Tag: Book Reviews

I don’t remember encountering the world “trauma” very often in my younger years, yet recently I seem to hear it all the time. What was once deemed a rare experience or one rarely talked about, has become a common experience and one talked about both openly and often. Where perhaps it was once defined so narrowly as to apply to almost nothing, today it may be in danger of being defined so widely that it becomes almost devoid of meaning.See AlsoNick Would Be 25 Years Old TodayA La Carte (June 9)There Are 3 Kinds of Churches

I am convinced it is appropriate to acknowledge those who bear with chronic pain and illness and that it is especially fitting to give special honor to do those who do so with a deep sense of submission to God’s mysterious purposes in their suffering. But if that’s true, I believe it is also appropriate to give honor to those who walk with them and care for them.See AlsoJoni’s Songs of SufferingThe Commandment We Forgot: Honoring the DishonorableThanksgiving & The Appropriate Number of Prepositions

It is sometimes difficult to know how to follow Jesus. It is sometimes difficult to encounter a situation, look to Scripture, and know how to live in a distinctly Christian way. Often it seems there are two options before us that appear to stand opposite one another. Do we respond by expressing truth or by expressing love? Should we speak straight or speak with tenderness? Should we display courage or meekness? Or should we perhaps pursue some kind of a mushy middle?See AlsoA La Carte (October 29)Breadth and DepthA La Carte (September 27)

It is hard to disagree with someone you love. It is harder still to disagree well—to retain genuine respect and true friendship despite differing opinions or convictions. And, as we all know by experience, there is just so much to disagree about.See AlsoA La Carte (November 25)A La Carte (October 24)A La Carte (July 26)

We all love to be part of a movement, don’t we? There is a kind of exhilaration that comes with being part of something that has energy and excitement. There is a kind of spiritual thrill that comes with being part of something that is premised upon sound doctrine and fixated on the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is what compelled so many to associate themselves with what was varyingly labeled “New Calvinism,” “Young, Restless, Reformed,” or the “Gospel-Centered Movement.”See AlsoA La Carte (November 25)Could I Be One of the Bad Guys?John Mark Comer and Practicing The Way

Life is made up of so much that gives the appearance of being futile. There are so many tasks and responsibilities that we intellectually know to be important but emotionally feel to be fruitless. And if everyone struggles with this to varying degrees, I have it on good authority that mothers are prone to struggle with it to a greater degree than most.See AlsoI Know It Broke Her HeartHer Weakness Is Her StrengthWhat Is a Writer Who Can’t Write?

I’m quite certain you have heard of the New Age movement. Though its popularity seems to have crested and begun to wane some time ago, it continues to wield a good bit of influence. But I wonder if you’ve heard of another similarly-named but quite different movement called New Thought.See AlsoJohn Mark Comer and Practicing The WayWhere Did All This Pentecostalism Come From?The 100 Most Influential Evangelicals in America

Churches have few responsibilities more urgent and few honors more profound than teaching and training children. Every week these little ones show up with their parents and every week there are opportunities to reach them with truths that will change their hearts and transform their lives. It is little wonder, then, that there are multitudes of books, resources, and programs available to reach them.See Also10 Reasons to Teach the Bible’s Big Truths to ChildrenNew Christian Books for Children and TeensMaking Good Return

I suppose by now we all know a least a few people who have begun the process of deconstructing their faith. Meanwhile, we have undoubtedly heard of many more who are doing so in a public way—celebrities who have decided to rigorously examine the faith they once professed and to reject much of what they once held dear. Deconstruction, it seems, is all the rage.See AlsoThe Deconstruction of ChristianityDeconstruction, Exvangelicals, and Jumping Overboard from an Ocean LinerFriday Ramblings – A Critical, Judgmental Deconstruction of Derek Webb’s Life, Faith and Ministry

We are all people of habits. To some degree, we are always battling to establish good habits while battling to supplant bad ones. This is true of us in many different areas of life and most certainly true in our spiritual lives. In fact, some have argued that when we describe the way we relate to God and participate in his means of grace it makes more sense to talk about “spiritual habits” than “spiritual disciplines.”See AlsoSunday Devotional: Your Best and Worst DaysThe Means and the EndHabits of Grace

I sometimes wonder what future generations will make of the modern West here in the early decades of the 21st century. I sometimes wonder what they will think of us when they discover that one of the defining questions of our age is also one of the most straightforward: What is a woman? Yet an answer to that question seems to be elusive, opaque, and fraught with peril. The “wrong” answer to that question can identify you as a dogmatist or a bigot. The “wrong” answer to that question can cause you to be alienated from your family, fired from your job, or cast out of polite society altogether.See AlsoA La Carte (May 13)Who is Jesus?A La Carte (April 28)

Trends come and go. Certain habits or interests rise for a time, wane, then rise again, often at unexpected moments. One of the recent trends I have found particularly surprising and also particularly interesting is the rise (or re-rise, if you prefer) of liturgy. This may be liturgy within formal worship services of the local church or liturgy within times of private worship. Did this trend begin with Douglas McKelvey’s Every Moment Holy series? If it didn’t begin there, his books certainly popularized it. Regardless, over the past few years we have seen a substantial number of books that share liturgies for times of worship.See AlsoNew and Notable Christian Books for October 2024A La Carte (October 31)A La Carte (October 16)