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Current Reading List

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It’s been a while since I’ve updated everyone on what I’m currently reading, so here goes:

I still use D.A. Carson’s For the Love of God, Volume 2 for my morning devotions (I also use an ESV Study Bible).

Speaking of devotions, I am reading Global Prayer Digest this month (they sent me a free sample issue) and it is helpful in enlarging my view of the world.

I read a prayer from Water of the Word, which helps me remember my spiritual responsibilities toward Meghan.

During devotions I’m also reading A Praying Life by Paul Miller. I kept reading blog after blog comment and post snippets from this book. It really is helpful. We are all busy. Miller helps demonstrate what a life devoted to prayer looks like.

Besides devotions, I’m also reading The Heart of Anger by Lou Priolo. This has really been helpful in calming me down in addressing my 3 and 1 year old boys. I noticed I was starting to demonstrate my authority through voice inflection. This is just one of the many benefits of this book and what it shows.

I’m enjoying Feelings and Faith by Brian Borgman. This book was written to encourage the “cultivation of godly emotions in the Christian life” and it certainly doesn’t disappoint. I’m in a culture in which emotions are subdued. This book has helped me see Biblical use of emotions. Very helpful stuff (and very biblically grounded).

I am still plodding through The Mission of God by Christopher Wright. Moving slowly through this has reminded me of God’s mission for His church and how we need to be involved in it.

Other books on the docket:
Gospel Powered Parenting comes highly recommended and will continue my being equipped in parenting.
The End of the Law is a theological discussion on the relationship between the law and grace. As Piper has said about this book: “For the last forty years of my ministry no biblical issue ahs proved more recurrent or more vexing than the nature of the Mosaic law as it relates to the gospel and the new covenant. The pastoral implications for how you preach the gospel, aim at sanctification, comfort strugglers, give assurance, and admit people to membership in the church are huge. Jason Meyer is a good guide. I found myself writing ‘YES!’ in the margins repeatedly. And there were enough ‘Aha’ moments of fresh discovery to make me want to keep going. I thank God for this young scholar. His book is a precious gift to the church.”
Words From The Fire is Al Mohler’s latest book on the 10 Commandments.
Crossway’s latest edition of The Pilgrim’s Progress, a classic tale with some amazing edits for readability and enjoyment.
Our Boys is my next book to check out of the public library, which highlights a season of high school football here in KS by a team that has won 5 consecutive state titles.

That’s the currently happenings, in terms of my bibliophilic tendencies. Hope it helps.

Anorexia or Gluttony?

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In an earlier post, I promised some interaction with Art Azurdia’s latest book Connected Christianity: Engaging Culture Without Compromise. Probably the most helpful thing he said, for me personally, was what he called “two practical distortions that have severely undercut our gospel effectiveness: cultural gluttony or cultural anorexia.” Then he defined each of these:

What is cultural gluttony? It is sinful compromise with the world: that is, the consequence of being missional without being theological. Often masked in the guise of desiring to win the world, Christians rabidly pursue likeness to the world. Over time, unfortunately, the world’s values, objectives, and desires become our values, objectives and desires. Cultural gluttony is the act of consuming the culture until it forms us. (taken from p.25)

After some extended discussion on the ramifications of this, he defined cultural anorexia:

An alternative to which the church has often succumbed in reaction is that of cultural anorexia: that is, the consequence of being theological without being missional. It takes the form of a radical and decided withdrawal from the world. Since we are determined not to let the world shape us, we isolate, insulate, and withdraw. Before long the Church evolves into a kind of enclave, a ghetto, an island of irreverent piety, and eventually we lose the ability to speak to non-Christians. Worse yet, our hearts become filled with a compassionless indifference toward such people. (taken from pp.26-27)

I was really helped by Azurdia and seeing these extremes, because I think I’ve been a part of the second at a point or two on my life. As I thought about this again this week, it can easily be a way to drift into self-righteous tendencies and miss out on the mission to which we have been called. I would recommend Azurdia’s book and all that he lays out in this helpful book.

Matt Chandler Stuff…

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JT posted a link to an interview with Matt Chandler that really gives a great overview of how sanctification should happen in the local church. It would be worth your time to read it.

I also listened to Chandler’s latest sermon on A Little Housekeeping from Romans 12:1ff. This sermon, among other things, was a wake up call to get serious about being involved in the local church. Take time to check these things out.

Some Recommendations…

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I’ve come across some excellent resources in recent days…

Ajith Fernando wrote a work entitled An Authentic Servant: The Marks of a Spiritual Leader for the Lausanne Movement. It is available as a free PDF and well worth your time (especially if you are some kind of spiritual leader).

Mark Dever’s latest 9 Marks Interview is with Kevin DeYoung. The interview begins with Dever pressing DeYoung on his beliefs on infant baptism. I thought Dever was charitable and asked some good clarifications. As a credo-baptist I thought his handling of this issue helped clarify some of the distinctions we have with paedo-baptists. I appreciate Kevin DeYoung so much. This charitable dialogue helped show the unity of the Gospel.

Finally, I just read Arturo Azurdia’s latest book, Connected Christianity, calling us to be “worldly Christians.” One thing that was especially helpful was a discussion on what he called cultural gluttony vs. cultural anorexia. You would be profited by these things and I may have a quote or two from this in a later post.

DeYoung on God’s Will

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Kevin DeYoung has written a helpful book on knowing God’s will. There are lots of books in this genre, but this one is practical and very helpful. I would highly recommend it. Here’s a review from Team Pyro. You can also check it out on Amazon and WTS Books.

From the back cover:

Hyper-spiritual approaches to finding God’s will don’t work. It’s time to try something new: Give Up.

Pastor and author Kevin DeYoung counsels Christians to settle down, make choices, and do the hard work of seeing those choices through.

Too often, he writes, God’s people tinker around with churches, jobs and relationships, worrying that they haven’t found God’s perfect will for their lives. Or–even worse–they do absolutely nothing, stuck in a frustrated state of paralyzed indecision, waiting…waiting…waiting…for clear, direct, unmistakable direction.

But God doesn’t need to tell us what to do at each fork in the road. He’s already revealed His plan for our lives: to love Him with our whole hearts, to obey His Word, and after that, to do what we like.

No need for hocus-pocus. No reason to be directionally challenged. Just Do Something.

You might also want to check out Kevin DeYoung’s breakout session at Next entitled, fittingly, Just Do Something.

New Hillsong United…

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Some of my favorite Christian music is produced by Hillsong United. I love the way they combine subjective expression with truth and longing to glorify God. Their music is typically energetic, passionate and leads me to glorify God. Therefore, when I heard their new album, A_Cross // The_Earth: Tear Down The Walls, was released today in the US (they are based in Australia), I was (to use an 80’s phrase) stoked. Here’s a link to the album in Amazon, which allows you to listen to many fo the tracks. Enjoy.

Union With Christ…

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Andy Naselli linked to this excellent bibliography by Phil Gons on Union with Christ.

We recently discussed this in our small groups (Chapter 3 of How Can I Change? by C.J. Mahaney and Robin Boisvert)

They referred to an excellent resource in their chapter, which was none other than D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones commentary on Romans 6 especially pp.106-148.

Enjoy and have a full soul after this great doctrinal truth settles upon you.