Welcome to another edition of 3 Minute Thursdays. You know how it works—we put three minutes on the clock and in that short period of time, I will look at some of the books I’m most excited about that are coming our way, or have come our way in the month of January.
The list:
- The Prayer that Turns the World Upside Down by Albert Mohler
- Graciousness by John Crotts
- Bible Matters by Tim Chester
- Supernatural Power for Everyday People by Jared Wilson
- Favor by Greg Gilbert
- Women and God by Kathleen Nielson
- The New Calvinism by Various
- Set an Example, The Character of the Christian, The Commandment We Forgot by me
Transcript
Welcome to another edition of 3 Minute Thursdays. You know how it works, we put three minutes on the clock and in that short period of time, I try to bring something interesting to people like you. Today, we’re going to look at some of the books I’m most excited about that are coming our way, or have come our way in the month of January.
Today, we’re talking about books. New and notable books that have come our way, or will come our way in the month of January. So we’ll get three minutes on the clock, and we’ll get to it.
First up, we’ve got The Prayer that Turns the World Upside Down by Albert Mohler. This is a book about prayer, obviously. It’s specifically about the Lord’s prayer. I’ve read, I think, every book that Dr Mohler’s written so far, I’ve enjoyed every one, and from what I’ve seen, this book is going to be very helpful, diving into why the Lord’s prayer is such an important model prayer. It always strikes me how short that prayer is. You hear Christians pray on a Sunday morning, you realize we could probably learn from Jesus. Learn how to pray shorter and better.
Next up we’ve got Graciousness by John Crotts. This book came out at the G3 conference. John was kind enough to give me a copy. This one is about speaking truth in love. In other words, it’s the kind of book we really need here in the digital era. Here’s what it says: “In Graciousness, the author addresses Christians who are zealous for God’s truth, yet struggle to communicate it graciously in a loving way”. I know I need books like this, I’m online a lot, you probably do too.
We’ll keep moving. We’ve got Bible Matters by Tim Chester. This little stain is my fault, I don’t know what happened there, anyway. We’ve got lots of books like this, making sense of scripture. There’s lots in this kind of marketplace. I like this one. I like the way he deals with the topic, and really we need these books again and again because people who’ve read them need to read them again. People who’ve just come to Christ need to establish a theology of scripture, understand how important it is, understand how authoritative it is, how sufficient it is, and so on. So, he deals with it well, he’s also got a very significant study guide at the end for individuals or groups.
Carrying on, we’ve got Supernatural Power for Everyday People by Jared Wilson. If you know Jared Wilson, he’s a very talented writer and I suspect what he’s trying to do in this book, is to give it a title that may just grab people who don’t typically get this kind of book. He’s talking about the Holy Spirit, about the power that is ours, through the Holy Spirit. So, it may not be exactly the book it sounds like, but I think that’s kind of the point of it. If you have to know, he says in here, near the end, that he’s a charismatic, no wait, he’s a non-charismatic, continuationist Christian. So there you go. I’m tipping the cards a little bit there.
I think Greg Gilbert might be doing roughly the same there here, in using a word that’s maybe associated with not great theology, and trying to draw people in so they can read something very, very good. Listen to this: “Many Christians are under the mistaken impression that while God’s grace may be a gift, His favor is something we must earn”. He does battle with that and shows it’s all, all with grace.
And then finally from Kathleen Nielson. This one published by the Good Book Company, Women & God: Hard Questions, Beautiful Truth. So, what she’s doing in this book is trying to take on some of those difficult questions about women, about their place, their position, about how the Bible treats them, about how Christians are to think of women. So, very good. Is God sexist? That’s the question right on the back. You know how she was going to answer, but it’s how she gets there that’s so important.
There are six books. I’m going to indulge myself in just a little bit more here because there’s a couple of books that have just come out that I’ve been involved with I’d like to tell you about. I’ll go to the back first.
The New Calvinism, this one came out at the G3 conference. I contributed a chapter, as did Paul Washer, Steve Lawson, Conrad Mbewe and Josh Byers. It’s about the new Calvinism, where it came from, where it’s going, some of its strengths and weaknesses. I think you might find that one helpful.
And then, with Cruciform Press, I’ve been taking some of my existing content and making little booklets out of it. We’ve got Set an Example, that’s for younger people. We’ve got The Character of the Christian, that’s for everybody. And we’ve got The Commandment We Forgot, which is a book about the fifth commandment, how it pertains to adults. These are available now, and most of them have study guides to go along with them. I hope you find them helpful.
Anyways, that’s just a few of the new books we’ve got coming this month. I’ll be back next month with another wrap.
