Coram Deo ~

Looking at contemporary culture from a Christian worldview


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9 New and Upcoming Books You Might Be Interested In

I enjoy books in a variety of genres, and from time to time like to notify you of new and upcoming books that you might be interested in. So here are  9 new and upcoming books for you to consider:

Hints of Hope: Essays on Making Peace with the Proximate by Steven Garber

Steven Garber, author of Visions of Vocation: Common Grace for the Common Good, was the speaker at my Covenant Theological Seminary graduation in 2014.
From the Amazon description:
“Through eight lyrical and reflective essays, one of today’s most thoughtful spiritual writers Steven Garber explores the idea of the “proximate”―a word from the Latin “proximatus,” to draw near. Garber invites us to draw near to the deepest realities of life and to see with greater clarity and compassion―recognizing what is true, right, and beautiful in the world, even as we see the suffering all around us.
Hints of Hope probes what it means to be human; to wrestle with the contradictions we all face in our marriages, in our workplaces, in our friendships and vocations. We all experience beauty and brokenness, wonder and despair, joy and sorrow. We live with disappointment and grief and pain . . . wanting more, expecting more, but never being completely fulfilled. Paradoxically, as we make peace with the proximate, our vision is expanded to see more clearly the glimmers of beauty and grace that thread their way through our lives. Garber suggests that those hints of hope are enough in this frail world of ours, “a world stretched taut between what is and what someday will be.”
Written in memoir form, Hints of Hope weaves together decades of Garber’s travels, teaching, and personal musings to offer a tapestry of wisdom on vocation, culture, faith, and hope. Readers of Wendell Berry, Parker Palmer, Marilyn McEntyre, Philip Yancey, and Frederick Buechner will find a rich, soul-nourishing feast within these pages.” Continue reading


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Six New Resources for Your 2026 Devotional Reading

There are many excellent resources for you to choose for your devotional reading. For example, here is an article I wrote sharing several resources for use in 2025. I would now like to highlight six new devotional books (published in 2024 and 2025) that you may want to consider for your 2026 devotional reading:

  1. The Sing! Hymnal – Keith Getty and Kristyn Getty

This hymnal was released at the 2025 Sing! Getty Music Worship Conference. The hymnal includes 498 classic and contemporary hymns carefully curated and beautifully presented in a treasured resource you can carry with you through life. There are also 403 liturgical readings, psalms paired with popular hymns, and stories about each hymn. This resource is perfect for church services and group gatherings, as well as private and family worship. My wife Tammy and I have been using the hymnal as a part of our devotional reading, with Tammy often singing the hymn for us! Continue reading

Book Reviews


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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

Recapturing the Glory of Christmas: A 25-Day Advent Devotional by Albert Mohler. B&H Books. 162 pages. 2024
****

In this Advent devotional, Albert Mohler tells us that Christmas means worship and adoration. He intends this devotional as a call to worship and praise. In each of the twenty-five devotions leading up to Christmas, Mohler mines the depths of the Bible and its teachings about Advent and Christmas. He dwells on all the theological riches God has gifted to his people through Christmas.
Each daily reading begins with a verse or short passage from Scripture followed by a devotion that you can read in five or six minutes that will help you recapture the glory of Christmas. This is a wonderful resource to read either individually or with your family.
Here are some of my favorite quotes from the book:

Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:
BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review and a review of Let Earth Receive Her King: Daily Readings for Advent by Alistair Begg
BOOK NEWS ~ Links to Interesting Articles
BOOK CLUB ~ Tim Keller on the Christian Life: The Transforming Power of the Gospel by Matt Smethurst
I’M CURRENTLY READING…. Continue reading


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25 More of My Favorite Quotes from Paul Tripp’s Everyday Gospel

25 More of My Favorite Quotes from Paul Tripp’s Everyday Gospel: A Daily Devotional Connecting Scripture to All of Life

Over the past year, I used Paul Tripp’s Everyday Gospel as a part of my devotional reading. In the book, Tripp takes us through the entire Bible over 365 days. Beginning in Genesis, each day has a few chapters assigned to read, and Tripp then writes a devotion to go along with those chapters. I chose to use the free ESV Bible App to listen to these chapters as I did my daily walks of our neighborhood.

I found this book to be a valuable resource to assist me as I read through the entire Bible in a year, and highly recommend it to you.

