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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

Devoted to God’s Church: Core Values for Christian Fellowship by Sinclair B. Ferguson.  Banner of Truth Trust.  200 pages.  2020
****

This book, by respected theologian Sinclair Ferguson, is about what it means for Christians to be members of a church. Some wonder if it is important to be members of a church. This would be a good book to read to help address that question. The author tells us that being a Christian, by definition, involves belonging to the church—and that, in turn, means belonging to a particular church.
Ferguson tells us that family is what the church is. Through faith in Christ, we become members of his family, and when we become church members, we are saying ‘I too am a disciple of Jesus.’
Among the topics covered in the book are church membership, worship, discipleship, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, prayer, service, witness, and evangelism.

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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

Providence by John Piper. Crossway. 752 pages. 2021
**** 

I read this excellent book slowly over a period of more than two years. The book, which is what the Bible teaches about the doctrine of providence, is divided into three parts:

  • Part 1 defines providence and then illuminates a difficulty, namely, the self-exaltation involved in God’s aim to display his own glory.
  • Part 2 focuses on the ultimate goal of providence.
  • Part 3 focuses on the nature and extent of providence.

Question 11 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism asks what are God’s works of providence. The answer is: God’s works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures and all their actions. A brief definition from Piper is “God seeing to it that things happen in a certain way”.
Piper states that 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. He tells us that the focus of the 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.
Over 45 chapters, Piper addresses many topics in relation to the doctrine of providence, including creation, Israel, the exodus, the new covenant, suffering, Satan, pride, Pharaoh, repentance, faith, perseverance, holiness, prayer, evangelism and missions.
This is a thorough, in-depth look at the doctrine of providence by a well-respected pastor and theologian.
Below are 30 my favorite quotes from the book:

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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS


Forgive: Why Should I And How Can I? by Timothy Keller. Viking. 271 pages. 2022
****

Forgive the last book Tim Keller published before his death on May 19, 2023, is a thorough and practical treatment of all aspects of forgiveness. It is the best book I have read in some time and is sure to be among my favorite books of 2023. I am certain that it will be a book that I will want to revisit again in the future.
Keller tells us that the ultimate purpose of forgiveness is the restoration of community. He writes that the concept of forgiveness is central to the meaning of the Bible, and that human forgiveness is dependent on divine forgiveness. From the very beginning, the Christian church was remarkable for its emphasis on and practice of forgiveness and nonretaliation.
He then looks at the approaches to forgiveness that have emerged in our secular society (cheap grace, little grace, and no grace). He tells us that what these models have in common is the lack of any vertical dimension. They all contrast with the costly grace model of forgiveness assumed in the Bible, which has both a horizontal and vertical dimension to it. He adds that social media has only accelerated this movement toward a graceless culture.

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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

What Comes After This Life? (Crucial Questions) by R.C. Sproul. Ligonier Ministries. 92 pages. 2023 
***

This is one of the newest booklets in R.C. Sproul’s Crucial Questions series, all of which are free in the digital edition. These booklets offer clear answers
to the most common and difficult questions about the Christian faith. In this volume, he examines what the Bible says about heaven and hell.
Sproul writes that death came as God’s judgment for sin. Every human being is a sinner and therefore has been sentenced to death. We are all waiting for the sentence to be carried out. The question then is what happens after death. For Christians, the penalty has been paid by Christ.

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BOOK CLUB ~ Truths We Confess by  R.C. Sproul
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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS


Timothy Keller: His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation by Collin Hansen. Zondervan. 309 pages. 2023
****

If you have been blessed by the ministry of Tim Keller as I have (he died on May 19 after battling pancreatic cancer for three years),  I believe you will enjoy this book that tells Keller’s story from the perspective of his influences, more than his influence, by Collin Hansen. The author had three years of interviews with Keller for the book, as well as free access to Keller’s family, friends, and colleagues. The book is the story of the people, the books, the lectures, and ultimately the God who formed Keller.
The book is not the definitive biography of Keller but does follow his life chronologically as it describes his influences. Keller would be baptized as a Roman Catholic, confirmed as a Lutheran, enrolled in seminary as a Wesleyan Arminian, and ordained as a Presbyterian.
His mother Louise moved the family from a Roman Catholic Church to a Lutheran church, and then to the Evangelical Congregational Church. Keller would go to Bucknell University and profess Christ in 1970 after which he became a part of InterVarsity leadership. After seminary, Keller would serve at West Hopewell Presbyterian Church in Hopewell, Virginia for nine years. Through role models in books and other pastors in Hopewell, Keller learned what it meant to be a pastor and not just a preacher. Keller would recall his time in Hopewell as the most formative ministry years of his life.

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BOOK CLUB ~ Providence by John Piper
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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS


Galatians: An Expositional Commentary by R.C. Sproul. Ligonier. 143 pages. 2022
****

This is the latest in a series of books containing adaptations of R.C. Sproul’s sermons delivered at St. Andrews Chapel in Sanford, Florida, where he preached from 1997 until his death in 2017. In these sermons, though he sought to at least touch on each verse, he focused on the key themes and ideas that comprised the “big picture” of each passage he covered. Sproul’s recommendation is to use these books as an overview and introduction.
Sproul writes that in all probability, this letter from the Apostle Paul was the first of his letters. It was also the most fiery. Paul wrote the epistle in a spirit of righteous indignation.
A heresy had developed among the Galatians, and it threatened and denied the very gospel. It threatened the authority of Christ. Sproul tells us that the heresy, known as the Judaizing heresy, argued that to be a Christian, you must continue to practice the rituals and the ceremonies of the Old Testament law. This would, by implication, deny the sufficiency of the sacrifice of Christ.

