Matthew Bingham’s book A Heart Aflame for God: A Reformed Approach to Spiritual Formation was introduced to our church leadership team by our lead pastor at our annual leadership retreat last fall, who encouraged all of us to read it. It has since become a very influential book in our church, with many reading and discussing it, including our officer candidates. You can read my review of the book here, and I highly commend the book to you.
But what is spiritual formation? Like me, you may have heard the term, but aren’t’ sure exactly what it is. You may have heard about friends getting degrees in spiritual formation from a Bible college or seminary. Bingham helpfully tells us that the term spiritual formation has arisen to describe the biblical process of molding the mind, heart, and life of a Christian into conformity to Christ.
In his book, Bingham introduces what he refers to as the “Reformation Triangle” of scripture, meditation, and prayer which is at the heart of historic Protestant spiritual formation. Taken together, these three can be conceived as a conversation between the believer and God: we hear from God through his word, we reflect on what we’ve heard in meditation, and we then respond to God in prayer. Continue reading
Category Archives: Book Reviews and News
Reformation Triangle of Scripture, Meditation and Prayer, Part 1
Matthew Bingham’s book A Heart Aflame for God: A Reformed Approach to Spiritual Formation was introduced to our church leadership team by our lead pastor at our annual leadership retreat last fall, who encouraged all of us to read it. It has since become a very influential book in our church, with many reading and discussing it, including our officer candidates. You can read my review of the book here, and I highly commend the book to you.
But what is spiritual formation? Like me, you may have heard the term, but aren’t’ sure exactly what it is. You may have heard about friends getting degrees in spiritual formation from a Bible college or seminary. Bingham helpfully tells us that the term spiritual formation has arisen to describe the biblical process of molding the mind, heart, and life of a Christian into conformity to Christ.
In his book, Bingham introduces what he refers to as the “Reformation Triangle” of scripture, meditation, and prayer which is at the heart of historic Protestant spiritual formation. Taken together, these three can be conceived as a conversation between the believer and God: we hear from God through his word, we reflect on what we’ve heard in meditation, and we then respond to God in prayer. Continue reading
BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS
From the Rising of the Sun: A Journey of Worship Around the World by Tim Challies and Tim Keesee. Zondervan. 186 pages. 2025
*** ½
This book by Tim Challies and Tim Keesee reminded me of the excellent Dispatches from the Front documentary films that Keesee made with Frontline Missions that “highlighted the marvelous extent, diversity, and unity of Christ’s Kingdom in our world”. In this book (which has accompanying streaming videos that you can access via a code in the book), Keesee joins Tim Challies on an odyssey that took them from the rising of the sun to its setting, from one side of the earth to the other.
The world is divided into twenty-four time zones. The authors decided to aim for about twelve episodes, or a country in roughly every second time zone. Once they had chosen countries, they began to search for churches within them. They found faithful churches that align with a variety of Protestant traditions. All were bound together by a deep commitment to Scripture and sound doctrine. This book is about their visits to those churches and worship services all around the world.
Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:
BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review…
BOOK NEWS ~ Links to Interesting Articles
BOOK CLUB ~What Is Wrong with the World? The Surprising, Hopeful Answer to the Question We Cannot Avoid by Tim Keller
I’M CURRENTLY READING…. Continue reading
BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS
Go Forward in Love: A Year of Daily Readings from Timothy Keller. Zondervan. 384 pages. 2024
****
Tim Keller was the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, co-founder of The Gospel Coalition and Redeemer City to City, and the author of twenty-four books. He died at the age of 72 in May 2023 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. This book is comprised of short daily readings from his books. I used it as a part of my devotional readings for the past year and would recommend it to you.
Here are 20 helpful quotes from the book:
- Sin is not simply doing bad things; it is putting good things in the place of God.
- Remember this—if you don’t live for Jesus you will live for something else.
- Religion operates on the principle “I obey—therefore I am accepted by God.” But the operating principle of the gospel is “I am accepted by God through what Christ has done—therefore I obey.”
Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:
BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review and a review of The Westminster Shorter Catechism
BOOK NEWS ~ Links to Interesting Articles
BOOK CLUB ~What Is Wrong with the World? The Surprising, Hopeful Answer to the Question We Cannot Avoid by Tim Keller
I’M CURRENTLY READING…. Continue reading
BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS
The Shepherd Leader at Home: Knowing, Leading, Protecting, and Providing for Your Family by Timothy Witmer. Crossway. 167 pages. 2012
*** ½
Timothy Witmer follows up his excellent book The Shepherd Leader, which was focused on the church, with a volume for the shepherd leader at home. He tells us that the purpose of the book is to help families by helping husbands and dads become loving shepherds of their families. The strategy is to apply the biblical shepherding categories of knowing, leading, providing, and protecting to leadership in the home. These shepherding functions represent four of the most fundamental human needs that God meets through those who lead families. Each of the four parts begins with an introduction showing its biblical rationale.
The focus is on all men who are called to lead their families at home. Throughout the book, the author shares many examples to illustrate the points he makes. The book is intentionally practical, personal, and heart-to-heart.
