Another idea for strengthening families is reading something other than the Bible at the breakfast table. (It’s not often you’d see a Sola Panellist reading something other than the Bible!)
However, as you have probably guessed, I’m talking about something that aids our understanding of God—something that has provided a helpful change of pace to straight Bible reading and discussion. In other words, a bit of systematic theology.
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If you were a youngish Christian in the 1980s, it is almost certain that, at some point, someone would have pressed a copy of John White’s The Fight into your hands and urged you earnestly to read it. It was simply one of the standard Christian books of the era, and for several good reasons.
You Can Change: God’s transforming power for our sinful behaviour and negative emotions
Tim Chester
IVP, Leicester, 2008. 192pp.
Picking up Tim Chester’s You Can Change, you’d be forgiven for mistaking it for a self-help book. It has all the trappings—a title promising transformation, testimonies of change, an invitation to choose a personal “change project”, ten chapters with titles like ‘What would you like to change?’ and questions for self-reflection. You Can Change is designed to communicate to a society obsessed with personal change, but it turns the self-help genre on its head. (more…)
The Everlasting God by Broughton Knox is another ‘new’ book that has just become available through Matthias Media. But it’s not really new; it’s a new edition of a book that was first published more than 25 years ago. (more…)
Spiritual Depression: Its causes and its cure
D Martyn Lloyd-Jones
Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, 1965, 300pp.
Available from Moore Books
02 9577 9966 (more…)
Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson
DA Carson
Crossway, Wheaton,
2008, 160pp.
Available from Moore Books (more…)
Leadership on the Front Foot Zachary Veron
Anglican Press Australia, Sydney, 2009. 204pp.
Pragmatism is always dangerous: passages like 2 Corinthians 4:2, 1 Thessalonians 2:3-6 and 2 Timothy 4:3-4 warn against certain methods that seem to get results and gain listeners for your message. But pragmatism is also commended: passages like Matthew 10:16 (in the context of a gospel preaching mission) and Luke 16:8 (in the context of using money to make friends for eternity) recommend ‘shrewdness’, rather than stupidity, in ministry dealings. (more…)
If you wanted to find our about the ANZAC’s legendary Gallipoli campaign, how would you go about it? Watch Peter Weir’s classic 1981 Gallipoli (“What are you legs? Steel springs”)? Go to the Australian War Memorial? Borrow a book or two from the local library? Read a Wikipedia article? Go to the new ABC 3D interactive site?
In this second discussion of T David Gordon’s Why Johnny Can’t Preach (read part 1), I want to reflect on the first reason Gordon gives as to why Johnny can’t preach—that is, Johnny can’t read (texts).
New Testament Theology: Magnifying God in Christ
Thomas R Schreiner
Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, 2008, 976pp.
It seems obvious what we mean when we say “Paul teaches” or “Jesus says”, but what do we mean when we say “the New Testament teaches”? The New Testament is a small library of books by several authors—authors who, it is popularly argued, apparently did not share each other’s manuscripts or they would be more in agreement with one another! While they share a common subject and a common context, is there really a coherence to this group of texts to the point at which we might say “This here is the teaching of the New Testament”? For example, influential Durham scholar James Dunn has argued that the New Testament is more diverse than unified—more a cacophony than a harmony. Many scholars remain persuaded of his case. (more…)
T David Gordon
P&R Publishing, Phillipsburg, 2009.
Do you find yourself getting frustrated with the way your minister preaches?
What do you get when you mix up a megachurch sex scandal, a Reformed pastor in a fistfight, an ambitious blonde TV reporter, a zealous but slightly misguided youth worker who likes Brandy (a girl, not a drink), an officiously small-minded middle-ranking accountant, a seasoned detective and an ageing ex-Christian New Ager called Mystic Union? The answer is Evangellyfish, a web novel by American author and pastor Doug Wilson. (more…)
It always bothers me when the author or editor of a book starts by telling me what their book is not. So it was with some concern that I began my reading of Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament—a book that, the editors say, neither surveys, summarizes nor takes a position on the debates over the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament. However, it was not long before I became pleased with it. (more…)
Walking with Gay Friends
Alex Tylee
Inter-Varsity Press, Downers Grove, 2007, 160pp.
Suggesting that homosexuality is a sin is unpopular. Going further and suggesting that change and healing from homosexual sin is possible is always going to be a tough sell. Nevertheless, this is exactly what Alex Tylee manages to achieve in Walking with Gay Friends. (more…)