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BOOK REVIEW ~ 20 helpful quotes from the book
BOOK NEWS ~ Links to Interesting Articles
BOOK CLUB ~ Providence by John Piper
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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS


Uppity: My Untold Story About the Games People Play by Bill White with Gordon Dillow. Grand Central Publishing. 309 pages. 2011 
****

I decided to read this book after watching the History Channel Documentary After Jackie, which featured Bill White, Bob Gibson and Curt Flood of the St. Louis Cardinals. White had an incredible career in baseball. He played first base the New York Giants, the St. Louis Cardinals, and the Philadelphia Phillies from 1956 to 1969, winning six Gold Glove Awards, and was selected to the All-Star Game five times. After his playing days, he had a second career in the media, including serving as an announcer on New York Yankees games on radio and television from 1971 to 1989. Then, from 1989 to 1994 he served as President of Major League Baseball’s National League. In 2020, White was elected to the Cardinals Hall of Fame.
White was born in Paxton, Florida, near the Florida-Alabama border, in 1934. His mother was only 16. His father left town shortly after White was born and played no role in his upbringing or his life. In 1937, White and his mother boarded a train to Warren, Ohio, which he has always considered home.
White was an honor student and graduated second in his high school class of 120 students in 1952. However, until the day his mother died in 2001, despite all his accomplishments in professional baseball and beyond, his mother never quite forgave him for not finishing college.

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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

The Philosophy of Modern Song by Bob Dylan. Simon & Schuster. 338 pages. 2022
** ½

This is an interesting book, beginning with the title (which doesn’t really tell you anything about the book), and the cover (Little Richard, Eddie Cochran and the little-known Alis Lesley “the female Elvis”). The book, which Dylan began working on in 2010, before he was presented with the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016, features sixty-six short chapters about songs recorded by other artists, ranging from Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Perry Como, Johnny Cash, Elvis Costello, Little Richard, to the Eagles, Santana, Willie Nelson, the Who, and Dion. The song selection seems odd – just four by women, many that I’d never heard of, with the highest percentage being songs released in the 1950’s, with nine being released in 1956 when Dylan was fifteen years old. Dylan never says why he selected the songs, whether they are favorites, songs that influenced him, etc. There is no introduction to the book. Instead, Dylan goes right into a chapter on “Detroit City”, a 1963 hit by Bobby Bare. Many have compared Dylan’s writing in the book to his Theme Time Radio Hour satellite radio show he hosted from 2006 to 2009.
Each chapter includes photographs – nearly 150 are included, but none have captions, leading the reader to guess at times why the photo is included. Dylan writes a rambling riff/essay based on the lyrics of the song, and then adds comments about the artist.

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BOOK CLUB ~ Providence by John Piper
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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS


Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story by Bono. Knopf. 576 pages. 2022
****

U2’s Bono was born Paul David Hewson in 1960. He grew up middle class in a Dublin suburb, the son of a Catholic father Bob (whom he refers to as his “Da”), and Protestant mother Iris. His mother died of a cerebral aneurysm when he was 14. Living with his father, and brother Norman, his mother was never spoken of again in their home at 10 Cedarwood Road. Bono writes that it stopped being a home and was just a house.
This massive (nearly 600-page book) about faith, family, music and activism, begins with an account of Bono nearly dying in 2016. The forty chapters, each titled after a U2 song, and beginning with an illustration which is explained in the Appendix, tell Bono’s story as a member of U2, a Christian, family man and activist. During the COVID lockdown the band reimagined these forty U2 songs for a Songs of Surrender album that was recently released.
Bono’s best friend is his wife Ali, his childhood sweetheart. They have four kids. He writes that family has always been at the center of who he is.
The book generally moves along in a chronological manner, with Bono writing about each of U2’s albums, events such as Live Aid and apologizing for working with Apple to put the band’s 2014 album Songs of Innocence on every iPhone free, which the band was roundly criticized for.

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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

Clapton: The Autobiography by Eric Clapton. Crown. 396 pages. 2007
****

In this book, Eric Clapton writes about his incredible life as a blues musician, an addict and ultimately as a happily married man and father, a man who is sober and helping others to achieve sobriety.
I read this book when it was first published, and decided to read it again after seeing the now 77-year-old guitarist in concert for the first time last year.
Clapton begins by telling us he was raised by his grandparents, though for many years he grew up thinking that they were actually his parents. He was nine years old before he met his mother. As a child, he attended Sunday school, which is where he first heard a lot of the old, beautiful English hymns, his favorite being “Jesus Bids Us Shine.” Music became a healer for him, and he learned to listen with all his being. He found that it could wipe away all the emotions of fear and confusion relating to his family.
He taught himself how to play guitar. He writes about listening to the blues music of Robert Johnson, saying that following his example would be his life’s work. He writes about his work with the Yardbirds, John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers, Cream, Blind Faith, Derek and the Dominos and as a solo artist.

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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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