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Tag Archives: Tim Keller on the Christian Life: The Transforming Power of the Gospel by Matt Smethurst


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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

BOOK REVIEW:
Tim Keller on the Christian Life: The Transforming Power of the Gospel by Matt Smethurst. Crossway. 347 pages. 2025 
****

Matt Smethurst writes that this book is not a biography of Tim Keller. He tells us that his aim is more modest – it is to synthesize and distill Tim Keller’s best teaching on the Christian life. The book seeks to show more than tell, to let Keller’s own voice feature most prominently and ring with coherent clarity.
Smethurst tells us that the book focuses on practical Christian discipleship—rather than Keller’s thoughts on more controversial theological or political matters. The target is Keller’s contribution to timeless, bread-and-butter aspects of everyday Christian living.
Smethurst writes that his aim in the book is to synthesize the master synthesizer. Drawing from nearly fifty years of sermons, conference messages, interviews, articles, books, and more, he works to draw out the best of Keller’s teaching where it shines brightest—biblical wisdom for everyday life.

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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
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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.

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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 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.

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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

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 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.

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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
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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
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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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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
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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

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
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