The Life of John Murray (10/20/07 - 2 Comments)
John Murray, long-time professor of systematic theology at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, was, until his death in 1975, widely regarded as one of the world's foremost Reformed theologians. Iain Murray (no relation to John Murray) is regarded as one of the world's foremost Reformed biographers. And here, in The Life of John Murray, the biographer brings us the life of the theologian. John Murray was born in 1898 Badbea, in Sutherland county, Scotland. Coming...
A Journey Worth Taking (10/16/07 - 5 Comments)
Finding Your Purpose in This World It seems to me that very few people today seek to understand life's big picture. We live our day-to-day lives happily on the whole, but often disconnected from any wider understanding of life; free from any true sense of a wider meaning or purpose. When considering this fact author Charles Drew says, "We are free to be ourselves, but we are fuzzy about who we are and how we...
"Become a Better You" by Joel Osteen (10/15/07 - 76 Comments)
There are few things I love to eat more than bread. I just love a good loaf of white bread. I eat it the way many people eat junk food (and, I suppose, one could argue that it is junk food). Not too long ago we bought a bread maker from a person nearby who was selling all his possessions to move back to his native Poland, having found that North American living was not...
"Respectable Sins" by Jerry Bridges (10/04/07 - 15 Comments)
Confronting the Sins We Tolerate A new book from the pen of Jerry Bridges is always a noteworthy event and this month we're blessed to see not one, but two new books bearing his name. The first of these, published by NavPress, is titled Respectable Sins. "The motivation for this book stems from a growing conviction that those of us whom I call conservative evangelicals may have become so preoccupied with some of the major...
Book Review - For Us and for Our Salvation (09/29/07 - 0 Comments)
Stephen Nichols is quite the prolific author. A professor at Lancaster Bible College and Graduate School and a graduate of Westminster Theological Seminary, Nichols has written several notable books in the past few years and it seems that he always has at least one title on the "Coming Soon" lists at Crossway or P&R Publishing. Nichols has a gift for presenting church history in a way that is interesting and in a way that appeals...
"Everything Must Change" by Brian McLaren (09/26/07 - 90 Comments)
Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Emasculated Theology... Those of us who have been keeping a wary eye on the Emerging Church know that to understand the movement we must understand Brian McLaren. Though it is not quite fair to label him the movement's leader, he certainly functions as its elder statesman and his writing seems to serve as a guide or compass for the movement. Where he leads, others follow. It is with...
Heaven is Real by Don Piper (09/22/07 - 7 Comments)
Lessons on Earth Joy--From the Man who Spent 90 Minutes in Heaven Don Piper was relatively unknown for even a couple of years after writing 90 Minutes in Heaven. But something must have happened, because now it seems that the longer his book sits on the shelves, the more it picks up steam. It has now sold well over a million copies and shows few signs of abating anytime soon. It is still sitting at...
A Taste of Heaven by R.C. Sproul (09/21/07 - 4 Comments)
Worship in the Light of Eternity Any time I set out to write a review of a book by R.C. Sproul I feel compelled to begin by lauding his accomplishments. But surely I can dispense with that formality this time. I am confident most of my readers know of Sproul and have benefited from his ministry and from his almost unparalleled teaching ability. We talk these days about a Reformed revival and about "Young, Restless,...
Book Review Updates (09/18/07 - 1 Comments)
It's Tuesday today, and that means we have a new lot of reviews for you to read over at Discerning Reader. We've also got a fascinating interview with one of the authors whose work we have reviewed today. So read on! To start, I've added a short review of Iain Murray's The Life of John Murray. It is not an exhaustive biography of the great Westminster theologian, but it is a good one and is...
Biblical Teaching on the Doctrines of Heaven and Hell (09/15/07 - 5 Comments)
Some books receive titles that are a little bit mysterious, only hinting at what the book contains. There are others that just give it all away in the title. Biblical Teaching on the Doctrines of Heaven and Hell pretty well says it all. Edward Donnelly simply turns to Scripture to see what God says about these important doctrines of heaven and hell. Heaven is a popular subject at the moment. Randy Alcorn’s book Heaven has...
