Blogger Review Books – Page 8

Lucky: How the Kingdom Comes to Unlikely People by Glenn Packiam

August 31, 2015 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: Scripture needs to be retold, so we can hear it again for the first time and be changed.

There are lots of ways to study scripture. But two ways have been bouncing around in my head as being particularly important for me. One is the serious academic study of a text, long or short. Investigation into what the language researchers say about it, what the cultural anthropologists know about the culture it was written in, what the comparative literature people know about other texts that might have been written in a similar time or culture, what the historians that can talk about how that passage has been read and interpreted over time, etc. I think that type of reading and study of scripture is very important. I do not do enough research into scripture like that. (The Lost World of Genesis One is one of the recent books I have read that is along those lines.)

But the second type of scripture work is illustrated quite well by this book. The author does a lot of the type of study that is part of the first type of study, but the focus is not the study, but the retelling. The author’s research is to understand the text deeply, so that she or he can tell others about the text in a way that is modern and appropriate for the culture and people that are hearing it. And even more important, to use the “Theological Imagination” (as Eugene Peterson puts it) to help those of us that have heard the scripture before rediscover it in new ways. Some Christians look down on this type of work, but it is the essential work of teaching. Teaching takes an idea and learns to communicate it in a way that is understood, and hopefully can be acted upon.

Fierce Convictions: The Extraordinary Life of Hannah More “Poet, Reformer, Abolitionist” by Karen Swallow Prior

August 11, 2015 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: Not everyone important is known.

I have written before of the importance of good Christian biography as part of spiritual growth. (And by good, I mean actually biography, not hagiography, that looks at an honest portrayal of the real person.)

Karen Swallow Prior has written an excellent, eminently readable biography of Hannah More, a woman from history that I had never heard of before Prior’s work.

Hannah More lived in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. She was a poet, playwright, devotional writer, and activist. Her colleagues, William Wilberforce and John Newton, are much better known. But along with them, More played an active role in bringing attention to slavery and helping to move public opinion toward abolition. Unfortunately, she died just months before England outlawed the slave trade, but she deserves significant credit for her active role in abolishing slavery.

In addition to her work on abolition, she helped start schools for the poor and was behind low-cost reading material that gave the poor reading materials they could afford. She was against animal cruelty and helped start women’s societies (that eventually moved toward women’s voting.)

The Adventures of the Brothers Brave and Noble by Cynthia Hampton

July 13, 2015 by All Old Users

What if our childhood imaginary friends are real? Noble Hewlett encounters this very situation when he finds himself magically transported from his home to a realm called The Existence. Here in this fantastical land, Noble learns his imaginary friend is real. The Existence is populated with creatures from the imaginations of children like Noble and … Read more

The Radical Disciple: Some Neglected Aspects of Our Calling by John Stott

June 30, 2015 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: Discipleship is about following Christ in non-conformity. Hearing from an elder who has lived the life is a great encouragement to continue on.

This is John Stott‘s last book. He decided to retire several years ago and now has said he will no longer write (update: he passed away in 2011 at the age of 90). So I think it is interesting that he is intentionally writing a book about discipleship and concentrating on areas that he thinks are often left unaddressed.

The book ends with a poignant chapter on death, similar to the last album by Johnny Cash. Both Cash and Stott knew they were not long for this world. The afterward says goodbye to the reader and discusses his will and legacy. In many ways, I wish he opened with this. Because it gives more weight to the rest of the book.

However, if he started with death it might overwhelm the general theme of the book, Non-Conformity. The title of the first chapter, he is calling us to be different as Christians. Not just different from the world, but different because we were created to be like Christ. There is a good quote about the fact that we cannot live like Christ, unless we have Christ live in us. And I think that the living with Christ in us as the only way to achieve Christlikeness may be more counter cultural to the church than anything else in the book. We all know that we have transformed, but to really be transformed we not only have to strive after living like Christ, we have to submit to the Spirit that guides us.

How to Be Rich: It’s Not What You Have. It’s What You Do With What You Have. by Andy Stanley

June 16, 2015 by Adam Shields

I am reposting this review from early 2014 because the Kindle Edition is on sale for $3.99 on Jan 3 and 4. The audiobook is discounted to $2.99 with the purchase of the kindle edition
Summary: A short book focusing on how to be Rich (and we are all rich) by being generous.

If you are are a regular reader of this blog you might know that I am a member of Buckhead Church, one of the Northpoint Community Church campuses where Andy Stanley is the senior pastor.

I have read and reviewed a number of books by Andy (see below). Where Andy shines as a writer is when he is focus on leadership, vision or talking about our churches. How to be Rich is one of the later type of books.

How To Be Rich is based on the teachings found in an annual sermon series that Andy has preached since 2007. These sermons focus on 1 Timothy 6:8, “Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.”

The point of the series is not how to GET rich but how to BE rich. The book starts by trying to convince the reader that they are rich. If you have a household income of $37,000 a year, you are among the top 4% of earners in the world. Andy later talks about the top 1% as a way for those of us that are not that rich to understand wealth. But then continually comes back to the concept that whether we are top 1% of top 4% we are still rich in the eyes of most of the rest of the world (and God.)

Crazy Busy: A (Mercifully) Short Book about a (Really) Big Problem

May 8, 2015 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: God wants us to be focused on what God wants us to do, not everything else.

