Recent Reads

I love to read. I find it helpful to summarize my thoughts on each book and I offer those thoughts in the hope that you will be encouraged to either read or pass over the given title.

9780310513971mThe Gospel at Work: How Working for King Jesus Gives Purpose and Meaning to Our Jobs by Greg Gilbert and Sebastian Traeger. Lord willing, this coming Sunday the men of IDC will meet to discuss The Gospel at Work, so it was time for a reread. If I could ensure every man in our church would read one Christian book this year, The Gospel at Work may just be it. Gilbert and Traeger are immensely clear, relentlessly practical, and unashamedly biblical. It’s as good a discipling book for ordinary church members as you will find. Tolle lege!

51XiJN8N2-L._SX322_BO1,204,203,200_Future Men: Raising Boys to Fight Giants by Doug Wilson. Another recent reread was Wilson’s excellent manifesto on parenting boys. I’ve said it before in this space, Future Men is my handbook for raising boys. As the father of four boys I’m unusually predisposed to glean from this book (and thus may be biased), but I really do think it’s Wilson’s best work. His first chapter on delineating biblical masculinity is as good a short treatment of the topic I’ve ever seen. He offers a compendium of wisdom, appropriately ripped from Proverbs, on training boys to submit to Christ and conquer the earth in every facet of life. You likely won’t agree with everything The Man from Moscow says, but he’ll make you think in ways you probably haven’t about raising boys. If you have a son, get this book.

9781433542442-1mThe Biggest Story: How the Snake Crusher Brings Us Back to the Garden by Kevin DeYoung. Believe the hype, DeYoung’s latest work is superb. This is biblical theology made deliciously digestible for children. His emphasis on returning to God’s garden through the work of the ultimate Serpent-Crusher is a welcome one for instructing kids in God’s story. But we must say DeYoung isn’t the true star of The Biggest Story, for that honor goes to Don Clark. His illustrations are, as my boys like to say, “So awesomely cool!” I’ve never seen a kids’ resource illustrated with such profound elegance. Kudos to Crossway for their work on this project—The Biggest Story is an absolute treasure.

51BPNsNtYXL._SX326_BO1,204,203,200_The Beginner’s Guide to Spiritual Gifts by Sam Storms. It’s always good to try to understand viewpoints that differ from your own. Storms’ view on spiritual gifts represents something like “the other side” from where I stand on pneumatology and ecclesiology. His voice is probably as sound and sane as any in the continuationist camp, so I listen to be sharpened. Storms believes what the church needs more than anything else is to be set aflame in manifestations of the Spirit (9). The bulk of the book goes on to show how the most debated gifts—healing, miracles, prophecy, and tongues—should be pursued in earnest today. I’m grateful that Storms lets exegesis, not experience, be the primary arbiter of truth in his work. I just happen to disagree with the vast majority of his exegesis, often more vigorously than I anticipated.

51zU26kmJqL._SX324_BO1,204,203,200_American Dreams: The United States Since 1945 by H.W. Brands. Bill Brands is my favorite lecturer on American history. History is never boring when found in the hands of Brands. He has a pronounced gift in communicating huge historical and political concepts in most compelling way. I tend to not only watch any lecture of his I can get my hands on, but also any book of his I can carve out time to read. American Dreams is something like the history of my life. It recounts the story of our country since the close of World War II, which is the story of my grandparents, parents, and my childhood. Brands and I are not on the same page politically, thus some of his interpretations rub me the wrong way, yet I found American Dreams—on the whole—to be sublime. If you are looking for an insightful and accessible account of our nation’s recent history check this one out.

41-YkFaghDL._SX302_BO1,204,203,200_The Martian by Andy Weir. About eighteen months ago a member of our church, who is an engineer, told me he was reading a fantastic book called The Martian. He said, “You’ll probably like it, but just know that it can get quite technical on the astronomical side of things.” Being a simpleton (read, not an engineer) when it comes to matters of outer space, that warning was enough to deter me from reading. Yet, I kept seeing Weir’s book rise in popularity and get made into a major motion picture with Matt Damon, so I finally decided to dive in. My thought upon completion was, “Oh man, this was brilliant!” You should go read the summary to see what’s it all about. What I’ll say here is that I can’t remember the last time I read a thriller so thoroughly laced with laugh-out-loud-you-wake-your-sleeping-wife-up humor. If ever there was a book on made for box office success, The Martian is it. If Ridley Scott messes up his soon-to-be-released adaptation . . . well, I’m really not sure how that’s possible.

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