Jonathan Edwards: A Guided Tour of His Life and Thought by Stephen J. Nicholas was at the same time excellent and disappointing. The disappointment was my fault and in no way reflects upon the book or the author, for I had begun reading it with unfair expectations. I had not read the cover carefully and thus I thought I was buying a short biography of Edwards and that is not what this book is. After I came to realize what the book was intended to be, I enjoyed it thoroughly. And in this way it was excellent. Despite not being a biography it contained all sorts of great information about Edwards and about the events and writings that shaped his life. It is, as it says in the title, a guided tour to his life and thoughts more than a chronological ordering of the events of his life. More than a biography, this is a gateway into the thoughts, writings and theology of this great man of God.

There are few people I admire more than missionaries. They represent such a selfless expression of Christ's love - people who dedicate their lives to sharing the gospel with those who least want to hear it, but most need to hear it. Not only do they forsake the comforts of Western society and leave behind friends, jobs, church and family, but they often put their lives in danger by ministering in unstable nations.

In The Presence of My Enemies tells the story of Martin and Gracia Burnham, a missionary couple who were kidnapped and held for over a year by the Abu Sayyaf, a terrorist group with ties to Osama Bin Laden. While celebrating their anniversary at a small resort in the Philippines they were snatched away and spent the next year of their lives on the run, fighting to survive in the Philippine jungles. They were constantly faced with incredible hardship and often lacked even the most rudimentary comforts. They were held pending the payment of a large ransom, one which missionary groups will never pay. It was not until the aftermath of September 11 that real progress was made in trying to rescue the Burnhams.

There are more biographies devoted to Charles Spurgeon than to just about any other Christian figure. The first were written before his death (including his own autobiography) and hundreds have been written since. In the two years following his death, new biographies were published at the rate of one per month! One would be justified in asking, then, why we need another one. Arnold Dallimore answers this question in the preface, saying that in his studies he discovered no definitive volume. He found, for example, that no other biography gave a satisfactory account of Spurgeon's ability as a theologian or the methods he used in leading souls to Christ. Also, his character was often made to appear weaker than it really was. And so Dallimore sought to remedy these faults in his volume which was first published in 1984.

To study Abraham Lincoln is to study character. I would be hard-pressed to think of a person who lived since the time of Christ that so fully embodied the qualities and character of a Christian. He was a man who lived with humble faith and firm convictions and seemed always to direct himself by what was right.

Perhaps no other character in history other than Jesus has been written about as much as Abraham Lincoln. There are literally hundreds of books that trace his life, from its humble beginnings in the backwoods of Kentucky to its conclusion at the hands of an assassin. This book does not attempt to provide an exhaustive biography of his life. Rather, it traces the growth of Lincoln as a Christian. It traces the roots of his faith in the teachings of his mother and shows how his faith was tested and sharpened through his life. It shows how the wisdom which made him famous was godly wisdom, learned through a lifetime of humility and submission to God.

Hostage tells the story of the kidnapping of three American missionaries from a tiny village in the Panamanian jungle. The book is written by Nancy Mankins, wife of Dave Mankins, who along with Mark Rich and Rick Tenenoff was kidnapped by Colombian rebels.

The book continually alternates between the day of the kidnapping and the years of preparation that led the Mankins family to become missionaries to the Kuna tribe. We learn about their call to mission work, the decision to leave their life in America and move to the jungles of South America, and the life they built there. We learn about the trials and challenges they faced in trying to adapt to a culture vastly different from their own. The story culminates, of course, in the events of January 31, 1993 when rebels burst into the tiny village and kidnapped the three missionaries.

In writing Robert E. Lee: The Christian, William J. Johnson sifted through hundreds of letters written to and from Lee as well as accounts written of him, seeking to find evidence of this Civil War general’s faith. Having found ample evidence, the author concludes that Lee’s correspondance “reveals him as a man who lived in the presence of God; who looked to God continually for guidance and strength; whose mind and heart were saturated with faith and trust in God.” The nearly 300 pages of this book are dedicated to showing example after example of Lee’s obvious love for and trust in his Creator.