My Heart Cries Out: Gospel Meditations for Everyday Life by Paul Tripp. Crossway. 256 pages. 2019
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After reading a few other devotional books by Paul Tripp (New Morning Mercies: A Daily Gospel Devotional, Come, Let Us Adore Him: A Daily Advent Devotional, and A Shelter in the Time of Storm: Meditations on God and Trouble), I looked forward to reading his latest book of devotional readings. This book includes 120 meditations written in the form of poetry, accompanied by beautiful photography by Tim Kellner. For the book, Kellner traveled to ten countries and five continents. The photography selections are meant to reflect the content and themes contained within the poetry. After each meditation, there is a related Bible verse, questions and a Bible passage for further study and encouragement on the subject matter of the meditation.
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BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review…
BOOK NEWS ~ Links to Interesting Articles
BOOK CLUB ~ Providence by John Piper
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The author tells us that the meditations are notes from his journey through the struggle of God’s amazing grace. They are his meditations on the intersection between God’s ever-present grace and his ever-present battle to live out of the resources of that grace while he walks his way through this sadly broken and dysfunctional world. He tells us that in each of our lives grace is both a glory and a struggle. These are his honest meditations on that struggle. They are his spontaneous responses to his journey through glory and struggle.
Below are ten of my favorite passages from the book, which my wife and I used for our daily devotional reading:
- It’s first about you— your righteousness, your wisdom, your power, your authority, your grace—and how you have unleashed all of them for my forgiveness, my rescue, my redemption. My life is no longer about me; it is first and foremost about you.
- Hard moments in your hands become hard moments of amazing grace.
- You turn hardship into rescue. You turn suffering into redemption.
- Out of trials you bring transformation. Out of weakness you grow strength. Out of death you birth life. Out of darkness you bring light.
- You are my God, my Savior, my hope, my life, my forgiveness, my wisdom, my strength, my righteousness, my peace, my Father, my brother, and my friend. Because you are, I am what I am.
- When I am in trouble, in boundless love you trouble me with your grace until I confess my trouble and run once again to you for mercy.
- All that I am, wherever I am, whatever the time, will be used in service of you. This is my calling; this is your will.
- Please restore the eyes of my heart. Graciously make the days that I have left to be days of beauty because my heart is filled with visions of you.
- It is only when I abandon my righteousness, that I will rest in your righteousness.
- Moved by your glory, propelled by your love, sent by your grace, driven to redeem, you came!
- Escaping the Fog of Triviality. The doctrine of God’s providence is the theme of John Piper’s new book Providence (which we are reading on the blog). On the Ask Pastor John podcast, he is celebrating the real-life impact of providence on us. There are a total of ten implications. On this episode, he addresses implication number four.
- The Surprising Good News About Fearing the Lord. Read the first chapter from Michael Reeves new book What Does It Mean to Fear the Lord?
- Yours, Till Heaven: New Book by SBTS Alum Delves into the Romance of Charles and Susie Spurgeon. Jeff Robinson interviews Ray Rhodes Jr. about his new book Yours, Till Heaven: The Untold Love Story of Charles and Susie Spurgeon. Read my review of the book here.
- A Conversation with Dane Ortlund about Gentle and Lowly. On this episode of the Signposts podcast, Russell Moore visits with Dane Ortlund about his wonderful book Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers, which was my favorite book of 2020. Read my review of the book here.
- Life and Books and Everything: Stephen Nichols on R.C. Sproul. On this episode of the Life and Books and Everything podcast, Kevin DeYoung, Collin Hansen and Justin Taylor visit with Stephen Nichols about his new book C. Sproul: A Life, which I’m looking forward to reading.
BOOK CLUB – Won’t you read along with us?
Providence BOOK CLUB
The providence of God is his purposeful sovereignty by which he will be completely successful in the achievement of his ultimate goal for the universe. God’s providence carries his plans into action, guides all things toward his ultimate goal, and leads to the final consummation.
John Piper draws on a lifetime of theological reflection, biblical study, and practical ministry to lead readers on a stunning tour of the sightings of God’s providence—from Genesis to Revelation—to discover the all-encompassing reality of God’s purposeful sovereignty over all of creation and all of history.
Exploring the goal, nature, and extent of God’s purposes for the world, Piper offers an invitation to know the God who holds all things in his hands yet remains intimately involved in the lives of his people.
Watch this six-minute video as John Piper talks about the book.
This week we look at Chapter 1: What is Divine Providence? Here are a few takeaways from the chapter:
- The reason this book is about the providence of God rather than the sovereignty of God is that the term sovereignty does not contain the idea of purposeful action, but the term providence does.
- The focus of this book is on God’s sovereignty considered not simply as powerful but as purposeful. Historically, the term providence has been used as shorthand for this more specific focus.
- That would be what we mean by God’s providence: he sees to it that things happen in a certain way.
- There is a profound theological reason why God’s providence does not merely mean his seeing, but rather his seeing to. When God sees something, he sees to it.
