I own quite a few books written by Wayne Grudem and most of them vary between being long and very long (not to say that this is necessarily a bad thing). Grudem takes on difficult and controversial subjects such as Bible translation and the roles of men and women in the church and covers them both thoroughly and biblically. It was with some surprise, then, that I received Business for the Glory of God and noted that it is a mere 96 pages - the perfect size to read in a single evening. Its size may be deceiving, for this little book contains some powerful teaching about the value of business.

Translating Truth is a collection of essays on the subject of Bible translation written by leading Evangelical scholars. The essays were first presented as papers at the annual meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society in November 2004. The publishers notes that “the purpose of publishing these papers now as a collection is to encourage the ongoing, careful reflection on methodology and issues in Bible translation--that necessary work, which the Christian church is called to undertake, with fear and trembling before our sovereign, holy God, for the sake of the gospel and the truth of God's Word.” It should be noted that each of the authors was also a member of the Translation Oversight Committee for the English Standard Version. Thus while the thrust of this book is to examine the theory and practice of translating Scripture and to propose the superiority of an essentially literal translation over a dynamic equivalent translation, the book focuses primarily on the ESV.

Exile, persecution and tortue. Jesus told His followers that they should expect this type of treatment from the world. Those of us who live in the Western world often lose sight of the difficulties that Christians face in other parts of the globe. It is books like The Bible or the Axe, the biography of William Levi, than tend to shake us up a little bit, reminding us of the inestimable blessing of having freedom of worship.

“There’s no escaping the fact that a serious, and occasionally vitriolic, breach exists between Word-based evangelical cessationists and their more experientially oriented charismatic cousins.” It is true, of course, that there is a breach between cessationists, those who believe that the more spectacular of the spiritual gifts (prophecy, tongues, etc) have ceased, and charismatics, who do not. In recent days we have seen the beginnings of the healing of that breach between those who hold similar beliefs on the most important doctrines of the faith. It was no small matter when John MacArthur, author of Charismatic Chaos, invited C.J. Mahaney to preach from his pulpit. Similarly, it was an important step when the heads of several major ministries announced the upcoming Together for the Gospel conference. Sam Storms, the President of Enjoying God Ministries, is a pastor and teacher who identifies himself as both a charismatic and a Calvinist. The recently released Convergence is his attempt to bring some closure to this breach.

Twelve Ordinary Men, John MacArthur’s book on the apostles, was a surprise hit. After the book stayed on the bestseller lists for over a year, Thomas Nelson suggested publishing a second volume, this one dealing with some of the best-known women of the Bible. MacArthur accepted the challenge and drew up a long list of possible subjects. “I admit that I chose the twelve women featured here by a completely unscientific process: I weighed their relative importance in biblical history alongside the amount of material I had already developed on each of them as I have taught through various passages of Scripture. Then I chose the twelve women who were most familiar to me.” Twelve Extraordinary Women is not exactly a sequel to MacArthur’s Twelve Ordinary Men, yet it bears many similarities. Like its predecessor (and unlike the majority of MacArthur’s books), Twelve Extraordinary Women is not primarily expository. Instead, it is a series of brief character studies.

There is a certain irony in the pursuit of humility. We see a glimpse of that in the title of this book, Humility: True Greatness. Humility is true greatness. The pursuit of humility and the pursuit of greatness are one and the same, provided that we seek greatness as defined by the Creator. I have never met C.J. Mahaney (though hope to some day), but from all accounts he is well-qualified to write a book on such a difficult subject. And this is a difficult topic. After all, how can a person write a book on humility without sounding like he feels he is most qualified? The truth is he can, provided he uses the Scripture as the foundation for his teaching. And that is exactly what Mahaney does.

The book is divided into three sections. Part one deals with the battle of humility versus pride, part two with our Savior and the secret of true greatness and part three with the practice of true humility.

“Throughout the book, I have recorded and reported speech in the words of the individuals interviewed. I have chosen to use the individuals’ slang, graphic descriptions, and vulgar language because they accurately reflect the way in which people think about and discuss pornography. The use of sexually explicit and crude language is part of the story of how pornography is changing our lives; to avoid such language in Pornified would give less than a full picture.” Indeed, the language and examples used in Pornified are sometimes shocking, even for a person like myself who is not easily startled. Author Pamela Paul, in what is really an extension to an article she wrote for Time Magazine, seeks to show in this book that pornography is transforming the way we live our lives. Her approach is not academic or sociological, but rather journalistic. The book is bound together by scores of interviews with pornography users and sometimes their families as well as well as a poll conducted by Harris Interactive and sponsored by Pornified. The language can be harsh and the descriptions graphic.

I could draw up quite a list of reasons why Christians need to study and understand the history of the church. We should study the history of the church so we can understand the development of doctrine and realize that a doctrine like the Trinity was not simply understood by a brief reading of Scripture, but was a doctrine forged in the fire of counsels, battles and excommunications. We should study the history of the church because, as the old adage states, those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it. But I think the most important reason to study church history is to see and appreciate the mighty acts of God in preserving His people through the past two millenia of strife and persecution.

Growing up Christian is not as easy a task as one might think. There are dangers and temptations unique to growing up within a Christian family and within the church and sadly these difficulties are often downplayed or misunderstood by those who have been converted later in life. Growing Up Christian seeks examine these issues, which, as a person who grew up in a Christian home (ie a “church kid”), are near and dear to my heart. The book is targetted primarily at church kids, though their parents would do well to read the book with them. The author, Karl Graustein, is a church kid himself and is now a principal at a Christian school, so is intimately aware of the issues at stake.

I have an avid interest in the Second World War. I am of the generation whose grandfathers fought in the war and I have always been proud of the contributions made by members of my family. My maternal grandfather, Lawrence Belford, wished to fly bombers but was not permitted because of poor eyesight. Still, he served the Royal Canadian Air Force as a member of the ground crew, loading bombs into Lancaster bombers. He would often recount his memories of the war and at one point I even conducted an interview with him. My grandmother’s brother, Harold, was a Spitfire pilot who lost his life in a mission over the Mediterranean. My paternal grandfather, George Challies, whom I never met, was a Lieutenant Colonel and I am unsure of his contribution, though I believe he commanded an artillery training centre in Quebec. When I was in college I majored in history (my minor was in euchre) and took every possible course that centered around the war years.