Crazy Busy is a book that I enjoyed and got a lot more out of than I thought I would going in. I am a fairly low key guy. I don’t enjoy high stress situations. I usually start feeling stress when my to-do list has more than a handful of things on it. I do not view myself as ‘crazy busy’ and I am not by the standards of most people.

But this ‘mercifully short’ book on busyness was still helpful. I think it fits well with my unintentional book focus this year, that it is the normal, mundane every-day things that are really important in the long run.

DeYoung is the pastor of a large church, author or co-author of more than a dozen books, father of 5 under 10, husband, and well understands busyness. As he says, this is one of those books by someone that sees a problem through personal experience, not because he has solved the problem of busyness.

So he uses 3 things to avoid, 7 diagnosis of the problem and one thing you must do, to try and overcome busyness. This is not so much a ‘how to’ book as a ‘here are the important things’ book.

If I could summarize the argument it would be 1) God has created you with limited time, 2) In order to make best use of the time you have to prioritize around what you must do and what you are gifted with and who is around you, 3) do not get distracted by the less important things (or your own pride that thinks you can do more than you can) and 4) God has to be first and central.

A Fifty-Year Silence: Love, War, and a Ruined House in France by Miranda Richmond Mouillot

April 23, 2015 by All Old Users

Home is the center of Miranda Richmond Mouillot’s book A Fifty-Year Silence; a memoir about the author’s quest to learn what happened to her grandparents during World War II, why they separated, divorced and refused to speak to each other for over 5 decades. Mouillot grew up with very little factual information about her grandparents. She knew they escaped Nazi-occupied France and lived in refugee camps in Switzerland. Her grandmother was a psychiatrist; her grandfather a UN employee who was a translator at the Nuremberg trials. It was also family lore that one day, Mouillot’s grandmother packed up the children and left her husband without a word. The couple had never spoken to each other since.

Beyond these scant facts, the lives of these two people were a complete mystery to everyone in their family. As the author grew older and attended college, her desire to know what exactly transpired in her grandparents’ lives grew as well. Mouillot’s determination to uncover family secrets became a dominating force in her life.

Ruby by Cynthia Bond

April 7, 2015 by All Old Users

I have no idea how to review Ruby by Cynthia Bond.

Ephram Jennings is the adult son of a deceased backwoods preacher and has been in love with Ruby for as long as he can remember. Ruby Bell has recently returned home to Liberty, Texas. She lived a horrific life being sexually trafficked and abused since childhood.

Upon returning from New York City, sharply dressed and epically groomed, Ruby begins a long descent into madness as her past begins to quite literally haunt her. Voodoo runs deep within Liberty, even permeating the faith of the Christians in town. Now living in filth and wandering the streets in tatters, Ruby is openly shamed and once again, used by the men in her hometown. Ephram begins his long, slow courtship of Ruby; the only man who treated this woman with respect, kindness and expecting nothing in return.

Ruby is the debut novel by Bond, a writing consultant and therapeutic writing teacher. This novel is many things: a love story, a survival story, a horrific story, maybe even a ghost story. Bond is a fantastic writer and brings the reader immediately in, lock stock and barrel. The scenes between Ephram and Ruby feel beautiful and full of hope and sharply contrast with the main characters backstories as well as the evil they face together as adults.

The Anxious Christian: Can God Use Your Anxiety for Good?

March 25, 2015 by Adam Shields

Takeaway: Anxiety is real emotion. Allow God to use it to help you and do not allow it to control you.

I have followed Rhett Smith on twitter for several years as moved to Texas and started a counseling practice. I have read his blog as he thoughtfully talked about issues of technology, theology, marriage and faith.

I was not surprised when Moody approached him about writing a book. I knew it would be good and well worth reading.

But when I heard it would be about anxiety, I thought it would be a good book for me to pass on to friends and family. Because I have a particular understanding of anxiety. Anxiety is rooted in fear, fear is something that as Christians we should not have. Therefore the best thing to do with anxiety is to reject it as sin.

Thankfully, that is not the thesis of this book. Autobiographically, Rhett Smith works through how he dealt with fear and anxiety through the early loss of his mother (and much of his extended family to cancer), his problems with stuttering, school and the normal anxiety of growing up, finding a career, and relationships.

America’s Pastor: Billy Graham and the Shaping of a Nation by Grant Wacker

March 17, 2015 by Adam Shields

Summary: An evaluation of Billy Graham’s place in history.

I have been reluctant to read biographies of living people recently. Sometimes it just feels like we need more distance to be really able to understand a person’s contributions, and when that person is beloved, their weaknesses as well.

So I was not planning on reading America’s Pastor. I have read Billy Graham’s own, way too long and detailed without being all that interesting autobiography(-ish), Just As I Am. And I figured that was probably enough for the next decade or so. But after two pretty positive reviews by Mark Noll and Ted Olsen and then the same day being offered a review copy, I decided to pick it up.

And I am glad I did. America’s Pastor is not a biography. There is a fairly short overview of Graham’s life at the beginning, but the rest of the book is chapters focused on different aspects of Graham’s work, image or legacy. The eight chapters are: Preacher, Icon, Southerner, Entrepreneur, Architect, Pilgrim, Pastor and Patriarch.