I previously shared 25 of my favorite quotes from the book. Be encouraged by these 25 more quotes from Everyday Gospel:

  • Our standing before God is based not on our righteousness but on the perfect righteousness of Jesus.
  • Our hope in life and death rests on our Savior’s faithfulness, not our own.
  • In the darkness of the days we live in, do not panic. Our Lord is on his throne in power and glory, and he will win.
  • Once God has chosen you as his own, you cannot outrun his grace.
  • As a wise Father, God always knows what is best for his children. His plans are always best. His way is always right. We will never know more than he knows or be wiser than he is.
  • The power of prayer is not in the beauty of my language or in my track record of righteousness, but in the character of the one to whom I pray.
  • You may not always see God’s hand, but you can rest assured that your Lord never ceases working for your good and his glory.
  • Prayer is not about bringing your list of wants or perceived needs to God and asking him to sign off. No, prayer is surrendering all your wants and desires to the perfect plan and will of your heavenly Father.
  • The theology that you actually believe is always exhibited by the way you live. For too many of us, a disconcerting gap lies between what we say we believe and the way we live.
  • You will walk through dark valleys, but your identity and future are secured by the fact that the steadfast love of the Lord endures forever. May this shape the way you think about your life as a child of grace.
  • Contentment depends not on your situation but on the heart that you bring to each situation.
  • Joy in labor is possible only when you are thankful that God has provided you with a job and the ability to work.
  • Although we face hardship, disappointment, and suffering, our lives are built on Jesus the sure foundation. We have a security that can never be shaken.
  • In his greatness, God has more than enough power to meet you in your weakness and to empower you to be what he has redeemed you to be and to do what he has redeemed you to do.
  • If you forget or minimize the extent to which Jesus had to suffer in order to deal with your sin, then you will forget or minimize the gravity of your sin.
  • The Sabbath is for us. It gives us regular times of rest without feeling guilty that we are not being productive. It calls us out of the distracting clamor of our daily lives into worship, reminding us that our identity, meaning, purpose, and hope are found in the Lord alone.
  • God will crush evil and restore and purify his people. Evil will not win. Renewal is on the way. There’s reason for hope.
  • It is important to remember that God’s grace never calls wrong right. Grace reminds us of sin’s consequences and then offers us forgiveness and the power to say no.
  • An idol of the heart is anything other than God that you allow to rule your heart.
  • On the cross of Jesus Christ, God’s anger with sin and his grace toward the sinner embrace. There we find everything we need to finally be what we were created to be and to live as God designed us to live.
  • Hope is found in only one place: the power of our Lord to bring dry bones together again and breathe life into them. Our God has the power to bring life out of what is dead.
  • As you look at broken things in your life, remember that your Lord is the Lord of fresh starts and new beginnings. Because of his grace, what seems irreparably damaged can be restored and live anew.
  • The life of faith is about standing at the intersection of brokenness and longing, not questioning God’s presence, power, or goodness, but continuing to trust and obey, assured that he still rules and is marching his world toward the fullness of all he has promised.
  • God makes it clear in his word that, for our good and his glory, he will lead us through the unexpected, the unwanted, and the difficult.
  • When I root my identity in the eternal grace and love of God rather than in an ever-changing world, temporary situations, relationships, or achievements, I can live with peace and security of heart, no matter how my circumstances might change.


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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS


Everyday Gospel: A Daily Devotional Connecting Scripture to All of Life by Paul Tripp. Crossway. 489 pages. 2024
****

Over the past year, I’ve been using Paul Tripp’s Everyday Gospel as a part of my daily devotional reading. While I’ve enjoyed many devotional books in the past, including several of Paul Tripp’s, this one is different. With Everyday Gospel, Tripp takes us through the entire Bible over 365 days.
Beginning in Genesis, each day has a few chapters assigned to read, and Tripp then writes a devotion to go along with those chapters. I chose to use the free ESV Bible App to listen to these chapters as I did my daily walks of our neighborhood. I found this book to be a valuable resource to assist you as you read through the entire Bible in a year, and highly recommend it to you.
Here are 25 helpful quotes from the book:

Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:
BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review…
BOOK NEWS ~ Links to Interesting Articles
BOOK CLUB ~ Tim Keller on the Christian Life: The Transforming Power of the Gospel by Matt Smethurst
I’M CURRENTLY READING…. Continue reading


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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

Book Reviews

The Sing Hymnal – Keith Getty, Kristyn Getty, John Martin, Dan Kreider and Douglas Sean O’Donnell. Crossway. 912 pages. 2025
****

Aren’t hymnals a thing of the past? In our church, although we still have hymnals under the chairs, for several years now, the lyrics to the hymns we sing are projected on a screen. I wonder if that is the norm for churches these days. After all, how many people can actually read music? (I can’t).
Keith and Kristyn Getty would disagree that hymnals are a thing of the past. They recently released The Sing! Hymnal at their 2025 Sing! Getty Music Worship Conference.  Here are a few of the highlights of the project, published by Crossway:

Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:
BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review…
BOOK NEWS ~ Links to Interesting Articles
BOOK CLUB ~ Tim Keller on the Christian Life: The Transforming Power of the Gospel by Matt Smethurst
I’M CURRENTLY READING…. Continue reading


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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

The Man on the Middle Cross: Are You Going to Heaven? by Alistair Begg. 10Publishing. 32 pages. 2025
****

In this short book, Alistair Begg shares three powerful stories. Each one records a conversation that alters the course of a life. These encounters are all found in the Bible.
The first story comes from John 4: 3-30; 39–42. This is the story of the Samaritan woman’s encounter with Jesus at the well. Carefully, Jesus points to the woman’s need for personal forgiveness and for salvation. A true encounter with God and real transformation always begin here.
Begg writes that the standard picture in our culture is that God is playing hide-and-seek and doesn’t want to be found. But the account we have in the Bible is the reverse of that. We are the ones who have gone into hiding. Jesus comes looking for each one of us – not to condemn us but to offer us living water, the fulfillment that each of us longs for.
Note: Please be sure to watch this 4 minute video.

Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:
BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review and a review of Truths We Confess: A Systematic Exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith (Revised Edition) by R.C. Sproul
BOOK NEWS ~ Links to Interesting Articles
BOOK CLUB ~ Truths We Confess by  R.C. Sproul
I’M CURRENTLY READING…. Continue reading


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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS


How Should I Approach Suffering? by R.C. Sproul. Ligonier Ministries. 87 pages. 2025
*** ½

The Crucial Questions booklets by R.C. Sproul provide a quick introduction to definitive Christian truths. These booklets are adapted from previous writings and teachings by Sproul. All of the Crucial Questions booklets are free in the Kindle edition, and available for a small amount in the print edition. You can see all of the ebooks in the series here.
Sproul tells us that suffering is one of the most significant challenges to any believer’s faith. He tells us that the promise of God is that He will never put more on us than we can bear. What is difficult to bear without Christ is made far more bearable with Christ.
Scripture admonishes us not to think that it is a strange or unusual thing that we should suffer. Our suffering has a purpose. For the Christian, suffering is never an exercise in futility.

Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:
BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review…
BOOK NEWS ~ Links to Interesting Articles
BOOK CLUB ~ Truths We Confess by  R.C. Sproul
I’M CURRENTLY READING…. Continue reading


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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

BOOK REVIEW:
Together We Roared: Alongside Tiger for His Epic Twelve-Year, Thirteen-Majors Run by Steve Williams and Evin Priest
***

Evin Priest and Steve Williams began to relive Williams’ time caddying for Tiger Woods on a podcast during the pandemic called Chasing Majors. They had so much fun revisiting their success, major championship by major championship, that they decided a book was the only medium that could deliver the richness and depth it deserved. This book, written in the third person, takes readers inside the room, and on the green, with Woods and Williams with “fly-on-the-wall” detail.
Williams served as Woods’ caddy for twelve and a half seasons. During that time Woods won thirteen major championships. The book takes you through each season in general, and each major championship they worked together in detail, from 1999 until their split in 2011. This includes some of Woods’ most famous shots including his “shot in the dark” and his chip-in on hole 16 in the Masters.

Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:
BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review…
BOOK NEWS ~ Links to Interesting Articles
BOOK CLUB ~ Truths We Confess by R.C. Sproul
I’M CURRENTLY READING…. Continue reading


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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

Spurgeon: A Life by Alex DiPrima. Reformation Heritage Books. 312 pages. 2024
****

I’ve read a number of biographies of the great English preacher Charles Spurgeon. I would count this new book among the best of them.
The author tells us that Spurgeon accepted a call to pastor one of the most historic churches in the middle of London, what at that time was the largest city in the world, at age nineteen. He had never gone to college and had received no formal seminary training. He would minister in London for thirty-eight years as the pastor of the largest Protestant church in in the world until his death in 1892.
The author shares some amazing facts about Spurgeon, such as:

  • Spurgeon was estimated to have preached to over ten million people.
  • He helped to start nearly two hundred new churches in Britain alone.
  • By his death in 1892, over 20 percent of all Baptist ministers serving in England and Wales had been trained by Spurgeon.

Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:
BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review…
BOOK NEWS ~ Links to Interesting Articles
BOOK CLUB ~ Truths We Confess by  R.C. Sproul
I’M CURRENTLY READING…. Continue reading