Coram Deo ~

Looking at contemporary culture from a Christian worldview


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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

BOOK REVIEW:
How to Reach the West Again: Six Essential Elements of a Missionary Encounter by Timothy Keller. Redeemer City to City. 51 pages. 2020
***

In this short book, Tim Keller writes that the overall decline of Christian influence in the West is inarguable. Each generation is becoming less religious and less Christian. He tells us that this decline should prompt us to examine ourselves, pray, and work toward a new missionary engagement with Western culture. He states that we have to model and proclaim the Christian faith in our generation in a way that is both intelligible and compelling to our neighbors. Our challenge is how to evangelize people who “lack any sense of sin or transcendence, or who lack the traditional basic religious infrastructure such as belief in a Supreme Being or the afterlife?”

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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

Truth for Life: 365 Daily Devotions Volume 2 by Alistair Begg. The Good Book Company. 384 pages. 2022
****

This is the second of two volumes of daily devotional readings from respected pastor Alistair Begg. I have used these two volumes as a part of my devotional reading the past two years.
Each of the daily readings begins with a scripture passage. In the reading for that day, the author aims to explain the passage, to encourage the reader from them, and to reflect on how they inspire and equip us to enjoy living for Christ in every area of our lives. At the bottom of each reading, you will see three icons. These are a prompt to say to yourself: Now that I have read and considered these verses… how is God calling me to think differently? how is God reordering my heart’s affections—what I love? what is God calling me to do as I go about my day today? Also included is “Bible Through the Year” reading plan.
If you are looking for a book to use for your devotional reading, I would recommend each of these volumes. Here are 25 of my favorite quotes from volume two:

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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS


Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist by John Piper. Multnomah. 368 pages. 2011 edition

**** 

I recently re-read this modern-day classic by John Piper, this time the 2011 revised and expanded edition, and with a group of friends. Piper tells us that the book aims to persuade the reader that the chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. The overriding concern of the book is that in all of life God be glorified the way He Himself has appointed.
This book is not light reading. I would recommend reading it slow and discussing it with others. Piper writes that it is a serious book about being happy in God.
He first introduces the concept of Christian Hedonism, one that may be new to you. He writes that the pleasure Christian Hedonism seeks is the pleasure that is in God Himself. The aim of the Christian Hedonist is to be happy in God, to delight in God, to cherish and enjoy His fellowship and favor.

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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

Being Elisabeth Elliot: The Authorized Biography: Elisabeth’s Later Years by Ellen Vaughn. B&H Books. 300 pages. 2023
****

This is part two of Ellen Vaughn’s outstanding biography of Elisabeth Elliot, following 2020’s Becoming Elisabeth Elliot. You can read my review of that book here.
The author relies on Elliot’s private journals and never-before-published letters. With that information, she had a choice. She could write a victorious, “inspirational” white-washed story, or she could tell it straight, which is what she chose to do. This allowed us to read Elliot’s very personal thoughts. Some readers may be surprised with some of those thoughts. But the author tells us that Elliot herself railed against the image-conscious habits of the Evangelical Machine, whose every story must end with glorious conversion and coherent happy endings, lest God look bad.

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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

Book Reviews

The Christian Manifesto: Jesus’ Life-Changing Words from the Sermon on the Plain by Alistair Begg. The Good Book Company. 100 pages. 2023
****

In this book, respected pastor and author Alistair Begg looks at a manifesto for the Christian life, straight from the lips of Jesus, taught in one of his most famous sermons found in Luke’s Gospel (6:20-49), and known as the “Sermon on the Plain.” (similar to the “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew’s Gospel).
Begg writes that at just 725 words, this manifesto is not exhaustive. It does not cover every aspect of how Christ’s people can live in a way that pleases him, but it is foundational. Here is life as it is designed to be lived and enjoyed.
Begg tells us that the Sermon on the Plain is Jesus’ invitation to you to experience life at its very best. It is his description of what life in his kingdom, a kingdom where all that is wrong is being put right, looks like as we live in this world. Here we discover what the marks of a genuine Christian are. The manifesto is a description of the life we were all made for, but it is a challenge to be different from how I naturally am and how the world around me operates. This call to enjoy the blessing of life in Jesus’ kingdom is a call to be different.

