Mark Batterson. In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day: How to Survive and Thrive When Opportunity Roars. Multnomah, 2006. 182 pp.
What do you get when you combine fear, opportunity, history, distractions and doubt? A typical Christian who ignores a chance to do something significant for the kingdom of God due to insecurity and lack of genuine faith in God.
Mark Batterson has been released from the grip of fear and doubt by the experiences God has granted him. This young pastor writes about his insights in this simple but helpful book that harps on one theme: we have been called to take risks in our effort to transform the world for Christ. The author, who is one of the emerging voices in the post-Boomer church scene in America, provides numerous succinct thoughts about the real meaning of life and how to make the most of it.
Reviewed by George Barna.
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Brian J. Walsh & Sylvia C. Keesmaat. Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire. IVP, 2004. 256 pp.
Occasionally, a book comes along that ignites the fires of my imagination and fuels my passion for being part of the counter-culture we call the Church. Brian Walsh and Sylvia Keesmaat’s Colossians Remixed: Subverting the Empire is one such book.
Colossians Remixed goes where regular commentaries rarely go. The authors rewrite Colossians as if Paul were writing to postmodern, postChristian, 21st century Americans living under the rule of the American Empire. They go about this task by showing how deeply subversive Colossians was of the Roman Empire, and they seek to translate the subversive nature of the tract into today’s world.
Reviewed by Trevin Wax.
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Stuart Bell. Sane Spirituality: Lessons from Corinth for the 21st Century. Sovereign World, 2004. 128 pp.
This book started life as a series of sermons. It is an encouragement to me that publishers seem to be reviving the sermon-book which at one point looked to me like it was fading from use. Bell’s book is definitely aimed at the popular market, but any reader would have much to learn from what he has to say. If you are interested in how a charismatic interprets and applies 1 Corinthians then this is a good place to start.
He has a simple definition of charismatics which he has borrowed from David Pawson—“those who recognise that the gift of the Spirit is to be received and the gifts of the Spirit are to be exercised. . . .
Reviewed by Adrian Warnock.
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J. Daniel Hays. From Every People and Nation: A Biblical Theology of Race. IVP, 2003. 240 pp.
Race as a theological category has not had much play in the history of theology. That’s what J. Daniel Hays says at the beginning of his book From Every People and Nation: A Biblical Theology of Race. This is of particular note given the fact that race has been such a major issue of discussion and contention in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Even though some contemporary systematic theologies have significant chapters on anthropology, few deal directly with the subject of race. Consequently, to write a book on a theology of race sounds foreign to our evangelical ears. But isn’t this kind of title and this kind of biblical theological discussion long overdue?
Reviewed by Anthony J. Carter.
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Edward Gilbreath. Reconciliation Blues: A Black Evangelical’s View Inside White Christianity. IVP, 2006. 207 pp.
Upon completing seminary, I was hired by a small evangelical Bible college. While teaching during the 2000 election cycle, I suggested that I might not cast my vote simply based on the issue of abortion alone. “You mean you would vote for Gore?” asked one student, who then remained after class to lecture me for 45 minutes on how I could not possibly be an evangelical if I voted for anyone other than George Bush. As outwardly patient as possible, I attempted to share with this student how I might see the need to consider issues in addition to abortion, especially as one who served among ethnic believers who still see issues of race as moral issues with great political ramifications.
I have yet to tell anyone how I voted that year. Nevertheless, I have shared this story many times in order to enter a dialogue on race with fellow evangelicals. Now, Edward Gilbreath has provided a means of entering and furthering the discussion by sharing similar experiences to a broader evangelical audience.
Reviewed by Eric C. Redmond.
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John Shore. I’m OK—You’re Not: The Message We’re Sending Nonbelievers and Why We Should Stop. NavPress, 2007. 171 pp.
I was first introduced to this book by Kevin Bussey whose recommendation came as a result of his desire to be Jesus to friends he encounters every day (often as he sips a tall one at the local Starbucks). My attention was piqued when Paul Littleton also had it on his reading list. So, when I finally found it on a bookstore shelf, I relieved my wallet of the 13 bucks and the bookstore of its sole copy.
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Max Lucado. 3:16: The Numbers of Hope. Thomas Nelson, 2007. 240 pp.
It’s a match made in heaven (or that’s what Thomas Nelson Publishers must believe). In 3:16: The Numbers of Hope, one of the world’s best-known and best-loved Christian authors takes on the world’s best-known and best-loved Bible verse. Max Lucado has authored over 50 books, with sales exceeding an incredible 50 million copies in print. His books are regularly on the New York Times list of bestsellers and continually dominate the Christian charts (where he has had up to eleven books present at one time). 3:16 is as close as we could expect for a sure-thing bestseller. An unparalleled marketing campaign will all but guarantee it. It is no coincidence that the book will release on 9/11, allowing people to contrast numbers of despair with numbers of hope. The book will also stand as the centerpiece of a major global ministry initiative launching on Palm Sunday, 3/16/08. This book is going to make a splash.
Reviewed by Tim Challies.
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J. I. Packer. Knowing God. IVP, 1993. 286 pp.
More than one of the books we have offered in the first year of our Book of the Month program have been treatments of the most basic issue of theology—the nature and character of the God we worship. To conclude the year, we are returning to the same theme again. Knowing God is a new classic of Christian literature, a book dedicated to the principle that intimate knowledge of the Creator is the lynch pin of true religion, and that salvation consists in knowing Him.
Packer has become one of the more controversial theologians of our day. Actions taken at the end of his career have rightly led the orthodox to read him with great caution, but while caution is warranted, it would be unwise to categorically disregard a book which has been of great value to the cause of evangelicalism, and particularly to the Reformed understanding of God’s majesty and glory. . . .
Reviewed by Tom Chantry.
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Lou Priolo. Pleasing People: How Not to Be An Approval Junkie. P&R, 2007. 255 pp.
Are you an approval junkie? Are you a person who depends too heavily, in spirit, conscience or morale, on the approval of others? How would you even know? These are the questions Lou Priolo tackles in his book Pleasing People. This is a book I read weeks ago and, for some reason, decided not to review. Yet over the weeks I’ve seen the fruit of reading this book in my life and in my walk with the Lord. I’ve seen shadows of the desire to please people not only in my life but in the lives of others. I felt it would be best for me to share the book with others.
Reviewed by Tim Challies.
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John Ensor. The Great Work of the Gospel: How We Experience God’s Grace. Crossway, 2006. 192 pp.
In the Introduction, John Ensor lays the foundation of the book by fleshing out and describing The Human Experience of God’s Outworking Grace. He gives three reasons for doing so: “because the problem is the greatest of all problems,” “because the solution is the most excellent of all solutions,” and “because the change it produces is the most extreme change possible.” He defines the terms and sets the parameters that will guide and drive the discussions throughout the rest of the book. He lists the ingredients with which he will craft an incredible feast for the mind. So we too will experience the, “the sin-forgiving gift of it, the guilt-removing power of it, the soul-satisfying joy of it, the cross-suffering mystery of it, the conscience-cleansing experience of it, the life-transforming quality of it, the muscular faith-building impact of it, the eternally reconciling splendor of it.”
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