Coram Deo ~

Looking at contemporary culture from a Christian worldview


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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS


To Seek and to Save: Daily Reflections on the Road to the Cross by Sinclair Ferguson. The Good Book Company. 162 pages. 2020 
****

This book, by one of our most respected theologians, will remind readers of his excellent 2018 Advent devotional Love Came Down at Christmas: Daily Readings for Advent. In that book, the author took readers through 1 Corinthians 13. In this new book, he takes us through Luke’s Gospel, beginning with chapter 9, verse 51, in which Luke records all the events in Jesus’ life in the form of a journey to Jerusalem. This travelogue eventually brings us to Calvary and to the empty tomb. In his travelogue, Luke describes Jesus’ encounters with a wide variety of individuals and groups of people. The author tells us that there was something they all had in common: they were either drawn to him in their need, or repelled from him by their pride. No one was neutral.
In this series of short reflections for Lent, the author lets us listen in on most of these conversations. Each encounter will build up a picture of the journey’s real purpose; for, as he tells one man he meets along the way, Jesus is “the Son of Man [who] came to seek and to save the lost” (19:10). The key issues for all of those who encounter Jesus in Luke’s Gospel are these:

  • Do they know why he is on the road in the first place?
  • Will they follow him as his disciple?

The author tells us that this Lent, Jesus asks those same questions of us.
These readings will fit nicely in with your daily devotional readings. They will be equally helpful in preparing your heart for the suffering, death and resurrection of Jesus, or really at any other time. If you choose to use it for the former, you will start the readings on “Ash Wednesday”, which falls on February 26 in 2020. After each reading is a “Reflect” section with questions, and a time to “Respond” to what you have read.
I recommend this book for your personal or family devotional reading.

Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:

BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review… and reviews of
~ The Seamless Life: A Tapestry of Love & Learning, Worship and Work by Steven Garber
~ The Missionary Fellowship of William Carey by Michael A.G. Haykin
BOOK NEWS ~ Links to Interesting Articles
BOOK CLUB ~ The Gospel According to Jesus by John MacArthur
I’M CURRENTLY READING….

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New and Upcoming Music I’m Excited About….and You May Be Too

As we settle into 2020, there are a number of new and upcoming albums, in a variety of genres, that I’m excited about, and you may be as well. Let’s get started….

Let There Be Wonder – Matt Redman

Let There Be Wonder is worship leader, singer/songwriter Matt Redman’s fourteenth album, and first since 2017’s Glory Song. Redman has given us worship classics like “10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)” “The Heart of Worship” and “Blessed Be Your Name”. The new album was produced by Jacob Sooter and Joshua Silverberg, and was recorded live in front of more than 1,000 people at a California church. Redman wrote all of the songs with a variety of collaborators. This is the first really good album that I’ve heard of 2020, and is sure to make it onto my “Favorites” list for the year.

Click on ‘Continue Reading’ to find more new tunes.  Enjoy! Continue reading


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My Review of JOKER

Joker, rated R
**  (2 out of 4 stars)

My wife Tammy and I have been watching Oscar nominated “Best Motion Picture” films that we had not already seen. We have watched The Irishman, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Marriage Story, Parasite, and most recently Joker, which received eleven Oscar nominations, the most of any film this year.
Joker is a very disturbing film about the beginnings of the character that will become an enemy of Batman. The film is superbly acted by four-time Oscar nominee Joaquin Phoenix, who has received a “Best Actor” nomination for his role as Arthur Fleck. But the film has significant content issues, including adult language and violence, and thus is hard to recommend.
The film is directed by four-time Oscar nominee Tom Phillips (Joker, Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan). It is written by Phillips and two-time Oscar nominee Scott Silver (Joker, The Fighter). The film, which had a budget of approximately $55 million, has grossed more than $335 million in the U.S., and more than $1 billion worldwide. It is the first “R”-rated film to gross a billion dollars. Continue reading


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My Review of PARASITE

Parasite, rated R (subtitled)
***

My wife Tammy and I have been watching Oscar nominated “Best Motion Picture” films that we had not already seen. We have watched The Irishman, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Marriage Story, and most recently the subtitled Parasite, which received six Oscar nominations. The film is directed and written by three-time Oscar nominee Bong Joon Ho (Parasite).
When we first meet the working-class Kim family – patriarch, Ki-taek, played by Kang-ho Song, his wife Chung-sook, played by Hye-jin Jang, his attractive young adult daughter, Ki-jung, played by So-dam Park, and his college-age son, Kim Ki-woo, played by Choi Woo-sik they are living in a basement level apartment in the slums of a large South Korean city. Though they are poor, they have cell phones and are trying to use the WIFI from the apartment above them, because they can’t afford their own. Father Ki-taek’s businesses have gone under, and as a result, the family is poor and now make a small amount of money by folding pizza boxes for a local business, but they don’t do that very well. As they fold the boxes, they often see men urinating on the street just outside their apartment.
The family’s fortunes change when Ki-woo’s friend offers to recommend him as an English tutor for Park Da-hye, played by Jung Ziso, the high school sophomore daughter of the affluent Park family. The friend has been tutoring the girl but has to go out of the country for a while. Ki-woo’s friend likes the girl and plans to ask her out when he returns, and doesn’t want anyone he can’t trust tutoring her. Ki-woo isn’t qualified, so he has his sister forge some documents for him. Yeon-kyo (Mrs. Park), played by Jo Yeo-jeong agrees, and Ki-woo, now known as Kevin, begins tutoring Park Da-hye. Of course, they immediately fall for each other.
This leads to my favorite part of the film. Continue reading


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My Review of MARRIAGE STORY

Marriage Story, rated R
***

My wife Tammy and I have been watching the movies which received “Best Film” Oscar nominations which we had not already seen. One of those films was Marriage Story, an interestingly titled film, as it is less about a marriage than it is about a painful divorce. The film received six Oscar nominations, and features outstanding acting performances from Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver. It is also a very difficult film to watch and hard to recommend. The film is directed and written by three-time Oscar nominee Noah Baumbach (Marriage Story, The Squid and the Whale), and is based on Baumbach’s own divorce.
The film tells the story of Charlie, played by two-time Oscar nominee Adam Driver (Marriage Story, BlacKkKlansman), the owner/director of a theatre company in New York, his wife Nicole, played by two-time Oscar nominee Scarlett Johansson (Marriage Story, Jojo Rabbit), who is the star of his plays, and their young son Henry, played by Azhy Robertson. Continue reading