Complete New Book List
April 2014
Encountering God Together: Leading Worship Services That Honor God, Minister to His People, and Build His Church, by David G. Peterson. Does Sunday morning leave you with a sense of awe? It should!
The Gospel According to Daniel: A Christ-Centered Approach, by Bryan Chapell. Justin Taylor says “Chapell has been at the forefront of a resurgence in Christ-centered exposition, arguing that all of Scripture demonstrates the grace of God which culminates in the person and work of Jesus Christ”. In this new volume, he shows us what such an interpretation actually looks like. Al Mohler calls it a “tour de force of biblical theology”.
The Evangelistic Zeal of George Whitefield, by Steven J. Lawson (Long Line of Godly Men). Whitefield is called the “Grand Itinerant” for his remarkable preaching that lit fires of revival on two continents—America and Great Britain in the 1700s. Influential in the Great Awakening, he was at the same time a staunch Calvinist yet a friend of John Wesley.
What’s Next Best: How the Gospel Transforms the Way You Get Things Done, by Matt Perman. A book about time-management and productivity, to the glory of God. In the Foreword, John Piper says this book is “simply extraordinary…I doubt there is a person on the planet who knows both theological issues and time-management literature to the depth and extent Matt Perlman does.”
HISTORICAL NON-FICTION: Dark Invasion: 1915: Germany’s Secret War and the Hunt for the First Terrorist Cell in America, by Howard Blum. Riveting account of the sinister and scary terror attacks on America 100 years ago by German secret agents, involving assassination attempts, a bomb exploding in Congress, fire-bombs planted on ships carrying goods for the Allies, and germ warfare. Police Captain Tom Tunney led NY police officers against insurmountable odds to defend America against sophisticated German saboteurs at the start of WWI, with Tunney becoming in effect the first director of Homeland Security, a century before 9/11. Also helps explain why America led by a reluctant President Woodrow Wilson entered WWI. Mission at Nuremberg: An Army Chaplain and the Trial of the Nazis, by Tim Townsend. Story of the American Army Lutheran chaplain Henry Gerecke sent to minster to the souls of Nazi war criminals on trial at Nuremberg, and the moral quandaries he faced as he ministered to such infamous names as Herman Goring, von Ribbentrop, Albert Speer, Wilhelm Keitel and others.
Sex and Violence in the Bible: A Survey of Explicit Content in the Holy Book, by Joseph W. Smith III. Leland Ryken calls this a work of painstaking research and scholarship, and says that if the “concentration of examples makes for uncomfortable reading, it is nonetheless important that we confront the subject…We can assume the references to sex and violence in the Bible tell us something that God wants us to know”. Tremper Longman says Smith wants to “shock us into reckoning with the real Bible and the real God to which it points, not ones of our own making”.
Can We Still Believe the Bible? An Evangelical Engagement with Contemporary Questions, by Craig L. Blomberg. Maintaining confidence in the Bible in the face of contemporary challenges.
Everyone’s a Theologian: An Introduction to Systematic Theology, by R.C. Sproul. Sproul says that any time we think about the teaching of the Bible and strive to understand it, we are engaging in theology. Therefore, it is important that we put the Bible’s varied teachings together in a systematic fashion to arrive at a theology that is consistent and founded on truth.
From Jesus to the Church: The First Christian Generation, by Craig A. Evans. A stimulating study of the first decades of the young Jesus movement during the forty years from Jesus’ ascension to the destruction of the Jerusalem temple in 70AD. Examines the root causes of the Jewish-Christian rift.
A Guidebook to Prayer: Twenty-four Ways to Walk with God, by MaryKate Morse. Designed to move you from prayerlessness to the joy of praying. Each chapter explores a different angle of prayer, with sections focusing on each of the persons of the Trinity–Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And each chapter offers specific ways to pray on your own, with a partner, or in a group.
By Faith, Not by Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation, by Richard B. Gaffin, Jr. Proponents of the “New Perspective” on Paul reject or minimize the concept of an ordo salutis (“order of salvation”) in Paul’s writings. Building on the groundwork of the Reformed tradition, Gaffin explores Paul’s understanding of how individuals receive salvation.
From Bondage to Liberty: The Gospel According to Moses, by Anthony T. Selvaggio (Gospel According to the OT). As mediator of the old covenant, Moses prefigures Jesus Christ, the mediator of the new and better covenant. This book charts God’s plan of salvation revealed through Moses’ life and ministry, primarily in the book of Exodus.
The Good Life, by Trip Lee. Trip Lee is a Christian hip hop artist in the Reformed Rap category, known for his solid doctrinal lyrics.
The New Evangelical Subordinationism? Perspectives on the Equality of God the Father and God the Son, edited by Dennis W. Jowers and H.Wayne House. Whether and in what sense the Son of God might eternally submit to his Father’s will is a question that has ignited a firestorm of controversy in today’s evangelical academy. Our Tom Wright recommends the article by Wayne Grudem.
DVD DRAMA: The Book Thief, starring Sophie Nelisse, Geoffrey Rush, and Emily Watson. Wonderful story of a young refugee girl adopted into a German family in WWII Nazi Germany; her love of books; and a young Jewish boy the family hides from the Nazis.
MUSIC DVD: Bach Cantatas, bySir John Eliot Gardner (author of the book, Bach: Music in the Castle of Heaven) who takes his Monteverdi Choir on an historic Bach tour pilgrimage; includes recorded performances.
COMMENTARIES: Jonah: God’s Scandalous Mercy, by Kevin J. Youngblood (Hearing the Message of Scripture Commentary Series);Leviticus, by Jay Skylar (Tyndale OT Commentaries); Revelation for Everyone, by N.T. Wright.
ADULT FICTION:Distortion, by Terri Blackstock (Moonlighters #2); The Auschwitz Escape, by Joel C. Rosenberg.
CHILDRENS DVDs: Veggie Tales in Space: The Fennel Frontier (on sharing);
The Little House That Stood: The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Builders (on
making good choices).
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