Book Review: Church History

Title:  Church History:  A Crash Course for the Curious Author:  Christopher Catherwood Publisher:  Crossway, 2007; 224 pp. $12.99 Recommendation (4-star scale):   I wanted to like this book — I really wanted to like it a lot. And it has its strengths.  But in the end, its strengths are also its weaknesses. A book like […]

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Book Review: Love or Die

Title:  Love or Die:  Christ’s Wake-Up Call to the Church Author:  Alexander Strauch Publisher:  Lewis & Roth, 2008; 99 pp. $9.99 Recommendation (4-star scale):   A few weeks ago I preached a message on Revelation 2:1-7 — the Ephesian church’s loss of love for Christ.   A couple days after the message, a friend said to […]

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Book Review: Let Christ Be Magnified

Title:  Let Christ Be Magnified Author:  J. H. Merle d’Aubigne Publisher:  Banner of Truth Trust (Reprint), 2007; 52 pp. $9.00 Recommendation (4-star scale):   This being the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin’s birth, there are no shortage of books being written or re-released in tribute to him.  I think I’ve acquired at […]

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Book Review: This Momentary Marriage

Title:  This Momentary Marriage Author:  John Piper Publisher:  Crossway Books, 2009; 180 pp. Recommendation (4-star scale):  I suppose I own dozens of books on marriage, parenting, Biblical manhood, and the like.  Not counting my counseling books, this topic accounts for something like 20 board feet of shelving in my library. I have preached lots of […]

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Book Review: The Shack

Each year I purchase a significant number of books.  Most of these are related to Christianity — theologies, commentaries, spiritual life, church history, marriage, counseling, and the like — but I also will purchase other books as well — sports, gardening (for Raye Jeanne), histories, fiction, and books of interest to our girls. But for […]

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Book Review: Worldliness

For some time, someone has been asking me a question about preaching and the church, “in previous years, you often used to hear sermons on this topic, but now you rarely even hear the word used — whatever happened to worldliness?” What has happened to verses like Romans 16:19? …I want you to be wise […]

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Book Review: The Reformation

I’ve always been a reader. In my elementary years, I was caught more than one time by my parents reading in bed by the light of a nearby security light that would provide just-barely adequate reading light if I held my book and the window blind just so. At dinner time I would invariably tote […]

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Book Review: Spectacular Sins

Yesterday evening I was telling Elizabeth that I’d read John Piper’s latest book, Spectacular Sins, on the plane trip to visit my Dad and brother this weekend.  “Spectacular sins?” she queried in response.  “Is John Piper still okay?” So I explained the title — it is not that he is inferring that the sins in […]

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Sunday Leftovers (8/17/08)

Two quotes about God’s immutability that didn’t make it into the sermon yesterday: “One of two things causes a man to change his mind and reverse his plans: want of foresight to anticipate everything, or lack of foresight to execute them. But as God is both omniscient and omnipotent there is never any need for […]

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Some book reviews

Since my sabbatical I have slowed down on my “leisure” reading and on writing some book reviews. However, I have come across two book reviews of books I’ve recently read that I’ve found very helpful, but haven’t had time to review myself. So here they are: John Piper, The Future of Justification (review) Milton Vincent, […]

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Book Review: Uprooting Anger

“Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity”(Eph. 4:26-27; NASB). This pair of verses is familiar. Very familiar. To parents (who use the verses in exhorting their children). And husbands and wives (who use them to attempt to […]

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