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Book Reviews


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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.

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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
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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.

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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 →


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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS


The Power of the Gospel: A Year in Romans by R.C. Sproul. Ligonier Ministries. 535 pages. 2024
****

This devotional book is based on the preaching ministry of R.C. Sproul at Saint Andrews Chapel in Sanford, Florida. Portions of the devotional were previously published under the title Romans: An Expositional Commentary. The book includes readings and an “Application” for Monday through Saturday each week of the year. I used this book as a part of my devotional reading in 2025.
Below are 30 helpful quotes from the book:

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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 →


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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS


Union with Christ: The Blessings of Being in Him by Sinclair Ferguson. Ligonier Ministries. 157 pages. 2025
****

In this book, Sinclair Ferguson introduces the reader to the vital theme of the believer’s union with Christ, with the hope that it may act as a catalyst to a lifetime of reflection on it. He explores the theme by reflecting on specific key passages in the New Testament. The book expands on his earlier twelve message Ligonier teaching series of the same name.
The author tells us that in the sixty or so pages in our Bible that contain Paul’s thirteen letters we will find the expression “in Christ” or a variant of it over eighty times. Equivalent expressions “in the Lord” (or sometimes “in the Lord Jesus”) virtually double that number. He writes that if you belong to Christ, this is who you really and truly are, every day of your life—a man or a woman who is “in Christ.”
Ferguson writes that living in union and communion with Him is surely the highest privilege that we could have in this world.

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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
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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:

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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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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:

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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
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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.

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
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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
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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 →