Everyday Talk (09/11/07 - 3 Comments)
Talking Freely and Naturally about God with Your Children In recent weeks I have been attempting to make my way through some of the Shepherd Press catalog of books. Many of the titles and some of the authors were unfamiliar to me. Yet it seems that every time I read one of these titles I unearth some new treasure. Books like Polishing God's Monuments and When Sinners Say "I Do" have blessed me greatly, have...
"What is a Healthy Church?" by Mark Dever (09/08/07 - 7 Comments)
Mark Dever takes the 9 Marks from the pulpit to the pews. I spoke to Mark Dever just about a year ago and asked him if there were any books in his future. At that time he mentioned that he'd soon have a book out dealing with personal evangelism but that he had nothing planned after that. It seems that his plans changed! The book on evangelism is due for release in just a few...
Book Review - The Preacher and the Presidents (09/04/07 - 8 Comments)
Billy Graham in the White House I'll be honest with you--I don't have the emotional attachment to Billy Graham I sometimes feel I'm supposed to have as a Christian and as a Baptist. I grew up in a tradition that rarely acknowledged him (or much of the outside evangelical world, for that matter) and, to be honest, I knew very little of him until relatively recently. In my younger days I knew him more for...
Tony Dungy - Quiet Strength (09/01/07 - 4 Comments)
The quiet strength and outspoken faith of Tony Dungy. Those who know the National Football League will know of Tony Dungy, the coach of the Indianapolis Colts. One of the league's premier and most respected coaches, Dungy is a Christian and one who is outspoken about his faith. Two events in the past two years have put him in the spotlight: the death of his son in 2006 and the Colts' Superbowl victory in 2007....
Book Review Updates (08/28/07 - 12 Comments)
Lucado and R.C. and Moore, Oh My! Here is your update on the latest reviews at Discerning Reader. We have uploaded six new reviews for you this week--reviews that come from the pens of four different reviewers and which examine books by some of the Christian world's most popular authors. It's a banner week! Leslie Wiggins, who writes reviews of books that are of particular interest to women, has a courageous review of Get Out...
3:16: The Numbers of Hope by Max Lucado (08/28/07 - 17 Comments)
A Review of Max Lucado's latest book. 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 book with sales exceeding an incredible 50 million copies in print. His books are regularly on the New York Times list of bestsellers and...
Pleasing People (08/24/07 - 5 Comments)
A brief review of Lou Priolo's book. 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...
Polishing God's Monuments (08/20/07 - 7 Comments)
Delighting in God's sovereignty, even through affliction. I typically post a new book review here every Tuesday morning. But because I was so excited by the book I planned on reviewing this week, I thought I would break with tradition and post this review a day early. Polishing God's Monuments was an unexpected surprise. A book that arrived (as do so many others) without any fanfare, I quickly skimmed the four endorsements and paused only...
Book Review - Save Me From Myself (08/17/07 - 21 Comments)
A review of Brian "Head" Welch's Bestselling Autobiography. Claims of celebrity conversions to Christianity are quite common, but so often it seems that the conversions are followed by no lifestyle changes, the most common external proof of a true heart change. So often we hear of the conversions and then see no convincing reason that the person has truly come to know the Lord. Brian "Head" Welch is one of the few celebrities I can...
Book Review - Misquoting Truth (08/14/07 - 5 Comments)
Timothy Paul Jones responds to the fallacies of Bart Ehrman's "Misquoting Jesus." Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus was a surprise bestseller. Released in late 2005, it quickly climbed its way onto the bestseller lists--an interesting feat for a book dealing with textual criticism. Ehrman is a renowned New Testament scholar and chairs the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has both an M.Div. and Ph.D. from Princeton Theological...