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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS


The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back? by Jim Davis and Michael Graham with Ryan P. Burge. Zondervan. 272 pages. 2023
****

This important new book, written by Jim Davis (teaching pastor at Orlando Grace Church, Michael Graham (Program Director at The Keller Center for Cultural Apologetics) with Ryan Burge (associate professor of political science at Eastern Illinois University), uses research on some forty million Americans (about 15 percent of American adults living today), who have left the church over the last twenty-five years. They tell us that we are in the largest and fastest religious shift in the history of our country. This would be an excellent book for church leaders to read and discuss and might also be a good topic for an adult Sunday School class.
What began as a desire to equip the primary author’s local church through a podcast called As in Heaven, became a research project that eventually developed into this book. They engaged social scientists Dr. Ryan Burge and Dr. Paul Djupe to do an academic-review-board-approved, nationwide, quantitative study to answer their questions about the dechurching phenomenon. The authors tell us that the size, pace, and scope of dechurching in America is at such historic levels that there is no better phrase to describe this phenomenon than the Great Dechurching.

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Rejoice and Tremble: The Surprising Good News of the Fear of the Lord by Michael Reeves. Crossway. 193 pages. 2021

****

Seminary president and professor Michael Reeves asks if fear a good thing or bad. He tells us that the most frequent command in Scripture is “Do not be afraid!” Yet again and again and again in Scripture we are called to fear. And perhaps even more strangely, we are called to fear God. The author wants us to rejoice in the strange paradox that the gospel both frees us from fear and gives us fear. It frees us from our crippling fears, giving us instead a most delightful, happy, and wonderful fear. He aims to show us that for Christians, the phrase “the fear of God” in the Bible doesn’t mean being afraid of God.
The author tells us that there are different sorts of fear. Sinful fear drives you away from God. On the other hand, right fear does not stand in tension with love for God. There is no true knowledge of God where there is no right fear of him. Throughout the book, the author compares and contrasts sinful fear and right fear.

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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

BOOK REVIEW:

Facing the Last Enemy: Death and the Christian by Guy Prentiss Waters. Ligonier Ministries. 150 pages. 2023
****

The author of this book is a seminary professor and a pastor. The material in the book originated as a Sunday school series he taught.
This short, but theologically rich book has three major sections:Part One: Defining Death. This section addresses questions such as what is death, what happens after death, why did Christ die, and why do Christians die.
Part Two: Encountering Death. This section addresses questions such as how do we face the deaths of others, how can we help the dying and grieving, and how we can prepare for our own deaths.
Part Three: Beyond Death. This section addresses what the Bible teaches about the resurrection, what the Bible teaches about the final judgment, and what the Bible teaches about Heaven and Hell.

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Best Seat in the House: 18 Golden Lessons from a Father to His Son by Jack Nicklaus II. Thomas Nelson. 166 pages. 2021
***

Jack Nicklaus, now 83 years old, is arguably the greatest golfer who has ever lived. Although Tiger Woods has nine more wins on the PGA tour, Nicklaus has three more major championships, which is generally how the greatest golfers are evaluated.
This book is written by Nicklaus’ oldest son Jack Nicklaus II, who writes that by watching the way his father has lived his life he has spent years in the greatest leadership-parenting-marriage classroom one could imagine. He tells us that he has had the best seat in the house to watch his father live out extraordinary lessons. He goes on to write that his father is simply the greatest man he has ever known, his role model and best friend. He writes that though the world knows him as a great golfer and golf course designer, his father made being a parent one of the most important parts of his life.
In this book, the author, a father of five, shares stories about his father and explains how the stories led to lessons about fatherhood. With each story and the lesson learned from it, he also includes some discussion about how he, as a father, carried that lesson forward to his own children.

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BOOK REVIEWS and NEWS

Worthy: Living in Light of the Gospel by Sinclair Ferguson. Crossway. 95 pages. 2023
**** 

This short book, by respected theologian Sinclair Ferguson, is part of a series of books devised by Michael Reeves on the basis of Paul’s words in Philippians 1:27–2:3. This book both introduces and summarizes their main theme.
The title of the book comes from verse 1:27, which reads in part:
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ

Ferguson tells us that being worthy is a sure mark of Jesus’s disciples. He tells us that to “live worthy of the gospel of Christ” does not rank high on the priority lists of the twenty-first-century church, but the Apostle Paul placed it high on his priority list.

A life that is worthy of the gospel of Christ expresses itself in the form of a lifestyle that the gospel teaches in the form of a message. Such a life takes on a character that reflects the character of the Lord Jesus Christ. Living “worthy of the gospel of Christ” is not a matter of techniques. It involves the development of Christian character. It’s about who and what we become in Christ.

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