Archive for the 'Personal Growth' Category
Matt Williams & Ken Collier. Biblical Leadership: Becoming a Different Kind of Leader. Ambassador-Emerald, 2004. 184 pp.
A Leader Like No Other
Leadership is influence, so the accepted definition goes. Influence is the ability to move another person in a direction you believe is important. By any definition, Jesus Christ was a leader like no other! . . .
Jesus Christ was the greatest leader the world has ever known because He was the greatest follower the world has ever known. He had a sharply focused view of exactly what His Father desired of Him. No trial, no deprivation, no conflict, no misunderstanding, and no death threat made Him swerve from following the will of His Father. What a leader! What a Follower!
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Ray Comfort. What Did Jesus Do?: A Call to Return to the Biblical Gospel. Genesis, 2005. 176 pp.
The Diagnosis and the Cure
A television documentary showed a Tibetan peasant woman making her pilgrimage around a sacred mountain. She stopped every few steps to prostrate herself on the rocky soil. She stood to her dust-covered feet, walked a few more paces, and repeated the arduous and painful ritual. She had completed the thirty-two-mile pilgrimage twenty-nine times. Asked why she did it, she smiled sweetly and answered, “We want to be reborn in heaven.”
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Alan Chambers. God’s Grace and the Homosexual Next Door: Reaching the Heart of the Gay Men and Women in Your World. Harvest House, 2006. 288 pp.
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
—1 Corinthians 6:9-11
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John Piper. Battling Unbelief: Defeating Sin with Superior Pleasure. Multnomah, 2007. 176 pp.
Battling Impatience
In God’s Place, At God’s Pace, By Future Grace
Impatience is a form of unbelief. It’s what we begin to feel when we start to doubt the wisdom of God’s timing or the goodness of God’s guidance. It springs up in our hearts when our plan is interrupted or shattered. It may be prompted by a long wait in a checkout line or a sudden blow that knocks out half our dreams. The opposite of impatience is not a glib denial of loss. It’s a deepening, ripening, peaceful willingness to wait for God in the unplanned place of obedience, and to walk with God at the unplanned pace of obedience—to wait in his place, and go at his pace. And the key is faith in future grace. . . .
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Randy Newman. Corner Conversations: Engaging Dialogues About God and Life. Kregel, 2006. 208 pp.
Introduction
Welcome to Turnerville. I only wish this town existed someplace besides in my imagination. Everything moves slowly in Turnerville. People take time to think. They discuss issues that typically get rushed or ignored. Even the leaves seem to change colors more slowly there. When city planners drew up blueprints, they strategically placed benches all over town so people would stop and chat. The mayor boasts of a higher bench-per-capita ratio than any other locale.
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Michael D. Williams. Far As the Curse Is Found: The Covenant Story of Redemption. P&R, 2005. 319 pp.
Most people—believers as well as non-Christians—cannot give a credible answer to the question “What is Christianity about?”
How do we account for this state of affairs? Given the life-and-death urgency of Christianity, we stand desperately in need of a reversal of the damning disparity between the eternal importance of the Christian faith and the apprehension of it by its advocates. Christianity is a revelatory religion. This means that God has revealed himself, his ways, and his will most clearly and fully in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Christianity is, therefore, a religion of the book. Thus, if believers do not understand the core issues of the Christian religion, it is because they fail to grasp or appreciate the Bible in some fundamental way.
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Charles H. Dunahoo. Making Kingdom Disciples: A New Framework. P&R, 2005. 249 pp.
An Overview of the Kingdom Model
Before Jesus ascended into heaven, he gave his final command to his church about their assignment during the interim between his ascension and his return at the end of the age. He said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matt. 28:18-20).
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Stephen J. Nichols. Heaven on Earth: Capturing Jonathan Edwards’s Vision of Living in Between. Crossway, 2006. 144 pp.
Introduction
In heaven we will enjoy perfect, unbroken fellowship with the Triune God. We will relish the glory of God. We will savor the sweetness of Christ. We will have perfect fellowship with the Holy Spirit. Why not start now?
In heaven, bickering, complaining, and acts of injustice will all have fallen away. Peace and harmony and justice will be the order. We will love God perfectly. We will even love all our brothers and sisters in Christ perfectly. So why not begin now? There’s no reason not to. In fact, there’s every reason in the world to do so. . . .
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Steve Stephens. The Wounded Warrior: Survival Guide for When You’re Beat Up, Burned Out, or Battle Weary. Multnomah, 2006. 224 pp.
Wounds can make you or break you. It’s not the deepness of the wound that kills you; it’s your refusal to face reality and step forward.
Life is full of battles, and every warrior is going to sustain his share of injuries. Some soldiers incur one significant, overpowering wound; others receive numerous minor wounds. Regardless of his past history or present circumstances, every man has his gashes and broken bones.
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Wayne Grudem. Countering the Claims of Evangelical Feminism: Biblical Responses to the Key Questions. Multnomah, 2006. 284 pp.
Egalitarian Claim:
The New Testament writers urged the mutual submission of husbands and wives to one another (Ephesians 5:21). Therefore, there is no unique leadership role for the husband.
Ephesians 5:21 says, “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Egalitarians say this verse teaches “mutual submission,” and that means that just as wives have to submit to their husbands, so husbands have to submit to their wives. Doesn’t the text say that we have to submit “to one another”? And this means that there is no unique submission that a wife owes to her husband, and no unique authority that a husband has over his wife. . . .
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