I am in the happy position of receiving endless numbers of Christian books. Every month or so I try to sort through them to identify the new titles that seem most noteworthy and, therefore, may be of most interest to readers like you. Here is the selection for May 2021, including the publishers’ descriptions. Gun Lap: Staying in the Race with Purpose by Robert Wolgemuth. “You may think you’re too old to run fast, but you’re not too old to …

I’ll be honest with you: April 2021 was probably not the most significant month for new and notable releases of Christian books. I did not have as many as usual show up in my mailbox and did not have to work as hard as usual to narrow down the list. However, we were still blessed with some significant titles and I’ve done my best to list many of them here. Thus, with no further ado, here are my picks for …

I have mentioned a number of times that one key element of worship at Grace Fellowship Church is the Call to Worship. This call sometimes involves reading a passage of scripture, but other times combines several texts into a responsive or back-and-forth format. Here’s an example that might bless you this morning as you prepare to worship. It calls God’s people to reflect on his goodness, his greatness, his power, and his love. (In other words, it calls us to …

The time has come for another roundup of some of the new and notable books that have come my way in the past month. Unfortunately I dawdled just a little so this has fallen from the last days of February to the first days of March. Regardless, here are some of the books that caught my attention in February. For each of them I have included the publisher’s description. Both–And: Understanding Apparent Contradictions in Christianity by Ross Cunningham. “One of …

With a new year comes lots of new books. And it’s not just new books but new commentaries as well. Lots of them have landed on my doorstep in the past few weeks and here are my picks for the new and notable books and commentaries from January 2021. In each case I’ve included the publisher’s description, just to give you a taste of what it’s about. Rejoice and Tremble: The Surprising Good News of the Fear of the Lord …

In general, there are two approaches to daily Bible-reading: reading for intimacy or reading for familiarity. Intimacy with the Bible comes through slow, meditative reading that focuses on small portions—deep study of key books, chapters, and verses. Familiarity with the Bible comes through faster reading of much larger portions—the entire sweep of the biblical narrative. Both are fine approaches to the Bible and Christians thrive on a healthy mixture of the two. There is great benefit in knowing the Bible …

Over the past couple of weeks the blogs and sites I read have been humming with list after list of the top books of 2020. It seems that just about every avid reader I follow is eager to share his or her picks for the year that was. I love these lists and especially love comparing them to see which books become the consensus favorites. With that in mind, and based on perhaps 20 or 25 such lists, I analyzed …