It’s that time again. I get a lot (a lot!) of books in the mail. I don’t have time to review them all, but once in a while I like to let you know about some that may be of particular interest to you. Here they are.
These are the books I introduce:
- Moses and the Burning Bush by RC Sproul
- Gender: A Conversation Guide for Parents and Pastors by Brian Seagraves and Hunter Leavine
- Time Out!: The gift or god of Youth Sports by John Perritt
- Enjoying God by Tim Chester
- ESV Story of Redemption Bible published by Crossway
- Advance! by Tim Challies
- Set an Example by Tim Challies
- Character of a Christian By Tim Challies
- The Commandment We Forgot by Tim Challies
- Aging Gracefully by Tim Challies
Transcript
As you know, I get books. I get lots and lots of books. Today, I want to tell you about just a few of them that may be of special interest to you that have come our way in just the last few weeks. Hang tight, I’ll tell you about them in a minute.
Here’s some of the new and notable books that have come our way over the last few weeks. We’ll start with Moses and the Burning Bush by R.C.Sproul. R.C, of course, has gone to be with the Lord, but there’s still, I think, lots of material that he’s written, that he’s prepared through his life that’s still going to be coming our way over the next little while. This is a book about Moses and the burning bush, really a book about holiness. How can an unholy people stand before a holy God? No one better to read on that subject than R.C.Sproul.
Moving on, we’ve got a book called Gender: A Conversation Guide for Parents and Pastors. You probably know, it used to be pretty simple to talk about gender. Maybe we made it too simple, who knows. Here’s a guide that’s meant to help parents and pastors deal with new realities, conversations going on within the church and outside the church, to properly prepare your children to live in a world like this one. A very valuable conversation to have.
Speaking of kids, of youth, Time Out! The Gift or God of Youth Sports, by John Perritt. I think we all know that youth sports can have this position of way too much prominence in the lives of our children, in the lives of ourselves. So, here’s what this one says. Sport is one of the many evidences of a gracious God, so true, it can unite people, sharing together in the enjoyment it brings, but, it brings a challenge of proper stewardship under God, especially when it involves young people. So, this would be a good one for parents to read, again for pastors to read, to help people think well about whether youth sports is being treated as a gift or if it’s been elevated to the status of god.
From Tim Chester, Enjoying God. We know God, we know about God, do we truly enjoy God? Are we enjoying Him as He is? Are we enjoying our relationship with Him? This book is meant to help you, make sure you’re genuinely, truly enjoying Him.
I’ve got a new Bible to tell you about. This is the Story of Redemption Bible (ESV) from Crossway. The Bible is a big story, right, a big narrative. It tells the story of what God is doing in this world. This Bible is meant to help tell that story. It has, I believe, 900 notes written by Greg Gilbert that lead you through the story of Scripture. So, it’s kind of like a guided tour of the Bible. As you read, it’s also got, I think, about 80 or 100 illustrations by Peter Voth, who’s a remarkably talented illustrator. So, here’s a Bible that may be good for you to start in your devotions next year, to read through the story of what God is doing and has done in history.
Then we’ve got these. Here’s something new. These are called Devotional Dippers, there’s one here about God, one here about prayer. Let me show you how they work. You just pop this open, and inside you’ve got these little cards, these little chips. And you pull them out, this is a blank one. You pull them out, and they have prayers, so, the Lord’s prayer, give us today our daily bread, read Matthew 6, 9 to 13. Something to think about, something to pray about. So, the idea with these is, you leave them on the table, you leave them where you’re going to be as a family. You pull them out, they help guide you and do just little mini devotions that you can do together.
There’s some new and notable books. I also want to tell you about just a few of my own work that has come out recently, in case that’s of interest to you. Here are five booklets, each one on a different topic, each one meant to be read as individuals, or as a group. So, there’s Advance! and there’s Set an Example. Both of these are for young people, especially young adults. Ideal for group study. The Character of the Christian is looking at the qualifications of an elder, and showing how those in some way apply to every Christian. The Commandment We Forgot is for adults who are attempting to live well before their parents, who are trying to be good children of elderly parents. And then Aging Gracefully, that’s one I wrote after I turned 40, thinking about the years to come, hopefully, helpful for all of us as we grow older, something that’s inevitable for each one of us.
So, I hope some of these books are of interest to you. I’ll try to come back in about a month to show some new and notable books for next month.