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
BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS
BOOK REVIEW:
A Light on the Hill: The Surprising Story of How a Local Church in the Nation’s Capital Influenced Evangelicalism by Caleb Morell. Crossway. 353 pages. 2025
****
You may not think that the history of a church would make for very interesting reading. However, after reading several positive reviews of the book, I decided to read Caleb Morell’s history of the 150-year-old Capitol Baptist Church (CHBS), which is located just blocks from the U.S Capitol in Washington D.C. My wife Tammy and I have had the pleasure of worshipping at CHBC while in Washington D.C. on a business trip.
Morell did an outstanding job researching the church’s history for this book. I very much enjoyed reading how God has used this church for nearly 150 years.
We are told that this is not the story of an extraordinary church. Rather, it is about God and how he delights to do extraordinary things through ordinary people and ordinary churches. The book looks at the factors and conditions that contribute to gospel faithfulness. The church has stayed centered on the gospel and present in the place God planted it because of the ordinary people who worked, prayed, sowed, and stayed.
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
12 New and Upcoming Books You Might Be Interested In
I enjoy books in a number of genres – theology, biology, faith and work, leadership, Christian living, etc. Here are 12 new and upcoming books that you might be interested in.
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- Biblical Wisdom for Everyday Life: Ethical Answers for Cultural Questions by Daniel Darling
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- Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing: A Liturgy for Daily Worship with the Psalms by Jonathan Gibson
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- Pastoring for Monday: Help Your Congregation Integrate Faith and Work by Matt Rusten
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- The Stories We Live By: How Jesus Critiques and Completes What Our Culture Tells Us by Tim Keller and Michael Keller
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- The American Way of Killing – Malcolm Gladwell
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- Church History for Everyone: The Story of Christianity from the Fall of Jerusalem to the Dawn of the Reformation (Volume 1) by Kevin DeYoung
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- Leading Worship for Workers: How to Design Liturgies for All of Life by Matthew Kaemingk and Kathryn Roelofs
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- The Desecration of Man: How the Rejection of God Degrades Our Humanity by Carl Trueman
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- The Secret: What Great Leaders Know and Do 4th Edition, Revised and Expanded) by Ken Blanchard and Mark Miller
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- How to Get a Return on Failure: Fail Smarter―Return Stronger by John Maxwell
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- Stand in Awe: How Reverence Transforms Our Worship and Our Lives by Laura Story
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- My Story: A Spiritual & Intellectual Autobiography by John C. Lennox
Click on ‘Continue reading’ for more information on these books: Continue reading
25 More Helpful Quotes from Go Forward in Love: A Year of Daily Readings from Timothy Keller
Tim Keller was the founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, co-founder of The Gospel Coalition and Redeemer City to City, and the author of twenty-four books. He died at the age of 72 in May 2023 after a battle with pancreatic cancer. This book is comprised of short daily readings from his books. I used it as a part of my devotional readings for the past year and would recommend it to you.
Here are 25 more helpful quotes from the book:
- Just as God equips Christians for building up the Body of Christ, so he also equips all people with talents and gifts for various kinds of work, for the purpose of building up the human community.
BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS
The Road That Made America: A Modern Pilgrim’s Journey on the Great Wagon Road by James Dodson. Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster. 416 pages. 2025
****
James Dodson is one of my favorite authors, having read several of his books about golf. This is not a subject that I would normally have been interested in, but he is such a good author, I decided to listen to the audiobook version, which was reads by the author. And, I’m very glad that I did.
Dodson tells us that the Great Wagon Road is probably the least known historic road in America. The Great Wagon Road, which his father (“Opti”), first mentioned to Dodson in 1966, was the primary road of frontier America. It was a mass migration route that stretched more than eight hundred miles from Philadelphia to Augusta, Georgia. This was the road that Dodson’s German ancestors traveled. The author takes us in “the Pearl”, his 1994 Buick Roadmaster Estate station wagon, along with his faithful dog Mulligan, on this nearly five-year (COVID interrupted) journey that began in 2017. He crosses six contiguous states and some of the most historic and hallowed landscapes of eastern America, touching many of the nation’s most sacred battlefields and burying grounds.
Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:
BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review and a review of Go Forward in Love: A Year of Daily Readings from Timothy Keller
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
BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS
BOOK REVIEW:
The Multigenerational Church Crisis: Why We Don’t Understand Each Other and How to Unite in Mission by Bryan Chapell. Baker Books 168 pages. 2025
****
The latest book by Bryan Chapell (pastor, seminary president and denominational leader), is designed to help churches fulfill their biblical responsibilities to each generation so that churches maintain faithfulness for many generations. In this book, he aims to help different generations grasp why they may have trouble understanding each other, and at the same time to help them treasure and steward the contribution each can make to Christ’s mission in their particular time and context. He tells us that the overall goal of the book is to help churches understand how our changing culture is affecting generations of faith. He wants to help churches understand how our changing culture is affecting different generations within their midst so that we can work together for future health and mission. He wants to help us understand generational differences so that we may celebrate how God has differently gifted his people for the purposes of his church at this critical time and so that we may respond with a unified mission.
Click on ‘Continue reading’ for:
BOOK REVIEW ~ 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