gloriaDEI

Readability:  1

Length: 210 pgs

Author:  Tedd Tripp

Parents, what is your ultimate goal in parenting?  In Shepherding a Child’s Heart Tedd Tripp exposes some unbiblical goals such as developing special skills, psychological adjustment, saved children, family worship, well behaved children, education, control.  What is the ultimate goal?  Tripp answers with the first question / answer of the Shorter Catechism.

Q. What is the chief end of man?

A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever

Is there any other goal that is worthy? Are you willing to start here with our children? You must equip your children to function in a culture that has abandoned the knowledge of God. If you teach them to use their abilities, aptitudes, talents and intelligence to make their lives better, without reference to God, you turn them away from God. If your objectives are anything other than “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever,” you teach your children to function in the culture on its terms. 

How do we do this? We pander to their desires and wishes. We teach them to find their souls delight in going places and doing things. We attempt to satisfy their lust for excitement. We fill their young lives with distractions from God. We give them material things and take delight in possessions. Then we hope that somewhere down the line they will see that a life worth living is found only in knowing and serving God.

Oh for God-glorifying, gospel-saturated homes!  Praise God for Tedd Tripp and his service to us toward that goal.  Shepherding a Child’s Heart is a thoroughly Biblical approach to parenting.  This book is not full of practical ideas to help you get what you want out of your children, but what God wants.  This is not a book about behavior modification, but about the heart.  Parents I urge you, read this book.

When we miss the heart, we miss the gospel.  If the goal of parenting is only securing proper behavior we will never help our children understand the internal things – the heart issues – that push and pull behavior. Those internal issues: self-love, rebellion, anger, bitterness, envy and pride of the heart show our children how profoundly they need grace.  If the problem with children is deeper than inappropriate behavior, if the problem is the way the heart has enthroned something other than God, then the need for grace is established.  Jesus came to earth. Lived a perfect life and died as an infinite sacrifice so that children (and their parents) can be forgiven, transformed, liberated and empowered to love God and others.

Readability:  1

Length:  191 pgs

Author:  Michael Reeves

Michael Reeves has written an introduction to the reformation that is fun to read, brief, accurate, and inspiring.  He begins by giving the necessary historical backdrop to understand the reformation, dealing with figures such as John Wycliffe and Jan Huss.  He then goes on to Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin; followed by a look at the reformation in Britain from Thomas Cranmer to the Puritans.   The Unquenchable Flame also includes a helpful timeline and further reading suggestions.  Mark Dever’s endorsement says it best,

With the skill of a scholar and the art of a storyteller, Michael Reeves has written what is, quite simply, the best brief introduction to the Reformation I have read.

DugDownDeep_Carnahan.mov from Covenant Life Church on Vimeo.

Readability:  1

Length: 234 pgs

Author:  Joshua Harris

Are you looking for a book that would serve as an introduction to theological terms such as: theology, orthodoxy, doctrine, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscient, inerrancy, clarity, sufficiency, the person of Christ, incarnation, atonement, penal substitution, propitiation, regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, indwelling sin, spiritual gifts, the church?  Do you also want the book to be practical, applying these doctrines and truths to everyday life?  Do you further desire that the book be deeply honest and personal coming from a humble author giving great illustrations from his own life?  Do you think your desires to be too big to ever be realized?  Read Joshua Harris’ Dug Down Deep.

Harris doesn’t wade in the deep end of the pool, but he helps you to get there and makes you want to dive… or dig.  Theology matters – Harris humbly seeks to convince you of this, and I think he does an excellent job.  If you are new to the Christian faith, or new to that faith being talked about in vibrant, robust theological terms this would be a great theological primer.

But the hardest work of all is putting truth into practice. … Church affiliation and a list of beliefs are never enough.  Doctrine and theology are always meant to be applied to our lives – to shape and reshape not only a statement of faith but also the practical decisions of how think and act.  Book knowledge about building on rock has no value if we’re still resting on shifting sand.

