everyone - or is desiring to cultivate holiness in their lives.
War and Grace didn't strictly fit the guidelines for this month's reading challenge, but I finished that in the two books listed above. It's a book of biographic stories about men and women (actually, I think there was only one) in World War 1 and 2 (primarily 2). I'd actually seen this at the Shepherd's Conference last year and only given it a sideways glance at the time. I think the title put me off a bit. It seemed cheesy, being an obvious play off of War and Peace, so I really didn't even give it a close look. Big mistake. But apparently my Dad didn't do much better - he bought it and never read it. However, I'd heard from my Mom - who did read it - and Drew - who bought it AND read it - who both liked it. So I took another look at it on the shelf and discovered that it actually looked interesting.
I figured I'd read one of the 13 chapters a night and finish it in two weeks. Plans changed, though. After finishing chapter one, I stopped and thought to myself, "You know, Justin, if you read *two* chapters a night, you can finish it in *one* week."
So I read chapter two.
Then I looked at my watch.
Groaned.
Weighed my options.
Decided to forget the time.
Read chapter three.
Two nights later I read the next four chapters. The last six went at a more thoughtful rate. I got slowed down a bit over the week because I was studying for Sunday night's sermon. Finally, on Monday I finished it. The last chapter didn't really look terribly interesting at first. It was about the American minister who was chaplain to the living Nazi leaders during their trial for war crimes. I'd had half an idea how it was going to run out, and I wasn't wrong, but it was a good deal more interesting than I had expected. It would be hard to pick favorites, but that last one was particularly interesting to me. The first chapter about Louis Zamperini was the one that hooked me on the book, so I'd be hard pressed to not remember it. Rounding out the top three would be the story of Mitsu Fuchida, lead Japanese pilot in the Pearl Harbor attack.
Very good book. For encouraging biographies that aren't too long, it was good. Often, short biographes I read are about Christian leaders/missionaries. This one was somewhat different than that. It was encouraging to read about what God was doing during and after the war in the lives of these different people. And the book doesn't just focus on the English - the nationality of the author. There are stories of Germans, Japanese, English, Americans, Jews, and one French man. Some are officers, some are regular fighting men, some are victims of hate, some are civilians who were involved in some way. All in all, an excellent book.
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