Welcome to another edition of Three-Minute Thursdays. Every year I get literally hundreds of books in the mail—one of the perks of being a book reviewer. From time to time I take the big stack and turn it into a little stack, so I can tell you about some of the new and notable books that I think will be interesting to people like you. And that leads to a short video like this one:
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The books featured in this episode are: Watchfulness by Brian Hedges; Christianity Considered by John Frame; Christ from Beginning to End by Trent Hunter and Stephen Wellum; Zephaniah, Haggai, Malachi Reformed Expository Commentary by Iain Duguid and Matthew Harmon; The Gospel According to God by John MacArthur; and God’s Timeline by Linda Finlayson.
Transcript
Welcome to another edition of 3-Minute Thursdays. Here’s my challenge: In three minutes or less, I’ve got to say something useful, that may be even helpful, possibly even interesting to people like you. So let’s roll the intro and we’ll get to it.
In this edition of 3-Minute Thursdays, I’m going to introduce you to some new books, some of the new Christian books that have come our way over the past month or two. I’m going to give them about 30 seconds each. So, we’ll get three minutes on the clock, and we’ll go.
First up, from Brian Hedges, we’ve got a book called Watchfulness. This is interesting, Christians used to place a lot of emphasis on this discipline, this spiritual discipline of watchfulness. In recent days that’s very much declined. The word itself has become unusual. So he’s drawing heavily on the Puritans, there’s a reason it’s published by Reformation Heritage Books, to bring back this lost discipline of watchfulness.
Next up, from John Frame, we’ve got Christianity Considered. Now, one thing I think we’re always looking for as Christians is books that we could hand to a skeptic, to somebody who’s interested in the Christian faith, and say, well read this, or let’s read this together and we’ll talk about it. This is that kind of a book. It says here, “Anyone who wants to understand the world as it is today also has to understand Christianity.” So there’s the challenge for John Frame: Introduce people to the Christian faith, to why it’s so key to our society, so key to understanding the world, and perhaps even help them understand why they ought to become Christians themselves.
Christ from Beginning to End, by Trent Hunter and Stephen Wellum. Now this is hardly a novel topic today, to introduce how the Bible revolves around Jesus Christ, how so many of the major characters in the Bible are pointing to Jesus Christ, how he’s the major theme of the Bible, yet it is so important, it is so key that we can’t overdo it. So here’s another introduction to how Christ is central in the scripture. The sub-title says it, “How the full story of scripture reveals the full glory of Christ.”
Next up, we’ve got the next edition in the Reformed Expository Commentary set. I love this set and it’s very good when I’m preparing sermons or writing articles. It’s also very good to read devotionally. So this one is co-authored by Iain Duguid, is that how you pronounce it, and Matthew Harmon. It covers Zephaniah, Haggai, and Malachi. A great series, a growing series, it’s got to be getting close to being complete. I highly recommend the series, highly recommend the newest volume.
New from John MacArthur, we’ve got The Gospel According to God. Of course, it’s John MacArthur, so you know roughly what you’re going to get. You’re going to get verse by verse exposition. In this case, it’s verse by verse exposition of Isaiah chapter 53, that famous chapter, that beautiful chapter, that key chapter. He exposits it carefully, faithfully and of course according to scripture. So, one to add to your collection, I’m sure.
Finally, we’ve got this book, which I’m really, really enjoying called God’s Timeline: The Big Book of Church History. Now, I don’t know if you can see this wall behind me? I’ve got this giant timeline going on, that Aileen and I are building, as I do this around the world trip this year. Just trying to understand the ebb and flow of church history, how different people and characters line up. This book does much of that as well. A very, very good book, well illustrated, well put together and a unique contribution to the Christian world. So, thanks to Linda Finlayson and thanks to Christian Focus for putting this one together.
There you have it, six new books. I hope at least a couple of them are of interest to you.