Once when my little brother Isaac was four years old, he grabbed a shovel and headed toward the woods.  My mom asked what he was doing.  He answered, “I’m going to dig for holes.”  The story has become family favorite, and Isaac is tired of having it repeated.  But it’s a good description of what we do when we study and argue over beliefs without putting them into practice.  We’re digging for holes.

We need to dig for rock.

Fast Tube by Casper

Readability:  1

Length: 234 pgs

Author:  Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck

I love Kevin DeYoung’s writing (Ted’s as well, he makes me laugh).  I love that he loves the church, so much so that he wrote a book about it.  This is my favorite DeYoung book alongside Just Do Something.  Why We Love the Church is an unfortunately an unusual book.  Go to your Christian bookstore and it will be easy to pile up a plethora of books criticizing the church.  Without covering any of her warts this pair of gifted writers wants to remind us of her beauty. 

Kevin spends his time responding to four categories of reasons why the church is not currently loved; the misssiological, personal, historical, and theological reasons.  Ted gives humorous and honest personal reflections in-between.

Kevin has a habit of writing books I recommend a lot, not only because they are so well written, but also because he has written on such pertinent issues.  At a time when so many loud voices are calling for an exodus from the church, DeYoung and Kluck are calling for a return.  May God bless this book toward that end for many.

If decapitation, form the Latin word caput, means to cut off the head, then it stands to reason that decorpulation, from the Latin word corpus, should refer to cutting off the body.  It’s the perfect word to describe the content of this book.  If our editors had been asleep at the wheel, we could have called it Recent Trends in Decorpulation.

Readability:  2

Length: 300 pgs

Author:  O. Palmer Robertson

Too many Christians fail at understanding the Scriptures because they don’t understand the Scriptures.  That is, they fail to understand a certain Biblical text, say Leviticus 4, because they don’t understand the larger context that Leviticus 4 finds itself in.  That is to say not simply that they haven’t thoroughly digested Leviticus, or even the Pentateuch, but the Bible as a whole.  Funny that we refer to the Bible as a book, fail to realize that it is composed of 66 books, and then further fail to recognize the great overarching, unifyingstoryline that binds it all together.  The fancy word for this big story is metanarrative.  We read all the mini-narratives forgetting to place them within the metanarrative.

To Johnny-pew-sitter I must say that preachers and teachers are primarily to blame for such ignorance.  People in the pew don’t get the metanarrative because the sermons are too small to contain it.

Towards understanding is understanding the concept of covenant.  Covenant frames all of Scripture.  It is the bones of Scripture.  Throughout Scripture God only relates to man within covenant, never outside of it.  Everyone stands in relation to God either as a covenant breaker, or covenant keeper.  You are either heir to the promises of the covenants, or under the curse for violating covenant.

In The Christ of the Covenants O. Palmer Robertson masterfully deals with the covenants of scripture.  In part one he deals with the nature, extent, unity, and diversity of the divine covenants.  In parts two and three he then goes on to treat each of the covenants we see in the Bible: the covenant of creation, the Adamic covenant, the Noahic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant, the Mosaic covenant, the Davidic covenant, and the New Covenant.

This book is not self-help, it is not immediately practical, it is not pragmatic, but it is epic.  You will be left stunned by the wonder of God’s one plan of redemption as it unfolds progressively through the covenants.  This ain’t no Little Golden Book, it is a book about the biggest story ever.

A covenant is a bond in blood sovereignly administered.  When God enters into a covenantal relationship with men, he sovereignly institutes a life-and-death bond.  A covenant is a bond in blood, or a bond of life and death sovereignly administered.

Readability:  1

Length: 195 pgs

Author:  Albert Mohler

Words from the Fire is an excellent little book for the Christian on the Ten Commandments.  Each commandment is clearly taught, masterly illustrated, proper studied in its context, and then examined and applied in light of Christ.  Here is a book for the whole of you, to inform your mind, convict your heart, and direct your will.

[W]e do not celebrate a lawless grace any more than looking to the Old Testament we should see a graceless law.  There is grace in the law.  Israel, in hearing the Word of the Lord and receiving these words received grace!  And if we do not understand that, we slander both the Old Testament and the God who spoke to Israel at Horeb.

