Best books of 2021, so far

For all the hard things that happened in 2020, one of the best (for me) was that I was able to read more books last year than I read in many years. My pace is slower this year, but I’ve still read about 55 books, so far. Here are some of the ones I have […]

Best books of 2020

I know. This is late. I had good intentions. But I just didn’t get it done. (I might have been reading another book instead.) So a few weeks into the new year, here are some of the best books I read last year. As I did last year, I will categorize them around some general […]

Best books of 2020, so far

I love books. And I not only collect books, but I actually read them (well, not all of them, but I give it a good try). I’m not a particularly fast reader, but I am a persistent reader, so I am able to read a pretty significant number of books every year. My reading pace […]

The best books I read in 2017

I’ve always liked to read, and I supposed that’s a benefit for me since so much of what I do as a pastor is bound up in study and reading. I read a lot. I read a significant amount in preparation for my sermons each week — typically somewhere between 15-20 commentaries on the passage […]

The best books I read in 2015

The year 2015 was a good year of reading for me. A couple of years ago I found that I was having more difficulty paying attention when reading. I was breezing through many blogs and short works like magazine articles, but didn’t have as much patience for reading longer works. When revising my goals for […]

Grab bag

Joe Carter asks if there’s even any actual demand for same-sex marriage. David Murray offers a dozen suggestions to stave of Bible reading that’s become boring. I have regularly used a number of these for many years. It’s a very helpful list. I always like to read about what others are reading. Here is a […]

Best books of the year (so far)

This has been a good book reading year for me; so far I am significantly ahead of my goal for the number of books I would read this year (and I’ve already read more than I did all last year), so I thought that at the mid-year point, it might be good to reflect on […]

Good reads from 2013

As I evaluated my reading habits at the end of last year, I began to recognize a diminishing ability to give sustained attention to the longer and more involved discourses and arguments contained in books. So one of my goals this year was to read more books. Cover to cover. I set a specific goal […]

Grab bag

Some helpful articles I’ve recently read: Some Thanksgiving leftovers: Mark Talbot explains why even suffering is something for which we can praise God. Jerry Bridges reminds us that, “Paul said we’re to come to God “with thanksgiving.” We should thank Him for His past faithfulness in delivering us from troubles. We should thank Him for […]

Why reading Christian biography is good for the soul

I had a really effective (and fun) history teacher in seventh grade. Her students did so well that observers from the school district and other educators came into her class to find out what made her so effective. By the time I reached seminary, all those fun days in history forgotten and replaced by prototypical […]

Friday Funny: Did you read it?

I know nothing about this show. My only awareness of it is through this clip from YouTube. But it is in my top two favorite internet videos (the other one is Bob Newhart’s counseling method). What makes this so good is that along with the humor it also makes an important point about our reading […]

Grab bag

Some helpful articles from the last couple of weeks: A long time ago I began recognizing a changing trend in counseling. Women were battling with lust and pornography too, as Carolyn McCulley affirms in her recent post, “Lust: Not for men only.” She writes: “We have a message of hope and redemption in the morass […]

Grab bag

Some helpful articles from the last week: Lately I’ve been preaching and writing quite a bit about the gospel for believers. Here is a prayer from Scotty Smith to preach the gospel to ourselves. Alan Jacobs is an excellent essayist. I have read one of his collections of writings and another awaits reading on my […]

Ten (or eleven…) favorite books/authors

A while ago, someone gave me a challenge: “could you put together a list of top 10 ‘classic’ books you think every Christian should read? And then maybe another list for when we finish that list?” Well first things first — so how about one list for now? And the more I read, the more […]

Day by Day with Jonathan Edwards

I’m not sure how long this book has been available, but the entire text of Day by Day with Jonathan Edwards is available on Google Books. I’ve been reading this book as part of my devotional reading this year and have found it to be very helpful and encouraging. The editor, Randall Pederson, has selected […]