The Housing Boom and Bust (08/07/09 - 15 Comments)
At a time of global economic crisis, in all of the talk of a subset of that crisis, the housing boom and bust, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the cause of that bust is so very simple. "Behind all the esoteric securities and sophisticated financial dealings are simple, monthly mortgage payments from millions of home buyers across the country." When the housing payments slowed or stopped, sometimes by necessity and...
Books I Didn't Review (08/03/09 - 2 Comments)
My vacation is over. But as luck would have it, my first day back is a holiday, so I guess that extends things by one day. Today is Canada's annual Civic Holiday. I don't think anyone really knows why this holiday exists except as an excuse to enjoy a day off in what is usually about the best part of the Canadian summer. I'll actually be working much of the day, catching up on the...
Book Review - Broken-Down House (07/28/09 - 2 Comments)
Mark Tubbs is a good friend and my co-laborer over at Discerning Reader. If you have enjoyed that site recently, thank Mark more than me. As Managing Editor, he is heavily involved in the day-to-day management of all that happens there. Because I am on vacation this week, I asked if he would mind if I borrowed a review he had published at Discerning Reader. It is for Paul David Tripp's brand new Broken-Down House....
The New Shape of World Christianity (07/21/09 - 16 Comments)
Those of us who are Western Christians continue to hear reports that the church is migrating to the south and to the east--that as our nations increasingly turn their collective backs on God, God begins fresh work in other parts of the world. Says Mark Noll in his new book The New Shape of World Christianity, "It is as if the globe had been turned upside down and sideways. A few short decades ago, Christian...
Books I Didn't Review (07/17/09 - 3 Comments)
I do not intend to continue posting these "Books I Didn't Review" article with the frequency I've been doing so lately. But this summer I've been enjoying reading books outside of the Christian genre and I've been read a lot of them. It has been a refreshing break for me. I've still been enjoying at least one Christian book per week, but my recreational reading has taken me far and wide. In Canada we have...
Book Review - Why We Love the Church (07/07/09 - 12 Comments)
Church is out, spirituality is in. This is true outside Christians circles but, shockingly, it is true within as well. Recent years have seen a long succession of books talking of the revolution to come (or the revolution underway) which will see Christians abandon the institutional church in favor of expressions of the faith that are supposedly more pure. Christians meeting together in Starbucks in twos or threes, Christians meeting on park benches or around...
Books I Didn't Review (07/04/09 - 9 Comments)
I guess this is going to become a regular feature around here--a list of some of the books I didn't review. The fact is that I receive far more books than I could ever read and that I read more books than I could review. Yet many of these are perfectly good books--excellent books even--that deserve some kind of a mention. So this allows me to draw attention a few of the ones I just...
Monitoring Mohler (II) (07/03/09 - 16 Comments)
A couple of weeks ago I said that I was Monitoring Mohler (so to speak), reading through his entire suggested summer reading list. At that point I had read The Unforgiving Minute, With Wings Like Eagles, Hunting Eichmann and World War One. Since then I've read several of the other titles on this list and thought I'd check in. Number five on the list was Horse Soldiers by Doug Stanton. Mohler says, "Horse Soldiers is...
Does Grace Grow Best in Winter? (06/30/09 - 3 Comments)
To live is to suffer. It is sadly inevitable that in this sinful world, we will all suffer. Some suffer more than others and some suffer for different reasons than others. But the fact remains that all of us will face hardship and pain. Knowing this, we are wise to arm ourselves for those times, to prepare ourselves for the inevitable affliction. Does Grace Grow in Winter?, authored by Ligon Duncan and J. Nicholas Reid...
Book Review - The Betrayal (06/23/09 - 9 Comments)
I wonder what Calvin would have said, what he would have thought, if he could have peered five centuries into the future and seen how he would be honored on the five hundredth anniversary of his birth. Several new biographies; a long list of conferences; books discussing every aspect, every facet of his theology; a bobblehead; and now The Betrayal, a novel that recounts his life as historical fiction. The Betrayal, published by P&R Publishing,...