The prevailing secular mind-set says that law is simply a product of human experience codified in legislative form.  It is just how we learned to live with each other.  There is no absolute or transcendent ought.  There is merely a phenomenological is. 

Adultery begins a breakdown of order that threatens the entire society, for how can we trust each other if we cannot trust our most intimate commitments?  …Marriage is the little universe upon which every other human relation depends.

The big lie is that we are what we own, or we can be what we want to own, what we wear, or what we drive.  What do we do when we get a new car?  We have got to show it to someone, almost like there is no fun to be had if nobody is around to covet it.  We provide a drive-by opportunity to covet.

Readability:  1

Length:  168 pgs

Author:  D.A. Carson

Praise God for great books on the cross of Christ.  For the ones that not only feed your mind but warm your heart.  D.A. Carson’s Scandalous was such a book for me.  This easily makes my list of top books on the cross.  I listened to these sermons soon after Dr. Carson preached them at Mars Hill.  I remember being overjoyed when I heard they would be turned into a book.  It came, I read it, I was not disappointed.  Here is a taste of what you can expect.

The deeper irony is that, in a way they did not understand, they were speaking the truth. If he had saved himself, he could not have saved others; the only way he could save others was precisely by not saving himself. In the irony behind the irony that the mockers intended, they spoke the truth they themselves did not see. The man who can’t save himself—saves others.

One of the reasons they were so blind is that they thought in terms of merely physical restraints. When they said “he can’t save himself,” they meant that the nails held him there, the soldiers prevented any possibility of rescue, his powerlessness and weakness guaranteed his death. For them, the words “he can’t save himself” expressed a physical impossibility. But those who know who Jesus is are fully aware that nails and soldiers cannot stand in the way of Emmanuel. The truth of the matter is that Jesus could not save himself, not because of any physical constraint, but because of a moral imperative. He came to do his Father’s will, and he would not be deflected from it. The One who cries in anguish in the garden of Gethsemane, “Not my will, but yours be done,” is under such a divine moral imperative from his heavenly Father that disobedience is finally unthinkable. It was not nails that held Jesus to that wretched cross; it was his unqualified resolution, out of love for his Father, to do his Father’s will—and, within that framework, it was his love for sinners like me. He really could not save himself.

Dilemma wretched: how shall holiness
Of brilliant light unshaded, tolerate
Rebellion’s fetid slime, and not abate
In its own glory, compromised at best?
Dilemma wretched: how can truth attest
That God is love, and not be shamed by hate
And wills enslaved and bitter death—the freight
Of curse deserved, the human rebels’ mess?
The Cross! The Cross! The sacred meeting-place
Where, knowing neither compromise nor loss,
God’s love and holiness in shattering grace
The great dilemma slays! The Cross! The Cross!
The holy, loving God whose dear Son dies
By this is just—and one who justifies

Readability:  1

Length:  154 pgs

Author:  Richard Phillips

Don’t think that The Masculine Mandate comes from the desk of some effeminate, overeducated minister trying to make a female dominated religion easier to swallow.  Before surrendering to the ministry Richard Phillips served as a tank officer in the Army and then taught at West Point retiring as a major.  At the same time don’t expect more of the same; don’t expect more Wild at Heart salve for your wounded man-soul.  This is biblical manhood at its clearest.  Men, buy this book, and then strive to live by the mandate it shows you in Scripture.  What is this mandate?  It is right there in Genesis 2:15, men were made to work and keep.

At this point, I have the unpleasant duty of correcting some erroneous teaching that has gained prominence in recent years. Since its publication in 2001, the top Christian book on manhood has been John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart. This book has become practically a cottage industry, complete with supporting videos, workbooks, and even a “Field Manual.” In my opinion, Wild at Heart gained traction with Christian men in large part because it calls us to stop being sissies, to cease trying to get in touch with our “feminine side” (mine is named Sharon), and instead to embark on an exciting quest to discover our male identity. I can add my hearty “Amen!” to the idea that Christian men should reject a feminized idea of manhood. The problem is that the basic approach to masculinity presented in Wild at Heart is almost precisely opposite from what is really taught in the Bible. For this reason, this book has, in my opinion, sown much confusion among men seeking a truly biblical sense of masculinity.

