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Looking at contemporary culture from a Christian worldview

Category Archives: Book Reviews and News


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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:

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

Big Dumb Eyes: Stories from a Simpler Mind by Nate Bargatze. Grand Central Publishing. 232 pages. 2025
***

If you enjoy the comedy of Nate Bargatze, you’ll enjoy this book, his first. I listened to the audiobook edition, which was read by Bargatze, and I would recommend that version to you as he reads it with his deadpan, self-deprecating delivery.
This light-hearted book has Bargatze telling stories about McDonald’s, shopping, his family, his barber, who is also his trainer, dogs, his car named “Old Blue”, his best friend Pee Pee, his wife Laura and daughter Harper, his unfailing love of Vanderbilt University football (who will never win the national championship), and his father, who was a magician and still opens Nate’s shows. He tells us about growing up in a small town in Tennessee, where you could never say the “F-word” in his home (no, not that “F-word”), his poor performance in college, living in a rat-infested apartment in Chicago as he learned standup comedy, and playing basketball in the NBA (no, not that NBA). The book includes blank pages, and random food thoughts. Throughout the book, Bargatze makes reference to his and his family’s Christian faith.

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BOOK REVIEWS ~ More of this review and a review of Roots & Rhythm: A Life in Music by Charlie Peacock
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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New and Upcoming Books You Might Be Interested In

I enjoy reading books in a variety of genres (theology, faith and work, leadership, biography, etc.). A few times each year I like to share about new and upcoming books that I am aware of that you might be interested in. Here are eleven of them: Continue reading →


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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

BOOK REVIEW:
2084 and the AI Revolution, Updated and Expanded Edition: How Artificial Intelligence Informs Our Future by John Lennox. Zondervan. 375 pages. 2024
****

The world of AI (artificial intelligence) is changing so quickly, that John Lennox has already seen the need to update and expand his 2020 book 2084: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humanity. I was first introduced to the teaching of Lennox, Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University (emeritus), a few years ago at the Sing! Getty Music Worship Conference (Lennox is Kristyn Getty’s uncle). Since then, I’ve read five of his books.

In this book, he brings a Christian worldview to the present and future of AI.

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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:
Sunday Matters: 52 Devotionals to Prepare Your Heart for Church by Paul David Tripp. Crossway. 289 pages. 2023
*** ½

I’ve read several of Paul Tripp’s books, most of them being his books of devotional readings (daily, Lent, Advent, etc.). This new book features a reading for each week of the year (reading 51 is for Easter week and 52 is for Christmas). The brief devotionals are intended to help prepare your heart for the beauty of what Sunday worship has to offer you. After each reading, there are suggested scripture passages to read, reflection questions and a family discussion section.
I enjoyed these readings, and commend this book – and all of Paul Tripp’s books – to you.
Here are 20 of my favorite quotes from the book:

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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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Read Through the Bible With Everyday Gospel by Paul Tripp

Have you ever read the Bible all the way through – from Genesis to Revelation? I wonder how just how many people who have been Christians for many years have actually done this? Many have good intentions to read the Bible all the way through. They begin reading with joy through the book of Genesis, which includes many familiar stories. After Genesis, many still get through the book of Exodus which features the story of Moses and the Ten Commandments. But they run into trouble and many stop when they get to the book of Leviticus, and after that Numbers. It’s likely that far more people have read completely through the New Testament than have the entire Bible.
Paul Tripp’s new book Everyday Gospel: A Daily Devotional Connecting Scripture to All of Life can help you with your desire to read the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation. This book includes 365 readings that correspond to the listed chapters from the Bible for each day. In addition, the ESV Everyday Gospel Bible hardback edition includes the full ESV Bible text.
The reading pace can be challenging, as you will need to read multiple chapters each day. As I work through the book, I am choosing to listen to the Bible on the free ESV Bible app.  I generally do this while I am outside either walking our dog Clara or taking an afternoon walk.
Everyday Gospel is a valuable resource for those who would like to read through the Bible in a year.