Book Review - Justification and Regeneration (06/16/09 - 11 Comments)
At the very heart of the gospel, at the very heart of the Christian faith, are two great miracles, two inseparable miracles, through which a dead man is brought to life. The first miracle is justification; here a condemned sinner is made right in the eyes of a perfect judge. The second miracle is regeneration; here a hater of God and a hater of good is transformed into a lover of God and a lover...
You Are the Treasure That I Seek (06/09/09 - 8 Comments)
I spent a few minutes yesterday reading about the new iPhone--the iPhone 3G S. It sounds spectacular. With every generation of the phone the wizards at Apple get one step closer to what people wanted the iPhone to be from the outset--an amazing, innovative, gizmo that does so many things so well. Watching the videos, reading the descriptions, I can feel my heart begin to long for that phone. I know that if I don't...
The Disappearance of God (06/05/09 - 6 Comments)
It is becoming difficult to keep up with the volume of books coming from the pen of Dr. Albert Mohler. In the past eighteen months we have seen five new books and there is still one remaining for later in 2009 (an original work based on a sermon series, slated for release later this year). Atheism Remix began as the W.H. Griffith Thomas Lectures Mohler delivered at Dallas Theological Seminary early in 2008; He Is...
A Praying Life (06/01/09 - 11 Comments)
Any time I write a review of a book dealing with prayer I feel the need to point out that bookstore shelves are already groaning under the weight of such books. There are hundreds, thousands probably, of books on prayer. A new one is going to need to be good--very good--to supplant the excellent resources already available. Paul Miller, perhaps a bit reluctantly, takes on this challenge in his new book A Praying Life: Connecting...
Outrageous Mercy (05/26/09 - 10 Comments)
Martin Luther got it right when he said, "No theology is genuinely Christian which does not arise from and focus on the cross." The cross of Christ is the very center point of the Christian faith; indeed, it is the very focal point of all of history. No event will or can be more significant than this. Little wonder, then, that so many books have been written that teach the cross, reflect on the cross,...
Books I Didn't Review (05/23/09 - 5 Comments)
Here is another roundup of a few books I have received but have chosen not to review. Also, this week I'll list some of the books I've received--ones for which I've not yet made a decision either way. Encouragement: How Words Change Lives by Gordon Cheng. This little book, published by Matthias Media, seeks to teach biblical wisdom on encouragement. I stumbled across it after searching for books on encouragement and realizing that this is...
Book Reviews - This Momentary Marriage & Velvet Steel (05/18/09 - 13 Comments)
John Piper waited forty years to write a book on marriage. It is only after forty years of marriage that he felt like he would have something valuable to say (or something valuable to add to a very crowded genre of book). "Romance, sex, and childbearing are temporary gifts of God. They are not part of the next life. And they are not guaranteed even for this life. They are one possible path through the...
The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God (05/16/09 - 9 Comments)
Until I read this book I would not have considered God's love as a particularly difficult doctrine. The Trinity is a difficult doctrine to understand, impossible even. The eternal nature of God--that is another difficult or impossible one. But the love of God? I wouldn't have thought of it as such. But this book convinced me otherwise. The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God by D.A. Carson is just a short book (96 pages)...
Books I Didn't Review (05/15/09 - 20 Comments)
With books arriving at my door on a near-daily basis, I cannot hope to read and review them all. I'll admit that quite a few of these books meet an immediately and untimely end in the trash. But many others, even though they are perfectly good, I'm simply unable to read and review. I want to draw your attention to a few of those titles today. These are books I've looked through and perhaps read...
Adopted for Life (05/11/09 - 9 Comments)
In the years since I began reviewing books, I have read titles on a wide variety of topics. But it occurred to me as I considered Russell Moore's title Adopted for Life that I had never read a book that dealt entirely with adoption. Sure, adoption has factored into books on family and books on theology, but never had I read a full-length treatment of the subject. Having heard so much positive press surrounding Adopted...