We encounter major errors in Wild at Heart right at the beginning, where Eldredge discusses Genesis 2:8: “Eve was created within the lush beauty of Eden’s garden. But Adam, if you’ll remember, was created outside the garden, in the wilderness.”  Eldredge reasons here that if God “put the man” into the garden, he must have been made outside the garden. While the Bible does not actually say this, it’s plausible. But even assuming it’s true, what are we to make of it? Eldredge makes an unnecessary and most unhelpful leap of logic, concluding that the “core of a man’s heart is undomesticated,” and because we are “wild at heart,” our souls must belong in the wilderness and not in the cultivated garden. That is, Eldredge assumes and then teaches as a point of doctrine a view of manhood that Scripture simply does not support.

It’s easy to understand how this teaching has appealed to men who labor in office buildings or feel imprisoned by the obligations of marriage, parenthood, and civilized society. But there is one thing Eldredge does not notice.  God put the man in the garden. The point of Wild at Heart is that a man finds his identity outside the garden in wilderness quests. In contrast, the point of Genesis 2:8 is that God has put the man into the garden, into the world of covenantal relationships and duties, in order to gain and act out his God-given identity there. If God intends men to be wild at heart, how strange that he placed man in the garden, where his life would be shaped not by self-centered identity quests but by covenantal bonds and blessings.

To work it and keep it: here is the how of biblical masculinity, the mandate of Scripture for males. It is my mandate in this book, therefore, to seek to specify, clarify, elaborate, and apply these two verbs to the glorious, God-given, lifelong project of masculine living:

Work. To work is to labor to make things grow. In subsequent chapters I will discuss work in terms of nurturing, cultivating, tending, building up, guiding, and ruling.

Keep. To keep is to protect and to sustain progress already achieved.  Later I will speak of it as guarding, keeping safe, watching over, caring for, and maintaining.

Readability: 2

Length: 226 pgs

Author: D.A. Carson

D.A. Carson’s A Call to Spiritual Reformation is currently my favorite book on prayer.  In fact it is probably my favorite Carson book.  It is one of my favorite books ever! 

The book is composed of a series of sermons surveying Paul’s prayers in his epistles.  I have heard Cason and others testify that God greatly blessed these messages when they were originally delivered and a marked difference in power was measured from those days.  I certainly can testify that as I read the book I was deeply convicted, taught, and had sweet communion with God.  God has used these sermons to impact my prayer life, I am certain He will use them to impact yours. 

Do you not sense, with me, the severity of the problem? Granted that most of us know some individuals who are remarkable prayer warriors, is it not nevertheless true that by and large we are better at organizing than agonizing? Better at administering than interceding? Better at fellowship than fasting? Better at entertainment than worship? Better at theological articulation than spiritual adoration? Better—God help us!—at preaching than at praying?

What is wrong? Is not this sad state of affairs some sort of index of our knowledge of God? Shall we not agree with J.I. Packer when he writes, ‘I believe that prayer is the measure of the man, spiritually, in a way that nothing else is, so that how we pray is as important a question as we can ever face’?  Can we profitably meet the other challenges that confront the Western church if prayer is ignored as much as it has been?

Readability: 1

Length: 154 pgs

Author: John Piper

This is a readable little book about Ruth dealing predominantly with the theme of providence.  While A Sweet and Bitter Providence is not my favorite book on Ruth, nor one of my favorite Piper books, it is full of good, solid, digestible truth.  Here are a few tidbits.

Is God’s bitter providence the last word?  Are bitter ingredients (like vanilla extract) put in the mixer to make the cake taste bad?

Knowing how this book ends gives us a sense, as we begin, that nothing will be insignificant here.

Seek refuge under the wings of God, even when they seem to cast only shadows, and at just the right time God will let you look out from his Eagle’s nest onto some spectacular sunrise.

A follower of Christ in any ethnic group is a closer relative to us than any blood relativewho rejects our Savior.

Fast Tube by Casper